Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 83

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 83
EP22 – Zone 4 Discipline Department (2)

I walked through the gaps in the rubble. Demolishing the building had changed many things. The way they treated me had shifted, and the way I treated them needed to shift as well.

“I am Dante Hiaka, senior professor of the Assassination Department. I’ve come to inquire about the cluster of Cracks occurring in Zone 4. Yet you’ve refused to even file my report.”

‘Ah, the Assassination Department…!’ At the mention of the Assassination Department and a senior professor, fear seeped into everyone’s eyes. I hadn’t revealed it from the start because I was curious about how they behaved in normal circumstances.

“The Cracks will break through sometime between tonight and dawn tomorrow. Before that, we need to straighten out this situation. From now on, you will cooperate with me. If anyone has objections, speak up.”
“…….”

No one raised an objection.

As my mind settled slightly cooler, I realized something with mild surprise: within my Synchronized memories of Dante, I had quite a bit of knowledge about the Discipline Department.
Had the original Dante been a Discipline officer? Either way, it was fortunate.

“Left. Go print out the weekly patrol logs right now and bring them here. All four weeks from the Assassination Rotation.”
“Ah…….”

The man’s complexion drained of color. He looked like something was bothering his conscience.

“If you alter the logs or attempt to tamper with them, I’ll kill you with my own hands.”
“Y-yes…….”

He hurried into the inner office.

“Middle. Where’s the duty Discipline officer?”

At that, one officer frantically made a phone call somewhere, while another began explaining. The long-standing practice of this administrative office was that Discipline officers only appeared in special circumstances.

“Does that sound like something that makes sense to you?”
“…….”

In other words, the officers had been maintaining shifts with no one in charge.

“Go fetch the Discipline officer.”
“Ah! That is, well…… The, the Discipline officer is currently observing their wedding anniversary…….”

A wedding anniversary?
As the officers grew visibly uncomfortable, the one on the right spoke up.

“Would it be all right if we proceeded on our own…?”
“It wouldn’t.”
“If it’s a cluster of Cracks…… We could, we could summon the emergency response team…….”
“No.”

There was nothing to debate.
The moment my words landed, his expression hardened.

“H, how could…….”
“You lack the capability to take responsibility for this situation.”
“…….”
“If that wedding anniversary was truly so important, the Discipline officer should have shown the consideration to swap shifts. And if you blame it on custom, then such custom needs to be abolished.”

There was no reason anywhere here not to call the Discipline officer.

“However,”

I looked directly into the man’s eyes.

“Who are you to negotiate with me?”
…

His expression froze.

“Know your place.”

My own voice surprised me—authoritative, oppressive, commanding. But sometimes oppression was necessary.
The man beside him spoke.

“Y-yes, I’ll call right away…!”

But his reaching for the phone was nothing more than a stalling tactic, a desperate bid for time to think. I knew this because it had just appeared in the Script—the Discipline Administrator’s location and current activity.

“Agent.”
“Y-yes?”
“Where is the Discipline Administrator?”
“Ah, as I mentioned, it’s his wedding anniversary, so he’s probably at a restaurant with his wife….”

I cut him off and asked slowly.

“Where is the Discipline Administrator?”
“At a restaurant with his wife…. Or possibly a bar….”
“Where?”
“That’s….”
“Where?”
…

His mouth closed.

“Why do you lie?”

The Crystal Orb slipped from his hand.
He’d dropped it in shock.
His fingertips began to tremble like aspen leaves.

…

The wedding anniversary was a lie.
They said a provincial governor wielded absolute power, and this place was proof. The Discipline Administrator hadn’t come in today. It was routine for him to leave with an out-of-office tag and go play. He had the connections to make it possible. Today, it seemed, he’d gone out for entertainment.
I stepped close to the man’s face and looked down at him. He averted his gaze.

“Even now, with matters in this state, you show me no respect.”
…
“Then how much longer should I respect you?”
…
“My patience is wearing thin.”

The man stiffened and reached trembling for the Crystal Orb. Now he seemed determined to contact the Discipline Administrator properly. But there was no longer any need. I knocked his hand away.

Thud.

The Crystal Orb fell again, rolling down the slope until it came to rest against my opposite foot. I ground it beneath my heel.

Crunch—

The glass sphere began to shatter.
The team member, seized with fright, couldn’t bring himself to resist.

“You.”
“Yes, right away!”

I called out to one of the middle-ranked members. If things went smoothly, they could proceed without complications. After requesting reinforcements from higher up, we’d simply locate the Crack and eliminate it. There was time enough.
But something in my mind said it shouldn’t happen that way.
Discipline—it means both order and law. An organization meant to uphold what ought to be upheld. Yet within their system of rules, the safety of students had not been protected.
Therefore,

“Call the Academy Discipline Department’s Central Headquarters.”
“The, the Central Headquarters, sir…? Yes, understood… But what reason should I—”

Now they would have to follow my order instead.

“Request an Audit.”

Both their faces drained of color.

“Tell them that Senior Professor Dante Hiaka is requesting an Audit of the entire Zone 4 Discipline Department. They’ll understand well enough.”

* * *

He had never wanted to live diligently.
Everyone dreamed of something—but he believed he was the man who’d actually achieved his dream.

“Hello?”

Five minutes after Dante Hiaka had torn through airport management, a call reached Discipline Officer Dennis.

“Yes, senior.”

Dennis always silenced every notification when he poured himself a drink like this—but this one, he couldn’t silence. It was from a senior executive at Central Headquarters.

“An Audit? What’s there to audit, sir? Ha ha.”

At first, he took it as a joke. With alcohol warming his blood, his mood running high, it seemed no joke at all beyond playing along with a senior who usually had his back.
But the answer that came back was strange somehow.

“…Pardon?”
– Hey!!

The Crystal Orb rang out sharply.

– Dennis! Get your head on straight, you bastard!!

His heart sank. He’d known this senior for over twenty years, and never once had he heard him speak in such a rage.

“What? Why are you suddenly—”
– An emergency Audit just came down on your management bureau, you idiot!!
“…….”

The alcohol evaporated from his veins in an instant.
An emergency Audit?
Out of nowhere?
Or was he too drunk, hearing things?
As the flood of words—Where are you now, why did you abandon your watch—poured over him, Dennis scrambled to ask:

“Where’s this emergency Audit coming from? Why all of a sudden!?”
– A professor requested it, sir. Central Headquarters.
“So what does that even mean! How can a professor request an Audit? Who the hell is this professor anyway!?”
– Figure it out yourself, you bastard! Am I supposed to wipe your ass too!?”
“I, I…. Ah, w-well, I understand…!”

It made no sense whatsoever.
No mere professor could request an Audit.
The Discipline Department was a national institution, not an academy division.

He abandoned the gathering and ran, dialing one of the on-duty officers as he went.
He had to know what was happening.

– It’s, uh, an Assassination Studies professor named Dante Hiaka….

The officer on the other end whispered, probably because someone was nearby.
He gripped the steering wheel and pressed further.

“Assassination? A Zone 0 professor—why is he here? Wait, what rank did you say?”
– He’s a Senior Professor, apparently….
“What!?”

Absurd.
It was beyond comprehension.
A Senior Professor?
If it were the Chief Professor, with all his authority, that would be different.
But a mere Senior Professor requesting an Audit with the Discipline Department?

He had over thirty Senior Professors in his contact list alone.
He knew two Chief Professors personally. And here he stood, unmoved. How dare this one?

“Listen. Mark. Do you even hear yourself saying this?”
– Sir…?
“What Senior Professor requests an Audit!”
– Ah, well….

The man faltered.
Were they all in on this—trying to make a fool of him?

“No, never mind! Forget it! I’m coming down there right now, just wait!”

The man must be insane. Coming to Central Headquarters to insult the Discipline Department and summoning its officer?

He’d tear him apart.

But when the Discipline Officer Dennis arrived near Central Headquarters with that resolve, his mouth fell open. The building was in ruins.
In that instant, he realized the situation had slipped beyond his control. Any professor-ranked individual could demolish a building, yes, but something felt wrong about this.
His instinct screamed it.

“Hello? Yes, it’s me….”

Trusting that instinct, he quickly made a call.

* * *

He despised those who wielded power carelessly.
People who used their high, unassailable position to crush others beneath them—he’d never thought well of them in his entire life.
But now….

“Is this all? The patrol found no anomalies?”
“…….”

I reviewed all four weeks of patrol logs. They made their rounds every day and found nothing to report.
The officer simply bowed his head. Even by my own standards, it was pathetic.

“Even a healthy plant withers and dies when moved into a greenhouse. That’s exactly what you lot are.”

During the assassination duel with Croitz, Zone 4 had suffered no damage whatsoever.
This place was the Academy’s perfect greenhouse.

Just then, a Discipline officer came waddling toward us from the distance. He was portly, his face slick with avarice.

“…Insanity.”

The Discipline officer froze when he saw the ruined administrative building.
He ground his teeth and turned to me with a question.

“Listen, you! What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
“Let me ask you something. Why did the Discipline officer abandon his post during duty hours?”
“Professor! Before you point out my negligence, what in blazes is happening here!? This isn’t right…!”

He twisted his words in a peculiar way.

“…Negligence?”
“Now listen here! I’ve heard you’re a promising professor in the Assassination Department. Even so, this is overstepping your authority! Shouldn’t you stick to what you can handle?”
“…….”
“I don’t know what you told the higher-ups, but this is excessive! A professor and the Discipline Department must each do their best in their own roles. To destroy the administrative building just because you’re in a foul mood? You think the Discipline Department is beneath you just because you have some power?!”

I didn’t respond. I was checking the Script. His sudden verbosity had a purpose—he’d requested an emergency standby team from Central Headquarters.
He thought that contacting the top brass would result in my being subdued.
I had no reason to interrupt him, so I simply listened.

“…And what crack are you talking about? Look at the patrol logs—we covered every corner, and there were no cracks! You do know that cracks can’t form in areas bearing the Hwaepyeong Starlight Seat’s mark, don’t you!?”

He’d said something I couldn’t let slide.

“Can you take responsibility?”
“…So stop causing trouble and—…what did you say?”
“Can you take responsibility? For the absence of cracks.”
“I am the administrator of this zone! Of course I can take responsibility! A crack forming in the Hwaepyeong Starlight Seat’s domain—it has no precedent in history! Are you a professor and yet don’t know this?”

He still didn’t understand. One of the cracks scattered throughout Zone 4, twisted into being by warped Magical Power—

“Is right here.”

Directly beneath his feet, on the left side of the floor.

※ Monster Crack [B++] [90%]

Checking the Status Window, this was different from the crack I’d seen on the street during the day. This one was already primed to rupture at any moment.
Yet the Discipline officer panicked.

“…That’s impossible! Are you seriously trying to claim that a crack in the wall and floor is a [Crack]?”

I rose abruptly and walked forward. I stepped until I stood directly before him. The height difference was substantial; I had to look down considerably.
The Discipline officer tensed but didn’t retreat, as if confident in his position.

“Then open it.”

But my words made his expression turn sour.
He furrowed his brow and tilted his head at an angle.

“…What?”

I gestured with my eyes.
At the jagged fissure carved into the building’s floor.

“You know how to open a Crack. You’re a martial artist, after all.”
“…….”
“Open it. Place your hand on it. Channel your Magical Power.”

His mouth closed. Despite claiming something impossible was real, my certainty was absolute, and it unnerved him.

“If you don’t know where, I’ll show you. It’s right here.”

I scraped the blade’s edge along the Crack. A low, grating sound.

“Reach out your hand and channel your Magical Power.”
“…….”

He’d gone rigid now, utterly silent. A Crack opened incorrectly could unleash anything—and the person who opens it always takes the first strike. Every martial artist knew this.

“Why are you standing there? I’ve shown you the location.”
“…….”
“Have you forgotten how to bow? Shall I help you remember?”
“W-wait… just….”

In that instant, an invisible force seized his body, wrenching it down against the floor with brutal force. “Kgh—!” He thrashed, but couldn’t break free.
The other officers beside us were recoiling in horror. Yet none of them moved.

“There. Now it’s right in front of your eyes.”
“…….”
“You may open it.”
“…….”

The dread building in his chest seemed to deepen. Now he wouldn’t even look at the fissure. He simply remained frozen, stiff as stone.

“Still resisting, are we? I’ve shown you the location, taught you how to bow. Next, shall I teach you how to extend your hand?”
“W-wait… please….”
“Very well. I’m a considerate professor—I’ll teach you how to extend your hand.”

I drew the blade and struck the back of his hand with the flat.

Thud!!

“Aaaahhhhh!!” A scream tore from his throat. I dragged his pierced hand toward the Crack. His limb convulsed in agony, being pulled forward, yet still the officer tried to resist.

“Why are you fighting this?”
“Ugh…! Hngh…!”
“Or have you forgotten how to bend your arm?”
“I… I… There… that thing….”

When the officer had dragged out his words, buying time.
I’d stood alone with a single question: what was he responsible for today?
I’d thought about it at length. Nothing came.

“You said you’d take responsibility.”

I didn’t believe this display was excessive. His negligence could have killed dozens, could have killed Grey. That I didn’t kill him now was proof of my restraint.
Reaching the end of that reasoning, I spoke softly.

“Open it.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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