The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 18

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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 18
“Y-you bastards!! What in the Nine Hells are you doing?! Put those swords away this instant!!”
Hans was shouting himself hoarse.
But tap-dancing backward didn’t seem particularly helpful at the moment.
‘It’s fine. They’re just threatening me anyway—they can’t actually kill me. …They really can’t kill me, right? Gulp.’
My heart hammered in my chest, but as always, the Black Flame Dragon sustained my composure.
My voice flowed out calm and dismissive, as though the blades leveled at me were beneath contempt.
“Put the swords away.”
“Answer first. I asked how you knew about the Witness.”
“I said put the swords away.”
!!
The woman—Lairan—fixed me with a murderous stare.
But my Black Flame Dragon was no pushover either.
As I let her killing intent wash over me without flinching, she clenched her lips and snapped her fingers.
Snap!
‘Yes.’
Her subordinates vanished, and I exhaled inwardly with relief.
“Tell me how you know about the Witness.”
I regarded Lairan quietly.
Part of me worried she’d lunge for my throat again any second, but I’d lived through enough to know better.
This was the moment to project strength.
“Your tone keeps getting more presumptuous. Are you simple?”
“…What?”
“Think about what it means that I—no, that ‘Anti-Ecclesia’—knows about the Witness.”
Lairan’s expression hardened visibly.
I tilted my chin.
Deliberately projecting arrogance.
As though I were the dominant one in this room.
“My legs are aching. Let’s move somewhere more comfortable. This conversation will take a while, so you might as well serve tea. Though I should warn you—my palate is rather particular, so you’d best bring something worthy of the occasion.”
* * *
We followed Lairan deeper into the slums.
Buildings that looked ready to collapse stretched endlessly like fortress walls.
This was the outermost ring of Salyong Fortress.
“Hans, you wait here.”
“B-but!! I must protect you with my very life!!”
“…You can’t exactly sound convincing while tap-dancing backward. Or would you rather come inside after all?”
“Ah! My heart aches to accompany you, but someone needs to call for rescue if trouble strikes!! Alas, what cruel fate!!!”
I gave Hans a sidelong glance.
All that grandiose flattery looked exactly like the scheming of a corrupt courtier.
‘Though, this is Salyong Fortress we’re talking about, so I can hardly blame him for being scared.’
Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have come here either.
‘It’s fine. Lairan won’t hurt me.’
I repeated it to myself.
I held the advantage here. The advantage was mine.
“Here is the tea you requested, my lord.”
Tap.
After stepping inside, Lairan set down the tea.
The fragrance was delicate and certainly appeared to be premium tea as I’d suggested, but tension made it taste like nothing at all.
“Now, let’s return to what we were discussing.”
“You’re making quite a show of it.”
I drew a breath.
This was the crucial moment.
I opened my mouth, keeping my tone deliberately nonchalant and cool.
“It’s hardly some great secret that you’re the Witness—one of the leaders of the Rebel Forces.”
!!
That was it.
This was Lairan’s true identity.
Not merely a power in the slums, but a supreme leader of the Rebel Forces!
“…How did you…”
Lairan’s eyes grew cold and distant.
Wondering whether to kill me here and silence me, or let me live.
“Don’t think such foolish thoughts. Do you still not grasp what it means that I know your identity? I can gauge the Rebel Forces’ caliber well enough.”
“!!”
Lairan’s fists clenched tight.
Then, at last, she exhaled a deep sigh.
“I underestimated the Ecclesia Dukedom far too much. I never imagined you’d know that I am the Watcher, an eye of the Rebel Forces.”
A misunderstanding.
The Ecclesia Dukedom knows nothing of her being a Watcher.
But I let her believe otherwise.
It serves me better that way.
‘I need to make Lairan my puppet.’
“Do you know why the Ecclesia Dukedom leaves you alone, even knowing who you are?”
“…What is it?”
“Because you have utility.”
Lairan’s face hardened.
“What do you mean?”
“I know your Rebel Forces’ true purpose is to stop Ouroboros.”
“!!”
Her shock was incomparable to before.
It had to be.
Ouroboros was the shadowy organization behind the Hero Academy.
At this point in time, no one knew of it.
‘In truth, Ouroboros isn’t even their real name. But Lairan wouldn’t know that yet.’
Lairan stammered.
“H-how does the Ecclesia Dukedom even know of Ouroboros? Surely… is the Ecclesia Dukedom also opposed to them?”
The Ecclesia Dukedom doesn’t know Ouroboros exists at all, but I left her misunderstanding untouched.
“Do you know why I’m trying to become a professor at Rubines Academy?”
“…I thought it was just a whim of that trash nobleman, but could it be…?”
“Yes. To drive out the shadow of Ouroboros lurking within Rubines Academy.”
“!!”
The lies flowed smoothly.
It’s true that Ouroboros’s reach extends into Rubines Academy.
But I had no intention of becoming involved.
Confronting Ouroboros’s shadow is the task of the Playable Protagonists who will enroll at Rubines Academy.
“Now you understand why you must help me, don’t you?”
Helping me means helping your cause against Ouroboros.
I’d planned to persuade her this way, but Lairan said something I hadn’t anticipated.
“Is it possible that your reason for being at odds with the Lapalte Dukedom is because Ouroboros’s shadow has taken root there as well?”
…No, it isn’t.
But I answered ambiguously.
“Figure it out for yourself.”
I didn’t say yes, but the answer felt true!
Indeed, Lairan was completely won over.
“…Ah, how remarkable. To think that one called a disgrace could harbor such intricate designs. I humbly beg your forgiveness for the discourtesy I have shown you today.”
Perfect!
‘With Lairan’s help, accomplishing my plans will be as easy as pie!’
Hiding my joy, I laid out the strategy.
“Let me tell you what you need to do. First, mobilize your people….”
But Lairan’s reaction as she listened seemed off.
Her expression looked troubled somehow.
“Why the hesitation? Using your subordinates should make this simple enough?”
“That’s true, but there’s a problem. At present, I cannot move my subordinates.”
I frowned in confusion.
‘Has something happened to the Rebel Forces? The timing’s all wrong.’
The actual scenario hasn’t even begun yet.
“Is something the matter?”
Lairan pondered before speaking.
“Are you familiar with the Demon Blossom?”
I flinched.
“…How do you know of the Demon Blossom?”
It was a disease.
A cursed demon’s flower blooming from within the body.
Under the influence of the demon’s flower, one gradually transforms into a demon.
‘This disease doesn’t spread until the mid-to-late game scenario. Why all of a sudden?’
My chest sank in that instant.
There was someone suffering from Demon Blossom even at this point in the timeline.
Someone critically important to the scenario.
“The blessed one of our Rebel Forces has begun to show signs of Demon Blossom, and currently our entire organization is moving to find a way to cure them.”
“!!”
My vision went dark.
The blessed one of the Rebel Forces.
Someone I knew.
One of sixteen Playable Protagonists, and one of the four main characters.
The Demonic Saint—Yohen.
* * *
‘Why does Yohen already have Demon Blossom?’
As I explained earlier, all sixteen protagonists have different classes.
Yohen is a protagonist belonging to the “healer” class within the “support class.”
‘The kind of saint character who appears everywhere without fail.’
But there was a problem.
Yohen was born bearing both a saint’s blessing and a demon’s curse simultaneously.
‘As far as I knew, Demon Blossom shouldn’t manifest until late first year?’
I felt troubled.
‘The Demon Blossom flowering in Yohen’s body is qualitatively different from the Demon Blossom plague that becomes widespread in the mid-to-late game. Much more severe.’
I asked in a grave voice.
“How much has the Demon Blossom progressed? Stems? Leaves?”
“It’s already just before the buds open.”
My face went pale.
‘If the flower blooms now, Yohen will die!’
Later, once his Holy Power grows stronger, he might be able to withstand a few blossoms, but at this point in time, Yohen’s Holy Power would be at a nursling’s level.
‘This absolutely cannot happen!!’
In truth, not all sixteen protagonists are necessary to clear the Hero Academy.
Some protagonists become enemies depending on the scenario’s progression.
But there are four who are absolutely essential.
Those are the four main characters, and the Demonic Saint Yohen was one of them.
‘Without Yohen, I can’t stop the final World Destruction.’
This was no time to sit idle.
“What about a Medicine Immortal? A Medicine Immortal could suppress the progression of Demon Blossom, couldn’t they?”
Demon Blossom isn’t a magical curse—it’s a disease.
Its progression could be suppressed through medicine and treatment.
The problem was the extreme difficulty; only a Medicine Immortal could manage it.
“We’ve already exhausted all organizational resources searching for a Medicine Immortal, but we can’t find any trace of them. They seem to have gone to the Northern Sea.”
My vision went dark.
It would take half a year for them to return.
Then, a message I hadn’t anticipated suddenly came to mind.
<Faced with a pitiful patient, the gambler’s judgment manifests!>
-Obsessed Saint Treatment Success Probability: 83.5%
‘…What is this?’
I blinked.
‘How am I supposed to cure Demon Blossom?! The ability I have is the Master of Magic, not a genius healer!’
Then, a sudden thought flashed through my mind.
No, wait.
I had another ability.
‘Could it be?’
-The trait ‘Thousand-Fold Versatility’ is awakened!
-You display competence regardless of field!
I’d forgotten—it was a trait that appeared alongside the Master of Magic when I first unlocked my latent traits.
‘…But no matter how versatile, there are limits. Medicine Immortal caliber?’
As if explaining to me, an additional message appeared.
-Regardless of field, you possess ‘record-breaking talent’!
“…….”
I fell silent for a moment.
It was something I’d been turning over in my mind for some time now.
‘…My whole goal is to live quietly, drinking honey, but isn’t the trait I’ve been given a bit excessive?’
In any case, this wasn’t the moment to stand here dazed.
Eighty-three percent—that was more than enough to work with.
But there was one problem I needed to address first.
“I have a way to treat your saint.”
“Truly?!”
“Yes, but there’s a condition. A very important one. You must promise to abide by it before I’ll agree to treat her.”
“…Tell me.”
My serious expression seemed to pull Lairan’s own face taut with gravity.
“Your saint will be entering an academy soon, won’t she?”
“Yes, she was originally scheduled to take the entrance examination this term.”
“Make absolutely certain she doesn’t come to Rubines Academy.”
“…Pardon?”
“Preferably, send her to Peridot Academy—it’s farthest from Rubines. Sapphire Academy would do as well. The point is, your saint must not set foot anywhere near Rubines Academy.”
“…….”
Lairan’s expression grew strange and unreadable.
Why? I could see the question in her eyes, but I remained unmoved.
I’d already drawn enough aggro from Katrine, the true protagonist—I couldn’t afford to do the same with a demon saint.
“And the fact that I treated her—that must remain secret from your saint. Don’t breathe a word of it to her.”
“…….”
“Absolutely. No exceptions.”
I had to avoid the demon saint’s obsession at any cost, by any means necessary.

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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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