The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 3

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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 3
‘According to family rules, I must become a professor at one of the Four Great Prestigious Academies.’
Perhaps because the setting emphasizes ‘Academy,’ the empire truly is a nation built on academies.
Countless academies existed throughout the empire, and not just nobility but any commoner with sufficient means invariably enrolled in one.
Among them, the Four Great Prestigious Academies were where the ‘prodigies’ who received special recognition of their talents were accepted.
‘The sixteen playable protagonists in the game attend one of these four academies, too.’
The Hero Academy had a total of sixteen playable protagonists.
The system distributed four playable protagonists to each of the four prestigious academies.
Because each academy had its own distinct character, the ability to choose and play according to preference was the Hero Academy’s greatest strength.
‘…Truthfully, I’d rather attend some unremarkable academy on the brink of collapse that nobody visits, not some prestigious place like this.’
But there was no choice.
The Ecclesia Duchy recognized only the Four Great Prestigious Academies.
‘Still, being a professor is a hundred, a thousand times better than the military or civil service.’
First, there was the matter of how grueling those professions were.
Military service, bureaucracy—both demanded a hundred times more hardship.
Moreover, soldiers and officials would inevitably face the awakening forces of evil head-on.
By contrast, the academy was relatively safe.
‘Well, the forces of evil might reach into the academy as well, but the protagonists will handle the fighting themselves. All I need to do is keep my head down and stay quiet.’
As a ‘scholarly’ type of professor, I shouldn’t find myself embroiled in combat.
‘For now, I’ll think about that later. Let me focus on studying first.’
Having only recently possessed this body, my magical knowledge was practically blank.
No matter how much I possessed the Great Master Characteristic, I had to study and fill in the gaps.
But there was a problem.
“Young Master wishes to study magic? Are you quite serious about this?”
A bald, middle-aged man’s face twisted into a frown.
He was a mage employed by the duchy.
A high-rank mage of the fifth Star Position, no less.
‘No matter that I’m of the duchy’s blood, I can’t treat such a person carelessly.’
All of the duchy’s Magic Texts and magical items were under this mage’s management.
It would have been prudent to maintain a smooth relationship, but the mage already seemed full of hostility toward me.
“First you make a scene claiming you’re giving up magic because of Mana Dullness Syndrome, and now I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re scheming. Are you planning to steal Magic Artifacts again and peddle them, as you did last time? When exactly do you plan to show some maturity, Young Master?”
He growled at me like a dog spotting a cat—clearly harboring deep resentment.
‘Even so, isn’t that a bit harsh? I’m still the young master here.’
Still, I hid my true feelings and opened my mouth softly.
“Insolent.”
!!
Oh no.
The Transcendent Translation had activated again.
-Black Flame Dragon’s Wrath is manifesting!
-When your opponent bears hostility toward you, your demeanor becomes increasingly domineering!
‘This is absolutely a social-skills deficiency curse! I’m supposed to know when to back down!’
For a moment, I hesitated.
‘…But do I really need to grovel the way I used to?’
That’s right. I’m no longer the subordinate here.
I was a diamond spoon, the supreme authority itself!
‘I never groveled because I wanted to—I was forced into it by circumstance!’
In situations where I held the advantage, there was no reason I couldn’t be the one in power.
“Whose property is this duchy’s wealth?”
“…It belongs to the duchy, sir.”
“Then by what right do you conduct yourself with such arrogance?”
“I, that is….”
My voice dropped to something ice-cold.
“One might think you were the master of this duchy, to hear you speak.”
“N-no, never!!”
The mage Hans went pale and bowed his head in panic.
No matter how accomplished a fifth-rank mage he was, he could not compare to the authority of the duchy itself.
“Take my counsel: you would do well to mind your tongue and bearing. If you wish to keep your neck intact.”
“I-I am terribly sorry.”
“Now show me inside.”
Hans hurriedly ushered me inward.
“This is my research lab. Feel free to consult any of the Magic Texts you need. As for reagents—the mass-produced consumables—use whatever you require.”
He bowed with exaggerated humility, but the gesture held no genuine deference toward me.
His thoughts were transparent: ‘Arrogant little bastard. What could you possibly study? Let’s see what you’re made of.’
I could read it plainly on his face.
Normally, I’d have ignored it without a second thought—but had becoming a vessel changed me somehow?
The vile Black Flame Dragon stirring inside me couldn’t resist adding a parting remark.
“You’re to be pitied, too.”
“…Pardon?”
“You don’t see how tremendous an opportunity stands before you right now.”
“…What do you mean?”
My lips curved upward in mockery.
“Watch carefully. Simply by observing me study from the sidelines, you’ll gain a stroke of fortune more extraordinary than anything you’ll experience in your entire lifetime.”
* * *
I opened the Magic Texts with unbridled confidence.
‘With the Great Master Characteristic, accumulating magical knowledge should be simple enough.’
‘Pan’ carried a fatal flaw as a mage.
Mana Dullness Syndrome.
‘Accumulating Mana isn’t impossible, but the Accumulation Speed is catastrophically slow.’
In this world, anyone could sense and gather Mana.
Yet the rate of Accumulation varied wildly based on talent.
An ordinary person accumulated at a rate of 10; those with aptitude for sorcery maintained a minimum speed of 100.
Mana Dullness Syndrome, by contrast, managed only 1.
A tenth of an average person’s rate.
Becoming a proper mage was, for all intents and purposes, impossible.
‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not aiming to become a mage anyway—a magical scholar.’
Becoming strong as a mage would only mean forced conscription during a Calamity and unbearable suffering.
‘A magical scholar pairs perfectly with the Great Master Characteristic.’
-To pierce through the very essence of magic!
Building magical knowledge would be effortless.
But I soon discovered a grave problem.
‘…What is this?’
An hour had passed since I’d opened the book.
Cold sweat beaded on my forehead.
There was a problem.
A very serious one.
‘Why is it so hard?’
The text I was reading was titled “Fundamentals of Star Position Studies.”
The foundation of all magical learning.
-Magic manifests through the arrangement of Mana. This arrangement is called a Star, and the study of these Stars forms the bedrock of all sorcery.
The text itself wasn’t difficult to comprehend.
It was written for complete beginners encountering magic for the first time, the most basic of basics.
The problem lay in the content of the Mana arrangement—the “Stars” themselves.
-The arrangement of the element “Fire” should be drawn as the following Star.
-This Star serves as the fundamental pattern underlying even advanced Flame Magic….
‘…Why draw the Star that way if it’s Fire?’
None of it made sense to me.
‘The content of this book can’t possibly be wrong?’
I tilted my head.
The original edition was published over three hundred years ago—the Bible of the magical world.
For three centuries, every mage had studied the fundamentals through this very book.
‘It’s not just Fire’s arrangement. Water and Earth don’t sit right with me either. And Lightning’s Star—why is it like that?’
My face fell.
‘…Even with the Great Master Characteristic, do I still need to build foundations methodically from the ground up?’
Even a future master of mathematics must first learn existing formulas, after all.
But I shook my head.
‘If that’s how it works, I’d rather quit.’
If I couldn’t easily grasp even the most basic fundamentals, stumbling and faltering—how many lifetimes would it take to master the vast, established body of magical theory?
‘…What if I just learn it my own way?’
The same question kept nagging at me.
-Why draw the Fire Star that way?
—Why go to such lengths?
—Doesn’t it feel forced?
In the end, all these questions boiled down to a single conclusion.
—If it were me, I wouldn’t do it this way.
The image of a star kept surfacing in my mind.
It resembled what I’d seen in books, yet it was entirely different.
‘If I compare it to the existing method, I should be able to tell which is better.’
Just then, I heard a soft cough.
“Ahem, it seems you’re finding this difficult. I understand perfectly. After all, you’ve kept magic at arm’s length your whole life. Even at the Hero Academy’s Magic Department, it took the Duchy’s intervention just to help you scrape by with dead-last grades.”
It was Hans, a mage.
He was sneering at me with a contemptible expression, clearly still bitter about bowing his head to me earlier.
“It’s quite all right. Given that you suffer from Mana Dullness Syndrome, magic was never a realistic path for you anyway. Instead, since you’re not limited to being a mage, and you possess the noble blood of the Duchy, surely there are many other pursuits available to you, yes?”
You suffer from Mana Dullness Syndrome, so what business do you have with magic?
Why don’t you just use your family name to scrape together some other career?
That was what he meant.
I folded my arms.
‘This one’s planning to keep needling me from the sidelines.’
Having seen all manner of troublemakers back on Earth, I could recognize the type.
With people like that, you have to come down hard once.
‘But how am I supposed to stand against a fifth-rank mage?’
Then a method suddenly occurred to me.
“You’re in need of some education, I think.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“You believe yourself the finest within your narrow well. Someone should show you how vast the heavens truly are.”
Hans’s eyes flickered for a moment.
Only a moment.
Then his face flushed crimson.
“…No matter your station, that’s an excessive thing to say.”
“Excessive? I’m simply offering proper instruction from a superior to an inferior. I don’t see the problem.”
I stood up from my seat.
“Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll test ourselves with first-rank Flame Magic right now.”
“!!”
Hans let out an incredulous snarl.
“Are you serious? You truly believe that even with first-rank magic, you could possibly defeat me?”
The same spell yields entirely different power depending on who channels it.
Even the most basic Flame Magic, in the hands of an advanced mage like him, would unfold with formidable force.
But I nodded all the same.
‘Besides, I need to test the star I’ve conceived against the conventional star and see what power it truly holds.’
He seemed like the perfect opponent to find out.
What if I lost?
‘…I just don’t feel like I’ll lose.’
An absurd thought.
Against a fifth-rank mage, I wouldn’t lose?
And yet it wasn’t false.
“Just fighting would be too dull anyway, so I’ll set a wager. If I win, you become my demonstration assistant whenever I study magic.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Books are fine, but studying while watching spells unfold directly before me would be far more effective, wouldn’t it? You’ll demonstrate whatever I ask.”
Hans looked as though he might explode from frustration.
“Very well. And if I win, you are never to show your face here again!!”
Whoosh!
Flames bloomed from his hands.
Though it was basic magic, the force behind it was remarkable—worthy of a fifth-rank advanced mage.
I summoned my own Flame Magic to meet his.
Flicker.
A small flame, pitiful by comparison.
Set beside what he’d conjured, it was embarrassingly humble.

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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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