The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 31

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

Episode 31
Whoosh!
Without any warning, Joanna unleashed an offensive spell.
And not just any spell—the Secret Spells of the Magical Noble House, the most powerful magic she could muster at this moment.
‘Damn it! Pay attention!’
I scrambled to block the incantation.
Joanna’s current rank was high Tier 2.
She was no one to dismiss lightly.
Especially not the secret techniques from her Magical Noble House that she wielded.
‘What in hell is happening? Why haven’t I heard anything?’
In that instant, my face drained of color.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard anything.
The Communication Channel connecting us to the outside world had gone dead.
‘Trapped?’
Instead, alarming news came through the Communication Channel directly linked to the guard reinforcements that had arrived.
—Young Master! This is catastrophic! The entrance to Hwanmong has been sealed!
An artificial dungeon lockdown.
In the hundred years since Rubines Academy’s founding, it had never happened once.
‘This dungeon is a trace left behind by a great one—it should be impossible for anyone to manipulate it artificially, so why?’
I swallowed hard.
Now that I thought of it, there were beings capable of causing something like this.
The only ones in this world.
‘…If it’s Ouroboros, they could do it. They’re the closest to the absolute truth of this world.’
But it was incomprehensible.
‘Ouroboros wouldn’t begin operating in earnest until the protagonists became second-years, would they?’
And touching this Hwanmong dungeon in particular—that didn’t happen until well after the third year.
‘They shouldn’t be ready to move yet, so why attempt something this reckless? Could it be because of Katrinne and Ribel?’
At the sudden conjecture, I clenched my fist.
In the original scenario, Ouroboros certainly intended to eliminate Katrinne and Ribel.
But they refrained from making rash moves due to the risk of exposure, only testing the waters bit by bit—which ironically ended up helping Katrinne and Ribel grow stronger. For them to suddenly pull off a stunt this massive?
—Young Master, the Monsters’ condition is strange! They’re becoming increasingly ferocious—!
—Hold them back!
The messages came pouring in with urgency.
I gritted my teeth.
‘I can’t stand here dazed. I need to focus.’
I immediately contacted the other professors serving as examiners alongside me.
Fortunately, communication within Hwanmong itself hadn’t been cut off.
—This is Ban. We must cancel the examination at once. Student safety is the priority.
—B-But? Canceling the exam requires orders from Professor Aliff, the student director…
—Do you not see this is no time to stand idle waiting for instructions? Evacuate the students with the security detail to the nearest rest area immediately.
I spoke with firm authority.
Under normal circumstances, they would have resisted obeying me without question, but the situation was urgent enough that they didn’t waste breath on unnecessary objections.
Then a frantic voice came through.
—Y-Young Master, this is dire!
It was Hans and Linden, who had been assigned to torment the examinees.
—Student Katrinne and Student Ribel have gone missing! We were trying to keep both of them in check as you instructed, but Linden made a blunder—! Forgive me, sir!
My mind reeled.
‘I have to go rescue them!’
But then—
“Why do you keep letting your focus slip like that? Am I really so amusing to you?”
Crash!
Joanna blocked my path.
“The exam is cancelled. Aren’t you sensing something wrong here?”
But in that moment, I understood anew why Joanna had earned her nickname as the troublesome young lady.
“Are you making excuses out of fear? The guards are all lined up down below anyway—if there’s a problem, they’ll handle it themselves.”
She showed absolutely no sign of backing down.
Perhaps she didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation, but it was infuriating.
“This isn’t that kind of situation. You should go to safety too—”
“Be quiet. If I’m afraid, I’ll kneel and say so myself.”
“Sigh…”
My anxiety outweighed my anger.
I had no idea what danger Katrinne and Ribel were in.
There was no time to hesitate.
“Fine. I’ll do as you wish. But mark my words.”
I drew up my mana.
It was still feeble.
Pathetic compared to Joanna standing before me.
The moment a sneer crossed Joanna’s face.
I made my declaration.
“You’re failing this test. Consider a retake.”
And at that same instant.
Joanna’s body collapsed.
Unluckily—or perhaps inevitably—she fell into the very kneeling posture she’d been seething to force me into.
* * *
—Ribel, remember this. The outside world is a frightening place. Out there, you must trust no one.
Ribel recalled words he’d heard countless times since childhood.
As they said, the world ‘outside’ was indeed a frightening place.
Not dangerous in the way one might think.
Dangerous because the ‘home’ Ribel had come from was far worse.
The outside world was frightening because of the people in it.
‘You can’t trust anyone.’
Thanks to his natural instinct, Ribel could sense the true intentions of those around him almost instinctively.
Everyone he’d met in the ‘outside’ world fell into one of two categories.
Those who wanted to use him.
Or those who wanted to harm him.
After surviving several terrible crises, he’d fled to Rubines Academy.
And it was here he’d met someone.
Someone entirely different from anyone he’d encountered before.
—You’ve done nothing remarkable either. If this weren’t an academy, you’d have no excuse even if you lost your feet.
Professor Ban.
His manner was frigid.
And yet, Ribel could sense it instinctively.
That he did not dislike him.
That beneath that coldness lay a genuine kindness hidden away.
‘That’s strange.’
He’d never encountered anything like this before.
In the outside world or at home—Ribel had always been an object of contempt.
Especially because he could instinctively sense people’s true feelings, he knew all too well how much they despised him.
That was why.
‘I want to get closer to him.’
Though his kindness had been fleeting.
Because that kindness was genuinely sincere.
Ribel found himself drawn to him.
‘I’ll pass this test. Top of the class.’
Top ranking had always been his goal.
He needed the scholarship.
But the reason behind that goal had changed.
‘Professor Ban would like an excellent student too.’
With that in mind, he did his best, battling monsters and pressing forward.
Just as he was growing anxious about his second-place pace—having spent time shaking off that strange bald mage and the lanky fool who lounged about—
“Wait, stop! Isn’t something off about this?”
The girl following close behind called out and made him stop.
‘Kat… what was it again, her name?’
He’d heard it but hadn’t bothered to remember.
All he knew was,
‘A rival competing for Professor Ban’s attention.’
Ribel’s eyes narrowed.
“If something’s off, then we should stop and—”
“You should stop, sir.”
“What?”
“I’m going straight to Professor Ban. No, actually.”
Ribel stared down at Katrinne squarely.
She irritated him.
“Yes, I think it’s better to eliminate you from this trial right here.”
Rivals were removed before they could become threats.
That was the way Ribel had learned in the ‘House.’
‘If I kill her, Professor Ban will hate me. I’ll just disqualify her instead.’
A chill flickered across Ribel’s eyes, and Katrinne let out a cold, mirthless laugh.
“You want to die? Do I look that easy to you?”
“…….”
“Fine. I didn’t like you either. Get ready.”
That was when it happened.
Rumble!!
The ground where they stood shook as if an earthquake had struck, great fissures opening across it.
Hwanmong was destabilizing, causing a spatial distortion.
“!!”
Ribel, caught in the twist of space, plummeted downward as if falling from a cliff.
‘…Where am I?’
Growl.
An eerie cry echoed through the darkness.
Dark Wolves.
Tier 2 monsters.
More than ten of them.
Though it was a life-or-death crisis, Ribel remained calm and thought it through.
‘Annoying. Should I just kill them all? I could do it if I use my real power.’
It was a remarkable thing.
Ribel’s current achievement was Tier 1.
But that was only what appeared on the surface.
Ribel’s true power lay elsewhere.
‘The more I use that power, the more I break. But it doesn’t matter.’
Whoosh.
A torrent of energy began to surge from deep within Ribel’s body.
Then, suddenly, a face came to mind.
‘…What if Professor Ban learns what I really am and sees me as a monster?’
The rising energy scattered, dissolving into nothing.
Without using that ‘power,’ Ribel couldn’t stand against the monsters before her, but she made a gamble.
‘Just hold on for now.’
Whoosh!
A Dark Wolf lunged.
An attack she couldn’t block without using that ‘power.’
Yet Ribel endured it stubbornly, relying only on pure magic.
Wounds accumulated steadily.
The Dark Wolves, realizing their prey was weaker than themselves, grew more vicious.
Crash!!
Her shield shattered, and Ribel stood completely defenseless.
-Grrr….
The Dark Wolves circled around her.
As if toying with their meal.
Ribel’s vision blurred as she thought.
‘Should I use the power now?’
But Ribel smiled faintly.
‘What does it matter. Death is death.’
Living on would only bring contempt anyway.
There was no way around it.
She was a ‘monster,’ after all.
‘Even if Professor Ban learns the truth about me, he’ll hate me too. Maybe it’s better to just die here.’
-Shrieeeek!
A Dark Wolf’s jaws opened wide, and it leaped toward Ribel’s throat.
Ribel closed her eyes tightly and waited for death.
Then, that instant—
Crack!
The wolf’s neck snapped back.
“…What are you doing right now? Standing there dazed in front of a monster.”
Cold.
But underneath, a voice edged with concern for him.
“Ribel, you’re getting points deducted too.”
Ribel stared blankly at Ban’s impassive face, and a thought suddenly took root in him.
He wished that even when Ban learned what he truly was, disgust would never flicker in those stolid eyes.
* * *
‘Phew. That was close.’
I released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding.
By a stroke of fortune, I’d managed to save both Ribel and Katrinne.
There was something off about the atmosphere around them both—Ribel especially—but I didn’t have the luxury of examining it closely.
‘This isn’t over yet.’
I recalled the third-year main episode: “The Return of Hwanmong.”
The events would likely unfold identically.
And indeed.
-Class representative, an unidentifiable gray aura is gathering and forming the shape of an enormous arm!
I bit down hard on my lip.
‘A fragment of the Lord of Hwanmong is descending here.’
A nightmarish prospect.
-The professors who were protecting the students deployed their magic, but it has no effect whatsoever!
Of course it didn’t.
This was Hwanmong’s world.
The Lord of Hwanmong was invincible in this space.
No magic, however potent, could touch him here.
There was only one way.
‘I have to seize dominion over this world of Hwanmong.’
To seize control of Hwanmong’s world against the Lord of Hwanmong himself—anyone hearing it would call me mad.
Insane.
But it was possible.
‘Only I can do this in this world.’

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