The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 32

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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 32
Sure enough, a message appeared.
-Control Struggle win rate against the Lord of Hwanmong (Incomplete Fragment): 75.5%
A win rate that soared well over fifty percent!
Considering the opponent was a Fragment of great magnitude, it was an astonishingly high probability.
‘But there’s a problem. While I’m securing control, how do I protect the students?’
The likelihood of an grueling battle was high.
If that Fragment fully manifested in the meantime, the students would be slaughtered in an instant.
Then, welcome news arrived.
-Reinforcements have come from outside!
-Former Rector Randolph and Professor Bernstein!!
My face betrayed shock.
Though Hwanmong’s entrance was still sealed, it seemed the two of them had forced their way through.
‘If it’s former Rector Randolph, he’s an 8-star Grand Sorcerer!’
He was a pivotal figure in the Rubines Academy scenario.
Though greatly diminished compared to his prime, he would be an enormous asset.
‘The students’ side is secure for now, at least.’
But a new problem emerged.
‘…What if I resolve this situation and make a bad impression on former Rector Randolph?’
One might dismiss it as idle worry in such circumstances, but it was genuinely serious.
Former Rector Randolph was among the handful of people I absolutely could not afford to become entangled with.
‘Since he plays the role of patron to the protagonists in the Rubines scenario, if I carelessly attract his attention, I’ll be in for endless complications.’
Especially now, the real power at the Academy lies with the Rafalt Duchy faction and Rector Karak.
Drawing close to former Rector Randolph would only invite scrutiny from both sides.
After deliberation, I hit upon a scheme.
“I have something else to attend to. You two, go at once to where the students are gathered. You’ll be safe now that former Rector Randolph is here.”
I was deploying both of the twin protagonists!
Former Rector Randolph would recognize their true worth at a glance. He wouldn’t spare a second thought for someone like me.
‘Given how things have unfolded, my plan to send them both to another academy is finished. Instead, I’ll find a way to use them to make my own situation as comfortable as possible.’
But then the two of them gave an unexpected answer.
“We don’t want to. Who do you think you are, ordering us around?”
“…What?”
“Just like when we faced the Lich before, you’re trying to shoulder all the danger alone, aren’t you? We won’t let you strut about so arrogantly, Professor.”
It wasn’t only Katrine.
Rivel stepped forward too.
“…No, that’s… it’s me who should be helping you, Professor. I absolutely won’t cede that to anyone else. You should leave.”
“What nonsense? You’re the one who’s unnecessary. Get out of here.”
“Y-you’re the one who should leave. Otherwise, I’ll make you.”
I blinked as I watched the two of them squabble.
‘I don’t need your help.’
Besides, it was dangerous.
These two were going to become my precious hostages down the road. I couldn’t let them be injured or killed here.
“I told you to go somewhere safe.”
“We said we don’t want to?”
“W-we don’t w-….”
“You’re being insolent. I’m ordering you as your professor.”
As befitted the true protagonists, they were both stubbornly headstrong.
I needed to speak firmly.
“Don’t be mistaken. Even if you followed me, what help could you possibly be? You’re students. The best way you can help me is by staying somewhere safe.”
This was supposed to be when they had their fated first meeting with former Rector Randolph.
“…….”
“…….”
Speechless, both of them fell silent.
Katrine clenched her fists with frustration.
“Fine. As you say, Professor, I’m not strong enough yet. But prepare yourself. Someday I’ll definitely take you down a peg.”
Katrine turned on her heel and vanished.
Rivel proved just as troublesome.
“I understand your… concern for me, Professor…”
“…….”
“But… I still don’t like this. I will become your direct student and stand at your side—I swear it.”
Rivel’s eyes gleamed with a persistent light as he spoke, and I felt a chill run through me.
‘…Why are they both acting like this? Is this actually going well?’
A sense of foreboding crept over me, but I had no way to act on it for now.
Resolving this crisis had to come first.
‘I need to hurry.’
After the two of them vanished, a spine-chilling cry echoed through the air.
-Gooooooooo.
I flinched.
An armored knight’s specter cloaked in a sinister aura.
A Death Knight.
A monster of Lv. 5, no less.
And not just a single one at that.
‘Accompanied by a Lv. 4 Specter serving as a lieutenant and Lv. 3 Skeleton soldiers as reserves.’
Monsters of a caliber I could never face with my abilities.
I should have turned and fled immediately, but instead I stood with my arms crossed, calmly facing them.
The Death Knight at the front cocked its head, as if puzzled by my demeanor.
-A pathetic human, insignificant as vermin. Kneel before my majesty at once. If you offer me worship, I shall be merciful and grant you a painless death.
-Kee-hee-hee.
The Skeleton soldiers laughed mockingly as they surrounded me on all sides.
A moment of absolute desperation.
Yet I still did not unfold my arms.
I didn’t even look at the monsters.
My gaze was fixed on empty air, on nothing.
At what seemed like contempt, the Death Knight’s atmosphere grew hostile.
-Dare you ignore me, a Gehenna-appointed knight? I’ll tear you to shreds and cast you into hell’s eternal flame….
Then something mad spilled from my lips.
“Shut up. Close your mouth.”
-…What?
“I’m handling something important right now. Stay quiet, will you? You’re breaking my concentration.”
It wasn’t solely because of the Black Flame Dragon.
My unusual composure had a reason.
-Ha! I’ll make you repent in the agonies of hell! Tear him apart!
-Kee-hee-hee!
The Skeleton soldiers rushed at me first.
Unlike common Lv. 1 low-grade Skeletons, these were elite soldiers of the abyss.
Their blades, shrouded in murderous intent, were seconds away from shredding my body.
Then something unprecedented occurred.
Thud.
The Skeleton soldiers’ bodies froze in place.
As if they’d been petrified.
-…Magic? No—there’s no trace of mana flowing at all…?
The Death Knight reacted in bewilderment.
But the shock had only just begun.
Scratch-scratch-scratch.
The Skeleton soldiers’ bodies began to disappear.
They weren’t destroyed by impact.
They vanished as if erased.
As though they had never existed in this space to begin with.
Only then did the Death Knight realize what I’d done, and it cried out in horror.
-Impossible?! Such a thing cannot be within human capacity?!
“It is for me.”
I turned my gaze toward the Death Knight.
-Unacceptable! Krraaaagh!
The Death Knight thrashed in terror, but it was futile.
I spoke a single word.
“Five percent.”
And in that instant.
Whoooosh.
The Death Knight vanished, as if it were a lie.
Just like the Skeleton soldiers, as though it had never existed in the first place.
It was not the Death Knight alone.
All the monsters lurking about had vanished.
In the same moment, a breeze stirred.
A gentle, pleasant wind.
I drew in that wind and spoke again, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Ten percent.”
I cast my gaze downward for just an instant.
Where my eyes fell, flowers bloomed.
A miracle that defied natural law.
Yes.
I was seizing control of the Hwanmong world.
Already, the immediate vicinity had fallen completely under my dominion.
“Fifteen percent.”
Until this world became mine.
Eighty-five percent remained.
* * *
“Hah. How could this be?”
Randolph.
Former Headmaster of Rubines Academy and once a Level 8 Archmage who had reigned supreme, he gazed upon the massive shape of a giant’s arm and despaired.
‘Surely it cannot be the Ouroboros creatures? The prophecy has not yet come to pass—why now?’
Ouroboros.
Abyssal entities whose very nature remained uncertain.
Even Randolph knew little more than the name itself, and only dimly at that.
‘If this continues, everyone here will be annihilated. I must protect my students, whatever it takes.’
It was an impossible task.
In his prime, perhaps—but the Randolph of now could never stand against that Fragment.
Yet there was no choice.
“Bernstein, you will defend the students here. I shall face that Fragment.”
“Headmaster, surely you do not mean—?”
Bernstein’s face hardened like stone.
Randolph meant to sacrifice himself!
“If I give myself up, I can at least hold it back. The entrance to Hwanmong is being held open from outside—while I buy time, get everyone out.”
“That cannot be, Headmaster!”
“I have lived my years well enough; there is no regret in me. But when I fall, I entrust Rubines Academy to you. I am sorry to burden you so heavily.”
There was no time for further words.
Randolph launched himself into the air and met the giant’s arm head-on.
“No matter how grand a Fragment you may be, I will not allow you to lay a finger on my students.”
Whoooosh.
A fierce force erupted from Randolph’s body, engulfing everything around him.
—Territory.
The authority of Level 8 Transcendents, binding the surrounding space to their will.
Within a Territory, Transcendents could wield power that transcended mortal limits—but therein lay Randolph’s difficulty.
Having failed his Ascension, Randolph had lost the rank of Transcendent.
Deploying Territory was something that should never have been permitted him.
‘I must endure.’
Randolph swallowed the blood welling up from within, his eyes burning with resolve.
“Come then. Behold the power of Randolph, the Astonisher of Heaven!”
One who startles the very sky.
Such was the epithet befitting Randolph’s greatness as a mage.
Indeed, the Fragment of Hwanmong’s lord could not advance an inch against Randolph’s resistance.
“Hooray! Hail to the Former Headmaster!!”
“That is the Archmage’s ultimate magic!!”
Cheers rose from below, but Randolph’s expression was grim.
Though he held fast, the limits crept closer with each passing moment.
‘I will not yield. Even if my soul dissolves entirely in this place.’
In a brief lull as the Fragment paused, he checked on the students.
Below, battle raged against the monsters, but fortunately the students all appeared unharmed.
Bernstein’s valor played its part, but the credit belonged largely to the security detail that had been stationed there beforehand.
‘Why would Karak increase the guard? That is unlike him.’
Unaware that it had been a precaution born of dread, Randolph mused silently to himself.
At that moment, two students stood out distinctly among the rest.
A girl with a sharp expression and a boy in shabby clothes.
Unlike the other students who trembled and merely received protection, they fought alongside the monsters at the forefront.
Randolph’s eyes gleamed.
‘Remarkable. Both have the makings of stars. Heh. Such a shame. If only I weren’t about to die here, I could have guided them to reach their full potential. Still, with students like that, Rubines Academy has reason to hope.’
As he surveyed the ground below, a figure suddenly came to mind.
‘…But where did that half-wit go? Wasn’t he supposed to be an invigilator?’
—Ban Ecclesia is the most promising among the newly appointed professors.
Having heard Bernstein’s words, Randolph had harbored quiet expectations, but the man was nowhere to be seen.
‘…Seems he ran away in fear. And I was foolish enough to expect something from him. Bah.’

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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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