The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 54

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

Chapter 54
Today, for the first time, I became aware that I craved my father’s praise.
“…Thank you.”
“Thanks for what? Just drink. The appetizers here are decent for the price.”
I tilted my cup and found myself thinking.
‘Drinking with Father. I’ve never done this before either.’
My father in the previous timeline was addicted to alcohol and gambling.
Because of him, my childhood was ruined, and later we lost contact—I never even knew if he was alive or dead.
Without realizing it, it seemed I had suffered a deficit in paternal affection.
Judging by how sweet this wine tastes to me now.
“But don’t be mistaken. What you pulled off this time was only possible because you belong to Ecclesia.”
“Isn’t it natural to benefit from one’s family? And isn’t it true that I am of Ecclesia?”
“Don’t act recklessly. I won’t always be able to help you. If necessary, even Ecclesia—that bastion of cold blood—can disown its own.”
Thud!
Father set down his cup.
“Still, seeing you today, I don’t think you’ll cause the kind of trouble that reckless young fool used to.”
Perhaps it was because of those words, tinged with faith.
After the light drinking session ended, I made a decision that sat oddly with my usual nature—a meddlesome one.
“Will you return to the Free City right away?”
“No, there’s somewhere I need to stop by first.”
“I see. Until next time, then.”
Hu Am turned and left without asking further, and I redirected my steps toward an unexpected destination.
A place I never wanted to return to—the estate of a renowned magical family.
…….
I hesitated for a moment before moving forward.
Whisper.
1st Circle Invisibility Magic unfurled, concealing my form.
Though the place teemed with countless mages, none of them pierced through my invisibility, and I proceeded deeper.
The rear garden of the estate.
From there, I left the main path and headed toward the thickly overgrown brush.
It was remote, but having visited it countless times while progressing through the scenario, I could navigate it without losing my way.
Sob.
The sound of weeping reached my ears.
In a small clearing within the thicket, Joanna crouched with tears streaming down her face.
‘This is Joanna’s secret hideout, the place she’s been coming to cry since childhood.’
I hesitated.
I had come on impulse, but now that I was here, I found myself uncertain about opening my mouth.
‘…Maybe I should just leave.’
But it was too late.
Joanna had detected my presence—something no other mage in that house had sensed!
“Who’s there?!”
“…It’s me.”
“…Ban Regi? Why are you here?”
“…I got lost.”
…….
…….
Silence stretched between us for a moment.
Joanna clearly didn’t believe my excuse.
Yet she seemed unable to fathom what had actually brought me here.
‘…Did I come for nothing.’
But I shook my head to myself.
‘Leaving Joanna to languish in her despair isn’t right. There’s too great a chance she’ll fall away entirely by the end of it.’
In other words, this wasn’t mere meddling—it was meddling for the sake of the world’s future.
More than that.
‘I hate the saying that hardship makes people grow.’
When I was successful as a sales king, I heard that story often.
That my difficult past was what allowed me to succeed this way.
Personally, it was an absolutely unbearable thing to hear.
The less pain, the better.
Even if someone were born as a hero destined to save the world.
“Actually, there’s something I want to tell you.”
“…Ban Regi, what could you possibly have to say to me?”
“You’re sitting here weeping over what happened just moments ago as though it were some momentous tragedy?”
“!!”
Joanna’s face flushed with anger.
Just before she could burst out with a retort,
“You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“…….”
Joanna’s mouth snapped shut abruptly.
“I simply wanted to say this—that you bear no fault in any of this. So stop torturing yourself with meaningless self-recrimination.”
That was the truth.
None of the wounds Joanna had suffered today were born of her own mistakes.
Not in the past, nor now.
And not in the suffering that lay ahead of her.
“…How dare you speak to me that way.”
“Yes, I’m overstepping my bounds.”
I didn’t deny it.
“Though I don’t teach at your academy, it’s still part of a professor’s duty to prevent students from straying down a twisted path. So I’ve taken the liberty of interfering.”
“…….”
“…I’ll take my leave now.”
I turned to go.
I could feel Joanna’s glare boring into my back, but I didn’t look around.
Overstepping though it may have been,
I hoped that these words, spoken now, might become a thread of solace for her in the disappointments she would face ahead.
The way I had once wished someone would have comforted me when I was young.
* * *
When I returned to the academy, chaos had erupted.
News that Baron Conrad and his faction had been eliminated had spread like wildfire.
The students who had assaulted Libel were now facing proper punishment.
All five of them were expelled from the academy for good.
It was a satisfying resolution, but there was a problem.
“…There are still no applicants for the class?”
“…After all that chaos, of course not. Do you know what they’re calling you now around the academy? A tyrant.”
“…….”
More precisely, they called me the “Tyrant Ban Regi.”
In other words, my image had shifted from a harmless scoundrel to a frightening one.
“The rumor going around is that if you fall out of favor with Ban Regi, you’ll be expelled. No one dares even approach you.”
I narrowed my eyes, sensing the manipulation behind it all.
‘Someone deliberately spread vicious rumors about me.’
Suspects? There were far too many.
‘It could be the professors who see me as a thorn in their side, it could be House Rapelt, or it could be Rector Karak.’
In truth, it wasn’t a grave matter.
If I kept my head down, the rumor would fade quickly. And if worst came to worst, I could always spread counter-rumors to rehabilitate my image.
The problem was the timing.
The Welcome Class recruitment period had ended.
“…Barely six of them. We managed to avoid failing, at least.”
Still, apart from Katrine and Libel, four other students had applied, but it was the worst enrollment among all the competing professors.
‘This is serious.’
This Welcome Class wasn’t simply about recruiting students.
That was merely the beginning.
My class had to achieve the highest evaluation score over the next two months.
‘The fewer students in the class, the more disadvantaged we are in the evaluation. Scores are assigned in proportion to the number of enrolled students.’
In other words, compared to Balas with over thirty students in his class, I’d need to achieve more than five times his evaluation score to win.
An impossible feat without overwhelming top marks in every single category of the class evaluation.
“Why are you worried? I’m here. I’ll get all the top marks.”
“No, actually, I’ll be the one getting the top marks. For your sake, Professor….”
—Chirp! Chirp!
Katrine and Libel spoke with complete confidence, while the baby dragon Mari cried out cheerfully, as if to say she would help too. But instead of relief, anxiety only deepened in me.
‘But you two are a problem as well. You’re both hopeless at your shared courses.’
Both were the dual protagonists of the True Protagonist system.
True to cliché, he was failing common coursework.
Later, once they delved into their chosen specializations, both students’ brilliance would shine through—but for now, they were confined to foundational classes.
‘As long as the other four are passable. Who even registered?’
Students who’d put off choosing a class until the deadline had scrambled to apply at the last moment, so I had no idea who’d actually enrolled in my section.
‘One name I don’t recognize. Wilhelm? Surely not that Wilhelm?’
A chill ran down my spine.
He was a named student.
Son of the Northern Marquis.
The problem was,
‘He’s an absolute imbecile. Worse, his character is rotten—the type who gets expelled for causing trouble.’
This idiot was so hopeless that his nickname was ‘Ban Regi 2.0.’
My vision darkened, but my troubles didn’t end there.
‘…Yulia? Surely not that Yulia?’
My vision didn’t just darken—it began to blur.
Another named student.
‘Why is the student of Gwang Ryong enrolling in my class?’
One of the Empire’s Five Great Blademasters.
A Level 8 knight and Gwang Ryong’s star pupil had chosen me.
The problem wasn’t just being famous,
‘…she’s a villain.’
A core antagonist in the Rubinesse Academy scenario.
‘Her personality is just as rotten as Joanna’s, if not worse.’
At this point, a deep sense of dread washed over me.
‘…who could the last one be?’
The student who registered five seconds before the deadline.
I opened the paperwork to check the name, and my face went pale.
The Twin Peaks True Protagonist, Katrine, Libel, Ban Regi 2.0, Gwang Ryong’s student—compared to the name written before me, none of them mattered.
-Mikhail Rainhardt.
Rainhardt.
Everyone knew that name.
It was the name of this Empire itself.
And Mikhail—that name, too, was known to all.
He was one of the most famous individuals in this Empire. More famous than me, a failure like Ban Regi.
The 3rd Imperial Prince.
One born under the destiny to become Emperor by spilling his brothers’ blood.
The most ominous soul in this world.
The Iridescent Blade.
The main protagonist of the Arts Faculty.
These were the descriptions applied to Mikhail Rainhardt.
* * *
Upon the high, tapering roof of Rubinesse Academy’s spire.
A refined-looking youth stood with his eyes closed, facing the wind.
“I’ve told you it’s dangerous to sleep in a place like this, have I not? You possess no special power to protect yourself.”
“Hu Am. Why would it matter?”
The youth released a long yawn.
“Everyone wishes for my death anyway.”
“Your Highness!”
“It’s true, isn’t it? Unfortunately for them, this stubborn life of mine refuses to die so easily.”
The youth—the one called by the ominous epithet “Iridescent Blade,” the 3rd Imperial Prince Mikhail—smiled wickedly.
“Please don’t speak like that. When will you attend your classes?”
“It’s tiresome. Having to attend an academy at my age.”
Unlike other first-year students, who were seventeen, the 3rd Imperial Prince Mikhail was twenty-three years old.
His enrollment had been delayed due to personal circumstances.
“Why did you enroll in the class of the young lord Ban Regi, of all people? There are many other professors of repute.”
“It seemed like it would be easy? Being the academy’s worst trash back in the day, he probably won’t even care if I skip.”
“Alas, you are aware that His Imperial Majesty has his eye upon you, are you not? Please conduct yourself with some restraint.”
“Yes, yes. I understand.”
Mikhail closed his eyes as if disinterested, and his attendant shook his head and departed.
Soon after, Mikhail’s eyes snapped open.
“Ban Regi.”
A sharp atmosphere entirely different from the carefree gaze he’d worn moments before.
“This should be entertaining. I’m looking forward to it.”
It was a murmur without clear meaning.
* * *
Among the students in the class, Mikhail was not the only one speaking in riddles.
Susan.
The sole student in the Welcome Class whom Ban Regi had passed over without a second glance.
Not one of the sixteen protagonists, not a named character, not even a supporting player.
A girl with such an ordinary appearance that she would fade into the background anywhere.
“Hey, watch out!”
“…I apologize.”
The girl nodded repeatedly as she made her way down the street.
But something was wrong.
Upon leaving the academy, she had headed toward Sector 6 Slum District.
The worst crime-ridden area of the Free City, adjacent to Sector 7 Saryong Fortress.
That wasn’t all.
Slip.
With each step, her expression began to shift subtly.
From featureless to mesmerizing.
Her original face had been a disguise all along.

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