The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 57

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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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Chapter 57
“Illegal gambling, theft, robbery, assault, drug trafficking—you’ve got your fingers in all of it.”
“When did I?! Stop spouting nonsense!!”
At his violent reaction, I produced additional documents.
“Evidence gathered by the city. Your sealed orders to your associates for these illegal activities have been confirmed in writing.”
“Wh-what? Surely not…?”
Wilhelm’s face drained of color.
He wasn’t entirely foolish, at least.
He’d grasped the full picture.
“You didn’t… borrow my seal, did you?!”
“Damn it, we were going to pull off one beautiful scheme and pin the whole thing on that stupid pig. But at the last second—hell. Everyone scatter!!”
Of course, I had no intention of letting them escape.
“You dare flee from me?! Kneel before the magnificent magic of Hans!”
“Sir, posturing against common criminals only makes you look pathetic, doesn’t it?”
Crash!
Though they seemed to do nothing but fool around, both Linden and Hans were capable mages in their own right.
The fugitives didn’t make it far before they were all captured.
I spoke to Wilhelm, who sat slumped in dazed despair.
“Get up. You don’t have time to sit there. You have somewhere to be.”
“W-where am I going?”
I answered as though it were obvious.
“To prison, naturally. Even if you were merely being used by those men, the fact remains you were complicit in drug trafficking. You’re looking at a minimum of ten years.”
“That’s a false accusation…!!”
“Who would believe you? Don’t be naive. Since your house has cast you out, you’re no different from any vagrant on the street.”
I folded my arms.
“You claim it’s false, but you knew they were trafficking drugs, didn’t you? Knowingly turning a blind eye to that is a grave crime carrying at least five years. That alone.”
His hands trembled.
Then his eyes snapped toward me.
“Y-you could testify to my innocence! You could!!”
“Why would I?”
“Because you’re my class instructor…!!”
“And who was it that refused to treat me as a professor? I never acknowledged a problem student like you as mine, either. Don’t delude yourself. It benefits me far more to see you expelled as you are.”
Click.
A knight from the Security Forces that had accompanied us twisted his wrist and snapped the shackles closed.
The moment the iron gripped him, Wilhelm began shrieking at the guards.
“You! This is a huge mistake! Do you know who I am?! You’ll regret this—release me now!!”
“He’s already been cast out by his house, so special treatment is unnecessary. Handle him by regulation.”
“Understood, Professor Ban!”
Through various accomplishments, my standing within the Security Forces had risen considerably.
The knights cried out eagerly, ready to take charge, and cast a chilling smile toward Wilhelm.
“Heh, a precious young master of a duchy? We have a special room with plenty of company for you.”
In the Security Forces’ slang, “company” was a euphemism for cockroaches.
“Then I’ll return to the academy.”
“Wait, Professor Ban! Just a moment! You’re really leaving like this?! I can’t—I can’t be in prison!! Ahhh, what are these things?! Get them away!!”
As I stepped out of the prison, Wilhelm’s screams echoing behind me, a figure was waiting.
As I’d anticipated.
It was Leming, Wilhelm’s father, a Marquis.
He’d rushed here through a portal from the Northern Sea in haste.
“…Isn’t this sufficient? The boy has surely reflected deeply by now.”
Marquis Leming spoke, gauging my reaction.
“I’ll give him a stern lecture. He’ll follow your word without hesitation from now on.”
“Very well. This will do.”
“…Truly?”
As I nodded readily, Marquis Leming’s eyes filled with bewilderment.
“I’m withdrawing from your son’s case.”
!!
“In truth, from the beginning I anticipated this would be profoundly difficult. But seeing your attitude now, I’ve realized that changing your son is impossible. Let us not waste each other’s strength. I think this is where we should stop.”
Marquis Leming’s jaw clenched.
“That’s a rather harsh thing to say. What do you know of my family? You don’t even understand why the boy became this way!”
Border Marquis.
It is a title bestowed upon families that guard the borders in the outlying regions of the Empire.
Yet Leming Marquis was no ordinary Border Marquis.
As the threat to the Northern Sea under his charge subsided, he instead found himself acquiring numerous mines scattered throughout the region.
‘Suddenly, I’d become filthy rich.’
The problem was what came after.
He should have handled his newfound fortune with refinement, but having lived in poverty his entire life, his eyes glazed over with wealth, and he began displaying the crass behavior of a nouveau riche.
By the time he came to his senses, the entire family had become objects of scorn and ostracism in aristocratic society.
In short, the entire household was afflicted by inferiority complex.
Wilhelm’s warped nature stemmed from that very inferiority complex.
“I understand.”
“Understand? You?”
“Have you forgotten who I am? I am Ban Legia. When it comes to inferiority complex, no one in this world knows it better than I do.”
‘I did suffer from inferiority complex, after all.’
My family environment had been worse than that of an orphan.
It was impossible not to develop inferiority complex.
“If you understand, then why are you going about it this way?”
“Do you truly believe a few kind words mixed with encouragement can sweep away inferiority complex?”
Leming Marquis could not answer.
“There is only one way to overcome inferiority complex. Experience. One must come to feel, through their own actions, that they are not inferior.”
“…There’s no way that boy could do such a thing, is there?”
“He can. Because I will make it so.”
!!
The Black Flame Dragon infused my voice with authority.
“Being a student of Ban Ecclesia. He will come to understand just how great a blessing that is.”
In the end, Leming Marquis slumped his shoulders and returned to the Northern Sea, while I occupied myself with personal matters and let the hours pass.
Exactly forty-eight hours later.
I went to find that fool Wilhelm again.
His attitude had completely transformed.
“Professor, I was wrong! I’ll follow any order you give me—please get me out of here! I’ll live diligently from now on! Aaaah, I’m terrified of cockroaches!”
It wasn’t merely that he was weak-willed; a prison is a place that crushes anyone’s spirit.
“So you’re saying you’ll follow whatever I tell you from now on?”
“Yes, yes! Just let me out of this prison and—!!”
“Fifth place in your entire year on the midterm examination two months from now.”
“…What?”
“Promise me you’ll achieve that, and I’ll petition the authorities for leniency.”
He gawped at me.
“How on earth am I supposed to—?!”
“If you can’t manage it, then don’t bother. From what I’ve gathered, you’re looking at a minimum sentence of ten years, so you might as well spend a long, happy time here with all the charming company.”
“I’ll do it! Fifth place? I’ll rank first if I have to!!”
His oath rang with the desperation of a man making the most critical vow of his life.
Of course, I didn’t believe him.
‘The moment he walks out of this prison, his resolve will vanish like a ghost.’
I needed a chain binding him.
“Remember this well. If you fail to meet the condition, you must return to prison.”
“But, how is such a thing even—?”
“As your mentor professor, I’m releasing you under the pretext of providing guidance within the school. Should you fail to follow my instruction, naturally you must return to prison.”
!!
His face drained of all color, turning corpse-like.
From this moment forward, he would labor with desperate determination to achieve fifth place in his year.
‘I don’t know myself whether he’ll actually make top five.’
Still, with that resolve, he would achieve an accomplishment he had never managed in his entire life until now.
‘At least I’ve dealt with Wilhelm’s immediate crisis, but the remaining students are the real problem. Wilhelm is merely the weakest of my troublemakers—hardly the Four Heavenly Kings.’
I was heaving a deep sigh when, suddenly, the sky above the Free City darkened.
Dark clouds gathered over the clear blue, as if from nowhere.
‘What is this?’
My face went rigid.
A chill ran through my senses, standing them on end.
As if some enormous danger were approaching.
The murmuring around me grew louder, as if confirming my suspicion.
“Look at the sky!!”
“Aaaahhh!! What is that?! A monster?!”
“No, it’s a dragon!!”
A dragon descended from a cloudless sky.
Just as the city teetered on the brink of panic, a flash of light erupted—and the dragon’s body shrank.
It had transformed into human form.
A middle-aged woman appeared, her face distinctive for the diagonal scar that split it.
The citizens of the city, now recognizing the dragon’s true identity, gasped—but for an entirely different reason.
“It’s the Swordmaster Carla, the Scarlet Dragon!!”
“Why is one of the Empire’s five greatest swordmasters suddenly here?!”
Indeed.
This being was none other than Carla, one of the Empire’s five greatest swordmasters.
A dragon who, unusually, had trained swordcraft to its absolute pinnacle and had even naturalized to the Empire, receiving a title for it.
An existence commonly called the “Scarlet Dragon.”
As for why she had suddenly appeared in this Free City,
“Are you Ban Legia? Do you have a death wish?”
…it was because of the ‘duel’ I had sent.
* * *
‘Damn it, meeting her in person is even more terrifying. I must be insane.’
I wanted to fall to my knees immediately and beg for forgiveness, but I forced myself to hold back.
If I wanted to remain at the academy, I had to overcome this ordeal.
…To stay at the academy, I had to stand against the Scarlet Dragon. The weight of reality nearly crushed me, but I ignored it and met her gaze.
“If you kneel down right now and apologize for your rudeness to me, I’ll be generous and spare your life.”
A shockwave of presence crashed down.
I stood firm.
‘If I give ground now, it’s over. The Scarlet Dragon despises weakness.’
Fortunately, I had the Black Flame Dragon.
“How rude. To raise your voice at a student’s supervising professor from the very first meeting. So this is the Sword Intent you pursue after abandoning the pride of your draconic nature—how unfortunate.”
“!!”
…The help was perhaps a bit excessive, though.
The Scarlet Dragon let out a growl.
“…You really do wish to die.”
Whether from genuine fury, the killing intent was incomparably worse than before.
Under the aura of a Level 8 Knight, my spirit stiffened like ice, leaving me barely able to twitch a finger.
-Squeee! Hisss! Hisss!
A baby dragon, Mari, burst from my Magic Pouch and bared her fangs at the Scarlet Dragon.
‘What the—! What are you doing?! If anyone finds out I’m keeping a pet dragon, how am I supposed to explain that?! Get back in there!’
In panic, I shoved Mari’s head back into the pouch.
And yet, perhaps misinterpreting my actions, the Scarlet Dragon’s eyes flickered with something unexpected.
“So you would shield a baby dragon even now. You’re no cowardly wretch, at least.”
“??”
“Had you tried to hide behind the hatchling, I would have crushed you on the spot.”
As I mentioned before, what the Scarlet Dragon despises is weakness.
But weakness here doesn’t mean physical strength.
It means willpower and courage.
My gesture of protecting Mari seemed to have earned me a small measure of credit.
Though only a small one.
“Offer me a formal apology for the disrespect you’ve shown me. Apologize properly, and I’ll overlook it as the folly of a young thunder lizard.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for. Why do you keep saying such strange things?”
“You insolent—!”
“It was merely a letter sent in hopes that my student would not stray from the right path.”
I pressed forward before the Scarlet Dragon could respond.
With a firm voice.
“There is a flaw in the Sword Intent you pursue. In the end, your students will be consumed by that corrupted intent.”
The Scarlet Dragon let out a hollow laugh.
“What could you possibly know?”
“I can infer quite enough simply from watching you intimidate me like this right now. If your Sword Intent were truly righteous, would you bully me so arbitrarily?”
“!!”

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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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