The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 63

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

Chapter 63
“I don’t usually come in person, but you’ve caught my fancy. I thought I’d do the handiwork myself. If I’m going to make something of quality, I need to put in the work directly. Here we go!”
Clatter!
The moment Puppet spread out his Tools, Yulia’s face drained of color.
They were torture instruments—instruments of unimaginable cruelty.
“Do you think your master will let this slide?!”
“Ah! So you’re Gwang Ryong’s student. Scary, isn’t he? But I’m not the sort to give up present pleasure for worry about the future. What do I care about Gwang Ryong? Hehehehe! Hehehehehehehehe!!!”
A laugh untethered from sanity.
Yulia’s face turned ashen.
‘I have to run. I have to get away.’
In that moment, her hand closed around something.
The Emergency Signal Calling Magical Tool that Ban had given her.
But as her fingers moved toward the button, she hesitated.
‘Am I really going to call Professor Ban for help?’
It wasn’t about pride.
‘Will Professor Ban even come?’
This was Puppet, after all.
While not quite matching her master Gwang Ryong, Puppet was the nightmare of the Abyss—a name whispered in dread across the entire Empire.
And hadn’t she herself been trying to harm Ban?
There was no chance he would come.
“Huh? Why do you hesitate? Go on, press it. If you can’t manage, I’ll do it for you.”
Puppet snatched the device from her hand and pressed the button firmly.
“Though it won’t matter. Ban won’t come even if I call him. Hehe!”
……
“Besides, here you are trying to ruin Ban, yet begging for his help when you need it. Despicable. I like you even more now.”
Puppet twisted his lips into a grotesque smile.
“Shall we play a little game? I’ll give you a chance.”
Click.
With a flick of his fingers, the restraints binding Yulia’s hands and feet fell away.
Puppet tossed her sword back to her, then pointed to Wilhelm, bound at her side.
“Kill that pig. Then I’ll let you live.”
!!
“You never even treated him as a person anyway. Just close your eyes and stab.”
It was a wicked game—Puppet’s kind of malice.
Before destroying his ‘playthings’ physically, it was Puppet’s chronic perversity to subject them to impossible moral torments like this.
Gulp.
Yulia swallowed hard.
Puppet gazed at her with trembling, eager delight painted across his face.
“What’s the trouble with killing one person? If you’re worried about rumors, I’ll keep it secret. I can see your twisted soul, you know. In the end, you’re destined to become something truly monstrous.”
Yulia’s hand trembled.
Her face hardened with grim resolve, while Wilhelm’s face—gagged as he was—turned deathly pale.
Then.
“As if you ever had any intention of letting me live no matter what I did. Do you think I’m a fool? Die!”
Flash!
Yulia’s blade sang through the air, severing Puppet’s neck.
‘Done!’
Puppet’s head flew free into empty space.
But.
“Hehe, twisted but not entirely hideous. I like you even more.”
Puppet’s neck reattached itself as if he were merely fixing a doll, and Yulia’s face crumpled into despair.
Snap!
A finger flick, and Yulia’s body stiffened, as if bound by spider’s silk.
“Now then—Puppet’s Happy Hour begins! Just torturing you would be tedious, so why don’t we do this? Confess all the wrongs you’ve committed so far. Like a confession.”
“What?”
“You admit your sins, and I punish each one. I become the judge of justice. Ah, how merciful I am, granting you this chance to repent before death. Hehe, doesn’t it sound like fun?”
But that was when it happened.
“Be silent.”
!!
Heavy.
A voice that overshadowed even Puppet’s own presence—suffocating in its authority.
At that very moment.
Slice!
Puppet’s neck was severed once more.
“If my student has committed a transgression, it falls to me—their instructor—to administer the punishment. Not to the likes of you.”
It was Half.
* * *
“…Puppet, you say?”
The air in the tent froze solid at the news Hans and Linden brought.
‘Why all of a sudden? Could Ouroboros be pulling strings?’
I clenched my fists.
“This is dangerous. We must leave at once.”
Flash!
It was Gis, the escort knight of the Third Prince.
He’d been following in secret, and when the urgent situation erupted, he revealed himself.
“Puppet is a supreme master who demands an entire knightly order to confront. The captured students are unfortunate, certainly, but we must first escape this place and properly assemble an extermination force.”
For reference, Gis’s level was Level 5.
A respectable rank by most measures, but given his station as the escort of a royal prince, it fell short of what was needed.
Mikhail was kept in check by the imperial family, and Gis lacked nearly everything required to face Puppet.
“I think that course would be wise. The circumstances leave us no choice.”
“…Your Highness, you should return. Katrine and Libel, both of you go back with the prince.”
“Surely you’re not—”
“Yes. I’m going to rescue them.”
“That’s reckless!”
Mikhail’s voice rose sharply.
Katrine and Libel’s reaction was the same—refusal.
They were right.
Puppet was no opponent to face armed with a sense of duty alone.
A calamity, pure and simple.
If I retreated now, no one would have grounds to blame me.
‘This is different from my duel with Duchess Beth.’
That time, the Chaos Force worked easily because we traded magic directly in a magical gunner duel, but in actual combat it had its limits.
Reckless as it was, the reason I resolved to rescue them both was
<Probability of victory in a direct confrontation with the Defective Puppet>
– 8.7%
Defective.
Something was wrong with Puppet right now!
‘An 8.7% win rate is high. It should be 0% normally.’
Ordinarily, the only opponents I could defeat in a direct contest were those ranked around 2-Star or 3-Star.
‘And I have a countermeasure prepared.’
Though I hadn’t predicted Puppet specifically.
As had been the case all along, I’d prepared a contingency against the possibility that something strange might occur again.
‘Of course, I can’t be certain this countermeasure will work.’
In truth, when all was said and done, the probability of failure was far higher.
If I failed, I would die.
And yet,
“Both of them are students of Class Ecclesia. Even if the enemy were the heavens themselves, I will not permit a single finger to lay upon them.”
The Black Flame Dragon’s exaggeration aside, I meant every word.
Wilhelm and Yulia—neither had a single redeeming quality, and both were thoroughly unlikeable.
And yet they were my students.
I bore responsibility for them.
‘…There’s a practical reason too. If I flee here, while I might avoid direct consequences, my reputation at the academy would be finished. Eventually, I’d be cast out.’
Meanwhile, the Third Prince bit his lip hard at the sight of me.
“…Putting your life on the line for your disciples. You’ve truly changed. If only I’d possessed such courage in the past.”
The past.
A pivotal incident that had made the Third Prince into what was called Yodo.
I let it pass unheard.
…….
…….
Katrine and Libel stared at me with clenched fists, their eyes red.
They didn’t insist stubbornly, knowing this wasn’t a moment for them to intervene, but their gaze burned with barely suppressed fury.
The unexpected ones were Hans and Linden.
I’d naturally assumed they’d excuse themselves and back away,
“Hehehe, it’s time I showed that Puppet what this Hans is made of.”
“Are you insane? Your baldness is getting on my nerves—back off.”
“You brat! This head is my pride! I’ll catch Puppet and make him bald too!”
They wanted to come with me.
“…Are you both serious? What are you thinking?”
“The Master and I are like needle and thread! When the needle goes, the thread must follow, mustn’t it?!”
“That’s not it—I bought a ton of high-grade Escape Scrolls with the money I won from our last bet. If things look like they’re about to go south, we can just slip away, so there’s no harm in it.”
“You fool! Don’t twist my loyalty like that!”
As expected, they were serious.
But the moment I heard their reasoning, an idea struck me.
‘If I do this, I can drastically improve our odds of success!’
I explained the plan to both of them.
When we arrived, fortunately both Yulia and Wilhelm were still safe.
“Hans, Linden—you two wait here for now. When I give the signal, that’s when we execute the plan.”
I hid myself using the top-tier Invisibility Magic Tool I’d borrowed from Amanda and watched for my opening.
I was nervous for a moment that the real Yulia might actually stab Wilhelm, but fortunately that didn’t happen.
‘Yulia hasn’t completely turned villainous yet. There’s still humanity left in her.’
If the scenario progressed further and envy consumed her entirely, she’d commit far uglier acts without hesitation—but not yet.
‘Now!’
The moment he reached out to touch Yulia in his excitement, I imbued a 1-Star Rank Wind Cutter with Chaos Force and severed his neck.
Slice!
His head was cut clean off, but the blow didn’t finish him.
Puppet’s severed head hung suspended in mid-air, laughing with an eerie rasp.
“Who’s this? You really came? Ah, I see. Justice? Responsibility? Something like that? I hate that stuff most of all. What should I do? I really want to kill you right now, Ban?”
A chill ran through the air.
Murderous intent thickened like fog.
If I weren’t the Black Flame Dragon, I might have lost control right then and there, but I clenched my teeth and held firm.
‘The plan can’t succeed if there’s even the slightest gap.’
From first to last.
Every situation had to unfold exactly as I intended.
“Be quiet. Let those two go, and fight me instead.”
Of course, there was no chance Puppet would listen.
And true to my prediction, Puppet came at me exactly as I’d anticipated.
“Hehehe, my personality’s twisted—when I see someone virtuous like you, I have an irresistible urge to crush them. Hihihi, so, shall we begin our fun little game?”
He snapped his fingers with a snap, and something horrifying happened.
Yulia and Wilhelm began pointing their blades at me.
‘Coming exactly as planned.’
Making people kill each other—that’s Puppet’s famous perversion.
“So, what’ll it be? Either kill those disciples you care about, or die yourself. Choose. Or, you could just abandon them and run away. Since I haven’t had enough fun killing you yet, I’ll let you go if you flee.”
“Let them both go.”
“Hihihi, you think I’m actually going to listen to you right now?”
“That wasn’t a request. It was a command.”
“What?”
That was the moment.
Slice!
Yulia’s blade severed Puppet’s neck.
“?!”
Puppet’s face, suspended in empty air, contorted in shock.
I had interfered with Puppet’s control over them, seizing temporary command!
Of course, it was only a temporary trick.
Their control returned to Puppet immediately after.
My eyes flashed with intensity.
‘Normally he would never allow such interference. So Puppet really isn’t in perfect condition. This is definitely worth attempting.’
But there was a condition.
I silently opened Message Magic, connecting my mind with both of them.
—Yulia, Wilhelm, can you hear me? There’s something you need to do. I need you both to swear right now that you entrust everything to me—your lives and souls both.
—!!
Both their eyes widened in bewilderment.
His face suddenly registered confusion.
But I was serious.
What I’m about to use is the Waltz of Moonlight.
A 1-Star Rank Puppet Arts technique—one that manipulates an opponent who has entrusted everything to you.
In other words, I’m attempting to dismantle the methods of Puppet, the supreme master and virtuoso of the Puppet Arts field, using the most elementary technique.

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