The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 86

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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 86
‘I was holding back Katrine’s growth. She’d grown complacent now that she had someone to depend on.’
The solution was simple.
‘I need to put distance between us.’
It wasn’t a bad choice for me either.
Growing closer to Katrine was never something I wanted in the first place.
The Sword Saint of Light, Del Elpaso.
She would be the cornerstone of the calamity to come, so for the sake of my goal—to “reap the benefits”—it was best to distance myself even now.
And yet,
‘What am I doing, acting like such a fool.’
I swallowed a sigh as I watched Katrine break down in front of me.
Butting in like this was anything but wise.
It might have been exactly the busybodying she’d accused me of.
But I couldn’t help it.
Sometimes, living means making foolish choices like this.
‘My effort to reap the benefits is ultimately about finding happiness. If I just look away now, I won’t sleep well tonight.’
I recalled memories from my childhood.
My father was an alcoholic and a gambling addict; my mother was always in the hospital. I spent much of my time moving from one relative’s house to another.
Most of them were kind at first.
At first, anyway.
-How much longer do I have to keep this burden?
Every time I tried to open my heart, they’d turn cold, and I was wounded more times than I can count.
Because I knew how much it hurt when someone who’d shown warmth suddenly turned away, I couldn’t bring myself to push her off coldly.
‘There’s another way to awaken Katrine.’
Right—I was a Possessor.
It would be far more difficult and bothersome, but there was a path forward.
“W-what are you staring at! Th-this isn’t crying, it’s just dust in my eyes! Sniff, what kind of dust stings like that! So irritating!”
Embarrassed by her own outburst, Katrine bristled with sudden anger.
“That’s enough. Just go. I can handle the rest on my own.”
“Relying on others isn’t weakness. It’s far more cowardly to fear extending your hand to someone in the first place.”
…
“There’s no need to burden yourself. Ask for help without hesitation. A teacher exists for their students.”
Tears welled up again in Katrine’s eyes.
This time, she clenched her fists and held them back.
“But even if you help me, nothing will change, will it? I’m just hopelessly stupid anyway. Honestly, I can’t even properly understand your lectures.”
“No—you’re not without talent.”
“Ha. I know I’m an idiot. I’m deficient in every way. So why am I even trying to be a mage? I’m a fool, a wreck, an absolute dunce.”
These were Katrine’s hidden truths.
“You’ve misunderstood me. I’m not saying you have talent as a mage. Honestly, you lack much of what it takes to become a proper mage.”
“Then what—?”
“Katrine, what do you think your strength is?”
Katrine couldn’t answer.
“It’s simple. An unwavering will and the tenacity to never give up, even after thousands upon thousands of repetitions. Unfortunately, neither helps much in becoming an exceptional mage.”
A mage’s achievements depend far more on talent than effort.
At lower Star Ranks, one needs Magical Intelligence; as power grows, the intuition to delve into the Demonic Path becomes paramount.
Both were talents Katrine was not born with.
“Your real talent shines somewhere else entirely.”
Katrine’s eyes began to tremble faintly.
Instinctively, she’d guessed what I was about to say.
‘I’d hoped she’d realize it herself.’
But now there was no choice.
Whatever her reaction, I had to tell her.
“Your talent isn’t that of a mage—it’s the talent of a knight.”
!!
“You’re far more suited to being a knight than a mage.”
Katrine’s face went deathly pale.
* * *
I recalled the scenario.
-Katrine’s blade cleaved through the heavens. A pillar of light blazed across the world, and the people called out her name.
The Sword Saint of Light, Del Elpaso.
That’s right.
Katrine was never a Mage-class protagonist to begin with.
Knight class.
More precisely, a Spellblade, Dual Knight class.
‘After all, having both True Protagonists be Mage-class would break the balance.’
The problem was that this wasn’t something she could accept lightly.
Becoming a Mage wasn’t a simple career aspiration for Katrine.
It meant avenging herself against the Magic Noble Family.
‘Originally, she’s supposed to accept this truth under duress while trapped in the depths of despair. But because of me, she never fell into despair, so she couldn’t awaken.’
Indeed, Katrine’s reaction was poor.
“What? A knight all of a sudden?”
“Do you remember when you sparred with Julia? Back then, you’d never studied the blade, yet you defeated her. That’s your true talent.”
“I don’t care. Absolutely not. I hate it. I have to become a Mage.”
“Do you despise the Magic Noble Family that much?”
!!
Katrine’s lips pressed into a thin line.
Her eyes burned red.
This was not the same weeping as before.
It was rage.
“Do you know what kind of treatment I received from that cursed family? All because I lacked talent in Magic? I’d have been better off rummaging through garbage bins in the slums! I was treated as less than human then too, but at least I wasn’t regarded like vermin the way I am now!”
……
“I can never abandon Magic! Not until I make every last one of those damned Magic Noble Family bastards kneel beneath my feet with that precious Magic of theirs!!”
It was a difficult problem.
If Katrine became a knight? And succeeded brilliantly?
Would the Magic Noble Family even care?
-A sword-wielder is just a meat shield. Someone to die in our place.
That was how members of the Magic Noble Family viewed knights.
The moment she became a knight, she could never gain recognition from the Magic Noble Family.
She would remain forever a dirty bastard, a failure.
“The Magic Noble Family doesn’t despise all knights.”
“Ha. Those arrogant fools look down even on the Empire’s Five Great Sword Saints, the most renowned among Level 8 Transcendent knights.”
“An Ascended knight.”
!!
Katrine went rigid.
“Even the Magic Noble Family wouldn’t dare scorn a knight who has ascended to the heavens.”
Katrine’s face showed disbelief.
For reference, there was currently only one Ascended One of the Knight class in the Empire.
The Sword Saint, former patriarch of the Sword Noble Family.
“What kind of nonsense is that? I’m no Ascended One.”
“Of course it’s a distant dream. So, will you give up? After all, your ultimate goal was never Alfonso anyway, was it?”
……
Something shifted in Katrine’s eyes.
The person she hated most was not Joanna who had scorned her, nor Duchess Bes, nor the distant relatives and retainers who had tormented her directly.
It was Alfonso, the man who had fathered her.
“You know Alfonso is obsessed with Ascension. But imagine how satisfying it would be if you reached Ascension before him and surpassed him.”
“That would be incredible. Impossible, though. Father will become an Ascended One within five years at most.”
“Three years will be enough for you.”
Hah.
It was true.
The Warrior Academy’s finale, the Apocalypse Scenario, occurs in the fourth year.
If Katrine didn’t reach Ascension before then, it would be a problem.
It would mean the world was destroyed.
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it. I’ll make you a Rank 3 Sword Rank knight within a week.”
!!
I turned my gaze away whether Katrine believed it or not.
“Did you hear all of that, sir?”
!!
A figure emerged from the shadows.
He was a handsome man, but Alfonso gave off a chilling aura no matter when you saw him.
“Haha, I heard. An amusing conversation indeed.”
“If, as I said, Katrine proves herself brilliant as a knight, then cease this torment, Your Grace.”
“Hmm? Torment? I’m afraid I don’t follow.”
“I know everything. All the terrible things Katrine has endured—it was all by your hand.”
Duke Alfonso’s smile deepened.
An affirmation.
“You have no children yet, so you won’t understand, but it’s all an expression of love for my daughter. You see, without this sort of pressure, that flawed child would never strive to grow at all. Look—thanks to it, hasn’t even she managed to struggle this far?”
Rubbish.
‘He doesn’t love Katrine even a speck. She’s merely a tool to him.’
The moment I opened my mouth, Katrine’s hand seized my collar.
A silent command to stop.
“I’m fine. None of this bothers me.”
I swallowed a sigh.
Contrary to her composed expression, the hand gripping my collar trembled faintly.
‘And he calls himself a father.’
Duke Alfonso was the central antagonist in Katrine’s character arc.
He was both the object of hatred and fear, and simultaneously the family member from whom she craved affection.
Her drive to succeed as a mage stemmed from a contradiction: to surpass Duke Alfonso, yet to earn her father’s recognition.
“Very well. Let’s go.”
I headed toward the portal.
“But wait, I haven’t decided to become a knight, have I? Besides, you’re not even a Sword Rank professor—how are you supposed to make me a Sword Rank knight?”
By now Katrine had composed herself, and she continued chattering as we made our way back.
“I don’t know either. You’re right—I’m a Magic faculty professor, not a knight.”
“Ha! Then what bold claim is this?!”
“One doesn’t necessarily need formal instruction.”
I pressed an envelope into Katrine’s hands as she frowned in incomprehension.
“What is this? Fifty pages?”
“A commission payment. I have somewhere to go, and I need you to escort me there.”
“Are you joking? You’re using an escort as an excuse to put me through more training.”
“No. I genuinely need your help with this. I could assign others, but you’re the only one qualified.”
I arrived at the portal and handed the coordinates to the gatekeeper.
“These coordinates—are you certain they’re correct?”
“Is there an error?”
“No error, but… the destination?”
“I have the Entry Permit here.”
The gatekeeper regarded us with visible unease, glancing back and forth between us.
‘Should I really send them? We’d just be creating corpses,’ was written all over his face.
“Please reconsider once more. Since I began my service as gatekeeper here, I have not seen a single person return alive from ‘that place.'”
Katrine went pale.
“Wait, where exactly are we going?!”
“You’ll see when we arrive. Come on.”
“Hold on!”
Whoosh!
We crossed through the portal’s peculiar interdimensional space and emerged at our destination.
But something was wrong.
There was no light.
It wasn’t nightfall.
Something was blocking out the sky.
At the same time.
A deep, roaring howl.
A tremendous wind struck against our ears.
Like a typhoon bearing down from beside us.
“You… don’t tell me this is…?”
“Yes. Whirlwind Island.”
Katrine’s face went corpse-pale.
“Are you insane?! The ruins of the Eight Heroes!!”
In the distant ancient past, they were the heroes who had saved the world by standing against a calamity of otherworldly magnitude.
“It’s an Absolute Death Grade danger zone, far beyond any restricted area! How could you bring me to such a place, even for my training!”
“As I said before, it’s not for your training. It’s for mine.”
“What?”
“The truth is, right now the situation isn’t urgent only for you.”
I thought to myself.
‘I need to advance to the Second Star Rank now. If I don’t, I’ll die.’

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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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