The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 10

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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 10

Leoryna arrived first and was organizing the lecture materials when Khalid rushed in, showing no signs of yesterday’s drinking, and opened his mouth with a startled expression.
“The students greeted me.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Until now, very few students have greeted me. But this morning, the students I ran into actually greeted me as they passed. What did you do?”
“Nothing in particular? There’s nothing I really did….”
Leoryna was about to answer dismissively when she recalled lecturing the students during yesterday’s class.
Leoryna puffed out her chest as she spoke to Khalid, who was looking at her with sparkling eyes.
“Ahem, well, I made sure to give the students a firm talking-to during yesterday’s class. Now the kids should be paying proper attention to your lectures, right?”
“Leoryna….”
Khalid’s face was genuinely moved.
“I’m really grateful you’re my graduate student.”
Leoryna laughed and rubbed her hands together eagerly before him.
“Of course, of course. I am your faithful servant, after all.”
“Good. Keep it up from now on. By the way, are you all set for today’s practical training?”
….
Damn it. I’d been so busy drinking yesterday that I’d completely forgotten there was a practical training session.
Khalid patted Leoryna on the shoulder and spoke.
“I have urgent matters to attend to, so I’ll have you conduct today’s practical training alone. Just do it the way I lectured, so don’t overthink it. Understood?”
Leoryna ground her teeth at Khalid, who was once again dumping his work onto her shoulders.
‘I’ll kill him. I absolutely will.’
But the words that actually came out were the complete opposite.
“Yes, don’t worry about a thing!”

* * *

It wasn’t long before Leoryna found herself thrust into the role of instructor, standing before a classroom of students.
The lesson took place at the Outdoor Practice Grounds. Since inexperienced practitioners could cause all manner of accidents when casting magic, it was standard practice to conduct such sessions in open air rather than indoors.
‘And when those accidents happen, I’m the one who has to write the incident reports! Please, let nothing go wrong today….’
Leoryna surveyed the students with a troubled expression.
Today’s class consisted of students from a higher year than those in the Advanced Magical Theory course, so most were unfamiliar faces. However, rumors about Leoryna had spread quickly, and they already knew her temperament was far gentler than Khalid’s, and that she was actually willing to listen.
The students gathered at the Outdoor Practice Grounds listened attentively to her words, whether from the warmth they felt toward Leoryna thanks to these rumors, or from relief that Khalid wasn’t present—it was hard to say.
“…So if each of you would demonstrate the magical formulas you’ve developed, I’ll review them and provide feedback. First student, please come forward.”
At Leoryna’s words, a student stepped forward and demonstrated their magic. Leoryna nodded, pointed out the unstable aspects of the formula, instructed them to reinforce those sections and resubmit, then proceeded to evaluate the other students in turn.
As she worked through them in order, finally the last student’s turn arrived….
“So, what sort of magic is this supposed to be?”
“A spell that makes a pig’s tail grow long.”
“…I’m sorry, what?”
“A spell that makes a pig’s tail grow long.”
The student holding a piglet the size of a cat spoke with complete sincerity.
Leoryna felt an odd sense of déjà vu, but she brushed it aside and asked with a gentle smile.
“Was there a particular reason you developed this magic?”
“Well, among all the parts of a pig, the tail is my favorite. So if the tail grows longer, I can get more tail from a single animal….”
“I see. Go ahead and try it.”
The student swung his staff at the piglet. Light shimmered, and the piglet’s tail began to grow longer and longer.
“Ooh.”
At this fascinating sight, not just Leoryna but all the other students watched the piglet with curious eyes.
“But that….”
Leoryna narrowed her eyes as she spoke to the students.
“Isn’t it growing excessively long…? And why is it getting thicker?”
The pig’s tail sprouted upward, resembling a massive serpent—no, it literally was a serpent now.
The end of the pig’s tail had transformed into a snake’s head, and scales began sprouting across what had been the pig’s tail. Eventually, it became a colossal serpent with a tiny piglet dangling from its tail, rearing its head stiffly toward the crowd and hissing.
Seeing this, Leoryna marked the errors in the student’s practice notes with a red pen and spoke.
“You’ve confused the primary and secondary elements. I suspect the formula in this section is incorrect. Did you perhaps model the way the pig’s tail grows after a snake’s tail? If so, that would explain what’s happened….”
“Assistant instructor, I don’t think this is a situation where we have the luxury of being so composed.”
The student who had cast the spell on the pig’s tail laughed awkwardly. The other students were already fleeing in panic.
As Leoryna looked up from her notes, she saw that the piglet which had provided the tail had transformed into a massive tiger, and the serpent had multiplied—there were now three of them.
Leoryna raised one eyebrow and made more marks on the student’s notes.
“Ah, you referenced chimera-creation magic, not just serpent magic? In that case, you should have only extracted that portion, but you incorporated far too many other elements.”
As she moved her pen, the tiger lashed out with razor-sharp claws.
Leoryna paused, set down her notes, drew her staff, conjured a mana sphere, and fired it at the tiger. The tiger dodged by rolling its body, and then one of the serpents in its tail spat venom directly at Leoryna.
Leoryna deployed a defensive spell to protect herself and the students, then prepared an offensive incantation.
‘Wait, but….’
Leoryna tilted her head just before releasing the spell.
‘This magic is fifth-circle level? And I’ve been lying about being a fourth-circle mage this whole time?’
The offensive spell she was about to cast required five magical circuits, and five magical circuits around her heart were now activated.
Leoryna quickly canceled the spell and recalled a Fourth Circle incantation capable of handling the Chimera. However, having primarily relied on high-difficulty offensive magic targeting single, devastating strikes until now, she found herself drawing a blank when suddenly tasked with conjuring a Fourth Circle spell with reasonable destructive power.
Of course, subduing the Chimera through sheer physical prowess alone without magic would have been trivial for Leoryna. The problem was that such an approach hardly befitted what an ordinary Fourth Circle mage should be doing!
As Leoryna stood there defensively, uncertain what to do next, she must have looked utterly foolish.
A sharp cutting sound.
One of the serpent heads was severed by something, and chains of pure light erupted from nowhere, binding the Chimera’s body. The creature roared in agony, but could not break free from the luminous restraints.
“Wh…?”
Leoryna turned toward the source of the magic, still making dumbfounded sounds. There stood Khalid, his face plastered with an expression of utter annoyance.
“Professor Khalid!”
With a snap of Khalid’s fingers, the Chimera reverted to a piglet with a soft pop. The creature’s tail was half-severed, blood still dripping from the wound.
After casting a healing spell on the tail, Khalid tossed the piglet to the Student with Piglet and spoke.
“You’re attending supplementary lessons.”
Despite hearing the words “supplementary lessons,” the Student with Piglet gazed at Khalid with sparkling eyes. The other students too regarded him with expressions of admiration and reverence.
Khalid dismissed such adoring gazes without concern and turned to Leoryna.
“If the incantation is flawed, you shouldn’t let them cast magic at all.”
Leoryna laughed awkwardly at the rebuke.
“I thought, how wrong could it possibly be?”
“Students are far more foolish than you can imagine. Half-baked idiots with nothing but pasta noodles where their brains should be. How could you possibly predict what kind of disaster they’ll cause?”
“You have extensive experience, Professor, but this is my first time instructing students!”
Leoryna felt considerably wronged.
‘If I could have demonstrated my true abilities, I would have resolved this effortlessly!’

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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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