The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 14

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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 14

“Professor! We need to wake these people up! We can’t protect them like this…!”
Khalid shook his head vigorously at Leoryna’s words.
“At this point, they’re beyond waking even if they were dead! How am I supposed to explain this catastrophe to them? This is a completely different magnitude of crime than simply sneaking in to steal a magic stone!”
Clink, clink.
Leoryna heard what sounded like a gleaming bracelet—though something she’d rather not be wearing—jingling around her wrist.
‘These… these damn bastards!’
But she couldn’t simply let these innocent people perish.
While Zigzagel and Khalid held back the assault, she mobilized every spell within her 4-circle capacity, moving frantically to evacuate the sleeping people from the Danger Zone.
Once Khalid confirmed that Leoryna had moved everyone to the Safe Zone, he abandoned his defensive position and spoke to her.
“Leoryna, you stay and protect the people.”
“What about you, Professor Khalid?!”
“I need to help Zigzagel.”
“But the danger…!”
Leoryna reflexively tried to stop him.
But then she paused mid-sentence and reconsidered. In this situation, Khalid could very well die. If Khalid fell in combat against that Kochalirakes creature, it would be the perfect opportunity for her.
Having quickly calculated her options, Leoryna nodded toward Khalid.
“Yes! Professor Khalid, finish it and come back! I believe in you!”
‘Kochalirakes, I’m rooting for you. Go wild and cause some chaos.’
Leoryna cheered on Kochalirakes as it hurled flames at Zigzagel.
After setting up defensive magic around the people, Leoryna watched Khalid join Zigzagel, her brow deepening with concern. Judging by how the creature maintained distance and composure in combat, Kochalirakes wielded magic with the cunning of a true demon beast.
‘Even in ancient times, they couldn’t defeat it—they could only seal it with a massive magic stone. I’m not sure if Zigzagel and Khalid alone can handle it. If they can’t, this entire area will be devastated….’
Though she was praying for Kochalirakes to kill Khalid, Leoryna wasn’t entirely optimistic about this situation.
‘A demon beast that was called a devil even in ancient times. How am I supposed to face something like that….’
Khalid’s death would be fine—even preferable. But if Zigzagel was also overwhelmed by the monster, she’d have to face the rampaging Kochalirakes herself.
Me, defeating a future Demon King and a demon beast that slew a dragon? Could I even do that?
It was truly a situation where everything was problematic.
‘Well, first I should contact the Self-Defense Force and Police, send an automaton to inform the Papal Church, and also….’
Leoryna began counting on her fingers the tasks she’d need to handle, assuming Khalid and Zigzagel would be defeated.
Meanwhile, Khalid flew toward Zigzagel, who had created distance from Kochalirakes. He opened his mouth to discuss something, but the creature didn’t give them a moment’s peace and charged again.
“Kuooo!”
Khalid remained unflustered and reached his hand toward empty air. Suddenly, something elongated materialized in his grasp.
Through Khalid’s night vision, Leoryna saw that what he held was an enormous scythe. The handle was taller than Khalid himself, and the blade looked sharp enough to fell mighty trees, not mere wheat or barley.
Khalid drove the tip of the great scythe directly into Kochalirakes’ crown.
“Kuoaack!”
Unfortunately, the scythe didn’t pierce through to the creature’s skull, but it succeeded in catching it off guard.
“Tch, seriously. This bastard’s acting tough for nothing special.”
Khalid’s curse carried all the way to where Leoryna stood.
“Is that Khalid’s weapon? How unusual—he uses a large scythe.”
As Leoryna murmured to herself, Khalid chanted something under his breath, and the magical circles inscribed upon his garments blazed with light. He swung the scythe once, and three of Kochalirakes’s legs on one side were severed clean away, blood erupting in a crimson spray.
Leoryna’s jaw dropped at the sight.
“Just now, the blade of the scythe seemed to grow larger. Was that magic?”
Having lost all the legs on one side of its body, Kochalirakes lost its balance and bellowed in fury.
It lashed its tail, firing venomous spines at Zigzagel, who nimbly dodged them, seized the tail in his jaws, and hurled the creature to the ground with a violent twist of his body.
Kochalirakes crashed to the earth, quickly recovered, and began spraying magical spheres in all directions, but Khalid effortlessly neutralized them by either evading or deflecting them with his scythe.
“Is that all the magic it can muster? An ancient demon, supposedly? This is nothing more than a low-tier beast.”
It was precisely when Leoryna found Kochalirakes’s magic remarkably monotonous.
After only a few exchanges, Kochalirakes had exhausted its arsenal, and Khalid had already assessed his opponent’s full capabilities. Kochalirakes realized the battle had turned against it and attempted to flee, but it was already too late.
Keeeeing!
Khalid’s scythe rang out with the sound of metal and began to glow crimson. As that radiance engulfed the entire blade, Khalid swung the scythe, and a colossal magical blade erupted from it.
Shhwaaaack!
Kochalirakes’s body was cleaved in two, blood fountaining forth in a geyser. The creature shrieked its death cry and breathed its last.
For something described as an ancient demon, Khalid and Zigzagel had dispatched the monster with such ease that Leoryna, watching them, stood utterly dumbfounded.
‘So… that’s it? It’s over just like that?’
While it was fortunate the situation hadn’t escalated, the fact that Khalid remained unscathed was hardly welcome news to Leoryna.
Zigzagel and Khalid returned to where Leoryna stood in bewilderment. They didn’t appear to have exerted themselves much at all.
“That was… truly remarkable, Professors! To dispatch that ancient demon, Kochalirakes, so effortlessly! I must say, I was genuinely astounded!”
Leoryna deliberately gushed to conceal her conflicted emotions. Despite her flattery, both Khalid and Zigzagel seemed oddly unmoved.
“Once we faced it, it wasn’t nearly as fearsome as expected.”
At Khalid’s words, Leoryna tilted her head in confusion.
“Pardon? But in ancient times, there was no way to defeat it, which is why it was sealed away in such a massive magical stone, correct? Doesn’t that make it formidable?”
“Well… the thing is.”
Zigzagel spoke up.
“Magic is power accumulated over countless ages. The same applies to dragons. Dragon magic has evolved since the distant past.”
“And?”
“The magic we use didn’t exist five thousand years ago.”
Khalid spoke with his hands clasped behind his head, supporting the back of his skull.
“In this age where such magic is commonplace, something like that is utterly trivial. But in ancient times, it was impossible to contend with, so they feared it and called it a demon. It’s not that the creature is particularly weak.”
“Ah, I see…”
Hearing Zigzagel’s explanation, it was hardly incomprehensible. Leoryna nodded in acceptance, then shifted her gaze to the enormous scythe still held in Khalid’s hand.
“But what is that scythe? Is it your weapon, Professor?”
“Oh, this? My magical staff.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“My magical staff, I said.”
A typical magical staff or wand wielded by a mage was a rod roughly one cubit in length, treated with various magical enhancements.
For reference, Leoryna’s was a wand crafted from the finest silver.
Yet Khalid was insisting that this object—far longer than a standard staff and crowned with a sinister blade—was his magical staff.
“No matter how I look at it, that’s a large scythe.”
“No. There’s just a blade attached to the staff’s end.”
“…I see. Let’s go with that.”
Leoryna reluctantly acknowledged the magical staff, which looked far more suited to severing necks than casting spells, no matter how she examined it.
“Now that I think about it, Professor, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that staff before. You don’t normally use it?”
“I can cast anything below the fifth circle without a staff. Most of the Demon Race can do the same. For reference, Zigzagel doesn’t need a staff at all.”
“Wow.”
Leoryna had the distinct impression that if Khalid discovered her assassination attempt, it wouldn’t be magic that killed her—it would be that scythe, and her head would go flying clean off with a sickening crack.
“Regardless, let’s grab the mana stone and escape before those people wake up.”
Even now, Khalid hadn’t forgotten his objective. His face gleamed with avarice as he licked his lips with his tongue and rubbed his hands together eagerly.
Leoryna surveyed the surroundings and felt a sharp pain throb at the back of her skull.
There were corpses of the beast split in two scattered about, the ground was torn open, the Camp was reduced to ash and cinders…
If the mana stone disappeared on top of all this, it would cause an absolute uproar.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. No one saw our faces.”
Khalid waved his hand dismissively when he noticed Leoryna’s complexion darkening.
“A perfect crime is totally possible! We just have to secretly hide it on the Academy Back Mountain!”
Khalid said this as though it were meant to console Leoryna, all while giggling mischievously.
“No one will ever know, right? Really. You trust me, don’t you?”
Leoryna slapped her own forehead repeatedly. She would have preferred to erase her memory entirely. Zigzagel, already resigned to being implicated in this scheme, simply laughed helplessly.
In the end, they decided to burn the beast’s corpse without leaving a trace of ash, dispose of all evidence, and flee with the mana stone.
After finishing all the cleanup, on the journey back to the Academy, Khalid lay in Zigzagel’s saddle, snickering to himself.
“Hehehehe! My mana stone! Hehehehe!”
Listening to Khalid’s shameless laughter, Leoryna silently offered a prayer.
Petila, please just send me away from this household.

* * *

The day after Khalid concealed the Demon Stone in the Academy Back Mountain, the Mage Society erupted into chaos. It was only natural—the largest Demon Stone discovered in recent times had vanished without a trace, as if swallowed by the earth itself.
Naturally, turmoil rippled through Halderion Academy as well.
Those consumed by rage.
“What lunatic monopolized the Demon Stone?! It should be treated as public property and shared among all mages!”
Those drowning in sorrow.
“Ah… I had a research paper I wanted to conduct using that stone…”
Those resigned to bitter grapes.
“Well, it’s not as if I would have gotten a turn to touch that stone in my lifetime anyway. So it doesn’t really concern me either way.”
And then…
“Right? Apparently some absolute madman did it? What kind of unhinged lunatic steals something like that?”
Khalid sat in the faculty meeting with his arms crossed, listening to the other professors whine, and added his own commentary. Zigzagel wore the same shameless expression as Khalid, though he didn’t mock them quite so openly with his tongue.
“Sigh, I do hope they catch the culprit soon.”
Observing Khalid’s disapproving clicks of his tongue, Zigzagel found himself grateful they were friends rather than enemies.
‘If I’d made an enemy of him, I’d probably die of sheer indignation before he even lifted a finger. I must be careful never to cross him.’
Another peaceful day at Halderion Academy.

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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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