The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 15
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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 15
Part 2: Season-End Sale
It was some time after the magical stone theft incident. The moment Leoryna arrived at school, Khalid extended his hand toward me.
“What is it you want from me?”
“A follow-up study to my research.”
“Pardon? What research?”
“Rabbit tails.”
As Khalid answered flatly, Leoryna’s expression began to crumble in slow motion.
So now he was demanding results from that previous assignment—the follow-up research on the study about rabbit tails growing longer.
“I’m truly sorry, but I haven’t given it any thought at all. Could I perhaps start from now?”
Khalid clicked his tongue in displeasure.
“Ah, I apologize! It’s just that I have so much to do, I genuinely forgot about it!”
Leoryna’s words were truthful. Since Khalid kept me occupied with an endless stream of tasks, I lived each day in a daze.
“Fine. There’s still some time before the month I mentioned anyway. Why don’t you start right now?”
“I… yes. Understood….”
Leoryna spoke through gritted teeth. But Khalid, seemingly indifferent, nodded his head and continued.
“Since you look busy, I’ll specially assign you an assistant researcher.”
“An assistant researcher?”
“They’ll arrive after lunch, so work well together, you two.”
“Yes….”
I wondered who Khalid, who wasn’t particularly close to any students, could possibly assign as an assistant researcher—a question answered soon enough.
“Oink.”
Leoryna regarded the familiar piglet with indifference. Then she turned to the student holding it and asked.
“Student with Piglet, what’s your name again?”
“It’s Shebril Lowpet. I heard that you would be conducting supplementary lessons for me, is that correct?”
“I didn’t know either, but if Professor Khalid said so, then I suppose that’s how it is.”
Leoryna ground her teeth.
“And he said that if I help with your research, he’ll raise my practical grade.”
“Oink oink.”
The piglet, with half its tail severed, squealed continuously, flaunting its presence.
“Then I’ll call you Shebril from now on. Is that alright?”
Leoryna asked while examining the additional assignment Shebril had submitted.
“Yes, please call me whatever feels natural.”
“Is this an improvement on the magical formula you created last time?”
“Yes! This time it’s not based on chimera formulas—I referenced something else. But I wasn’t sure if it was correct….”
Shebril answered while her long, pointed ears twitched continuously.
Though Zigzagel’s ears were pointed as well, Shebril’s were long enough that Leoryna thought she resembled a rabbit.
Long ears that seemed to hold sunlight, and golden-brown eyes to match. Combined with her lovely chestnut curls, it was unmistakable—Shebril was an elf.
“Would you mind taking a look at this?”
Leoryna examined the magical formula Shebril had drawn, scratching her head and furrowing her brow.
“Have you ever cast this spell before?”
“No. I wasn’t sure what side effects might occur, so I wanted to test it in front of you, Teaching Assistant.”
“So if side effects do appear, I’m supposed to clean up the mess?”
“No, no! That’s not it! I was just being cautious.”
Shebril panicked and waved her hands dismissively. In the meantime, Leoryna, who had finished reviewing the entire assignment, let out a thoughtful hum before responding.
“From what I can tell, it looks like magic to restore something to its state before the pig’s tail was cut off… or perhaps temporal reversal. Ah, since it’s an ancient elf formula, I can’t quite determine which one it is even after analyzing it.”
“Really? Then should we try casting the spell first?”
“But you do realize that if this is restoration magic or temporal reversal, it’s quite dangerous, right?”
“Ah… why is that?”
“Why, you ask? Didn’t you learn about the side effects of restoration and temporal reversal magic in the basic magical theory course?”
“Oh.”
Shebril nodded slowly, as if remembering belatedly.
“I believe that when regenerating lost organs through restoration magic, the duration of that restoration is extremely short. And magic that interferes with time causes backlash—creating errors in the temporal flow of the caster or target, potentially trapping them in some kind of time paradox…”
Leoryna smiled softly and nodded. Shebril muttered with a troubled expression.
“I’m glad I asked you before testing the spell on my own.”
“Still, it seems like a fairly well-constructed spell, so I’ll have the Professor properly verify the magical formula.”
“Yes.”
“And I think what you need right now is this.”
Leoryna placed a total of 2,432 pages of research materials on the desk.
Thud!
The materials landed on the desk with a heavy sound, and Shebril stared at them, blinking rapidly.
“Magic to make rabbit tails grow long! If we apply it creatively, we could do the same with pig tails.”
“Why would anyone want to make rabbit tails grow long?”
When Shebril spoke as if she couldn’t understand, Leoryna was taken aback.
“Then why would you want to make pig tails grow long?”
“Because pig tails are delicious. But rabbit tails… do they even have a use?”
“In all my years, you’re the only person I’ve ever met who thinks pig tails are delicious.”
“That’s only because you haven’t lived thirty years yet. Once you reach a hundred, I’m sure at least one other person will share my opinion.”
The two exchanged pleasantries before looking at the materials again and simultaneously sighing.
“So I have to review all of this?”
“Well… it’s not as unreasonable as it sounds. You can at least read through it all in a day. And you don’t need to review everything—just extract the parts we need.”
Leoryna offered this hardly reassuring consolation to Shebril before grunting as she hauled over a cage from the corner of the Research Laboratory. Inside were five fluffy rabbits.
“Let’s start by casting the spell to make rabbit tails grow, and then we can explore applications from there.”
Leoryna moved her mana according to the magical formula Khalid had written down, generating magical power, then aimed her staff at one of the rabbits.
“Parasora!”
As she chanted the incantation, there was a popping sound, and the rabbits, sensitive to noise, startled and bounced about frantically.
Simultaneously, fluffy tails began sprouting from the rabbits’ hindquarters. Resembling chinchilla and fox tails, they grew to a certain length before naturally ceasing their growth.
Leoryna let out an exclamation without thinking.
“Oh my, this is adorable in its own way.”
“Hmm… but I always thought rabbits were charming precisely because their tails are short. I don’t understand why we’d need to make them grow longer.”
“Setting aside whether it’s cute or not, shall we think together about where this could be useful?”
At Leoryna’s words, Shebril spoke while cradling one of the rabbits.
“What if we made scarves from the tails? If we cut them to scarf length and let them regrow, we could produce nearly unlimited scarves per rabbit.”
“Hmm… it doesn’t seem like Professor Khalid developed this magic just for something like that, but let me write that down anyway…”
Leoryna gave Shebril a look that said to keep going. When Shebril pointed to herself with her finger, Leoryna nodded.
Leoryna excelled at casting magic according to proper formulas, but her applications were weak. That’s why Khalid had assigned Shebril as an assistant researcher—to fill in the gaps with ideas from her creative mind.
Shebril thought for a moment, then began pulling out various ideas. Leoryna, secretly delighted, was writing them down when Shebril asked a question.
“But how much can these tails actually grow?”
Leoryna answered without thinking too deeply.
“If the magic stacks, couldn’t they grow by the length they gained each time the spell is cast?”
“Then, Parasora!”
Shebril cast the magic on one of the rabbits whose tail had already grown long. The rabbit struck by the spell trembled violently. Then its tail began sprouting again at an alarming rate.
It started… but…
“If we cast the magic twice, shouldn’t the tail only grow by the original length again?”
Shebril watched the rabbit’s tail growing wildly and posed the question to Leoryna.
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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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