The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 17

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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 17

“I heard everything! You were being chased by long-tailed rabbits! How on earth did that happen?”
“Well….”
Leoryna briefly summarized everything that had occurred and explained it to Zigzagel. His expression then shifted to match Khalid’s, and he stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“As you said, let’s try cutting off its tail quickly.”
“Yes, let’s do it.”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”
Rather than stopping Khalid, the Talking Rabbit shrieked again at his encouraging words. Shebril raised her eyebrows and spoke to the rabbit.
“Don’t worry. I’ll cast an anesthetic spell for you.”
“That’s not the problem!”
“The tail is dozens of meters long—what harm could come from cutting off a little bit?”
No one was there to stop Khalid.
Shebril cast the anesthetic spell, and what happened afterward… I shall refrain from describing here. The Experimental Animal Management Association might impose a fine for unethical conduct, after all.
In the end, the rabbit with the longest tail returned to its original length before the magic took hold.
The Talking Rabbit whimpered.
“Are you satisfied now? Such cruelty! How could you do this to me!”
The four of them gazed at the rabbit—whose tail had shortened again yet whose intelligence remained intact—with expressions of great fascination.
“This wasn’t what I intended, but as a result, this experiment is a success. I’ve created an intelligent lifeform.”
Khalid spoke with satisfaction.
“But this wasn’t even the intended purpose of the magic—why are you calling the experiment successful?”
However, the delighted Khalid paid no heed to Leoryna’s objection.
“Ahahaha! If I patent this technique and sell it, I’ll become a multimillionaire! Ahahaha!”
Listening to Khalid’s manic laughter, Leoryna wondered if this was right.
“Wait, to complete this research, I’ll need to perform an autopsy at the end….”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“…but if this specimen dies, follow-up research will be difficult, so let me put that on hold for now….”
“Thank you!”
Ignoring the rabbit’s half-weeping protests, Khalid rubbed his hands together eagerly and licked his lips with his tongue.
“Hehe, let me try it on the other ones too.”
Khalid gazed at the other four rabbits with a covetous expression.
And approximately four hours later.
“Why isn’t it working?!”
Khalid hurled what he claimed was his staff—or rather, his greatsword—to the ground. He was buried in fluffy fur, barely managing to poke his face out.
“Why! Why are all the other rabbits stupid while only this one is intelligent?!”
That was the case. No matter how much magic he cast, no other rabbit became as intelligent as the first one. None of them could even speak, and their intelligence showed no difference from ordinary rabbits.
“Well, that figures. The magic is still incomplete—it couldn’t possibly work so easily.”
Zigzagel too poked his face out from the fur and grumbled.
“I was planning to perform an autopsy once the magic succeeded, but now I can’t lay a hand on it.”
“Phew…”
The intelligent Talking Rabbit exhaled a sigh of relief.
“So you’re keeping him?”
Khalid’s eyes narrowed at Shebril’s words.
“For now, I need to keep him alive for research purposes.”
“Lucky you, Pongko.”
Shebril, buried so deeply in fur that she was barely visible, scratched the top of the rabbit’s head as she spoke, and Leoryna tilted her head in confusion.
“Pongko?”
“Yes, we can’t keep calling him just ‘rabbit,’ can we? How about Pongko as a name?”
“I find it acceptable.”
The Talking Rabbit perked up his ears as he spoke.
“Call him whatever you want. He’s just an experimental subject anyway.”
“I am, in fact, an independent entity, and my existence is not merely that of an experimental subject, but rather——”
Pongko began expounding on philosophical matters at length, but no one was listening to him.
“Fine, fine. Call him Pongko or Pongdu or whatever you like.”
Khalid, speaking carelessly, turned his gaze toward Leoryna.
“From now on, you’re in charge of managing that creature.”
‘What the hell! My workload just increased!’
Leoryna cursed inwardly.
“Then let’s put this on him.”
Zigzagel produced a leather collar. A magic stone was embedded in its center, and it was quite beautiful.
“What is that?”
“A mana suppression collar. What if that bastard casts magic again and causes an accident? So we’ll put this collar on him——”
Zigzagel forcibly grabbed the struggling Pongko and fastened the collar around his neck. Pongko pulled at it with his front paws and rolled on the ground, but it was futile.
Leoryna ignored the sight and asked Khalid a question.
“Oh, and Professor. Could you review the magical formula that Shebril submitted? She said it’s ancient elven magic, but I’m not very knowledgeable in that field. I think it would be best if you took a look at it.”
“Ancient elven magic?”
Khalid rose from his seat and flipped through Shebril’s magical formula report that Leoryna had placed on his desk. His eyes widened in surprise.
“Shebril, where did you see this magical formula?”
“It’s from an ancient book in my family’s collection.”
“Could I take a look at that book? I haven’t found anything like this in the materials I’ve collected so far.”
“That’s no problem. I’ll lend it to you, so feel free to look at it as much as you need.”
“Really? Thank you so much.”
At Shebril’s offer to lend him the ancient book, Khalid’s face lit up with considerable excitement.
‘Does he really love research that much?’
Leoryna shook her head as she observed Khalid, whose dark circles under his eyes had vanished.
‘Come to think of it, why does Khalid conduct research?’
For someone motivated purely by the pursuit of knowledge, he was conducting his research with remarkable aggression.
Yet he wasn’t carefully hoarding supplementary income from research funding or personal incentives from research results. Rather, the money he earned from research was being spent on further research.
So there must be something beyond mere money driving his research goals. Whatever it was, I couldn’t quite figure it out…
‘A research maniac becoming a Demon King—that’s almost laughable. Could this research actually be necessary to become a Demon King?’
I found myself sinking deeper into thought without realizing it.
Regardless, Khalid let out a long yawn.
“Should we call it a day?”
As Khalid rubbed his eyes and spoke, I unconsciously muttered something.
“Since when do you suggest taking a break…?”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing at all.”
I laughed nervously and brushed my hands clean.
“Well, since we’ve wrapped up the Pongko situation… what should we do about these tails?”
At Shebril’s words, everyone exchanged meaningful glances.
And about an hour later, a large advertisement poster appeared on the Bulletin Board in front of the Academic Building where all students could see it.

★☆Fluffy Fluffy Rabbit Fur Scarves☆★
▷▶▷▶Special Sale for Only 7 Days◀◁◀◁
♠♤Only 30,000 Hirks♤♠
!!!100% Pure Rabbit Fur Quality Guaranteed!!!
◈For inquiries, please contact Professor Huaderica at Magical Design Research Building Room 304◈

The next day, Meryl informed us that the building manager had removed the poster since it hadn’t received official permission.
Because of that, I—who had tried to sneak home only to be caught by Khalid again—spent the entire night scraping fur from the rabbit tails, and I let out a scream of despair.
When I tried to apply for permission to post the advertisement, I was told that there was a backlog of pending postings and that it would be impossible to display mine for some time, so I had to wait. I screamed again in despair.
So the very next day, I found myself out on the streets handing out flyers for rabbit fur scarves at Khalid’s insistent urging to dispose of the rabbit tails quickly.
‘I’m going to kill him. I really am going to kill him.’
I gritted my teeth while desperately suppressing the urge to throw all the flyers straight into the trash.
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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