The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 33
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 33
“Hide in my office.”
“Ugh….”
So that’s where he’d gone—hiding in Zigzagel’s Professor’s Office. But wait, would hiding actually solve anything?!
“Somjeo is looking for you.”
“That’s exactly why you need to hide. Just follow me.”
I followed the invisible Zigzagel by instinct, with Pongko bounding along behind me.
* * *
“Professor Khalid.”
I placed my hands on my hips and stared down at Khalid, who was crouched beneath Zigzagel’s work desk, with utter exasperation.
“How does hiding help? Somjeo is searching for you.”
“Did he find out it was because of me?”
Khalid’s eyes darted nervously as he asked.
“Not yet, thankfully.”
“Phew….”
Khalid exhaled in relief, but my insides were burning with frustration.
“The professors are holding an emergency meeting. You need to do something about this. This isn’t a minor incident—the entire Research Division is in chaos.”
“I can handle it.”
“How? You’ve already destroyed the reagents and magical formations.”
“I’ll use reversion magic on the Research Division.”
“Are you insane?!”
I couldn’t help but cry out.
“Don’t you know what side effects reversion magic causes?!”
“The problem only occurs with organic life forms. On inorganic matter, there are virtually no side effects. It simply rewinds the physical movement of objects.”
“Then why didn’t you use it from the start…?”
“Because I’d need to use ‘that’ Magical Stone to pull it off. The scale is too large—I need a stone of that magnitude to handle it cleanly. And I can’t use it in broad daylight.”
So he was planning to sneak up the Back Mountain under cover of night like a rat and use the massive Magical Stone.
As my brow furrowed deeply, Khalid rushed to continue.
“I can do this, I promise. I’ll exclude the Mountain from the range and only revert the areas within the magical influence zone outside it. I’ve already investigated how far the magic’s reach extended and documented all the damage. The magical environment will be completely controlled.”
‘At least he’s not just hiding and doing nothing.’
I was oddly surprised by this realization.
Come to think of it, wasn’t it natural for someone who caused a mess to clean it up? There was no reason to be impressed by normal behavior. Yet given Khalid’s plummeting reputation in my eyes, I found myself moved by his actually acting responsibly.
“In any case, I can’t do anything about experiments involving organic matter, but reversion magic should restore most of the research. That should be sufficient, right?”
When I gave Khalid a skeptical look, he pouted.
“Why don’t you trust me….”
“Sigh… Fine, I understand. You’re absolutely certain you can restore it?”
“I’m serious!”
“Yes, yes.”
“Anyway, that’s why you need to help too. Understood?”
“Yes, yes.”
I thought that if I just handed this guy over to Somjeo, he might kill Khalid for me without me having to do anything.
“By the way, how did the Athletic Competition go?”
“We won first place.”
“That’s wonderful. It’s a shame I couldn’t see your performance.”
‘Thank goodness you didn’t see it. If you’d shown up at the Stadium just to watch, I wouldn’t have been able to use my full abilities and we wouldn’t have won. Actually, I should be grateful that Khalid was too preoccupied with other matters to focus on the Athletic Competition….’
I grumbled inwardly.
“I was just average.”
“Hmm.”
When Pongko let out a scoff as if he knew everything, I shot him a look that silently warned him to keep his mouth shut.
“The sun’s completely set now. Don’t you think it’s time to get up?”
At Zigzagel’s words, I glanced out the window and saw it was pitch dark.
I let out a deep sigh. Just when I thought I’d finally escaped from all these bothersome tasks, it looked like I’d be climbing the Back Mountain again.
‘I’ll kill him. I swear I’ll really kill this bastard and go to heaven.’
I ground my teeth in secret. And so another night was passing.
* * *
The next day, I was half-dead in the Research Laboratory.
I’d exhausted myself from the athletic competition, then drained myself further using regression magic with the Magical Stone in secret, and now the mental and physical stress hit me all at once—I didn’t even have the energy to lift a finger.
Then Khalid appeared with books and reports piled high in both hands.
“Leoryna, could you organize these materials quickly for me….”
I stared at him without saying a word, and Khalid’s voice trailed off. He cautiously studied my expression and asked.
“Are you… angry with me?”
“….”
I smiled brightly. Without a word of response. Without any gesture. Just a gentle smile….
As Khalid froze in place, speechless, I extended my hand toward him.
“Give them to me, Professor. I’ll take care of it.”
My voice was genuinely kind.
That terrified Khalid even more. He carefully handed over everything he was holding to me.
“Take your time! It’s fine! You don’t have to rush, so if you have time… if you feel like it… you can do it then….”
Khalid’s voice grew quieter and quieter.
“No, Professor. You seem to be in a hurry, so I’ll get it done as quickly as possible.”
“If that’s what you want… then yes….”
Khalid felt uncomfortable and tried to quickly escape to his Professor’s Office. But when he turned around, he came face to face with a large man.
“Professor Huaderica, where exactly were you yesterday?”
At Somjeo’s question, Khalid laughed with a shameless smile.
“Ah, I had an urgent matter come up yesterday regarding Academy business, so I went on a business trip.”
“You should have informed me beforehand. Regardless, there’s a faculty meeting, and I’d like you to attend.”
With that, Somjeo grabbed Khalid by the collar and began dragging him away.
“Wait, you should at least tell me what this is about….”
Khalid wondered if my actions had been discovered and I was being taken away, but there was no anger in Somjeo’s voice.
“There have been strange occurrences since yesterday, and that….”
As Khalid was being dragged along by Somjeo, I had to listen to accounts of how all the salt had vanished yesterday morning and how this morning all the research laboratories in the Research Building had reverted to their state from two days prior. Khalid nodded along, interjecting with remarks like “My, what an eerie tale that is.” and similar comments.
As Leoryna watched this spectacle unfold, Zigzagel had somehow appeared beside her, crunching on corn crackers.
“Things worked out, didn’t they?”
“Since Somjeo didn’t seem angry, it appears so for now.”
At Leoryna’s deflated response, Zigzagel exhaled softly. Then he held out a bag of crackers to her.
“I heard you did something impressive yesterday.”
“Oh, I just ran hard, that’s all.”
Leoryna grabbed a cracker from the bag and popped it into her mouth.
“That’s not quite what I heard.”
At Zigzagel’s meaningful remark, Leoryna felt the cracker in her mouth nearly lodge in her throat.
‘Could rumors have spread that my abilities aren’t those of an ordinary person?!’
Leoryna composed her expression and asked Zigzagel.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what I heard was….”
Zigzagel scratched his head for a moment, then tilted his head at Leoryna.
“‘Professor Huaderica is a lunatic, and the graduate student under him is no less of a lunatic either’….”
A cracker slipped from Leoryna’s hand and dropped to the ground with a soft tap.
“Ha, haha….”
“Are you a lunatic?”
“Come on, Professor. What are you saying? You know me.”
“I don’t know what happened yesterday, but from what I’ve seen, you’re not a lunatic.”
“Haha, right? I wonder where such talk even came from….”
Leoryna shrugged with a nervous laugh.
“Rumors tend to get exaggerated anyway, so don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried. Hahaha!”
Leoryna laughed cheerfully, and Zigzagel resumed crunching his crackers. She snatched some of his crackers and began organizing the materials Khalid had left behind.
“Hmm.”
Unaware that Pongko was observing her intently.
“Definitely suspicious, I tell you.”
Pongko muttered meaningfully to himself.
Today too, Halderion Academy was peaceful.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————