The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 48

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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 48

Part 7: Midterm Examination, First Semester

“Teaching Assistant!”
“No, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.”
I was fleeing with hurried steps, my ears plugged shut to escape the Students trailing after me.
“At least tell us if it’s essay or multiple choice…!”
“I already told you—I don’t know.”
The reason they were bickering like this was because the midterm examination was approaching.
It was notorious among the Students that Khalid’s tests were far more difficult than anyone imagined. Since Khalid tormented them with entirely new questions each time, past exam formats proved utterly useless, and the Students—forced to study as if diving headfirst into unknown terrain—were absolutely miserable.

‘Professor, which topics should I focus my studies on?’

The moment class ended, Shebril tried to probe Khalid cautiously, but he answered with a gentle smile.

‘If you’ve understood everything we’ve covered so far, it shouldn’t be that difficult.’

But we didn’t understand what we learned….
So they had no choice but to cling to me.
“Couldn’t you just ask the Professor once? Just about what kind of problems might appear…!”
“I don’t know. Even if I did know, I don’t know.”
Since both Khalid and I were so resolute, the Students eventually gave up pestering us and shuffled away, dragging their feet, to study.
Entering the Research Laboratory with a deep sigh, I stared at the research results report I had been organizing and clutched my head in despair.
I wanted to write down everything I’d discovered so far about the magic that lengthened the Talking Rabbit’s tail as extensively as possible, but only an extremely small portion had been verified.
Particularly the matter of Pongko’s existence.
Why his intelligence had increased contrary to the original intention and he had begun to speak, what had gone wrong to produce such results—Khalid kept hounding me to figure it all out, and I felt as though a thousand flames were about to erupt from within me.
Incidentally, when Khalid overheard me and Shebril putting our heads together to discuss practical applications, his reaction was this.

‘Garbage.’

I barely restrained the urge to strike him, but Khalid regarded me with utter contempt.

‘Do you think I entrusted this to you because I hadn’t considered such things? I’ve already thought through that much. I assigned it to you hoping that fresh perspectives from young minds might yield something worthwhile, but as expected, there’s a gap between undergraduate and graduate student intellect.’

Throughout his entire lecture, Leoryna genuinely wished she could murder Khalid.
“I understand that you’ll let me complete my master’s degree if I organize the research reports. But why are you dumping not just my research, but your research organization onto me as well?!”
She had planned to kill this bastard before the midterm exam, but somehow she’d dragged things out unintentionally, and now here they were in this mess.
While Leoryna ground her teeth and rifled through documents, Khalid entered the Research Laboratory. She stopped grinding her teeth and greeted him with a forced smile.
Khalid was carrying another large box in his arms, and Leoryna didn’t want to know what it was.
“Leoryna, help me prepare for the students’ practical exam.”
“Me? Wasn’t the exam content supposed to be a secret from me as well?”
“That was the plan, but… I can’t be bothered.”
‘Ugh, you bastard.’
Leoryna grumbled inwardly.
“But you assigned me the task of organizing research materials. I don’t have time for that as well…”
“You don’t?”
“Of course I do, haha!”
Leoryna pressed her forehead discreetly while Khalid wasn’t looking.
Today too, she wanted to hit that bastard.
Khalid handed Leoryna a thick textbook and set down the box he’d brought. Inside were spherical magical artifacts.
“These are tools for the magical formula design practical exam, and this is the textbook for the advanced magical theory course. You’ll draw random numbered pages and create problems from those pages.”
Khalid taught two classes. One was the advanced magical theory course that Leoryna had taught as his substitute, and the other was the magical formula design practical course where she served as a teaching assistant.
Khalid had somehow prepared a black box with no visible interior and drilled a hole through which Leoryna could insert her hand. She pulled out several slips of paper with numbers written on them from inside the box.
Khalid didn’t show Leoryna which pages they were and simply put them in his pocket. Then he handed her papers with magical formulas written on them along with the magical artifacts.
“Now all you need to do is cast these spells on the mana spheres and give them to me.”
“What kind of exam format is this?”
Leoryna examined the magical formulas Khalid had given her and narrowed her eyes.
“These are explosion spells, aren’t they? Why would an exam require explosion magic?”
“The goal is to prevent the explosion by decomposing or adding to the magical formula inscribed on the mana sphere. Though I call it an explosion, it’s not the kind that would cause injury—just enough to knock you backward?”
But still, an explosion was an explosion, wasn’t it?
“Why do you torment—I mean, confuse the students with such varied methods every year? Since you always make difficult exam questions and hand out failing grades, your professor evaluations are always terrible.”
“I confuse the students? What are you talking about?”
Khalid clicked his tongue as if Leoryna had said something ridiculous.
“Isn’t it fun to think of it as a surprise event—not knowing what kind of problem will appear this year? I’m sacrificing myself for the students’ enjoyment.”
He seemed to genuinely mean it, and Leoryna felt a chill run down her spine.
‘Is this bastard a pervert?’
Leoryna mourned for the students as she cast the spells.
‘…But am I really in a position to sympathize with others right now?’
Leoryna shed tears of mourning for herself as well.

* * *

After Khalid imbued the magical artifacts with his power, he snatched them up without so much as a word of thanks and hurried off to attend to his other duties.
Left alone in the Research Laboratory, Leoryna began to grumble at Pongko, who sat contentedly chewing hay alongside other long-tailed rabbits.
“Ugh, that infernal rabbit tail! Why is that research even important?! Are you planning another rabbit fur scarf discount event?!”
At Leoryna’s cry of anguish, Pongko took a step backward.
“If you’re thinking of using magic on me again…”
Leoryna fixed Pongko with a long, steady gaze.
“Forget the magic. Dissection it is.”
“Kyaaaah!”
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.”
“So you do care about me after all!”
“Let’s just say that’s roughly accurate.”
Too exhausted to argue each point, Leoryna waved her hand dismissively and began to deconstruct the magical formula for the spell that elongated rabbit tails from the very beginning.
“So this part… this section contains an extension spell, and this part seems to be a cellular stabilization spell… Wait, where exactly in this formula does it say the rabbit’s intelligence increases?”
Determining that examining the existing magical formula would yield nothing of value, Leoryna decided to reconstruct it entirely from scratch.
“It’s possible that something went wrong when I first used the magic, and Pongko appeared by accident. If that’s the case…”
She rifled through anatomical references on rabbits and neuroscience research materials.
“So if this becomes… this way… and that becomes… that way… then I’d like to test this once…”
Leoryna scratched her head vigorously as she studied the corrected magical formula she had devised.
I wanted to try using the magic as it was, but there was one problem: executing this spell required at least a sixth-circle magical circuit or higher.
“Damn it, if I bring this to Khalid and ask him to do it, he’ll definitely treat me like an idiot again. I’d prefer to handle this myself if possible…”
Leoryna glanced sideways at Pongko. To keep Pongko from discovering the limits of her magical ability, she would need to get him out of the way temporarily.
“Pongko. Don’t you want to go for a walk?”
At Leoryna’s words, Pongko’s ears perked up.
“A walk? I’d love to!”
“Then shall I let you get some fresh air for a bit? You can manage on your own, right?”
But at those words, Pongko’s expression immediately filled with suspicion.
“Is this perhaps the final period of freedom you’re granting me before you dissect me?”
“No. What do you take me for…? I already told you I wouldn’t dissect you. When have you ever known me to lie?”
As Leoryna shrugged her shoulders brazenly, Pongko’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re lying right now.”

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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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