The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 5

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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 5

I tossed aside the two hundred ninety-sixth book and groaned in exasperation.
“Why won’t the stack diminish?! Why?! I’ve gone through so many already, so why?!”
Searching through and organizing materials one by one as Khalid had instructed was inefficiency incarnate.
“Why doesn’t a spell exist that plucks out only the keywords I need? Maybe I should develop one myself while I’m at it?”
Muttering such nonsense for a moment, I collapsed face-first onto the books.
“Is this right? Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing? I came here to assassinate someone, not to study.”
I felt tears welling up.
‘Would attempting to assassinate Khalid right now actually be better for my physical and mental health?’
Khalid appeared vulnerable in many ways. Yet there were two things that gave me pause before attempting his assassination as I normally would.
The first was that I couldn’t determine his true strength with certainty.
The information I’d received while preparing for this mission, and what I’d investigated myself, contained nothing about Khalid’s actual power level. He had never revealed which circle of magic he belonged to, and the only stories about his combat prowess were legends—that he was “incredibly, absurdly strong” and had “slaughtered one hundred eight clansmen in a single massacre.”
‘But what does “incredibly, absurdly strong” even mean in concrete terms?’
The Demon Race fundamentally operated by the law of the jungle. For them to acknowledge someone as their king, he would surely possess far greater magical power and strength than other demons—so I couldn’t act recklessly.
The second concern was the peculiar clothing embroidered with unique magical circles and various talismans that resembled accessories, which he’d worn since the day we first met.
Though they were magic, they were of such an unfamiliar and distinctive style that I couldn’t determine what role they served.
‘I intended to investigate what magic they were once I had free time, but I’ve been too busy with the tasks he assigns to analyze them.’
Assassination was, in many ways, a battle of information. With insufficient intelligence about my target, I couldn’t guarantee success even as a seventh-circle mage.
‘I don’t know his exact strength, and I’m ignorant about those garments… If only he wore different clothes, wait—’
As I contemplated his attire, I realized Khalid had been wearing the same outfit for four days straight.
“There’s probably a cleansing spell on it, but still… how revolting!”
A look of contempt flickered across my face.
‘Is this really the person who will become the Demon King?’
While I was pulling at my hair in frustration, someone knocked on the Professor’s Office door.
I hastily straightened myself and opened it. Three people who appeared to be students stood before me.
“May I help you?”
Upon seeing me, they flinched and cautiously began to speak.
“Um, well…”
All three students simultaneously thrust something at me. From the cover, they were reports.
“We came to submit these…”
I accepted them with a puzzled expression, when a dark shadow fell over them.
“What are you all doing?”
“Kyaaaah!”
Startled by Khalid’s sudden appearance, the students let out strange shrieks, bowed their heads in greeting, and hurried away.
“We’ll be going now!”
I could only stand there bewildered, watching the spot where they’d disappeared.
Khalid took the papers I was holding and carelessly tossed them onto the desk.
“Um, Professor. What was that just now?”
“I told the students who failed the pop quiz to write a report.”
Leoryna paused to count the days, then recalled Khalid’s class schedule.
“Wasn’t yesterday your first day of teaching, Professor?”
“Yes.”
“You gave a pop quiz on the very first day?”
“Yes.”
“And you only gave them one day to submit the report?”
“Yes.”
What a harsh man.
Leoryna clicked her tongue at his brutal teaching methods.
Now she understood why his lectures were so unpopular. Even she would have dropped his class immediately if a professor administered a pop quiz on the first day and then assigned reports to everyone who scored below a certain threshold.
“Professor, at this rate the course will be cancelled.”
“So what? If it gets cancelled, I’ll have less work—which is fine by me. Besides, it’s a required course for the major, so students can’t avoid it even if they want to.”
Khalid collapsed into his chair with a languid expression and waved his hand dismissively.
“But why did the students react so strangely? They looked shocked, as if they’d seen a ghost.”
At Leoryna’s question, Khalid shrugged and spoke as if it were nothing serious.
“I must be scary.”
“What do you mean?”
“….”
As Leoryna blinked and stared at him, Khalid found himself at a loss for words. So he muttered again.
“I must be scary.”
“How so?”
When Leoryna asked with a genuinely confused expression, Khalid’s face twisted subtly instead.
“Why are you responding like that?”
“What about you is scary, Professor? Do you hit your students?”
“I’ve never laid hands on a student, but…”
While Khalid’s management style was certainly unpleasant, he didn’t behave savagely—he didn’t curse, throw books, or resort to violence. So despite being exasperated with him these past few days, Leoryna had never found him frightening.
“So… if you had enough passion to search for my papers, wouldn’t you have heard the rumors about me?”
“Rumors?”
“Never mind then.”
As Khalid shook his head and turned away, Leoryna suddenly remembered something and asked.
“Oh, you mean the rumor about massacring an entire clan of 108 people?”
“….”
“Is that why everyone’s afraid of you?”
“Probably.”
Khalid hesitated for a moment, his mouth opening and closing before he asked carefully.
“Aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Why would I be?”
She did feel some burden regarding Khalid, but it was more annoyance than fear.
‘I’ve killed people in similar ways myself. Besides, how could I carry out assassinations if I were afraid of my targets?’
I swallowed thoughts I couldn’t voice and stared blankly at Khalid.
“….”
Khalid’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Then he gave a small nod.
“I see.”
The expression that flashed across his face was unreadable—I couldn’t discern his true feelings.
‘Was he concerned about that?’
For a moment, I felt a pang of sympathy for him, but I quickly corrected myself.
‘Don’t pity the target.’
Sympathizing with a target would only hinder the mission.
As I steeled my heart once more, Khalid changed the subject.
“Did you finish everything I asked you to do?”
“I’ve organized about a third of the books.”
“Only?”
Khalid frowned openly in disappointment, and I found myself snapping back before I could help it.
“Only? I must have gone through nearly three hundred volumes! This is fast, if anything!”
“Those materials need to be used tomorrow. You need to organize them quickly and hand them over.”
“And who’s the one who put off organizing materials needed for tomorrow until today, Professor?”
“You said you could do it.”
“I… I did say I could, but…! However…!”
I cried out, but my words held no falsehood, so I had no excuse.
“You said it yourself. Keep your word.”
“….”
‘I’ll kill him… I swear I’ll kill this bastard…!’
I ground my teeth.
The more I saw of him, the more unbearable he became. Never mind that pity from before. What does he think I am? Ah, Petila. I just want to kill him right now.
I had resolved to be prudent, but my rationality snapped. I took a deep breath.
‘For assassination, poison comes first, doesn’t it?’
I fingered the vial of poison I always carried. It was a colorless, odorless, tasteless toxin so potent that even a member of the Demon Race would collapse instantly.
The room held only Khalid and me, and since few people sought him out, it would take time before anyone discovered anything amiss.
‘I can escape to the Papal Palace and disappear. So really, right now is the perfect time to assassinate him!’
Having rationalized my thoughts, I turned to Khalid and asked.
“Professor, I’ll find and organize the remaining books as quickly as possible. Since you’ve just finished class, would you like me to make you some tea?”

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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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