The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 99

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 99

“If you won’t abandon your marriage to me, then shouldn’t we settle this with a duel instead?”
Khalid’s logic held merit, but Seleya shook her head.
“Once we’re married, I’ll find a way to change your mind.”
“I doubt such a method exists…”
Khalid decided his opponent was beyond reason and gave up trying to persuade Seleya. Her determination to duel Leoryna was unyielding, and attempting to avoid it would only invite further harassment. He could see that clearly.
Leoryna shared his sentiment. She wanted nothing more than to finish this duel business quickly, send Seleya away, and return to her normal life.
With Seleya around, I’d have to keep up this ridiculous lovers’ act with Khalid! The very thought made my skin crawl—and she wanted me to endure this for days on end?
That was absolutely unbearable.
Leoryna glanced between Khalid and Seleya, deliberating. She could accept the duel, but she had to conceal her true strength.
‘Hmm… is there a way to duel without Khalid knowing…?’
Then a brilliant idea struck her.
‘Oh, that’s it! If I use this method…!’
Having made her decision, Leoryna smiled mischievously and asked.
“Would it be acceptable to send a proxy to fight in my place?”
“You don’t intend to fight directly?”
“Of course not! I’m just a frail research mage. How could I possibly defeat a master swordsman in combat?”
As Leoryna feigned weakness, Khalid immediately stepped forward.
“R-right! It would be unfair for Leoryna to fight. So I’ll serve as her proxy—”
“The person who is the cause of the duel cannot serve as a proxy, Khalid. You know that.”
At Seleya’s words, Khalid clicked his tongue. Seleya turned back to Leoryna.
“I see your point. Challenging someone who doesn’t know how to fight wouldn’t make for a fair match. I’ll permit you to send a proxy.”
‘Excellent!’
Leoryna silently cheered. Then Khalid spoke up awkwardly.
“Then have Zigzagel serve as your proxy, Leoryna. Zigzagel won’t lose to Seleya.”
Seleya laughed as if Khalid’s words were absurd, then continued.
“However, the proxy must be from the same family.”
“What? Where is there such a rule?!”
As Khalid grew indignant, Seleya shrugged.
“This is a duel fought in the name of our families. Just as I fight in the name of the Hestro Family, it must be someone from the Yuren Family.”
Khalid grabbed Leoryna and asked urgently.
“Do you have anyone in your extended family—even distant cousins—who could match Seleya?”
While Khalid fretted, Leoryna smiled with perfect composure.
“Oh yes, absolutely. My sixth cousin’s magical prowess is quite formidable.”
At her words, Khalid’s eyes widened.
“You have such a cousin?”
“Yes, I do. Just trust me.”
Despite Leoryna’s confident assertion, Khalid felt even more anxious. Yet Leoryna turned to Seleya with her chest held high and spoke.
“When would work for you? I’m fine with tomorrow itself.”
“Your cousin lives around here?”
Khalid whispered to me, but I ignored him.
“Well, I’ll give you some preparation time. Three days from now. Let’s meet in three days.”
“Sounds good.”
As I nodded, Seleya chuckled softly before departing the cafe with elegant strides.
After Seleya left, the cafe fell into a hushed silence, as though a tempest had just swept through. Among everyone present, I alone remained clearheaded.
I tilted my head side to side with a smirk.
“Things seem to be working out more smoothly than expected, Professor.”
Khalid asked, still wearing a dazed expression.
“Your cousin—you’re really sure we can trust her?”
“Of course! Just trust my cousin!”
I was about to leave the cafe with Khalid and return to the Academy when, just as I stepped outside, I caught someone muttering.
“A graduate student having feelings for her advisor… isn’t that perverted?”
I had suddenly become a pervert.
I ground my teeth. How on earth was I supposed to clear up this wretched misunderstanding?
‘At least for the next three days, nothing major should happen.’
But the very next day, events unfolded in a direction entirely different from what I’d been worried about.

* * *

The next day, as I went about the tasks Khalid had assigned me across the Academy Grounds, I sensed that people’s attention was somehow focused on me.
“Don’t you think people have been glancing at you, Leoryna?”
Pongko, having noticed it as well, gave me a heads-up just as I finished delivering some documents. When I turned around at the sound of whispers behind me, several people immediately pretended to look away in unison.
Tilting my head in confusion, I was heading back to Khalid when I ran into Isto outside the Professor’s Office, who had come to submit an assignment. She greeted me, then looked at me with a rather peculiar expression.
“Is there something you want to say to me?”
At my words, Isto’s shoulders twitched slightly before she quickly shook her head.
“No, no. It’s not that I have anything particular to say…”
Her eyes were rolling around suspiciously.
“Should I… congratulate you?”
“Congratulate me? For what?”
I thought back to see if there had been anything fortunate enough to warrant congratulations recently, but nothing came to mind. Seeing my confusion, Isto spoke up.
“For getting out of being single.”
“…What?”
“I’m rooting for you both!”
“What are you talking about?”
I asked with an ominous feeling, but Isto, whether she understood my sentiment or not, gave me a double thumbs up.
“Have a beautiful romance!”
Without properly answering my question, Isto vanished like the wind.
“Wait! Isto! Where on earth did you hear that?!”
Leoryna shouted at Isto’s retreating back, but he had already vanished into the distance.
Leoryna stood scratching her head with considerable unease when Zigzagel approached with hurried steps. The moment he spotted her standing before the Professor’s Office, he burst into uncontrollable laughter.
“Pffahahaha!”
At his utterly shameless laughter, Leoryna raised one eyebrow and asked.
“What is it?”
“Ahahaha! Ahahaha!”
Still laughing, Zigzagel handed her what he was holding. It was the Halderion Academy Internal Newspaper.
He flipped through several pages and pointed with his finger at a small article. There, it read:

[A Professor and Graduate Student’s Romance]
[Yesterday, a love triangle dispute erupted between Miss S, who claims to be the fiancée of Professor Huaderica, and Leoryna Yuren (24, female), a graduate student of Professor Huaderica. According to eyewitness accounts…(omitted)…Leoryna Yuren, who has fallen in love with her advisor Professor Huaderica, must surely have consumed a love potion. While it’s possible for an advisor to develop feelings for a graduate student, can the reverse truly occur?]

Leoryna felt the blood draining from her body in slow waves.

[Whether this romance, born from an unequal power dynamic, will end in a happy ending or catastrophe remains to be seen.]

“Ahhhhhhh!”
Leoryna let out a genuine scream of horror.
‘Damn it! The entire student body knows now!’
Leoryna bit her lower lip hard. Tears of blood wept silently within her heart.
She hadn’t considered the witnesses inside the cafe during her confrontation with Seleya, and now the rumor had spread in the absolute worst possible way!
There seemed to be no solution. Yet she lacked the nerve to attend the Academy with the entire student body gossiping about her like this! People loved meddling in others’ romantic affairs, didn’t they? It was obvious they would pester her relentlessly with all manner of speculation and false rumors.
And the subject was Khalid? The professor with the lowest evaluations and even worse reputation than that?
Leoryna didn’t want to imagine how many baseless conjectures and wild rumors would circulate even without her doing anything.
So then, how on earth was she supposed to clear up this damned misunderstanding?!
Leoryna burst through Khalid’s office door and shouted without preamble.
“Professor! What are we going to do about this?!”
Smack.
The newspaper she’d flung struck Khalid’s face directly.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————