The Teacher of Budding Villains Suffers Today, Too - Chapter 1

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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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The teacher of young villains suffers anew
Episode 1
[The Crucible of Knight-Birth]
Beneath a plaque brimming with spirited words.
Rachel Swan forced the corners of her trembling mouth upward into a business smile.
“You mentioned leaving two students in our care?”
At the question she’d managed to squeeze out, the man before her nodded.
A visitor who had appeared without warning late at night, with no prior notice.
Lustrous black hair and eyes as deep and fathomless as pitch. And a cool, penetrating gaze.
He was a man who gave off an air of uncommon distinction.
Rachel, having met numerous nobles through parent consultations up to now, could recognize it.
That this was not the aura that emanated from ordinary nobility.
A few days ago, the Imperial Court’s chamberlain had made a surprise inspection of the school.
‘Crown Prince Lucas Maxim.’
In the original work, he was known as a ruthless man who led the wars of the Continent.
Moreover, he was a high-ranking character with whom an extra like Rachel Swan would never have her paths cross, not even by the tips of their fingers.
‘This feels like a terrible mistake.’
Whether or not the man knew of Rachel’s desire to weep, he continued speaking.
“I have heard rumors of this school. That you manage to straighten out young charges so thoroughly delinquent that even their parents have given up on them.”
“…Thank you for the kind words.”
The black-haired man studied her briefly, his eyes sweeping up and down as if appraising her.
“Ordinarily I would need to examine the particulars of your educational methods carefully, but if word spreads among the fastidious ladies of the nobility, I suppose one can safely assume some measure of competence has been proven.”
He lifted his chin toward two boys sitting unruly in the back.
“Make those two into human beings.”
Rachel glanced sidelong at the two boys who had entered the headmaster’s office alongside him.
In Korean terms, they would be around fifth or sixth grade—though they might have been younger and simply appeared older due to their development.
Unlike the man before her, who sat rigidly in a perfectly tailored suit as if measured with a ruler, the two boys’ demeanor was irredeemably delinquent.
“Older brother. Why did we come to this antiquated dump? It seems to lack culture and sophistication.”
“We tore a couple of paintings off the walls on the way in—throw that damage fee in too. Not that I care either way.”
Rachel squeezed her eyes shut.
In just a few words, the stench of hopelessness was overwhelming.
Rachel had dealt with countless children like these in her past life.
The age when pretense reached toward the heavens.
Children afflicted with the all-too-early onset of Eighth-Grade Syndrome.
Of course, even among sensitive children given to rebellion and delinquency, those with Rachel’s strong constitution would hardly find them difficult to handle.
But these two were none other than royal princes.
If she disciplined them as she would ordinary students, her head could roll off her shoulders by tomorrow.
Yet at the man’s next words, Rachel’s thoughts, which had been tumbling endlessly, came to an abrupt halt.
“I will provide whatever donation you require.”
“…Whatever I require?”
Rachel blinked her wide eyes.
Among all the nobles who had entrusted their children to this place, none had ever made such a sweeping offer.
“That’s right. Whatever you require.”
The man who, until moments before, had resembled a reaper of the underworld now seemed to be haloed in light.
‘Could this work? No—I’ll make it work.’
Her heart tilted in an instant.
After all, she’d taken on this job because of debt. If money was to be had, the more the better.
At that thought, Rachel’s face brightened considerably.
“I have been waiting for this. Please, leave them in our care.”
Leave them in my care, your younger brothers.
Swan Academy—called a Knight Academy on paper, though in truth a Delinquent Rehabilitation Institute.
* * *
Several months earlier.
Among the three seated around a crumbling round table, a grave atmosphere hung thick.
It was not long before they stopped merely gauging each other’s expressions.
Rachel spoke first.
“Collo.”
“Yes, miss.”
“How much total debt is left in our household?”
“Here, I have organized it on paper for you.”
The moment the words left her lips, a man in his sixties called Collo thrust a document into her hands.
As she tallied the figures, a fine crease formed between her brows. Rachel fell silent, staring at the countless zeros scrawled across the page.
“The financial situation is dire.”
“Regrettably… that is precisely the case.”
She murmured ceaselessly, rolling her pen across the paper.
‘No matter how I look at this, there’s no way out.’
Though she had not yet mastered the precise cost of living in this world, objectively speaking, a number with nine zeros was substantial.
“The debt accrues from today forward, and with compound interest, the sum will change again by tomorrow.”
The platinum-haired man standing beside the butler added his assessment.
He towered well past one hundred ninety centimeters, with clean, angular features, pale green eyes, and a muscular frame that contrasted with their clarity.
He was Henry Chesper, knight of Swan House.
“Most of the debt is owed to Duke Keliou?”
“Indeed. In life, the previous head of the house maintained close relations with the Duke.”
‘Of all families to end up reincarnated into, why this ruined one?’
Rachel squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the morning before.
Until then, she had been an ordinary office worker, never imagining such circumstances could befall her.
If one were to be reincarnated as a noblewoman in a romance fantasy novel, one ought to wake to the dulcet tones of a chambermaid’s voice.
“Come to your senses, Rachel! Today is the day we pay the interest!”
Whatever tempest had beset this household, it was the voice of debt collectors that finally roused her from her stupor.
“…Interest, you say?”
“Have you resolved to feign ignorance? It has been months since I came seeking you.”
Only after hearing the butler’s explanation of how he had managed to turn away the creditor did Rachel slowly comprehend where she was.
Swan House, though but a baronial estate, had never known want, blessed as it was with the richest lands of the Southern Granary Region.
Yet such fortune could not endure.
When Baron Swan developed a taste for gambling and the Baroness fell ill with an inscrutable disease, the household crumbled entirely.
Once the Baroness passed, the Baron fled reality into deeper gambling, accumulating debts until disease finally claimed him.
All the family’s blood had perished, leaving behind only an unruly only daughter.
The house had gone bankrupt, and the young woman—Rachel Swan—now faced forced marriage to a man she had never chosen.
Though the novel described her as quite beautiful, she was a character whose appearance withered under the burden of debt.
She had appeared in the original work only as a passing mention in a brief paragraph of worldbuilding exposition, so minor as to be almost inconsequential.
Among countless characters, she had somehow been reincarnated into this pitiable one.
In her past life, she had finally escaped the school records and social comparisons that tormented her, only to become a debtor now.
Such a life was far too cruel.
‘I refuse to live like this.’
A minor character paying off her house’s debts would hardly reshape the original narrative.
And even if it did, what did it matter? My fate is what’s at stake.
After setting her thoughts in order, she had dismissed all the other servants and summoned only Collo and Henry—the final two to remain loyal to Swan House.
“I find myself deeply moved by this situation.”
The butler’s sudden words pulled her mind back to the present.
“Moved?”
“You have always been sheltered, so very delicate… I confess I have worried greatly over how you might navigate such circumstances.”
As he spoke, emotion welled up within him, and Collo dabbed at his eyes with a gloved hand.
The fact that even this exacting butler could be moved to tears proved just how hopeless the original Rachel had been.
“Yet now you call us here, speaking as though you were someone entirely different, asking how we might resolve this matter of debt.”
“Ah, I had a dream last night where Mother and Father appeared and told me to be strong.”
She gave a vague answer and returned to her calculations.
This was no time to hesitate. Before she ended up on the streets, she had to find a way through this crisis.
‘Let me think. What do I have left? This uselessly vast house, and…’
These two people, gazing at her with eyes brimming with gratitude and concern.
Collo Brown, the butler, with hair gone more than half white and a matching beard.
He was accomplished enough in propriety to have written bestselling etiquette books.
His expression was resolute and his voice low—he could intimidate a person without effort.
And then there was Henry Chesper.
Where Collo remained out of loyalty, Henry seemed to linger here for reasons altogether different.
He was the knight who had earned the greatest glory in the recent Continent War.
His Swordsmanship was so formidable that offers came from every direction.
Yet he had refused them all, choosing instead to remain with a baronial house on the brink of ruin.
The reason became clear quickly enough.
‘He’s in love with Rachel.’
This man, who seemed as unmoved as stone to everyone else, flushed crimson whenever he spoke with Rachel.
And whenever their hands so much as brushed against each other, he’d clear his throat awkwardly, lose his composure entirely, and make an absolute spectacle of himself.
Finally, there was Rachel Swan—formerly Ji-hyeon Yu before her possession.
She held a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in counseling education, and had spent years as a homeroom teacher for upper-elementary students going through early adolescence.
‘Well. It seems this is the only way.’
Rachel knew better than anyone how to turn her abilities into money.
That would be establishing a Knight Academy for Delinquent Rehabilitation.
Among all the schools she might have chosen, there was a specific reason for settling on “Knight Academy.”
After all, the name itself mattered.
In essence, it would be a human reform school for troubled youth, but if she called it “Delinquent Rehabilitation,” what parent would willingly send their precious child there?
By attaching the “Knight” title, the external image would be far more appealing.
‘If I play this right, I can certainly make enough money.’
The moment Rachel jumped to her feet, both men stared up at her in bewilderment.
“Collo. Prepare to send a letter.”
“A letter, my lady?”
“Yes. I need to set up a meeting.”
Her eyes, which had just opened again, gleamed with a wild intensity.

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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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