WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Professor

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Chapter 30: Professor Assassination: Illusion Arts (1)

I was at the department office, reviewing various documents to prepare for a pop quiz.

“Professor Saka, what happened to your arm?”

A middle-aged senior professor from the Black Path walked in, bandages wrapped tightly around his arm. The other faculty members looked up with interest.

“What do you think happened? He grumbled. “Obviously, I got attacked by some cadets. This is the result.”

“Was it cut? Injured by a blade?” one of the professors asked.

“No, it’s a burn. A third-degree burn.”

“Oh no, that’s unlucky of you.”

“Yeah… After all, Professor Saka can’t use elemental defense magic,” another muttered sympathetically.

The injured professor let out a deep sigh. “My arm’s burning like crazy... I’m thinking of canceling today’s lecture on localized combustion magic.”

“Really? You’re going to skip your Assassination Magic class because of that?”

“Tsk. The pain’s not the issue. It’s just... it’d be embarrassing to face the kids like this.”

“Hm. Well, you should probably avoid the cadets for a while. If they try another assassination while one of your arms is out of commission, it could get dangerous…”

Still, for a professor to be this injured, he must’ve seriously wrecked the cadets who attacked him.

I was a bit of an outlier. I didn’t fight back during assassination attempts—though the truth was, I simply couldn’t.

In other words, the other professors retaliated, injuring their assailants in return. 

Regardless, cadets often attempted to assassinate professors as a kind of preview or review of their lectures. The style of their attacks tended to change depending on the topic of the class.

Which was why, at that moment, I felt a gnawing sense of unease. 

Until now, my course “Understanding Assassination and Abilities” had only been tackling the “History of Abilities.”

And besides the first day I started teaching, there haven’t been many assassination attempts during class. But today, we were moving on to the next chapter of the course.

It wouldn’t be pure theory anymore—we were finally diving into the 12 Ability Types.

And the next chapter was on Illusion Arts.

In other words, assassination attempts were likely to resume, as cadets would try to preview and practice the lesson in advance.

Still… it’s been surprisingly quiet these past couple of days.

I found the lack of assassination attempts strange. I’d been expecting something by now.

Maybe it had something to do with Hakon’s death? Though I wasn’t the one who killed him…

Regardless, if they weren’t going to attack me, that was fine by me. 

In order to train and prepare class materials, I returned to my personal office and used 『 World Forgery』 to create various illusory constructs.

<『 World Forgery 』 Proficiency: 88.35% (▲0.03%) >

Soon enough, Adele entered the office and called out cheerfully.

“Professor, it’s time for lunch~”

“All right.”

“By the way, Professor… do you have some time after class today?”

“Why?”

“Well… there’s something I’d like to talk to you about…”

I lifted my eyes from the desk to look at Adele. She stood with a slight blush on her face, her hands clasped behind her back, her chest pushed forward slightly.

Her posture and expression were oddly suggestive.

One of the straps of her bustier, worn over her shirt, had slipped down her shoulder.

“What is it you want to talk about? You can say it now.”

“Well… it’s embarrassing…”

“What’s embarrassing?”

“Ugh… don’t be so mean, acting like you don’t know…”

Still blushing, Adele slowly walked toward me, her gaze soft and imploring.

I stood up and faced her properly.

She was fairly tall, but I was taller—my chin was around her eye level. She looked up at me with puppy-dog eyes.

“I’ve liked you for a long time, Professor.”

“That’s… quite the sudden confession.”

“…No one really plans these things ahead of time, do they?” she murmured.

She stepped closer, now nearly in front of me. Her eyes had a hazy look to them.

“…Won’t you hug me?”

I stayed silent.

Why would she suddenly drop a bombshell confession like that?

Obviously, there was a reason..

It was all a lie. This girl didn’t like me, nor was she actually asking me to hug her. 

In fact, she wasn’t even Adele.

【 Assassin Department, First-Year, Luine: Just one more step… 】

This was Luine, one of my cadets. 

I let out a loud sigh, dumbfounded by this situation.

After a few days of peace, it seemed the assassination attempts were starting up again. 

【 Assassin Department, First-Year, Luine: One more step, and my knife will reach him…! 】

She was using an Illusion Art—specifically, Body Modification, a transformation ability—to impersonate Adele.

But she’d only changed her face. The rest of her body remained her own.

Luine’s height and build were similar to Adele’s. She was mimicking Adele’s voice and had copied her outfit: a plain white t-shirt with a black bustier over it.

【 Assassin Department, First-Year, Luine: Holy… Now that I see him up close, he’s really fucking handsome…! I don’t think I can stab him with my eyes open… couldn’t bear to watch such a hunk bleed in agony. Hmm… If he doesn’t notice, maybe I could give him a quick kiss first! 】

Is she insane? Kissing a man before stabbing him?!

【 Assassin Department, First-Year, Luine: No, never mind… I’ll just close my eyes, stab him, and get out of here…! 】

Only then did I notice what she was hiding behind her back.

She was puffing her chest forward to seduce me, but also to conceal the knife in her hands.

Fortunately, I had realized what was going on in time. But the situation wasn’t over yet. I still wasn’t out of danger.

Assassination attempts were dangerous enough. But if I mishandled this, she might spread strange rumors and destroy my reputation, too. 

After thinking it over, I spoke.

 “Adele.”

“…Yes, Professor?” she replied, voice breathy. 

“Close your eyes.”

“…Oh my~”

Luine closed her eyes obediently.

『 World Forgery: Form Forgery [Luine] 』

I placed an illusion of her in front of her. It flipped both middle fingers and held a note between its lips that read:

‘You shall receive 0.5 penalty points for attempting assassination outside of class. Go see Adele and submit your disciplinary report.’

Then I quietly slipped out of the office. 

As I stepped into the hallway, I bumped into Adele. 

“Where are you going, Professor? Aren’t you coming to lunch?”

“No, I’m not hungry. I’m just going for a walk.”

“Then... if you don’t mind, may I come with you?”

“No.”

“Aww, why not~?”

Because this girl wasn’t Adele either.

【 Assassination Department, First-Year, Luidin: Looks like my sister failed… but he must have let his guard down now after escaping her. 】

This time, it was Luine’s twin brother. He had changed his face to look like Adele and had even used Voice Modification. However, like before, he hadn’t changed the rest of his body. His broad shoulders were a dead giveaway. 

…And seeing Adele’s face on a man’s body was incredibly irritating.

“…May I hold your hand while we walk?”

Are you crazy?

“All right. But close your eyes for a moment.”

“Oh my…”

And just like earlier…

I placed the twin sister’s illusory hand into the brother’s hand as he kept his eyes closed. Then I slipped a note into the illusion’s other hand, detailing the 0.5 penalty points and the requirement to submit a disciplinary report for the attempted assassination.

Finally, I fled from the Assassin Building.

But lo and behold...

I soon came across another Adele.

“Hm? There you are, Professor. I heard they’re serving steak at the faculty dining hall today. Mind if I tag along?”

Fuck. Is this one a fake, too?

The paranoia had gotten so bad that I instinctively tensed up at the sight of her. But when I checked the name tag, she was the real one this time.

Thank goodness.

I recounted the incidents that had just happened.

“What? Hahahahaha!” Adele burst out laughing. “Heehee… But, Professor, you’re really slow on the uptake, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you still think I’m the real Adele?”

“Yes. You’re the real one.”

“Wrong! Look closely, Professor… Mmmh~♥”

She closed her eyes and puckered her lips so awkwardly that it almost hurt to watch.

Adele had the air of a daughter from a respectable family, but if I had to guess, she most likely had zero dating experience.

“…I’ll pretend I didn’t see that.”

“Hahaha! Did that gross you out?”

In any case, Luine and Luidin’s assassination attempts had just been “pre-class previews.” I still had to head into the classroom later—where assassination attempts were legal—and brace myself for the “post-class review” attempts afterward.

“By the way, Professor, aren’t you going to have lunch?”

No, I didn’t have the appetite.

* * *

“Who do you think is the strongest among the new professors?”

Humans loved ranking things, and cadets were no different. Ranking the professors was just too tempting a topic to ignore.

Who’s the strongest?

Who’s the most skilled?

Whose achievements are the most impressive?

Lock three cadets in a room and bring up that topic, and they’d argue for three days straight without getting bored. 

But recently, the debate over "which new professor is strongest" had become somewhat boring.

Why?

Everyone kept giving the same answer.

“Among the newbies? It’s gotta be Professor Dante. He killed Hakon without a single injury, even though Hakon was ranked 7,100th!”

“What about Professor Eugene from Curse Studies? Do you think he stands a chance?”

“No way. He’s not even close.”

“Yeah, c’mon. Get real.”

“Hmmm… Honestly, I think Professor Dante’s stronger than most of the senior professors, too.”

Dante had demonstrated his strength multiple times over the past weeks—avoiding assassination attempts on his first day, stopping a proxy assassination, killing Hakon, and so on.

He had left a strong impression during each incident. 

Professor Dante this, Professor Dante that… Seriously, shut up already.

Still, not every cadet in the classroom appeared pleased as they listened to the chatter. Most of those frowning were cadets who had failed their assassination attempts on Dante, like the twins.

Luine and Luidin didn’t particularly enjoy hearing Dante being praised like some sort of god.

What’s with all the ass-kissing?

Sure, he was strong. There was no argument there.

Having faced him directly, they had to admit it—it felt nearly impossible to kill him.

But aside from his strength, they had other complaints. Complaints from cadets who actually took his classes.

“Ahem…” Luine coughed, grabbing their attention. She scowled and casually voiced her criticism.

“…But let’s be honest. Isn’t Professor Dante’s teaching kinda crap?”

And just like that, the trash-talking began.

Her recent frustration over failing an assassination only fueled her complaints.

“Huh?”

“Really?”

The cadets who heard her tilted their heads, puzzled. They hadn’t really thought about it before.

“I thought his lessons were fine.”

“He’s got a nice voice, and he barely gives us any homework.”

Luine frowned.

“Come on. Let’s be real. Like, I thought he’d show us a bunch of abilities and demonstrate how to use them. The course is called ‘Understanding Assassination and Abilities,’ but all he does is drone on, reading the textbook word-for-word.”

The others blinked a few times, mulling over her words.

Now that she mentioned it… she wasn’t wrong.

Then one cadet spoke up, trying to defend him. 

“But Luine, the chapter we were on was the ‘History of Abilities.’ How could he make that fun and exciting?”

“Fair point. But still, his lectures are just so boring.”

Luine crossed her arms before continuing.

“Think about it. Professor Viper’s lectures in ‘Trap & Poison Studies?’ Or Professor Parthenon’s lectures in ‘Assassination Magic Studies?’ Even the boring theory parts are fun with them. You actually learn a bunch of stuff.”

“Mmm… true. Those two are really good lecturers… Still, things might change with Professor Dante now that we’re moving onto the next chapter.”

But even as he tried to defend Dante, the cadet looked uneasy.

Being a strong fighter, an astute researcher, or a skilled teacher—those were all very different skill sets. 

And if they considered each separately, maybe Professor Dante wasn’t quite as brilliant as he appeared.

She’s right… Is he actually good at teaching…?

The doubt began to spread among the cadets.

But there was still hope.

The boring, purely theoretical chapter had ended yesterday. Starting today, they were moving on to something actually exciting.

“Guess we’ll find out today.”

With that attitude, the cadets waited for Dante to arrive.

Clack.

The door opened as the man of the hour stepped into the classroom.

Concrete. Metal. Winter. Ash. Rain—those were the impressions the cadets got just from seeing him.

He even seemed mechanical and soulless entering the room every day with perfect punctuality—not a second early or late. 

“Adele, take attendance.”

“Yes, sir~”

As Adele went down the roster, Luine and her friends scrutinized Dante’s face. But suddenly, one cadet raised their hand.

“Professor, it’s Harim. May I ask a question?”

“Speak.”

“Is it true that from today on, ‘Understanding Assassination and Abilities’ is moving onto a new chapter?”

“Yes. The ‘History of Abilities’ concluded yesterday.”

The cadets glanced at each other, and murmurs rose throughout the room.

That meant today was the real test—the day they’d finally see what Dante’s teaching was really like.

Luine sneered and folded her arms.

Let’s see just how good you really are.

Thus, under the burning stares of all the cadets…

“Silence.”

Professor Dante quieted the room with a single word.

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