WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Professor

Translator: Touch

Editor: Grass

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Chapter 49: [Main Story] No.1: Treason and Collapse (6)

"I-I'm sorry, Your Highness… I don't know what’s—"

"Shut your mouth."

"O-Okay… I'm sorry…"

For some reason, Rebecca didn’t question the situation. She just stood there, stifling her irritation.

Did she understand what was happening to Elize? 

Regardless, I decided to make the first move. I walked past Elize and stood at the bottom of the stairs, facing Rebecca.

Elize was relatively tall, Gray was rather short, and Rebecca was somewhere in the middle. However, all three girls were small compared to me, as I stood over 190 centimeters.

Even if Rebecca was a tyrant, she was still just a young and small cadet.

"The assassination war in Zone 2 is coming to an end. Have you thought about what comes next?"

Rebecca didn’t respond. 

“In the coming era, Hiaka will need a lot of professors, especially those who didn’t take part in the treason. Even the neutral professors will be able to fulfill their roles.”

“I have no interest in your sermon,” she said, still covering her face with one hand. “I am simply going to go kill the senior professor.”

“I forbid it.”

I leaned in closer to her.

“If you are truly devoting yourself to the nation, then you should back down. If so, I won’t hold you accountable for your actions.”

Rebecca lowered her hand. Then she took a few steps closer and looked up at me, her intense crimson eyes narrowed.

“You? Holding me accountable?”

Her rough breathing and trembling hands betrayed her fury. Even the corners of her eyes quivered faintly as a murderous aura radiated from her.

“What can you possibly do?” she asked.

But I was the external pressure meant to bring this tyrant down. I couldn’t falter now.

"I will cast you down into the depths of hell."

It wasn’t an empty threat. I knew many things about this world, including several ways to break her, regardless of her royal status.

“Do you think I’d go down without a fight?” she snapped. “I will drag you down to hell with me.”

"Then we shall fall together."

In this situation where her actions had already been exposed, Rebecca realized that I wasn’t joking.

Silence hung in the staircase for several long seconds.

With a furrowed expression, her emotions visibly suppressed, Rebecca finally spoke.

“Professor.”

“I’m listening.”

“Ever since I became a princess, there hasn’t been a single moment when I couldn’t do what I wanted. Not one time.”

I said nothing.

“I got everything I wished for. I killed anyone I wanted to kill. This is the Kingdom of Hiaka, after all, and I am its precious princess.”

She struggled to control her breathing, her voice turning raspy.

“You’re the first person to ever dare to thwart me twice,” she growled.

The first time was when I rejected her offer to become the supervisor of the Black Dragon Division.

The second time was just now.

“And unfortunately, I think I’m starting to hate you a little.”

If that was to be the nature of our relationship, then I was fine with it.

I, too, was beginning to dislike Rebecca.

"You’ll have to put up with it," I said.

"For how long?"

“For as long as you’re a cadet. The Black Dragon Division will need me in the coming era.”

Rebecca stared at me for a long moment. Then, with an indifferent expression, she replied.

“Don’t delude yourself. I don’t need you anymore.”

With that, she turned and began descending the stairs—her heels echoing sharply with each step.

Elize, still nervously glancing around, hurried to follow her with a tearful face.

“Wait for me, Your Highness…”

“Don’t follow me,” Rebecca replied in an annoyed tone.

“Y-Your—”

“I don’t need you either, you worthless piece of trash.”

Elize froze in place.

And with that, Rebecca’s assassination attempt was prevented.

Yet, even this kind of antagonistic relationship… was still a certain type of bond.

┃ Bond Increased: Rebecca [20] (▲17)

┃ Reward: Star Shard ×17

It was a pretty large reward. Not bad at all.

⋮

…Should I head back?

I was about to return to my office when I received a message on my crystal watch.

——

– Assassin Department: The assassination war at Zone 2 has concluded.

It was finally over. Hiaka had secured an overwhelming victory. Most of Kreutz’s assassins had either been killed or fled.

In assassination wars, surprise attacks generally determined the outcome more than anything else.

In fact, there was even a research paper stating that an assassin’s combat output increased by up to 700% when they started the fight with a surprise attack.

On the other hand, if the assassination was anticipated, the assassin would lose almost all of their advantage.

That was exactly what had happened to Kreutz’s forces.

Hiaka had anticipated the situation and made thorough preparations in Zone 2, which resulted in minimal losses on our side.

And so, this main storyline was nearing its conclusion without too many issues.

Actually, speaking of issues, there was one behind me right now.

“Why are you following me?” I asked.

It was Elize.

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you're not.”

“Yes, I am.”

After parting with Rebecca, Elize seemed deeply unsettled.

She looked like a puppy that had broken her owner's favorite vase and knew it.

I tried to send her back to the Black Dragon Dormitory, but she refused to return no matter what. So, for now, I brought her to my office.

Then, she started behaving strangely.

“Elize. What do you think you’re doing right now?” I asked.

She had suddenly opened the trash can in the room, climbed inside, and placed the lid on her head like a hat.

“I’m depressed.”

“Depressed or not, why on earth are you going inside that filthy thing?”

“I dunno…”

Then, she held up an empty coffee can and a used makeup container, saying gloomily,

“Trashhh… (╥﹏╥)”

What did she want me to do with her?

…Good thing the office’s trash can was fairly clean.

“When are you going to leave?”

“I’m not.”

“Return to your dorm before nightfall.”

“I dun wanna.”

“...”

“I dun wannaaa…”

“…I didn’t even say anything just now.”

Was this some form of separation anxiety or something?

【 Elize: ｡°(´∩ω∩`)°｡ 】

I just decided to let her be.

Eventually, the department’s administration contacted me. They wanted to know when I would begin my attack on Jinxsite.

Currently, there were three hours left until Jinxsite’s complete summoning.

< Time Until Hotfix: 59 min 15 sec… >

And only one hour remained until he would vanish without being fully summoned.

I decided to face Jinxsite a bit before the scheduled time for the hotfix.

“I’m here, Professor. Oh my…? What are you doing in there?”

Adele arrived at the office and was taken aback by Elize sitting in the trash can.

Just in time.

I left the depressed girl in my assistant's care and exited the room, heading to the nearby outdoor training area, which was currently empty.

I was going to use the remaining time to test out my newly acquired weapon.

＊ Sword of the Colossus [Legendary Ⅱ, Stigma] 『Shadowless Star○』

My jaw dropped again as I looked at it. It truly was an incredible weapon.

I decided to replace my main weapon from 「Liberator ⁺₊⋆」 to 「Sword of the Colossus○」.

< Overall Combat Power: 132,850 → 157,440 (▲24,590) >

「Liberator⁺₊⋆」 was valued at 18,000 by the system, but 「Sword of the Colossus○」 was a staggering 42,590.

…This is insane. I obtained a weapon the whole world would kill to get their hands on.

First, I checked its stats. Unsurprisingly, its [Attack] was exceptionally high.

In fact, “high” wasn’t a good enough description. Not even “very high” could do it justice. It was absurdly and unnaturally high.

If 「Liberator ⁺₊⋆」 had the firepower of a cannon, then this sword was like thirty cannons strapped together, which made sense given the weapon's original purpose.

「Sword of the Colossus○」 was originally a siege weapon.

Its stigma was that of the 「Shadowless Star○」, the one that had blessed Elize’s family. In other words, this was also an invisible weapon.

Shling—

As I drew the sword from its sheath, what appeared was a shockingly plain blade that didn’t seem to deserve its title of national treasure.

It was visually unimpressive and even quite short for a longsword.

But even if you brought a million gaudy weapons, none could compare to this one.

All legendary weapons had an activation chant. I recited this one’s chant to activate the sword.

“Take up the blade, O Colossus—”

Rumble…

As I infused mana into the sword, the air around me began to vibrate. The ground trembled beneath my feet.

At that moment, I experienced an incredibly strange phenomenon, like my senses were expanding outward.

To put it into words, it felt like I was standing here while being suspended by strings, like a puppet.

The “me” standing here was now connected to a “giant me” looming behind my back.

These odd sensations had to do with Summoning & Taming Arts.

The core of Summoning & Taming was “making something that isn’t me fight on my behalf.” Among the many concepts that fit the ideology, there was the concept of puppeteering.

That was the ability of this sword.

I was now manipulating a puppet—to be precise, I was controlling the invisible arm of the Colossus that was carrying a massive sword behind me.

The Colossus’s arm was currently mirroring my stance, sword in hand.

Yet even I, the puppet master, had no clear sense of what it looked like.

The 「Shadowless Star○」 symbolized the concepts of secrets, hiding, vanishing, concealing, and even forgetting.

Despite only inheriting a fragment of the star’s stigma from her father, Elize could already perform extremely high-level Stealth Arts that could even deceive senior professors.

And the Colossus behind me had that same kind of stealth.

As I thought… The Colossus and I can’t move at the same time.

That was the weapon’s restriction.

If I moved, the Colossus couldn’t, and vice versa.

Next, I wanted to test its power.

I gave it a mental command.

Slash.

In an instant, the massive invisible sword began to swing downward.

Calling it a “sword” didn’t feel quite right. Judging by size alone, it was the length of six to seven large buses chained together.

And since massive objects were slow to move, the 「Sword of the Colossus」wasn’t particularly fast or nimble.

But I was about to see the weight behind its attacks firsthand.

As the blade descended to the ground, the air was split apart and shoved aside to make way for it.

And having misjudged its length, the tip of the blade struck an outpost at the far end of the training area.

CRASH! BOOM—!

The entire area was devastated. Ripples of wind blasted back as air was sucked from the zone, while shockwaves rippled through the ground beneath my feet. The outpost, built with reinforced metal frames, was completely demolished.

Like a mythological giant swinging its massive sword at a mortal enemy, my strike not only obliterated the outpost but also embedded itself into the ground, tearing open a massive rift.

The sword’s sheer destructive force was staggering.

As far as I knew, even a grenade wouldn’t pierce more than 10 centimeters into solid ground.

But the fissure left behind by 「Sword of the Colossus」 appeared to be at least three meters deep, even though it had slashed at the ground rather than stabbed it.

Hah…!

Such truly terrifying power.

With this, I could potentially eliminate extremely massive beings usually deemed unkillable.

For example, among the Empire’s swordmasters was a knight who could enlarge his body up to 25 meters tall. His skin alone would grow 80 centimeters thick, making him nearly impervious to weapons.

But now... I felt like it might be possible.

Unfortunately, the weapon had some drawbacks.

First, I couldn’t move while controlling the Colossus.

Second, though the attacks were stealthy, they weren’t fast.

Lastly, the actual sword in my hands was relatively fragile.

Clang, clang—

I tapped the blade against my knee. It was only slightly stronger than an average metal sword.

In this world, weapons were consumables.

So, I had to avoid direct combat whenever possible if I wanted to keep using this sword in the long term. If the blade broke, the weapon’s abilities would vanish as its stigma disappeared.

Then again, it was my fate to die the moment I ended up in direct combat anyway. I was an Illusion Arts specialist who couldn’t fight.

The sword is perfect for me.

I was extremely satisfied.

But even so, obtaining a powerful weapon wasn’t something to celebrate unconditionally.

Vwoooom…

A strange vibration pulsed through the sword from the tip of the blade.

Masterworks like this chose their wielder—those deemed unworthy were cast aside without mercy.

This one was no different. The 「Sword of the Colossus○」 would constantly test me from here on out.

And I would have to prove that I was worthy of being its master.

The weapon’s hidden secrets and true potential could only be unveiled once I had fully proven myself.

* * *

A scarred hand gripped a cheap cigarette—something that seemed entirely unbefitting for a royal princess.

She flicked a match against its case several times, but the flame wouldn’t catch. Her fingers were trembling with rage.

Eventually, the match lit. She brought the cigarette to her lips and inhaled deeply.

Rebecca sat alone in the stairwell of the campus infirmary, puffing out smoke.

She didn’t care who saw. If she didn’t do this—if she didn’t calm herself this way—she felt she might commit something truly vile.

This was how she held herself back.

That was when her crystal watch vibrated, signaling an incoming call.

“What,” she snapped.

“…This is Cheong-ru. Is everything okay, Your Highness?”

It was the elderly knight Cheong-ru—the princess’s longtime guard. He could read her mood from just her voice.

“Speak. And stop worrying about me.”

“Ah, understood. I’ve managed to find the professor who prevented the airship’s crash, per your command.”

“Oh, right.”

That was good news. It should improve her mood on this miserable day. 

The department’s administration had suspiciously tried to bury the incident, but it appeared her knight had managed to dig up the truth in the end.

The one who gave wings to the falling airship—the genius Illusion Arts caster… Of all the professors she knew, none could handle illusions with such elegance and scale.

It had to be a new hire.

But why hadn’t she heard of this professor until now?

Their illusions were nothing short of brilliant.

Rebecca, who could see mana itself, had been amazed by the sheer complexity and mastery of their technique.

That was why her desire for Professor Dante to become the Division’s supervisor had begun to fade.

Dante... was disappointing.

She had once thought he might be capable, especially after hearing the constant praise sung in his name.

But after meeting him in person, she was disappointed.

Professor Dante was a man unaware of himself, unaware of his position, of where he stood, and what he held in his own hands.

He was blind. A fool who couldn’t appreciate the division.

Those pink eyes… She wanted to tear those useless little orbs out and toss them aside.

It would be far better to appoint the airship’s savior as the supervising professor of the Black Dragon Division.

Anyone who could wield mana so finely and intricately had to be a true genius—a genius professor with astounding potential.

“So? Who was it?” she asked at last. 

Finally, the answer was within reach.

“It was Professor Dante Hiakapo.”

Her crimson lips parted slightly.

Her decadent eyes twitched.

Rebecca gazed at the wall of the staircase, feeling dazed. 

“Just why...?”

[Main Story] No.1: Treason and Collapse – END

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