WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Professor

Translator: Touch

Editor: Grass

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Chapter 67: The Bell Rings Over Snow-Covered Ruins (12)

This was the final exam I had prepared.

Fortunately, it ended up being a success. According to the textbox, the cadets were all feeling intense emotions from the marvelous sight before them.

Honestly, it had been really tough preparing for this event. It cost me a lot of money, too. Still, the fact that Gray managed to create a 900-point difference made it all worth it. I’d be getting a ton of elixirs from Chief Galois now.

But from this point onward, I would leave the rest in the other professors’ care. I hadn’t gotten much rest over the past several days, so I was planning to return to the mansion and sleep deeply.

With that in mind, I gave a light nod to the professors beside me and turned to leave.

However, I suddenly felt a strange sensation—a soft, warm touch on my head, like something had come down from the sky to embrace me.

At first, I thought it was the effect of the illusion I had created, since I’d crafted it to exude a comforting energy, meant to ease people’s minds under its light.

But it wasn’t that. This sensation was on a whole different level—fundamentally different in nature.

For a moment, I felt as though I were in my mother’s arms. Not my actual mom… but the sensation of a “mother.” A concept… The feeling of someone who would embrace you without condition. That was the sensation overtaking me.

Feeling unsettled, I looked up at the sky and witnessed something incredible.

A stream of energy was visibly touching my head, and it extended upward, far, far into the heavens. In fact, it was connected to one of the stars shining in the night sky.

Goosebumps spread across my skin.

< 「Peaceful Star☮」 gazes at you warmly. >

The stars were reacting to me. This wasn’t supposed to happen until around Chapter 4 or 5 of the main story.

Yet here was Peaceful Star☮, already observing me, even though we were still in the transition period between Chapters 1 and 2.

< 「Peaceful Star☮」 is delighted by your legacy and wishes to grant you gifts. >

┃ Gift of [Peaceful Star☮]

┃ Reward: Star Shard ×100

Unbelievable.

I was amazed. To think I’d obtain 100 Star Shards at once!

As expected, rewards directly bestowed by a star were on a whole different level.

< Additionally, for the next three days from this moment onward, every place the bell’s sound reaches will be bestowed with the effect of the 「Peaceful Star☮」’s stigma and divine authority, 『Greater Restoration』. >

A stigma!

This was an even greater gift than the last one. 「Peaceful Star☮」 was known to dislike humans and rarely bestowed its powers or blessings.

But stigmata were incredible. They could transform ordinary water into an antidote for most poisons, strengthen a single blade of grass enough to kill a tiger, or even shape a human from clay. They represented the authority of gods.

Thus, this stigma of the 『Greater Restoration』 from 「Peaceful Star☮」 would surely have an immense healing effect.

< 「Peaceful Star☮」 takes a liking to you. >

< 「Peaceful Star☮」 kisses you. >

The next moment, something soft touched my cheek.

< 「Peaceful Star☮」: ㅇ3ㅇ ㅇ3ㅇ ㅇ3ㅇ >

Startled by the sensation, I turned my head to the side, and whatever had been touching my cheek unintentionally grazed my lips.

< 「Peaceful Star☮」: ㅇㅁㅇ! ㅇㅁㅇ?! ㅇㅁㅇ? >

Ah. My bad.

Soon enough, someone appeared beside me.

“Professor Dante! What’s going on?!”

The first to sense the stigma was Chief Professor Galois. He teleported next to me with 『Blink』 and shouted, unable to hide his excitement.

“It’s a stigma from 「Peaceful Star☮」,” I explained.

“What? 「Peaceful Star☮」 granted a stigma? W-What on earth…? Why would that misanthropic freak of a star bestow a stigma here?”

You should watch your words…

The star was still right here beside me.

<「Peaceful Star☮」: ㅇㅁㅇ,,  ㅡㅅㅡ??  -ㅅ-?  >

Sure enough, it was starting to get mad.

Peaceful Star always appeared in threes, each aspect representing a different kind of peace: inner peace, relational peace, and world peace. They all needed to exist together; otherwise, true peace wasn’t possible.

But ironically, despite its name, Peaceful Star was one of the most easily angered stars in existence.

<「Peaceful Star☮」: └(ㅠД└(｀ﾟДﾟ´)┘*-Д-)┘ >

See?

It was throwing a full-on emotional tantrum, probably thinking something like, “I was being nice, and this guy dares to curse me to my face? This is bullshit!”

This won’t do.

If left unchecked, it might retract the stigma it had just bestowed.

“…Chief. I’m terribly sorry, but since it has bestowed a stigma, I cannot agree with you.”

“What?”

“I believe 「Peaceful Star☮」 is a benevolent star. It is just that humans keep destroying the peace. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Might as well curry the star’s favor here.

I glanced discreetly toward the textbox in my vision.

【 Chief Professor Galois: Hmm…? Ah! So it is still here. 】

Being quick on the uptake, Galois gave a slight nod.

“Hm… Now that you mention it, you’re right. Destroying peace has always been one of humanity’s chronic flaws, ever since prehistoric times.”

“Indeed.”

“Honestly, I hate humans too!” Galois suddenly exclaimed.

“Pardon?”

“I’ve hated them forever! We’re just monsters destroying the world in the name of progress! No other creature on this land is as vile as humans! We should all be ground up on a steel grater into slabs of meat!”

“Chief, that’s a bit much—”

“Silence!! As a human, you should feel guilty too! You and I should carry some shame in our hearts at all times! Humans are trash—!!”

A sudden outburst of misanthropy.

Ah… Classic Galois.

I sincerely marveled at him.

He was a man who had overcome a plagiarism scandal through sheer networking skills—an absolute beast when it came to social cues and relationships!

Now, would his actions be effective?

<「Peaceful Star☮」: ㅇㅂㅇ,, ㅇㅂㅇ,,,♥ ㅇㅂㅇ,, >

Perfect! It couldn’t have gone better!

“But putting that aside—why did the star suddenly show up here…? Could it be because of that?”

Galois and I both looked up at the Christmas tree.

“Yes. I believe that’s the reason.”

“So the stigma is 『Greater Restoration』, huh…”

“It seems to take effect everywhere the bell’s sound reaches.”

“How far can the sound go? It doesn’t sound very loud from here. Or did you install a [Distance Equilibrium] circuit in the illusion?”

“Yes. No matter how far, it will resonate gently across the entire academy.”

I turned my head, and he followed my gaze.

And so, we watched.

Gooong─

Even now, the bell was ringing…

Reaching far and wide toward Zones 0 and 2.

* * *

The bell tolled…

Over the heads of the exhausted Elize and Gray, who had just finished their exams.

Over to Rebecca, who was smoking a cigarette alone in a corner of her dormitory.

Over to Balmung, who was crouched down on a snow-covered mountain ridge.

Over to Kaiser, who sat blankly before the grave of a fallen friend.

Over to Kendrake, locked in a jail cell in the Disciplinary Office after causing a scene about needing to leave Zone 0.

And even over to Eve, who lay asleep in a cave, clutching her wounds tightly, unable to see or hear anything at all in the darkness.

“…?”

Eve opened her eyes wide and sat up. She stepped outside and heard the bell’s toll echoing gently across the land. 

It was the sound of a bell she had never heard before—yet it felt so familiar and comforting.

She glanced down at her pale arm. Her wounds began to heal rapidly, as though dirt was being gently washed away.

Slowly, a single, powerful conviction bloomed in her heart.

“…”

Hooman was still alive.

Inside a dark room, Chief Professor Battalion lay in bed, holding a warm, beautiful woman in his arms, indulging in the cloud-like softness of her hair.

“I’m so happy, Gloomy.”

But Gloomy didn’t respond. 

It was an affair. He had a wife, and Gloomy had a husband. But that didn’t matter to them. As two powerful combatants who had betrayed their nation, an unusual yet special bond formed between them.

Non-combatants and low-tiered fighters aged quickly, while high-tiered ones aged far more slowly.

Thus, it was common for rankers to maintain their physical youth for much longer than their original partners, ultimately abandoning their families to be with new, younger-looking partners.

That was the case here. Despite being decades older, Battalion and Gloomy both looked like they were in their mid-thirties.

“Are you ‘real’?” Battalion asked playfully.

He thought he was being clever. He wasn’t. For anyone who specialized in Illusion Arts, it was one of the most offensive jokes you could make.

Gloomy sat up in bed and lit a cigarette, her expression cooling. The mood instantly vanished.

“Hey, don’t just smoke alone. Give me one too.”

“You’re not mad, are you?”

She said nothing, just tossed the cigarette to him with clear annoyance. Then she turned and stared out the window.

Something strange caught her eye.

“What the fuck is that…?” she muttered.

“Huh? Wait, did you just curse at me?” Battalion asked, raising a brow.

Gloomy curled her lip in disgust. “Cut the bullshit and come here.”

“…What is it?”

“Get over here! Now!”

It was the first time Battalion had ever heard her raise her voice in anger. Despite the sting to his pride, he complied and sat next to her.

Inside the 『Mirage』 that Gloomy cast, they witnessed something bizarre happening at Hiaka Academy.

“…Huh? What the hell is that?”

They were witnessing something that absolutely should not exist at Hiaka.

Once the tree bloomed, everything changed in an instant. 

People noticed. So did the animals. Even the nation’s enemies noticed it, and so did a particular spirit.

│▽ㅇ)

It was a spirit of Spying Star│ㅅㅇ),  who found pleasure in watching broken, sorrowful humans. 

│▽ㅇ)…

The spirit had been touring its favorite spots around Hiaka Academy for nearly a month, savoring scenes of suffering and despair.

But now, it felt an unfamiliar unease.

The source was that revolting Christmas tree that had appeared out of nowhere.

The bell rang softly throughout the city. Although it was merely an illusion, it felt entirely natural, not jarring or frightening. It was sublime. 

And the spirit despised anything sublime or peaceful.

│ㅁㅇ)

│_ㅇ)

This was a disaster.

The spirit decided to venture to another place—one of its most unique and promising hotspots of late.

The child who never cried.

It had been saving this one for last to savor it the most, hoping to one day make the child cry with its own hands. In a world full of misery, only this child refused to shed tears. The spirit had dreamed of breaking him down itself.

Or so it had planned… 

Until that infuriating 「Peaceful Star☮」—which the spirit sometimes liked and sometimes despised—had gone and done something unnecessary.

“Ugh… Why’s it so loud? What’s with that bell…?”

The child’s father said as he stirred awake and came to his senses.

“Honey!!”

“Eh?!”

His wife and his brother—who had just been arguing—rushed to him, tears running down their faces as they embraced him tightly.

The child who never cried stood nearby, watching.

Held in his father’s arms, the child didn’t know what to do. Then, as his father drifted back to sleep, the boy ran outside—into the snow-covered, ruined streets.

With a broad smile on his face, he ran and ran until he came to a stop, looking up at the massive Christmas tree floating in the sky.

He stared at it in awe, then slowly brought his hands together and began to whisper words of thanks.

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

The spirit was dumbfounded.

│_ㅇ) Why is he crying now?

When it tried so hard to break the child, the boy had never once cried. And now, after everything had ended well… now he weeps?

Why now?

Even though the child was crying just as it had wished... why was it no longer entertaining?

After a long, bitter pause, the spirit realized something. 

There was one human emotion it hated the most—one it found completely unbearable and devoid of joy. And that was the emotion now filling every heart at Hiaka Academy, including that of the crying child.

│ㅇ)

│)

│

Hope.

The Bell Rings Over Snow-Covered Ruins - END

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