WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Professor

Translator: Touch

Editor: Grass

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Chapter 68: DLC [Professor in a Heroic Fantasy] – Midpoint Recap (1)

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Scene #1 – Kaiser ◀

Scene #2 – Teaching Assistant

Scene #3 – How Did It Come to This

The final exam had finally come to an end, and the next day was the weekend.

But even so, I wasn’t going to get any rest for a while—I still had about 37,000 things to do.

First, I shipped a package over to Kreutz.

Next, I had to come up with a design for my alternate identity, “Chief Professor Cain.”

The concept I was going for was “a shockingly brilliant genius,” the younger the better.

And since I was making an alt anyway, I figured I’d go in the complete opposite direction from myself physically.

In other words, someone much shorter, who looked overall... cutesy.

While looking for references, I thought of Dino, whom I’d met in [Offline].

I imagined him as the type who, as a kid, would’ve been forced by his mom and older sisters to wear twin pigtails because of how cute he was.

I was deep in brainstorming the design when a visitor showed up at my office.

Knock knock.

I quickly cleared away the illusory model on my desk and told them to come in.

But the person who entered was unexpected.

“It’s been a while. Have you been well?” I asked, my voice sounding far kinder than usual.

It was because the visitor was Kaiser.

He entered limping, leaning on his cane, and bowed his head.

“…It’s been a while, Professor.”

“Come on in. I’m glad you aren’t injured from the assassination war.”

“…I’m glad you’re safe as well, Professor.”

But something was off about his voice. It was always low and ominous, like a dark shadow—but today, it sounded even heavier than usual.

As I looked more closely at his face, I noticed that his expression was also extremely gloomy.

“…I apologize for bothering you when you’re busy.”

“It’s fine. What brings you here?”

“…Is that perhaps one of your creations, Professor?”

Kaiser was staring out the window at the massive Christmas tree floating in the sky.

“That’s classified by the Assassin Department.”

“…Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“Keep it to yourself.”

Kaiser’s eyes widened. His pupils began to tremble.

“…I knew it. It really was you, Professor.”

As he spoke, even his hands began to shake.

Wondering why he was acting like this all of a sudden, I glanced at the textbox—but nothing came up.

After he calmed himself down, we made some small talk, until he finally got to the point.

“…Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“…Professor, what is your righteousness?”

My righteousness?

Before answering, I looked him in the eyes. He averted his gaze for a second, then stared back at me once more.

My righteousness…

It seemed like he was referring to an old conversation of ours.

Back when we discussed what “assassination” really was, I had said it was the power to realize righteousness.

“Why do you ask?” I returned the question.

Kaiser fell silent.

His expression was sunken, as if something was weighing on him that he couldn’t speak of.

It was an odd question to ask out of the blue, but I decided to give it some serious thought.

What was the righteousness I lived by?

Q: Why do I work so hard to grow stronger, earn money, increase my [Bond] levels, and act as a proper professor?

A: Because I must become someone important in this world.

Q: Why do I have to be important?

A: Because that’s the only way to give humanity a fighting chance in the war against the demons.

That’s the major final arc, roughly around Chapters 7–13 of the main storyline. For your information, we are just about to start Chapter 2.

The earlier incident against the demon Jinxsite had convinced me—the importance of “me” in this world’s narrative couldn’t be replaced by anyone else. I had a significant role to play in this world, both for its story and its survival.

So I had to become a key figure. I had to rise high and claim even greater authority.

But I couldn’t just explain all that out loud to Kaiser. Nor did I want to lie.

After a bit of thought, I responded playfully.

“My righteousness is to become the ruler of humanity and dominate the world.”

Kaiser’s eyes widened, surprised by my answer.

“The ruler of humanity, sir?”

“Yes. I quite literally want to rule over humanity. To govern the maggots who are currently leading the nations, as well as the rest of the populace of the world, as I see fit. That is my righteousness.”

There was some truth to it, but it was immensely exaggerated. In fact, it was a load of nonsense, really.

Kaiser seemed to take it as such, too.

He hesitated for a moment, then replied.

“That’s… quite the ambition. Even for you, Professor…”

“It won’t be easy. But righteousness is a matter of direction. Whether I reach the goal or not doesn’t matter. What matters is the direction I’m headed toward.”

I had hoped he’d at least crack a smile at my nonsense. But instead, Kaiser muttered to himself, completely serious.

“I see… So that’s your righteousness, Professor…”

There was still nothing showing up in the textbox.

It was likely the work of the 「Systematic Star⧉」 trying to make my gameplay experience more interesting by not allowing me to read the minds of people at all times.

“…I’m sure you’ll succeed, Professor.”

I considered clarifying that I’d been joking, but decided not to. It would undermine my authority as a professor.

Then, as he kept mumbling, the conversation took a strange turn.

“…The ruler of humanity… Yes, you will be able to do it. No one else could achieve such a feat… Not even that pompous emperor of the Empire could accomplish such a dream… But you, Professor, could lead the lowly and ignorant masses, and surely…”

What’s this about? Something feels off.

What on earth was he talking about?

“You… will become a god…”

“What?” I asked, taken aback by Kaiser's statement.

“Hahahahaha…”

He’s laughing?

Ah, so he was joking back. To be fair, who would seriously believe in that world domination nonsense?

“You sure say the most ridiculous of things. Anyway, did you get the answer you were looking for?” I asked.

“…Yes. I’ve long struggled with how I should live… but your words just now really resonated with me. Thank you for sparing me some of your time, and thank you for everything so far…”

Kaiser bowed and limped out of the office.

But I was confused for a moment.

…Hm? “Thank you for everything so far”…?

His parting words struck me as odd.

Then, the next morning, Elize brought me shocking news.

“…Kaiser withdrew from the academy?”

Elize nodded.

“Yeah. He asked me to let you know.”

“…Why?”

“I don’t know. I’m sad,” she said, her voice trembling.

She looked like she was about to cry. Then, suddenly, she held something out to me—a pink bracelet with a bone-shaped charm.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Gift…”

The string was pink. Had Elize made it from her own hair or something? I wasn’t sure, but I accepted it for now.

Still—Kaiser had dropped out?

I fell silent.

Was it because of our conversation yesterday?

I was extremely puzzled.

Suddenly, I remembered the messages I’d received from him this very morning.

——

– Kaiser: Thank you, Professor. Thanks to you, I’ve found my own righteousness.

– Kaiser: I’ll always respect you.

– Kaiser: I’ll return once I’ve succeeded.

What was going on with him? Why did he suddenly drop out?

And what exactly was his righteousness?

Maybe the recent attack by Kreutz had broken his will to continue pursuing assassination. That would make sense. There were a lot of deaths this time around.

Wait a second. What’s going to happen to the Black Dragon Division?

As I pondered it, something even stranger came to mind.

…Huh?

Now that I looked back, something didn’t add up.

There was no [Bond] value between me and Kaiser, even though he was supposedly one of the Black Dragon cadets.

That was odd. Every other Black Dragon cadet I’d interacted with had a [Bond] value recorded. But not Kaiser.

And we’d had plenty of meaningful interactions—a dramatic first meeting and many exchanges since then.

How could our [Bond] level never have increased?

I quickly opened <System Settings> and navigated to [Bonds] → [Target List].

The system clearly displayed: [7 Black Dragon Cadets, Class of 501].

In other words, Elize, Balmung, and the others were acknowledged and registered by the system.

But Kaiser just dropped out... and the number still says “7”?

A strange thought crept into my mind.

What if… Kaiser was never a Black Dragon Cadet to begin with?

That would explain his absurdly low potential value of 0.5.

And if the count still showed seven cadets even after his departure... then there was someone else out there. Someone I hadn’t met yet. 

…Who could it be?

No matter how hard I thought, no one came to mind.

For now, I decided to keep the theory to myself.

But now, I had discovered the possibility that there might still be a seventh Black Dragon Cadet I wasn’t aware of.

* * *

That afternoon, I received a summons from Shaman, the Dean of the Assassin Department.

When I arrived at his office, I found Ezekiel, the Dean of the Mage Department, there as well.

Shaman wore his usual warm expression, his chin full and fleshy. Ezekiel, as always, looked refined and noble.

From the looks on their faces, I immediately sensed that things had gone well with the Royal Council.

Now, Illusion arts practitioners from all over the kingdom could take part in the event. The Christmas tree I had created might even be recognized as a national cultural heritage.

“The royal palace has decided to cooperate with the Hattengraj Imperial Academy,” Dean Shaman announced.

…What?

“With the Empire, you say?”

“Yes. His Majesty has accepted our proposal, but increased the scale. As such, your illusion will be maintained for the next 70 days. Zone 9 will be transformed into a temporary tourist site starting today.”

That was… an unexpected development.

A tourist site?

Well, thinking about it, it made sense.

Humans have always been fascinated by massive monuments, with the pyramids serving as a prime example.

The tallest of them, the Great Pyramid of Giza, stands about 150 meters tall, as far as I know.

But the Christmas tree I had created reached a height of 20,000 meters.

Even now, I can see it from the window. It was massive beyond comprehension, floating in the sky. And even I, its creator, couldn’t help but be awed by the sight.

“Tourism might be worth trying,” I said thoughtfully.

“Indeed,” Ezekiel agreed. “His Majesty plans to visit the area as well.”

This news alone would’ve been more than enough.

But then Shaman added something even more astonishing.

“For the 70-day tourism period, we plan to give you 50% of the net profits earned by the academy. Is that acceptable?”

I paused, stunned.

Half the net profits?

If we were discussing half of the net profits from a national tourism campaign, the amount would be astronomical. It would total tens of millions of hika at the very least, possibly even reach into the hundreds of millions. 

But then again, it was only fair. I was the one who had invested 10 million hika into this final exam and the one who created the exam content.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t regret spending all that money on a tree. Even just a little.

Still, I’d gone through with it because national morale would play a crucial role in 「Betting Table」, Chapter 2 of the main storyline.

This whole situation was actually quite amusing.

It was like my house had caught fire, and in an effort to comfort my family, I brought in a Christmas tree… and now the entire neighborhood was paying me to come look at it.

Hiaka… I love you!

A sudden wave of patriotism welled up inside me.

“And one more thing,” Shaman added. “There’s a proposal from the royal family, addressed to you, Professor Cain.”

“Ah, yes.”

“There will likely be a peace summit with the Empire at the end of the festival. They’d like you to attend.”

I paused for a moment. Then, after thinking it over, I asked,

“…Is this His Majesty’s decision?”

“Oh? How did you know?” Shaman asked with a chuckle.

I didn’t respond.

His Royal Majesty, King Hiaka III, was a living legend.

He had protected the Kingdom of Hiaka through two Great Assassination Wars. And when the kingdom stood on the brink of collapse, he had performed miracles, pulling off negotiations and national projects the world believed impossible. He was the man who single-handedly brought about Hiaka’s revival.

And he’s got a great sense of humor.

I knew exactly why he wanted me at the summit: to irritate the King of Kreutz. 

And I was the kind of man who, after defeating an enemy in a game, would dance over their corpse, repeatedly crouching and uncrouching on their face.

His Majesty’s sense of humor and mine aligned perfectly.

“I shall add it to my schedule,” I said, smiling.

I felt quite confident in myself. I would do well at this summit.

A few days later, another piece of astonishing news reached my ears.

It was something I truly never saw coming.

“Professoooor…!!”

Just as I was enjoying a peaceful breakfast, Adele—who had been nowhere to be seen all morning—suddenly burst in, flailing dramatically.

“What’s this fuss about?” I asked.

“Professor, Professor! I’ve got huge news…!”

Huge news?

Knowing Adele’s tendency to exaggerate, I figured some bakery had come out with a new product.

But that wasn’t it.

“Kaiser has become a boss of the Black Path…!!”

“…What?”

I frowned.

Kaiser? A boss of the Black Path?

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“Explain. In detail.”

“Have you heard of the Black Path organization called ‘Death God Society’ located in the Lewian region, Professor?”

“I have.”

It was a massive Black Path organization that worshipped the 「Death God StarΩ」, a star symbolizing death, stillness, final cessation, and the end of cycles.

They controlled the southern parts of the Lewian Viscounty.

“Kaiser was selected as the new boss of the Death God Society…!!”

That was ridiculous news.

Did he drop out of the academy for this? But it’s only been a few days since his withdrawal…

As I tried to make sense of it, Adele dropped another bomb.

“But the weird part is… after taking over the organization, he changed its name!”

“To what?”

“He renamed it to the ‘Domination Society’! And apparently, he even erased the Ω symbol of the Death God Star! He also released a public statement, saying that the Domination Society’s goal was to one day rule over all of humanity…!”

Oh no.

That was when I realized that this fellow—who had no idea what to do with his life—had taken my joke far too seriously.

It seemed he had latched onto my offhand statement about world domination and made it his actual goal.

“Isn’t it weird? The Domination Society supposedly worships a star called the 「Domination Star ❆」, but there’s no such star among the 33...”

That was true.

The star representing domination, order, and other similar concepts was already known.

It was the 「Transcendent Star✯」.

I didn’t know what this snowflake-like symbol 「❆」 was supposed to represent either…

Anyway, I tried to reach him through the crystal watch, but his number didn’t appear. It seemed he had destroyed his crystal watch.

He was fine before… But now he’s completely gone off the rails…

Good grief. War really changed people.

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