Chapter 72 (1/2)

Sylvia manifested a magic circle; the mana it contained slowly took its form as the entire class watched her in thrill and excitement.

She was a potential candidate to be the next Archmage, causing her fellow debutantes to anticipate what magic she’d be conjuring.

“…”

Weaving her own magic with her immense mana, she far surpassed any professor at that moment.

“Huh?”

However, Epherene, watching her right, slowly began to grow suspicious of her actions.

She could tell.

Sylvia’s magic circle was so misaligned she couldn’t help but notice it.

Whoooong!

A huge gust of wind blew up as her mana condensed and disrupted space itself, seemingly charging up for an explosion. It swept away the surrounding pavement and even caused the hems of Epherene’s robe to be sucked in.

“…”

Deculein looked at Sylvia silently while her magic repeated amplification due to its inability to manifest as a phenomenon.

Crack…

The magical sphere scorched the ground, its cohesion and contraction causing it to burn densely. At this rate, he knew it would eventually end in a catastrophic explosion.

Hence, he broke her magic circuit.

…

Her magic disintegrated as the class sank in silence, Sylvia’s failure turning them speechless.

“I failed.”

Although she should be the most affected by it, she remained indifferent. However, as she looked up at Deculein, she couldn’t stop herself from wavering a little.

“I am still lacking.”

His gaze on her felt gelid. Looking down at her, he shook his head.

Sylvia bit her lip.

“It’s unfair.”

“What is?”

“You say that I’m talented but refuse to teach me, then proceed to teach the ones who are flawed and lacking.”

Several debutantes’ shoulders shook, seemingly out of guilt.

“It doesn’t make sense. You should be watching those who excel even closer and more intently.”

‘He is my muse. It’s fortunate that I met him, considering I’m more suited to his teachings than anyone else in this tower…’

She had faith that she would grow further under him.

Deculein looked at Sylvia, who refused to avert her eyes from him in turn.

“No. It is fair.”

“It’s unfair.”

“That would be what your talent is.”

For a moment, the air around them grew heavier and thicker.

“Isn’t a genius’s suffering also superior to the hardships of someone mediocre?”

Kim Woojin once heard the struggles of a genius who went to study abroad as a scholar. Despite being more talented than him, he complained that he wasn’t drawing as well as he used to and that the people’s standards for him were too high.

“That’s not it. You, who does not need instruction, do not know the struggles of those who cannot grow without it.”

He never cared even a bit about the hardships and what kind of slump the geniuses went through.

After all, those who progressed based on hard work and efforts alone found whining geniuses detestable.

Deculein was most likely of the same thought.

“You’re not in the academy anymore, Sylvia. Your complaints won’t be accepted here.”

“…”

“If you can’t stand it, feel free to give up.”

Sylvia looked down.

“If you don’t want to give up, then prove yourself worthy of your talents.”

Every word he spoke were like blades, each and every last one of them piercing through her chest and making her feel like he was crushing her heart down to its smallest fragment.

“The magical agglomeration you just intentionally caused was dangerous. If it exploded, there would have been casualties. You get ten penalty points.”

No ordinary professor could give that many in one go.

“Wow, ten points… That’s crazy…”

The eyes of everyone in the classroom widened in astonishment, and Epherene even muttered involuntarily.

At that moment, Deculein’s gaze met hers.

“Epherene. Using slang in class.”

“Oh, no, wait! No! No!”

“Added, one penalty point.”

“Nooooooo—!”

* * *

At the end of University Tower’s semester, both the undergraduate students and faculty members became busy.

It was around that time that professors started a project or evaluated performance. For the students, that served as their window of tests(finals or promotion) or write a thesis due to the sudden increase in scouting from territories, countries, companies, and adventurers.

In the winter, there were many missions such as monster wave support and firepower support. Hence, the summer at the end of the first semester was the most important period in a wizard’s career.

“One hundred seventeen people asked for counseling with you this week alone, Professor Louina,” said Jenkin, Louina’s assistant professor and direct student who was with her at the Kingdom’s University Tower.

117 people.

That was 39 times the number of people that approached Deculein.

Thanks to the fame she had built up in the kingdom and the rumors about her personality in the tower, wizards continued to ask for advice from her.

“…”

“… Professor?”

However, Louina herself was dazed.

She kept thinking about Deculein, whom she met just now.

“… It was blood.”

“… Huh?”

Deculein’s lips were stained with blood, and the air in his office was filled with its scent at a level that was impossible to achieve with just a small wound or a nosebleed.

“After all…”

It had to be hemoptysis.

Louina leaned back against the chair, letting out a sigh.

After discovering those pieces of evidence, she was almost convinced.

Deculein would die after five years.

“Professor?”

“… Huh? Oh, yeah. 117 people. I can take ten people a day.”

“Yes. Also, the authorized documents have been delivered.”

“Already? It’s only been three hours.”

Louina’s eyes widened in surprise. On the papers Jenkin handed over was the Executive Director’s [Authorized] stamp.

She was expecting it’d take at least 1-2 weeks for it to be approved.

Louina smiled bitterly and nodded.

“Things are working out well. Now that I have the budget, It’s time to bring all the old guys over.”

Louina officially handed her resignation letter to the Kingdom Tower. Although her most trusted student inherited her head professor position, many students still wanted to follow her.

“Yes. I’ve already contacted them.”

“Okay. You may go.”

After sending Jenkin away, Louina looked around her office quietly.

“It’s spacious.”

Her office on the 47th floor of the Imperial University Tower as a professor was about the same size as her office at the kingdom as the head professor.

That was how huge the difference between the kingdom and the empire was.

“Pfff. Five years… You should think of it as your karma.”

She muttered a bit cynically, but there was certain bitterness in her tone.

She let out a deep sigh.

Her vengeance towards Deculein was definitely a passion that burned her insides. It was what fueled her main objectives in life.

She didn’t think he would meet his end in such a state.

“My life and your life… are a mess.”

She had mixed feelings about it in many ways.

* * *

All classes finished at 6 PM.

After reaching a certain amount of penalty points, Epherene was dragged to the University Tower Administration Office.

“Hahaha! What? Professor Deculein gave you your final penalty point?!”

“….”

“Hahaha! I knew it! I knew the day would come when he would no longer be able to stand your audacity!”

Relin, the professor who claimed to be the tower’s leader, laughed hysterically as he handed cleaning equipment over to her, including a cleaning brush, a big mop, rubber gloves, detergent, and so on.

Epherere put them all in a wheeled basket.

“Get out, you scum! Today, you’ll be cleaning the 3rd and 4th floors! Hahaha!”

“… Okay.”

“Hahaha! Heheh! Haha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha! Hahaha!”

He laughed like an actual insane person. Did the wind blow in his lungs?

Pouting, Epherene exited the room.

“Whew…”

It didn’t matter if she used magic for cleaning.

However, the number of toilets was a problem. There were almost ten or more toilets on most tower floors, but there were as many as twenty each on the third and fourth floors.

“I knew my fortune this week was bad. I have to change tarot shops.”

Epherene started cleaning the bathroom from the third floor.

She initially tried to speed up her work by using [Psychokinesis] to handle the cleaning equipment, but that proved difficult. Hence, she mixed detergent in the spray caused by the [Water Snake] instead.

She carefully cleaned the toilets and tiles, as poop would splash out if she used too much force or fired her magic in certain angles.

“… Ugh.”

After cleaning the first comfort room, she finally came out of it.

“Ah.”

The moment she did, she saw Deculein in front of the professor’s elevator on the third floor. As always, he was dressed perfectly.

When he saw Epherene, he frowned, seemingly finding her dirty, which almost made her cry.

‘It’s because of you! You should’ve only given me 1 point!’

“Don’t you think ten penalty points at once were too much, professor? They said it’s the first time it happened in 10 years.”

“You only got two points.”

Deculein’s eyes seemed to be disappointed she couldn’t even do such basic math.

That caused her expression to resemble that of an angry bulldog.

“Not me. I meant Sylvia.”

He stared at her.

“… Epherene.”

“Yes.”

“You should worry about yourself. Sylvia is the only debutante who truly understands me. She’s not someone you have to worry about.” He said, his voice seemingly finding her worries ridiculous.

“…”

Epherene grew silent.

She had no rebuttal against his words. Sylvia was indeed the only one who got a perfect score on the midterm exam.

Ding—

The elevator arrived.