Fake Professor, Misunderstood As Strong-Chapter 254: Influence of Power.

After getting rid of the stalker, Jareth didn’t bother wasting anymore time and decided to go back to the empire without taking any more detours.

He was originally planning to stay much longer in the elven empire, but various things happened, and he ended up changing his plans.

From the very moment he entered the elven empire, he had been dragged into a lot of trouble; it was as if the place itself was filled with misfortune.

Thus, Jareth didn’t want to stay there for too long lest some other trouble come knocking on his door.

After letting the trio rest for a while, Jareth rushed home with three of them on his flying sword at an extremely high speed.

With his current capabilities, travelling faster than a fighter jet is not really a big deal; thus, he can travel thousands of kilometers of distance in just a few hours.

Jareth didn’t even bother taking the train anymore to save time.

...

Capital City, Evening.

University training ground No. 7.

Although Jareth was gone, the other teachers didn’t stop teaching; the university was functioning normally as usual.

As a university that teaches students magic and a variety of magical knowledge, they obviously have several massive training grounds for their students.

These training grounds have the most cutting-edge technology for the students’ use, and they are open 24/7 for the students and the professors.

Even many professors regularly organize field training for their students.

After all, being a wizard is not just about studying complex magic circuits and magic theories, you also have to have some basic combat capabilities too.

"The weather is nice today..."

Shin yawned as he rubbed his sleepy eyes while lying on a comfy reclining chair.

"Making today a field day was the right choice... I can just lie down and relax while others work hard."

As the training grounds of the university are equipped with various environment-changing magic spells, it’s possible to manually change the outlook of the entire area.

Shin directly made the training ground into a beach and told the students to practice magic by themselves while he lay down and relaxed by himself.

He grabbed a glass filled with cold juice and sipped it slowly.

The warm rays of sunlight fell on his body, and the cold juice brought him a refreshing feeling.

"Sigh... this is life..."

A look of satisfaction appeared on Shin’s face as he enjoyed lying down and relaxing.

Just when Shin was having the time of his life, an ordinary-looking man walked over from the entrance with a helpless look on his face.

"You are really taking your position as a teacher of the university a bit too unseriously... Can’t you stop being such a lazy bum?"

Shin glanced at Thomas with a smile on his face and stretched his body lazily as he spoke in a joking tone.

"Oh come on, don’t be such a killjoy; come lay down beside me and relax a little... Working too hard for a long time will cause you to become dull."

Shin waved his arm and brought out another reclining chair from his space ring before placing it beside his own.

Seeing this, Thomas could only shake his head in helplessness and sit down with a conflicted look on his face.

He grabbed another glass of juice from the nearby table and took a sip from it slowly before sighing.

"Before becoming the principal, I used to think that this job was very easy, but now that I am in this position, it seems my workload has increased tremendously..."

The previous principal didn’t used to work either; it was Thomas and other teachers sharing his workload. Now Thomas has to do it all alone.

"Well... the work aside, I kind of understand a lot more now that I am in such a high position..."

The previous principal wasn’t a good person, but he was strong and had a lot of connections.

He knew a lot of politicians and had massive support from various big organizations.

Thomas has taken his place, and all those people who were supporting the previous principal do not favor him at all.

This has made things even more difficult for the university.

The university has survived until this day only because of the massive support of politicians and large business owners who used to sponsor it.

All these funding channels have collapsed since he took over, leaving the university in a desperate situation.

Thomas has been working hard all these days to get more powerful people on his side so that he can get funding for the university.

The situation is slowly improving, but it’s still not enough.

All these meetings and deals with various people in the past few days have truly tired him out mentally.

Being in the position of principal has brought him a lot of troubles, but it has also brought him a lot of power.

Although most of the past connections are broken because of the change, there are still a few connections left.

The current him has a lot of say even among the highest upper class of the entire empire.

He’s eligible to talk to people who make the rules and regulations of this nation, and he has a lot of official power in his hands now.

"I can now finally understand why most people end up becoming a completely different person right after they get their hands on overwhelming power..."

Thomas sipped the cold juice and spoke in a solemn tone.

"This power and authority are extremely corrosive... it can corrupt even the most firm-minded people..."

Thomas himself comes from humble origins and has only risen to his current level with sheer hard work and effort.

His mind as a peak grade-2 mage is extremely strong, yet even he’s not completely immune to this feeling of superiority.

Being in a high position where he can sway the rule makers of this nation, he has immense power in his hands; he can use this power to literally do anything he wants.

When a person has this much power and authority, they are bound to feel that they are superior to others.

This isn’t something you can avoid; this is the nature of human beings, and it can’t be changed.

"Now I can kind of understand why that person ended up like he did..."

Although Thomas doesn’t know about the ’Truth’ of this world, this amount of power and authority is already enough for him to understand a lot.

Despite the university’s funding being in shambles, just this position of a principal grants him a lot of sway among the politics of this country.

The previous principal not only knew about the ’Truth’ of the world, but he also had even greater authority in the political circle.

He knew that this world didn’t have a future, and it didn’t really matter whether he did good things or bad things, as everything was going to end anyway.

Thus, he didn’t bother being a good person at all; he used his power to do various evil deeds and didn’t even feel the slightest bit of remorse.

Jareth wasn’t too bothered by the previous principal being such a bad person because he has figured out that humans of this world are extremely vulnerable to corruption.

Their world is literally stuck inside a massive sea of corruption, so it’s not really surprising that the people inside are also slowly being corrupted.

The passive effects of corruption in this world are just too strong, so strong that the number of people that can become mages is slowly decreasing day by day.

On the other hand, the number of corrupted monsters is increasing rapidly.

"I sometimes feel scared at my own thoughts... sigh... Was it really a good choice to become the principal? ... I kind of regret it now..."

Thomas couldn’t help but sigh in depression.

Hearing his words, Shin couldn’t help but shake his head in helplessness.

"I have no solution for such a situation either... I am part of a large and powerful family so I have experienced similar situation since childhood..."

"I knew the consequences from the start; that’s exactly why I didn’t even bother nominating myself to become the principal back then..."

Thomas rolled his eyes at Shin’s words and spoke in an amused tone.

"Heh, as if you would have been chosen to be the principal... with your personality, even the position of vice-principal is too much for you..."

Shin was immediately annoyed after hearing those teasing remarks.

"Oi! Stop pulling my leg, will you! I am not as much of an amateur as you might think!"

Thomas and Shin bickered with each other for a while before the heavy mood from earlier finally disappeared and the atmosphere became more relaxed.

The two of them looked at the students that were playing in the simulated ocean water of this beach for a while before sighing.

"Being young is so much better... there’s no need to worry about so many problems..."

After finishing the juice, Thomas got up from his seat, and the serious and determined look reappeared on his face once again.

This brief moment of rest brought him the much-needed feeling of relaxation; now he can go back and continue working hard for the sake of the entire university again.

"I shall head back now... you should also take the students back to class and do some serious work..."

Hearing those words, Shin stretched lazily as he waved his hand.

"Oh come on, let me rest a few more minutes-"

Ignoring his words, Thomas started to leave, but he left a sentence that directly jolted Shin awake from his laziness.

"By the way, I just got in contact half an hour ago; Jareth is coming back with his students from the field trip..."

Hearing those words, Shin immediately stood up, and the laziness disappeared from his face.

"Say that earlier next time!!"

"Oi! You lot! Stop playing! Let’s go back to class! We need to study!"

Shin didn’t want to appear lazy in front of Jareth; otherwise, Jareth might mock him for it, and he would rather not give him the chance.

Being lazy in secret is one thing, but being mocked by Jareth is unbearable for Shin.