Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor-Chapter 223: [Main Story] No.5 Hero Party Decision Match (9)
“Fufu.”
A wide, dim room. Staring at the landscapes unfurling from several 「projectors」, Quan smiled with a shadowy expression.
“At last, he’s dead.”
Just now, the ruler of the Empire Hattengraj—the Emperor himself—had been assassinated.
His heart pierced through by the spear-blade of an unidentified Constellation.
“Hm~.”
He had been neither a sage-king nor a tyrant, but he loathed any challenge to his power enough to kill over it.
Once, he had wanted to bring in Chief Professor Cain, who had made the trees bloom. After that, he sought to gather every assassination guild across the continent in order to possess the youngest assassin corps of the Constellation of Competition.
Up to that point, the man still had high value as “property.”
But Dante Hiakapo was different.
From the killing of Agion. To the research and development of the Pink Drug. To the spread of the Dominion❆ like cockroaches throughout the Empire. To finally seizing hegemony over illusions on the continent... Somewhere along the way, Dante had exceeded the category of “property” the Emperor had set.
The very fact that the Emperor, feeling threatened, immediately dispatched the Death Assassins to eliminate him—that was the beginning of their feud.
Quan squinted as he tore off a bit of cotton candy.
“...And that’s how it ended.”
The Emperor clutched the spear lodged in his chest.
His eyes closed.
The grudge was cut before it grew deeper.
- The hunt is complete, Master of the Dominion.
- Confirmed.
Kaiser gave a light reply to the man’s report and began walking.
The Dominion cult followed with his stride.
At that moment, Quan thought once more: Constellations are calamities untamable in the human world. He could not help but admire Kaiser’s statecraft, giving them direction and purpose.
Behold—after killing the Emperor, the five Constellations who aided him immediately began to raid the Empire’s greatest armory.
Among the Espionage Constellation│ㅅㅇ)’s [Authorities] was the power to conceal identity, so question-mark masks covered all their faces.
They had done their work. They had no interest in Dominion❆ or Dante Hiakapo. They didn’t even know who each other were. The only ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) reason their collective action had been possible was Quan himself.
“Ufufu. I know, but I won’t tell anyone!”
The reason was simple.
No one must know—because that’s espionage.
“Hm?”
Meanwhile, Quan turned his eyes to another scene.
First was the female Hero struggling before Matriarch Nibelung, and his old comrade Balmung.
‘That fellow really was rotten.’
Always saying Quan was creepy, that he laughed disgustingly, that he acted too gloomy... Balmung had scolded him constantly.
Yet sometimes, he would share snacks with him, or tell him he was out of shape and suggest running together.
‘...I can’t help but cheer him on.’
When he saw one of Balmung’s legs utterly wither away, his heart gave a twitch.
That leg would never be used again.
It wasn’t an ordinary wound.
Struck by the curse of Black Darkness⚉, every nerve and mana connection had been severed.
Balmung knew this. His face hardened as he suffered a permanent loss from the attack of the mother he hated—and yet, who was still his mother. So what the hell is family, anyway?
But...
‘I like mothers crazed with maternal love, but I also love mothers with none at all.’
Sorrowful scenes, despairing, ruinous scenes—those too were the Espionage Constellation│ㅅㅇ)’s favorites.
So Quan decided to lend no aid and simply savor the grief and despair.
He grabbed the cotton candy into a ball and shook it.
“Hang in there, Balmung! Come on, hang in there! If you keep going like that you’ll die...!!”
On Elize’s side with the male Hero, it was the same—they were struggling against Shadowless Constellation○ Goaten.
After his hand had been pierced by Elize’s blade tip, Goaten had widened the distance.
Up until now he hadn’t shown even half his strength, only busy trying to appeal himself to Glory. But if that Goaten truly started using [Stealth]...
Even as Quan thought it, Elize spoke.
- Dad...
- You said you loved me.
That was, perhaps, the only contradiction Elize had found in her hazy mind when searching the past.
- How can you do this to me...??
- I’ve been searching for you so long...
Unzipping the front of her assassin suit, she revealed the body beneath, wrapped tight, hidden away—full of scars and wounds.
- This... Because I wanted to see you again... I took a lot of missions... I killed a lot of people... and I kept on, like this...
Elize spoke with a vacant look. She wasn’t especially sorrowful, just reacting like she couldn’t understand reality. The way she kept tilting her head as she talked betrayed that emotion.
Then Goaten opened his mouth.
- Elize.
- Mm.
- I’m sorry.
- Mm...
- I never wanted to do this as your father. But living as I have, there was no choice. Even now I don’t want to fight you. And you don’t want to fight me either, do you?
- That’s right...
- Elize! Don’t listen to that monster’s words!
- Elize. That boy just asked you to be his comrade for the very first time. And until now, you didn’t know him well, did you? But this seat is very important to your father. So just once—yield it to me.
- ......
- Stop spouting bullshit about yielding! I don’t need scum like you!
This was an interesting exchange. Quan stopped tearing his cotton candy and narrowed his eyes.
Indeed. Just as Elize was a screw-loose figure, so too was her father.
‘Oooh... But Lady Elize, that body...’
Before he knew it, Quan zoomed the projector for a moment before catching himself. This was no time.
- ......
Elize, who had been dazed, then smiled awkwardly.
- Okay. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
- Eh? What do you mean okay!?
Glory snapped.
- If I yield, then we don’t have to fight?
- No! Goddammit, stop talking nonsense! Yielding isn’t allowed, and not fighting isn’t allowed either! Snap out of it, Elize Xikos!
Quan chuckled like a boiling kettle.
But his laughter faded with Goaten’s next words.
- Then will you do one favor for Dad?
- Huh?
- Raise your sword and point it at your neck. Like when we used to leash you, remember?
- ......
And so, dazed, Elize drew her blade and leveled it at her throat.
Quan’s eyes narrowed.
Interesting.
Goaten was exploiting the most vulnerable parts of the daughter who had been with him longest—her poor wits, her twisted worldview, her numbness toward death—to drive her into suicide.
- ...Like this?
- That’s right. Now thrust it in.
- Then I’ll die, Dad.
- It’s okay. If something goes wrong I’ll revive you. Besides, you’re not afraid of dying, are you?
Then Elize smiled.
- Okay.
Quan’s eyes narrowed again.
By his reckoning, Elize lived for what she liked. Right now she’d wanted to see her father. To be loved by him. And she had, somehow, seen him again, and heard comforting words. She was mistaking that for love.
The blade point began to press into the skin of her neck—and Glory shouted like he was going mad.
- Ah, you motherfucker!!
- Stop, Elize! Professor Dante Hiakapo does not want this!!
Perhaps he just screamed whatever came to him, but unexpectedly those words seemed to reach Elize’s ears.
Blood trickled from her throat, down her collarbone, across her chest and stomach. Her hand froze still.
- ......
Elize turned to Glory.
- Really?
- Of course! You crazy idiot! Obviously!!
- ......
At that, Goaten’s face twisted. He vanished. [Stealth].
But Glory was furious as well. The Hero unleashed the demon blade to its fullest.
Even past the line Dante Hiakapo had thought should never be crossed.
‘Back to battle, then...’
Meanwhile, Quan turned his gaze to another projector.
Rebecca, left alone before the Imperial Obel Prize Council, after Dante Hiakapo had been seized by the Bureau.
- Professor Dante Hiakapo has been unjustly detained.
She was striving to appeal Dante’s innocence to Hiaka and the Empire’s press, working to manage the situation.
- Princess! Rumor is the group that attacked the Imperial House is Dominion❆, which follows Dante Hiakapo. What do you say? They call this a terror plot against the Empire at his direction!
- That’s ridiculous slander. He spent the past several days by my side, preparing for the Obel Prize Council. He was busy inheriting Chief Professor Galois’s research—what nonsense about overthrowing the Empire?
But enraged Imperial reporters shouted back.
- Princess! Aren’t you in league with him too?
- What is the Bureau doing?! Arrest that bloodline from a war-criminal state right now!
- Hey! Open your eyes and stop making excuses! You should be apologizing!!
In the Empire, loyalty to the Emperor is akin to faith. When the Emperor died, sparks were bound to fly.
- Get her!
Among the journalists, assassins suddenly lunged, and that was the signal. Reporters, citizens, guards, all tangled into a riot—chaos engulfed the Council.
- Princess!!
At that moment Dame Layme threw her body in the way of assassins and raging citizens, but the numbers were overwhelming.
After fists and nails scraped her face, Rebecca was struck on the head with a wine bottle.
Clash!!
The bottle shattered, her forehead split, blood and wine mixing and flowing. But Rebecca calmly tried to soothe the crowd.
- Stop! Please, stop! Hiaka does not wish for conflict with the Empire! Even if you blame me after a proper investigation, it won’t be too late!
But the frenzy could not be controlled. Rebecca was trampled by the mob. Layme, unable to watch, set off a smoke bomb and dragged her out by force.
But the assassins weren’t ordinary—they sensed it and beat Layme viciously.
- Enough.
By then, the Bureau’s supporting Constellations had begun to move. One came to the Council.
“Hooh?”
At that moment, Quan—until then snacking on rage like cotton candy—froze. For into the Council had stepped Eternal Constellation ∞ Song Chien.
『 Time Stop 』
Eternity∞—a state where no change exists. Just like Song Chien, who had stayed in his late thirties for eight hundred years.
As she froze all perceived time in the Council chamber, only consciousness remained, and all had no choice but to look to her.
- From now on, as a supporting Constellation of the Empire, we the “Imperial Ten Constellations” will intervene in this incident.
Quan recalled their lineup. Elemental Banquet of Water, Fire, Ice, Wind, Wood, Metal, Lightning, the Peaceful Constellation☮, the Eternal Constellation∞, and the Struggling Constellation ж. All ten had deployed.
They were not sworn to the Emperor, but had promised to lend aid to the people in the gravest crises of the continent.
The Constellations with at least some conscience.
‘In that case...’
Quan peered at the countless spirits of the Espionage Constellation│ㅅㅇ) in the other projectors.
Finally, he found one dangerous factor.
- Step aside.
- You cannot enter here!
He was Rank #18. Archmage of the flame line. Of Imperial blood, albeit a collateral branch. The most hot-tempered of the Elemental Banquet.
Blazing Constellation of Flame 火, Uki.
He had stormed into the Bureau headquarters to kill Dante Hiakapo.
- Constellation, you mustn’t! P-please wait until orders arrive from the Bureau!
- You can’t just come in like this!
But Uki walked on in silence.
- I can enter.
Next moment—
Fwooooooosh!!
Something like hellfire surged skyward, melting the entire entrance of the massive building.
Uki strode into the Bureau.
Then he drew a great breath and roared.
- Where is Dante Hiakapo!!!!!
