The Perfect Plan
I had devoted myself to becoming an academy teacher ever since I transmigrated. It wasn’t some vague admiration without context. There were solid reasons.
First, the academy offered exclusive welfare benefits. Once you became a teacher, you could live in a luxurious on-campus residence for life, receive treatment equivalent to a professor, and even get your own private tutoring room. Next came the vacations—generous summer and winter breaks that felt almost too good to be true, provided every year. Then there was the absolute safety. Sorn Academy was a politically neutral, inviolable sanctuary recognized by international treaty, completely removed from any national disputes or political entanglements. And finally—
…
…
Yeah. There was no need to list them all. This place was a goddamn honey pot. A bottomless barrel where honey flowed like crude oil, no matter how much you licked. Especially for an outsider like me, it was an irresistibly sweet position.
The “absolute safety” part was something I could never give up.
Just think about it. You finally get isekai’d into a magical world—why the hell would you want to get dragged into dirty politics or war? Far better to secure one stable, ironclad job, suck on that sweet honey, and enjoy a guaranteed comfortable retirement. Therefore, long live academy teachers. Long, long live them.
“So, how was your first class?”
“……”
That question was tricky to answer. Before I started, I had boasted that I could handle anything. If I admitted that not a single student had listened to me from day one, my pride would be completely shredded. So I exercised my right to remain silent with a sullen expression.
How the hell was I supposed to even run a class in that state…
If I had to compare the difficulty, it was like trying to teach chimpanzees how to use a screwdriver. I never expected it, but the Chairwoman really was vicious—dumping a class full of problem children onto a brand-new teacher like me.
Well, it’s the thorny path I chose myself.
Still, I didn’t let any whining slip out. After all, I had been ready to accept any task if it meant becoming an academy teacher. There was, however, one nagging question I wanted answered.
“Chairwoman… may I ask you something?”
“Of course. Ask away.”
“About the Class Z I’ve been assigned to.”
I cleared my scratchy throat with a sip of what was basically lukewarm water and continued.
“Is there a specific reason why every student in the class is female?”
There were six students total. The common traits were that every single one of them looked like their heads were full of rocks—and that they were all girls. The Chairwoman let out a small sigh. For once, she wore a slightly tired expression that didn’t suit her at all.
“This is one of the blind spots of modern education.”
“A blind spot?”
“Our academy aims to provide fairly progressive education.”
Slurp…
“Rather than forcing students to sit at desks, we focus on developing their individual autonomy and talents. You, Teo, who were an honor student until recently, should understand that… however,”
Her second sigh was deeper than the first.
“What we call freedom is really just neglect. This lax approach only widens the gap between students. If we don’t somehow drag them along, their grades drop to the point where they can’t even graduate.”
She added in a low voice, “Especially…”
“Especially, since we introduced this system, the academic gap among the girls has grown even larger.”
“Why? Why would gender suddenly play a role?”
“It’s because of the political circumstances outside the academy. Most of our students are children of nobility. The boys are in a hurry to graduate because they stand to inherit under male-preference succession, so they work hard to build the necessary background. The girls, however, are a different story.”
“Ah, I see…”
“Most girls lose their rights anyway. Even if they get good grades, their families offer no rewards. In fact, many families dislike educating them because it makes them harder to control. Most are sold off like merchandise in political marriages. So it’s common for them to simply give up.”
That was enough for me to understand the general picture. I stopped asking.
So it really is just straight-up medieval.
In short, politics and power were still exclusively male domains. I had grown up inside the academy and paid little attention to the outside world, but it seemed the outside was far more outdated than I thought.
Even as I processed that realization, one small question still lingered.
“Then why do they bother spending so much money to send the girls here?”
“Who knows? Maybe it’s about maintaining noble appearances?”
The Chairwoman simply brushed it off with her usual enigmatic raccoon-like smile.
“In any case, if we don’t graduate Class Z quickly, both the academy and the noble families will find themselves in a difficult position.”
“Yeah… I think I get the picture.”
I had roughly grasped the situation. In short, Class Z was a gathering of walking corpses who had completely lost any motivation to study. The prestigious academy couldn’t afford to just push these blockheads through with a half-assed graduation, but the families were screaming about the tuition fees if it dragged on any longer. It was a reckless challenge—raise these completely unmotivated kids up to graduation level.
But I didn’t complain. Because a brilliant idea had occurred to me.
What if I just brainwash them all with magic and turn them into puppets who only listen to me?
Control them all with magic. Make them move like marionettes at the snap of my fingers. Have them spend a year as study-obsessed bugs, graduate them, then release the spell and say goodbye like nothing happened. They get to graduate, I get the teaching position. The plan was perfect.
On top of that, I had already done this a few times back when I was a student, so it would be ridiculously easy.
Heh.
The Chairwoman probably thought she had dumped a troublesome chore on me, but she would regret underestimating me—
“Just so you know,”
“Y-yes?!”
Clink. She set her teacup down. The perfectly empty cup began to refill on its own as blue magical powder danced through the air. I waited to see what additional remark she would make.
“If someone as confident in this world’s magic as you, Teo, were to entertain any impure thoughts about controlling the students with spells, it would be best to abandon them immediately.”
“……!”
“They may look like ordinary students, but as I mentioned earlier, most of them are children of nobility. You should keep in mind the possibility that you might get caught—and how massive the fallout could be.”
“……”
“I’m only giving you this warning because I suspect you might be considering it. You wouldn’t really be harboring such ridiculous ideas, would you?”
She probed me as if she already knew something, stirring her tea and watching me with those narrow, foxy eyes. I forced a laugh.
“Haha, hahahahaha. Of course not! How could I possibly do that to my very first group of students?”
“Hehehe, exactly, right?”
“I’m a proper adult now, and a respectable teacher. All that remains for me is the sincere desire to contribute to education. I harbor no such impure thoughts whatsoever.”
“My, how admirable.”
We laughed together. The fake “hahaha” and “hohoho” echoed across the garden.
She’s totally onto me. Does she really think a little threat like that would make me give up?
Don’t make me laugh. No matter how I looked at it, there was no answer with these disobedient chimpanzees except a direct breakthrough using magic. The more I heard, the more hopeless the situation seemed. There was no way they would listen even if I poured my heart into teaching. Why choose the hard road?
If I just sacrifice these six stupid bitches as offerings, I can become a real academy teacher…!
A honey pot was waiting for me. Once I secured it, I would have authority, fame, and safety—an ideal iron rice bowl. Besides, if I was never caught using the magic in the first place, it wouldn’t even be a crime anymore.
* * *
The students wouldn’t listen to me.
In that case, instead of fighting them head-on for dominance, there was one smart detour.
“……”
“……”
Individual counseling time. I called them into my private office one by one and forcibly sealed their mouths.
“Your name is Rin Bellier, correct?”
“……”
“Let’s start with a quick check. Um… abysmal written grades, countless cases of verbal abuse toward academy instructors.”
“Hmph!”
As I looked over the student record that had been handed to me, she crossed her arms and openly scoffed. The girl had long black hair. Her eyes, glaring at me, were sharp and snake-like. She wore tight casual clothes instead of the uniform and had her legs crossed, but I didn’t bother staring. After all, humans don’t feel sexual curiosity toward chimpanzees.
Incidentally, the academy did have its own uniform. But the girl in front of me wasn’t exactly breaking the rules out of simple rebellion.
“Two years in Class Z, which makes you twenty-two years old… a perennial graduate candidate.”
This girl was already an adult. Two years older than me, in fact—an older student. A student older than her teacher. Well, age itself wasn’t really the issue.
“Hey!”
“…Is that how you speak to your homeroom teacher on your first meeting?”
“Ha, fuck off, you dumbass! What kind of teacher looks like a clueless kid like you? I don’t even want to breathe the same air as you, so hurry up and finish this shit so I can leave!”
The problem wasn’t her age—it was her attitude. I understood instantly why this girl had been stuck here for two years. Even if I were her, I would have graduated out of sheer embarrassment. She had fallen all the way to Class Z and still couldn’t get out. That kind of girl.
“Hey, are you deaf? If you don’t finish this counseling right now, I swear I’ll—”
“Marionette Opera.”
There was no need to listen any further. Snap!
I snapped my fingers. That was the trigger for the spell.
Rin Bellier, who had been standing up from her chair and rampaging like a female gorilla just moments ago, let out a small “Ah…?” before quietly sitting back down.
Thud!
It was magic. A mental-type spell mainly used to manipulate the mind. It wasn’t insanely difficult. The only real problem was that it was a prohibited spell inside the academy.
“Good. Now you’re nice and quiet.”
“A-ahhh……”
“All that earlier bravado and now you can’t even speak? Hah, my insides feel so refreshed, you empty-headed bitch.”
She was currently in a temporary vegetative state. She would stay like this forever until I implanted commands into her ears. It would be funny to watch her drool and stay still for the rest of her life, but unfortunately, I didn’t have that much time.
“Now then, what kind of suggestion should I plant…”
I pondered carefully. She was someone I would have to control for an entire year. I needed an efficient command that would make her listen to me obediently. If I could implant an order that would suck her down to the marrow without being easily detected, it would pave a smooth road straight to becoming the academy’s model teacher—
Rattle!
“Hey! Why is it taking so long? Fuck, are you dating that pathetic teacher or something? Lololol!”
“!?!”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. I whipped around in shock. There stood the other delinquent girl who always hung around with this gang girl. She had opened the door without permission and walked right in. She hadn’t even closed it behind her.
A flaw in my perfect plan. A tiny crack in an otherwise flawless jade. A handful of ash thrown onto perfectly cooked rice.
And then she said,
“Huh…? I’m dating the teacher…?”
…………I was fucked.
I was clearly, utterly fucked.