I Don't Want to Be a Slave!
Sua noona stopped her hand resting on my thigh. She lifted it and snapped her fingers. I felt mana gathering. A small ice bead formed right in front of my face.
“You asked earlier, didn’t you? Whether I teach any basic spells.”
“Yes, noona.”
“I do teach magic. I just didn’t bother explaining it before.”
A clear answer. She should have said that from the start. Even so, the straightforward reply left me slightly disappointed—it wasn’t anything worth hiding.
“……Why didn’t you just tell me back then?”
“Ah, maybe I should have.”
She drew a crescent with her narrowed eyes. The smugness in her expression doubled.
“That’s too much, noona.”
As if trying to soften my resentment, Sua noona patted my head.
“I was joking. I also brought you here because there’s something I wanted to talk about.”
“Something to talk about? What is it?”
“Hmm…… Now that I think about it, maybe it’s better not to say anything after all.”
She dodged the question. My curiosity only grew.
“I’m curious. Please tell me.”
“Really? You might be better off not hearing it.”
“Then I won’t listen.”
For a moment, Sua noona’s face looked like it had suffered an earthquake. She must have assumed I would stubbornly insist on hearing it.
“Huh……? Why?”
“You said it yourself, noona. That I’d be better off not hearing it.”
“That’s…… true? But you’re really not going to listen?”
Her eyes asked whether I was truly going to throw this away. I nodded, and Sua noona’s face instantly hardened.
I wondered if there was any need to ruin her mood by refusing so bluntly. But blindly trusting and listening to everything she said was also problematic. Especially since she used to work in politics. Even if she saw me as a close little brother, I couldn’t know what parts of her story she might omit. If she had gone out of her way to bring me here to say it, there had to be some importance to it—so I needed to be even more careful.
“Fine, I’ll just be honest.”
There it is. I kept my skeptical expression to the very end.
“Actually, I don’t really want to hear it……”
“As you know, I haven’t been here very long. So there’s been all sorts of things going on.”
“You’ve had a lot of work, noona?”
Even though she was newly invited and it was her first appointment. How could someone who barely knew the academy already have so much work?
“The other ice-element professors keep coming to see me. Some just to say hello, some to ask about research, and also—”
“Wait, the professors came to see you? Not the other way around?”
“They’re all my juniors. A few of them I even taught myself.”
“Juniors? You taught them?”
“Yeah. The oldest existing ice-element professor here is still three hundred years younger than me.”
So the newly hired professor turned out to be their senior. The elderly professors had apparently rushed over to greet her and chat. Still, three hundred years…… Just how old was Sua noona really?
“Uh…… Sua noona? About that three-hundred-year difference……”
“Sian, it’s rude to ask a woman her age so casually.”
Failed probe. She shut it down coldly. Even so, it still didn’t explain why she claimed to be so busy. Meetings and conversations like that couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes each.
“Anyway, that wasn’t the only thing. From preparing materials for lectures to setting up new research, there’s just a lot to do.”
That did sound busy. At least now I understood why her professor’s office looked like a war zone.
“The problem is, while I’ve been doing all that, I haven’t had time for miscellaneous chores.”
“What kind of miscellaneous chores?”
“Things like cleaning the lab, organizing documents, carrying stuff around.”
Perfect jobs for graduate students. So where were the graduate students who were supposed to be doing them?
“Normally the graduate students would handle it, but they’ve been busy lately.”
“What could they possibly be doing?”
“They’ve been collecting research data beyond the Arecibo World Gate for weeks now.”
“Excuse me?”
What? Why were the graduate students over there? Weren’t graduate students supposed to be holed up in the lab, eating grass from the courtyard like slaves? After the terrorist attack turned the campus into a monster field, only authorized personnel were allowed entry—yet they were sending students to collect data?
“Beyond the gate…… collecting data……?”
“It’s not anything grand. They’re just hunting monsters and gathering materials while they’re at it.”
Besides, wasn’t this kind of data collection usually done mid-semester? The semester had barely started and they were already being worked like this?
“Ah, I made sure they had proper equipment when I sent them, so you don’t have to worry too much~”
No, judging by the situation, it felt like she had been working them hard even before the semester began. I kept shooting her worried looks, but she only maintained her crescent-eyed smile. If what I suspected was true, calling her a vicious professor wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
“Sian, so…… could you help noona out a bit?”
Help……? With what?
“It’s nothing big. Just an hour or two a day helping with some odd jobs?”
Professor’s odd jobs. Cleaning, organizing, carrying things. All work usually done by graduate students. If she liked you, she might even appoint you as an undergraduate research assistant. An undergraduate research assistant was the fast track to becoming a graduate student. Sua noona could convince my aunt and grandmother. Therefore, under external pressure, I would become a graduate student. Forever.
“N-No slaves allowed!”
The words burst out reflexively as a future unfolded before my eyes like a panorama. I tried to head straight for the door, but Sua noona grabbed me.
“Dobby is free! Kieeeek!”
“S-Sian. It’s not like that, so there’s no need to worry—”
“The professor is kidnapping people into grad school!!!”
I kept resisting. She pulled me into a tight hug to keep me from escaping. Unlike Cheon Mari, I could feel the texture of her chest against my back. It might have been the difference in bras, but it was clearly the difference in size and shape that stood out. Since this was the first time Sua noona had gone this far, my resistance quickly faded. Stiff as a board, I slowly turned to look at her.
“Why would I ever recommend grad school to you? That’s not going to happen, so relax.”
“……”
I had basic trust in her, but none in the title of “professor.” Still, even if I didn’t want to believe it, there was no choice but to believe. If I refused to trust her and she ended up reporting me to Grandmother, she would definitely scold me for not even trusting family.
“And this is nothing more than helping noona with some simple tasks.”
Her crescent eyes were the picture of innocence as she looked straight at me.
“Our Sian is a good boy, so of course you can do that, right?”
“Uh…… um……”
She gently stroked my cheek. There was a warmth in the gesture, like an elder dealing with a much younger child.
“I’m asking you a favor. I’ll definitely repay you.”
“……What kind of repayment?”
It was obviously going to be money or some material reward. The problem was that those kinds of rewards didn’t mean much to someone like me who already had plenty of money.
“Wouldn’t it be enough if noona gave you all the answers for the written exam?”
The answers to the written exam, not the practical? That was some serious hostage material.
“Not enough? Then if you memorize the answers well and score fifty or above on the midterms, noona will grant you one wish.”
She was even throwing in a wish? Was noona crazy?
“Of course, if you score below fifty, then Sian has to grant noona’s wish instead.”
The practical exam was necessary to improve and verify magical ability. But the written exam was nothing more than the practical exam turned into text, so it wasn’t particularly necessary. If Sua noona gave me the answers, getting a good score with minimal effort would be child’s play. She even said she would grant a wish if I memorized the answers in advance and scored fifty or above. Not taking the deal would make me an idiot. Not a lie—this was genuine, sincere idiocy of the highest order.
“Noona! Please use this lacking little brother as your laborer!”
I immediately bowed my head. From now on, Sua noona was a god, an angel, and invincible. She was also a kind and virtuous professor who treated her graduate students like human beings. This was a true fact that even the graduate students in Shareltea would acknowledge. Disagree? Argue and you’ll be a bald graduate student for life.
“I failed to recognize noona’s wise insight! I’m sorry!”
“Pfft, don’t overdo it.”
Sua noona slowly lifted my head. Her eyes were wide open instead of narrowed. For some reason, there was a somewhat suggestive look in her gaze. She even licked her lips, as if she were looking at someone while consumed by greed.
“Anyway, every week after the ice-element lectures end, you’ll come here and help noona, right?”
“Yes!”
Well, what could possibly go wrong? I happily accepted Sua noona’s proposal. Grades were always a serious matter.
* * *
“She should’ve just said to eat whatever I’m given.”
Unfortunately, there was nowhere selling Merona. It was somewhat tragic, but because of that, I bought the Shooting Star ice cream that popped when you bit into it. Someone might cry over the situation. But this was the kind of thing the person who made the request had to endure. Without a shred of guilt or shame, I strolled down the street humming in the reality where the ice cream had changed.
How long had I been walking after that? The street lined with academy buildings caught my eye.
- “♪♫♩♬~”
It wasn’t even the right season, yet the whole area had a festival atmosphere. To be precise, it wasn’t an actual festival, but it was giving off that kind of vibe.
“Should I stop by for a bit?”
The unusual sight piqued my curiosity. Taking a quick look around wouldn’t cause any problems. I changed direction and headed toward the street with the peculiar atmosphere.