Chapter 29
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 029
Chapter Title: Landmine Pattern
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A leisurely afternoon.
The kind of time when both body and mind were starting to relax, savoring the laid-back mood.
I was under an unexpected assault on my eardrums.
“Professor, Profeeeessor.”
I shot a glance at Elin, who was whining from the side.
She didn’t seem like the type to act this way, but I couldn’t figure out why she was being like this.
‘No, actually, didn’t they say even worker bees sleep lazily after meals?’
Those who bite and tear relentlessly tire out quickly.
They need time to rest, too.
The problem was that her resting spot was my lab.
I looked at Elin, sprawled out like a child, with cold eyes.
Not content with hugging a long pillow and lying on the sofa, she had somehow procured a blanket and pulled it over herself like a quilt.
This wasn’t her personal lounge.
Sigh...
Worrying about it would just tire me out.
Pretending I hadn’t seen a thing, I read a scholarly journal on Aura Cultivation Methods.
I had practical combat training coming up right away, but once that was over, I’d have to awaken the students’ auras again.
But then she started calling my name with tremendous volume.
“Proooofffeeeessor!”
I pushed my reading glasses back up and squeezed my eyes shut.
“What is it, Elin?”
“Why is that woman over there?”
“Th-that’s!”
The woman in blue chitin armor—sorry for putting it this way, but Radia.
Unfortunately, Aiden was a character with official face blindness.
Thanks to the canon blessing that made everyone look like a mantis teacher, I could only distinguish people by the color of their chitin.
So, every beauty looked like a mantis to me.
“...I see. Then why are you still in my lab?”
“But! How do I know what you’ll do with the students if I’m not here!!”
What I’ll do? What do you think I’m going to do?
I had no desire to make contact with chitinous insects and their mucus.
I wasn’t some deviant fetishist.
I had no idea what misunderstanding I’d earned, but she’d been like this since yesterday.
‘Was it when Isel said my desk was at her waist height? Or changing into gym clothes in my lab? Elin sleeping on the reception sofa?’
“......”
Too many suspects to pinpoint.
As I furrowed my brow, Radia raised her voice.
“You’re promiscuous!”
You think I look like the type to live a debauched life with students...? No, digging in would be annoying.
I’d recently realized something: denying each claim point by point was pointless.
She already had her own answers before even asking.
She was just pretending to ask questions whose answers were predetermined.
Whatever I said wouldn’t get through.
‘I’ll have to convince her with actions like an adult...’
“There’s no way I’d do that.”
Mistake.
My thoughts and actions flipped.
A conditioned reflex rebuttal.
An unavoidable reaction.
With my social standing on the line, how could I endure without countering?
If she looked like a cute girl, it wouldn’t sting, but to me, she was a mantis.
“But...!”
As Radia tried to shout, I passed the baton with a sigh.
Haa.
‘I didn’t want to confirm it this way.’
No choice.
If she wouldn’t listen to me, someone else had to deny it.
“Isel, do you want to have that kind of relationship with me?”
“Wh-what kind of relationship?”
“Something beyond teacher and student... as a man and woman.”
Caught in an unexpected spotlight, Isel jumped in surprise and looked at me.
Her fur bristled like a cat startled awake, and incoherent babble spilled out.
“I-it’s. Th-that......”
If the professor likes it...
Blushing, Isel fidgeted with her fingers.
Hm? Wait, this isn’t right.
I let the rest slide past my ears.
Her flushed face was already off-limits.
‘This isn’t the reaction I had in mind.’
Normally, you’re supposed to coldly reject this.
In that sense, Isel was a failure.
I wished she’d understand a bit more the feelings of a boy getting a prank confession on a middle school field trip.
“Elin, what about you.”
I hurriedly turned and passed the baton to Elin.
She was my last hope now.
Hurry and shoot me down triumphantly! That’s the only way Radia’s weird misunderstanding stops.
“If I become yours, will you teach me runes?”
You still haven’t given up on that?
More importantly, answering like that...
Her gaze sharpened.
Ahem.
I cleared my throat to shift the mood, then spoke with what I hoped was a serious expression.
“Student Radia, does this convince you now? I have no intention of forming any such relationships with my students.”
Radia glared as if asking what nonsense I was spouting.
No matter how you look at it, suspicions abound—how dare you deny it.
Spotting my smile, Radia flushed red.
“You’re promiscuous!!”
I felt wronged...
With that minor incident resolved, Elin lay there sulking.
What was it about those runes that made her so obsessed?
‘She should just use Elise’s power properly...’
Those who have it always want more.
‘More importantly, is this the branching point?’
I took in the hazy view of the back mountain beyond the window.
If things followed the original story, the botany professor would soon start acting up.
‘I need to check.’
The botany professor’s demonization splits into two major branches.
One is rampaging as a disaster itself, the other turning into malignant spores and silently bringing calamity.
‘The tricky one is the second.’
The malignant spore form is the so-called landmine pattern—seems harmless at first, but boomerangs back double later.
It’s a landmine because the botany professor nests in the back mountain.
As it nests, the demonized professor scatters contamination.
That corrupts surrounding flora and fauna, forming a contamination zone like the magic tower...
The issue is, unlike the tower where closing floors prevents spread, this is outdoors.
Thus, the back mountain becomes a contamination gateway, affecting the entire academy.
Elise suffers the most from it.
She’s the land’s guardian spirit of Spirit Mountain, soon to be mother of all spirits residing in the imperial capital.
After contracting with Elin and falling asleep, Elise slowly goes mad from the malignant spores.
When she awakens after recovering her power, she’s berserked and turns against humans.
‘I have to stop that.’
Elise isn’t inherently hostile to people.
In this malignant spore pattern, she uniquely becomes a boss fight—and it’s notoriously tough.
Above all, if Elise dies, Elin loses her power too.
I can’t just stand by.
“Elin.”
“What.”
“Want to go somewhere together since you’re free?”
I set down my glasses and stood.
“Sounds annoying.”
“It’s important business. Related to what you carry, too. No matter what, you have to take responsibility, right?”
Elin narrowed her eyes.
She really didn’t want to move, her words no bluff.
But she steeled herself, saying no choice, and got up from the sofa.
“Then I suppose I have no choice.”
I was about to grab my coat and leave when I spotted Radia trembling.
Shocked expression.
Eyes squeezed shut, wondering what now.
“What you carry?!”
“If you’re curious, come along.”
I cut her off before she could pry further.
If you’re that curious, tag along.
But even Isel looked stunned.
No, why are you too?
Then Isel snapped her fingers, shaking her head.
“The spirit in the back mountain, right? Professor, you should avoid omitting subjects.”
“I was thinking your assumptions might be too deeply rooted.”
Uh... maybe so?
Deny it then.
About to snap back, but dealing with them one by one would be a hassle, so I stood first.
“Where are you going?”
I hadn’t planned to bring Isel, so I’d told her to rest.
Thus, the one asking now was Radia.
Elin seemed to have guessed from the start.
“The training site.”
“The magic tower? Or...”
Her trailing off meant half-right.
“The site of the training disaster.”
After a massive search, all student bodies had been returned to families.
Now at the disaster site was the investigation team.
Officially to trace the magic wolves’ entry path, but...
‘Path? Nothing will come of it—it was a summoning.’
This was about who summoned them and how.
But with the capital’s barrier breached, a security issue, public announcements would likely tie it to smugglers for showy crackdowns.
Cover stories like a nearby illegal smuggler slipped up.
‘Though they failed to pinpoint the summoning spot.’
“Elin, anything feel off?”
“Not yet... nothing in particular?”
I see...
I eyed the slightly frayed tree bark.
Beneath the bark, the smooth trunk faintly gleamed dark purple.
It shouldn’t feel normal.
This was Elise’s domain, where her power was strongest.
If she couldn’t sense changes here, her awakening was less advanced than thought.
“I’ll have to raise her while keeping her close, after all.”
“Huh? Professor, what?”
“It means shedding your eggshell will take quite a while.”
“Suddenly?!”
Elin glared daggers, but I ignored her.
“Charlotte.”
“Wh-what? Why... why’d you come.”
One more person glaring daggers at me.
Charlotte clearly radiated keep-out vibes.
“No unauthorized personnel beyond this point.”
“...Leaving aside whether I’m authorized or not, is there anywhere I can’t go?”
I’m a Master.
That status alone grants free pass everywhere.
Even top secrets and imperial vaults are open to me.
“The airport.”
“......”
Right, airports suspect defection risk.
Can’t help that.
“Wow, it really is Professor Aiden.”
“The third Master...”
“The empire’s sanctity.”
Charlotte grumbled beside me, dissatisfied.
“It’s not that impressive, so quit yapping and get back to work, everyone.”
“Charlotte, it is impressive. Super impressive.”
“That guy isn’t what you think he is.”
She undercut me while blatantly showing her discomfort.
Is this how sisters are?
“So why are you here? Hurry up and do whatever, then leave.”
“What’s the progress?”
Progress? I mulled it over, then Charlotte answered.
“What’s that?”
“The summoning circle’s origin.”
The group’s mood chilled at that.
“How did you... no, you saw it first since you just arrived. Got a hunch?”
‘As expected, they haven’t figured it out.’
Not knowing isn’t bad.
To follow the original flow, it needs heating once.
But...
“No. Drop it. What I’m checking now is something else.”
“Wait, you pry like that then back out?”
“My words carry weight. I don’t want to link foreign powers on mere suspicion.”
Foreign powers...?
Charlotte stiffened.
“...You don’t mean that, do you.”
“Just suspicion. But this is confirmed.”
I kicked the tree.
It wobbled and fell.
Charlotte yelled from behind what are you doing, but shut up at the sight.
I turned, probing if she knew this too.
Dark purple-stained wood inside, scattered purple spores glowing like embers in ash, reminiscent of burning logs.
One difference: not flames, but magic—the main cause of contamination.
I crouched, eyeing the rotting dark purple wood.
Like foam after waves, bubbly clusters of tiny grains.
All spores.
“Landmine pattern.”
I clicked my tongue.