Chapter 31
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 031
Chapter Title: The Botany Professor's Assault
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I could roughly guess what the botany professor was aiming for.
No need to rewind the story—the algorithm I wrote made the overall flow clear enough.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
The flow in the original story.
What would have happened if I hadn't interfered.
During the practical training disaster, the botany professor failed to show the leadership expected of him.
That said, it wasn't entirely his fault.
Even seasoned mercenary groups shied away from a pack of magic wolves, and only a full knight order could repel them without losses.
It was too much for a single professor to handle.
Especially with students in tow.
Even if another professor had been there, the outcome wouldn't have been much different.
In fact, it was only because Aiden had reached master level that he brute-forced through it; otherwise, no one would have even attempted it.
And the lead professor at the time specialized in botany, not combat.
Just guiding the students to an open area was about as good a response as could be expected.
‘He just looked unreliable in that moment, and the public needed an outlet for their resentment.’
Regardless of his actual capabilities, he felt guilty, and the press needed to name a clear culprit.
In a way, he was a scapegoat.
‘They couldn't find the real mastermind behind it, after all. To cover up the authorities' incompetence, they'd highlight him like that.’
It was unfortunate, but that was that, and this was this.
Continuing on: the students I saved this time were all ones who died in the original story.
Trapped in a barrier, stewing in helplessness as they could do nothing.
The botany professor watched them get torn apart right in front of him, then later turned into a demon.
‘Probably Prezel who turned him into one.’
At that time, the object of the botany professor's resentment was Elin.
In the original, Elin was the sole survivor of the practical disaster and the one who resolved the incident.
Whether Elin wallowed in the emptiness of failing to protect everyone or not, the press would have lionized her no matter what.
Tempted by Professor Prezel, the botany professor would torment himself comparing his own downfall to Elin's rise, drowning in inferiority.
Naturally, that resentment would zero in on Elin.
‘If she had that power, she would have come sooner to save us,’ or something like that.
Or maybe ‘If only I had that power.’ Either way, after the disaster, the botany professor's algorithm fixated on whoever rose to the most fame.
‘And that’s me.’
The professor who stopped the disaster and protected the students.
So inevitably, the botany professor would target me.
It wasn't like he could beat me after turning into a demon.
Even if he grew dozens of times and devoured every contaminated plant in the magic tower, he wouldn't reach my ankles.
Setting aside that blessing making him look like a chitinous insect, no other character matched Aiden.
He was asymmetric warfare incarnate— in modern terms, a living strategic weapon.
Charlotte might have said it half in jest, but he'd draw protests just existing near an airport, let alone a border.
‘Even accounting for all that, cockroach was a step too far…’
No, really, that was too much……
Seriously.
“Haa.”
Still, I was certain the botany professor was gunning for me.
His judgment was so clouded it made his professor title a joke.
He wouldn't have time to think about masters or whatever.
If he could replenish his power, he'd think he stood a chance.
“Heading to the magic tower fits that pattern.”
The Snowfield Magic Tower held plenty of cards he could play.
A magic-contaminated environment, his vast botany knowledge.
He could plant spores in plants to turn them into puppets, use them as foot soldiers to buy time.
Rinse and repeat growth cycles until he became something even Elin couldn't handle.
“Plus, I mentioned combat training in the magic tower.”
Hmm.
Truth be told, I was fine with the botany professor heading inside.
It'd be a hassle short-term, but considering I needed to grow Elin, a lively enemy wasn't bad. Above all, the magic tower was isolated.
Once inside, no worries about him escaping to the outside.
“That means the contamination won't spread outward.”
If he holed up in the back mountains or elsewhere, I'd have to flip the whole place upside down.
But if he jumped into the trap himself, I had no complaints.
My students might wail a bit, but that wasn't my problem.
The moment we reached the plaza, shrill screams rang out.
“Run!”
“Kyaaah!”
“Why are there magic beasts outside!?”
“What are the security forces doing!?”
“Professor! Professor, someone, the professor!”
A dwarf-sized figure wrapped in burlap sacks, and plant-type magic beasts slithering silently across the ground with roots trailing like snake tails.
He must have turned his lab plant samples into magic beasts.
Impossible under normal circumstances, but proper spore cultivation made it feasible.
“Anyone, just someone!”
The fleeing students, reminded of the practical disaster, fell into panic.
Even though the plant beasts weren't directly targeting them.
Above all, the botany professor's goal was breaching the magic tower.
He'd released the beasts temporarily to scatter the crowd—no intent to pursue to the end.
That explained the lack of serious injuries or deaths amid the chaos.
‘Still, you never know.’
Thud.
I landed with a soft thump.
“Tch, another hassle.”
The terrified students' eyes snapped to me all at once.
“Aiden… Professor.”
The botany professor spotted me and bared his hostility.
But judging the moment not right, he scattered the beasts in multiple directions.
Attacking students to draw my attention?
‘No need to let ones I could kill get away.’
I wouldn't mind grabbing some for class materials once inside the tower, but I had no hobby of deliberately releasing catchable ones.
Snap!
A finger flick echoed from somewhere.
As its signal, a soft white light spread faintly, like moonlight in broad daylight.
Radiant yet unobtrusive, dazzling yet illuminating the world.
Aiden's aura, governing purity.
Whoooosh—
Feathers rose slowly from my feet, then whipped wildly as if backed by wind.
When the compressed feathers burst outward like exploding air, the snarling beasts fell silent en masse.
Slashed somewhere, they sprayed sticky green fluid across the ground.
Like butchered livestock, their bodies lay in chunks scattered everywhere.
The beasts lunging at students with gaping maws were swept away in one go.
“Hiiik.”
Even knowing they were no longer a threat after being shredded mid-lunge, the students staggered back.
In a single instant.
Less time than a blink.
Shorter than the time it took the botany professor to fail his frontal charge on the tower.
My hand blade, having cleared the beasts, surged toward the professor's head.
He panicked and unleashed a small shockwave.
Not an attack or defense.
Swinging through would kill the professor.
Depending on my choice, he'd be buried here without further ado.
But this shockwave.
My eyebrow twitched faintly.
‘Clever trick.’
The shredded plant beasts' bodies writhed.
Like a boa constrictor swallowing prey larger than itself, or lungs inflating with a gasp, they swelled grotesquely, ready to burst.
They'd explode.
Striking down now might finish the professor, but the students would get caught in the blast.
They hadn't fled far from the diced corpses, legs frozen in fear.
They'd get hurt. Maimed.
Maybe lose an arm or leg.
Possibly die.
The thought made me click my tongue as I shifted my arm's trajectory in the same motion.
Prioritizing blast cleanup over slicing the professor.
With no sword, a dozen aura strands extended.
Rather than igniting, countless feathers erupted from the ground, slashing the impending explosives while simultaneously shielding the students in the blast radius.
KABOOM!
Fierce explosions roared from the beast corpses I'd spared to protect the students.
I'd focused on those still near students.
Confirming the bodies silenced safely, I dispersed the feathers.
The spent aura crumbled into the air, leaving traces of blue mana residue.
I glanced briefly at where the botany professor had vanished, then turned away.
Even if he made it inside the tower, nothing changed.
‘The conclusion would be the same.’
“Huff, huff.”
A student panted heavily, clutching their chest to calm down.
They glanced at my face, then wore an indescribable expression.
Teal hair… eyes blending green and blue. An exotic earring on one ear only.
It felt familiar……
“Um, excuse me.”
‘Must be my imagination.’
Not important.
I launched myself again.
The botany professor hurled himself toward the magic tower.
He sucked in ragged breaths.
Brute force wouldn't cut it.
He had to break through.
Thick tentacles sprouted from his body, smashing the glass wall barring the tower.
The wall shattered into shards from the brutal impact.
Fragments scattered far like after a carriage crash.
A guide inside shrieked at the sudden chaos, but he ignored it.
One tentacle raked the floor mercilessly, rupturing a fire extinguisher.
The crushed canister spewed white foam, filling the first floor like mist and serving as perfect smokescreen.
‘Stairs would be too slow.’
That earlier display—wiping out dozens in one go, even sparing students from the explosions in a blink.
The botany professor abandoned stairs, sprouting tentacles to cling to the ceiling.
Asbestos dust sifted down; overburdened panels tumbled to the floor.
ZZZT, pop! Countless lights flickered out.
Cement wires snapped, sparking wildly across the floor.
Amid the ominous crackling, six tentacles pulverized cement, carving out a small space.
‘Up like this.’
Going back would waste too much time.
“Wait, what are you!?”
“Lower floor? No, no beasts below, so they leaked from above? Battle stations—”
He swatted an approaching armed guard with one tentacle, then shot upward unhindered.
Scattering spores once elicited screams.
While smashing the cement ceiling, support tentacles churned the floor below, hurling furniture down.
‘If you have to save everyone, you'll be too late.’
To uphold that heroic facade, he'd prioritize protecting people.
Sweeping the area, the botany professor plucked a small object from a guard's pocket.
A lighter, a tiny flame.
His spores could withstand fire easily, but they weren't immune.
With a little tweak, they could burn long and fierce.
And the second floor was blanketed in his spores.
He tossed the lit lighter down; whoosh, flames erupted.
Fire sensors triggered, spraying water from above, but the spore-clung fire wouldn't die easily.
Thus, having breached to the second floor, the botany professor tore through the ceiling and set foot in the Snowfield Magic Tower's contaminated depths.