Chapter 7
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: I've Completely Ruined Myself
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I finally decided to accept the situation I was in.
I was ruined.
Thoroughly, massively, utterly.
‘I clearly decided not to cause any trouble…….’
Even before officially starting as a professor, I’d already pulled off something huge.
As I let out a sigh and propped up my heavy head, attempting a moment of self-reflection, a refreshing fragrance brushed past my nose.
“What are you worrying about so much? The lecture?”
Isel brought over coffee and sugar from across the room.
The cup she handed me.
I pushed the cream and sugar aside, savoring the thick aroma of the coffee.
She shuddered just watching me down the plain coffee.
“That’s basically straight espresso… I even warmed some milk for you right next to it……”
“I’ve got lactose intolerance. Can’t do it.”
“Ah… yes. Understood.”
Swallowing her dazed response, Isel began preparing her own coffee.
A glance her way showed her dropping in two sugar cubes.
That wasn’t coffee—it was a sugar drink flavored with coffee.
Sipping away, I reminisced about Elin.
Elin was a monster consumed by her obsession with being the best.
She’d falter under her own weight at times, but the very monster she’d nurtured herself left her no choice but to press on toward perfection without ever giving up midway.
She stayed quiet most days, coiled up like a beast in hiding, but the moment she bared her teeth, she bit without hesitation.
That was why she was treated like something untouchable.
If you compared her to an animal, she was a honey badger.
And that was what kept Elin forever alone.
But strip away that tough exterior, and she was just a fragile, slender girl.
Her extreme violence was nothing more than a defense mechanism she’d built to protect herself since childhood.
‘Truth is, wrapping her in affection would be the best approach…….’
But the only ones who could get Elin to open up were those superior to her.
And Elin was the top student, hailed as a genius—the barrier to approach her was impossibly high.
That was why, in the original story, she always remained alone.
‘Out of all that, what I need to watch out for is……’
The monster devoured by her ambition to be the best. The violence that didn’t hesitate to bite the moment her teeth were revealed.
It wasn’t hard to call that obsession.
Elin had latched onto “runes”—a vital key to nearing the pinnacle. There was no chance she wouldn’t dig into it.
‘So I need to cut off that contact at the root.’
Not a full incineration, but enough to defuse the current situation.
Mana residue faded with time, after all.
If I kept my head down for a while, it’d eventually spiral into an unsolvable maze, even if she tried to investigate later.
“Professor! Professor!”
Isel snatched up an urgent incoming call mid-sip and shouted.
“Quiet. Keep it down.”
“The administration office is asking when we can do the rehearsal.”
I nodded.
It was a new course, so they were obligated to inspect it.
Aiden’s accomplishments were monumental, but he had zero track record of submitting papers to academic institutions or working as faculty or a researcher.
Naturally, some would question his lecturing skills.
And in truth, Aiden hadn’t been a great professor.
One reason he’d been dubbed “rice-taste” was his habit of saying things like, “Why can’t you guys handle something this simple?”
‘Of course, being one of the world’s top ten masters meant everything got swept under the rug…….’
Even in this vast empire, there were only three.
Just three.
Expand to the whole world, and they still numbered within ten fingers.
Count in other races, and it was roughly one in hundreds of millions.
He wasn’t the type to have the leisure to play university professor……
“Isel.”
“Y-Yes?!”
“I’m a far more exceptional talent than you realize.”
Isel cocked her head, as if wondering when I’d start spouting nonsense again.
Her eyes brimmed with deep suspicion.
“No need to worry about a thing.”
She shook her head at my bold declaration.
“That’s exactly what worries me, Professor.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Your sense of normalcy is so different from ours that you mess things up without even realizing it. That’s why Charlotte assigned me to stick by your side.”
She clenched her fist, brimming with resolve.
No matter what happened, she’d stop it beforehand—her determination burned bright……
It was utterly unjust.
“Are you saying I lack common sense?”
I was a perfectly upstanding member of society. It’d been fine last time, and it would be this time too.
But shattering my expectations, Isel nodded without a shred of hesitation.
“Yes.”
“…Anyway, tell them rehearsals can start today.”
“Are you sure? You haven’t even run through it once, have you?”
“I’m already an authority on aura. What’s there to practice? My word is law.”
Isel’s mouth fell open, clearly awestruck.
A good sign… Even if everyone else called it wrong, if I said it was right, then it was right.
Want to argue? Then show up with a master.
I flashed a satisfied smile, and the rigidly tense Isel grudgingly nodded.
“I’ll schedule it for soon, then.”
“Good.”
“Oh, and the department wants to promote it at the faculty level. That’s fine, right? Not like we can refuse anyway.”
“Handle the trivial stuff yourself. I’ve got things to think about, so do what needs doing and head home.”
Isel shot me a sullen look, shoulders slumping as she dove into her paperwork.
In the meantime, I sank deep into thought about how to put distance between me and Elin.
* * *
A few days later, word quietly spread that the empire’s third master, Aiden, had joined the Imperial University.
Doubts about the rumor lasted only a moment—once students in Paulo’s Pure Magic Theory class heard the answer to their question was Aiden, the whispers reignited.
And now.
[Understanding the Aura Cultivation Method: Organic Utilization of the Body Through Mana]
Professor: Toskantana Aiden Pisvolt.
No sooner had this notice gone up on the board than the university erupted into a frenzy.
“No way? It’s real?”
“The professor never denied it—he just kept quiet about it. Why didn’t you believe me?”
“Wow, hope for the Knight Department at last……”
“Hope? It’s a total reversal. Those Magic Department snobs with their noses in the clouds……”
“The Spirit Department kids are just as bad.”
But the excitement was short-lived.
The students fell silent as they read the fine print.
Capacity: 40.
Capacity of 40, with around 750 Knight Department undergrads across all six years.
Normally, they’d limit it by grade, but Aiden’s course was a grade-agnostic liberal arts elective for the Knight Department.
No matter his prestige, they couldn’t slot it into major requirements or mandatory electives right out of the gate.
It ended up as a small-scale liberal arts course that wouldn’t disrupt the curriculum much—but that sparked a bloodbath.
In the silence thick as the calm before a storm, they eyed the competitors in front and beside them.
A chilling frost settled into their gazes, one that hadn’t been there before.
The tense standoff dragged on for quite some time……
* * *
Bathed in the glow of lights like incandescent bulbs, Isel made her way through the brightening dawn.
The lecture hall’s back door creaked open.
Right next to the sunlit window seat—in the back row.
The prime spot was still open. Isel shook off her sleepiness and mustered a lukewarm smile.
She set her bag down on the desk in the tiered, circular auditorium.
Yawning softly about her lack of sleep, she settled gracefully into her seat.
Blinking back the tears pricking her eyes, she stretched like the cat back home, finally ready to start the day.
Twenty minutes before lecture.
She flipped open her textbook for a quick review, but……
“Hey, you’re Isel, right?”
An unexpected voice made her whip her head around on reflex.
A guy stood there, barely masking his awkwardness as he spoke.
“What’s this about?”
“Oh, uh, nothing big. I heard you’re a maid from the Pisvolt Ducal Family.”
Isel’s eyes turned ice-cold.
‘Again…….’
She bit her lip and hardened her gaze.
“I am a maid, yes, but I’m no commoner. I’m a member of a noble house loyal to His Majesty—so treating me like some lowly maid is…….”
“No, that’s not what I meant at all.”
He waved his hands in panic, which only flustered Isel more.
“Then what?”
The male student gave an embarrassed grin before shaking his head.
“I just heard you got in as an undergrad intern in Professor Aiden’s lab.”
“Ah…….”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s it. I had zero intention of saying anything about you being a maid. Not even a speck.”
“So what do you want?”
He scratched the back of his head, then whispered in a tiny, sheepish voice.
“Well… that liberal arts course Professor Aiden’s teaching. Think you could get me in?”
Isel froze for a second, double-checking if she’d heard right.
The guy took her reaction as barefaced cheek and hammed it up with exaggerated gestures.
“Not like I’m asking for free, obviously. I’m the eldest son of a count’s family, you know. Need money? Just say. Or if not money, anything at all…….”
“Sorry, but that’s under the professor’s purview—I can’t get involved. Really, I’m sorry.”
She cut him off before he could press and hurriedly gathered her things.
She hated abandoning the prime seat she’d snagged, but……
‘Sticking around would just invite more snide remarks.’
She had to leave.
Those nobles’ elitist attitudes didn’t discriminate.
“Eh? Hey?”
The guy’s puzzled protest turned to a scowl as he grabbed Isel’s arm while she tried to go.
“Wait—let go.”
“Hey, I asked nicely, and you just blow me off?”
His face hardened.
Isel stared at him in open disgust.
Again. Again.
That repulsive mask.
All sweet when he wanted something, flipping the moment things didn’t go his way.
Even as a fellow noble, it made her skin crawl.
“Let go.”
“I told you, I’m a count’s eldest son. I’m offering money—a mere maid like you dares to…….”
He seemed to rein in a yell, but an annoyed rumble leaked out in a low growl.
She hesitated to fight back—the status gap was all too clear.
Held fast, enduring shout after shout, tears threatened to spill.
Desperate not to let him see, she twisted her face.
But maybe he took it for defiance—the male student flew into a rage, his hand rising……
“Hey, you little bi…….”
“What’s the commotion?”
Isel and the male student’s heads snapped around in unison.
There stood Aiden, eyes chilled to frost.
* * *
The university’s information desk was drowning in a relentless barrage of calls.
Early semester was peak inquiry season before registration, sure—but this was on another level.
Calls usually routed to the academic affairs team… but with them flooding in here too, their situation was plain to imagine.
The male staffer let out a deep sigh after fielding another one. The sun was high, and he’d done nothing but answer phones since arriving.
Not even solvable issues—just……
“Why isn’t academic affairs picking up?’
He couldn’t very well snap back, “Beats me—why do you think?” So he kept repeating lines like, “That department’s swamped this time of year. Try again later.”
He rubbed his dry face before glaring wearily at the ringing phone.
Still better than academic affairs, at least.
Theirs had to be worse, if anything.
“…Why’d he have to debut like this.”
The man’s grudges against Aiden were stacking up.
And the chancellor facing this mess felt the same.
He shot a weary glance at the dean seated before him.
The Knight Department chair was there too, but after a few wordless looks with the chancellor, he was free to leave the office.
The real problem was the dean.
An awkward tension hung in the chancellor’s office.
After a long silence, the chancellor finally spoke.
But it wasn’t the sort to keep a conversation going.
“Why didn’t you foresee this mess? I’m half-tempted to dump all these letters coming to me straight on your desk.”
The dean—who’d been thrilled just yesterday over his promotion path—swallowed a bitter silence.