Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: The Failing Student's Punishment
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"Teacher, why are you here?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Max pushed up his glasses as he spoke.
"Is this the setup where you're here as a one-day instructor? Like last time?"
"Miss Helen, if you're joking just to make excuses for being late, you'd better stop."
The atmosphere was different.
This man holding a thick magic book and pushing up his glasses was definitely Max.
But no matter how she looked at him, he wasn't the illusion mage Max she knew.
He felt a bit stricter, perhaps?
He had the sharp gaze of a professor who wouldn't tolerate even the slightest mistake.
"I've been officially appointed as a professor of illusion magic at the Imperial Academy. Not some one-day instructor. So please refrain from such remarks in the future, Miss Helen."
"Ah, sorry."
Even his voice carried a sharp edge.
Was it the glasses?
Max's voice echoed in her ear.
This is my desire?
The teacher actually becoming a real teacher?
Sure, she'd gotten a little excited imagining it briefly.
But she had no desire whatsoever to learn from this man.
Her brain moved slower than usual in the bewildering situation.
One thing was certain.
The illusion magic had already begun, and this place was a mirror reflecting the desire she'd conjured.
Tied to that survey she'd filled out herself.
'I don't know what it is, but let's just enjoy it for now.'
She was here to experience it, after all.
She let go of her reservations.
It was a seat to appreciate how far the illusion magic would go.
"Come in already. I know you don't like illusion magic lessons, Miss Helen, but the feeling is mutual."
"What... did you say?"
What was that supposed to mean?
"Sigh, do I have to explain this twice? I told you clearly. Today is supplementary class for students with failing grades."
She knew what supplementary class meant.
The Imperial Academy held formal exams four times a year.
Students who failed two or more were required by regulation to take a certain amount of supplementary classes to avoid grade repetition.
Classes for losers.
It had never applied to her, always at the top.
"I know what supplementary class is. But teacher, you must not know since you're new—I'm not someone who takes supplementary classes."
"...Tch."
Di-did he just click his tongue?
"It's good to have confidence in yourself, but drop it when you're in my class."
"What?"
Max sighed and held out a document next to his magic book.
"Your grade from the last second formal exam in illusion magic."
The letter marked amid countless slashes was F.
It meant failing.
"Me, I failed?"
"Yes. It means you're an inferior student who couldn't even pass that simple exam."
"That's ridiculous..."
"Come in quickly. My holiday's already been stolen because of you, Miss Helen."
Max brushed past her and opened the classroom door.
There was no one inside.
"Why is no one here?"
"Because no one except Miss Helen failed."
"I'm the only one who failed?"
"It was the first exam with only basic questions, and you got this score. Does the Silvesta family teach people like this?"
This couldn't be happening.
'Teacher, the setup is too much.'
She'd never once lost first place.
Hadn't she always crushed others with overwhelming scores, making them feel inferior and deprived?
And now she was the only failure?
"The exam results must be wrong. Did you tamper with it, teacher?"
"Do you want to deny your own abilities that badly?"
"It's not denial!"
"Then let's take the exam again."
"...What?"
"If you don't believe your exam results, we can test you with different questions, right?"
His decisiveness was just like the real Max.
"Fine."
There's no way she would fail.
She'd even studied various illusion magic countermeasures to break Max's spells.
'It's a shame the illusion breaks faster than expected, but...'
A Silvesta never loses.
Max handed her a new test paper.
"Try solving this. It's 'basics' from the illusion magic primer."
"Alright. This is nothing."
Helen sat down and looked at the first page of the test, immediately doubting her eyes.
"What... is this?"
-List the three most essential elements needed to construct illusion magic.
-Illusion mages from ancient times added various external factors to maximize realism. Choose the one not used in the Era of Strife.
-Explain illusion magic unsuitable for real combat and the reason.
.....
The test was filled with completely unfamiliar content.
It was on a whole different level from the illusion magic primer she'd learned at the academy.
What she'd learned was mostly how illusion magic was cast and what was needed to dismantle it.
But these questions were all premised on students being the caster.
"When would we ever use illusion magic ourselves...?"
"You're still spouting that outdated nonsense. To counter the enemy, you must know the enemy. Without the attitude to learn, you can't avoid failing."
"Ugh..."
Faced with problems she couldn't solve, she floundered helplessly.
An experience she'd never had.
Her mind felt foggy, unable to reach out easily.
No, she didn't have the knowledge to begin with.
It was all content she didn't know at all.
The Helen in the illusion might not know what to do, but she had never learned it.
"Haa, haa."
The unfamiliar pressure made her breathing ragged, her heart pounding.
Sweat dripped from her forehead, her hand holding the pen trembling.
While she wrote nothing, ink from the pen spread black across the paper.
It was a vicious emotion like her heart was being crushed.
Her head rang, and a nasty sense of defeat stimulated her.
An emotion she could never have felt before.
She had never once looked at a test question and felt 'I don't know.'
'Do the other kids feel like this every time?'
She couldn't understand.
How could anyone live with this feeling?
It was infuriating, and at the same time, unpleasant.
A strange sense of defeat pricked at her chest.
The sensation sharpened every time she bit her lower lip.
The helplessness of being able to do nothing.
It was quite unpleasant.
"This... is unfair."
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
"I've never learned any of this."
Max clicked his tongue at her words again.
"Tch, that's because you sleep or zone out during class every time."
"What?"
"Seeing you blame the difficulty after slacking off because you're a bit smart, I can predict today's results too."
She looked up at Max looking down at her.
His eyes held blatant contempt.
"Eeek..."
The contemptuous gaze from Max that had only existed in her imagination.
It was the scene she'd thought of just recently—no, right before entering the illusion.
"No. This is..."
The moment she met his gaze, her chest tickled.
A squeezing sensation crushed her heart.
Unable to move a finger, she endured his downward gaze.
"I had some expectations when you said you'd learn, but to think you're just this kind of inferior student."
"Ah..."
Zing, zing.
Each word stabbed her chest like daggers.
"I heard you were the Silvesta family's top genius, but what a disappointment. Seems like professors who want to curry favor with the Silvestas forcibly hyped you up."
Even words insulting her family and herself—Helen couldn't resist.
As if mesmerized by his overwhelming gaze looking down, she just stared into his eyes and listened.
"No need to retake the exam. Retaking it won't turn an inferior student into a top one."
Normally, she would have jumped up in rage at the insult.
But through several illusion magics, Helen knew.
In this place, the Silvesta name and her spirit magic were useless.
No words would work on this man.
"Ugh..."
She lowered her head.
"Do you admit your defeat?"
At Max's words from above her bowed head, she clenched her fists and nodded.
"Yeah."
The moment she voiced her own defeat, it felt like her heart dropped, and she gasped for breath.
And that sensation clung thickly to her heart longer than expected.
"Zero points. A pathetic score."
"I didn't... learn it..."
"Tch, time for corporal punishment."
"Corporal punishment?"
"Yes. Come over here and lift your skirt."
"What? Teacher, you're insane..."
"Miss Silvesta!"
At Max's sudden shout, she involuntarily flinched back.
"An inferior student absolutely obeys the professor during class. Do I need to explain the academy rules again for you to listen?"
"..."
The Imperial Academy was the top school attended by countless talents and noble heirs.
It was an educational institution training them to become the empire's finest.
To control the young masters from prominent families, one rule existed within the academy.
Using that here?
"But..."
"Lift your skirt quickly. We don't have time."
It was humiliating.
To lift her own skirt.
But Max's cold glare made it impossible to refuse.
Gritting her teeth, Helen stood and lifted her skirt.
"Place your hands on the desk, lower your panties, and stick out your butt. You'll get spanked for each wrong answer from now on."
"You're going to hit a noble's body? You... you're crazy?"
"It's official corporal punishment."
It's just an illusion anyway.
It'll end soon.
Barely overcoming the humiliation and shame, she slightly lowered her panties and placed her hands on the desk.
Her pristine white butt, never seen by anyone, was exposed toward Max.
"Every time I hit you, say 'I'm sorry for being an inferior student.'"
"..."
"Answer me."
"O-okay!"
If she couldn't escape, cooperate fully to end it fast.
Helen bit her lip.
"Here it comes."
And at that moment.
"Hngh!"
A fiery hot pain like fire shot from her butt.
Max's thick hand lightly struck her butt.
She could feel her elastic butt jiggling.
"It hurts..."
The burning pain traveled through her spine to her brain.
"Say it. Forgot already because you're an inferior student?"
"I-I'm sorry... for being an inferior student."
It was mortifying.
Baring her butt in front of a man was bad enough, but getting spanked and having to call herself an inferior student herself.
Her heart felt like it would explode from the humiliation.
Blood rushed to her head; she could hear her veins pulsing atop it.
"Again."
"Hngh! S-sorry."
"Why are you sorry? Say the reason!"
"F-for being an inferior student, I'm sorry."
"Again!"
"I'm sorry for being an inferior student!"
She squeezed her eyes shut and screamed with each hit.
Every stinging on her butt, Helen repeated she was sorry for being an inferior student.
Inferior student.
Why am I an inferior student?
That question vanished after five spanks.
Closer than the question was the pain from the spanks and...
"I'm sorry for being an inferior student."
Her own voice reflexively saying it with each hit.
"Keuk! Inferior stu... I'm sorry!"
The initial tolerable sting now hurt enough to stomp her feet.
Even wriggling her butt to dodge, Max persistently followed.
Her heart raced.
With each impact, her whole body tingled alive.
Her reddened, sensitive butt realized her helplessness with each hit from the thick male hand.
Ah, how powerless the prestige of her family was.
Helen turned her head to look at Max.
He was silently spanking her butt.
Why did the culprit who turned her butt red look so thick and imposing?
If he used that big, huge hand to pin her down...
'Wh-what am I thinking...'
After spanking her butt several times, Max straightened his clothes and said.
"Now that the corporal punishment is sufficiently done, let's resume class."
He handed her a handkerchief and continued.
"First, wipe your sweat. Hurry and put your panties back on."
Only then did Helen realize she was still standing with her panties down, butt out by the desk.
"Ah..."
She hastily pulled up her panties, lowered her skirt, wiped her sweat with Max's handkerchief, and smelled his faint cologne from it.
A reassuring scent.
"The class method is simple. Remember what I teach until the end of class, and class ends."
"Haa, haa, s-simple."
"If you just sit through class, you'll zone out like before, so to stimulate you, I'm implementing a simple device."
"What is..."
A small stone-like thing was in Max's hand.
"It's a rotor. Put it in your panties."
"..."
"Don't even think of resisting. You're just an inferior student now, Miss Helen—you can't say anything to me, the professor."
"O-okay."
Max approached.
And he abruptly shoved the rotor item from his thick hand into her skirt.
"W-wait! What are you doing!"
"Don't resist. Is a mere inferior student resisting the teacher now? Want another spanking?"
"Ugh..."
In the end, she couldn't resist Max's hand inside her skirt.
His hand entered her panties.
"Hngh!"
Until he placed the rotor on her sensitive spot, Helen offered no resistance.
"Now you'll attend class with it in. Focus properly."
"What does this have to do with class..."
Vrrr!
At Max's gesture, vibration came from below.
"Hnnnghh!!!"
"It'll wake you right up."
It was the vibration from the rotor Max put in her panties.
Attend class with something like this in her panties?
No way she could!