Finally, Light Pierces the Hell of Academy Group Projects – Day Three
After school on the third day of our group's descent into academy project hell, I sat at my desk with my hands clasped tightly together, eyes gently closed in deep meditation. Or, more accurately, I was artificially moisturizing my bone-dry eyeballs after a grueling march that had lasted until 3 a.m.
I slowly opened my eyes and scanned my three groupmates sitting in a neat row before me, then their desks one by one through my still-stiff vision. First, to my left: our excellent unpaid slave number one, Elarra von Sterling. Her face was tense, like a prisoner awaiting a death sentence at any moment, as she cautiously slid a perfectly organized stack of parchment toward me. The tips of her fingers gripping the edges trembled faintly.
"C-Captain...! As you instructed, I've excluded all society gossip and unnecessary descriptions, summarizing our Sterling Trading Company's exclusive intel on the [Rare Beast Ecology and Migration Routes of the Northern Mountains] into exactly three pages...!"
I picked up the parchment with a skeptical glance. But the moment I skimmed the first paragraph, a faint smile of satisfaction crept onto my lips. It was perfect. All the superfluous noble flourishes had been ruthlessly cut, leaving only clear, academically valuable facts and data laid out plainly.
'Good. As the heir to the empire's largest trading company, she ought to have this level of information-gathering and document-handling skill.'
I nodded slightly in approval, and only then did Elarra exhale the breath she'd been holding deep in her lungs, her rigid shoulders finally relaxing.
Shifting my gaze straight ahead: the lightning mage, Chloe de Valua. Her desk was spotless, like freshly polished marble—not a pen, not a crumpled sheet of parchment in sight. A perfect display of arrogance with empty hands. Arms crossed tightly over her uniform robe, she treated me like I was invisible, her displeasure etched up to the tip of her chin.
Finally, to my right: Reina. Propping her chin on both hands, she stared at me intently with her vacant purple eyes, as if my face were the only scenery in the world. But there was one difference from yesterday. Shockingly, atop her desk sat three pristine pages of neat, precise handwriting titled [Countermeasures Against Beasts with High Magic Resistance].
Of course, Reina hadn't written it. I'd known that airheaded beast would show up with more bloody doodles like "just punch it" or "rip it in half" as her so-called assignment. So, propping up my heavy eyelids with toothpicks through the night, I'd written it myself until 3 a.m.—a tear-jerking "proxy assignment" infused with a decade of teacher's blood and sweat.
The real culprit, Reina, had simply placed the parchment I'd handed her neatly on her desk and was now wagging her tail shamelessly, pretending to be the model student who'd aced her homework.
"......"
The problem was Chloe's reaction, oblivious to the tragic truth of this proxy work. Her gaze, fixed straight ahead on Reina's perfect three pages, had frozen solid. Chloe's blue eyes quivered with a faint earthquake.
Tap.
I unclasped my hands and lightly set down the fountain pen I'd been holding. It was just a tiny metallic clink, but in that instant, a chilling illusion swept the room, as if the temperature had plummeted below freezing.
"Lady Valua. Was the final warning I gave you yesterday just some tasteless joke to your ears?"
My voice didn't tremble with anger or rise in pitch. It sank cold and dry, like an ice block—the most dangerous signal from a veteran teacher on the verge of true explosion. These greenhouse flower nobles had no way of knowing that.
"Where does that brazen confidence come from, sitting there empty-handed? With the deadline just two days away and you haven't even prepared materials—it's beyond belief as your group leader."
I pressed my brow and shot her a icy glare. Elarra flinched, shoulders hunching as if fearing the sparks might fly her way, and bowed her head. Chloe faltered under my chill aura and the pressure of the flawless assignments flanking her, biting her paling lips.
That was when it happened. Reina, who had been quietly propping her chin beside me, suddenly straightened up and raised her voice shamelessly, like a student council president flashing her armband.
"Yeah! Why won't you listen to Cadel? He told you to do the assignment properly!"
It was blatant pandering—clearly begging for praise with a "Did I do good?" while siding with me, the leader. But from my perspective, having burned through my lifespan until 3 a.m. ghostwriting her part, that clumsy acting and freeloader's bold posturing was enough to draw a hollow laugh.
"Your Highness. Please leave the group project to me, your leader."
Swallowing the boiling rage inside, I forced a strained smile and continued.
"Group projects require everyone's cooperation, so please refrain from singling out any member."
Of course, my pointed subtext was, 'I wrote everything, so don't you dare lecture others so shamelessly, you conscienceless beast.'
"Huh...? Cadel, why, why are you taking her side?"
Expecting a head pat, Reina blinked her purple eyes in confusion at my ironclad defense. Pouting like she was wronged, she tugged at my shirt sleeve with her dragon leather-gloved hand.
"Hmph, Cadel's an idiot... Why won't you take my side...?"
"This isn't about sides. Let go. You'll wrinkle it."
As I firmly pulled my sleeve away, disappointment welled up in Reina's eyes. Just as she started to droop her head like a kicked giant dog—
"Ha. What a sight."
Chloe, across from me with arms still crossed, let out a sharp sneer. Her horrific inferiority and shame at being the only one slacking twisted into a defensive arrogance.
"I didn't not do the assignment. I just didn't do it. Who does a lowly baron's whelp think he is, bossing me around? I have zero intention of cooperating on some assignment where you're the leader, so you can scratch away at your papers alone like the nobody you are and submit it yourself!"
Chin thrust high, Chloe rattled off lines straight out of the haughty noble lady playbook. Dragging in class society logic to cover her irresponsibility, she declared her legal escape from this damned group project.
As I clutched my neck at that viciously selfish gall, ready to unleash my reincarnated "old-timer authority" physically—
Hummm—.
The air around us warped with a bizarre hum. The lazy afternoon sunlight pouring through the window seemed to bleach gray in an instant, and a horrific wave crushed our eardrums, flooding the classroom.
Choking under the pressure, I reflexively whipped my head around. The sulky beast who'd been pouting at my scolding moments ago was gone. Reina, still propping her chin, had merely tilted her head to glare straight at Chloe. The disappointment in her eyes had frozen into an inorganic purple abyss, devoid of any spark of life.
Was it explosive murderous intent for insulting her "master" as a lowly baron? Or pent-up frustration from my scolding, using this easy prey as an excuse to snap her neck? Unclear. The only certainty: a horrific gravity field, perfectly synced to Reina's displeasure, poured straight down solely onto Chloe's crown.
Crack, craaaack!
Spiderweb cracks spidered across the sturdy oak desk top where Chloe's hands gripped.
"Ugh, urk...! Gahk...!"
Blue lightning sparks crackled around the crushed Chloe. Her thunder magic instinctively resisted the threat to her life, but against the empire's strongest force, those flames flickered like candles in the wind. Her arrogant face drained paper-white, thick cold sweat pouring like rain from her brow.
Right then, the first to leap into this suffocating vortex of killing intent was our survival-instinct superstar, unpaid slave number one, Elarra.
"H-Hiiik...! No...!"
Trembling in terror, she nonetheless sprang from her seat and rushed to Chloe's side, crushed under the gravity. Gripping Chloe's shoulders, she whispered desperately in her ear.
"Lady Valua...! Please! Your life is worth way more than that flimsy pride!"
"Guh, S-Sterling... what the, cough...?"
"Don't you get it?! Defy the captain's orders and crawl any further, and that beast will tear us all to shreds without a trace! If you want to live, grovel like she says! Beg to do whatever he asks, now!"
Elarra's desperate, pathetic warning stabbed Chloe's ear like a death sentence. Chloe rolled her terror-wide blue eyes, glancing between the merciless beast looming over her and me, chin-propped beside her.
'Haa... High school girl power struggles were exhausting in my past life and still are now.'
I pinched my brow and spoke up to defuse the bloodcurdling tension.
"Alright, that's enough. You're all grown students—why act so childish?"
My casual remark barely landed before Chloe cried out like she'd grabbed a lifeline.
"O-Okay, got it...! I'll do it! Research materials, I'll bring them!"
Her voice shook as tears welled in her fear-stricken eyes, declaring surrender.
"Hmph, it's for the project... Just this once, out of my marquis family's generosity, I'll cooperate to finish it perfectly... Don't get the wrong idea...!"
Even on the brink of death, she squeezed out her fragile noble pride, clenching her trembling fists.
With her surrender, the crushing gravity field vanished like a lie. Reina looked up at me chin-propped once more, as if she'd never exuded killing intent—her face the picture of a dopey puppy begging, 'Cadel, she'll listen to you now, right? Good girl?'
"Haa, haa..."
Chloe slumped over her desk, gasping raggedly. Elarra wiped relieved tears, watching me and Reina warily.
I surveyed the suddenly mouse-quiet group with leisure, nodding faintly.
'Yes. I should have asserted my leader—er, teacher authority sooner and given her a stern talking-to. She talks big about nobility and pride, but as a student, those grades and scores must sting deep down.'
Completely misreading how the situation had unfolded, I beamed benevolently and declared:
"I'm glad you're all finally showing some cooperation, even if late. Once Lady Valua's materials are in, I'll compile the final assignment. That's it for today—dismissed."
Drunk on massive pride as K-Group Leader and ex-veteran teacher, having reformed these selfish noble ladies' egos and excuses with perfect leadership to salvage our near-doomed project.