The Whip Has Always Been Medicine - 1
Once the dungeon raid was finished, I went straight to the Headmaster and revealed Felix’s secret.
The Headmaster’s face twisted into a sour grimace at the news that Felix harbored twisted sexual desires, yet he made no attempt to deny it.
Felix’s dungeon had vanished the moment it was cleared, and the erotic painting I handed over had been the genuine article.
“Well done.”
“The compensation I want and the recipients are written on this note. Send everything there.”
I refused money outright and demanded only materials and artifacts needed for elixir crafting. Everything was already stored inside the Academy, so it wouldn’t be any real burden.
With that, the commission was closed.
I turned to leave without a shred of lingering attachment when the Headmaster suddenly made an unexpected offer.
“Have you ever considered becoming a temporary instructor at the Academy?”
“……Are you talking to me?”
“Who else is standing here?”
“I just never expected you to make a proposal like that.”
Honestly, I was surprised. Just when everything had wrapped up cleanly and we were about to part ways, he throws out an instructor offer.
I’d been through countless absurd situations, but this one easily ranked among the freshest.
“I’m not joking. I’m serious.”
“Then let me ask two serious questions. What can the Academy offer me, and do you really believe a dropout like me can properly teach students?”
“Hmm…”
“Not an easy answer, is it? With this commission finished, my business at the Academy is completely done. There’s simply no compensation here that could tempt me.”
Plenty of opportunities still remained inside, but they no longer mattered. I was already strong enough that early-game windfalls barely registered. More is always better, sure, but investing time and effort elsewhere would yield better returns. And I already had a mountain of things that needed doing.
“The educational side is the same. Teaching only works when students trust their professor or instructor. Who’s going to trust and follow someone who dropped out three days after enrollment?”
“Prove yourself with skill and that settles it, doesn’t it?”
“You know the students aren’t as soft as we like to think. Some will never bow their heads to a peer. Others are nobles who believe themselves superior by birth. Even forcing submission through strength has its limits.”
I politely listed every reason and declined the Headmaster’s offer. No matter how you sliced it, I wasn’t about to waste precious time babysitting brats.
Missing the chance to teach the characters of Monopolizing the Strongest in the Academy was a little regrettable, though.
“I understand. Asking you to clear an unknown dungeon was already my greed. I’ll drop the matter this time.”
“A wise decision.”
“Wise, you say…… Can an old man who can barely handle this seat really be called wise?”
The corners of the Headmaster’s eyes drooped with a pity that almost made me feel sorry for him. Almost. I still had no intention of snatching up his offer. Half-hearted sympathy would only leave me holding the short end of the stick.
“It seems this position was too much for me from the start.”
He ran a hand over the nameplate resting on his desk, then lifted it lightly and spun it like a toy.
“The title is this light, yet the responsibility is crushing. That must mean my failures have been equally great.”
“Failures?”
“I let a talent like you slip through my fingers right under my nose, and I allowed demons into the sacred Academy. On top of that, a student with a bright future became a wanted criminal. All of it stems from my own lack of virtue. Perhaps the time has come for me to step down and take responsibility.”
“……You’re not seriously thinking of resigning as Headmaster, are you?”
He simply nodded in silence.
The situation had just become extremely inconvenient.
In the original story the Headmaster also stepped down before the Demon King’s revival. Once the demon spy Belmond’s identity was exposed and Rin died, he took responsibility and left. The successor who arrived afterward was a greedy, ignorant fool. He sold Academy secrets to information brokers, embezzled artifacts from the vaults, and sexually harassed every pretty woman he saw—including female students without the slightest hesitation.
The crowning glory of his incompetence came with the Demon King’s revival: he abandoned students and professors and fled first. As a result, eighty percent of the faculty died and nearly half the students who needed protection perished. Later, when Kang Junhyuk formed the allied forces, that next Headmaster had his head cleanly chopped off.
A satisfying ending, but the damage would have been far smaller if the Headmaster’s seat had never changed hands. The current Headmaster, at least, was an adult who properly watched over the students’ growth.
He doesn’t know it, but I’m partly the reason he’s fretting like this……
A dropout that shattered the original plot, the early elimination of the spy, Kang Junhyuk’s downfall—except for the spy, all of it was my doing. Even the second one was the result of Rin’s actions under my influence, so I couldn’t claim zero responsibility.
“Haa…! You said temporary instructor, right? I’ll take the offer.”
“Is that true?!”
“Yes. But only for two weeks. Exactly two weeks from now I’ll leave the Academy without a second thought, so promise me you won’t try to stop me then.”
“I promise.”
“And I have only one demand. You will remain Headmaster for at least the next five years. If you try to step down before that, I’ll break your legs and force you back into that chair.”
“Understood.”
With Kang Junhyuk already ruined, if the Headmaster vanished as well the Academy would become a complete disaster. I may have broken the original plot, but I still needed to leave the Academy intact enough to keep up appearances.
That was my bare minimum of conscience and mercy.
“And one last condition……”
The moment he heard my words, the Headmaster’s pupils dilated wider than I had ever seen them.
Class A of Felix Academy.
It was the class that gathered only the most outstanding talents based on every test, and at the same time a den crawling with problem children. You could call it overflowing with personality if you were being generous, but no professor ever wanted to teach Class A.
The reasons were many, but the biggest was that the students simply looked down on their professors. They believed themselves far superior and were confident they could win a duel against any instructor. Why learn anything from someone weaker than yourself?
So the students of Class A treated their professors with open contempt and did whatever they pleased—reading, sleeping, researching, fighting. No one paid the slightest attention to the professor’s words. Only the well-behaved student council president still took classes seriously.
Looks like today’s lesson is already a lost cause.
Professor Platten, forced to take Class A after losing a lottery draw, let out another deep sigh. Even before morning assembly the students were already making a racket. If he tried to scold them, there was no telling what kind of incident might explode. They weren’t students so much as walking time bombs, so he simply delivered the announcement in a low voice.
“Starting today, for about two weeks, an outside temporary instructor will be taking over our class.”
“……A temporary instructor?”
He had spoken as quietly as possible, yet every ear in Class A was sharp. All eyes locked onto him at once. Feeling the weight of those stares, Professor Platten cleared his throat and continued.
“He enrolled in the Academy, dropped out after three days, then piled up such tremendous achievements outside that he was invited as an instructor despite being roughly your age. The Headmaster himself brought him, so do not be rude.”
“What? Someone our age is an instructor?”
“The Academy’s been going downhill lately, and now it’s completely lost its mind. We’re so short on teachers that we have to learn from some punk like that?”
“Haa…! Lots of people have been dropping out lately. If I’d known it would come to this, I would’ve left too!”
Exactly as expected, complaints erupted from every corner. Being a mere temporary instructor without proper qualifications was already a problem, but the biggest issue was that he was the same age. And he had dropped out of the Academy early, no less. Of course the problem children of Class A would rebel.
“Professor, I believe there’s been a mistake in class assignment. Someone like that should be handling Class B at the absolute minimum, not us.”
“It’s a special directive from the Headmaster……”
Even the student council president, who had never once protested until now, rose to his feet. Professor Platten rubbed his forehead. Truthfully, he didn’t understand it either. Just how incredible was this so-called instructor that the Headmaster would order him placed in Class A? No matter how hard he thought, no answer came.
“Tell him to quit right now! Learning under some guy who already quit the Academy early? That doesn’t make any sense!”
“So what if it doesn’t?”
At that moment—
Creak—! Thud—!
The front door of Class A swung open and Bern walked in. He glanced at the male student who had just been running his mouth, then strode up to the teacher’s desk. The moment he reached it he turned and faced the students, sweeping his gaze across their faces.
“Who’s that? Wait—are you the instructor everyone’s talking about?”
“……I am. But where the hell did you learn to talk down to someone you just met? Did your mother teach you that?”
“What?! You little son of a—!”
The massive male student, Tony, took a direct hit from the mother insult. His face flushed crimson all the way to the roots of his hair as he charged at Bern. Professor Platten moved to break up the fight, but Bern quickly raised a hand and stopped him. The gesture made it clear he could handle this alone.
“I’ll twist that neck of yours!”
“Twist my neck, huh…… Is that really going to be enough?”
“Ghk?!”
Tony lunged for Bern’s throat. Bern casually slipped past the arm and stepped straight into Tony’s chest. In one smooth motion he seized Tony by the neck, hoisted him up, and slammed him onto the floor. Then, still holding him, he twisted Tony’s neck and stomped down hard on his head.
Crunch—!
Tony’s head burst, spraying blood and brain matter in every direction.
The students who had been watching stood with their mouths hanging open, unable to utter a single word. But only for a moment.
“Hhk?! Hah…! Hah…!”
Tony, whom everyone had thought dead, was suddenly alive and gasping for breath. Being slammed to the floor, having his neck twisted, even his head exploding—all of it had been nothing more than an illusion Bern had shown them. Yet it had been so vivid that every single person had been completely fooled.
“You shouldn’t have settled for twisting a neck. You should’ve been ready to blow it clean off.”
“Eek…!”
Bern casually approached Tony and whispered the words. Tony convulsed and scrambled backward, then toppled over and wet himself right there on the spot.
“Alright. Who else has a problem with me?”
Bern smiled brightly and slowly scanned every face in Class A. A vague, sinking realization began to dawn on them all.
They were completely fucked.