Chapter 83: The Mad Professor (5)

Overnight, I became a professor.

Well, not a full professor.

Part-time lecturer.

They call me “Professor,” but I’m definitely not in a position to actually be called that.

…And that became me?

Let’s be extremely generous and say I got lucky.

Sure. It could happen once.

…Or could it?

Thinking back, even in Korea, becoming a part-time lecturer was insanely strict.

You needed connections for introductions.

At minimum a master’s degree.

Plus actual career experience in the field…

Even the random no-name junior colleges required at least that much.

Me… at that level…?

I, who never even stepped foot in an academy and only holed up in my room doing alchemy, became a lecturer…

The problem was that the school I had to lecture at was on a completely different level.

Karen Academy.

An academy located in the capital with an incredibly deep history.

Wasn’t it founded by the first emperor with the words, “Learning must be equal”?

The tuition is expensive—that’s the downside—but the scholarship and support systems are excellent.

If you have talent, you can enter no matter what.

In short, an academy overflowing with talent freaks.

If you compare it to Korea, it’s Seoul National University.

A school where missing one or two questions on the CSAT is the default…

No, it’s probably even higher than that…

Seoul National University isn’t actually that high in global rankings.

It only dominates inside Korea.

If we’re talking global, shouldn’t we be looking abroad?

Karen Academy is the best in the empire.

That would make it the United States—just one that absorbed other countries because it’s bigger and stronger.

At the very least MIT or Oxford level.

And the subjects taught are insanely diverse.

Swordsmanship, magic, down to finely divided schools of thought…

Ughhh!

A dazzling image of a prestigious university formed in Evan’s mind.

He had refused the offer to tour the academy and returned to his room, so this was the natural result.

The university floating in his head… He had attended college before, but the famous overseas universities were on another level.

Even just recalling a few movie scenes, the visuals were worlds apart.

Aaaaaagh! Should I just run away?

He was dead serious.

If he said one wrong word in front of geniuses, he’d instantly get the “Who the hell is this guy?” stare.

Sure, they wouldn’t openly show it because he was a duke’s son, but he would still feel every single one of those stares.

Flop!

Evan buried his face in the plush pillow.

A pillow perfectly matching the overly spacious and luxurious room that had been temporarily assigned to him…

Evan, collapsed like a corpse, flailed his limbs.

Behavior he could never show outside.

No!

Those people are normally so picky!

When inviting someone, they bring up degrees; even if the authority is high, they bring up degrees; even if the skill is amazing, they still bring up degrees.

Why me?!

Why am I the one doing it?!

Evan was in the middle of a full mental breakdown.

But like a true manly man, Evan quickly pulled himself together.

…He had already whined all he was going to whine, so whatever.

Pulling himself together was what mattered.

– The lecture is in three days, Young Master. We look forward to a wonderful lecture. Would you spare just a little time tomorrow to tour the academy?

Roughly three days left.

They said to at least figure out the general flow of the lecture before then, so even if he took it easy, he had two days…

He had to prepare the lecture within that time.

…Alright. Before that, should I go listen to some lectures?

Magic, if possible.

Come to think of it, one of the reasons Evan came to Karen Academy wasn’t just to accept the invitation—he also wanted to learn something new.

Magic.

He had learned a little from Ocera, but that was only for inventory/subspace purposes.

Making the magic golem he wanted would still take time.

He could fill that gap here.

If worse comes to worst, I could just carve magic circles and leave… Still a profit.

Just study the magic circles and learn, right?

Of course, that was something only someone who knew nothing about magic would say.

Normally, magic isn’t studied by looking at magic circles.

You have to sense mana, manipulate it as you wish, memorize… It’s a process.

But anyway, as long as he got some magic, he wouldn’t lose out, right?

Yes. I have to at least come out ahead somehow…

As Evan was inwardly swearing that to himself—

Knock knock!

“Evan! Evan! I’m all clean now!”

“You may enter.”

“Okay~!”

Creak!

Lapis burst in.

Her cheeks were slightly flushed and her hair still damp, as if she really had just finished washing.

…The problem was that she had only draped the towel over her head. 

Evan kept glancing, worried it would fall.

“Evan, were you sleeping? Your hair’s all messy…”

“I was just lying down for a bit. More importantly, why didn’t you dry your hair?”

“I wanted Evan to dry it for me! They have this magic tool here, and it’s amazing! This one thing is better than anything in our mansion!”

Lapis, somehow starting to sound like Charlotte, handed Evan a hair-dryer-like magic tool.

She plopped familiarly onto the bed, sat right in front of Evan’s knees, and wiggled her hair as if begging him to dry it quickly.

…She’s not even a cat.

Evan smirked inwardly and began drying her hair.

Lapis chattered away.

“Evan! The water pressure here is insane! Can’t we install something like this in our mansion?!”

“I’ll think about it.”

“You’ll probably do it the moment Evan says the word~”

I’m really not that easy.

Evan thought that, but too lazy to argue, he just silently kept drying.

“Don’t bother Evan.”

Frey walked in through the open door.

Unlike Lapis who left it wide open, Frey politely closed it behind her.

“Why don’t you dry your own hair? With all the tools here, you wouldn’t even need arms. Or are those arms just for decoration?”

Her tone had somehow turned venomous.

Lapis snorted.

“Hmph. So what? I just wanted Evan to dry my hair.”

At those words, Frey’s arm twitched for a split second.

Her stare at Evan was… odd.

Evan declared firmly,

“If you wet it again, I’m not drying it.”

“Tch!”

Frey’s hair was already almost dry.

He had a feeling that if he left it at that, she would really pour water on herself, so he rejected it decisively. 

She clicked her tongue.

Was she seriously planning to do it?

I’m not raising kids here…

Was taking care of the Sins always this exhausting…?

Evan pressed and dried Lapis’s hair.

Lapis’s face melted into bliss.

“Hehehe… This feels so good…”

Smack!

Suddenly, Frey barged in, yanked the towel hard.

Because the towel was pulled so suddenly, not only the hair but Lapis’s cheek got scraped as if slapped. 

Lapis’s eyes went round.

“Ow! Why’d you suddenly take the towel?!”

“Just because you were annoying.”

“Kyaaaa!”

The moment her hair was dry, the two started fighting again.

Frey had become more mature, but she was still exhausting in moments like this…

“Ah. Did Elric get back safely?”

“Oh! Right, Frey. Did he?”

“…You didn’t even check that? No wonder they call you a parasite.”

“What?!”

“Elric is back safe. Evan’s puppy is—”

Ah, right.

Skoll and Hati.

He had completely forgotten they existed for a while…

I’ll send them back to the mansion later.

They’re cute as puppies, but having two heads is a bit of an issue.

If someone catches them wrong, they might get secretly dragged off for experiments.

Better return them before that happens.

“By the way, where did Royan go?”

“Ah.”

“?”

Lapis scratched her head with an awkward smile, as if she had just remembered.

“He said it was annoying, fell asleep in the water, and almost drowned? I pulled him out, but then I forgot to bring him back!”

“It’s fine, Evan. We don’t die from something like that.”

“Go get him.”

Evan said firmly.

And the next day.

Evan reluctantly dressed up, fixed himself a little, and stepped outside…

They said he had to show noble dignity, so he stood with his hands behind his back, and apparently that looked quite dignified.

“Wow.”

“Sis, why did we look less cool than Evan even though we were royalty?”

“How should I know?”

Aegis and Charlotte were whispering to each other, unsure whether they liked it or not.

Evan wanted to ask what they were talking about, but he couldn’t muster the courage to approach…

Absolutely not because he was scared.

Personal conversations should be respected.

Yeah. That’s it.

He definitely wasn’t worried they were talking behind his back.

“Ah! You came out early! The professor hasn’t arrived yet…!”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m Assistant Armin!”

Assistant Armin was a boy with yellow-blond hair and blue eyes.

True to his energetic personality, he was quite chatty and loud.

“That park over there is pretty, and the food there is delicious! There’s even a chef who used to work in the imperial palace—he says he loves watching students so he came for a bit…!”

“Loves watching students”… doesn’t that sound a little off?

Shouldn’t we arrest him?

“Ah! And this is top secret…”

Armin glanced around, then whispered as if sharing a huge secret.

“Lady Acella also attends here! She was top of the entire school last semester.”

“I see.”

Because Evan answered indifferently, Armin’s eyes went wide, as if he thought Evan really didn’t know.

“You didn’t know? Lately the rumor that Lady Acella is in love with Young Master Evan is all over the—”

“W-What?!”

Evan doubted his ears for a moment.

Who is in love with whom?

“It might have been Lady Velia, not Lady Acella! Last semester Lady Velia was second, but this semester her grades suddenly shot up, so she’s getting a lot of attention!”

Velia.

That name was familiar.

When was it?

Probably at a banquet?

They had briefly met, greeted, and… exchanged contacts?

…Ah, they never actually contacted.

Evan nodded while thinking.

He wasn’t even sure why he had to think so hard.

Acella is probably just a baseless rumor.

He barely knew anything about Acella anyway.

After Ocera asked him to look into Evan last time, he hadn’t had the time or interest to think about her.

Probably just a nonsense rumor?

Or maybe she used the bad-rumored Evan to ward off guys.

Then… he should… protest… but she seemed a little scary…

“But why bring up Lady Velia all of a sudden?”

“Huh? All of a sudden?!”

Armin jumped.

“The rumor that Lady Velia is also in love with Young Master Evan has spread throughout the entire academy!”

With me?

Excuse me?

Who loves whom??

Grind.

Frey ground her teeth ever so slightly.

…Without letting it show.

With a smiling face.