Academys Villain Professor Chapter 300

[ … words ]

Ho-cheol slowly opened his eyes.

The weight felt on both sides wasn’t simply because his body was heavy from being a patient.

In the first place, the injuries sustained in the battle with Byeong-hoo had all recovered thanks to nearly two months of recuperation.

This heavy feeling was simply due to…

He tilted his head left and right.

It was due to the unwelcome guests who were clinging to and crushing each of his arms.

On the left, Ji-an was snoring, using his arm as a pillow, and on the right, So-hee was biting down gently on his shoulder while clutching his arm.

The nightmare of two months ago resurfaced, and he shivered slightly.

When he returned home after being discharged, seeing the two of them lock the door, he was filled with terror.

He barely avoided the humiliating fate of being overwhelmed thanks to the excuse of being a patient.

However, Ho-cheol felt he had to yield to relieve their maximum level of stress.

Fortunately, their stress or desires were the kind Ho-cheol could easily satisfy.

And the result.

This pitiful situation of having lost one side… no, more than half of the bed.

Three people sleeping in a space that was already cramped for two was extremely uncomfortable.

The two of them claimed that this was what made it good, but honestly, it was an sentiment Ho-cheol couldn’t understand at all.

He carefully pulled his arm out of So-hee’s grasp.

Ho-cheol stared intently at his hand.

His gaze was directed at his hand, but what he was looking at was much further back in the past.

It had already been two months since the final battle with Byeong-hoo.

Yet, the memory was as vivid as yesterday for Ho-cheol.

He twisted his wrist and rotated his palm, causing the air around it to tremble as if resonating.

It wasn’t just air that was swept away by his hand.

Time itself was reversed.

He severed the surrounding space, and within the severed space, he erased time.

His Trait, which reached the realm beyond Transcendence without abandoning humanity, was ironically far beyond the human realm.

His altered Trait could erase even the time that remained as a result.

Even if I suffered a fatal injury, if I erased that past, the fatal injury would disappear.

It would vanish from everyone’s perception.

It would be as if the event had never existed in the first place.

It was undeniably a ridiculous Trait, but Ho-cheol found it hard to be simply happy about it.

In the last battle, the time he awakened this Trait and erased was only about an hour.

And as a result, he had to live as an ordinary person without a Trait for almost two months, and on top of that, he felt like he had used up at least ten years of his lifespan.

Of course, no one could know exactly how much lifespan was left, but he felt it instinctively.

It must be a side effect of maintaining his humanity rather than a risk of the Trait itself.

Originally, his body should have evolved into a monster form to match the evolved Trait.

It was no surprise that a Trait that couldn’t be controlled by a human was eating away at his body.

Ho-cheol clenched his fist tightly again.

I won’t be able to use the Trait for a while.

Although I never used my Trait even when facing average S-ranks, is this what it feels like when the gun I always carried for self-defense turns into a missile?

Of course, if I trained harder and overcame these side effects, things might be different.

As he was deep in contemplation about his Trait, he felt a presence next to him.

Ho-cheol turned his gaze sideways and saw So-hee stirring and climbing up the bed.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes—”

She blinked for a moment and then asked in a relaxed tone.

“Is today the day?”

“Yeah.”

He glanced at the clock on the wall, and it was time to get up and prepare.

He carefully pulled his arm out, making sure not to wake Ji-an, and got out of bed.

Ho-cheol quickly washed up and returned, opening the wardrobe and finishing his preparations for work.

So-hee was still lying in bed, but he didn’t mind at all.

They had already shared too many sights, good and bad, to feel embarrassed now.

Changing clothes was not even something to blush about.

Looking at Ho-cheol, who was wearing a suit after a long time, So-hee pulled the blanket up to her chin and smiled sweetly.

“Good luck.”

“I’ll be back.”

Today was March 2nd.

The start of Clington’s new semester.

***

As Ho-cheol left Clington and headed for the Academy, he ran into an unexpected face.

It was Se-ah.

She was waiting on the route from his dormitory to the lecture hall, as if she had been waiting for Ho-cheol.

She was leaning against a streetlamp, arms crossed in a relaxed posture.

And at her feet was her constant companion, the teddy bear Gom-gom, in the exact same posture.

It was expected that she would take over the Dean’s position since he was half-retired, but she had returned to her original role because she still wanted to teach students.

The Dean, who was on the verge of retirement, complained of elder abuse and forced labor, but what could he do?

He should be thankful that his granddaughter, who had run away, had returned.

Even after spotting Ho-cheol, she didn’t acknowledge him first.

Instead, she lifted her chin high and kept shrugging her whole body, raising her heels repeatedly.

Ho-cheol briefly held his thumb and index finger to his chin, rubbing it, and then snapped his fingers at her appearance.

“You grew a bit taller?”

“Yes! That’s right! I told you! You noticed!”

Se-ah finally smiled brightly and nodded.

No, as if that wasn’t enough, she jumped up and down.

“I grew 1.68 cm!”

“That’s practically 2 cm. If you round off.”

At Ho-cheol’s flattery, Se-ah covered her mouth with both hands.

No one around her had ever said such touching words.

Everyone else had just scoffed, asking why she was making a fuss over just 1 cm.

“You’re right. If anyone asks, I’ll say 2 cm now!”

“Congratulations, then.”

Of course, it could be said it was only 2 cm, but for Se-ah, it wasn’t.

She had been caught in a Gate disaster in the past, causing her growth to stop.

Her appearance, at best, was that of an upper-elementary school student.

That had been a considerable complex, but this 2 cm had great significance.

“Still, the monster carcass I gave you must have had an effect. What, did you boil and drink it?”

“You think I would do something that reckless? That expensive thing? I put it through the research lab grind and finally saw results.”

Se-ah explained a rather complicated process, but Ho-cheol, who wasn’t particularly interested, just hummed in response, letting it go in one ear and out the other.

Researching and processing monster carcasses was the job of Hunters or people in that industry; it had nothing to do with him.

Se-ah, who was excitedly explaining, pouted at his indifferent reaction.

“What the. It was yours, but you don’t care at all?”

“I gave it to you back then. So why is it still mine?”

Since Ho-cheol would only convert it into money if he kept it, he had shown goodwill by telling her to use it to resolve the side effects she suffered from the Gate disaster.

“I still have some left, though. Do you really not need it?”

“Well, if you sell it later, just compensate me with cash.”

“Don’t worry about that. Ah, but do you have some time left?”

Ho-cheol checked his watch at the question.

“I do have some time.”

He had left for work early since it was the first day of lectures.

Se-ah ambled over to a nearby bench and slapped the seat with her palm.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time. Let’s talk a bit more.”

Ho-cheol also walked slowly and sat next to her.

“So, what happened to you? No, what are you going to do next?”

“About what?”

Ho-cheol was confused about the exact topic of her question.

There were just too many things she could be referring to.

Starting with his job as a professor, his villain identity, and the organization he left behind.

However, Se-ah’s question was none of the three.

“No, obviously, your woman problem!”

“Ah. That.”

Since Se-ah had some degree of friendship with So-hee, not just Ho-cheol, she had been informed of some of the circumstances.

And she also knew that under her lead, Ho-cheol had decided to take in everyone around him who liked him.

“I get So-hee, but the others still have quite a bit of time left until graduation, don’t they? There’s no guarantee that a person’s feelings won’t change by then. Is there a need to rush?”

Da-yeon and Ye-jin were currently in their third year.

Ji-an was in her first year (second attempt) because she didn’t meet the attendance requirements.

He didn’t plan to accept anything no matter what they said until they graduated.

“Then what if they say they want to graduate and stay with you?”

“If their feelings really haven’t changed by then…”

Ho-cheol sighed softly.

“I guess I’ll have to accept them. I don’t like turning away people who like me, and I want to return sincerity with sincerity. Above all, I like all of them too.”

“How?”

Naturally, concepts like polygamy or polyandry don’t exist in this country.

If he only registered one person in the family registry and kept the others as simple cohabitants, resentment would subtly build up.

Yet, remaining legally single without registering anyone also felt strange.

Ho-cheol also leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs.

He moved his hands back and forth restlessly for a moment before speaking.

“I thought about it quite a bit.”

Ho-cheol couldn’t find any answer beyond this, no matter how much he thought.

“I have a few fake identities, right? It’s not like they’re all meaningless shells either. They all have their own memories, recollections, and beliefs.”

There were several fake identities, starting with his forged identity during his villain days, the fake identity the Association created for him to work as a professor after his release, and the one he created while working as the Sword Demon’s Sidekick.

They were all meticulously created identities, not just names, and were verifiable enough to be issued Resident Registration Cards anytime.

He was even diligently paying taxes on all of them.

“If they are okay with it, I plan to put a stamp on each name.”

“…Wow. How many?”

“I have four.”

Se-ah was genuinely impressed.

I wondered how Ho-cheol would solve this ‘realistic problem,’ but like the villain he was, he was completely playing with the law.

Of course, this wasn’t a perfect solution either.

There were some identities with status issues among them.

They would just have to come to a friendly agreement among themselves, those who clung to him.

“You definitely used your head. It’s fair, if nothing else.”

Se-ah nodded in agreement.

“Four fake identities means four people? I assume those are the four I know?”

“Exactly.”

The four people involved with Ho-cheol were all quite deeply connected to Se-ah as well.

“Hmm. So that’s it.”

Se-ah gently rubbed her lips with her fingertips.

Her gaze toward Ho-cheol was complicated, mixed with various emotions.

Her current growth rate was not much different from that of an ordinary child.

At a glance, she looked ten, maybe twelve at best.

It would take several years for her to achieve the appearance of a proper adult.

So, she had been quite worried about whether her place would still be there by then, but this method seemed acceptable.

After fluttering her lips for a long time, she nodded emphatically, as if making a decision.

She jumped up from her seat and hugged Gom-gom, who had been sitting next to her.

“Hey.”

With her back to Ho-cheol, she placed her mouth close to Gom-gom’s head and spoke in a low voice.

“Go create one more new identity.”

“Huh? Oh, oh?”

Leaving the startled Ho-cheol behind, Se-ah ran far away as if escaping.

She didn’t want to turn around or stop midway to show Ho-cheol her flushed red face.

***

After receiving Se-ah’s sudden confession, Ho-cheol stood dumbfounded for a long time before finally snapping out of it.

I’d deal with that later.

For now, I rushed to the lecture hall so as not to be late.

The lecture hall buildings had all been completely replaced with new ones, so I almost got lost momentarily, but I managed to arrive just in time.

Ho-cheol opened the door and entered the lecture room.

Kii-ii-eek—

The noisy lecture room instantly fell silent.

All eyes simultaneously focused on Ho-cheol, and they closed their mouths as if on cue.

In the midst of the silence, Ho-cheol did not look at the students but simply walked toward the front.

He stood on the platform, then turned around to face the students in the lecture room.

He rested both hands on the podium, silently looking at the students.

What was the first lecture last year like?

Even though it was a year ago, the memory was still vivid.

The awkwardness of being unable to accept him, the scorn that a villain-turned-professor wouldn’t know anything, the dissatisfaction that their assigned professor was a villain.

The situation, mixed with all sorts of negative emotions, actually fueled Ho-cheol’s motivation.

That rebellious spirit to absolutely train these fools, who didn’t even realize the gap in ability with him, into proper Heroes, along with his overwhelming passion, actually resulted in most of the students he was in charge of reaching B-rank or higher by the time they became third-year students.

However, the first-year students he would be in charge of this year were different.

Look at those glittering eyes.

Although they tried their best to hide it, Ho-cheol’s actions had circulated as rumors in the Academy, and he had become a celebrity greater than the average S-rank, known to all who needed to know.

In truth, he wasn’t particularly happy with the current situation of being in charge of students.

Simple lectures were fine, but the title of ‘assigned professor’ meant he had to be responsible for their career paths and mental care.

Perhaps because the first students he was in charge of were so impactful, or maybe simply because they were the first students.

He wasn’t confident in guiding them with the same passion and dedication as the students he oversaw last year.

Yes.

He definitely thought that.

He “mistook” that thought even up to the moment he grabbed the doorknob in front of the lecture room.

However, upon entering the lecture room, standing on the platform, and facing the students, he finally realized his true intentions.

He smirked.

“I am Jeong Ho-cheol, who will be teaching Deep Application of Augmentation Traits 1 and will be your assigned professor for the next two years.”

A conventional greeting.

But hidden beneath it was a faint amusement and an even greater anticipation.

Although I always grumbled that I was forced into it and that it was difficult, it seemed this was ultimately the only job that truly suited me.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Ho-cheol was, without a doubt, the Villain Professor for them.