The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 86
‘I was hindering Catherine’s growth. Having someone to rely on diminished her desperation.’
The solution was simple.
‘I need to distance myself from Catherine.’
It wasn’t a bad choice for me either.
Getting close to Catherine was never something I desired in the first place.
The Light’s Hero, ‘Del El paso’.
She will be central in the upcoming turmoil, so for my goal of ‘leeching off,’ distancing myself now would be the best strategy.
However,
‘Why am I doing such a foolish thing?’
I sighed internally as I watched Catherine burst into tears in front of me.
Intervening like this was not a wise choice.
It could be, as she said, ‘unnecessary meddling.’
But I couldn’t help it.
Sometimes, you make such foolish choices in life.
‘My efforts to leech off are ultimately to find satisfaction. If I ignore this, I doubt I’ll sleep well.’
I remembered my childhood.
My father was an alcoholic and gambler, and my mother was always in the hospital, so I often had to move between relatives’ homes.
Generally, they were nice at first.
Well, at first.
How long do I have to take care of this burden?
Every time I tried to open up, getting hurt by their sudden cold changes, I don’t even know how many times.
Knowing how much it hurts when someone who once offered warmth suddenly changes, I just couldn’t push her away coldly.
‘There must be another way to awaken Catherine.’
Yes, I am a possessor.
It would be much harder and more troublesome, but there was a way.
“What are you looking at! Th-This isn’t me crying, something got in my eye! Sniff, what kind of dust is this sharp! So annoying!”
Embarrassed by her outburst, Catherine snapped back.
“Now that’s enough, go back. I can handle the rest on my own.”
“Relying on others isn’t a weakness. Rather, being too afraid to reach out for help is the real weakness.”
“……”
“You can ask for help without feeling burdened. A professor exists for their students, after all.”
Tears welled up in Catherine’s eyes again.
This time, she clenched her fists and held them back.
“What good would your help do? I’m the worst dud anyway. Honestly, I can hardly understand your lectures.”
“No, you are not lacking in talent.”
“Ha. As if. I know I’m a dimwit, okay? Why are you even making a fuss about becoming a mage with such a dud like me? A fool, an idiot, a simpleton.”
That was Catherine’s true feelings, hidden deep within.
“You misunderstood me. I didn’t say you had the talent to be a mage. Honestly, you do lack many qualities to become a proper mage.”
“Then, what?”
“Catherine, what do you think your strength is?”
Catherine couldn’t answer.
“It’s simple. Your unwavering will and the perseverance to keep trying thousands, millions of times. Unfortunately, these talents don’t help much in becoming an outstanding mage.”
A mage’s achievements are more determined by talent than effort.
At lower levels, ‘magical intelligence’ is needed, and as achievements rise, ‘intuition’ to delve into ‘path of magic’ becomes crucial.
Both were talents Catherine was not born with.
“Your talents could shine elsewhere.”
Catherine’s eyes began to tremble faintly.
She instinctively guessed what I was about to say next.
‘I hoped she would realize it on her own.’
But now, there was no choice.
No matter how Catherine might react, I had to tell her.
“Your talent isn’t in being a mage, but in being a swordsman, a knight.”
“!!”
“You’re more suited to be a swordsman than a mage.”
Catherine’s complexion turned pale.
* * *
I recalled the storyline.
Catherine’s sword split the sky. A pillar of light illuminated the world, and people praised her as such.
The Light’s Hero, ‘Del El paso.’
Yes.
Catherine was never meant to be a protagonist of the mage class.
The knight class.
More precisely, a Magic Knight, Dual Knights class.
‘Having two protagonists as mages doesn’t balance out anyway.’
The problem is that it’s not an easy concept to accept.
For Catherine, becoming a mage wasn’t just a career aspiration.
It represented revenge against the magical lineage.
‘Originally, she was forced to accept this fact in the depths of despair. She didn’t awaken because my intervention prevented her from falling into despair.’
Unsurprisingly, Catherine’s reaction was not positive.
“Ha! A knight, all of a sudden?”
“Do you remember when you dueled Yulia? You had never learned swordsmanship, yet you defeated Yulia. That’s your talent.”
“But I can’t be a knight. Absolutely not. I hate it. I need to become a mage.”
“Do you hate the magical family that much?”
“!!”
Catherine bit her lip hard.
Her eyes turned bloodshot.
It wasn’t the same kind of crying as before.
It was anger.
“Do you know how I was treated in that damned lineage? Just because I lacked talent in magic? I was better off rummaging through garbage in the slums! Even then, I was less than human, but not treated like the insect I am now!”
“……”
“I can never give up on magic! Until all those damned people in the magical lineage kneel before me with their so-called superior magic!!”
It was a difficult issue.
What if Catherine became a knight? And what if she became great?
Would the people of the magical lineage even care?
Sword bearers are just meat shields. They die for us.
That was the perception of the magical lineage towards knights.
The moment she became a knight, she would never be acknowledged by the magical lineage.
She would always remain a dirty illegitimate, a failure.
“Not all knights are looked down upon by the magical lineage.”
“Ha. Those shoe-lickers even dismiss the Imperial Five Great Swordsmen among the Lv. 8 transcendental knights.”
“Ascendant Knights.”
“!!”
Catherine froze.
“Even the bastards of the magical lineage can’t dismiss an ascendant knight who has reached the heavens.”
Catherine made a face of disbelief.
By the way, there was only one knight-class ascendant being in the empire at the moment.
The former head of the Swordsmanship Lineage, the Sword Saint.
“What kind of pie-in-the-sky talk is that? I’m nowhere near becoming an Ascendant being.”
“Of course, it’s a distant dream. So, will you give up? After all, wasn’t Alfonso Duke not your ultimate target?”
“……”
Catherine’s gaze changed.
The one she hated the most wasn’t Joanna who ignored her, nor Duchess Beth, nor even the relatives and servants who directly tormented her.
It was her own father, Duke Alfonso.
“You know well that Duke Alfonso is obsessed with ascension. But can you imagine how satisfying it would be if you surpassed Duke Alfonso and became an Ascendant first?”
“That would be epic, sure. Impossible though. My father will become an Ascendant within five years at most.”
“You only need three years.”
“Ha…”
It was true.
The finale of “Hero Academy,” the “End Scenario,” takes place in the fourth year.
If Catherine doesn’t become an Ascendant before then, it’s trouble.
It means the world ends.
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it to you. I’ll make you a 3rd Sword Rank knight within a week.”
“!!”
Whether Catherine believed it or not, I looked away.
“Did you hear all that, Your Excellency?”
“!!”
A figure emerged from the shadows.
A distinguished handsome man but always giving off a chilling aura, Duke Alfonso.
“Haha, I heard. Quite an interesting story you’re telling.”
“If, as I said, Catherine shines as a knight, please cease the abuse, Your Excellency.”
“Hmm? Abuse? I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about.”
Duke Alfonso’s smile deepened.
It was an affirmation.
“Without having children yourself, you might not understand, but it’s all out of love for my daughter. She wouldn’t grow a bit if not pushed this way. Look, thanks to this, even a lacking child like her struggles this much, doesn’t she?”
It was nonsense.
‘As if he has a speck of love for Catherine. He only sees her as a tool to use.’
Just as I was about to open my mouth, Catherine gripped the lapel of my coat.
As if telling me to stop.
“I’m fine. This kind of thing doesn’t bother me at all.”
I sighed deeply.
Despite pretending to be calm, her hand gripping my coat trembled slightly.
‘Such a man also calls himself a father.’
Duke Alfonso was the central antagonist in Catherine’s character scenario.
He was an object of hatred and fear, and at the same time, a family member she yearned affection from.
Her striving to succeed as a mage was due to the contradictory reasons of wanting to surpass Alfonso Duke while also seeking his acknowledgment.
“Let’s go.”
I headed for the portal.
“But, I haven’t decided to become a knight, you know? Moreover, you’re not even a swordsmanship professor. How do you plan to make me a 3rd Sword Rank knight?”
On the way back, Catherine kept nagging.
“I don’t know either. As you said, I’m a magic faculty professor, not a knight.”
“Ha! Then why make such a bold claim?!”
“It’s not necessarily about instruction.”
Perplexed by my words, Catherine frowned as I handed her an envelope.
“What’s this? 50 penas?”
“It’s a commission fee. There’s a place we need to go, and I need you to escort me.”
“Are you kidding? You’re using me as an escort is your excuse to train me, aren’t you?”
“No, I genuinely need your help for something. I’d prefer to entrust it to others, but you’re the only one qualified for the job.”
I reached the portal and handed the target coordinates to the administrator.
“Are these coordinates correct?”
“Is there an issue?”
“No issue, but the destination is…?”
“Here’s the visitation permit.”
The admin looked at us with a hesitant face, as if to say, ‘Am I really supposed to send them? They’re practically signing their own death warrant.’
“Please reconsider. Since I’ve started working as the admin, not a single person who entered ‘that place’ has come back alive.”
Catherine was horrified.
“Where on earth are we going?!”
“You’ll see when we get there. Follow me.”
“Wait a minute!”
With a flash, we crossed the unique subspace of the portal and arrived at our destination.
But something was off.
There was no light.
It wasn’t that it was night.
Something was covering the sky.
And at the same time.
A massive sound of wind struck our ears.
Like a typhoon was raging right beside us.
“Could this be?”
“Yes, that’s right. We’re on Whirlwind Island.”
Catherine’s complexion turned pale as if she had seen a ghost.
“Are you insane?! Coming to the relics of the ‘Eight Heroes’!!”
They were the heroes who stood against the Great Ones from other worlds in the distant past and saved our world.
“This place is beyond forbidden access; it’s a ‘death certain’ level danger zone! Even if it’s for my training, coming here is insane!”
“As I said before, we’re not here for your training. We’re here for mine.”
“What do you mean?”
“The truth is, the situation isn’t just dire for you.”
I thought to myself.
‘I need to reach the 2-star rank too. If not, I’m going to die.’
