The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 94
He was a man dressed in a white suit.
The professors murmured among themselves.
“A gentleman, a Level 7 Master-class dark mage?! At a time like this.”
Normally, it would be fine.
Though rare, Ruby Academy did have Master-class professors of Level 7.
However, currently, with the eruption of Phase 4’s Phantom Break, they were utterly out of resources.
And that wasn’t all.
Huhu, I hope everyone enjoys the gift prepared by our Dark Tower.
Sssssssssss.
Dark mana rippled from the ‘gentleman’s’ body.
A massive energy, like a tidal wave undulating.
It wasn’t just the ‘gentleman’s’ energy alone.
“Ah! Great demon! Accept my soul!”
“Take my soul to paradise!”
Dark mages appeared all over the city, stabbing themselves.
It was an energy amplification through human sacrifice!
The ‘gentleman’ burst into maniacal laughter as he chanted the spell.
Mourn! Scream! Wretched dead! The protection of the great demon shall be upon you, now devour all your enemies here!
The Carnival of the Dead.
It was a berserk spell targeting ghosts.
The problem was its power.
The Phantom Break of Phase 4.
The energy amplification through human sacrifice.
And the protection of demons.
All these combined to bring about a terrifying calamity.
Kyaaaaaak!!
“Ah! The power of the ghosts?!”
The power of the ghosts grew by one level each.
It was already challenging to confront them, but now their power had significantly increased.
The calamity didn’t end there.
Guunnggg!
“What’s this sound?”
“The sound of a horn? Where from? Outside?”
The guards on the city walls were confused.
Looking out, they couldn’t see past the thick fog that obscured their vision.
“Wait, what’s that shadow over there?”
“I can’t see it clearly.”
“No, look closely! I see something!”
That was the moment.
Boom!
The city gate shook violently, as if hammered by a gigantic mallet.
A brief clearing of the fog revealed its identity.
“It’s an undead army!!”
“Out of nowhere? Could it be the Order’s necromancer?”
“It’s the Knight of the Dead!”
Crash!!
The city walls were shattered.
The Order’s necromancer, the ‘Knight of the Dead,’ rode into the city on a headless horse.
Ooooooh.
The undead legion followed behind.
Though not numerous, each one was a high-ranking undead.
With the city’s forces already stretched thin against the ghosts of Phantom Break, this was a disaster they could not possibly contain.
Many will become new followers.
The Knight of the Dead greedily surveyed the soldiers near the city walls.
“Ah! Run away! They’ll kill us and turn us into undead, forcibly dragging us to the Order!”
Running is futile. Everyone, abandon your insignificant lives and return to the glory of the Order.
The Knight of the Dead calmly advanced forward.
There was no rush.
After all, the Free City was teeming with people to be converted to the order.
But soon, the Knight of the Dead tilted his head in confusion.
‘Why is it so quiet?’
It wasn’t just the streets that were silent.
There was no sign of life inside the buildings either.
As if they had been deliberately emptied.
‘…Emptied?’
That was when it happened.
Suddenly, a figure appeared, blocking their path.
“Stop.”
The Knight of the Dead cocked his head.
The figure was cloaked in a robe, making it difficult to discern their face, but the energy they emitted seemed unremarkable.
‘A mage? Merely a 2nd Star apprentice level.’
The energy from the person who appeared was embarrassingly weak to even call a proper 2nd Star. Barely clinging on to that level.
It was laughable.
So, you wish to die quickly and join our order? I’ll grant your wish right now.
Whoosh!
Dark energy surged toward the figure.
The Knight of the Dead was Level 6.
As a necromancer, his direct attack spells were weak compared to those of the same level, but not something a mere 2nd Star apprentice mage could block.
However,
Clang!
As two stars rose, the spell unleashed by the Knight of the Dead was completely blocked.
Perfectly, at that.
‘What? Did I make a mistake?’
The Knight of the Dead frowned.
Considering it a fluke, he cast another attack spell.
But the outcome was the same.
The two stars blocked the attack again.
Only then did the Knight of the Dead notice the form of the stars conjured by his opponent.
Incomprehensible.
Stars so complex they couldn’t possibly belong to a mere 2nd Star apprentice.
The opponent spoke.
“Is this all you’ve got?”
Arrogant.
The voice seemed to look down upon him, as if deeming him beneath notice despite supposedly being just a 2nd Star apprentice.
Unexpectedly, the reaction the Knight of the Dead felt was.
!!
Chill!
A sense of crisis surged.
He felt that he couldn’t let this person go unchecked.
Everyone, attack that one!
Whiiiiiii!
The undead rushed in, but something unexpected happened.
“Caught you.”
With that sneer.
Something unforeseen occurred.
Flash! Crack!
It was an arrow.
An arrow imbued with holy magic, the bane of the undead.
What? Retreat!
But it was too late.
Swoosh!
A flash of sword light shone through the fog, and the undead fell to pieces.
Only then did the Knight of the Dead realize that presences, which weren’t there before, now surrounded them.
‘A trap!!’
While he was distracted by the figure in front, they had been surrounded!
How amusing. Such tricks are nothing to the fervent followers who have returned to our Order…
However, the Knight of the Dead suddenly stopped speaking.
The undead he led were the elite of the Order.
Normally, no ordinary soldier or knight could stand against them.
Yet, as the sword light flashed, the undead were collapsing.
This meant the opponent was no ordinary force.
Could it be, you are?
Only then did he see the figures through the fog.
A white eagle.
A well-known emblem.
The White Eagle Knights.
The elite knight order of the Ecclesia family, renowned throughout the empire!
“Now do you understand? All your evil lies beneath the light of I, Van Ecclesia.”
The man, Van Ecclesia, stepped forward.
The hood fell back, revealing a face carrying a noble danger.
“If you understand, kneel in homage to my splendid greatness.”
The Knight of the Dead clenched his fist.
This was a crisis.
‘No. There’s one way.’
The Knight of the Dead looked at Van.
The real threat was the Ecclesia family’s knights, not this blabbering fool.
The fool was merely at the level of a 2nd Star apprentice.
‘I’ll take him as a hostage and neutralize the White Eagle Knights!’
With that thought, he surged his energy to its limits.
As a necromancer, while he might be weak in direct magical combat, he had no doubt he could easily overpower someone like Van.
However,
He should not have been so complacent.
He needed to recall the stars that Van had drawn earlier.
The price of carelessness was high.
Suddenly, the movement of mana halted.
The Knight of the Dead’s eyes widened in disbelief.
‘How?’
Van’s arrogant eyes entered his view.
“Foolish. Well, it’s too much to expect someone like you to comprehend my brilliance.”
Van raised his hand.
“Revere me in hell. The greatness of Van Ecclesia.”
Shut up!
The Knight of the Dead tried to move his mana again to strike Van, but it was futile.
The flow of mana was severed, and in that moment.
Flash.
A streak of light shone.
The Knight of the Dead’s head flew off.
* * *
‘Ah! What’s this! The Dark Tower and the Order moving at the same time?’
Even without this, dealing with one of the three evils was hard enough in Phase 4, and now the worst had happened.
‘At least we could extinguish the fire from the Order’s side in advance.’
Though it collapsed anticlimactically, the Order truly consisted of dreadful beings.
The real power of the Order was ‘conversion.’
They turn the victims into undead with the ‘powers’ of the Order and immediately incorporate them into their forces.
Thus, the longer it drags on, the exponentially greater the damage becomes.
‘Becoming a 2nd Star also gave me a significant boost. It allowed me to stand against him, even if just for a moment.’
For the record, I wasn’t the one who took him down.
Black Bird Amanda had been stealthily lurking and seized the opportunity to strike his neck while I distracted him.
In essence, all I did was bind his mana for a moment.
‘This was also possible because he, a necromancer, was weak in direct combat between mages.’
If he had been a proper Level 6 mage, I wouldn’t have been able to interfere with his mana so easily.
‘It’s because the White Eagle Knights had contained his real strength, the undead, that he fell to me like this.’
Even the ability to interfere with his mana was limited to a moment, so had a little more time passed, I would have been in serious trouble.
‘Still, such a feat would have been unthinkable for me in the past.’
Even though the opponent was in a state where his real power was fully restrained.
And that was just for a fleeting moment.
It was an overwhelming victory achieved purely by the strength of magic, without any tricks.
‘I might be able to confront and defeat up to about Level 4 directly now.’
When I was at 1st Star, winning directly without tricks was only possible up to Levels 2~3, so I’ve become considerably stronger!
‘…The problem is the enemies appearing are much stronger.’
I was swallowing a sigh when a familiar voice reached me.
“Van, are you okay?! You’ve intervened. Thanks to you, we’ve averted a major disaster.”
It was Professor Burnstein!
He rushed over to me, his face filled with admiration.
I also heard this:
[As expected! I believed in our Professor Van!]
It was the former Chancellor Rudolph.
Even amidst battling high-level ghosts in the sky and amidst chaos, he went out of his way to send a message spell.
‘…It’s burdensome, so could you please stop calling me your Professor Van?’
I shook my head.
This was not the time to nitpick over minor details.
“How’s the situation?”
“Not good, but we’re barely holding on. Was it you who arranged for the soldiers to be equipped with anti-ghost magical devices?”
“…Something like that.”
To be precise, I had emptied Emily’s wallet.
I also received a bit of sponsorship from Wilhelm, a student in my class with a wealthy father.
It was a precaution taken just in case, but now, with the ghosts gone berserk due to the Dark Tower’s mage, it was proving to be highly beneficial.
‘On top of that, I asked Lyran to look after the slum areas.’
Messages from Captain Gordon of the guard and Mariam came in as well.
[Professor Van, thank you. Without you, the guard would have suffered tremendous damage.]
[Not the cutest little brother, but I’ll give you credit this time.]
[How can someone be so wise! Truly our Professor Van!]
…Let’s ignore the tiny messages from the former Chancellor Rudolph.
“The White Eagle Knights will also lend a hand in dealing with the ghosts.”
“That will certainly ease the burden. What about you? What will you do?”
I turned my gaze away.
“I’m going to the academy to check if the students are alright.”
