Chapter 482
Swaaahhhh—
Late at night.
Outside the window, the rain was still pouring down.
The sound of raindrops tapping against the glass echoed especially loud.
‘.......’
Simon sat on the floor with his arms crossed, waiting. A moment later, creak, the bathroom door opened.
“Sorry. I’ve imposed on you.”
Bahil’s chief assistant, Chehekle, came out of the bathroom, wiping her dripping hair with a towel.
“Ah, n-no, Assistant Teacher! Please use it freely.”
“The sudden downpour… Sorry about this.”
She bowed her head slightly and sat down in front of Simon. Along with the faint fishy scent of rain, there was also a diluted trace of perfume.
Though she had washed her hair, her clothes were still drenched. Simon was startled and blurted out:
“You’ve been soaked in the rain—at least take a shower….”
“No.”
Chehekle shook her head with a faint smile.
“I have to go back outside anyway. I’ll shower back at my quarters.”
“Ah, I understand.”
Simon tried to act calm, but inside he was swamped with tension.
The ultimate taboo. He had brought a woman into his dormitory room. Even if she wasn’t a student but an assistant teacher, there would be no mercy. If the dorm supervisor caught him, it would mean the highest demerits—and possibly even expulsion.
Uneasy, he glanced around, and his eyes landed on the bed.
“What about Toto…?”
“I’ve put him into a deeper sleep. As long as we don’t make too much noise, he won’t wake up.”
Chehekle had already taken care of it.
Oblivious to what was happening in front of him, Toto was scratching his belly in nothing but his underwear, fast asleep. For his dignity’s sake, Simon pulled a blanket over him.
“Anyway.”
Avoiding her gaze, Simon continued.
“W-what brings you to my room, Assistant Teacher…?”
“Simon, no—Student Council President—I came because I have a favor to ask of you.”
“P-please, just call me the usual way. Is this… about Professor Bahil?”
“Yes.”
As they spoke, Chehekle blinked.
Simon seemed off. His face was as red as a tomato, his speech stammered, and he couldn’t even meet her eyes.
Then she realized and looked down at herself.
“Ah.”
Because of the rain, her shirt had become see-through, revealing her underwear. Chehekle covered her chest with an embarrassed smile.
“Sorry. In front of a student.”
“N-no, not at all.”
Finally able to focus his eyes elsewhere and regain composure, Simon returned to a serious expression.
“Has Professor Bahil returned to Roke Island?”
“Yes. We tracked him down while he was hiding in his villa, mobilizing even other professors and the Crows. We barely persuaded him, and managed to bring him back to Roke Island.”
Simon’s face stiffened slightly.
‘Barely, managed to bring him back….’
“To be honest, the professor’s condition is dire.”
Chehekle sighed deeply.
“He was hit too hard. He has no will to teach, no energy to spout his usual nonsense, just lying there blankly, staring at the ceiling. I’ve never seen him so drained.”
Simon flinched.
“Could it be….”
“Yes, probably because of what happened with you.”
Simon felt conflicted.
“With all due respect, it feels strange to think Professor Bahil would collapse just because of me. Could there be another reason you suspect…?”
“No. It is because of you.”
Chehekle declared firmly, then added bitterly:
“You probably don’t realize just how strong the professor’s obsession and fixation on you was.”
“......Ah.”
Until now, Simon had only seen the mask Bahil wore.
Of course, he’d noticed that Bahil gave him special treatment—teaching him Compellonia and the Four Great Curses that weren’t taught to anyone else.
But he never imagined that a single rejection would shatter Bahil’s mind to this extent.
“......Pathetic.”
As the subject turned to Bahil, anger and frustration flashed in Chehekle’s eyes. She roughly brushed back her wet hair, muttering bitterly—only for Simon to quickly flush and turn his head away.
“?”
Chehekle realized her movement had revealed her chest again, laughed awkwardly, and covered herself.
“Sorry.”
“N-no, it’s fine.”
Simon turned his head back and cleared his throat.
“But, Assistant Teacher Chehekle… you don’t seem to hold entirely positive feelings toward Professor Bahil, do you?”
“......Yes, in truth, I don’t.”
She let out a long sigh.
“To be honest, what I feel more than anything is resentment.”
“What happened between you two?”
She spoke in a detached tone.
“When Professor Bahil was still a rookie, he noticed my talent as a Keyzen student and wanted to possess me.”
‘Just like he did with you.’
Her gaze lingered on Simon’s face as she continued.
“In the end, because of his constant interference, I couldn’t even make it through my second year. The moment I packed up my dorm uniform, he offered me the position of assistant teacher.”
Chehekle explained that she had no choice but to accept.
Her parents were gravely ill, and she urgently needed money for their treatment.
Bahil not only paid for their medical care but also promised her the next professor seat in Katarology.
She accepted the offer of her enemy, becoming her enemy’s subordinate.
“But my resentment only grew.”
Chehekle looked up at the ceiling.
“While I was stuck fetching supplies and running errands for him, my peers enjoyed the happiest school life imaginable, racing toward brilliant futures. Can you imagine what it felt like to sweep the floors with a broom, bowing my head in humiliation every time I ran into old classmates or juniors?”
“.......”
Simon pressed his palms against the floor, his expression heavy.
“So all this time, enduring life as an assistant teacher until you rose to chief assistant…”
“Yes. Because I wanted revenge.”
Chehekle smiled faintly.
“I tried countless things. Leaking crucial information to competitors, publishing counter-arguments to his papers. But with time, I only realized the truth: I could never match him. He’s a true genius. A mediocre person like me could never win against him.”
Having decided she couldn’t surpass Bahil with skill, Chehekle switched to purely destructive tactics. There were times when she dealt him devastating blows, enough to shake his professorship itself.
But Bahil never once blamed her.
—Do whatever you wish. Just remain by my side, Chehekle.
He never accepted her resignation, no matter what she did.
‘So theirs wasn’t just an ordinary teacher-assistant relationship… but one tangled with deep complications.’
Simon studied the changing expressions on her face.
A relationship of love and hate.
That was the only way to describe Bahil and Chehekle.
“Of course, I haven’t given up on revenge.”
Chehekle’s voice sank low.
“But I don’t want to take revenge on someone who’s already that broken.”
“Assistant Teacher….”
“Anyway, I’ve spoken too long. Let me return to the real reason I came. I have a request for you, Simon.”
Shifting her legs neatly to the side, she sat properly and bowed her head. The gesture was so much like kneeling that Simon panicked and mirrored her posture.
“A-Assistant Teacher…!”
“Tomorrow is course registration day, isn’t it?”
Chehekle lifted her head with a serious expression.
“I’m not asking for something too unreasonable. I’d like your very first general course registration to be Professor Bahil’s Katarology.”
“Huh?”
Simon blinked.
He had already prepared his schedule together with the student council members.
Of course, he had planned to take Bahil’s Katarology, but only as his second course. His first choice had been Jane’s Darkness Dynamics.
“......B-but, will something like that really work?”
“Though he’s an adult, emotionally he’s childish in some ways. That’s the trait of geniuses—or eccentrics.”
Chehekle sighed.
“Even though as a second-year you’ve chosen Professor Aron, if at least your next choice is Professor Bahil, it might give him that reassurance.”
Her eyes gleamed faintly.
“It might be enough to bring that broken man back.”
* * *
The next morning.
The downpour that had raged all night had weakened. Thankfully, the course registration season could proceed as planned.
All 400 second-year students donned the raincoats issued to them, wearing them over their uniforms, and lined up at the starting line outside the second-year campus.
“Yaaawn.”
Among the adults standing before the students was a familiar face.
The Necromancer of the Cards, Endolas Vaudeville.
One of the ten great mysteries of the continent, alongside Neftis. He was the very man who had supervised the BMAT during Simon’s first year.
Endolas rubbed his tired eyes, looking completely drained.
“Pulling an all-nighter from dawn in this rain… feels like death.”
“Oh dear, you’ve worked so hard, Master Endolas!”
A Keyzen staff member chatted with him while the students buzzed, exchanging speculations about the course registration.
“What? Change the order now?!”
Simon explained the situation to the student council members. Maelyn hopped up and down in protest while Simon scratched the back of his neck.
“Yeah. I know it’s selfish to decide suddenly, I’m sorry.”
In the end, Simon had decided to accept Chehekle’s request.
Putting aside who Bahil was as a person, Simon liked his Katarology.
His teaching was undeniably excellent, and personally Simon owed him much. It was thanks to Bahil’s teaching of Compellonia that Simon had once survived with his life.
He couldn’t just watch the man who had saved him fall apart. If he could help save him simply by moving Katarology from second to first, Simon was willing.
“It’s fine, Simon! Don’t feel pressured.”
Kamibarez smiled warmly.
“We only shuffled the order a bit. The four of us are still taking Professor Jane’s, Professor Bahil’s, and Professor Hongpeng’s classes together, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“I’m sure the four of us will be able to take classes together, just like before!”
Encouraged by Kamibarez’s words, Simon felt his resolve strengthen. Meanwhile, Dick crossed his arms in thought.
“Hmm—then maybe we should all just follow Simon and put Katarology as our first pick?”
“No, no. You guys don’t need to suffer for my whim.”
In fact, Dick had sneaked out of the dorm the night before to chart the shortest routes and check the card placements Endolas had set up.
Changing the order now would make all his efforts pointless, not to mention introducing too many variables.
“Don’t worry. I’m fine working alone. I’ll find a way to secure all three classes no matter what.”
Simon clenched and unclenched his fists with confidence.
At that moment, the Keyzen staff and Endolas Vaudeville stepped forward.
“Alright, second-years! I will now explain the rules of course registration!”
Simon already knew from Dick what was coming.
The second-year campus had been transformed by Endolas Vaudeville’s power into something like a “wonderland”, where monsters roamed and different spaces overlapped.
The professors were waiting in their research rooms within the campus buildings. To register for a class, students had to reach the professor, present the course registration slip, and obtain their signature.
But once the quota was full, registration was impossible. That meant all the Darkness expended dodging monsters and traps would be wasted. Split-second judgment was everything.
“All of you will enter wearing these protective suits!”
Endolas held up a vest-shaped protective suit.
“These suits convert the attacks of my card monsters into numerical values, draining your barrier gauge. Once your gauge hits zero, you’ll be trapped in a barrier where you stand for thirty minutes.”
The students gasped.
Thirty minutes was more than enough time to lose an entire course.
“Wow, so we’ll have to be extra careful~”
Dick muttered.
“At this competition level, thirty minutes of paralysis means you’re done for.”
Maelyn nodded gravely, then turned to Simon.
“And Simon?”
“Yeah.”
“Just so you know, the number of students who picked Professor Jane as their first course already exceeds her class capacity. You know what that means, right?”
Simon nodded.
“It means I’ll need to reach Professor Bahil first, then still make it to Professor Jane ahead of everyone else.”
“Exactly. I won’t try to stop you now, but are you really sure you can pull it off?”
Sensing her sincere concern, Simon grinned.
“Yeah. I’ll make it no matter what.”
“Now that’s our president!”
Dick cheered, handing him a map.
“Fortunately, the Katarology building and the Darkness Dynamics building are close! If you move twice as fast as the others, it’ll be just barely possible!”
“Got it.”
“Then, students, are you all ready?”
At Endolas Vaudeville’s shout, the students roared back in unison.
“Yes, sir!”
“Then let the course registration season begin! May you all get the classes you wish for!”
His cloak billowed as his arm slashed downward.
“Start!”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters