Chapter 91
A few days later.
A shocking piece of news reached the students.
Through an academy announcement, it was officially made public.
“Did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“A scoop just broke! A first-year cadet has been appointed as a direct assistant!”
“What? A first-year cadet who hasn’t even been enrolled that long, not a third-year?”
“That’s right! Scrap the entire front page of today’s paper. We have to rewrite it from scratch with this news.”
“That guy? The top student of E Class who was the talk of the academy last time? Which professor could have taken him in?”
“You’ll be shocked when you find out whose disciple he became. It’s none other than Chief Investigator Jaber···!”
“Wha···?!”
A direct assistant selected out of nowhere in the middle of the semester.
The news was bound to draw the students’ attention.
Sudden or not, there had been almost no precedent for a first-year cadet being appointed as a direct assistant.
Moreover, once the name of the faculty member in charge became known, the academy was turned upside down.
“No way··· Jaber? The investigator I know?”
“Yeah! I’m telling you, the entire academy is in an uproar!”
“That’s impossible! Chief Investigator···?”
Jaber Droit.
Who was she?
The dean’s adopted daughter and the person known as the de facto number two of Grandia Academy.
On top of that, she possessed overwhelming strength, making her an object of admiration for countless students.
Such a major figure had taken in a first-year cadet as her direct assistant.
“I thought the investigator didn’t keep assistants or anything?”
“That was true until now. Ever since she took up teaching, she hadn’t taken on even an ordinary assistant, let alone a direct one.”
“Someone like her took on a direct assistant···?”
Jaber had stubbornly maintained her status as a lone wolf all this time.
Countless students had hoped to become her assistants, but Jaber had let no one into her laboratory.
It was such common knowledge among the Grandia cadets that no one was unaware of it.
Jaber herself had even stated that she had no intention of keeping an assistant.
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this.”
“A first-year cadet as a direct assistant? And under Chief Investigator···?”
The newspaper club weren’t the only ones in an uproar.
The news was spreading rapidly throughout the student body by word of mouth.
“Wow··· this guy is on an entirely different level.”
“I wondered how far he’d go after beating the top student of B Class in the ranking match, but he’s gone and punched straight through the sky.”
“But isn’t it understandable? He’s the guy who overwhelmingly defeated Lady Glacia.”
“And I heard he’s from a commoner background, so he doesn’t even have connections. Where did someone like him come from?”
“I saw him during the practical exam, and he completely overwhelmed Lady Glacia even when she went all out.”
“What kind of talent is he···?”
A noisy atmosphere.
In just a few days, the academy had filled with talk of Victor.
In the midst of all that, there was a rumor that made the cadets’ eyes spin even more wildly···.
“Come to think of it, didn’t a rumor go around that the two of them were dating?”
“I heard he publicly confessed in front of the entire classroom?”
“And the investigator apparently said she liked him too···.”
“Wasn’t that a misunderstanding? I think she later clarified that it wasn’t true···.”
The trouble Victor had caused in the past was once again brought into the spotlight.
The rekindled spark spread with even greater ferocity.
This time, it came with a far more substantial detail attached.
These were eyewitness accounts from students passing by the research building several days before the announcement.
“Dating or whatever··· they already have a daughter between them, apparently.”
“I know it sounds insane! But what can we do when it’s true?”
“We saw it with our own eyes.”
“The last time we saw her, she was walking hand in hand beside some little girl···.”
“Apparently the kid called the investigator ‘Mom’ and the top student of E Class ‘Dad’!”
A fairly shocking development.
It was the kind of outrageous soap-opera twist one would expect only from a street-corner play.
“No, I’m telling you, Professor Jaber admitted it! She said the girl was her own daughter.”
“Fuck, wait. That’s such an abrupt load of bullshit my brain needs a moment to process it.”
“Is this for real? She had a daughter? A daughter around ten years old, at that?”
“I’m telling you, they looked alike. Her hair was black too, just like the E-Class top student’s···.”
Yet nothing attracts people’s attention like a scandal.
The cadets ended up fully immersed in the provocative rumor.
The nature of the relationship between the two also drew attention.
One was a flower atop a cliff, while the other was the hottest commodity in the academy.
“So the investigator has a thing for younger men···.”
“Still, it’s only a five-year age gap, so is it really that strange?”
“But they say the daughter is around ten. When on earth did she have the kid···?”
“That was before the investigator even came to teach at the academy, wasn’t it?”
“Then it makes sense that we never knew about it···.”
Rumors passed from mouth to mouth, gaining substance in an instant.
The students agonized among themselves, trying to fit the pieces together.
They nodded along, finding even things that had never happened plausible.
Before long, what had happened between the two had been dressed up as the most romantic thing in the world.
"Was that why she never took on an assistant all this time?"
"That’s right! She had left the position open solely for her husband···!"
"Eek···! She didn’t seem like it, but the investigator is incredibly romantic!"
"Then the E-Class top student’s public confession wasn’t merely a confession—it was a declaration?"
A swelling wave.
The rumor had entered an unstoppable current.
Some even screamed and denied reality.
“That can’t be! My professor···!”
“I could do a better job! I could do it betterrr!”
“How the hell could you do better, you idiot? You’re at the bottom of your second-year class.”
Most of them were students who admired and adored Jaber.
Such a fan club was wiped out in an instant.
The academy was spinning into chaos in one way or another.
That was the madness of students fresh out of midterms, right after the exams.
“Hmm.”
With the school trip just around the corner,
such a topic was heating up at the academy.
***
“Fuck.”
A curse suddenly burst out.
I was walking along, pressing down firmly on my mask.
A short sigh escaped me, laden with countless laments.
‘How did things end up like this?’
The rumor that had spread throughout the entire academy.
It was thanks to the bombshell Jaber had dropped several days ago.
-Yes, she is my daughter.
-Right? Student Victor.
Those green eyes that had gazed at me without a care.
She seemed to ponder for a moment, then suddenly pulled off a full-blown soap-opera twist.
Why? No matter how long I thought about it, I couldn’t understand Jaber’s motives in the slightest.
In the end, all I had left was the label of a married man.
‘Fuck.’
Wasn’t this what they called “responsibility without pleasure”?
Overnight, I had gained a daughter (not really) and a wife (also not really) to support.
And that fact (not a fact) had even been publicly revealed in front of the entire student body.
‘I did my best to clear things up, but···.’
Rumors were always several thousand steps ahead of explanations.
Rumors were simple, clear, and entertaining, whereas explanations were merely boring and pedantic.
The academy had been conquered by simple, straightforward entertainment.
-Is that him? The one who has a daughter with the Chief Investigator···.
-That’s him! He’s the E-Class top student!
Thanks to that, whenever I crossed a hallway, I could feel the back of my head prickling.
Most of the looks were either questioning or brimming with interest.
A few people were even openly radiating hostility.
Well, they were probably guys who had a thing for Jaber.
“Phew···.”
I sighed and moved on.
As soon as I entered the E-Class classroom, the students’ gazes immediately converged on me.
““Big brother! You have arrived!””
As always, the Shuttles performed a yakuza-style greeting.
I simply raised a hand in reply.
“Good to see you.”
““Yes, big brother!””
At least the E-Class kids knew the full story.
They were the first people I had explained everything to that day.
There wasn’t even anything to prove, really.
Everyone believed me as soon as I showed them Lua in her scythe form.
“Come to think of it, today was the day the grades were announced, wasn’t it?”
Midterm exams.
The moment when the effort everyone had poured in over the past three months was proven.
They all seemed to have bright, sparkling eyes, but had they been holding back because they wanted to brag?
When I subtly broached the subject, the kids swarmed around me as though they’d been waiting for it.
“Big brother! Every single one of us in E Class got much higher scores!”
“It’s all thanks to the secret manual you wrote for us yourself, big brother!”
“And thanks to the thick, heartfelt feedback you wrote for each and every one of us···!”
“Thanks to you, big brother, I made up for the areas where I’d been falling behind! My written scores went way up from when I first enrolled too!”
It seemed everyone had successfully raised their grades.
When I checked the chart, every single one of their rankings had shot upward.
Perhaps deeply moved by the results, the kids clung to me with tears welling in their eyes.
“Every time I read the secret manual, I wonder how you managed to prepare all of this by yourself···.”
“You cared so much about us···.”
“Ever since that day, I tear up whenever I see ink stains···!”
“And even with all that, you came first in both the practical and written exams! As expected of you, big brother!”
Hmm.
Honestly, their exuberance was so intense that I felt embarrassed for no reason.
Besides, I had only scribbled that so-called secret manual to pass the time.
It was a book organizing the game’s setting; how could it possibly be boring?
‘Right··· if it’s good, it’s good.’
The Shuttles smiled brightly.
I decided to smile along with them.
Ding-!
[Sub Quest]
-Description: Raise every student in E Class into a capable individual of B rank or higher.
-Quest duration: Until graduation
-Failure penalty: None
-Reward: Character-exclusive item ‘Black Tuner’s Scales (S-)’
The quest was progressing very well.
If things continued like this, wouldn’t everyone pass the standard comfortably by the time they graduated?
If there was anyone progressing a little more slowly, I could just keep a close eye on them then.
In any case, I felt proud seeing them all work hard and keep up with me.
“Ahem.”
I leisurely perched myself on top of a desk.
Just as we were making small talk for a few minutes.
Beep beep beep-!
An alert sounded from the crystal ball in my pocket.
When I checked to see what it was, a voice message immediately began to play.
[This is an announcement from Grandia Academy’s Faculty Affairs Office.]
[Student Victor of E Class.]
[The dean is currently looking for you, Student Victor.]
[After checking this message, please come directly to the dean’s office in the main building.]
An alert from the Faculty Affairs Office.
I checked the contents and could do nothing but stand there, dazed and frozen.
‘The dean···?’
Walter Droit.
A man once known as the Cultist Massacrer.
The head overseeing Grandia’s faculty.
‘And···.’
Jaber’s adoptive father.
He was calling me to the dean’s office.
My father-in-law (not really) was apparently desperately looking for me.
I was dumbfounded for a moment, then soon muttered a short word under my breath.
‘Fuck.’
I was screwed.