I Became a Demon Professor at the Academy – Chapter 9

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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“Who, who are you calling an idiot! What is this!”

“Then are you the teddy bear incapable of even self-study?”

“A, a teddy bear? What teddy bear!”

Michelle’s face, already flushed red from the rush of blood, grew even hotter.

Not a teddy bear or a cat, but a rabbit! A rabbit!

This pervert, really!

No, wait, it’s not like he properly saw, so maybe not a pervert.

Anyway, I hate him the most in the world!

Her arms and legs were slowly going numb.

The sensation of blood rushing to her face was unpleasant.

“Get… Get me down. Qui… Uwah?!”

Before Michelle could even finish speaking, her body began succumbing to gravity once again.

Thud, she landed gracefully on the floor.

“Owww…! Ughh!”

Enraged, she immediately pushed herself up off the floor.

Her broken leg was hurting, but right now her dislike for Adrian overshadowed even that.

She defiantly looked up at the towering Adrian.

“Are you upset?”

As if that was even a question now.

He had suspended her upside down in front of everyone.

Would he be okay with that?

As Michelle parted her lips to protest,

“Don’t be too upset. I’ll consider this your disciplinary action.”

“Kh…”

Disciplinary action.

The easiest means for a professor to intimidate a student.

…Of course, upon closer inspection, what Adrian was doing now could not be simply dismissed as intimidation.

Michelle glanced sideways at the fallen Charlotte, groaning in pain after taking the full brunt of Michelle’s enraged telekinesis.

Even if duels were permitted during self-study, this would clearly be classified as assault.

In this regard, Michelle had to admit her mistake.

“…Hmph.”

Straightening her disheveled clothes with telekinesis, Michelle eventually nodded her head.

She had to avoid disciplinary action.

She would be joining the top class soon, after all.

“I suppose I’ll take my leave now.”

After the small negotiation ended, Adrian did not spare Michelle another glance.

Instead, he approached Charlotte.

“Can you walk?”

“…….”

Charlotte silently nodded.

The girl’s face, having been struck by the sphere, seemed more pensive than pained.

“Follow me.”

Thump- Thump-

The gruff sound of footsteps, reminiscent of Adrian himself, echoed forth.

Charlotte quietly followed behind.

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The place they arrived at, following the professor’s broad back, was his office.

It might seem a bit odd.

For a patient who had been severely beaten to seek out the professor’s office instead of the infirmary.

It was because of Charlotte.

In fact, Adrian had suggested Rahel Academy’s infirmary midway, but Charlotte had desperately shaken her head several times.

The infirmary at this academy was fee-based, and Charlotte did not have enough money.

Of course, there was a possibility the professor could have paid for her, but she disliked that option even more.

“Sit.”

The professor pulled out a chair for her, but Charlotte could not assume a comfortable posture at all.

The girl briefly studied the professor’s expression.

As always, he maintained an impassive demeanor.

Was he angry? He probably was.

It had not even been a full day since Charlotte and Adrian had made their agreement.

“Did you win?”

Despite this being his second question, Adrian did not ask about the reason for the fight.

It was a rather unexpected inquiry.

Charlotte silently shook her head.

The outcome of this match was no mystery.

Everyone had witnessed Charlotte being mercilessly beaten while unable to land a single blow.

That alone was more than enough evidence.

Her untreated wounds stung.

Charlotte carefully parted her lips, tasting blood.

“As you saw.”

“I see.”

His tone, too, was chilly.

What would happen from here on, Charlotte wondered anxiously.

It felt like she had released with her own hands the single straw she had barely managed to grasp.

Professor Adrian was likely someone who strictly separated personal and professional matters.

His actions and speech mannerisms suggested as much, did they not?

What sort of frightening expression would he show Charlotte for failing to uphold her conditions? What harsh words would he utter?

Or would he simply impose disciplinary action without any words at all? In any case, it was now Charlotte’s turn to bear the consequences.

This was a story she herself had set in motion.

“Don’t avert your gaze from me.”

Upon hearing those words, her senses suddenly sharpened.

For a moment, even her pain subsided due to her fear.

“…Yes.”

With great effort, she responded and lifted her head, striving not to avert her gaze from him as instructed.

And the moment their eyes met, something pressed firmly against her cheek, a stinging pain.

“Ah, ow.”

She thought she might have been struck, but soon a damp sensation registered, along with the pungent scent of alcohol stinging her nostrils.

Charlotte’s eyes widened, and she immediately tried to conceal her startled expression.

“Professor… This is…”

“As you can see.”

She had been about to ask another question, but Adrian’s forceps, gripping a cotton ball, persistently dabbed at her wound.

All Charlotte could do was let out a soft “Ow.”

“Charlotte.”

“Yes, yes, Professor.”

“You’ve gone out of your way to trouble me when you could have simply gone to the infirmary.”

“…I’m sorry.”

That was all the response she could muster.

It did not take long for the girl’s face to be coated with disinfectant and ointment.

After setting down the cotton ball soaked in disinfectant and blood along with the forceps, Adrian offered her a pill.

“It will aid your recovery.”

Charlotte accepted it but did not swallow it.

It was not an act of defiance.

She simply felt unworthy of taking it.

“I should be going now.”

Charlotte blinked her eyes a few times.

She looked at Adrian, then glanced at the door, and then back at Adrian.

“Will I… not be scolded?”

“You would have been scolded if you had done something worthy of scolding.”

“What about disciplinary action…?”

“You also did not act in a way deserving of disciplinary action.”

Charlotte was perplexed.

Whatever the case, she had broken her agreement with Adrian.

Yet the professor was blatantly letting her off the hook.

What was she supposed to do in this situation?

No one had ever taught her, nor had she ever learned or experienced such a situation before.

“Why…”

She could not decide whether to beg Adrian for an explanation or to provoke him into openly expressing his anger.

“Why… won’t you scold me?”

“Because you won.”

Those words sent Charlotte’s mind reeling.

Not for a single, fleeting moment had she considered herself the victor.

“If you had broken your promise and lost on top of that… Well, I certainly would have been angry then.”

“I lost.”

You saw it, didn’t you? I lost pathetically without landing a single blow.

“That’s what I had thought, too.”

Without a shred of emotion, Adrian merely rolled his eyes.

The professor’s gaze fell upon Charlotte’s palm.

“Until I saw your palm, that is.”

It was only then that Charlotte hurriedly thrust her hand into her pocket.

Come to think of it, she had not yet erased the spell etched onto her palm.

The pain had kept her from paying attention to it.

“Charlotte.”

“…Yes, Professor.”

“I will not ask why you fought.”

Why she had fought.

Recalling the reason made Charlotte’s face belatedly flush.

She must have been out of her mind.

What had possessed her to step forward and defend the professor over such a trifling matter? It was a great relief that Adrian would not ask.

“It was either an utterly trivial reason or a reason you could not avoid fighting.”

Adrian’s gaze turned toward Charlotte’s palm once more.

“But when I saw your hand, I was convinced it was the latter.”

The ensuing conversation constantly reminded Charlotte of Adrian’s remarkable perceptiveness.

He seemed to see through everything to an astounding degree.

“What spell did you etch onto your hand?”

He was not asking because he did not know.

Charlotte took a deep breath and answered.

“The silence spell…sir.”

The silence spell.

A simple spell that merely blocked sound.

That was all that had been etched onto the girl’s palm.

“It’s a spell that cannot inflict any harm on the other party. Why did it have to be that one specifically?”

“That’s because…”

Charlotte bit her lower lip and straightened her posture.

She still did not have the courage to face Adrian directly, but nevertheless, she tried.

“…I wanted to uphold the fourth condition.”

“Ah, yes. That’s it.”

Adrian slowly nodded his head.

“You certainly upheld the fourth condition until the very end.”

Charlotte nodded cautiously.

“You didn’t even run away while upholding the condition.”

She nodded cautiously once more.

“With that alone, you emerged victorious. Definitely.”

However, this time she could not nod.

There was no fault in Adrian’s words, but Charlotte still did not feel she had won.

I lost.

I lost.

Would she have won if she had etched an offensive magic spell instead? If she had landed even a single blow…

She felt like making a confession.

She decided to simply lay bare all her thoughts.

“…Professor.”

“You still have a remaining question.”

Charlotte nodded.

“Did I really uphold the condition well enough to deserve such praise?”

“What do you mean?”

“Michelle insulted someone precious to me. That’s why I fought her.”

“But?”

“I may have upheld the fourth condition in a semi-forced manner. If I had genuinely tried to attack, I would have been unable to approach Michelle at all and simply gotten beaten down…”

She had resolved not to cry, but at some point, the girl was in tears once again.

“…I wanted to brazenly tell Michelle that person is precious to me. But I would have just been beaten to a pulp in the end. Didn’t I ultimately fail to do anything? Isn’t that… a defeat?”

“Charlotte.”

He uttered her name in a soft murmur.

“Does the person become more precious if you beat down the other party?”

A cutting remark.

Adrian’s voice pierced through Charlotte’s words.

“Does the person become that much more precious if you force the other party to their knees and whisper into their ear over and over how precious that person is to you?”

“That’s… not the case, but…”

“I have no precious person. Even if I once did, I’ve lost them all.”

Ah…

Charlotte simply listened in silence to Adrian’s story.

“Nevertheless, I can be certain of this.”

The professor was still gazing intently at Charlotte alone.

“It is enough to show that you cherish someone by not running away.”

It was like a blow to the head.

“The person will undoubtedly be delighted. Definitely.”

…Could it be?

It was truly wondrous.

Even without landing a single blow against Michelle.

Even without taking one less hit.

Just imagining that person’s delight… the feeling of defeat gradually melted away.

“Will they… really be delighted?”

“I guarantee it.”

How strange.

Truly strange.

Just by imagining that person’s delight… I no longer feel defeated.

In this pitiful state, having been thoroughly beaten down. And yet…

“…Hnghh!”

Straining to hold back the tears threatening to flow, Charlotte furiously rubbed her face with her sleeve to wipe away the tears that had already spilled.

“That’s why I hate this.”

Haah.

Adrian let out a deep sigh and handed the first-aid kit to Charlotte’s lap.

“After I went through the trouble of applying treatment, you wipe it all off by rubbing your face. What kind of attitude is that? Do it yourself now.”

With those parting words, Adrian rose from his seat.

“Wait… Just a moment.”

Daringly, the girl grasped Adrian’s sleeve.

“Never again…”

Really, never again.

“Never again will I cry. Never again will I wipe my face with my sleeve. So, so…”

The girl lifted the first-aid kit with both hands.

And she carefully extended it toward him.

“Could you… apply the treatment one more time…”

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