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Chapter 12
This is driving me crazy.
‘I can’t get a professor’s office?’
Well, that part actually doesn’t matter. From the start, the real Ruins Wayne was hired as a non-regular employee, so what is there to complain about!
But I can’t even enter the dormitory building? Then I can’t go retrieve my severance pay!
‘Should I just get rid of this damn pride?’
「You are pride, idiot.」
‘Ah, right. My mistake. If I want to get rid of pride, I’d have to deal with the Flame Moth first.’
「You’re a subordinate of the Flame Moth, you know.」
Ruins rubbed his brow as if he couldn’t hear them. He had no intention of doing anything that would cause unnecessary trouble, but having already submitted his resignation, this was a real problem.
‘To collect my severance pay, I absolutely have to enter the professors’ research building.’
To do that, a full-time position was essential.
In that case, there was always the usual method.
‘Eliminate the full-time positions.’
「…What?」
The Flame Moth’s eyes gleamed seriously.
‘One person going missing wouldn’t even raise an alarm, so maybe about fifty professors…’
「If you do that, it’ll become a state of emergency and the school will shut down… you lunatic.」
Ah, that would be troublesome. It’d be a problem if I couldn’t get in either.
So what now?
‘There’s no choice but to use someone with power.’
Just as Ruins was seriously pondering this—
“Oh? Mr. Ruins Wayne.”
“!”
A bright jasmine scent filled the administrative office. Turning his head, he saw a peerless beauty wearing a pure white blouse with long flowing sleeves, a full cravat, and a blue high-waisted skirt.
“Madam Chancellor.”
The chancellor smiled brightly, as if things were going well.
“You’re here already. You came quickly.”
As she entered, the assistants hurried over with a contract, then guided the two to their seats and served black tea.
Seeing the rich aroma rising from a Wedgwood cup, Ruins narrowed his eyes. It was a blend with several citrus notes, but among them was a distinct lavender scent.
‘Thorough.’
It smelled like lavender, but subtly different.
‘Sizmerg. A herb that completely relaxes tension.’
It might have been Haven’s consideration for a nervous newcomer… or maybe not.
‘Are they trying to make me relax and leak my mana?’
Most spies came in while hiding their curse power. But once they relaxed, it could leak out as naturally as breathing—a common rookie mistake.
But he wasn’t an amateur. This much was nothing. Ruins calmly drank the tea.
The chancellor, who had been watching him closely, tilted her head slightly. It seemed this wasn’t the reaction she had expected. Then she slid something toward him.
“Actually, the meeting about your rank took quite a while.”
Rank?
Ruins’s eyes gleamed—rarely so.
‘Full-time? Is it full-time?’
“Before the result comes out, could you take a look at the contract first?”
Playing hard to get!
But only for a moment. Ruins interlaced his fingers. In the world of spies, a long discussion wasn’t a bad sign—it meant the result wasn’t decided yet.
A capable spy was someone who overturned results. So while pretending to open the contract, he casually brushed the scroll with his little finger.
Shadow Race trait, [Vision of the Shadow King] activated.
In an instant, the structure of the contract flowed into Ruins’s mind, and he smiled inwardly.
‘This woman.’
He had thought her antics were cute after already passing him.
‘So this is the real point.’
Indeed, there was a trap spell embedded in the contract.
[Trap Within the Text]
A spell that naturally induced confession upon reading the letters—in other words, as Ruins read the contract, he would unknowingly confess.
Tampering with a contract—how vicious.
Had they targeted him when he’d be relieved after passing?
‘Basically, this is the final test.’
Fortunately, all he had to do was avoid certain letters. These spells relied on secrecy; enchanting the entire text would make anyone notice the magic.
‘At most, they’d set the trigger on a single character.’
So he just had to avoid reading that one.
Beside him, the ginseng plant sighed as if exasperated.
「You’re telling me you can avoid the trigger among all those letters?!」
‘Fair point.’
The chancellor was smiling, clearly intent on making him read the contract.
“Your annual salary is written there too. Please check it. Is there anything you don’t like?”
“Nothing in particular.”
At Ruins’s instant reply, the Shadow God exclaimed as if enlightened.
「Oh! I get it! You don’t read it! Just pretend you did!」
“But please revise Clause 3, Article 7 on affiliation, Clause 5, Article 2 on reporting campus activities, and Clause 9, Article 1 on emergency reporting. Some wording and dates are a bit off.”
「You read it?!」
When did he read all that?!
The chancellor’s eyes narrowed, as if she’d been waiting for this.
“May I ask one final question?”
A question? If his answer was clumsy, he’d be cut on the spot.
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“Why did you apply to this school, Mr. Ruins Wayne?”
Ah, so that’s how it goes?
The Shadow God spoke in alarm.
「Is this okay?! Won’t you be forced to confess?」
Ruins was unimpressed.
‘It’s fine. I know where the magic is.’
「You do?」
Ruins narrowed his eyes.
The answer was simple.
If you had to set a trap on just one letter, where would you place it? No need to think.
‘On the part the other person is guaranteed to read.’
But people have all kinds of habits. Some read contracts carefully, others skim. Some don’t read at all and just pretend.
So choosing the right letter was actually very tricky.
Still, there was one thing everyone checked.
‘The salary.’
No matter how lazy someone was about reading, they’d definitely check their salary—unless they were an idiot.
A spy might also glance at it out of curiosity. That’s why Ruins, who deliberately did not check the salary, answered with a smile.
“I applied to this school to catch the Flame Moth.”
“!”
The chancellor looked startled by the unexpected answer.
“The Flame Moth?”
“Yes. There’s no place more earnest or reliable than Haven when it comes to hunting the Flame Moth, is there?”
Just looking at those damn slogans makes it obvious. Bastards.
“So I wanted to work at Haven, which takes the Flame Moth seriously. With all due respect, I truly want to catch the Flame Moth.”
「…Damn it.」
‘Be quiet before I lock you in a bottle.’
The chancellor was left speechless. To be honest, she had suspected Ruins of being a spy.
The reason was obvious.
Ruins Wayne passed through the main gate?
In high society, he was infamous as a man abandoned by the gods. Just looking at his face, you couldn’t believe he had high luck.
A coward, a man of misfortune—he was well known for it. Naturally, she’d assumed he would enter through the side gate. For someone of the Wayne family’s level, toll fees were pocket change.
‘But he passed through the main gate.’
She had assumed he’d used some trick to bypass the demon-detector. She planned to detain him and find out how.
Yet he passed her interview—and now this…
‘Could he really be talent?’
At her blank stare, Ruins spoke.
“Madam Chancellor?”
“Oh!”
She straightened up, slightly flustered, but still seemed unconvinced.
“I’m sorry. But are you sure you’re satisfied with the money we offer to someone with such aspirations?”
Ruins smiled inwardly, as expected.
‘As I thought. The salary.’
Why else would she steer the final question to make him check it? That’s where the confession magic was placed.
Now the answer depended on how much was written there.
‘They didn’t put zero, did they?’
Or maybe they did—something outrageously low, to bait him.
So Ruins replied,
“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind working unpaid. Haven is worth that much, and all I want is to teach students with everything I have so they can catch the Flame Moth.”
「Pfft!」
Should I kill this ginseng-headed bastard?
Still, it wasn’t a lie. No matter how much the salary was, it wouldn’t even be a fraction of his severance pay.
‘Hmm. Was that an appropriate answer?’
For some reason, the ginseng boss, who had checked the salary, was snickering oddly, but it didn’t seem like a bad response.
It’d be nice if a superior god—no, the progenitor god—would explain these things, but pride gods were assholes by nature and basically laissez-faire with their creations.
‘Or maybe higher gods are restricted from interfering…’
「This is fun. Keep going.」
As always, just following its mood.
Ruins clicked his tongue, but he’d always managed on his own. Judging by the chancellor’s expression, it seemed he’d answered correctly.
Indeed, she looked genuinely surprised.
“I didn’t expect you to say that. It’s an honor for Haven.”
Then she said something unexpected.
“Then I’d like to offer you a contract as an associate professor. Is that acceptable?”
“!”
Ruins’s eyes widened.
Associate professor!
‘The conditions just jumped massively!’
Originally, Ruins Wayne was supposed to be hired as a non-tenured lecturer—a roaming part-timer.
‘And even that was a course slated to be canceled.’
Considering most people start as part-time lecturers, this was exceptionally generous.
It was clearly decided because of his answer. As proof, the chancellor wrote Associate Professor into the blank space of the contract.
“Actually, it was agreed that anyone who passed through the main gate would receive half of the accumulated toll fees. Once you sign, those tolls and a bonus will be paid together. In terms of annual salary, it’s equivalent to a full professor.”
The assistants gasped in admiration. Full-professor pay, but with less work and responsibility—what a sweet deal!
But what mattered to Ruins was the professor’s office.
“Then the professor’s office…?”
“Ah, unfortunately, there are no associate professor offices available right now. It’d be fine to assign one later, wouldn’t it?”
Ruins frowned secretly.
‘No! The office is the whole point!’
The plan succeeded, but the reward was unexpected!
‘What do I do? A way to get an office immediately…’
…There isn’t one!
There were 1,323 ways to obtain an office, but not a single way to get one right now! The Flame Moth’s face twisted—rarely so.
The ginseng superior snorted.
「So, missing persons after all? Kidnap the professors for a year?」
Damn it! I didn’t want to fight since this wasn’t a mission!
Just as Ruins was searching for another method—
“Ruins Wayne is an associate professor?”
“!”
An unfamiliar man entered the administrative office. Mid-thirties, perhaps. Seaweed-like hair, a blunt, irritable face.
At his appearance, the assistants froze, as if anticipating bloodshed.
“Granting an associate professorship to a newcomer, just like that?”
“Professor Kalon.”
Kalon?
He’d heard that name before.
Unlike the others earlier, this man wasn’t just any hero.
‘A top-tier hero.’
A full professor on the same level as the chancellor—one of Haven’s pillars.
“Associate professors handle different courses. Wasn’t Ruins Wayne just a filler candidate to make up the numbers?”
Ruins stared at him in disbelief.
…Do people usually say that in front of the person involved?
“To place someone whose abilities haven’t been verified in that position—other professors will object.”
“Then why don’t you try passing through the main gate, Professor Kalon? The chairman would love it. Oh—my apologies. You already failed, didn’t you?”
A cold air settled over the room. The assistants squeezed their eyes shut.
At the openly hostile atmosphere, Ruins raised his eyebrow in surprise.
‘So even top-tier heroes are at odds.’
No idea why, but the politics here were brutal.
Then a light scoff escaped Kalon.
“Indeed, Professor Wayne seems so different from his paperwork that even professors would find him hard to evaluate.”
The assistants sighed in relief. It seemed like nothing serious would happen—
“Then how about letting the students decide? Assign Professor Wayne to Haven’s flagship major—Demon Hunting Studies.”
…What? Do what?
“He seems to want a professor’s office. Demon Hunting Studies has an empty one—wouldn’t that be perfect?”
“But that course is meant for an associate professor—!”
At the assistants’ protest, Kalon replied coldly,
“If he’s talented enough to start as an associate professor, can’t he handle an advanced course?”
The assistants froze for some reason.
The chancellor, however, smiled as if amused.
“Demon Hunting Studies, huh. That position has been vacant for quite a while. It’s the best seat in Haven, after all.”
For the “best seat,” the assistants looked even more terrified.
“N-No, even so… Demon Hunting Studies is a bit…”
Ruins tilted his head.
‘Demon Hunting Studies?’
It sounded similar to the general course Wayne was assigned, but it was completely different. And since it came with a professor’s office, it was a position he had to secure.
“Several professors have already been driven out of Demon Hunting Studies.”
Ruins immediately understood. This was Haven. From the newspaper articles and the chancellor’s earlier vigilance, he could guess why.
“They were expelled after being exposed as traitors?”
“No. They were driven out by the students.”
…What?
Sure enough, the atmosphere turned ominous.
The assistants whispered among themselves.
“Professors… isn’t this too cruel? Are they really trying to drive out the new professor right away?”
“Yeah… this is basically expulsion.”
The chancellor smiled brightly.
“Haven has many talented students. For the past few years they’ve all been excellent, and this year we’ve gathered once-in-a-generation geniuses. They’ve reached a level even professors struggle with, so they’ve started showing territorial behavior.”
Territorial behavior?
“They say professors weaker than them aren’t needed. Professors who can’t even catch the Flame Moth should get lost.”
Oh. They’re just students, but they’ve got good heads on their shoulders.
Chicks, maybe—but with an excellent grasp of the enemy’s level…
“They say they’ll catch the legendary top-tier fugitive, the Flame Moth themselves.”
「Pfft. Heroes, my ass. Getting hunted by snot-nosed brats.」
“……”
Oh? They’re going to catch me?
A smile crept through Ruins’s teeth, as if amused.
“Very well. I’ll take the Demon Hunting Studies course.”
