EDPEN 20

Chapter 20.

Kallon looked at Ruin as if asking what he was plotting.
Ruin gave a light smile.

“Excuse me. You seem quite worried—so much so that even Lord Gloster offered to help—but in truth, there’s no need to worry that much.”

Kallon let out a hollow laugh.

“I’m saying this for your sake. In education, what you teach is important, but how you teach it is just as important. If it were my plan—”

At that, Ruin glanced at the torn lecture plan and snorted.

“There’s nothing more dangerous in the field than outdated strategies.”
“What?”

Well, honestly, if it were him, he could turn people into human weapons in a month—but there was no reason to do that for the Union.
Still, Kallon seemed thoroughly irritated by it.

“Oh? If you’re that confident, shall we hear your lecture plan?”

Hear it, my ass. You’re just going to nitpick no matter what I say and kick me out.
So Ruin smiled as if ripping something out by the roots.

“My teaching method is simple. It’s called the stigma effect—people, by nature, remember negative examples better than positive ones. So I’ll go with examples of what not to do.”
“So what have you been talking about all this time—”
“For example, the story of House Gloster being completely cleaned out by the Fire Moth.”
“…?!”

The professors under Kallon’s supervision were startled, and Kallon, for some reason, looked flustered. The students and professors stirred.

“What are you talking about?”

But Ruin played dumb.

“Oh, you didn’t know? House Gloster has already been robbed by the Fire Moth before. Fifty years ago, in fact—the head of the house at the time was deceived by the Fire Moth and personally opened the fortress gates for them. Ah, come to think of it, wasn’t that your grandfather, Professor Kallon…?”

Professor Kallon’s face stiffened, and the professors screamed.

“What did you say?”
“Is that true? He personally opened the fortress gates?”

Kallon looked at the professors and Ruin as if they were insane. His face said, How does this bastard know that?

‘The records should all have been deleted.’

But what drove him even crazier were the tactless assistant professors under him.

“Professor? Is that true?”
“You clearly told us that you’d never once been robbed by the Fire Moth!”

But Ruin shamelessly continued.

“Did he only open the fortress gates? He even foolishly handed over precious family heirlooms himself.”
“My goodness, heirlooms?”
“…N-no!”
“And finally, he even entertained them and sent them off well-fed. Ah, just so there’s no misunderstanding—this isn’t slander. I learned it from the investigative logs of House Wayne.”
“…Are you joking? There’s no way something like that exists—!”

The professors under Kallon protested, but Kallon himself was flustered.

‘If it’s House Wayne, it’s entirely possible.’

House Wayne collected not only the records of the Eight Great Houses, but also all incident materials that occurred within the Union. They even had a secret investigative unit that operated covertly, making it all the more likely.
Still, even so—here? In a place like this?
Does this guy have no sense of social awareness?

As Kallon froze, the combat faculty professors gasped, asking if it was true, while the professors under Kallon’s supervision had their pupils shaking.
It was embarrassing, but if this was true, he had to contain it. Fortunately, it was still within a manageable range…

“Oh, is that why—despite being a Gloster—you weren’t assigned to teach Defense Studies?”

At Ruin’s words, a suppressed snort escaped from the professors’ seats, and the students swallowed their screams in a different sense.
He’d said the one thing he absolutely shouldn’t have to Professor Kallon!
In reality, Kallon had harbored resentment because he hadn’t been assigned any core subjects.
The students broke out in cold sweat.

“I-is this really okay?”
“M-maybe it’s possible since it’s House Wayne?”

The professors looked at Kallon, who stood frozen like someone experiencing culture shock after seeing a barbarian.
Panicking, the professors under Kallon shot signals at Ruin in the air, begging him to stop—but
Ruin, as if realizing something, clapped his hands casually.

“Ah, now I understand.”

The professors under Kallon screamed internally.
Stop it, you crazy bastard!

“I found it strange myself. That a Gloster with defensive visions wasn’t a Defense Studies professor, but a Hero Studies professor. Hero Studies, which trains the mind, is certainly important—but isn’t Defense Studies the core subject of Haven?”

I get it, so stop, you lunatic!
In front of all the combat faculty professors, what is this nonsense?!
Kallon felt dizzy.
But Ruin didn’t stop.

“Even our wise Chancellor must have known about that incident and worried about House Gloster.”
“…You!”

Ruin cut him off.

“If that’s the case, don’t worry. It seems you’re trying to take charge of Demon Hunting Studies to take revenge on the Fire Moth.”

Ruin smiled brightly, as if telling him to trust only him.

“I’ll draft guidelines so that students, using Gloster as a negative example, will never be deceived the way that house was.”

Kallon pressed his forehead.
That bastard, seriously! He wanted to grab him by the collar and drag him out right now, but he couldn’t attack someone from House Wayne!
At that moment, as if it worked out perfectly, Ruin grabbed Kallon’s hand.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you say you’d help with the lectures, senior? Then how about this? If Professor Gloster himself were to talk about the case where he was deceived by the Fire Moth, it would be extremely helpful for the students.”

This bastard, seriously…!
A curse leaked out through Kallon’s clenched teeth.

“What’s the problem? It’s not something you personally missed—it’s a family matter. Well, it might be a bit embarrassing that a defense house personally opened the gates, but that just means the Fire Moth who deceived you was at fault. When would you like to start the lectures? Or, since you’re already here, today? I’ll leave the scheduling entirely up to you, Professor.”

Kallon shoved Ruin away as if shouting.

“Do whatever you want!”

Ruin, looking troubled, grabbed Kallon as he tried to leave.

“Wait a moment. I haven’t yet explained how to catch the Fire Moth—”
“That’s enough, just take Demon Hunting Studies and keep it!”

Kallon stormed out of the lecture hall. The professors under him, startled, chased after him.

“Professor! Professor!”
“Please tell us what’s going on!”

After the professors under Kallon left, Ruin’s expression returned to a completely humorless face, as if nothing had happened. He even wiped his hands for good measure.
The ginseng boss said a word to such a subordinate.

“Vicious bastard.”

Well, who told him to try pulling tricks?

“My goodness, it’s incredible, Professor!”

Annoying.

“The attendance rate for Demon Hunting Studies is no joke!”

Very annoying.
Ruin rubbed his brow. A few days later, his assistant, Lily, was beaming as she held the attendance book.

“I’ve never seen attendance this good! Professor! Normally it’s only about fifty percent!”

Ruin was dumbfounded.
So attendance was a chronic problem at Haven—to that extent?

“What kind of nerve do the other fifty percent have? Is their dream job becoming scrap metal?”
“Haven doesn’t have attendance points. It’s a rule set by the Chairwoman. As long as you do well on exams, that’s enough.”

That sounds just like her kind of rule. Careless.

“The Chancellor has a lot of complaints about it too, but the Chairwoman says what society needs isn’t ‘diligent people,’ but ‘outstanding people.’”

Her ideology is the exact opposite of mine.
Yeah. Typical of that guy who gets everything through luck.
Anyway, I don’t like her.

“At the same time, it’s also the Chairwoman’s method for evaluating professors. Since attendance isn’t mandatory, high attendance means high satisfaction with the professor. You get a bonus salary.”

…A likable employer.

“I guess the Gloster story you told last class really worked. The students might’ve thought it was a great chance to hear gossip about the Eight Great Noble Houses.”

Ruin nodded, as if that wasn’t a bad thing.

“The motive may be impure, but the difference in brain activation based on interest is significant—so it’s a good condition.”

Well, to be even more honest, the more students gather, the more Kallon avoids him, so that’s a win too.

“So what’s the attendance rate exactly?”
“A whopping ninety percent! Bonus salary for sure, and your personnel evaluation is guaranteed to be high!”

The assistant was overjoyed, but Ruin was unexpectedly troubled. Because while the bonus salary was very nice, the problem was that Demon Hunting Studies was a practical subject.

‘A practical subject clearly requires evaluating each student’s skills one by one.’

In short, it meant a massive time investment.

“Still, more students means a bigger bonus, right? Then isn’t it better the more students there are?”

Ruin clicked his tongue, making a face like he’d bitten into shit.

‘That’s putting the cart before the horse. Don’t forget that our ultimate goal is severance pay.’
“Yeah, not ‘our’—your goal.”

Tch. Damn ginseng bastard. Should I pluck the leaves off his head?

“How about becoming a professor at Haven instead of severance pay? Seems like you’d accumulate more money that way.”

The Fire Moth has its pride. How could he settle for teaching at a hero academy?
So he asked loftily,

“When will the cleaning of my assigned office be finished?”

Lily smiled brightly.

“Ah! It’s right next to the Chancellor’s office, so they’re renovating it and paying extra attention to it. Lovey-dovey—no, I mean, since you’ll probably be visiting each other often.”

Lovey-dovey? Visiting often?
He didn’t know what she meant, but yeah, next to the Chancellor’s office…
At that moment, Ruin froze.
What?
Where…?

The assistant smiled innocently.

“You must be happy! The Chief Professor’s office is right next to the Chancellor’s office, and it’s the best room in all of Haven!”
“……….”

Ruin drew a map of Haven in his head.
And 2.8 seconds later—

Fuck!

Ruin pressed his brow, looking exhausted.

‘So that unnecessarily huge room next to the Chancellor’s office was the Chief Professor’s office?!’

This was like a demon lodging in a hero’s house—living next door to a woman who could kill him. No, that wasn’t even the main issue.

‘The vault isn’t in that direction!’

That’s right.
The professor’s office Ruin wanted was in the old wing where new and regular professors stayed.
The Chancellor’s wing was a top-tier complex so luxurious it looked like gold would fall off just from breathing—but it was the farthest location from the vault!
A place of envy for professors, but a useless prime location for Ruin!

‘Damn it, not there! Things are getting tangled!’

“Everyone envies you. Most professors use the faculty building in the most remote area. In summer, there are even bugs—it’s not very nice.”

Damn it! That’s where I need to be!

“Can’t it be changed? With that place?”
“…Pardon?”

Her face clearly said, Why would you do something like that?
The ginseng boss burst out laughing like he was dying of amusement.
In the end, Ruin’s eyes burned. Of course, there were other methods—but they were high difficulty…

‘If it comes to this, I’ll just have to sneak into the faculty building!’
“And that’s possible while being next to the Chancellor?”

…Damn it!