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Chapter 24
Kallon’s favorite disciples were startled.
“Wait—what? Why are there bandages inside again?!”
Ruin spoke as he smoothly peeled away the torn bandage.
“I prepared for something like this. It’s not a face you’d want to see.”
Damn it!
There’s more inside?!
“Shit, aim again!”
This time, fire magic came crashing in.
But inside the burning bandages, there were yet more bandages….
“Ghk…! There’s more?!”
As Ruin calmly removed the scorched bandages, Charlie sharply aimed from the side. He didn’t know why the students were so fixated on Ruins’s bandages, but their objective was the same? Wasn’t this a perfect opportunity?!
“It’s over now!”
This was about the limit of how much a human could wrap around their face and still move!
At last, the moment he tore off the bandages—there was a mask on his face… what? A mask?!
“You crazy bastard, just how many layers did you wrap around yourself?!”
“My face is precious.”
This guy?
Charlie was dumbfounded at the words that sounded like he was being mocked.
But by then, the other professors were also frowning. The sight of Ruins defeating Charlie was extremely shocking. So they began to think that maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to drag that man down from the position of Professor of Demon Hunting. They were wondering what to do—
“That attitude.”
What kind of lunatic would go that far just to protect his face?!
Sure enough, the Professor of Healing and Charlie exchanged glances.
“Wait a second. If he’s hiding it that thoroughly….”
“Could it be that the Princess’s mark is on his face?”
Their eyes gleamed with a different meaning.
“That’s it. No doubt about it.”
There was no way that bastard had undone the princess’s magic! The assistants said they couldn’t find anything even after a body search, but the face had been a blind spot.
With that thought, the crazed Professor of Healing moved.
“I should help strip it off too—.”
It was just as she was about to use magic.
Bang!
Charlie flew over, reduced to a bloody mess, landing beside the Professor of Healing.
“Professor Charlie!”
Ruin shook the blood off his gloves and snarled.
“Before you start having pointless thoughts, why don’t you hurry up and pick up that slime? I can’t stand my room being dirty.”
“…Ghk!”
“Or are you the next ones who want to jump me?”
“……!”
The professors couldn’t open their mouths, for a different reason this time. Ruin’s icy gaze was terrifying.
On the other hand, Ruin was in a good mood.
“With this, Charlie’s professor’s office is mine.”
「Hey, what about the friends-friends plan……?」
“This is the friends-friends plan.”
「In what world does this look like a friends-friends plan……?」
“There are many kinds of friends. This one’s the type who generously gives up what he owns.”
Ginseng was aghast.
「………Isn’t this guy completely insane?」
Of course, he had deliberately provoked Charlie to cloud his judgment—but so what?
“If you feel wronged, you should fix your personality first.”
Ruin already knew Charlie well, having finished investigating him beforehand. Charlie’s hatred of Wayne stemmed from inferiority, so to Ruin it was almost cute.
So he simply used that.
「Still, you didn’t even undo a single button on your gloves. I thought you’d at least loosen one.」
“True.”
Since the opponent was still a high-ranking hero of the Union, he wondered if he’d need to partially release the seal—but thankfully, there was no need.
In fact, the black leather gloves he always wore—
【Hand That Binds Fate (Special-Grade Artifact)】
—were an artifact that maximally bound the power of misfortune, the “Wanderer’s Fate.”
Even undoing just one of the four buttons on the gloves would let horrific misfortune leak out. That was how he dealt with the Headmaster back then.
But—
“Charlie’s luck is actually only about average.”
So there was no need to use misfortune at all.
But they were completely different. The Professor of Healing had been staring at him this whole time.
「Oh. Those ones have high luck?」
“Hmm. Are they trying to avenge their colleague?”
In reality, they were targeting Ruin’s bandages, but Ruin warned them anyway.
“If you keep staying in someone else’s classroom without requesting to audit the lecture, you’ll regret it.”
“?”
Ruin lightly rubbed the mark on his wrist with his fingertip. Immediately, powerful flames rose up from the floor.
The students were shocked by the sight.
“Ah, that spell!”
“That one from before!”
The third-year Goldmoon students who had experienced that magic before were terrified, and the two professors were flustered for different reasons. At a glance, it was clearly high-tier magic!
“Wait, that man—wasn’t he a battle mage?”
“A battle mage using high-tier elemental magic?”
Normally, battle mages trained their bodies using strength- and speed-enhancing magic. He was far too young to have mastered elemental magic of that level as well.
“Unless he has absurd luck, or is an unbelievable genius…!”
It was like a swordsman being equally skilled in magic. If a hero searching for outstanding talent to hunt fireflies saw this scene, they’d go mad with joy.
Yet Ruin himself was simply intrigued.
“Oh. I tried it just to see, and it actually works?”
This was actually the Headmaster’s magic. The very magic sealed by the “Right Hand of God.” In other words, he had only been testing the mark on his wrist.
“Since the spell formula is sealed in my body, theoretically I can pull it out with ‘Three-Minute Copy.’”
So he’d just tested it.
「Oh, so the fire you used in front of the students back then was that!」
“That’s right.”
He’d been using “Three-Minute Copy” then too, so he must have touched the mark by chance.
On top of that, he’d figured out why the magic turned out differently from before—because of Ruins Wayne’s trait.
【Ironclad Pride】
Has extremely strong pride and hates doing anything that would tarnish it. Will never kneel.
…Apparently, the very act of “imitating” or “copying” someone was a massive scratch on Ruins Wayne’s pride. So he forcibly turned it into Ruins Wayne’s original magic.
“What a troublesome personality.”
But wasn’t that a very good thing for Ruin?
“Modified magic is valued more highly in academia, after all.”
Moreover, magic used this way didn’t emit curse power, perhaps due to Wayne’s “Ironclad Pride” that he was swallowing. He had no idea what the correlation between “curse power” and “pride” was—but who cared.
“If you’re not going to pick up that slime, then fine.”
At those flames, the Professor of Healing let out a small sneer.
“You’re going to use magic in front of the Professor of Defense? Go ahead and try. The Professor of Defense will block it all for you—”
But an unexpected answer came back.
“Why would I?”
“What?”
“Wasn’t it you who started the fight?”
“?!”
As the Professor of Defense laughed breezily, the Professor of Healing was dumbstruck.
The Professor of Defense siding with Ruins Wayne?
It seemed he’d taken an interest in Charlie being defeated. If that was the case, then there was no helping it. She’d have to strip off the bandages herself—
“Kyaaaah!”
The Professor of Healing screamed at the sight before her eyes.
She rushed over to Charlie in shock as flames burned near him.
“Professor Charlie!”
“Not only did the Professor of Self-Defense kindly serve as a demonstration dummy, but he even tried to teach post-mortem monster disposal by burning his entire body. How touching. Truly the Union’s hero. Truly my friend.”
That lunatic!
In the end, the Professor of Healing carried Charlie out of the classroom, not forgetting to keep her guard up against Ruin.
“There’s no doubt—the princess’s mark is on his face!”
“Let’s tell the princess. Then we can have him expelled from his professor position!”
With nothing left to do, Ruin kicked out the Professor of Defense as well, without hesitation.
“Goodbye.”
The Professor of Defense, who had helped Ruin, was bewildered.
“Huh? Huh? Wait, I still have business with you—!”
“Go home, wash your neck, and sleep well.”
Bang!
At that sight, Kallon’s favorite disciples were terrified.
“Wash your neck and sleep well…!”
They knew the professors had come to frame him with bribes, so they understood why Ruins was angry. He wouldn’t forgive even his fellow professors.
And if it was revealed that they were the ones who reported the bribes…!
“Let’s run.”
Just as they made that decision—
Thud!
“Guhk!”
A student heading for the door fell flat on his face.
The one who subdued him was Ruin. Sitting on top of him, he narrowed his eyes.
“I didn’t know you were all so interested in my face.”
His golden eyes, flashing fiercely like a black panther’s, were terrifying. The student froze.
“P-Professor…! That’s not it—”
“Sorry. Honestly, I was curious how ugly you were.”
“So that’s why you reported me for taking bribes?”
The students were horrified.
Damn it! He noticed that too?!
The bodies of the students who had reported him began to tremble visibly.
“T-The truth is, Her Highness the Princess recommended the method…! We committed an unforgivable sin!”
“Fine. I got something out of it too, so I’ll let it slide.”
Because he’d gotten Charlie’s professor’s office.
At Ruin’s reply, the students felt relieved.
“Phew… thank goodness….”
“However, only if you pass my test.”
The students froze again, their hearts dropping.
Damn it—was he not planning to forgive them after all?
“What kind of test is he going to give…?”
But Ruin’s words were unexpected.
“The basics of demon hunting are capturing demonkind. Anyone who succeeds in seeing my face will automatically pass this midterm.”
“R-Really?!”
The students, who had been prepared for punishment, let out involuntary chuckles.
After all, the practical exam for demon-hunting studies was infamous for being brutally difficult.
“If it fails, at least we break even….”
But—
“However, if you fail, all third-year Goldmoon students will be expelled.”
“…….”
…Excuse me? What?
“Expelled.”
With no minimum score?
“Now then, do your best—for your friends’ share as well.”
Kallon’s favorite disciples went into total meltdown. And understandably so—the murderous intent from the other students who had been doing nothing until now…!
“You crazy bastards!”
“Are you out of your minds and looking to die?!”
“Who do you think you are, talking back to a professor?!”
They felt their lives were in danger.
“What? He already fought the Professor of Self-Defense?”
“And even won.”
At the butler’s words, the Headmaster unconsciously opened her mouth. She never showed such expressions normally, but the story was that shocking.
“Professor Wayne… really defeated that Professor of Self-Defense?”
In truth, ever since the first meeting—when he blocked the Professor of Self-Defense’s technique—she had expected a certain level of skill. But she never imagined he would truly win.
Of course, Charlie had emotional ups and downs that sometimes interfered with his performance, but when facing an enemy, he never wavered.
She wondered if being friends with Wayne had softened him, but he’d been groaning in the infirmary to begin with. This could only be explained as an overwhelming difference in ability.
“The rumors have already spread, so the students are curious. Those who didn’t register for the class because of the Goldmoon students are regretting it.”
Yes, that made sense. Charlie was that strong.
“Additionally, I’ve heard that Ruins Wayne’s ‘lecture auditing passes’ are being sold secretly at high prices, so the professors have begun cracking down on it.”
The Headmaster pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly not having anticipated that.
Well, of course they’d be curious. He’d defeated the Professor of Self-Defense—and more importantly, he was the one who broke the princess’s magic.
“By the way, I heard the two fought over a professor’s office? Why would Professor Wayne pass up the chief professor’s office…?”
“That’s because—no, Headmaster.”
As the butler avoided her gaze, Charlotte’s eyes hardened.
“What is it? Say it.”
“…He says he dislikes you, Headmaster.”
The Headmaster’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit. It seemed to take her about three seconds to process.
“…Pardon?!”
It seemed to sting her pride. No—throwing away such a fine research office and choosing a chicken-coop office instead, just because he disliked her, and even fighting over it…!
“Was I too harsh when I tested him at our first meeting?”
Instead, Charlotte felt a bit guilty.
“Did I leave him with a frightening memory?”
“No. It’s not that… he says he dislikes you because you’re too pretty.”
……What?
This time, it seemed to take about three minutes to understand.
“………What?!”
