About ten minutes after Charlotte began berating me, I was already mentally and physically exhausted, though I had not said a word.
“I really did not think you would actually vomit just because of that. Haah……”
“……”
“You are going to have to lecture in halls like that eventually. What are you going to do then?”
If I listened to any more of this, I felt as though my stomach might start churning again, so I pretended to look around and changed the subject.
“So this is my office.”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes.
I ignored her, but her piercing gaze seemed to stab into every inch of my back, making cold sweat bead on my skin.
When it came to Aiden, I had to view things from a perspective different from that of an ordinary person.
Right.
I should not think of this as my younger sister glaring at me in disapproval.
A chitinous insect was staring me down.
Nothing more, nothing less than a cockroa—
No, a chitinous insect.
One the size of a human being……
My stomach churned.
No, this was actually frightening.
“Yes. This is your office.”
Charlotte folded her arms and snorted as though she were willing to let the matter go just this once.
I sighed in relief and looked around the office.
It was rather bare for now, but once it had been furnished, it would gradually become more presentable.
“Oh, now that I think about it, there is an undergraduate I would like to recommend to you. I will go bring her.”
“A Teaching Assistant?”
“She could serve as one, I suppose. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say she is someone who can look after you, since you have never experienced university life.”
“I do not require a caretaker.”
“Of course you do not.”
Her final words sounded both scolding and strangely vicious.
She was clearly referring to the disgraceful incident in the restroom, but that was unfair!
“Then think about how you want to furnish your office. She is in the dormitory, so I will go and bring her. I will not be long.”
“Do as you please.”
I was already reclining in the leather chair.
Haah……
A sigh rose from the very depths of my chest.
At the same time, I ran a hand across the elegantly finished wooden desk.
At last, I had found peace of mind.
If Charlotte would just leave now, I felt as though I could finally rest comfortably……
“Why do you somehow look so insufferable just sitting there?”
Charlotte tilted her head as she stared at me.
It was truly remarkable that I could apparently look irritating despite doing absolutely nothing irritating at all.
“It is merely a reflection of your usual state of mind. Do not restrict your relationships so narrowly. Learn to embrace people with a broader heart.”
“You have some nerve saying that after spending half a year holed up inside your mansion.”
She retorted as though genuinely dumbfounded, but she was powerless before one of Aiden’s greatest talents.
Aiden only heard what he wanted to hear.
Ignoring something like that was hardly difficult for me…
No one could dictate my emotions.
As I remained firmly settled against the leather chair, Charlotte’s expression twisted as though she had bitten into something foul.
However, apparently unable to think of anything else to say, she silently left the office.
Only after I was certain I was completely alone did I open my eyes to narrow slits and survey the room.
Giving a private office to a Chair Professor—more specifically, a Part-time Professor—was excessively generous.
There was no reason to assign one to a professor who could be dismissed at any time.
In other words, the university wanted to employ me in a full-time faculty position.
Even among Chair Professors, those in non-full-time positions could be dismissed at any moment, while those with full-time appointments received treatment equivalent to that of a Full Professor.
“…Not bad.”
If I wanted to survive, I needed to maintain as favorable an impression as possible and continue renewing my professorship.
There might be other solutions if I searched for them, but following the setting book and remaining a professor was the safest option.
‘If I act differently, there is no telling what kind of butterfly effect might end up killing me.’
I had no intention of indulging my experimental spirit when I only had one life.
More importantly……
“I am not proficient at controlling this power.”
Aiden was practically a walking strategic weapon.
One of the three Masters in the Empire.
A one-man army capable of sweeping across a battlefield alone, and a Transcendent.
Under ordinary circumstances, it was difficult to even imagine his life being threatened.
The only reason he died at all was because his opponent had been a Great Demon. Against almost anyone else, the very idea would have been absurd.
If anything, it would have been his opponent who died.
But that was the original Aiden.
The person inside his body now was none other than me.
“When have I ever used a rapier in my life?”
Whenever I actually held one, my body seemed to move unconsciously somehow, but entrusting everything to instinct hardly seemed like a proper solution.
So far, all I had gained from possessing Aiden was the sturdy body of a Transcendent and……
‘This damned Blessing that makes cockroa—no, people look like chitinous insects.’
I sighed.
No matter how I looked at it, I had gotten the worse end of this arrangement.
Aiden’s ego was extraordinarily strong, which was probably the only reason he had endured it. If an ordinary person suddenly began seeing every human being in the world as a cockroa—
as a chitinous insect, they would probably have gone insane already.
For the record, just as in the original story, even the most beautiful woman still looked like nothing more than a cockroach to me.
She would merely be a slightly prettier cockroach than the average one.
One might ask what a pretty cockroach was supposed to look like, but after seeing hundreds of cockroaches every day, one did begin to notice that some were vaguely more attractive than oth—URK.
Remembering what had happened in the Grand Lecture Hall made nausea surge up again.
I slumped limply into the chair with a half-dead expression.
If anyone had been watching, I would not have allowed myself to lounge around this shamelessly, but I was alone, so what did it matter?
My mind and body were already too worn down to concern myself with dignity and gravitas.
“I need to play it safe.”
I would mix in an appropriate amount of the game knowledge I had retained from my days as director and use it to keep renewing my professorship.
Then, little by little, I would learn how to properly wield a rapier……
“But I cannot do too well. Right around this level should be enough.”
In the original story, once Aiden finished his term as a Chair Professor and returned to his family, the academy recruited a new Visiting Professor to fill the vacancy he left behind.
That professor went on to provide tremendous assistance to the protagonists.
“I only need to keep renewing my term as a Part-time Professor.”
My evaluations could not be so poor that I was dismissed, but they also could not be so excellent that they interfered with the recruitment of the other Visiting Professor.
I needed to give people the impression that I was somewhat lacking.
Not exactly bad, but somehow a little bland and disappointing!
That was the impression I needed.
“If I simply aim to do well, I should naturally settle somewhere around that level. I have never taught anyone before anyway.”
In that regard, the lecture taught by the professor of Pure Magic Theory might serve as a useful reference.
‘I thought I had seen that somewhere before. Now that I think about it……’
I narrowed my eyes and recalled the Magic Circle the professor had conjured in midair.
The twisting character that looked like someone had drawn a writhing lizard.
Ignite.
I remembered seeing it in the setting book.
Right.
How was that supposed to be read again?
The pronunciation had been lost?
They did not know its original meaning?
It was almost laughable.
I did not think much of it when it was simply part of the setting…
But once someone seriously declared that something was impossible, it somehow made me want to try it.
‘I knew how to read it……’
I covered my eyes with one hand and murmured as though talking in my sleep.
“Erte. Right. That was how it was pronounced.”
There had been a guy on the planning team who loved playing around with lore.
He was an eccentric who created detailed settings that would probably never even appear in the game, but some of the things he came up with had been interesting enough that I remembered them.
‘He was the one who came up with the Rune Language too.’
We called it a Rune Language, but in reality, it was nothing more than a fantasy-styled imitation.
Its pronunciation and writing system were entirely fabricated and infinitely removed from actual runes.
‘He used to complain that most of his ideas were rejected before they even made it into the planning stage.’
Still, his fake Rune Language had somehow survived.
The only reason I remembered any of it was because the guy had been one of my drinking buddies.
Whenever he got drunk, he would talk about nothing else until my ears practically wore out.
It was not as though I had wanted to memorize any of it.
Huh?
But… why is it getting hot……
A flame was burning directly in front of me.
“……?”
A blaze of countless colors flickered before my eyes.
Whenever sparks crackled from it, I could not help thinking that it looked strangely beautiful, almost like fireworks.
Ooh……
“This is no time to be impressed, you idiot.”
Fire extinguisher.
Fire extinguisher, fire extinguisher, fire extinguisher.
Where was the fire extinguisher?
If there was no fire extinguisher, then at least some water.
There was no water either?!
I tore down the curtain and stomped on the flames with it.
“Huff, huff.”
Only after extinguishing the fire did all the strength suddenly drain from my body.
I rubbed a hand over my face.
Why was I living like this?
“I am exhausted.”
Without even bothering to move the blackened curtain, I surrendered myself to the chair.
With the curtain torn away, the morning sunlight streamed directly through the closed window.
Its warmth was strangely soothing, and as the tension drained from me, drowsiness began to settle in.
Just as I was about to let myself completely melt into the chair, someone began pounding urgently on the door.
“What was that commotion just now? More importantly, open the door!”
‘Ah……!’
I quickly straightened my clothes and shoved the scorched curtain beneath the desk where it could not be seen.
Then I smiled brightly as though absolutely nothing had happened.
I had done nothing at all.
“Hey. What did you do?”
So much for that.
The moment Charlotte leaned inside, I flinched instinctively and rubbed around my eyes with one hand.
Whenever Aiden encountered someone at close range, he reflexively observed them in meticulous detail.
It was a habit developed over his long life as a swordsman, intended to engrave another person clearly into his memory.
Of course, such a habit was only useful when people actually looked like people.
Right now, it merely ensured that the structure of an insect’s mouthparts would be permanently burned into my brai—
No.
I could not handle that.
Overwhelmed by the mental shock, I collapsed into the chair regardless of whether I had a guest or not.
“I intend to rest. You may all leave now.”
“Do not be ridiculous. I went all the way over there to bring someone here so I could introduce you. You cannot say that after making me do all that.”
She had a point, so I turned my head.
Not that I could distinguish people very well by appearance anyway.
I mostly had to identify them by their voices and other details.
“Greetings. My name is Aisel Trudy. I work at the Peacevolt Ducal House’s residence in the Imperial Capital. I am currently a second-year student in the Department of Knighthood.”
“You know the Trudy family name, right? Rizef Trudy, the Future Head Maid who works at your mansion. This girl is her daughter. Treat her well.”
When I did not answer, Charlotte glared at me with tremendous intensity.
“…Very well. I look forward to working with you. I am Aiden.”
I gave them a look that plainly asked whether they had any further business.
Charlotte grabbed her forehead and let out a sigh.
That personality of his truly never changed.
Her expression seemed to say that she was always the one who ended up suffering because of it.
“Fine. If you have nothing to say, you want us to leave, right? Haah, that personality of yours… Aisel, let us go eat by ourselves for now.”
“No. Um……”
Aisel seemed to glance at me for a moment before turning away again.
Before Charlotte left the office, she fired one last warning at me.
“I am going to interrogate you later about what you did in here, so be prepared.”
“I truly did nothing.”
Yes, yes.
Of course you did not.
I ignored the sarcasm as I always did.
Only after silence finally settled over the office could I let my exhausted body completely relax.
***
Aisel looked at Charlotte, who kept casting apologetic glances in her direction.
“I swear, one of these days I am going to snap that bastard in half.”
“He did seem very tired.”
“That does not excuse him. He is a man who locked himself in his room for half a year just because things did not go his way, and somehow that is supposed to be a Transcendent.”
“Haha……”
A pair of steel-blue eyes burned quietly within his dark, weary expression.
They had seemed languid, yet the look in them had made Aisel shrink back for an instant.
It was as though those eyes were saying, No matter what you are thinking, I can see straight through you.
But that feeling had lasted only a moment.
Whenever Charlotte dealt with Aiden, his characteristic air of intimidation vanished completely.
What remained was merely an older brother being helplessly pushed around by his younger sister’s scolding.
“And that is supposed to be the Master all those knights idolize? That pathetic man?”
Aisel could not think of any answer.
Even setting aside the fact that she herself was a student in the Department of Knighthood, Master was a realm reached by only the tiniest fraction of even the most renowned geniuses.
Not a handful.
Barely a few grains among countless others.
If she denied his worth, it felt as though she were trampling upon the ideal pursued by every knight.
But if she agreed with Charlotte, the resentful spirits of all the ordinary talents who had spent their entire lives cursing their limitations before an insurmountable wall seemed to bind her tongue.
When Aisel avoided answering with an awkward laugh, Charlotte clicked her tongue sharply.
Then, as though utterly incapable of understanding him, she began firing off another series of complaints.
“More importantly, why did he tear down the curtain? It was perfectly fine.”
“Oh, was there originally a curtain there?”
“Yes.”
Charlotte began rattling off one speculation after another beside her.
Surely he had not torn it down just because he wanted to pull it aside.
Had he disliked it?
If so, could he not simply have bought another one later?
Why had he needed to tear it down at all……?
“I truly do not understand what goes on in that man’s head.”
Charlotte then looked at Aisel with pity.
“I really am sorry to ask this of you, but please take good care of him.”
“I am… not very confident.”
“He is insufferable, but he is not truly a bad person at heart, so you do not have to be too intimidated. And if anything happens, just tell me. I will beat him myself.”
Beat him?
She would beat him?
Who would beat whom?
Aisel stared at Charlotte as though she must have misheard.
Charlotte was a Mage, and even from Aisel’s perspective as a student of the Department of Knighthood, her physique was rather slight.
If Aiden chose to evade her, he could subdue Charlotte without allowing her to so much as brush the hem of his clothes.
And yet Charlotte said she could hit him……
‘So he lets her.’
Perhaps he was not as bad as she had expected.