The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor Chapter 3

Khalid followed closely behind Leorina, who was scouring the laboratory with a broom and a duster, chirping with unsolicited advice.

 

“No! Don’t touch that! I’m using that too! Move that over there, not there, and that is…”

 

“But why aren’t you doing it yourself, Professor…”

 

“It’s bothersome.”

 

“Ah, I see. Haha.”

 

‘I want to smack him just once.’

 

Leorina gritted her teeth inwardly as she roughly wiped away cobwebs.

 

‘I came here to assassinate the target! Do I really have to go this far?!’

 

Something had felt wrong from the very beginning.

 

She had thought she could just stick close to his side and slit his throat the moment she saw an opening. But Khalid was too busy dumping every possible chore on her, as if he had been waiting for her to do exactly that before she could even look for an opening.

 

‘Goddess Petilla, why are you giving me such a trial?’

 

Cleaning the lab, washing experimental tools, taking inventory and organizing research materials, and even handling the disposal of experimental waste, writing disposal requests, purchasing applications for supplies, lab usage requests, and post-usage reports.

 

Leorina spent an entire day tethered to cleaning and tidying the lab under Khalid’s constant micromanagement. 

 

The second day was spent wrestling with the various applications and reports Khalid had put off, and the long-awaited final day was spent running all over the academy to get those documents approved.

 

‘Merryl, I’m told I need to get this Magic Equipment Supplement Application approved. Where should I go for this?’ 

 

‘Take the shuttle that runs regularly in front of here, get off at the third stop, and submit it to the secretary in the equipment team leader’s office at the Magic Studies Hall right there.’

 

‘What about the application for producing lecture materials?’

 

‘The printing room in front of the History Hall.’ 

 

‘How do I request notifications for student assignment submissions?’

 

‘Come to the department office, authenticate with your magic pattern,and request a notification dispatch.’ 

 

Leorina, who had to run around the entire academy grounds without missing a single spot, collapsed onto the floor of Khalid’s office as soon as she finished the last errand.

 

“I feel such regret and shame… is this why I became an STF member…”

 

Leorina mumbled, barely voicing the “STF” part, but Khalid didn’t care whether she was muttering or not. He poked her leg with his toe and asked, 

 

“Leorina. What circle is your magic circuit?”

 

Was this a question a professor should be asking his graduate student right now? 

 

Leorina, irritated by the absurd question, jumped up and asked indignantly, 

 

“Professor, didn’t you read my documents?”

 

“Yeah. I’m reading them now.”

 

‘You’re proud of that, you jerk.’

 

Leorina suppressed the urge to smack Khalid, who had answered so confidently, and said, 

 

“It’s the 4th Circle.”

 

She was actually 7th Circle, but she had hidden her true skills to act like an ordinary mage.

 

“Ordinary, then.” 

 

Leorina was inwardly relieved by Khalid’s murmur. Khalid nodded as he scanned the documents Leorina had submitted when applying to graduate school once more. 

 

“Your undergraduate grades were decent, too. But with grades like these, following my experiments might be a struggle…”

 

Wait, was she too ordinary? 

 

Leorina quickly rubbed her hands together and said confidently, 

 

“Don’t worry about that. Even if I can’t be a help to your research, I’ll make sure not to be a hindrance!”

 

“I’ll have to think about what level to set your mandatory courses at.”

 

“So you are thinking about my curriculum?”

 

She thought he didn’t care about that because he was too busy putting her to work. 

 

“Ugh, I have to do at least that much to help my precious graduate student graduate.”

 

The ‘precious graduate student’ is already dead.

 

Khalid ordered Leorina, who had redefined the meaning of “precious.”

 

“If you’re done with your work, go make some coffee.”

 

‘Should I put poison in the coffee…?’

 

Leorina was seized by a strong impulse, but she decided not to make a rash attempt before fully grasping the situation.

 

Khalid, who had been waiting for Leorina to prepare coffee and refreshments without lifting a finger himself, suddenly pulled out a thick stack of papers. He scribbled something with his fountain pen and then became so intensely focused that he didn’t even notice Leorina bringing the coffee.

 

After calculating for a long time, Khalid stopped, fell into deep thought, walked over to the chalkboard, and began writing something at length.

 

Only then did Leorina recognize that it was a magic formula.

 

“Oh… ho….”

 

Leorina let out an exclamation before she knew it.

 

Unlike ordinary magic formulas, Khalid’s was a remarkably original composition; he had twisted elements in a way that most people would never have thought of. 

 

Leorina’s skills were second to none when it came to magic, but it was her first time learning that magic could be viewed from this perspective. 

 

“Professor, you really are a genius.”

 

Leorina praised Khalid, who was tilting his head while double-checking the formula. 

 

Khalid looked back at Leorina with an indifferent face, as if her words hadn’t moved him much.

 

“Leorina. I’ll give you your first assignment.”

 

“An assignment?”

 

Khalid tapped the chalkboard and continued, 

 

“Prove this magic formula.”

 

“What kind of magic formula is this?”

 

“Can’t you tell by looking?”

 

“…It seems to be a circuit for storing magic power. It doesn’t look like an independent spell, but rather one that supports other spells. So, I’m not sure exactly what it is.”

 

“I thought you were average, but you have a brain after all. That’s good.”

 

“What’s good?”

 

“Prove whether this formula can hold up, and if it fails, revise and supplement the parts that are wrong.” 

 

“Me?”

 

“Who else is here but you? If you don’t want to, well, do you want to clean the lab again?” 

 

“Understood, Professor. Just leave it to me!”

 

Leorina, who was sick of cleaning, agreed immediately. While Khalid left for his class, she returned to the lab and took a seat. 

 

“Ugh, my life… Let’s just do this roughly, roughly.”

 

Leorina tried casting Khalid’s magic formula. But it didn’t work as well as she thought.

 

She modified the formula slightly and tried casting it again. It still didn’t work.

 

So, for the third time, she thought for a while, carefully modified the formula, and cast it. Another failure. 

 

“Oh?”

 

Leorina curled up the corners of her lips crookedly.

 

“It doesn’t work even like this?”

 

Nope, not working. 

 

A competitive spirit flared within Leorina after the successive failures. 

 

“Not working? This isn’t working?” 

 

A mage, by nature, is a creature whose habit is to dismantle, construct, and explore the world. And Leorina, who was both an assassin for the Pope’s direct STF and a mage, was no exception.

 

“It doesn’t work even when I do it like this? It really doesn’t work? Let’s see who wins—you or me.”

 

* * *

 

Khalid burst through the door of his lab to check something before leaving for the day, only to be startled by the sight of Leorina, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. 

 

Because he had always been alone, he had completely forgotten that someone else was in his lab.

 

Leorina brightened as soon as she saw Khalid.

 

“Professor! I did it!”

 

“You haven’t left yet?”

 

Khalid looked at her with wide eyes.

 

“Where would I go? You told me to supplement the magic formula. I had to finish this before leaving.”

 

Khalid glanced at the clock on the wall.

 

It was 10:30 PM. It had been 11 hours since he had thrown the magic formula at Leorina.

 

He himself frequently forgot to eat once he became engrossed in something, but he hadn’t thought Leorina would be that diligent.

 

“Please take a look and see if this proof is correct and if the magic formula works properly.”

 

Leorina cautiously held out her notebook.

 

Khalid tried using the magic formula Leorina had handed him. Neatly refined magic flowed, swirling around the spell.

 

This was at a level that could be commercialized right now!

 

“How is it? Is it right to do it this way?”

 

When Leorina asked cautiously, Khalid suddenly covered his mouth.

 

At that reaction, Leorina tilted her head, wondering if something had gone wrong, but Khalid soon composed his expression and spoke gently.

 

“You did quite well. Good work.”

 

“Yay!”

 

Drunk on the joy of finally being able to go home, Leorina completely forgot that Khalid’s reaction had been a bit strange.

 

She packed her things in an instant and bowed to Khalid.

 

“Then goodnight! See you tomorrow.”

 

And then she headed home with a light step. 

 

Khalid stroked his chin, watching the back of Leorina’s head as she moved away.

 

“Hmm.”

 

Khalid couldn’t stop his mouth from curling up on its own.

 

He muttered to himself, 

 

“Where did such a slave… no, such a windfall roll into my lab from?”

 

Leorina’s status had been upgraded from slave to windfall. However, the way Khalid handled “windfalls” was a bit different from others.

 

And that would come crashing down on Leorina in the form of disaster starting from the very next day.