NOVEL NEXT Chapter 54
<54 - Different Art Style for Period 5>
Monday, 5th Period.
Night-time Activities for Adventurers Course.
“What’s the classroom?”
“There’s not a single light on.”
“Maybe the professor went to sleep?”
A few students, wandering hesitantly between the dark barns, turned away with disappointment written all over their faces.
“Let’s just go somewhere else and listen to a lecture.”
“Yeah, the classroom is close.”
“I thought it would be easier to avoid the competition for grades there… but if the lecture isn’t even happening, what can we do?”
As the students headed home after failing to find the professor, Oknodie silently offered a prayer for their souls.
‘If you attend that lecture, you might learn how to sleep in any extreme environment. Hang in there, newbies!’
If you run away from the lecture and give up, there’s nothing left, but please at least try to stick it out until the end!
‘But seriously, this lecture is really unpopular.’
Well, most students turned around simply because they couldn’t find the professor.
Perhaps they were at the right location, but thinking that the Night-time Activities for Adventurers Course would actually conduct a class outdoors in the dark was a silly expectation that a very small number of students still held.
And they were right.
Brrrr
“Hey? Didn’t something just happen in the darkness over there?”
“Turn on the lighting magic!”
As the lights turned on from a lamp they recognized all too well, a flutter of flower petals accompanied the soft pink glow.
In the illuminated open ground…
A woman in a white overgarment, with long black hair cascading like a soaked seaweed, stood up with a thud, thud sound.
“AAAAAh!!”
“Wha-what? C-come with me…!”
“It’s a ghost!!! So scary!!”
“Ugh!!! I feel like I’m losing my mind!!!!”
“Hey, kids…? Please, me too!”
“Run awayyy!!!”
“Ugh, it’s tough to keep up because of the lamp!”
Students scattered in all directions, screaming like a military unit from the Tang Dynasty getting ambushed.
A female student dragging the lighting lamp tripped over a rock.
The lamp, surprisingly durable, didn’t break but as it fell, a button was accidentally pressed, turning the light red instead.
Thud thud
The black-haired woman in the overgarment turned her head toward the fallen student, making noises like a creaky joint.
“Eek. D-don’t come! Do you know who my dad is? He’s the mayor of the Sacred City-State Federation! One of the city-states called the God of the South belongs to my dad!!”
“……”
“Y-you got that? So don’t come near me. If you do, I’ll… tell my dad…”
“……”
“…I’ll tell him… okay?”
The woman in the overgarment had no response.
The lamp girl, gradually losing her confidence, looked up at the ominous figure as she stared down at her now crimson-soaked attire.
With a gut feeling of dread that silenced her voice, the lamp girl shook her head.
BAM!
“Ah.”
Suddenly, the woman in the overgarment sprinted toward her, causing the lamp girl to faint on the spot from sheer terror.
“What a clumsy child.”
But the woman in the white overgarment was not a ghost haunting the academy due to a tragic incident; she was Professor Sadako, the designated lecturer for the Night-time Activities for Adventurers Course.
“…Class is starting. …Get out here quickly.”
The lights revealed the professor shining out from behind the barn where she had been hiding.
Even though it was with the [Hide] function, being illuminated in the treetops surprised her a bit.
“Wow. It was you, professor? I almost attacked thinking you were a real ghost out of fear.”
A masked assassin Jiang spoke.
A true assassin moment, meeting her during the lecture.
*
Monday, 5th Period.
The Night-time Activities for Adventurers Course, held from 7 to 9 PM, is taught by Professor Sadako, a nocturnal educator with long hair and a white overgarment.
Her body often grows cold and stiff, making it creak with every movement, and her long hair often obscures her face, which sometimes prompts ghostly sounds from her.
Unsurprisingly, the students’ popularity is at an all-time low.
After a random experience of holding a night class with zero attendees, she realized it.
‘If I scare the students, I won’t have to teach and can enjoy my time freely.’
A rational exploitation not bound by the professor’s duties, seeing only the teaching benefits provided by the Dragon Principal!
Having mastered the art of exploitation, every year, she makes her eerie entrance during the ominous twilight near the particularly dark forest to scare the students.
The student holding the lamp thought that once they woke up, those who hadn’t come today might become curious and show up, spreading the rumor…
But there are fearless students out there.
Coincidentally, this time within the 981st batch of first-years, there were two fearless ones.
“…Aren’t you afraid of the professor?”
“It’s okay because I won’t die! …But since I can’t kill the professor, I guess it’s not okay!”
“I’m just not scared.”
Jiang shot a disapproving glance at Oknodie, who was making such outrageous lies beneath her mask.
“…Really? I’m not scary…?”
As the professor approached with her creaky noise, she turned her neck at an unrealistic angle and positioned her face closer to Oknodie’s.
While Oknodie looked a bit startled, she also seemed curious.
“Your voice is pretty, you know. There are no ugly girls with a pretty voice!”
This bold child said that without a care.
For no reason, Sadako felt a pang of resentment.
“Do you know what my nickname is? The Terror of Sadako.”
Through her long hair, her eyes peeked out.
The emotions reflected in her darkness-stained eyes stirred up fear, akin to looking into the abyss of humanity.
It was primal fear.
The physiological horror that humans feel when they gaze upon the inhuman.
Just meeting her initiated an unsettling feeling that something was wrong, making you want to run away and scream.
“The Principal may have the knack for gathering professors… but he also has a major flaw.”
Sadako touched a student’s shoulder with her pale hand, which didn’t even reach her chest.
“The Principal’s problem is that he doesn’t discriminate by race. And the professor teaching you right now is a being that defies life—a forsaken creation of God. An undead.”
“!”
“Do you feel it? The cold hand devoid of the warmth of life. Receiving an education from the dead could mean you become just another corpse. And yet, I’m not scary?”
Jiang trembled behind her mask, stuttering:
“Really scary.”
If even the assassin-like child trembles in fear, that says it all.
That’s enough.
This year, too, the students for her class will be zero.
She could again enjoy her peaceful nights alone.
For the dead, the only thing that remains is time.
But at the same time, it’s also in the nature of an undead to dislike being disturbed in their solitude.
Sadako felt guilty for wanting to be hated by the child who praised her beauty while hoping to regain her peace.
“Does it even matter?”
But Oknodie, unafraid, replied boldly.
“As long as the professor teaches well, that’s fine. There’s no way the Dragon Principal would bring in a professor who can’t even teach properly.”
Sadako was taken aback.
The audacity of a mere student, recognizing her as nothing more than a lowly undead, stunned her.
It wasn’t without a basis for belief, either.
She was recognized.
Expectations hung on her to provide guidance.
They anticipated being taught by a being they were too afraid to face.
“…This is your chosen lecture. If you want to quit, say so now. If you walk away after coming here to disrupt the rest of the dead, I will not forgive you.”
“I’m not quitting! The lecture I want to learn most during 5th period is this one!”
At Oknodie’s bold declaration, Jiang, who was about to run away, stopped, huffed, and turned back.
“Then I’ll take it too.”
“You don’t have to. You can stick with me.”
“I dislike the feeling of losing if I back down.”
With the lively squabble of the children, Sadako chuckled beneath her long hair.
Despite hating the idea of being a professor, she felt a premonition that this year would be an exception.
*
How can a laugh sound so eerie?
I feel scared even knowing.
I pretended to be nonchalant in front of Jiang, but truthfully, I’m terrified.
‘As expected, she’s got the appearance that draws a lot of unwanted attention. I’ve adapted to it, and yet I’m still shocked.’
Due to her distinctive looks, Sadako is considered an unconventional professor among players.
However, there’s one rumor floating around regarding this professor.
That beneath her bangs, which she never shows to players, lies an astonishingly beautiful face.
No veteran players have ever confirmed this fact.
Whether Sadako’s true face is lovely or ugly is a sort of McGuffin.
‘But now that I’m in this reality, couldn’t I find out?’
Undead are nocturnal beings.
It’s hard to find a professor superior to Professor Sadako regarding night-time activities.
However, the most important aspect of this course is not the practicality of the lectures.
‘I want to see Professor Sadako’s true face!’
The biggest reason for attending this 5th period Night-time Activities for Adventurers Course is to see the professor’s true face before the semester ends!