I Became an Unknown Professor at the Academy - Chapter 42

At 8:57 AM, Nam Seo-hee lowered her sleeve and glanced to the side.

Next to her, Baek Hana, with snow-white hair and skin, contrasted by her black uniform, looked down at the podium with a dry expression.

Her sharp eyes, contrasting with her alluring blue irises, would captivate anyone, regardless of gender. Her cold, unapproachable aura only added to her beauty.

Nam Seo-hee cautiously averted her gaze to the other side.

The lecture hall, with a capacity of a hundred, had only eighty students attending. There was ample space for each person, making it easy to maintain personal space.

However, the row where Baek Hana and Nam Seo-hee sat was unusually empty, with only the two of them occupying it. In fact, no one else sat in the rows in front or behind them either.

Nam Seo-hee was glad to be rid of annoying classmates, but the reason for this situation—the events of the past few days—weighed on her mind.

On Saturday, they had parted on awkward terms due to the competition for the club president position.

On Sunday, Baek Hana had been busy with course registration, leaving little room for conversation.

Then, on Monday, as if nothing had happened, they had shared a pleasant breakfast and attended the same lecture, even having lunch together and chatting casually. It had been wonderful—until the practical martial arts lecture later that day.

The practical martial arts lecture, the last class of the day, lasted for three hours. The first hour was spent introducing the course, with a brief introduction from the professor, Kang Hanna, and a Q&A session.

The next hour was spent in the sparring arena, where each student took turns sparring with Professor Kang Hanna, using only physical abilities without powers. The professor remained in one spot, focusing solely on defense.

This session was necessary to assess the students’ individual needs, based on the recorded footage.

And finally, the last hour was supposed to be for autonomous sparring, with the professor emphasizing the importance of gauging their opponents’ capabilities.

However, despite the ‘autonomous’ label, Professor Kang Hanna mandated that everyone spar with her at least once. Here, an issue arose.

The class was divided into four sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, and unfortunately, Kang Seok-ho was in the same session as Baek Hana and Nam Seo-hee.

Without hesitation, Baek Hana challenged Kang Seok-ho to a spar, and he couldn’t refuse. Before the eyes of the entire class, he relived the ruthless violence he had experienced two days prior.

Baek Hana, with icy eyes, relentlessly struck Kang Seok-ho’s face again and again.

The students, witnessing this, couldn’t even meet Baek Hana’s gaze until the lecture ended.

Fortunately, as it was during class, the brutal scene wasn’t recorded, but with so many witnesses, the news spread like wildfire, explaining why the area around them was now deserted.

However, Nam Seo-hee wasn’t bothered by her classmates’ avoidance. Her concern was Baek Hana’s mood, which had been off ever since yesterday.

-Creak.

The sound of the door sliding open caught Nam Seo-hee’s attention.

Baek Woo-jin, clad in deep black from head to toe, with only his skin and glasses as contrast, entered the classroom.

Nam Seo-hee glanced at her wrist.

9:00 AM.

Right on time for the lecture to begin.

Tap.

The open classroom door closed by itself.

Simultaneously, the students, excluding Baek Hana and Nam Seo-hee, furrowed their brows in confusion. They expected to see Claire, who always followed Baek Woo-jin into the classroom.

Those students who had enrolled in this elective solely to see Claire, having experienced her in the introductory lecture, had all disappeared.

After all, for anyone who had attended a specialized school, the content would be familiar, and there would be no need to endure the heavy workload, as Baek Woo-jin had repeatedly emphasized.

Click.

As the students momentarily puzzled over Claire’s absence, the lock on the briefcase on the podium released, and its mouth, which had been tightly closed, opened wide. From it, a bundle of papers, as thick as a forefinger, floated out and hovered in the air.

These papers then silently flew and landed in front of each student seated in the classroom.

Click. The briefcase closed its mouth, and Baek Woo-jin, looking at the students who were alternating their gazes between him and the papers in front of them, spoke.

“This week’s assignment.”

The students, captivated by his deep, mellow voice, quickly snapped out of their daze and widened their eyes.

“Submit it by next class.”

A slight sense of relief washed over them as they realized they had about six days to complete the assignment. While the thickness of the papers was concerning, it was likely just a basic assignment on gates.

After all, Baek Woo-jin had repeatedly stated that he would only cover the fundamentals in this elective course.

Nam Seo-hee shared a similar sentiment to her classmates. She was about to suggest to Baek Hana that they work on the assignment together when she noticed something odd.

‘……?’

Baek Hana tilted her head, her eyes fixed on Baek Woo-jin with a curious expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Although it seemed like something was amiss, Nam Seo-hee let it go when Baek Hana denied it. She nodded and gently pulled her hips closer to Baek Hana’s.

“Hana.”

“Shh.”

“Uh, yeah.”

Nam Seo-hee brought her finger to her lips, obeying Baek Hana’s silent signal to be quiet.

Baek Hana, without sparing Nam Seo-hee a glance, picked up her pen and prepared to take notes. Nam Seo-hee, observing this, blinked a few times before turning her gaze to the podium.

Unless it was a lecture on alchemy or magicology, which required complex spells and incantations, no professor forced students to take notes.

With the advancement of technology, lecture materials were uploaded to the course bulletin board, allowing students to freely download and review them as needed.

However, Baek Woo-jin, despite teaching an elective course, didn’t provide such conveniences. He expected students to take notes manually if they deemed it necessary.

Nevertheless, the students who had attended the introductory lecture didn’t feel the need to take notes for this class.

A handful of students had brought stationery to impress Claire, but with her absence, most of them simply stared blankly at Baek Woo-jin’s back.

“Let’s begin the lecture.”

As Baek Woo-jin turned around, a blackboard appeared behind him. A piece of white chalk floated in the air and began to write on the board with remarkable speed.

Scribble, scribble.

Baek Woo-jin, with his back to the board, faced the students and spoke.

“The cause of the formation of gates remains unknown, and the signs that appear before their emergence are familiar to you, so I won’t explain them.”

Nam Seo-hee, admiring Baek Woo-jin’s deep voice, looked at the large glasses on his face and imagined the eyes hidden behind them.

Like her, many students bowed their heads, either dozing off or thinking about other lectures, trying to make the most of their time.

Baek Woo-jin, noticing this, didn’t comment and continued his lecture.

“There are distinct characteristics of gates in the lower, middle, and upper tiers, which I will explain starting next week. Today, I will focus on the crystal, the core component of all gates.”

Tap, tap.

The chalk, which had been moving swiftly, now returned to the starting point and lightly tapped the blackboard.

“As the core that sustains the gate and generates monsters, the crystal’s destruction leads to the gate’s disappearance. Even if you fail to escape in time, you need not worry. All living beings, except for the monsters, will be ejected to some location on Earth as the gate collapses.”

The students, momentarily focused due to the tapping on the blackboard, confirmed that it was indeed familiar content from their specialized schools and turned their attention elsewhere.

Tap, tap.

The chalk tapped the blackboard again, but this time, the students didn’t bother to look.

“As the core of the gate, the crystal is usually hidden in the deepest part or an unexpected location. In non-themed gates, the lower-tier crystals must be destroyed or reached within a week, the middle-tier within a month, and the upper-tier within at least three months.”

Nam Seo-hee, who had been admiring Baek Woo-jin’s face and listening to his voice like a classical melody, blinked.

She had never heard about the need to destroy the crystal within a few days.

“The reason is simple. If you exceed that time frame, the crystal completes its learning and initiates a new response to counter the invading humans who have killed its protective monsters.”

‘…Learning?’

Nam Seo-hee’s gaze shifted to the blackboard. Her eyes widened.

“Gates can be repurposed for other purposes, often by those operating in the shadows. However, the question is how they managed to maintain the crystal while preventing the summoning of monsters, and the answer is simple.”

Tap—!!

“It’s because the crystal, as the core of the gate, no longer saw the need for monsters. Humans had killed all the monsters protecting it, yet they failed to destroy the crystal itself. Thus, it concluded that there was no need to create more monsters.”

Baek Woo-jin continued his explanation without pause.

“If they fail to destroy or reach the crystal in time, it’s not a problem. Based on the information gathered from the monsters killed by humans, the crystal imparts new resistances to existing monsters or creates entirely new entities.”

As he spoke, Baek Woo-jin turned his head to the left.

“I’ll take questions at the end.”

Apparently, someone had raised their hand.

‘No, that’s not the important part…’

Nam Seo-hee hastily opened her notebook and grabbed her pen.

Like her, most of the students who weren’t dozing off were now frantically taking notes, feeling that something was amiss.

“The most dangerous situation arises when a raid team proceeds with abundant supplies, taking excessive caution and moving at an extremely slow pace.”

Baek Woo-jin noticed the students’ frantic note-taking but continued his lecture as if they were up to their usual antics.

“The crystal calculates the raid team’s speed and modifies the path ahead into a maze-like structure. This further slows down the team, giving the crystal ample time to create customized entities tailored to counter the human threat, based on the rich information it has acquired.”

The students scribbled away, and Baek Woo-jin, seemingly unaffected by thirst, continued his lecture without a break.

Tap.

The chalk that had been tapping the blackboard now settled back into its original position.

“I’ll take questions now.”

As soon as Baek Woo-jin finished speaking, a male student who had been busy writing raised his hand.

“Kim Young Hoon. Speak.”

“Uh…”

Kim Young Hoon was momentarily startled to hear his name called, as he hadn’t expected Baek Woo-jin to know it. However, he quickly composed himself and asked, “I mean no disrespect to the professor, but I’ve never heard about the crystal’s learning ability before. Is this information from a recently published paper?”

All the students, except for Baek Hana, awaited Baek Woo-jin’s response.

“I also searched for such a paper but couldn’t find any.”

“Eh? Then…”

“I said there is no such paper. Next.”

Kim Young Hoon blinked in confusion, and the other students shared a similar reaction.

At that moment, Nam Seo-hee cautiously raised her hand.

“Nam Seo-hee.”

Nam Seo-hee’s lips twitched.

“Speak.”

“I’d like to ask if this is information you’re preparing for a separate paper.”

If it wasn’t, Baek Woo-jin might find himself in a difficult situation, so Nam Seo-hee felt compelled to ask.

“I’m not preparing a separate paper. However, for those of you who doubt the veracity of what I’ve said, I’ve arranged a demonstration to prove it.”

“Tha―”

La~♪

The beautiful song signaling the hour echoed from the speakers in the ceiling.

-Creak.

The classroom door, which had been closed, opened, and Baek Woo-jin turned.

“The next lecture is a joint practical session, so gather in front of the sparring arena.”

Baek Woo-jin picked up his briefcase and silently left the classroom.

-Tap, tap.

As Nam Seo-hee stared blankly at the open door that Baek Woo-jin had just walked through, a cry of despair rang out.

“Nooo!!!”

“……?”

Startled by the sudden scream, Nam Seo-hee turned her head to the source.

“Aaahhh!!!”

“I haven’t even written half of it yet!!!”

“Who’s done writing?! Anyone?!”

As the students frantically looked at the blackboard and cried out in despair, a chill ran down Nam Seo-hee’s spine, and she quickly turned her head back to the blackboard.

“Ah…”

A soft sigh escaped Nam Seo-hee’s lips.

The blackboard, which should have been filled with the white traces of chalk, was now eerily clean, as if nothing had been written on it.

‘Ah…!!’

With a dazed expression, Nam Seo-hee widened her eyes and quickly turned her head to the side, asking, “Hana…?”

The seat next to her was as clean and tidy as the erased blackboard.

Nam Seo-hee searched the classroom but couldn’t find Baek Hana anywhere.