Assistant Professor (1)
“Please, have a seat.”
The knight who had been staring into the reflection in the window turned her gaze toward me.
“I called you here because……”
I couldn’t hear her.
Her voice, which blew past like a spring breeze, did not reach my ears.
“⸺In this assembly⸻”
On a bright spring day, like petals brushing past my eyes, she flickered before me.
“After much consideration⸻”
Hair neatly arranged, calm like her tone.
Purple hair resembling a hyacinth, bearing a sorrowful tale too deep for words.
“And so, I wish for you to⸻”
Eyes that held a noble color, untouched by any gem.
And lips from which flowed a pale voice, incapable of holding either joy or sorrow.
Staring at all that beauty, I thought:
If there’s a standard for beauty in this world, it’s her.
Without a doubt.
“……Are you listening?”
“Ye– Yes?!”
In a flash, her skin, white as snow rice cake, came right up to my nose, like someone splashing cold water on me.
And with that, the gentle scent that had lingered faintly at the tip of my nose deepened.
As my focus returned, she—Grace—was merely facing me with an expressionless look.
“You’ve changed a lot since we last met.”
Unlike her neatly worn uniform, a sigh escaped from between her lips.
It’s Grace!
Grace Euclid!
……She was here, alive and breathing right before me.
I didn’t know how this had happened.
The last thing I remembered was reading the author’s message before everything turned black.
And when I opened my eyes again, it was now.
This very moment.
“You’ll need time to think. All I’ve offered in exchange for you stepping down from your position as Vice-Captain of the Éclat Knights is a seat by my side. Not even any other role, just that of ‘Assistant Professor’……”
For a brief second, her finely sculpted features broke.
What passed across Grace’s face in that moment was an unknown sorrow.
She soon stood up and turned her back to me.
“Pardon me. Just pretend you didn’t hear that.”
Click, clack⸺
She walked away.
I couldn’t move.
Trapped in a reality where fiction and truth were tangled together, all I could do was breathe slowly.
Squeak—thud.
Once Grace left, it was as if the force binding me disappeared, and I could finally move.
I tested moving my hands and feet first.
I tried standing up, then sitting back down.
After about ten minutes of that,
I realized.
“Holy sh⸺”
[‘Rohan’ is a character with refined speech and mannerisms. There is insufficient ‘Plausibility’ for profanity.]
“⸺It was unlike you, Lady Grace, to hope for fruit before sowing the seed.”
[This matches ‘Rohan’s usual speech.]
[Your understanding of ‘Rohan’ has increased.]
〔 You have acquired ‘1P (Probability)’ 〕
I had become ‘Rohan’, a character from The Genius Mage of Springwind.
***
A full day had passed.
Just like the title of ‘Vice-Captain’, my residence wasn’t bad.
Actually, it was amazing.
Compared to my old room, where I lay in bed all day reading web novels, this was easily ten times larger.
The meals brought in by servants were so delicious that even someone like me, who would eat garbage like a dog, felt their inner gourmet awaken.
It was a shame I couldn’t express it better.
There were plenty of other things to be satisfied with.
A desk equipped with the latest magi-engineering tools for work, a window beside that desk through which I could see the world.
Beyond the warm glass, towering buildings of medieval architecture stood proudly, and amid that mixture of aesthetics, cars and airships ran just like in modern times.
If there was a problem here, it was the sword hanging at my waist.
Actually, not even a problem—it was perfectly natural.
This world, the setting of The Genius Mage of Springwind, is a clever blend of medieval fantasy and modern elements.
Here, magic is science, and swordsmanship is power.
That’s the kind of world this novel is.
And I had come to live in it under the name ‘Rohan’—that was the conclusion I had reached so far.
“……This is confusing.”
Even after staying up all night, I couldn’t figure out why I had possessed someone in this novel.
Too vivid to be a lucid dream.
The idea that I’d gone crazy with delusions… wasn’t entirely implausible.
After all, the life I lived in my original world hadn’t been easy.
But if I were to exclude every logical explanation and choose just one reason—The author, Shinsseun.
“That guy……”
……sent me here.
To change Grace’s fate.
When I read that message, I thought it was a joke.
Just a playful reply from an author to a pissed-off reader.
Or maybe even mockery.
But no.
“Rohan. The loyal subordinate who stayed by Lady Grace’s side until the end and died……”
If the corrupted Grace was the fake final boss, then Rohan was the one who followed her into death.
But Rohan’s fate wasn’t all that different from Grace’s.
Blinded by revenge, Grace wielded her blade forged in hatred, looking only forward.
She thought everyone had abandoned her, but that wasn’t true.
Only Rohan looked at her, called her name, and protected her.
But Grace never acknowledged Rohan’s heart.
Just like how the protagonist, Michael Lippenstein, wounded her, she etched the same wound onto Rohan.
That doesn’t mean Grace was a bad person.
Everything was Michael’s fault—that bastard brought this all on himself.
So then…… my lady never meant to hurt me.
“⸺Huh?”
Something’s wrong here.
Why do I keep calling Grace “my lady”……?
And why do I keep thinking of that bastard Michael in such mild terms……?
“……Don’t tell me it’s the plausibility system?”
This world has imposed a restriction on me.
No need for long explanations.
That is—
“Michael you son of a⸺”
[There is insufficient ‘Plausibility’ for profanity.]
That’s it.
I already knew that ‘Rohan’ was a noble and upright knight, no less than Grace herself.
That was part of his character setting.
Now I am Rohan. ―Accepting that is probably the only way I’ll stay sane―And if that’s the case, and considering that message from before.
“Then I really have no choice but to act like ‘Rohan’, huh.”
That’s fine, I guess.
But seriously, controlling my thoughts too? That’s a bit much, you damn⸺!
……Okay, it works if I push it through with force.
Bang!
Just then, the door opened, and a man whose face I vaguely remembered from reading stepped into the room, the clank of his vintage greaves sounding like something from an Italian boutique.
“To skip not just dawn drills but morning practice too. That pale face of yours—how unlike you today, Rohan.”
For a moment, I almost snapped back, “What do you mean ‘unlike me’?” but managed to hold it in.
“I had things to think about… My apologies for causing concern, Captain Dennis.”
Ah, I remember now.
Was it the prologue?
Anyway, he appeared briefly in one of the first five chapters and never showed up again—Captain of the Éclat Knights.
‘Dennis Éclat.’
He wasn’t an important character.
But now that I—‘Rohan’—was part of his order, I couldn’t treat him lightly either.
I followed the descriptions I remembered from the book and bowed respectfully.
The hierarchy here was stricter than the military.
“I was just about to head out for practice. More importantly, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“What do you mean? Weren’t you also troubled by ‘that matter’?”
“If you mean…… that matter……”
I trailed off on purpose.
I was Rohan, but not really Rohan.
What I mean is, everything I knew about Rohan came from what I read. I had no idea what Rohan did yesterday or the day before.
Dennis stepped closer and furrowed his brows slightly.
“Lady Euclid. I mean, Professor Grace Euclid’s offer. Ah, I suppose I should call her Professor now.”
Now that he mentioned it, the lady did say something to me yesterday……
……Looks like I’m screwed.
This isn’t how I remember the plot going.
“Why do you think Professor Grace would offer you the assistant professor position? Sometimes, teaching teaches you more than training does…….”
Okay, shut up for a sec.
Anyway, in the original plot, ‘Rohan’ didn’t reject the offer to be an assistant professor at the ‘Springwind’ university.
In fact, he accepted it right then and there, when Grace first brought it up.
Which means: You’ve changed a lot since we last met. That line, ―Pardon me. Just pretend you didn’t hear that. That line too,Both of them—They were never supposed to exist.
That’s when it happened.
【 Mainstream: ‘Grace Euclid’s Fate’ 】
✵ Objective: Accept ‘Grace Euclid’s’ offer and become an ‘Assistant Professor’ at Springwind University.
Failure ▶ Grace Euclid’s fate will worsen
Success ▶ +10P
“But you know, it seemed like Professor Grace didn’t expect you to refuse. She said she’d look for someone else, but I haven’t seen her that dejected since ‘that time’.”
……Ah, shit.
Tick…….
The Genius Mage of Springwind
This novel has no return loops or status windows.
More accurately, it’s fantasy—Specifically, fusion fantasy.
So there’s no explanation for this kind of message.
And no time to think about it either.
Because something more important just happened.
Tick…….
“I thought you turned it down.”
A café built on Roman Road, overlooking Willow Street.
Grace’s reflection shimmered in the clear water in her glass.
Her expression didn’t look good.
“I needed time to think. It wasn’t a decision I could make lightly!”
I spoke like a lawyer arguing in court.
But the more I talked, the darker her expression became.
It felt like the verdict was already in.
“You’re right. It wasn’t something to decide lightly. I think I asked too much from you, Rohan.”
Tick…….
This isn’t right.
I shook my head.
Not even a full day had passed, and she already found someone else?
At that moment,
Tick⸺
Above Grace’s bowed head, something like a strange gauge appeared.
ㅤㅤ【Grace’s Fate】
○━━━━◑━━━━●
And that gauge slowly, ever so slowly, tilted to the right.
[ Objective failed. ]
ㅤㅤ【Grace’s Fate】
○━━━━━●━━━●
The balance of light and dark collapsed, the once-symmetrical circle now fully darkened.
For a brief second, the background behind Grace seemed to distort and crumble.
[ Grace Euclid’s fate has worsened. ]
Stunned, I could only gape.
Failing before I could even button the first button, a numbness drifted out of my body and floated weightlessly.
My gaze stayed fixed on a single word.
[ ……Worsened……. ]
Hey.
Why did you even come here?
[ …Worsened…. ]
To save Grace.
Wasn’t that why you came—to change that messed-up storyline?
And now you’ve made it even
[ Worsened. ]
Worse…….
·
·
·
·
[ Would you like to use the “Bookmark” feature? ]
……Bookmark?
[ Using “Bookmark” allows you to revert to a previous page. ]
Wait.
So I can revert this situation.
This entire development—can be turned back?
I slowly reached out toward the message floating in front of me.
And as I did, the café interior, including Grace, began to flip like the pages of a book.
Flutterrrr
I opened and closed my eyes at a single page.
And my gaze, like a camera lens, captured the most beautiful person in the world, over and over again.
“I called you here because……”
Grace was speaking.
“……I would like you to come with me to serve as Assistant Professor at Springwind University.”
Just like the first time.