I’m Not Becoming a Graduate Student! – Chapter 46

“…I’ll wrap up today’s class here.”

Finally, the class from Professor Ronda Magret, which felt like it dragged on forever, came to an end.

‘What the heck…’

Sion looked up at her with a resentful face from the podium.

Throughout the class, she had bombarded him with questions, and no matter what he said, she countered with compliments, making everyone’s gaze extremely uncomfortable.

Even the oblivious students could probably sense the strange dynamic between Sion and Professor Ronda Magret.

“Oh, and… Sion, please follow me to the Professor’s Research Room for a moment.”

“…Huh?”

“No one has any questions? Then, that’ll be all.”

Clack, clack.

She left the classroom with a dignified stride.

When he glanced back, he noticed about half the students’ eyes were fixed on him.

The pressure was so intense it felt like he could throw up just from looking.

Thud!

Someone placed a hand on Sion’s shoulder.

“…Patrick?”

“Sion, you… you must’ve really ticked her off. Hang in there.”

Patrick patted Sion on the shoulder to console him.

It would have been better if he was just teasing; the genuine concern only made Sion more anxious.

Even playful Patrick seemed serious, which was a worrying sign.

“Hahaha! Don’t worry, Sion.”

“…Geivolg.”

Snap!

Geivolg raised his index finger and chuckled. Could he have a plan up his sleeve?

“Starting next semester, students can choose classes freely! That means you can avoid Professor Ronda Magret’s class from now on!”

“…Then what about now?”

“If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it! It’s one of the sayings from our Rodenburg Kingdom!”

“……”

Sion silently shook his head.

Ah, these guys weren’t any help after all.

It only drained his motivation further.

Meanwhile, whispers from the students sitting in the back pierced right into Sion’s ears.

“That’s him, isn’t it? The one who splashed water on Professor…”

“Shhh! Be quiet. Or he might splash us too.”

“He’s getting the full barrage of questions from the professor… looks like he’ll be in for that all semester.”

“Before that, he’ll probably drop out. Being a commoner, he probably doesn’t even have the money to attend.”

“…But why is he asking questions and still getting compliments?”

“Do you really not get it? It’s backhanded praise!”

“Oh, is that what it is?”

“Is being good at magic all that matters? You’ve got to have good character too… geez.”

Murmuring—

After winning the duel against Estroza, the whispers had quieted down, but now they were back.

‘Ugh, this is annoying.’

Sion frowned and scanned the room.

As if on cue, the whispers died down instantly.

…Like cockroaches scattering when the light is turned on.

What an incredibly unpleasant experience.

-Bang!

Suddenly, someone opened the door to the now-silent classroom.

“Sion? When are you coming out?”

“…Yes, I’m coming.”

It was Professor Ronda Magret who walked in.

Sion gathered his things and headed for the classroom door.

…Please let nothing bad happen.

*

“It might not be very organized, but… come in.”

“Excuse me…”

Creak.

He stepped into Professor Ronda Magret’s research room.

Just like last time, there was no one else there.

It would have been nice if someone was there; the mere fact that it was just the two of them felt unnecessarily burdensome.

“So, Professor, why did you call for me…?”

Having arrived at the research room, Sion kept an eye on her.

‘What could she possibly want from me?’

It made no sense that she’d called him out of anger over last week’s incident.

Didn’t they solve that by running into each other at the lakeside park bench?

Sion didn’t even apologize first; it was Professor Ronda Magret who did.

So then… why?

“I helped Sion with raising his Circle here last time. Do you remember?”

“…Yes, I remember.”

The magic circle set up in a corner of the Professor’s Research Room.

It was where Sion had sat cross-legged and attempted to challenge the second Circle.

…Although it resulted in unfortunate accidents, well, anyway.

“This time, I’d like you to help me.”

“…Help you, Professor?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, it’s something a freshman can help with just fine.”

“……”

Sion looked around the cramped desk, presumably used by a graduate student.

‘Don’t tell me she’s about to make a graduate student out of a first-year like me? No way!’

There was no way a professor would use their own students as assistants.

So why did she call a student to her research room in the first place?

Especially mentioning the favor he once helped with?

As a former graduate student, Sion’s instincts kicked in.

Ah, this was 100% it.

She’s trying to recruit him as a graduate assistant.

‘Come to think of it, I had been recruited back when I was a freshman too.’

Sion first caught Professor Ronda Magret’s eye in his first year.

After he submitted an alternative exam project of exceptional quality that stood out.

The professor slowly led him to becoming her graduate student.

Not this time though.

As Professor Ronda Magret’s lips began to move, Sion boldly interjected.

“I was hoping you could help me with paperwork.”

“Sorry! But a graduate student—wait, what?”

“…Huh?”

Blink.

Both of them blinked at the same time.

‘…Oh.’

What finally registered for Sion was the huge stack of documents on the massive desk, which was presumably hers.

They were precariously piled up.

“…Sion? A graduate student?”

“Ah, um…”

Sion felt as if someone had strongly hit him on the back of the head.

‘How could I be so foolish to think she meant to recruit me as a graduate student…’

Looking back, no professor ever told freshmen to become graduate students.

They simply lured them in slowly.

This was like… rejecting a confession before even going on a date.

‘W-What should I do?’

Should he apologize? Or kneel down?

He could feel heat creeping up on his face, and his mind was a whirlwind.

Just then, he was at a loss for words when—

“Pff.”

“…?”

“Pfft… Ah, sorry.”

She was laughing.

Professor Ronda Magret—the one he thought could withstand a needle’s prick without flinching—was now chuckling.

Sion stared blankly at her smile.

She wiped a tear from her eye with her index finger and said,

“Your misunderstanding is just so… cute.”

“C-cute?”

“Yes. A freshman can’t become a graduate student anyway… heehee.”

She laughed so hard she nearly cried.

It wasn’t the subtle smile she had shown earlier in class; it was a genuine burst of laughter.

“Well, being a freshman, you might not be familiar with graduate students. I’m really sorry for laughing.”

“Really? Oh, it’s fine…”

“Then, could you do me a favor? There aren’t many students around I can ask for things like this…”

Professor Ronda Magret looked at the papers.

There weren’t many students she could ask?

He remembered her saying there were no graduate students under her.

‘Well, professors have more on their plates than just one or two tasks.’

Sion knew this all too well from his own experience as a graduate student.

Preparing lectures, delivering them, handling personal research or papers while also having to show up at multiple departmental and conference events.

To receive research funding, there must be results; simply teaching isn’t enough.

Thus, graduate students help professors out.

‘Maybe I should help her… just a bit.’

He realized he misinterpreted her actions, so…

Handling paperwork was something he had repeated relentlessly during his graduate student days; it wouldn’t be too hard.

“If I can help, I’ll do what I can.”

“Phew, it may be a lot, but let’s tackle it one at a time.”

“No, this is a small amount.”

“…Huh?”

“Can I take a look at it one by one?”

“Y-you can.”

Rustle.

Sion’s hands began to move quickly.

‘Managing the mountain of papers is simpler than I thought.’

First, Sion stacked the papers up at a speed of one page per second.

Transferring a single tower of documents into smaller piles.

This was the first step of ‘document sorting.’

“…What are you doing right now?”

“I’m sorting the documents by department.

From the left: Student Welfare Office, Financial Department, Personnel Department, Magic Department Administration Team, Elementary Magic Department Administration… like this.”

“…You can see and judge that in just a second?”

“By looking at the approval lines, the greeting at the top of the document, and the stamping part at the bottom, I can tell.”

Without looking away from the papers, Sion answered.

When the papers are piled high, ‘sorting’ becomes the top priority.

He noted the deadlines and the department names on the approval lines.

‘To work efficiently, I need to avoid making multiple trips back and forth.’

Let’s say there are three documents that need to be approved by the Administration Team.

Would it be more efficient to make three separate trips for each or take all three at once for one trip?

Making sure to avoid repeating the same task is the essence of ‘efficiency.’

“…Let’s start with the ones that are most urgent. Thankfully, it seems like there aren’t many urgent ones so far since it’s the beginning of the semester.”

“……”

“Professor, don’t just stand there; you should move! Let’s tackle the urgent paperwork first!”

“W-What? Oh, alright.”

Sion selected the documents that needed to be handled by the end of the week and handed them to her.

With a bewildered expression, Professor Ronda Magret began stamping the papers.

For a while, the room was filled with the sounds of flipping papers, the stamping noise, and the shared breaths of the two.

Sion even retrieved the academy guidebook to calculate the most efficient route.

‘…Well, I can combine the Financial Department and Student Welfare Office since they’re in the same building. But the department offices…’

Scrape scrape.

Sion completed the route efficiency calculations with his pen.

By the time Professor Ronda Magret finished stamping all the documents—

Sion summarized ‘the list of documents to be processed within the next month, their priorities, and deadlines’ into a single sheet.

“Professor, take this.”

“…Huh?”

“If you keep this, you shouldn’t have any issues. Oh, I put paper separators in there to make sorting easier for you.”

Since he marked them by date, it should help her tackle her tasks later.

When Sion glanced at the clock, less than an hour had passed.

‘Perhaps doing paperwork after a long time made me a little too engrossed.’

With a proud smile, Sion glanced around at the neatly organized documents.

Feeling a sense of fulfillment from the beautifully and practically sorted papers, he wondered.

‘But why is she still silent?’

Noticing she hadn’t responded at all, Sion turned his gaze toward her.

Professor Ronda Magret was staring intently at Sion.

…Oh?

“Sion, you’re quite skilled at paperwork.”

“…Huh?”

“Where on earth did you learn how to do this?”

“…Uh, I’ve never really learned. Just did something similar before entering school…”

Clack.

She took a step closer.

Her eyes were glued to Sion’s without even blinking.

There was a strange gleam of mania in her eyes.

“There’s no way a freshman would be given a graduate student’s role…”

“Y-Yeah?”

“However, it wouldn’t be a problem for me to hire you as a student worker for paperwork.”

“…A student worker?”

A student worker.

A simple contractual relationship where one is paid for labor.

It was an attractive offer for Sion, who needed tuition fees.

‘But if the employer is a professor…’

The employer is a professor, the employee is a student, and the work is paperwork.

…That’s not entirely different from being a graduate student, is it?

Sion stepped back, trying to avoid her.

Clack.

But before he could go far, he hit the table behind him.

Trapped, unable to move backward or forward.

Professor Ronda Magret stood right in front of him.

“Sion, if you’re considering it…”

“…I’m sorry—”

“Could you help with some paperwork in my research room? Of course, I will pay you—”

“I-I’m really sorry!!”

Swoosh! Whoosh!

Sion utilized Yulseo Step to move fluidly.

He evaded Professor Ronda Magret’s advance as she closed the gap.

Without a second thought, he dashed away and burst through the door.

“Whew… whew… I-I hope she doesn’t come after me…”

Sprinting out into the hallway and completely outside the building, Sion turned around to catch his breath.

Fortunately, there was no sign of her chasing after him.

‘…That could’ve been a disaster.’

Sion held on to his racing heart.

Just doing some paperwork as usual, he almost ended up becoming a graduate student again.

…Just pay me and hire me, huh?

‘I won’t fall for it!’

Sion shook his head.

Just eat together once, I’ll treat you well and then become a graduate student, you’re good at studying, and so on…

The professors’ blatant lies to entice students into becoming graduate students would not fool him any longer.

‘…To be honest, the money is somewhat tempting though.’

Maybe it was because he barely escaped that he regretted not at least hearing how much she was willing to pay.

…Of course, he had no desire to become a graduate student, so he promptly shook off the thought.

“Don’t think of what you missed! It’s time for class.”

The Monday afternoon class was with Professor Heruj.

Leaving the Academy’s Professor Research Building, Sion headed straight to the Colosseum for his lecture.

At that moment, he was completely unaware.

“…Sion.”

From the window of Ronda Magret’s research room, she was watching him intently.