Did the villainous professor survive today?

"Phew... Just as I expected..."

Krenk breathed a sigh of relief.

He wasn't in a hurry to allocate points, but instead picked up his speech from the wooden table on his left and quickly glanced at it.

Inside was a fabricated speech, roughly about how, as the newly appointed chief professor, he would make a big splash in his new role.

At the end of the article, even the questions from the several pre-arranged reporters and the corresponding responses were listed, so you didn't need to do anything yourself, you just needed to follow the pre-arranged steps.

They literally just feed the food into my mouth.

Kroenke slowly skimmed through the speech twice more, silently confirming its accuracy before standing up and moving to the side of the podium.

He quietly glanced at the time on his pocket watch; there were only a few minutes left before the opening ceremony. The scholars behind him entered the venue and took their seats. They sat in the middle and back of the venue, while the lecturers, professors, and deans sat in front of them.

In the very center were the principal, the vice-principal, his sister Sophia, and his fiancée Sistine.

This was the first time "he" had given a speech in front of so many people. Perhaps because of his predecessor's rare and irresistible charm in the game, he was not nervous.

[Immense Charm: You possess an innate charisma that attracts others. Your words carry more weight, and it's only natural that you draw everyone's attention. You never feel nervous about being the center of attention, nor do you act in a way that is unbecoming of a noble person due to unexpected events.]

Kronk closed the panel and climbed the ladder to the side to the front of the table.

Upon noticing the arrival of today's protagonist, the venue erupted in noise as people began to discuss the youngest chief professor in history.

Sofia sat in the front row, clapping enthusiastically for her brother.

Kroenke remained silent, but gently tapped the crystal ball on the podium with his finger. The next second, a deep voice spread like ripples above everyone's heads and reached their ears.

The venue quickly quieted down, with people exchanging glances and whispering among themselves, and the occasional click of camera shutters.

Kroenke stood on the podium and picked up the first draft.

"The first page of the manuscript contained a joke, used to ridicule other colleges for being inferior to us."

finished,

In front of everyone, Kroenke tore the manuscript to shreds.

As the white shredded paper fell, the entire venue fell silent in an instant, as if it had reached freezing point.

Kroenke stood quietly on the stage, watching everyone's bewildered expressions in the silent silence.

The oppressive silence had built up tension in everyone's veins when Kroenke finally spoke:

"But sometimes, when mice get into your house, you shouldn't joke that other people's mice are bigger and fatter. Instead, you should call someone to clean up the mouse nest."

"But what surprised me was that the rats, which should have been eliminated, actually banded together and tried to drive the original inhabitants of the house out. What surprised me even more was that they not only did it, but they also kept shouting—"

"What makes you think you deserve to be the top professor?!"

This statement immediately caused a small disturbance in the audience.

Kroenke's gaze swept across the crowd below the arena like a sharp blade.

His deep blue eyes possessed a captivating, authoritative power that silenced all the whispering voices in the audience.

"The reason they are shouting is simple, yet also very puzzling."

"The reason is—I'm only 24 years old."

"At 24 years old, people at St. Auster Magic Academy often only get to work as teaching assistants, doing menial tasks for some incompetent professors."

"They wanted to prove that I was unworthy of the position because, at my age, they were still serving tea and water to the professors before me and being at their beck and call."

"So, after seeing me, they were angry, they were resentful. Why could you skip this step? Why don't you have to serve us tea and water? Why could you rise to the top in one step?"

"But the truth is, they have absolutely no ability to deny my achievements. Their only, and greatest, ability is to stick together and exclude truly capable people."

Upon hearing this, some professors in the audience visibly bulged veins on their foreheads.

The curious glances from the students behind them made them feel uneasy.

Many professors had reservations about Kroenke being selected as the chair professor.

Because besides him, there are other more compelling candidates for the position of chief professor.

Professor Norton, who studies astral magic, is more qualified and experienced than Professor Klenk. After the original head professor announced his retirement, many people regarded him as the successor to the head professor.

However, the Magic Tower Council stated that, considering the different future potential of the two sides and the fact that there is only one position for the chief professor, they made an exception and granted Kroenke the opportunity to serve as the chief professor.

At this moment, reporters, cameras in hand, snapped photos of Kroenke's demeanor during his speech, mentally drafting headlines for the upcoming news.

A girl wearing a baseball cap and a brown uniform was mingling behind the reporters taking pictures. She was tightly clutching an envelope in her hand, breathing rapidly, and her eyes were piercing.

Louise, a reporter for the St. Lawrence Evening Post, received an unexpected anonymous letter a few nights ago.

The letter mentioned that the incoming chief professor, Klenk, had not set foot in his private laboratory for nearly six months.

The document also included photos of the laboratory, showing that Kroenke's lab had very little equipment and some corners were even covered in cobwebs.

It is clearly illogical for a newly appointed chief professor to not have entered or left his own laboratory for an extended period of time.

Louis had no idea who the sender was or how the sender had obtained the photos.

But as a journalist, Louis couldn't refuse a headline that came knocking on his door.

She had already planned that after the speech, she would take out these photos in public, ask Klenk what was going on, and then take a picture of him looking panicked.

The next day, the headline on the first page of the newspaper was—

A fleeting moment of glory! The youngest chief professor in history has become what he himself calls mediocre?

Even if she didn't panic as expected, she wouldn't lose anything.

It can be described as a risk-free, highly profitable venture.

"I won't shy away from the fact that a large part of the reason I'm able to stand on this stage and speak as a chief professor is because of my family, the Ludwig family, who have provided me with tremendous help behind the scenes."

"But what about those who don't have family support? Are their talents and their hard work just fertilizer for those filthy flies that swarm over the corpses?"

"When did St. Auster Magic Academy, renowned worldwide for its open academic atmosphere, degenerate into an abyss of personal relationships and seniority-based hierarchy?!"

Kroenke's gaze drifted to the distance beyond the podium, where all the students' eyes were fixed on him.

"I do not intend to teach the students in the audience to be as arrogant and willful as I am."

"The point is to let you know that the reason you can't see this abyss is because your very teachers are trapped in it!"

"I will continue to fight, not just until we all see this abyss clearly, but until we all cross it!"

"A fledgling bird that has just learned to flap its wings and leave the nest is not content with just a few trees near the nest; it simply cannot see the larger forest and taller trees for the time being. Once it looks up and sees the distant and denser jungle, it will spread its snow-white feathers and fly towards the wider sky, never to return!"

The flashes of the cameras hit Kroenke's face. He gripped the rest of his speech and tossed them into the air.

Amid thunderous applause, Kroenke announced:

"Dear students, I wish you all a bright future in the new semester!"

All eyes were on Kroenke, even the security guards who were maintaining order.

It's now!

Louis seized the opportunity and darted past the security guards.

She went to the front of the stage, opened the envelope, and scattered all the photos inside towards the audience.

The next moment, all the gazes that had been focused on Kroenke shifted to Louis.

She opened her mouth wide and asked loudly in a strong voice:

"Professor Krenk! Your academic research has stagnated for almost two years, and reliable sources even indicate that you haven't left your magic research institute for nearly six months. Do you have any explanation for this?!"