abcnovels
Book 4: Chapter 5: Corruption
Book 4: Chapter 5: Corruption
Book 4: Chapter 5: Corruption
“As long as Elder Mord is dealt with, then everything will be fine, right?”
The eyes of Professor Kumar, who was feeling conflicted, suddenly lit up upon hearing that. He turned his head to look at Mord, as though he was looking at a dead person. His gaze made Elder Mord’s scalp feel tingly.
“P-Professor Kumar, what are you planning to do?”
Professor Kumar took out an engineer shovel and replied in a serious tone, “Silence you once and for all.”
Mord trembled and exclaimed in disbelief, “You’re saying that this money is more important than our decade-long friendship as colleagues?”
Kumar shook his head. “Money isn’t that important.”
Mord’s eyes instantly lit up as though he saw hope. “Then you mustn’t be deceived by that little b?a?s?t?a?r?d?! You’ll be made into her lackey for your entire life if you accept her money!”
However, Kumar still raised the engineer shovel in his hand. “Money isn’t that important, but my research is. It’s more important than our decade-long friendship as colleagues.”
Mord was speechless. Despair crept onto his face.
It’s over. I, Mord, am a righteous and upright man for my whole life.
Even if I didn’t make great contributions to the world, I have brought up many great future generations of the nation and freed the academy of negative influences.
To think that my life would be ended by a little b?a?s?t?a?r?d? and a colleague whom I had worked with for more than a decade instead of enemies that I had made in my youth. How tragic!
“Wait, Professor Kumar.”
Lilith suddenly stopped Kumar. “How could we commit such a vile act? Even if we could bring ourselves to do this, our conscience will haunt us.”
Kumar frowned in puzzlement. “But only the dead don’t speak.”
The corners of Lilith’s mouth twitched.
Despite Professor Kumar’s gentle appearance, she didn’t expect he would be more ruthless than her.
She put her hands on her waist and started lecturing him. “Professor Kumar, you have to know that violence cannot solve everything. When it comes to situations like this, we must use our brains.”
Mord nodded vigorously in agreement. “Yes, yes, violence will not solve the problem. Please let me down quickly and we’ll discuss how to resolve this matter. I promise that I won’t use violence against both of you.”
Lilith ignored Mord and continued, “Furthermore, it’s going to be troublesome to destroy the corpse. Elder Mord is also an important figure in this academy. His disappearance will surely be quickly noticed by others. If they decide to investigate this, I don’t think we’ll be able to cover things up.”
“Goddammit! This is your so-called conscience, little b?a?s?t?a?r?d?? You’re just afraid of troubles! Aren’t you scared of being struck by lightning for doing this kind of thing?!”
Lilith picked her ear and pretended to not hear him.
“Besides, there’s a good way to make someone keep a secret.”
“How?” Kumar asked.
A small smirk appeared on Lilith’s face. “Just make him an accomplice.”
Lilith took out a bag of gold coins and jingled it in front of Mord. “Elder Mord, I’ll let you down if you accept this bag of gold coins.”
“Hmph!” Mord sneered coldly. “Do you think I’m a spineless man like Kumar? You really think my chief disciplinarian title is just for show?”
“You don’t have anything you desire?”
“No!” Mord turned his head to the side and snorted.
Lilith scratched her head.
How troublesome. Stubborn old men like these are the hardest to deal with.
She turned her head to look at Kumar. “Don’t Elder Mord have any dirty secrets?”
Kumar thought for a while and shook his head. “Elder Mord indeed conducts himself perfectly, but…”
“But?” Lilith tilted her head quizzically.
“I have no idea why he often secretly reads in the depths of the forest.”
Mord instantly paled.
Lilith was puzzled. “Read? Why would you need to read secretively?”
She turned her gaze to a tattered little book in Mord’s hand. “Could it be…”
“WAIT!” The veins on Mord’s temples bulged as he stopped her.
But Lilith didn’t care. She quickly snatched the little book from Mord.
The cover of the little book had turned yellow, and there were many signs of damage on it.
Work notebook.
That was what was written on it and it really looked like an ordinary notebook.
But if it was indeed an ordinary work notebook, why did Elder Mord react so intensely?
Something smelled fishy!
And hence, under Mord’s murderous gaze, Lilith flipped open his ‘work notebook’.
“Ahhh… Ahhhhhhhhhhh… Amazing… I can’t take it much more…”
BAM!
Lilith snapped the ‘work notebook’ close with a flushed face and stared at the cover in disbelief.
This little book that seemed like a work notebook turned out to be a dirty novel wrapped in a cover labeled as a ‘work notebook’!!
She lifted her head and saw Elder Mord’s murderous gaze turned dead.
“I didn’t expect your taste would be like this,” Lilith commented with a complicated expression.
Professor Kumar came over and flipped through the ‘work notebook’ too. “So Elder Mord is a **con… I wouldn’t have guessed.”
Elder Mord’s old face flushed red. He wanted to crawl into a hole so badly but unfortunately, he couldn’t even move.
Lilith’s smile suddenly grew twisted.
“Elder Mord, you’re this academy’s chief disciplinarian, aren’t you?”
“So what?”
“If the students find out that the righteous and upright Elder Mord is actually secretly reading dirty novels in the depths of the forest… hehehe…”
“What are you planning to do?!” Mord gritted his teeth.
“Nothing.” Lilith spread her arms. “Didn’t I mention before that I have a lot of money? I’ve been racking my brains to figure on how to spend it. And so, I decided that I wanted to make my own newspaper. Hmmm… Maybe I’ll print 10 billion copies. After all, I have to ensure that there’s enough for everyone in the entire continent. Now that I have newspapers, I have to think about the headline. A newspaper without big news has no soul.”
“So I have to thank you, Elder Mord. You have allowed me to find what I’ve been wanting to find.”
“Shocking news! The dignified chief disciplinarian from the best academy in the continent is a lonely old man who does unspeakable things in the depths of old forests. Is this a decline of morality or a loss of humanity? Hmm… what do you think of this headline? It may be a bit too long.”
“How about this: Chief disciplinarian, Elder Mord has been sneaking into the forest with a lewd smile every night. The reason turned out to be…”
“ENOUGH!!” Mord exclaimed in exasperation. “You want to make me an accomplice? Fine, I’ll concede!”
“Hoho…” Lilith covered her mouth and snickered. “You should have done that in the first place. But now, I have an additional condition.”
Mord suddenly had a bad feeling. Even so, he braced himself and asked, “What is your condition?”
“Well, I’m most afraid that you are one of those warriors who can face a bleak life ahead of you. If that’s the case, exposing your hobby of reading dirty novels will only embarrass you at most. By then if you claim that I have deliberately framed you after accepting my gold coins, I wouldn’t be able to defend myself.”
“So what exactly do you want?”
“Nothing in particular.” Lilith then leaned closer to Elder Mord and jingled the coins in her hand. “I’m just thinking of making a deal with you.”
“What kind of deal?”
“I heard that this academy has two major official student committees: the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee. Of course, there’s not much hope for a freshman like myself to join the Student Council. But you are in charge of the Disciplinary Committee, yes?”
“You’re saying that… you want to join the Disciplinary Committee?”
“As expected of Elder Mord. You’re not as stupid as I thought you were. However, I’m not interested in just being a regular member… What I’m interested in is…”
“The next highest position… in the committee after you.”