Chapter 16: 16

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

Chapter 16 – Suspicion (1)

 

‘Why is that person suddenly here?’

I didn’t know why on earth the principal was there.

I walked into my private professor’s office at a leisurely pace and closed the door.

There should never be a situation where I revealed my true feelings, no matter what happened, when I didn’t’ even know what purpose she came to see me for.

Clack.

As the door closed, a breathtaking silence blanketed the room.

I naturally sat on the seat opposite the guest sofa where the principal sat.

She just smiled brightly at me.

It was the principal who opened her mouth first.

“What do you think? The interior design is quite pretty, right?”

It was a sentence without any context for the start of a conversation.

But I wouldn’t let my guard down. Maybe such action itself was her attempt to pry into me.

“Yes, it is.”

“Sören Academy provides every professor with their own personal space. You can do whatever you want here without being self-conscious of the others, Professor Ludger.”

“I like that.”

The principal’s golden eyes turned to me.

I also faced her without avoiding her gaze.

I could see myself inside her eyes akin to a beautifully decorated amber.

Just like when I first met her, I felt somewhat anxious when I faced the principal’s eyes.

I immediately changed the subject.

“What brings you here, your honor?”

“Did I come to a place where I shouldn’t have come?”

“I’m just curious as to why such a busy person like you comes to a new professor’s private office.”

“Then it’s not like I’m in a place that I can’t come to, right?”

“But I feel burdensome.”

The principal shut her mouth when I spoke straightforwardly.

Her gentle smile still lingered, but inside her eyes, a peculiar feeling that was hard to understand spread like a drop of ink in the water.

The principal shook her head

“There is no particular reason.”

“Is that so?”

“Even though you are a new professor here, you’re still a valuable assigned professor at Sören Academy. Of course, as a principal, I can’t help but pay attention to you.”

“I see.”

Listening to my moderate response, she showed a pouty look, somewhat dissatisfied with it.

“You can be a little more surprised, though?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m already surprised enough.”

‘It’s not a lie, it’s the truth.’

I had opened the door excitedly because it was my personal space, and I was very surprised to see the principal.

I was more confident that I wouldn’t be that surprised if I ran into a ghost on the street in the middle of the night.

However, I just didn’t show it because I had no leisure to do it.

In fact, my heart was still beating like crazy, so I was nervous that the president might hear it.

“The other professors were all surprised.”

“Did you stop by the offices besides mine?”

“Yours is the last one.”

‘Why did she come to me last? And is the principal thinking of having a face-to-face talk with the new professors?’

I suddenly remembered the existence of a secret society that permeated Sören.

‘Maybe…’

Did the principal notice something?

No matter how secretive the society was, they could not hide their tail perfectly.

And if it was someone like the principal…

‘She may have noticed that those who made suspicious movements have come into Sören.’

If I didn’t know, I would pass it on, but because I knew there was a secret society there, I saw the principal’s attitude differently.

‘Is she being suspicious of me?’

‘There is a possibility.’

‘It’s a bit unfair for me, but frankly, I can’t raise any objections.’

‘I don’t belong to the secret society, but I’m the secret society executive.’

‘I don’t know what this is all about, but those are actually my current circumstances.’

‘Come to think of it, my real identity is not that honorable as well, so I have to work hard not to be caught.’

“So, what question does your honor want to ask me?”

“It’s nothing. I’d like to check how your first class was. You were just coming back from your class, right?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever had a hard time with students?”

“Not at all.”

Rather, I wondered if it was alright for the students to not ask me questions like what happened then.

Well, I deliberately gave off the vibe of prohibiting them from coming near me, but I just meant for them not to bother me too much. I didn’t know anyone wouldn’t do anything at all.

Ah. But the daughter from Lumos family did ask me a question.

“Hmm, that’s interesting. I looked at the list of students who attended your lectures this time, and there were quite a lot of famous students.”

“Is that so?”

“You haven’t seen the list yet?”

“I brought it to see it now.”

I waved the paper in my hand.

“Well, it’s actually up to you, Professor Ludger, but just in case, please be careful not to cause any problems, as the princess is there as well.”

“Yes, I will.”

‘The princess?’

‘Did even a royal princess come to take my class as well?’

I just felt confused rather than feeling honored or anything else.

Suddenly, I remember a blonde student who had boldly asked me a question.

‘Come to think of it, I thought she looked familiar, so she was from that lineage…’

“And I heard that there are also many freshmen in your class. I thought you were only going to teach the sophomores, but I didn’t think you were going to teach it as a joint class with the freshmen as well.”

“Because I didn’t mean to build differences between the first and second years.”

“I’m not blaming you. Rather, I approve of your way that brings a breath of fresh air to this Academy. I can especially see some of the most amazing students among the freshmen.”

“Amazing kids you said?”

“Yes. There are some kids who use [Uncommon] magic, some kids who come from great families, and some kids who have worked hard while being raised in the magic tower. Usually, I think there would be a gap if they come from different years, but I don’t think that’s going to happen for the freshmen who came in this time.”

Her brightly smiling face when she was thinking of the students fit her position as an academy principal.

But my skin shivers whenever I see that smile.

First of all, I was not a person who would say such a thing confidently because of my conscience, so I only listened to the principal and responded briefly.

“Well, anyway, Sören has high expectations for Professor Ludger Chelysie”

“I’m unworthy of such an appraisal.”

“I’m glad you didn’t encounter any problems in your first class, and your first impression of the students seems to be okay. You saved me from my concerns.”

The principal stood up at the end of her sentence.

“How about having a cup of tea before leaving?” I asked out of courtesy.

“Yes?”

Was it unexpected that I said that?

She showed a slightly confused look before squinting her eyes like a crescent moon.

“I appreciate the offer, but I have a lot of work to do. I could barely spare the time to come here.”

“I see.”

“And you just arrived here, do you even know where the tea and glasses are in the professor’s office?”

“Somewhere inside the shelf, right?”

“Wrong. Actually, we only prepared coffee. If you want to drink tea, you have to apply for a separate tea room.”

“I see. I didn’t know about that.”

“You can keep it in mind for the future. Then let’s get along well in the future as well.”

The principal, who sent her farewell to me with a playful smile, left after she said those words.

She was simply like a calm storm.

I sighed softly and rubbed my eyelids with my fingers.

* * *

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* * *

“How was it?”

The old gentleman, Wilford, asked while following the principal, who walked in the hallway with leisurely steps.

“Have your suspicions of Professor Ludger been resolved?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

The principal recalled the conversation she had with Ludger Chelysie—the restrained attitude that he had shown her, to be exact.

“I’m not so sure.”

“Is that so?”

‘Ludger Chelysie was a unique man.’ The principal thought.

When anyone looked at her, they would be enchanted by her golden eyes.

To be exact, it’s more like they would be possessed by her eyes that were gifted with the reverberation of magic power since she was born.

A captivating vaskania.

It’s her power and the first merit that brought her up to her position.

Of course, it was not intentional for her to use the captivating vaskania on other people. It was kind of a part of her blood since she was born, so if she made eye contact with someone, they’d get captivated without her intention.

It was possible to control her eyes to some extent at least, but in the past, her daily life was difficult.

But after becoming principal, she honestly admitted that she couldn’t have come to that position without the vaskania.

—Because nothing beat her eyes if people who came into Sören had a secret plan and she wanted to find out about it.

‘I was going to pry him with the excuse for a personal face-to-face talk, though.’

‘The more the mana that the other party has, the more influenced they will be by my vaskania, though.’

Her vaskania could affect even a fourth rank wizard. Of course, the requirement was that the other person did not currently use any mental defense magic.

Especially since, the greater the magic power the other party had, the easier it was for them to be influenced by her vaskania.  The power of her vaskania was proportional to the total amount of magic power the other party had.

But Ludger was not like that.

He must have been a fourth rank wizard, but his reaction was completely different from other professors.

The first time he met her vaskania was when he had just entered the principal’s office.

And that was the second time.

The man faced her vaskania twice and showed no signs of being swayed.

Did he not manage to see it? No, she knew that he obviously faced her vaskania, but he showed no signs of being swayed.

It meant that he had resisted the power of her vaskania with a steel-like strong will.

The principal’s eyes shone.

‘He really is…’

‘an interesting man.’

The principal had no choice but to think so.

But of course, she couldn’t show her feelings bluntly.

“I sensed suspicious movements, so I’m focusing on the people whom I feel the most suspicious of, but I haven’t had any results.”

Since she had recently found out that a group of bad people was hidden in Sören, she couldn’t even let the little things pass by.

Ludger Chelysie was involved in a train terrorist attack on his way there.

It wasn’t his fault…

But she had some suspicions just in case.

‘What if the train incident was a blindfold, and in the meantime, a man named Ludger Chelysie was replaced?’

That’s why the principal sent Wilford, her most trusted right-hand man and one of the strongest men in Sören’s history…

On the pretext of picking him up.

“What do you think about it, Mr. Wilford?”

“Hmm. I don’t think I can trust him right away, but I didn’t find anything suspicious about him either.”

“Is that so?”

If Wilford said so, it was one among two probabilities:

Either Ludger Chelysie was really innocent…

Or he was someone who was amazing enough to fool them perfectly.

‘I can only hope that it’s not the latter.’

There were so many things to worry about at the moment, so she decided to stop worrying about Ludger.

“Oh, but I can be sure of one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“That Ludger Chelysie, he’s not an ordinary person at all.”

“He’s not ordinary? What made you say that?”

“All I can say is that it’s just from this old man’s gut feelings.”

“What?”

Wilford seemed to favor Ludger Chelysie quite a lot.

She could trust Wilford, who had good eyes on people, if he said so.

Still, it didn’t completely remove her suspicions.

—Because at any given moment, there could be the worst possible outcome.

A wizard was a person who had to give deep consideration to such possibilities.

Most of all, she was the principal of Sören Academy.

She had no choice but to be careful in every case because she held a position that required her to be the perfect person who could not tolerate even an inch of carelessness.

***

Being left alone, I was finally able to relax my shoulders and let out a sigh after confirming that her sense of presence outside the door was getting farther away.

I was exhausted.

My brain demanded mana.

‘I can’t believe the principal suddenly came to see me.’

Well, according to her words it was just a personal face-to-face talk with new professors.

But who would believe such words if a principal suddenly came to see them?

I betted they were all inwardly questioning it.

‘That’s not what’s important.’

I went straight to my personal desk and sat down.

The desk that was made of luxurious wood seemed quite expensive.

There was a clock made of cogwheels on one side of the wall; on the other side of the wall, Sören’s map was displayed on a board and was spread out.

Red curtains were spread out on the left and right sides of the window with an antique design, and even the chair I was sitting on was very luxurious.

I was impressed by Sören’s totality, which allocated that amount of space to new professors, and again by the fact that it was filled with all sorts of high-end furniture.

I looked at the list of students who were taking my lecture.

‘So it’s for real.’

There were students who had exceptionally long and cool names on the list of those who took my class.

Elendil von Exileon from the second year…

If someone had the Empire’s name Exileon as their surname, you would have known right away that she was of royal descent unless you were a fool.

‘She’s the student who questioned me daringly during the orientation, right?’

I had thought she looked familiar to me. ‘So she was a member of the royal family…’

It was driving me crazy. ‘Why does the princess, of all people, have to attend my lecture?’

She must have been taking classes from other professors besides me, but that doesn’t mean my burdens went away.

No matter how Sören was said to be the third area where private autonomy was guaranteed within the Empire, if there was a person from the imperial family, the story would be different.

If anything happened to her, I’d be in trouble.

‘There’s no way anything could happen to her in Sören, but it’s just in case.’

I could not rule out small incidents that might occur when she was experimenting with magic chemicals, simulating actual combat, or performing alchemy.

Even if I paid attention to the safety of students as much as I could, there were times when students fight against each other in places that can’t be seen by their professors.

In order to eliminate such a situation as much as possible, professors were also obligated to protect students.

…Come to think of it, there was even a secret society hidden in Sören recently.

‘It’s driving me crazy.’

‘Well, there won’t be any incidents happening right away, so let’s think calmly for now.’

I also looked carefully at the list of other students.

There were also some other first and second years who stood out.

‘Flora of the Lumos family as well, and there are even aristocrats from other kingdoms?’

Then my gaze went to a student’s name and stopped.

‘Aidan.’

—A commoner who did not grow up in a particularly great family or that was taught by a prominent wizard.

He must have had the talent since he managed to enter, but he was also a child whom I couldn’t find anything special with compared to other students.

‘He looks somewhat familiar.’

There was something that was strangely gripping my nerves.

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