Chapter 23: 23

  

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

  

Chapter 23 – A Hunter in a Mechanical Spring City (2)

 

‘Hmp, phew. I almost got cornered and caught as a suspicious person.’

Hans, carrying Ludger’s suitcase, walked slowly through the dark alley while avoiding the eyes of the police who had suddenly come to the scene.

It was just that day that Hans had arrived there, but he didn’t get lost because he had already memorized a map of Leathevelk city in his head.

‘More than that, he went to catch a werewolf. When the hell is he coming back?’

As he thought so, something fell in front of Hans from the air.

—It was a giant wolf’s head that rolled to his feet.

Heek!

Hans shrugged his shoulders and desperately held back the scream that was about to leak out of his lips.

“Surprised?”

Ludger walked slowly out of the darkness of the opposite alley.

—Shoes and leather trousers with a white dress shirt and a brown leather vest over it and a long dark coat on the outside and a hat on his head.

It seemed like Hans might have plopped down on the spot if he didn’t know who he was due to the intense pressure that was being emitted by his appearance.

“Damn it! When you want to show up, say something before that! I almost dropped your suitcase!” Hans shouted with quivering lips.

“You didn’t, so it’s fine.”

“Ah shit. Is this the werewolf? Well, I’m not looking down on your skills, but I wonder how you managed to catch this horrible guy in that situation.”

Hans, who checked the head of a werewolf who had died with his tongue stuck out, shivered and handed Ludger the black suitcase.

Accepting the suitcase, Ludger turned his back and walked ahead.

Hans followed in Ludger’s back.

“Can you leave the head just like that?”

“Yes, I don’t need it anymore.”

“Why did you bring it then?”

“To surprise you.”

“…So you still remember me trying to tease you in the alley?”

When Ludger was silent, Hans sighed and raised his hands.

“I get it. I lost. I lost, so let’s not do that again.”

“Seeing you do it…”

The two people who left the alley came out to the street where there was human presence with pedestrians here and there.

“So what was the identity of the werewolf? Is it really Cryptid?”

“No. It was an artificial experiment made by someone.”

“Experiment? They’re crazy. I’ll have to watch myself while I’m in this town. It means that the people who made that are here.”

“I have something to tell you about that.”

“Something to tell me? I’m suddenly very nervous. Can I not listen to it?”

“…”

“I… I get it! Tell me what it is.”

“I should move up the work I originally planned.”

“The work you originally planned? Don’t tell me…”

“I think it’s better here than in the capital.”

Ludger threw two bags at Hans.

Hans took them and checked the contents. One was full of gold coins, and the other contained his beast neutralizer.

“This is…?”

“Shouldn’t we slowly settle down?”

“But in Leathevellk? In a place that’s in contact with Sören, and where there might be the secret society, the Black Dawn Society? There’s even a gang in the back alley since it’s a big city, though?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve gone crazy.”

“There’s plenty of funds for it, so do your best.”

“What about you?”

“I can’t move hastily because I’m an academy professor for now. The principal is still suspicious of me.”

“So I have to do this all by myself?”

Ludger shook his head.

“I’m not asking you to do everything. I’m asking you to gather important information first. Who’s the gang in this city, who’s the mafia, how the underworld goes here, and how we can get a spot there. You can figure them out and tell me.”

‘I’ll step up, then.’

Hans, who understood what Ludger was about to say, gulped down his saliva and soon smiled and nodded.

“Yes, that’s my specialty.”

***

Returning to the dormitory of the academy, I unpacked all my luggage in the accommodation.

I had left it to Hans to collect information by himself for the moment, but it will be fine.

He didn’t seem trustworthy, but his ability to gather information was unrivaled.

I didn’t take him around often for no reason.

‘I should build up my own force to prepare for unknown situations.’

I couldn’t move right away for the moment, so I decided to just prepare in advance.

The principal was still suspicious of me, and I still didn’t know exactly what the secret society of the Black Dawn Society was going to do.

It was rather poisonous for me to move rashly.

Having finished organizing my luggage briefly, I sat on a fluffy sofa and recalled what happened that day.

‘That werewolf… It was an experiment deliberately made by someone rather than pure Cryptid.’

The existence of werewolves was not surprising.

Monsters exist in this world, and by then, they’d been driven out beyond the shadow barrier, which was the outside of the continent, but there were still traces of them.

Cryptids were a prime example of the remnants.

The subspecies of monsters were more like urban legends or ghost stories caused by the abnormal occurrence of mana rather than the beings called as monsters.

The werewolf I caught that time was also some kind of Cryptid, but it was just a fake one, to be exact.

‘Because experiments and spells that create werewolves have existed for a long time.’

There was a curse potion made by putting various medicinal herbs in the water with wolf’s footprints in it and mixing them with wolf’s fur.

It was a transformation potion that could make even ordinary people turn into a beast if they drank it.

It was certainly black magic.

Black magic was prohibited nationally, so they would be punished with an unconditional death penalty no matter what reason they had if they got caught.

It also rarely circulated in the underworld.

‘But how could they make a werewolf like that? Seeing that he even has a lab marker as the sign that he’s an experiment, I don’t think there’s a lot of power involved in his creation.’

‘Seeing that it has a leash, are they mixing human genes after capturing wild wolves alive?’

There were signs of restraints and other traces of experiments engraved on the werewolf’s body.

It was certainly the result of science.

A potion that corrupted humans and transformed them into beasts was the exclusive property of black wizards who had almost gone extinct.

Science had intervened in that thing.

‘Someone deliberately urged them to do it.’

Then who was that someone?

Normal space was not enough to make that much of an experiment secretly.

A fairly large laboratory was needed, and it should have been kept hidden from people.

Space, confidentiality, and possible failure in the experiments…

Considering all that, it meant that there was a big investor in the case who could provide a huge source of funding.

—An aristocrat or a millionaire.

‘There must be a suspicious rich man in the empire.’

I shook my head.

I didn’t know who was suspicious enough, and since I’d eliminated the werewolf and finished collecting his serum, I wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

It was the weekend after a long time, so I didn’t want to be involved in any more troublesome work, and the next day was Sunday, so I wanted to rest well.

‘Moreover, I have to prepare for what I should do for the next class.’

There were so many things that I had to deal with in many ways that I had a headache.

***

Monday morning marked the beginning of a new week after a peaceful Sunday.

I had breakfast with simple toast and coffee and then went to work at my private professor’s office in the main building.

The class was the next day, but I had to show myself going to work for the moment because I was a new teacher.

That’s social life.

After sitting at the desk in the office, I opened the day’s newspaper that I brought from the accommodation.

It was to simply check what happened in Leathevelk or Sören.

But…

‘…What the hell is this?’

The front page of the warm newspaper that came out just that morning was inscribed with a single prominent title in the coverage.

[An unidentified murderer in Leathevelk. Still in search!]

-Last Sunday, five more people died in Leathevelk. As a result, the total number of deaths exceeded 10. The culprit has yet to be identified, but witnesses say it is a dreadful beast with black fur. Although the cops say that it’s just a lunatic murderer and announced that they’d arrest it soon, citizens are still anxious.

‘What is this?’

I read the article on the front page of the newspaper again and again.

No matter how I looked at it, it was the werewolf that I had killed the previous Saturday.

But the newspaper said that the death toll happened on Sunday.

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There were as many as five people.

‘I definitely ended his life then, and yet there’s a new victim. Does that mean there wasn’t only one werewolf?’

It was the moment when I felt that the situation was going weird…

Beep! Beep!

The translucent crystal ball on the work table began to flash with a strange sound.

I knew what that was.

‘The principal is calling me.’

It was some kind of signal artifact to bring the professors together.

That meant that there was a meeting to be held.

‘I have to go.’

I stood up and put on my coat on the hanger.

* * *

* * *

Suddenly, I remembered what professor Selena had said during the meal on Friday.

Some students had said they witnessed werewolves inside the academy.

‘Victims in Leathevelk, including sightings at the Academy.’

Even if I excluded the one that I hunted, there might have been at least two more werewolves.

…Maybe more than that.

Trying to move on from such anxious thoughts, I headed to the meeting room where the professors had gathered.

Chatter chatter.

The conference hall on the higher floor of the main building was full of professors.

—Those who were clearly competent in their own teaching fields.

When I went inside, people’s eyes were looking at me.

Most of the feeling that was emitted in their eyes was curiosity, but I knew it was directed at the source code that I had invented, not curiosity toward me.

‘Professor Ludger! Here!’

A familiar pink-haired woman was seen swaying her hand in the corner.

When I found out that professor Selena was waving at me, I walked toward her.

‘Is that person Ludger Chelysie?’

‘I heard he invented some pretty great spell. Is that true?’

‘I heard he’s from a fallen aristocrat family. He’s acting so high with that look.’

Among some professors, there were not a few people who looked at me with hostility who were descendants of the aristocracy.

Their hostile and jealous stares were quite stinging, but I just shrugged it off.

Professor Selena greeted me as I sat in an empty seat next to her.

“Did you have a good weekend?”

“I had a good rest. Did you have a good rest, too, Professor Selena?”

“Yes, it’s been a while since I had a good rest. More than that, have you heard the rumor?”

“Did you mean the reason why we gathered this time?”

“Two first-year students were severely injured last night after they were attacked by an unidentified assailant.”

Selena explained that the situation was like that.

‘Last night…’

It was said that two first-year students who were returning to the dormitory after going outside the academy were attacked inside Sören.

The injuries were not life-threatening, but it was quite serious, and it was a big shock that such an incident happened inside Sören.

And one of the students who just woke up that morning had said…

—That a horrifying beast had attacked them.

“I guess the werewolf rumor that has been going around since last week was true. There were also victims in the nearby city of Leathevelk.”

“I see.”

It was difficult to simply dismiss them as seeing some hallucination, and the wounds carved on the victims’ bodies were said to have been scratched by a beast.

That’s why the professors were all gathered that time.

First of all, it was mentioned in the contract that Sören’s professors had to work with all their might in case of an emergency.

That meant it was hard to calm things down with internal guards or employees alone.

‘If the opponent is a werewolf, it would be much better to send elite professors than to put in unnecessary manpower.’

Sören’s professors didn’t only teach students normally.

In other words, the professors’ skills had been guaranteed to some extent at the time when they tought the prestigious Sören students.

“The principal is coming.”

When a woman in her mid-50s with wrinkles on her face said that, all the professors who were talking to each other became quiet.

I was wondering who she was, and Selena explained it to me.

“She’s Professor Mary Ross. She’s been teaching in Sören for more than 20 years. Her field of teaching is pharmacology.”

“I see.”

She’d been teaching for more than 20 years in Sören? It meant that she had great ability.

She came forward and settled down the situation, and all the other professors were silent.

“The principal is coming.”

Then the door opened, and the principal came in.

She was always beautiful. Along with her fascinating golden eyes, her two-tone hair with white and light pink s naturally caught peoples’ eyes.

“Good morning, everyone. The reason I called you in so urgently today is that I have something to announce to you.”

The principal got straight to the point without dragging more time.

All the professors in the conference hall pricked up their ears.

“Recently, an unidentified assailant appeared inside Sören. In fact, last night, two new students who entered the school this year were attacked and seriously injured.”

“Who’s the culprit?”

“It hasn’t been revealed yet, but according to what the witnesses say, it was a werewolf, which means that it was done by a Cryptid.”

The mention of the werewolf that was just rumor caused a stir among the professors.

“That can’t be true, your honor. Aren’t they mistaken? How come there’s a Cryptid in Sören?”

It was an avaricious middle-aged man who appeared to be in his mid-50s who stood up while speaking so blatantly.

He parted his greasy hair neatly 2/8 and had grown his mustache, which made his face look full of grumpiness.

It was like seeing an old boss that every school seemed to have..

However, after he stood up, the atmosphere of the conference hall strangely changed.

“Anything you want to say? Professor Hugo Bourtag?”

“This is Sören. This place is protected by the Exileon Empire. For such a werewolf to appear in Sören, I wonder if the students have been mistaken after believing the ghost stories that are currently circulating.”

“Professor Hugo. You don’t seem to know anything. Didn’t I just say there were already two victims?”

“I know. Even the victims were children of noble families. That’s why I don’t think it was done by a werewolf.”

Hugo Bourtag glanced at the crowd once.

“I think the criminal is a fellow Sören student. A commoner at that.”

“What?”

“Otherwise, there’s no way that only the aristocratic children would be among the many students who got hurt. A werewolf attack in Sören? Rather than saying that, it is much more credible if some students deliberately pretended to be werewolves and committed crimes.”

The words certainly had a plausible persuasion, but I couldn’t help myself but feel some instinctive displeasure at Hugo’s words.

Yes, he is not purely questioning the situation.

He was just trying to nitpick at the principal’s words and pass the blame on to certain students.

Looking through the atmosphere, I nodded inwardly.

‘Oh, I get it roughly.’

As long as Sören was also an organization, it was inevitable that factions existed within it.

Students were divided into commoners and aristocrats, but the professors were not that different.

The reality was that professors also had a subtle, strange atmosphere between commoner professors and aristocratic professors.

The new teacher, Chris Benimore, who had just joined Sören, had also refused to eat together while commenting about me being a fallen aristocrat.

‘I thought the Black Dawn Society would go against that, but I don’t think so either.’

Maybe Hugo was the only one who acted rashly like that, but he would have known that there were quite a few people who secretly agreed with him.

Some aristocratic professors united and formed a faction.

And that faction didn’t seem to get along well with the principal’s faction.

It’s not enough for them to work together, but what kind of situation was an internal conflict like that?

When I thought, ‘Is this what Sören’s reality is like?’ a small bug climbed up the wall and crawled onto my shoulder.

The moment I was about to bounce it off with my hand because I thought it disturbed me, I had no choice but to pause.

It wasn’t a bug. It was a small thin piece of paper in the shape of a bug.

Fortunately, others had not noticed it yet.

I grabbed it naturally and checked the contents in a way that others wouldn’t notice.

It was fortunate that most professors’ attention was focused on the war of nerves between the principal and Hugo.

“…”

After checking the contents, I pressed my finger against my slightly throbbing forehead.

「Three of the experimental subjects escaped. Immediate capture is required. Eliminate them if not possible.」

I could immediately see who sent the message and who was the mastermind behind the werewolves.

But the most important thing was the last sentence.

「If the experiment’s whereabouts is revealed, there is a risk that your identity will be revealed.」

‘Oh, my God.’

‘Why do You give me such a hard time?’

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