Chapter 35: 35

  

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

  

Chapter 35 – Nightcrawler

 

Ricksen’s mansion became filled with tension after Terina Lionhowl and her two lieutenants appeared.

The police inspecting the scene noticed Terina and saluted her as they quickly stood up.

“Ma-Marquise Terina! It’s an honor to meet you! My name is Inspector Teboran!”

“Oh, yes. You’ve worked hard.”

“May I ask, if you don’t mind, what brings you here, Marquise Terina?”

“Didn’t you hear the news? Starting from now, all investigation into the murder in the Ricksen mansion is under the control of our security department.”

“S-security department, you said?”

Inspector Teboran, who had a long mustache and whiskers, gulped down his saliva.

He also didn’t believe it was just a simple murder case, but if the security department came forward, it meant that the case was extremely dangerous.

The security department didn’t take action unless the case was really serious.

“Please… please excuse us! Everyone, withdraw!”

The Inspector and his subordinates fled the scene quickly.

All they had left to do was block the reporters who looked like hyenas, flocking in front of the gate while still watching the events inside the mansion.

As the staring eyes disappeared, the young-looking female Knight of the man and woman lieutenants following Terina relaxed her shoulders.

“Phew. I was having a hard time setting the mood.”

“Oho. Enya. You should still show the honorific behavior of the Nightcrawler Knight Order, even if there are no eyes watching us.”

The female Knight, Enya, scowled at her senior, Lloyd’s, nagging.

“Well, Senior. But still, we don’t have to act like that now.”

“Enya you…”

“Stop it, Lloyd. You only have to be like that in front of others.”

“See. Even the Captain said that.”

“This little junior is really…”

Deputy Lloyd eventually shook his head and raised a white flag.

The Nightcrawler Knight Order was a place where only elites gathered, just like the Knights who were guarding the center of the Empire were supposed to be, but it was also a place where they spoke comfortably among seniors and juniors.

It was all because Terina herself, the Knight Commander, liked such an atmosphere.

However, it did not mean that their regulations themselves were loose.

It had also been a long tradition of the Nightcrawler Knight Order to deal with what had to be done in a more surefire way than anyone else.

Most of all, the fact that the Nightcrawler Knight Order did not collapse was evidence that their current Captain, Terina Lionhowl, had great power of command and charisma.

“Don’t forget about our purpose for coming here.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Rather than being an ordinary case, the incident was evaluated as such a serious matter that even the security department had to take part in the investigation.

In particular, it was not just a usual ‘serious case’ because Terina, the Knight Commander, had stepped up by herself in the connection between Cryptids and Black Magic.

“It’s just a rumor so far, but the dead Belfort was a man who had been suspicious and was on the list of people that we, the security department, were to keep an eye on. It’s not just a mere coincidence that he was suddenly killed by a monster.”

Lloyd and Enya nodded at Terina’s words.

The three immediately began to investigate Ricksen’s room.

—Broken windows that appeared to have been caused by the intruder and black stains that could be said to be signs of a burnt monster.

—And the blood that was supposed to belong to Belfort that was scattered around.

Witnesses had said a monster appeared, and Ricksen was killed.

Given that their statements are all identical and consistent, they didn’t think those witnesses were lying.

After more than 10 minutes, they moved in search of possible clues, but there was no sign of anything.

But as soon as Lloyd was about to say something after he thought that he had searched everything…

It was then that Terina, who was thinking hard with her arms folded, suddenly strode toward one wall.

“Captain?”

“So it’s here.”

What Terina stared at was a painting hanging on the wall.

As one of the richest men in Leathevelk, Belfort had decorated his spacious room with all kinds of colorful artwork.

Terina, who moved closer to the wall, touched the border frame of the painting and then picked up the mural in the corner and put it aside.

“Captain? What’s with that painting?”

“There’s a space behind it.”

Before asking if it was for real, Terina’s fingertips, covered in white gloves, touched the center of the wall.

Then the wall opened with a rattling sound as if it was pushed aside.

—A secret space that had a length and width of only one meter.

“What on earth is this?” Enya asked while staring at the empty space with a curious gaze.

Terina raised her voice in an apathetic tone while folding her arms.

“Based on its size and location, it was probably the place where his secret safe was hidden.”

“Secret safe?”

“Belfort Ricksen was notorious for being a rich and evil entrepreneur. There must have been money that he hid to avoid taxes and some black money to avoid the surveillance of the Empire.”

“Is this the safe where he put that money?”

“But there is no safe…”

Lloyd opened his mouth with a heavy face as he realized something.

“Someone took it away, I see.”

“Yeah.”

“Then who took it away?  The employees of the mansion? Should we interrogate the butler, who was the most suspicious, first?”

Terina shook her head at Enya’s remark that was already full of desire.

“No. It will be meaningless. The butler has nothing to do with this.”

“Pardon?”

“There is no way a man like Belfort could have confided his secret funds to someone else. He probably hid it thoroughly so that only he knew about it.”

“But it’s empty here.”

“Just because he didn’t tell everyone doesn’t mean no one knows about it.”

Didn’t Terina also find that secret space right away?

“Businessmen, millionaires, and merchants all have similar ideas. They’re not that happy to open a bank account. They always want to keep valuables or gold coins within their reach for the moment—only then would they feel at ease.”

“Then who took it away?”

“We’re going to find out about it now. It’s just a guess, but the person who stole the safe must have had something to do with Ricksen’s death.”

“But they said that Belfort Ricksen was eaten by a werewolf.”

“I doubt it’s a werewolf. Look at the traces left behind. Nearly half of the floor in this large room was burned. It was burned by magic, so it didn’t escalate to a fire. It was only a precise range that the flames covered and burned, but it’s still that big.”

“That means…”

“Cryptids and werewolves, no matter how big they are, are only three meters tall. They’re also very big, but if you burned them to death, there wouldn’t be a mark that big”

And it was said that those who actually witnessed the werewolf initially mistook him for a ‘monster’.

Since it was dark and the people were frightened, they may have had some kind of illusion.

That wasn’t the case, judging from the traces.

“The result is that someone is involved in the death of Belfort Ricksen… An unnatural death, the appearance of a monster, and even the bad rumors about Belfort—There’s a lot left to check.”

What bothered Terina most of all was the ability of the mysterious intruder to take the safe that was supposed to be inside without leaving any trace.

She lit her eyes and tried to find traces, but the intruder had left no evidence—as if he was a professional.

As if the safe didn’t exist in the first place…

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‘No way. There was definitely a safe here… And it was here until last night.’

Her evidence for that was that there was no dust on the bottom of that empty space yet.

No matter how enclosed the space was, air and dust were bound to enter.

‘Then who on earth took it away?’

Her feeling that was as if she was trying to hold a blurry mirage with her hands was not unfamiliar.

‘I’m so used to it that I feel like It’s déjà vu.’

It was inevitable that Terina Lionhowl brought up the memory of her past all of a sudden.

A couple of years prior…

* * *

* * *

There was a thief who had created chaos throughout the continent.

He was so mysterious that no one had ever seen his real face because he was blurred as if he were surrounded by the darkness of night, and his movements were extremely elusive.

He was the one who had easily penetrated any heavy security measures wherever he wanted and taken away valuables without leaving any trace, causing many rich men to shed tears and anger.

The thief, Arsène Lupin.

‘Don’t tell me that thief… No, no way. It’s been a few years since he stopped his activities, yet he moved again now?’

But the method that had been used still disturbed her mind.

Even if it was not him, she could not deny the possibility of the intruder being his acquaintance, accomplice, or disciple.

“Lloyd.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Is there anything else unusual that happened in Leathevelk?”

“Oh, well, there was one thing.”

“What is it?”

“One of the abandoned factories was burned down in flames; that’s also the same day when Belfort died.”

“So it’s there.”

What happened in the abandoned factory that had been set aflame?

Even the location was a remote place that people no longer visited.

“Let’s go.”

***

The werewolf case that caused chaos in Sören and Leathevelk ended with the death of the evil millionaire.

I was lying sick on the bed in the room of my accommodation.

‘Uurgh. If I knew this would happen, I would’ve prepared a little more before I went. I’m glad I didn’t have to teach any classes today; otherwise, I would have been in big trouble.’

Rather than a sore body, my spinning head and the following migraine were the most painful to me.

I took out three pills and poured them into my mouth while lying in bed.

Munch munch.

Others may think the pills were something like headache medicine or painkillers, but I was literally chewing mana pills that replenished mana.

Usually, if someone was recovering their mana, it was common for them to recover their mana automatically over time or to drink mana potions.

But because pharmacology had developed…

It had become possible to grind mana recovery pills into powder and drink them in water or to mix the starch like I had and turn them into pills.

Powder and pills were easier to store and carry than carrying them around in the form of potions.

In other words, it was a world that thought the pills that restored mana were not that marvelous.

The distinction was just in how the same medicine had the best effects.

Therefore, what was important in pharmacology was how good the efficiency displayed by its ingredients compared to the others.

Effect…

Risk…

And efficiency.

Combining those three factors, the drugs could be rated from the best level, which was 1, to the lowest level, which was 10.

The pills I was taking were my own original recovery pills.

It was the pill that maximized its effectiveness at the expense of raising its risk a little because of my ‘body type’.

Since it was my own special drug, it didn’t go through any clinical trials, but it also didn’t have any rating tag.

I think that pill would probably have a pretty high rating, and I was chewing those pills instead of rice.

‘It was a problem because I used too much of my energy. I always won my fights at a swift pace, but who knew that he would be a black wizard who changed his body in that way?’

Insect brothers…

Because of the older brother, Veron, I had been given no choice but to use ‘real magic’, not the magic of this world.

It was magic that combined the occult and mythological knowledge in the world I used to live in, not magic techniques or knowledge from this world.

The problem was that the magic’s aftereffects were no joke.

Taking drugs that replenished mana regularly was also something I had to experience because I had learned that magic.

[━━━━━]

Sound…

The sound that kept bothering me slowly faded and then disappeared.

That voice could only be suppressed by using mana, so I had become a person who consumed mana just by breathing.

Therefore, it was necessary for me to make up for the lack of mana periodically.

‘It’s a bit better.’

I was immersed in a different thought when my headache went away…

The werewolf case at that time was able to be finished after I had stepped up.

I had burned it all down without a trace, so they couldn’t find any evidence of the werewolf experiment.

The only problem was that there was a witness at the scene.

‘Aidan.’

—The freshman who had blocked me from killing the werewolves.

—Someone with a sympathetic impression along with brown hair that didn’t stand out that much.

But the greatest thing about him was his personality.

His action to risk himself and throw his own body into danger to protect his friend or standing up by himself without knowing that he was in danger was a rare sight, even in Sören.

Yeah.

If I had to define him, he was like the main character in an anime or novel.

In the case of the students who were taking my class, I remembered all of them, and the Aiden I recalled was a model student who focused on my class with shining eyes more than anyone else.

Unlike other people, who were learning magic as if they were being chased by something, he was a hardworking type of a person who had entered Sören purely because he liked magic and enjoyed it.

Such a fellow had witnessed the secret of the werewolves.

If it was a game, I think the title [Act 1. Sören’s Werewolf] would come straight to my mind.

‘He might be suspicious of me for killing the werewolves against his will right there.’

Fortunately, Leo and Tessie Friad, who were there with him, didn’t notice that.

If Aidan had told them, it would be a different story.

How could a freshman get caught up in such an incident and get closer to the truth?

He didn’t mean to be caught in it, but the situation had gotten so screwed up that it became like that.

I put my hand on my forehead and swept my hair back.

‘If it became like this…’

There was one method that came to my mind.

‘Should I kill him?’

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