Academy’s Undercover Professor-Novel - Chapter 101

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

[Translator – Alice]

[Proofreader – ilafy]

Chapter 101 – A Blooming Blossom in The Abandoned Alley (1)

The next place where Violeta guided him to was a huge vacant lot where Kirchus dwelled.

It used to be a place where a huge building was going to be built, but for a certain reason, the development had been canceled and it’d become a huge, empty lot.

Development had probably been cancelled because the surroundings were nothing but a shantytown, so the condition was not that good to live in.

The area had been practically abandoned by the city as well for that very reason, so Kirchus was able to occupy the spot and use it.

What stood in the center of the vacant lot was a shabby, yet huge, tent.

It was the circus troupe that Kirchus had boasted of.

The place where flies usually flocked together when the circus didn’t open was exceptionally bustling with people that day.

A singing voice could be heard from inside.

“They’re attempting to do the musical show that you talked about. It’s still at an early stage, but judging from the rehearsal that was being shown, the reaction was good. They’re planning to officially open the theater and attract customers soon after they practice in the outdoor venue a couple of times.”

As they entered the inside of the tent, the cheerful singing voices became clearer.

Members of the circus were seen above the circus’s central stage.

They had gotten rid of their previously eccentric attire and were instead dressed as neatly as possible.

The guests couldn’t avert their gazes at their fancy performance as they sang songs in tune with the music and danced.

Even though it was just a rehearsal, most of the reactions were favorable.

“Pinion is also extremely enthusiastic about this thing. He seems to enjoy it so much that he even stopped smoking cigarettes completely.”

The leader of Kirchus, Pinion…

The man who had dwarfism was singing with all his might on the platform.

Unexpectedly, he possessed an extraordinary singing ability.

“At first, he was infuriated at being told to sing when he was supposed to be their leader, but now he’s singing in the forefront. To be frank, it seems like he’s the one who wants to do it the most.”

“I see that, unlike the appearance he gives off, he’s an honest and hard-working man.”

“He couldn’t be honest. Maybe after this rehearsal finishes, the ticketing will be officially held.”

“Have you decided the theater where the musical show will be held?”

“There is a theater that was built a long time ago, but since people didn’t really go there, it closed. The location isn’t bad. A huge amount of money was put towards it and everything is being renovated. The same goes for the street around it. The people are already watching it with interest.”

“When it’s all done…”

Ludger was able to see why what was happening in the slums could reach the ears of the people in high society.

If the event was that big of a deal, anyone was bound to be interested in it.

“Do you think people will gather?”

“For now, reactions in surrounding area are favorable, but it’s true that there are still many more people who don’t know about it, which is why we need the Old Kids. Now, let’s go to the next place.”

Vieoleta began to walk again.

The two people who left the circus group’s tent stopped in front of a building after striding through the clean pedestrian street.

“This is the publishing company managed by the Old Kids.”

The building that’d been used as an illegal gambling place by the Crimson Society had been completely renovated into an office.

“You came?”

Mastella beamed up in the entrance as she greeted them.

Beside her was Deon, who was standing still like always.

Violeta folded her arms and stared at the two people, seemingly displeased.

“What? Mastella, didn’t you go to do your work?”

“The owner is visiting us directly, so we can’t empty our spots. Since he’s checking the progress of the business directly, isn’t it only right that we guide him in person?”

The two of them continued staring at each other.

Violeta shrugged her shoulders.

“Yeah, do as you please.”

Her role was to guide Ludger through places anyway, so it was natural for Mastella to give an explanation about what they actually did on the inside.

Mastella was all smiles as she invited Ludger inside.

“Please enter, Leader.”

“Sure…”

Ludger wasn’t able to adapt completely whenever he saw Mastella behaving so maturely.

He couldn’t believe that a young girl who was as cute as a doll was running a business that should’ve been done by the adults, and she also treated him very kindly.

That was how mature the girl was, but on the contrary, it was unfortunate to think that she’d grown up in an environment that left her no choice but to mature early.

The inside of the building was full of active machines.

Whirrr!

Innumerable papers flowed out, following the rail.

The thin book being produced en masse by the machine could be identified at glance.

“I made what you told me, Leader. Did you say it was a magazine?”

Ludger grabbed one completed edition of the magazine without saying anything and spread it open.

What was written inside of the magazine were various kinds of gossip.

Ludger scanned the contents and nodded his head.

“It’s not bad.”

It couldn’t match the output that he was thinking about, but considering that it was a monumental first publication, it was exceeding the stadard instead.

Newspaper was the primary source of the world’s news.

Most information could only be obtained through newspapers, but then, there was almost no method that could be used to find out what the newspapers didn’t cover.

The only option was to go to an organization that traded in secret information.

Especially because most of the newspapers only consisted of articles that were advantageous to the people of high classes, the middle classes and the working classes were reluctant to access them.

The gap of each stratum also clearly existed within that aspect of society.

And the magazine…

It was a crucial business item that reduced such a stratum gap.

The main goal was to make many more of them for the general public to be able to access news easily.

Even so, if it only consisted of information and nothing else, people were highly likely to be bored, so there were also entertaining parts in the magazine’s contents.

It was non other than a literature section that could attract people’s attention for short amounts of time.

It was a collection of short novels, or so-called called pulp fiction.

If speaking about the pulp fiction on earth, it meant cheap, short novels that were published serially in a magazine that was made of cheap papers.

But the reason why such pulp fiction couldn’t be looked down upon was because the literary genre was made in a method that could be enjoyed most.

In this world, novels with mystery, adventure, horror, and all other genres attracted interest.

But the people who were lacking leisure time and were too tight in money to buy books could never enjoy such novels.

So an alternative to that was the pulp fiction section in a magazine.

“We managed to gather a lot of writers, I see.”

“Because, among the people who write literary works, there aren’t any of them who don’t need money.”

Most of the writers of that generation, except the minority of those who hit best sellers, couldn’t manage to have a proper meal since they were tight on money.

To those poor writers, the fact that they could write their own short novels in the magazine became some kind of means for their living.

Most of all, since he’d invested a huge amount of money intio it, many writers flocked to the magazine in order to make a living, thanks to that, the written stories within the magazine were overflowing.

“This is a monumental first publication, but I’m planning to extend the magazine to separate fields if it becomes popular. If it becomes popular, of course.”

“It will.”

Ludger spoke with certainty.

His complete lack of hesitation was such that it made people think that maybe he was someone who had seen the situation from the future.

“And even if it fails, I don’t mind. So don’t worry about it, and print as many copies as you can.”

Mastella and Deon’s eyes widened at Ludger’s words which stated that he wouldn’t ask for them to take responsibility if it failed, which was seemingly unexpected.

Most people were bound to shift responsibility to others and tried hard to disregard the mistakes that happened due to their own negligence.

But Ludger wasn’t like that.

“The money is overflowing anyway.”

Even if they failed, there was a lot of money, so they would be able to recover.

Mastella was speechless at the remark.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

It was a sharp declaration.

How could he say such words easily?

And how could he put those words into practice through his attitude and show it?

‘We are the people who were abandoned by this city, though.’

The slum was a place in which even Leathevelk had given up on touching.

Most of the developments that happened in the city were only for the rich, and that place where the rabble gathered and lived was practically an abandoned land.

No one even bothered to pay any attention to that place

And no one put their interests in that place.

—Do you think someone will throw even a penny to trash like you?

Very occasionally, someone visited them and conferred benefits upon them.

But in the end, even those people deliberately wore a mask and approached them with the intention to scoop at least a pearl within the mud.

The moment they realized that there was nothing that they could gain in that place, they revealed their hideous inner side and hastily ran away.

It was natural for them not to believe anyone.

—Because no one would give any trust to them.

Since they had been abandoned, they didn’t even hold any expectations.

So when she first saw the vision that Ludger presented to them, she was half in doubt as well.

—Because the cost of the business idea that he’d shown them was their obedience.

In the end, he would exploit them as well, or so she had thought.

But she approved his offer on the slight hope that she could release herself from her terrible reality.

Mastella didn’t even imagine that the choice she’d made then would be something that she would even be grateful for.

Ludger had started work right away.

He’d invested a huge amount of money he’d got from god-knows-where and distributed the investment to the entirety of the slum.

The mayor, who said that he would take an active part for the sake of the equality in the city, and the members of the House of Representatives, who were frothing at the mouth while they spoke that they did it for the sake of the lower classes whenever they opened their mouths…

While they only spat out such bullshit and the same occurrence happened repetitively for numerous years, Ludger had created jobs for the slum people with a huge amount of money within only the last couple weeks.

He’d told them the path that they should go through, and he’d given them the driving force to move forward.

Not by words, but through his actions.

“The most important thing for the monumental first edition is to spread it to as many people as possible. If fame and awareness increase with that, more people will come in flocks.”

“I’m already aware of that and ordered the kids in the street to spread the news.”

The kids gathered all kinds of news, but on the contrary, it was also possible for them to spread the news.

—Because the kids would tell their own parents, and their parents would also spread the news widely amongst themselves.

“I see. I anything more than this would just be pointless interference on my part. Since you seem to be doing well, I will take my leave.”

“Yes. Please take care on your way, Leader.”

Ludger, who had confirmed that the Old Kids also rolled along well, left the building with Violeta.

With that, Ludger had confirmed that the Black Rose Women, Old Kids, and Kirchus had progressed the business steadily according to what he’d taught them.

‘Right now, it’s still an early stage, so it costs a lot of funds, but once the businesses have gotten on track, I’ll be able to more than make back my investment.’

Ludger was not a philanthropist.

The reason why he’d invested money in that slum was because he had a certainty that he would be able to earn more than that.

Since Ludger had confirmed that the process itself was smooth, and on the contrary, it ran smoother beyond his expectation, he decided to focus on his work.

“Where do you plan to go now? I think you checked all the places you want to check.”

“Then I should go to meet people.”

“People, you said?”

“You can think of them as the colleagues who will work with us in the future.”

Originally, he’d planned to move there alone, but he thought that it was okay to introduce them to Violeta,

Thus, while Violeta had been guiding the way thus far, Ludger took the lead from there.

He brought her to the high street of Grand Chapel.

“Why here?”

“There are a lot of women, you know.”

“Pardon?”

Violeta stared at Ludger’s side profile with an incredulous gaze.

She thought he wasn’t that kind of person.

“I know what kind of thoughts you’re having.”

“Pardon? I-I didn’t exactly have those kinds of thoughts.”

“The target is not me in the first place. Look over there. He showed up just in time.”

Ludger raised his hand and pointed at one side. She stared at it attentively while wondering what on earth she was supposed to see, and she saw a man who was having a conversation with a woman.

He was a quite unique man.

The fashionable attire that he wore could also be seen commonly from the people who wandered around nearby him, but what stood out was his exotic skin color.

His skin color was brown, like those who came from the southern part of the empire, and his curly hair was shining as if it was a gold that had been melted and was woven like threads.

“Who is that person?”

“My colleague,” Ludger replied while walking slowly toward the golden-haired man.

Meanwhile, the man was attracting the interest of the noble lady and recited all kinds of honey-sweet words.

“Beautiful young lady. Would you give me the chance for me to be together with you this evening?”

“O-oh, my… I can’t, but…”

The noble lady, who had been rejecting him at first, was also about to fall into his seductive talks.

At that time, Ludger intervened.

“Enough of that conversation.”

“Oh? Who are you?”

The noble lady crumpled her face as her mood seemingly worsened because Ludger had intervened in an important moment, but she soon smiled when she saw his face,

The brown-skinned man laughed awkwardly when he saw Ludger.

“Haha. Leader. You came? But what’s your business here? Isn’t there still some time left until our appointment?”

“It’s because it seems you’ll be late again if I leave you alone like this. I’m sorry, lady. This guy right here is my colleague, so I will take him away.”

“P-please do so.”

As Ludger spoke politely, the noble lady said that it was okay while waving her hand.

Ludger soon grabbed the man’s nape and dragged him by force toward the place where Violeta waited.

“Oh! There’s another beautiful lady here as well! As expected, Leathevelk’s water is really good.”

The man’s eyes shone as soon as he saw Violeta, and he showed his teeth.

The even teeth received the sunlight and shone brightly.

“…Are you sure he’s your colleague?”

“Yeah. His behavior is frivolous, but his talent is real.”

“So, Leader, the reason why you called me to this city… is it because there’s a hot adventure in this place as well? What kind of fluttering beauties and treasures will welcome me today?”

“…Are you sure he has the talent?”

Ludger released man’s nape that he had been holding while opening his mouth.

“Let me introduce you. This is Alex, who’s going to work with us.”

“Nice to meet you, beautiful lady who’s akin to a shrub of roses. Even though I look like this, I’m an aristocrat of the Southern Fatima Dynasty, so let’s get along well.”

“An aristocrat, you said?”

Ludger corrected it right away as Violeta was surprised and asked back.

“You should be careful. This guy’s a swindler.”

Swindler?

Violeta stared at Alex, who was still snickering with an appalled gaze.

And he’d deceived her right away in their first meeting?

“Rather than that, Leader. What’s the reason you called me here all of a sudden?” Alex asked while setting aside Violeta, who was still shocked.

“I’m planning to officially settle down.”

“Oh. Are you finally putting an end to your long wandering life? So what should I do now after arriving here?”

“Do what you’re good at, like always,” Ludger answered in a small voice so as to not be heard by the passersby.

“We are going to rob the Kunst auction house that’s going to be held soon.”