Academy’s Undercover Professor-Novel - Chapter 108

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

[Translator – Alice]

[Proofreader – ilafy]

Chapter 108 – The Impending Shadow of the Past (2)

Terina Lionhowl, who had finished her private meeting with Eileen, the first princess, walked through the corridor of the imperial castle alone.

Her gaze flew toward the garden of the imperial castle outside the window.

Terina recalled the conversation she had shared with Eileen a moment ago.

Eileen had conveyed to her a story about a man called Jack the Ripper, who had helped her in the past, and she’d speculated that he might currently be in Leathevelk.

‘Jack the Ripper, huh.’

Terina Lionhowl mumbled the name inwardly.

It was the first time she’d heard that name, but somehow, she felt a sense of déjà vu.

During the private meeting with the princess in the audience chamber, there was something that she couldn’t bring herself to say to Eileen.

It was that, in Leathevelk, there might also be the mysterious thief, Arsène Lupin, whom she had met in the past and failed to arrest in the end.

Jack the Ripper and Arsène Lupin…

‘What if…’

Terina suddenly stopped in her steps and compared the story that Eileen had conveyed to her and an event that she had experienced and came up with a hypothesis.

‘…the man called Jack the Ripper, whom the princess talked about, and the person called Arsène Lupin, who has been hiding his whereabouts until now, are the same person?’

It was a thought that came up as if small sparks were bursting in her brain.

It was also a hypothesis without supporting logic or rational deduction, something that was caused by a flashing intuition.

But Terina strangely felt that her mind was leaning toward that hypothesis.

‘But it’s a bit weird. How come a talented person who can even sweep away a whole Black Ops team ended up living his life as a wanderer? Does such a man need to act as a thief who steals belongings?’

Killing people and stealing belongings…

Both of them were activities which were against the law, but even so, she couldn’t put the two of them in the same line.

And if he was someone that talented, he should have gotten good treatment wherever he went.

‘I don’t need to think about it in haste. Both of them could be different people.’

However, according to what Princess Eileen said, it was necessary to raise her vigilance toward Leathevelk to some extent.

Terina knew very well that she wasn’t someone who would say rubbish.

Eileen von Exileon the first princess…

The person who had been chosen to become the next emperor of Exileon.

She was the current de facto ruler of the empire.

Eileen had revealed such oustanding ability clearly since she was still young.

At least, according to Terina’s judgment, the woman was a human being who was close to ‘perfection’.

No, she even had the feeling that the princess was of a different breed that was beyond human beings instead.

A brain that could learn about complicated and hard knowledge immediately, an insight that could see a huge flow in an instant, a silver tongue that could grab onto people’s hearts and sway them, the princess was gifted with an exceptional amount of mana, and even talent in magic.

In fact, the magic tower even sent Princess Eileen a love call, saying that they wanted to respectfully take her into the magic tower.

But Eileen rejected all of them.

The reason was simple…

It was because they couldn’t attract her interest.

Since she was a person who was extremely perfect and accomplished everything she set out to do, she was bound to feel an inevitable boredom.

Eileen was even bored of life itself.

Despite everything, she unexpectedly showed interest and affection to her younger sister, the third princess, but Elendil, the third princess, had left to Sören.

Eileen always lived her daily life locked in the dull swamp called boredom.

Such a woman had laughed joyfully…

She was a woman who always wore a smiling mask, but Terina could tell from her sharp senses.

—The fact that Eileen had been laughing sincerely.

‘I need to be on alert.’

Fortunately, Terina had left one trustworthy subordinate in Leathevelk.

Terina thought of calling Enya immediately after she got back.

* * *

Five days before the Kunst auction…

Ludger strode through Sören Academy to prepare for his next class.

Beside Ludger, his assistant, the Third Order of Black Dawn Society, Sedina Rochen, was following alongside him while holding class materials in her embrace.

As he was heading to the main building where his class would be held, Ludger met a familiar face in street outside of it.

‘Selena, huh.’

Professor Selena, who was in charge of first year Spiritology, was exchanging a conversation with someone.

The other person was a man whom Ludger was seeing for the first time, but looking at his attire, he seemed to also be a Sören professor.

Since Ludger didn’t remember him, he at least wasn’t a professor in charge of the first and second-year students, he must’ve at least been a professor in charge of third-year students.

Ludger stood in his spot motionlessly and watched the scene.

Both of them were exchanging conversation, but it was more like the man was speaking one-sidedly toward Selena rather than a conversational exchange in which both of them had an interest.

Selena was only laughing awkwardly and listening to the other person’s words.

Looking at her slightly troubled face, it seemed that the other person’s intention was considerably obvious.

When Ludger was contemplating whether to ignore or help her, Selena discovered Ludger and waved her hands.

“Ah. Professor Ludger!”

The male professor who was exchanging conversation with her distorted his face slightly when he saw Ludger.

The man soon sent his farewell to Selena and hurriedly left the place.

He seemed to be extremely ashamed, looking at his irritated appearance.

However, Ludger wasn’t curious about it.

On the contrary, Ludger’s gaze was directed towards Selena’s assistants.

Ludger fixed his gaze toward one person among them.

Joanna Lovett was glaring at the professor who’d exchanged the conversation with Selena as if she was about to kill him.

‘Esmeralda…’

The spirit summoner who handled the top-level flame spirit and the First Order of Black Dawn Society…

Ludger contemplated how he should act toward her when he saw her.

‘Better not make it obvious.’

Ludger decided so and sent a light greeting toward Selena.

“Long time no see, Professor Selena.”

“Yes. It’s been a long time.”

“Rather than that, who was the person just now?”

“Pardon? Ah, well… He is a professor in charge of fourth-year students.”

Selena’s expression was somewhat awkward.

“Did something happen?”

“N-no. Just… He’s just worried about the occurrence that happened in the banquet hall, that’s all.”

Even though she said so, there was no way he’d talked to her like that purely out of concern.

It was obviously only an excuse, and in fact, he must have had a separate intention.

Selena knew that as well, but since she was a very kind person, she didn’t talk behind others’ backs.

However, Ludger replied with a nod as he thought that there was no need to speak ill of another person who wasn’t there.

“I see.”

Usually, the conversation would have ended there.

However, Ludger didn’t want to lose the chance to meet Joanna Lovett.

He needed to gain some information, no matter how small.

“Professor Selena. Is your body alright?”

“Ehehe. I’m alright. Rather than that, didn’t you work harder than me, Professor Ludger?”

“I didn’t do anything at all.”

His remark seemed modest, but in fact, Ludger was the person who had gotten rid of the flame spirit.

Flinch.

Joanna Lovett showed a subtle reaction to those words.

The other assistants who were with the woman couldn’t notice her oddity, but Ludger, who secretly paid sharp attention to her, could spot it.

However, he pretended not to know and consistently spoke to Selena.

“After that, I didn’t check whether the other students went back safely.”

“Ah. That’s alright. All the students are safe. My assistant was there at the time as well, and she said she’s fine.”

“Assistant, you said?”

“Yes.”

Selena stepped aside slightly and pointed at Joanna Lovett.

Joanna Lovett greeted Ludger while bowing her head lightly with a curt face.

Her appearance was clearly drawing a line.

Ludger nodded his head.

“That’s fortunate.”

“Still, now that I think about it, it’s a bit of a shame. I should have done my work better.”

“You did your best.”

“But I couldn’t do anything.”

‘“Couldn’t do anything,” she said.’

Ludger had clearly seen with his own two eyes the Selena who helped people to flee while handling her spirits.

It couldn’t be said that she didn’t do anything.

Perhaps Selena was blaming herself for the fact that she could only do that.

If only she was a bit stronger, perhaps she would have confronted and fought the flame spirit along with the other people.

But she was weak and her ability was lacking.

The only thing she could do was help people to evacuate and watch those who were fighting.

‘Is she concerned about that?’

He was also worried about Selena, who always smiled brightly.

It was a matter of course for everyone.

“I heard it from Professor Vierano. He said that you played a crucial role.”

“It was nothing much.”

“As expected, You are awesome. Will I be able to be like that as well?”

Ludger shook his head at her inquiry when asked whether she could be like him.

“No. You can’t be like that.”

“Pardon?”

Selena widened her eyes.

Usually, if someone was being asked that kind of question, wasn’t it only normal for them to answer it like, ‘Yes. You can do it too?’

“You are different from me. Even though you said that you want to be like me, you won’t be able to be like that.”

“A-a haha. I-is that so? Yeah. I see.”

Ludger continued his sentence toward Selena, who was about to be disappointed.

“But to say it inversely, I wouldn’t be able to be like you are either.”

“Oh, pardon?”

“I don’t know how to smile brightly and speak kindly to everyone like you. And that was obviously something that only you could do.”

Ludger’s words made it seem like he was cheering Selena up forcefully.

However, those weren’t flowery words which were spoken merely to reassure someone, but a heartfelt utterance that came from his sincerity.

“Please don’t try to be someone else. Just by being yourself like this, you can still do what you’re doing.”

“You know what? You are very unique, Professor Ludger.”

“Hm. Is that so? I don’t know about that.”

“If it was someone else, they would only say what others want to hear. Words like, “you can do it,” or, “if you want to, then you can be like that.””

“Everyone is like that.”

Such words would have been obvious.

—Because Selena was beautiful and she was kind enough to receive love from anyone.

Anyone would want to say words which she wanted to hear, and nobody wanted to hurt her.

“But Professor Ludger is different from the others. You are endlessly cruel and realistic.”

“If it’s something that was hard for you to listen to, I apologize.”

Selena shook her head.

“No. It wasn’t like that. On the contrary, I think that it’s fortunate.”

“…”

“You know, Professor Ludger. People say that I am a lovely person. Do you think the same?”

“Probably.”

Selena burst into laughter at those words.

“What do you mean, ‘probably’? You’re practically saying that it isn’t true.”

“Perhaps… Did you probably get hurt?”

“No?”

Selena showed a relieved smile, as she seemingly felt fortunate instead.

“On the contrary, I feel thankful that you’re treating me like this. I’m not someone who has the right to receive love anyway.”

“…”

The moment she said those words, there was a dark shadow cast over her face which hadn’t been seen until then.

It was a face that was the opposite to her usual appearance, which was always bright and full of spirit.

However, it was only a fleeting moment, and her appearance turned back to her original self, which was akin to a fairytale princess, again.

No. Was it true to think that it was her original appearance?

“Ah. Look at me. I consumed too much of your time, right? Your class starts soon, Professor Ludger.”

“It’s alright. There’s still a lot of time.”

“Anyway, thank you for listening to my complaint. I will buy you a meal next time.”

“It’d be ok even if you didn’t.”

“Eyy. This should be the time for you to say that you will enjoy the meal.”

Hehehe. Selena laughed like a little kid and took her assistant away with her.

That was how Ludger was left alone.

No, he wasn’t alone, Ludger was still with Sedina Rochen, his assistant.

“…I feel unpleasant.”

Sedina Rochen mumbled in an irritated tone while looking at Selena’s back as she was getting further away.

“How dare she complain about this and that to Mr. First Order? Didn’t you think that she’s cheeky?”

“I don’t mind. You shouldn’t dwell on it, either.”

“But…”

“People are bound to have a tolerance of taking things easily in times like this, so you should also take it modestly.”

“I-I see! As expected from Mr. First Order!”

“Sedina, I don’t mind when there are only two of us, but you should call me teacher properly when there are other people.”

“Ah!”

Sedina Rochen, who just realized her mistake, bowed her head with a flushed red face.

“Sedina Rochen…”

“Yes, Professor Ludger?”

“Can you investigate someone? Like finding out what they did in the past or how the person’s family history is?”

Sedina nodded right away at those words.

“Yes! If you ordered me, I could find out everything about the person’s distant relatives as well!”

“You don’t have to do that.”

Ludger, who calmed her down, as she was already full of spirit, gave Sedina one order carefully.

“Investigate Joanna Lovett.”

People would usually ask why, but Sedina, who had already been properly blinded by Ludger, didn’t even raise such a doubt.

She only replied with passion, as she was happy that Mr. First Order had given that kind of order to her.

“Yes!”