Academy’s Undercover Professor-Novel - Chapter 99

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

[Translator – Alice]

[Proofreader – ilafy]

Chapter 99 – The Origin of the Sound (1)

The end of the incident was marked by the complete disappearane of the flame giant.

The injured people were treated, and all the people whose bodies were unscathed were sent back to their dwellings.

Outside, the citizens who swarmed together to take a look of what happened there were in chaos.

It wasn’t something that could be hidden, either.

The rumor that a flame giant had appeared in that banquet hall was already spreading wide.

The reporters gathered and attempted to find out what had happened there, and the police stood while blocking and restraining the reporters using their bodies.

“Are all the students safe and sound?”

“Ah. Professor Ludger.”

They were the health officers who were checking for injured people.

Selena and Merilda, who had been standing by near the health workers, stared at Ludger as he was approaching them, and their faces brightened.

“Professor Ludger! As expected, you’re unharmed!”

“Yes. Are you two alright?”

Merilda waved her hand as she replied.

“We are okay. We were only in charge of helping the students and guests evacuate.”

“I see. Where are all of the students?”

“We sent all of them back. It was a close call. I can’t believe they experienced this kind of thing after they came here to work part-time. Despite everything, it’s fortunate that all the students are safe and sound. But why are you asking about the students?”

“No. I was just wondering whether they were safe.”

If he asked about the whereabouts of Joanna Lovett right there, he would obviously attract suspicious gazes instead.

Ludger naturally spoke his excuse.

It seemed that Merilda didn’t expect such an answer from Ludger, as she formed a gentle smile.

“Professor Ludger is very wonderful. When I met you for the first time, you looked like someone who was cold-blooded, but you’re extremely worried about the students. It seems like you’re, unexpectedly, a warmhearted person.”

“I’ve been hearing stuff like that pretty often recently.” Ludger replied while looking around.

The injured people were transferred to the hospital, and those remaining weretaking care of the aftermath of the scene.

Some people were exchanging various conversations with the police as they explained the details of the accident.

The incident was explicitly ruled as a terror attack and there were 12 casualties and around 80 injured people. Thus, it caused a great deal of damage.

And considering that most of the dead and wounded were people who possessed great status in the society, it could be said that the damage was bigger than usual.

‘If Esmeralda was aiming for this, then I guess I can say that she halfway succeeded.’

She’d used the chance of when the principal left her spot and summoned a top-level flame spirit using a summoning medium.

She must have intended to kill everyone in the vicinity using the spirit.

Fortunately, there weren’t as many victims due to the fierce resistance of the guards and wizards.

It was only that there weren’t as many, it didn’t mean that there were no victims at all.

Even though it was an unstable summoning, a spirit that could only be matched by a 6th-rank wizard had been called.

The impact of the incident was so large that it was beyond words.

Even though there had been security, the fact that a terror incident still happened became imprinted into people’s minds.

“Mr. Ludger?”

At that time, someone approached Ludger and called his name.

The first thing Ludger noticed was the person’s pointed ears.

It was Vierano Dentis, one of the people who’d fought against the flame giant until the very end.

He was the elf professor who’d played a great role with Angela until Ludger had stepped up.

“Yes. What’s the matter?”

“Is it possible for us to have a brief conversation?”

“Of course, but…”

As Ludger slurred the end of his words, Merilda, who had a quick wit, grabbed Selena’s arm and moved to another place.

“Pr-Professor Merilda?”

“Ohoho. Professor Selena, let’s go over here.”

Once there was only the two of them left, Vierano bowed his head toward Ludger.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, the situation ended before there were any more victims.”

“I just did what I had to do.”

Even though he gave such an answer, Ludger took a closer look at the elf professor.

His first impression was that he was very delicate, and he had a personality that said  that he couldn’t be bothered by anything,

But he was the person who’d played the biggest role when fighting against the top-level flame spirit.

Especially considering that, as a professor in charge of fourth-year students, he looked way more excellent in handling the spirits than Angela, who was a professor in charge of fifth-year students.

It was unexpected if one thought that, normally, the higher the rank of the professor, the higher the year they would teach.

‘In fact, he’s also in charge of leading them. If only looking at their skills, he’s above Angela Anderson, but does he stay teaching the fourth-year students deliberately because he feels that such a position is burdensome?’

Moreover, knowing that elves are a species with a long life, his age must actually be older than his looks.

As his skills and age were above Angela’s, if he wasn’t in charge of fifth-year students, there was a high probability that he had refused the position.

“So did you come to me in person to convey your gratitude?”

“That’s also the case, but there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

“You must have known how strong the fire spirit was since you fought with the spirit in person, right?”

Ludger nodded his head.

He was bound to know its strength, even without fighting with the top-level flame spirit in the first place.

It was a spirit with a quite distorted nature, even though the medium couldn’t deal properly with its strength and there was only its upper body that’d shown up.

Its power was real.

“How on earth did you do that?”

The unexpected question.

“What do you mean?” Ludger asked back flatly.

“You knew that the spirit was summoned with a medium, right?”

“Yes. To be exact, I also found out about it afterward.”

Ludger explained to Vierano as to how he’d found out that the flame spirit was summoned through a medium.

“The upper body didn’t show up properly, you said?”

“It was probably that the spirit was so powerful that it couldn’t be summoned properly, even through a medium. It’s a coincidence that I found out about it.”

“I see. Still, you’re awesome. Even though you said that it’s a coincidence, you realized such a weak point at a glance.”

“Anyone in that position would have noticed it right away as well. I don’t think that it’s because I’m special or anything.”

“No. Even after I saw it, I couldn’t be aware of it right away.”

Vierano laughed bitterly as he realized how much he was lacking through that incident.

“It’s me who is proficient in spiritology… No, on the contrary, after thinking about it a bit more, I’m probably not as proficient as I thought. This event was very much unexpected.”

“…”

Ludger didn’t bother to blame him.

The reality was that the occurrence of a spirit summoner calling a spirit who had signed a contract with them through a medium was exceedingly rare in the first place.

A spirit was a nature’s being, and what was used to sign a contract with them and summon them was mana that could be said to be the strength of Mother Nature and the energy of the contractor.

On the contrary, in the case of medium, since it summoned the spirit in a very artificial method, most of the spirits didn’t like it.

Especially since, the higher the class of a spirit, the stronger their pride, so the spirits would be more reluctant to being summoned through that kind of medium.

Since the contract with the spirits was a contract that was signed equally toward each other and not a forcefully signed contract, they would never be able to do that kind of thing.

“I overlooked that since I thought that it was an obvious fact. I didn’t expect that there was a spirit summoner who summoned a top-level spirit using a medium. Yes. It could obviously happen.”

“The opponent was probably someone with that much ability.”

“That’s also clearly the case, but I think the fact that the spirit was different from common spirits also played a part in it.”

It was different from common spirits…

That was what Ludger had fully realized as well.

It was also surprising that a spirit spoke human language in the first place, but what was more astonishing was the content of its words.

“I can’t believe there’s a spirit that hates human beings. I haven’t heard such a thing before.”

“Is there normally no such case in spirits?”

“Yes. As you may know, a spirit is a being that’s an embodiment of Mother Nature’s energy itself. Nature is so enormous that it can be called the origin of this world.”

“I know.”

“Such a spirit naturally chose to represent the stance of nature, and Mother Nature didn’t have any opinions toward the beings that existed within her.”

Ludger suddenly recalled a teaching that he’d learned in his previous life.

—Heaven and Earth are indifferent and they judge all equally, they will not show favor to one side or the other. You sow what you reap, and it has nothing to do with Heaven and Earth.

Those were words that’d come from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching.

People wished that heaven possessed some kind of will and did something for them, but in fact, it wasn’t like that.

All creations were only beings who lived together with nature, just like grass or dogs.

If something went wrong and a horrible occurrence happened, nature didn’t especially become some kind of fearful existence.

Even though typhoons, floods, and droughts happened…

Even though countless lives died because of them…

It was only that the events that were going to happen would happen, nature didn’t become an irresistible dread.

Nature was just nature, as it had always been, and the spirits were like that as well.

But the flame spirit who’d shown up wasn’t like that.

An obvious hatred…

Ludger definitely felt that it hated human beings.

“I didn’t know that such a spirit existed in this world. I can’t believe that it loathes human beings and doesn’t mind if it’s called through a medium. And the fact that there’s someone who signed a contract and handled such a top-level spirit…”

“…It’s an extremely serious thing, I see.”

“That’s why I was late in getting a grasp of the situation. Professor Ludger, you did your best, even within such a situation. Especially that spell that you used in the end.”

Vierano wondered what kind of spell Ludger had used, but he’d recognized it right away.

“That… It’s obviously a spell that leaps over space, right?”

“…”

“You don’t have to take it so sensitively. I’m an elf, I have witnessed many things, as I have lived a long life. So am I right with what I saw?”

“Yes. Since it’s a coordinate designation technique, it’s a method where I fix my mana into a specific space and casted my spell in that relevant place.”

“Setting up a coordinate, you said? Is that possible?”

“It’s hard at first, but it’s easy once you’re used to it.”

“…”

Vierano didn’t believe every word that the man said.

If an ignorant person heard it, they would just say, “I see”, but he was an elf.

Even though his outer appearance looked like a little boy in his mid-teens, the time he had lived had passed far beyond a century.

Even though his main interest was spiritology, he could be confident that he wasn’t inferior to other people in knowledge related to magic.

Because Vierano was someone like that, he was able to know.

—The fact that the coordinate spell that Ludger had used was never an ordinary spell.

‘There’s no way such a spell can be done easily.’

The fact that the world where he stepped on and stood in recognized ‘coordinate’ as its balance and that a technique was designated into it…

There was no way that it was an easy thing.

As for the people who were able to do it, they had to be one of two things:.

It was either that their perception ability about space was naturally so good that it surpassed other people’s ability…

‘Or… he completely removed the limiter in his brain.’

Ordinary people would have thought that it was the former, but Vierano couldn’t erase such suspicions.

The thought that perhaps this man in front of him was the latter.

Even for people who usually had smart brains, could they estimate the coordinate designation of space relaxedly in that kind of urgent situation?

Moreover he had also invented an extraordinary spell called Source Code.

Vierano became a bit worried and asked.

“Are you alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you’re using magic, or when your condition is worse than usual.”

As Ludger was about to ask back about what kind of question he was asking, he realized that Vierano’s expression was extremely serious.

“This is probably an old man’s pointless meddlesome act or my own worries, but please listen to this carefully. There’s a story I heard when I was very young about humans.”

“What kind of story?”

“That, occasionally, there’s a person with such an improved way of thinking that it’s beyond other people.”

Vierano took a breath and continued his words again.

“They are often called geniuses in this world, but their direction is a bit different than real geniuses. Because geniuses are very much advanced in one direction of their specialized skill within the mold that is made for them that they almost break through it, but those people are completely different.”

“What makes them different?”

“They have no mold.”

“…”

Ludger was speechless for a moment before he opened his mouth.

“Isn’t that a good thing, then?”

“Having no mold means they have no limit. If people look at it, they may think that those people are blessed, but in fact, it isn’t like that. People don’t know. The mold that suppressed them is in fact a strong barrier that protects them from the ‘outside’ instead.”

The moment when the word “outside” was spoken…

Ludger clenched his fist unknowingly.

But Vierano didn’t notice the oddity.

That man seemingly absorbed his explanation with bright eyes, even though it was only for a moment.

“I’m asking you just in case, Mr. Ludger. Do you hear weird voices sometimes?”