C202: Water and City (1)
Rumors about the clinical research spread quickly among students.
"Did you hear? They said they were conducting clinical research to increase the amount of mana released."
"Are you sure that's all right? If it's clinical research, it's still something you do to your body."
"But I heard Rudger Chelici is doing it."
"That teacher?"
There were a lot of stories in Theon about Rudger so everyone was contemplating whether to participate or not.
"Anyway, isn't clinical research like that?"
"It's a study that increases the amount of mana released so it's not as easy as it sounds."
"That's right. If it worked, other wizards would have already done it."
There were many negative reactions but there were also people who thought positively.
"It's Mr. Rudger after all."
"That's right. From source code to the magic square, they were all new magics that never existed before. Maybe it's possible this time, too?"
People believed in him because he already showed many impressive things but some were still anxious about participating in a clinical trial.
"It's not just a paper study, it's a clinical study. Honestly, wouldn't there be side effects?"
"They say that it will increase the amount of mana released but if it goes wrong……."
"I'll just wait and see who does it."
The burden of having side effects gave students hesitation.
Rudger made great results so far but there is no guarantee that he will continue to do so in the future. Furthermore, the magic-related side effects are tantamount to a death sentence for a wizard.
Success is good, but failure is irreversible so the students were scared.
"Hmm. As expected, there are few applicants even if there are a lot of recruitment notices."
Rudger swept his chin when he heard Sedina's report. He already guessed that no one would apply immediately anyway.
"Teacher, will you be okay? At this rate, there will be no applicants before the study starts.…."
"It's okay. There won't be applicants."
People were concerned for now and thought about risks and returns but in the end there will be people who will take risks.
"It's only a matter of time. The announcement was just posted but as time passes applicants will appear."
He just had to wait, besides there were still three days until the recruitment period ended.
"By the way, Sedina."
"Yes, sir!"
When her name was called, a powerful voice responded.
Until now, fear had been mixed in her voice, but after learning the truth that day, it disappeared. Rather, her expression was much brighter than before, and she looked livelier.
"If there are students who come to see the official document, write their names and report to me."
"Yes, sir. Are you leaving?"
"Yes, I have something to deal with now."
Sedina knew that Rudger was going to a branch of the Black Dawn Society and had a strange feeling since not until long ago she was a member of the Black Dawn Society.
Of course, Sedina has not officially withdrawn from the Black Dawn Society, so she was still nominally a Second Order of the Black Dawn Society.
However, since she had no loyalty left, she didn't feel sorry even if Rudger hit them. Rather, she was surprised by her calm appearance.
'I, surprisingly, was not deeply loyal to the Black Dawn Society.'
She was being loyal to the Black Dawn because she craved 'recognition' from them and now that Rudger gave her what she desired she was loyal to him not to the Black Dawn Society.
Now her task was to deliver information about the Black Dawn Society to Rudger.
"Then I'll go."
"Sir, there's one thing you need to know before you go."
"What is it?"
"A rumor saying that another First Order may come to Baltanung is circulating among the other orders."
"A First Order? Interesting."
"Maybe the person with the highest probability is Victor Dreadful…….Of course, this is not accurate. It's just a rumor inside the organization."
"There's no smoke without a fire. Since such rumors are circulating, there must be a good reason. Whatever it is, thank you for letting me know. It was helpful."
"Oh, no!"
Sedina spoke humbly, but the corners of her mouth kept trying to ascend to the sky.
"See you later!"
Leaving Sedina's greeting behind, Rudger left Theon.
* * *
Baltanung, the neighboring city of Leathervelk, was dark even though the sun hadn't set yet.
The city is filled with yellow dust-like orange fumes. It was a poison that destroys the lungs just by breathing, different from the usual fog and made the Baltanung look qualitatively different from Leathervelk.
"Is this Baltanung?"
The two-story streetcar going around was full of workers with no hope in their faces.
The buildings were tall and the roads narrow so no more light came in.
In the darkness, the collected water rotted and the beggars quarreled over the discarded food.
'It's a truly end of the world atmosphere.'
There was nothing to see in Baltanung, as most of the infrastructure and industrial manpower had been taken away by Leathervelk. Even the wind blowing was so faint that it penetrated through the cracks in the clothes.
The street was lit with scarlet street lights even before the sun had set and the light was blocked by smoke and fog.
'This is why it would be difficult to find the warehouse that Hans mentioned.'
There wasn't even a common road sign in Baltanung. No, they couldn't be seen because they were broken.
Seeing the graffiti in the vicinity, it seemed that the city of Baltanung had practically given up.
'Now that this has happened, I have no choice but to procure information locally.'
The streets were quiet enough to match the gloomy atmosphere. Few people opened stores, and even those who did had a club on one side and wary gazes.
If they saw even the slightest shadow of a person, they would turn their heads and stare at it, but they didn't look like they could be asked for directions.
A skinny wild dog barked loudly and ran away in a hurry when the store owner grabbed a club.
Rudger headed for an alley. The streets of Baltanung were dark everywhere, but the alleys were even worse.
The stench pierced his nose so Rudger raised the hood that covered his mouth even higher without changing his expression.
"Hey, brother. Are you here alone?"
After crossing a few alleys, three gangsters welcomed Rudger.
"Your clothes look nice."
"You mean this outfit?"
Rudger glanced down at his clothes and shook his head.
'I chose something cheap and simple to avoid drawing as much attention as possible.'
What Rudger was actually wearing was a common cheap frock coat but the gangsters didn't think so.
"Give me everything you have. Take off your clothes."
The one in charge said so and reached for Rudger but Rudger caught his wrist. The gangster frowned and opened his mouth, but Rudger's words came first.
"Do you know where B-13 is?"
"Are you crazy? What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden? You're not going to let go of my hand?"
"I made a mistake in asking a question."
Rudger broke his wrist in an instant.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The bully knelt down without even thinking of swinging his dagger.
"Timmy! You punk!"
"Die!"
Two gangsters waiting in the back attacked Rudger with their weapons. One was an iron pipe and the other one a rusty dagger.
As soon as it was about to touch him Rudger's body rotated and the fluttering hem of his coat disturbed the eyes of the gangsters.
Rudger disappeared like a ghost.
"What?"
The gangster with the dragger didn't understand the scene in front of him but felt a strong pain in his chin.
"Don't come!"
As soon as the terrified gangster tried to reflexively swing the iron pipe, Rudger's right hand stretched out like a comb and his fingertips hit his uvula.
"Cough!"
The moment the bully was suffocating and felt dizzy Rudger hit him in the face and his broken teeth were scattered in the air.
Rudger, who overpowered the two gangsters in an instant, turned to the first one.
"I'll say it again."
When Rudger opened his mouth, the crying gangster trembled and looked up at Rudger with a fearful stare.
"Tell me where B-13 is, if you don't want to die."
* * *
B-13 is an abandoned factory in Baltanung. In the past, it was considered a key area of the developing industry, but now it was a desolate land where no such traces could be found.
Baltanung residents refer to this abandoned factory area as the 'Fallen Glory' since it signified that it was once an honor to be able to live a decent life.
'It's a good place for suspicious people to hide.'
There were no people around and there were many big factories but the problem was that there were many buildings and it was hard to find his objective.
After looking around for a while, Rudger found something strange.
"Stone statue?"
In front of an abandoned building, there was a stone statue that suited the gloomy atmosphere. The arrangement was natural, so it looked as if it had existed from the beginning, but Rudger's eyes could not be fooled.
'It's a gargoyle.'
A gargoyle is a summoned beast in the form of a stone statue used to protect a mansion or a specific place. To be precise, it was similar to a golem.
In the past, it was a gatekeeper that attracted quite a lot of attention, but now that the age of steel has arrived it has been pushed back by the steam golems.
Still, there were a few people who preferred gargoyles because it suited the unique atmosphere of their mansions.
'It's very suspicious for it to be in front of this abandoned factory.'
They intentionally corroded the surface and covered it with a lot of black dirt, but Rudger could see that the gargoyle was fine.
If he was too late to notice, the gargoyle would have attacked him.
'It's definitely this factory.'
However, he couldn't approach recklessly because he went around the factory and there were gargoyles everywhere.
'The same goes for the rooftop.'
Gargoyles were also placed on the roof of the factory so it was virtually impossible to go to the rooftop through floating magic or a wire launcher.
Spatial movement required calculating coordinates, but he can't use it hastily because he doesn't know what's inside and he had to save his mana as much as he could.
'Now that this has happened, is going down the only way left?'
He hated smelly things, but he couldn't help it so Rudger immediately found the entrance and went down to the underground waterway but the sewer didn't smell as bad as he had feared.
'Is it like this because there are no people living there? But it smells like a strong drug.'
There is no way that the smell of drugs could come out of an empty factory so he was sure that the branch of the Black Dawn Society was here.
Rudger removed the hood that covered his mouth and used mana. The air vibrated once as if a large drum was hit and then shook in a concentric circle. The waves moved on, hit the wall, were reflected and returned to Rudger.
After searching using sound waves, Rudger drew the structure of the underground waterway in his head at once.
'There's an entrance to the factory just a little further from here.'
But there was one problem.
'There's one more person besides me.'
When analyzing the returned sound waves, there was another person in this underground waterway besides Rudger and since he wasn't a patrolman it meant that he was not from the Black Dawn Society.
'And he sensed me, too.'
The opponent was also approaching by tracking back the waves he used.
Rudger closed his eyes with his back against the wall and controlled his breathing and maximized his five senses as much as possible.
The opponent tried to not make noise but he couldn't fool Rudger and the moment the distance between the two narrowed Rudger held his cane, turned the corner and popped out of nowhere and aimed at the other person.
The other person responded calmly without being surprised and its hand holding the cane was facing Rudger too.
The confrontation in which they pointed their canes at each other lasted and the two were able to confirm each other's appearance.
The first thing that was seen in Rudger's eyes was the watery hair that stood out even in the dark underground water.
"Casey Selmore?"
"Rudger Chelici?"
They were quite surprised because they didn't expect to see each other here.
"What brings you here, detective?"
"What about Mr. Rudger?"
"I came because the base of the suspicious group hiding in Theon is here."
"That's fascinating. I'm here for the same reason."
After staring at each other for a few seconds the two lowered their canes at the same time like they had a silent agreement.
"I didn't expect Detective Casey to come here."
"That's the same for me. In the first place, Mr. Rudger is a teacher."
Of course, an agreement is just an agreement. They didn't fight each other, but what they had to do remained unchanged.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to do my job."
"You're going to go in there alone now?"
"Is there anything wrong with that? Detective, you do your job."
"Aren't you willing to cooperate with me?"
"If the detective says she'll follow my orders, I'll consider it."
"Ahaha. You're good at joking, too. That's what I was going to say."
"Then the negotiations are broken. I'm off."
Rudger suggested that they should go their separate ways and was about to leave because Casey Selmore pointed her cane at Rudger's back as he was about to leave.
"Don't move."
"……What is this?"
Rudger said without looking back.
"What do you mean? Mr. Rudger told me to do my job so I'm doing it."
"What does that have to do with what you are doing now?"
"It has."
A certainty was felt in Casey's voice and Rudger suddenly felt a sense of dejection.
"I can definitely tell by looking at your back. No, I know for sure."
It was a similar situation with what Rudger experienced three years ago in the Kingdom of Delica.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"……."
"How long are you going to pretend? Do I look like a fool?"
Casey smiled.
"Or should I call you Professor James Moriarty."