ACADEMY'S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR
Ludger headed to the entrance of a secret laboratory that was decorated with a large wastewater pipe.
The wastewater pipe, which was rusting everywhere and full of odors, seemed real, but when he went a little deeper, the scenery changed right away.
The inner wall of the wastewater pipe neatly changed, and even the odor that used to reek disappeared.
Ziiiing.
From beyond that place, a sound was heard with subtle scarlet light.
Ludger immediately advanced with caution while trying to show as little sense of presence as possible.
"Hah. I'm so bored. How much longer do we have to stay?"
"I don't know. We still have more than two days to spare, so shouldn't we wait a little longer?"
"Why did those damn experiments escape anyway?"
"We're not going to get caught yet, so it might be okay. We are cleaning this place up and going to leave to prepare for the worst possibilities."
"But I'd rather be guarding like this. It's a mess inside currently, as they are organizing the equipment."
"It's time to switch shifts soon anyway."
"Argh. If only those sh*tty experiments hadn't escaped."
Ludger leaned his back against the wall and listened to their conversation.
The two, who were bored due to having to stand on guard for a long time at the entrance, did not stop chatting.
"I was outside at the time. How did that happen? Did the management make a mistake?"
"There must have been a mistake. I heard that the kid who was kidnapped didn't take medicine often, so he didn't turn more Cryptid-like. Maybe it's because he's still young."
"So?"
"Why do you even ask? So when I tried to pull him out to inject more drugs into his body, he resisted."
"I heard it's really painful to be injected with the drugs. Is it true?"
"I'm sure it's painful because they scream loudly. But the problem is that his parents made a ruckus there."
"What? His parents? They had already become werewolves, yet they were still trying to protect their kid?"
"Yes. The scientists didn't know that they still had some reasoning. They were angrier than we expected, and the inside the laboratory was a mess."
"Damn it. So that's why they escaped? Isn't it a bit dangerous then?"
"Hahah! Dangerous, my ass. Don't worry. I heard that we asked a reliable person to take care of the werewolves. Anyway, I'd have stepped on the werewolf pup until he died if I were there. He made us suffer like this."
'I see.'
Ludger felt that he no longer needed to eavesdrop on their conversation.
—Because he had already found out about everything and how things were turning out.
Splash.
As Ludger stepped on the water that was puddled on the ground, the two people who were chattering immediately closed their mouths and stared at him.
"What? Who's that?"
"Isn't it just a rat?"
Magical lights were shining around the entrance, but the place where Ludger stood was relatively dark, so he couldn't be seen.
The two men pulled guns from their waistlines.
But before that, two beams of light flew out of the darkness and penetrated the middle of their forehead faster.
Bam! Bam!
Without even being able to scream, the two men who were guarding the entrance collapsed right on the spot.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Ludger walked slowly out of the darkness.
He was wearing shin-length leather boots, black pants, a gray vest full of pockets, and a shabby brown coat over it.
His face was covered with a black hood that was drooping down to his nose, and he wore a hood that covered up to his forehead.
Ludger walked past the corpses and went into the secret laboratory with ghostly silent steps.
And not long after he entered…
A scream rang out from the inside.
***
"Aaaaaaah! Help me!"
The man who was patrolling near the entrance appeared from the dark and ran away desperately from a monster that had killed all of his colleagues.
He didn't know from where the monster had suddenly appeared.
Like a mirage, the monster had suddenly appeared and killed his patrolling colleagues in a flash.
'What did the guys who guarded the entrance do?'
At the moment he thought so, his sight turned upside down.
"Oh?"
His body swayed, then he fell forward. He couldn't move his legs below the shins..
"Why… why on earth?"
He looked down at his legs and finally realized why.
—His legs were cut off under his shin.
The moment he recognized it, the pain came belatedly.
"Urk!"
He gritted his teeth and glared at the darkness behind his back.
Beyond the wide passage was a darkness where all the lights had gone out.
He heard footsteps from there.
His spine became cold, and every hair on his body stood on end.
It was a guy.
The intruder who had suddenly appeared and killed all his colleagues…
He is already coming after him.
Step.
The intruder slowly emerged from the darkness.
He covered his whole face as he appeared from the darkness, so he could not be identified.
However, based on his sturdy build, it was clear that he was a man.
He warned the man in a trembling voice.
"You, you. You thought you'd be able to get away after messing with us? I don't think you know who's in there, but you're already done."
The man didn't respond.
Rather, the man's eyes that were seen beyond the shadow of his hood became sharper.
His lips and throat became dry.
As soon as he wondered if he should rather beg for help, a large number of people flocked from beyond the passage.
"Here! There was a noise here!"
In the distance, he saw mercenaries approaching the place where with magical lights.
All of them were packed with guns; one of them especially stood out, as he was heavily armed.
The man shouted as he discovered his colleagues had come to his rescue.
"Here! This way! Here! Hahaha! You are dead now! You will turn into a honeycomb in this narrow passage… Urk!"
Ludger thrusted a dagger into the mouth of that noisy man. When the dagger was pulled out, blood splattered, and his body fell sideways.
It was then that the troops who arrived just in time discovered Ludger.
"There! Shoot him!"
They aimed their guns right away without asking who Ludger was, perhaps because they were well-trained soldiers,
Meanwhile, Ludger stood still as if he were stuck on his spot.
"Shoot!"
They pulled the trigger right away, but there was no gunfire.
"Oh?"
"Wh-what?"
Clack. Clack.
No matter how strongly they pulled their triggers, the bullets didn't emerge. Their guns were not broken, but the gunpowder was frozen.
A stream of cold sweat flowed down their leader's cheek, who had instructed them to shoot Ludger.
In this case, he understood from his own experience.
"Silence of Fire! He's a wizard!"
It had been a long time since weapons based on gunpowder emerged as the world had evolved.
Nevertheless, wizards and knights still kept their positions of being those who held the most power in the world.
There was only one reason for that:
It was because guns were not threatening at all to knights and wizards.
Knights with superhuman physical abilities could easily avoid or cut down ordinary bullets.
On the contrary, wizards didn't have to do that.
The Silence of Fire spell that they used made it possible to prevent the incoming gunshot.
Silence of Fire…
It was literally a spell that suppressed the performance of gunpowders that was targetted at the wizard within a certain range.
The spell made it possible to neutralize even machine guns if used by a third-rank wizard.
If a 5th-rank wizard used the spell, they could even neutralize a cannon.
If a 6th-rank Lexure wizard used it, the flow of the war would change from then on.
That's why wizards and knights could maintain their powerful spots even when the era of guns and gunpowder had already come.
But the spell that Ludger used ended in the third tier.
So Ludger realized that he couldn't go beyond that and made up for his lack of power by strengthening the casted spell.
When a common third-rank wizard used Silence of Fire, their effective range was within a radius of 20 meters.
And the effective range of the Silence of Fire that Ludger used…
—Was within a radius of 200 meters.
"Darn it! Everyone, pull out your weapons!"
The people affiliated with the Shamsus school were quick to make a move.
They threw away their meaningless guns and immediately took out their swords and clubs.
Zzzzt.
An electric current flowed all over the clubs.
Ludger raised his hands at such a sight.
Each of his hands held a revolver.
"Idiot! When you're using Silence of Fire, even your guns are useless…!"
Shoo!
The man who was laughing at Ludger fell backward as his forehead sprayed blood.
Everyone watched the scene with a pale complexion.
'What just happened?'
"Wh-what?"
"How the hell…?"
Ludger had obviously shot his gun, but it wasn't a bullet that he fired…
Magic.
It was actually mana which had the shape of a bullet.
* * *
* * *
Therefore, there was no sound when he shot, and the Silence of Fire spell itself wouldn't be affected.
"You… you…!"
"Did you want to fight in an equal battle?"
Ludger laughed at the soldiers and shot bullets of his mana randomly.
Ratatata!
However, even though he seemed to shoot randomly, the bullets hit their foreheads precisely.
In an instant, blood and screams were rampant.
"These idiots! Everyone, get out of my way!"
A big man dressed in massive armor stepped forward. His reinforced armor, made of black synthetic metal, easily deflected the mana bullets that Ludger fired.
It was an armor suit that had been reinforced and made with recent engineering development.
Its movement was slow but very sturdy, and it required tremendous strength—it was used exclusively for great knights.
'That will be a bit of a bother.'
"Die!"
The big man in reinforced armor rushed toward Ludger with his arms wide open.
His stomping steps gave off a sense of intimidation as if he was a rushing tank.
Ludger was not panicking or frightened at all.
After withdrawing his revolvers, he took out two Karambit daggers—which had the form of crescent moons—from his waist and held them tightly.
"You're going to have a close-up battle as a wizard?"
As soon as he reached out his arm to grab Ludger by the collar, Ludger's figure distorted and disappeared.
'What? Where did he disappear to?'
The moment the man in the reinforced armor was dumbfounded by his disappearance, a terrible pain punctured his forearm.
Blood gushed from the gap in between his armor.
"Aaaaaargh! Wh-what?!"
A dagger pierced in between the joints of his armor.
"How the hell? No, more than that, he's so fast that I can't even see…"
As soon as he tried to move his left arm, there wasn't any strength left in his left arm.
It was because something cold and sharp had pierced down his armpit.
"Wh-what…?"
Next was both of his ankles.
Before he could come to his senses, the tendons of his legs were cut off, and he knelt down on the spot.
And lastly…
He felt a cold touch on his neck.
"H-help…"
Slash!
Ludger cut his throat with a Karambit dagger without listening.
"Damn it! Gabe was defeated!"
"Get out of the way! I'm gonna fight him!"
That time, it was someone with a slightly different type of reinforced armor who stood in the front.
He was wearing brass armor, which was not black but yellowish, and white steam spewed out from behind his shoulders.
—It was a reinforced exoskeleton made with steam engines.
Both of his hands held onto a huge gun barrel, and the end of the gun barrel was connected to a large Tesla coil hanging from his back.
"Die!"
Zzzzzzzt!
A purple current engulfed the passage. The high-voltage current of the Tesla gun, which wouldn't be affected by the Silence of Fire, spread in all directions and splashed sparks of electricity.
"Bwahahahaha! What could you do?"
But he had no choice but to stop laughing.
The high-voltage current that he fired was not moving forward; it was as if it had been blocked right in front of Ludger.
"Wh-what?"
No, to be exact, the electric current was seeping into a metal that had popped up in front of him and was permeating it.
'Is that a metal magic based on alchemy?'
No way, he was a guy who specialized in metal among the elemental properties?
He was doomed. A Tesla gun that shot high-voltage current did not work against wizards who used metal elemental magic as their attribute.
He realized it, but it was too late.
Ludger pulled out his revolver again and fired his mana.
It hit exactly at the Tesla's gun port and made it explode.
Zzzzzt!
The electricity spread all over the place, and all the people nearby burned into ashes.
The only one who managed to survive leaned his back against the wall and stared at Ludger, who was slowly approaching him.
Half of his body was already charred, and he was barely breathing.
"Gasp. Gasp. Cr-crazy bastard. Why the hell are you doing this to us?"
He felt it was unfair for some reason, but Ludger didn't even reply and just walked past him.
He didn't kill him.
He couldn't survive in that state anyway, so Ludger was going to leave him in pain a little bit longer.
'How many people have I dealt with so far?'
About 20 people.
There were still about half of the troops that were left inside the laboratory.
And seeing that they weren't approaching him, it was clear that they were preparing to encounter him from the inside of the laboratory.
Most of all, he could feel that gaze…
The gazes that aimed at him from the gaps of the pipes that covered the wall.
Eyes that were glaring at Ludger.
'Is it black magic that utilizes insects?'
Hans had said that there were two black wizards inside.
He had heard that some of the black wizards could also explore areas that were difficult for others to discover by utilizing insects' vision.
Maybe it was him who was watching Ludger.
"Pheew."
Ludger exhaled lightly while swinging his right foot and walked lightly on the ground.
Clang.
The noise of the floor as his boots stomped on it.
It became an echo and spread wide and deep to the inside of the laboratory.
***
The inside of the laboratory…
The scientists there were bound to be very anxious.
"Are you sure this is all right? We need to destroy the data right now and pack the experiments' drugs…"
"Oh, it's all right."
It was the blonde man with a tattoo on his neck that stopped the feeble scientist.
The blonde man's outfit was also quite light, and he didn't look like he possessed any weapons, so it seemed as if he had come out just for a trip.
But everyone knew that the man was the most influential black wizard in the laboratory.
The same went for the giant bald man who was sitting quietly next to him.
The bald man's name was Veron.
The blonde man's name was Bruno.
Although they weren't related by blood, the two were black magicians who had their own reputations in the underworld—they were called the insect brothers.
"Because there's only one opponent."
The younger brother, Bruno, stated the information that he had confirmed through an insect.
Yeah.
Surprisingly, there was only one intruder.
He couldn't believe that it was only one guy who had wiped out two people with reinforced armor and one troop that was armed with guns all by himself.
"Who… who on earth…?"
"We don't know that either. Maybe the Empire's security department has discovered us."
"Sec-security department!"
Security department.
—An organization that consisted of only of the most elite troops within the Empire.
Among them, there was one Knight Order affiliated with the security department.
—The Nightcrawler Knight Order
Of course, they were a little different from the ordinary Knights.
The scary thing about them was not only that each of them had brutal individual power but also that they would use any means necessary to achieve their goal.
They were Knights, but they didn't act as square as the other Knights.
Rather, they killed their enemies by thoroughly prying into their opponents' weaknesses, then piercing into those weaknesses and killing them.
They were Knights who could kill even a three-year-old child without mercy if the child was judged to be harmful to the Empire.
It was no wonder that they were called the devils of the underworld.
"But the way he fights is a little strange."
He wanted to identify his appearance a little bit more through insects, but he didn't know what trick that intruder was doing because all the signals were cut off from the insects that he sent.
Did he notice that they were watching him?
He was not an ordinary person either, considering the fact that he was coming alone.
"Brother, we need to get ready."
"Yeah."
The older brother, Veron, stood up. The laboratory's guards were also very nervous and held up their shields and weapons.
The passage from the entrance that was heading to the center of the laboratory…
It was when they were all prepared while staring intensely at the passage to encounter the intruder…
A strange wavelength swept through the interior of the laboratory, and soon all the lights went out, and darkness engulfed that place.
"Wh-what?! Hurry and turn on the lights!"
"Turn the backup power on!"
Looking at his men, who were moving in a hurry, the younger brother Bruno looked at his older brother.
"Brother. I think he's playing tricks on us, though?"
"…"
"Brother?"
There was no answer from Veron.
Bruno looked back at Veron. Even in the dark, his large size could be clearly distinguished among the silhouettes.
The silhouette of Veron…
His head was cut off, and his corpse rolled on the floor.