ACADEMY'S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR
"Damn it! Brother!"
Bruno reacted as soon as he confirmed that Veron's head had been cut off.
Countless insects wriggled through the gaps in his clothes.
Bruno quickly racked his brain.
'What that man used was the sound waves… And he even used metal magic…'
Elemental properties were divided into 10 elements:
Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Plants, Electricity, Metal, Ice, Darkness, and Light.
There were also unknown properties that had yet to be revealed.
In the case of sound magic, it was often seen as an offshoot of wind elements because it uses atmospheric vibration.
And what Ludger used to stop the Tesla gun was the Metal property magic.
'Metal is an element that is derived from the earth. The elemental properties that can normally be handled by the wizard are made up of only similar characteristics.'
According to Bruno's judgment, Ludger's elemental magic that he was able to handle were Wind, Earth, and Metal.
Usually, in the case of wizards, there were about two to three properties that they could handle.
No matter how skillful they were, they could only handle up to four properties.
If they could handle five properties, it could be said that they were within an area of natural talent.
As a result, wizards basically casted three elements that their opponents had to deal with.
That was basic common sense, and it was an obvious thing.
'If he's dealing with wind elements, the characteristics of small flying insects won't be good against it. Then I'll have to solve it with my men who have giant builds.'
Since he wasn't sure yet, he could not rule out the possibility of Ludger having a fourth element.
A giant centipede with a thick crust poked out of Bruno's sleeve.
It was an insect that could not be seen in a general ecosystem, created through black magic and subspecies hybridization of specific insects caught in the southern jungle.
But the centipede's neck that Bruno pulled out was cut off in an instant.
It took less than a second for the sharp sword to aim at his neck.
"Urk!"
Bruno twisted his body and escaped Ludger's blade.
Hidden underneath his clothes, hard beetles were wrapped around him like chain armor.
'He's willing to have a close distance fight? Is he a war mage?'
Bruno immediately tried to distance himself from Ludger.
At that moment, a spell technique was carved in front of Ludger.
Bruno's eyes widened.
'That's Fluttering Flame!'
A spell technique that seemed to form a burning flame was carved in just a few milliseconds.
The spell of the 3rd-tier flame element, Fluttering Flame, engulfed Bruno in less than a second, emitting intense flames.
"Aaaaaaaaargh!"
The fire broke out along with Bruno's scream, brightening up the surroundings. The soldiers, who were staring at the entrance, looked back and opened their eyes wide.
"It… it's the enemy!"
"How the hell?!"
But in the meantime, Bruno twisted his body inside the heat.
The most difficult magic element for a wizard who dealt with insects was definitely the flame property.
He couldn't believe that the intruder was utilizing an element that had nothing to do with the other three properties.
It was unbelievable.
"H-how the hell?"
All the insects that were burned barely managed to survive, but Bruno's condition was not very good either.
As he was half-melted from a burn on his whole body, he stared at Ludger while collapsing on spot.
He thought that he hadn't let his guard down, but he also didn't expect that his enemy would be this extreme.
"Who… the hell are you?"
"…"
Bam!
Instead of answering, Ludger drew a revolver and shot through Bruno's head.
At the same time, the backup power was activated, and the light turned on inside the laboratory.
"Oooh!"
"No… no way, the insect brothers are dead."
The soldiers who were in charge of the inner security looked at the bodies of the Bruno and Veron brothers and were at a loss.
Even if they all combined their power, they would still lose in the hands of one of the brothers, and the intruder alone had overpowered both of the brothers.
The soldiers lost their fighting spirit.
There was no way they could fight a monster like that.
Everyone stepped back from Ludger in fear, and a change was happening in Veron's body, which had been decapitated and had collapsed.
Whoosh!
"…!"
Ludger responded immediately. As soon as the body flew forward, a huge hand scratched the space where Ludger had stood just before.
—It was an insect's front leg, full of sharp spines on its smooth shell.
Everyone else watching the scene was also stunned.
"Weren't you dead?"
Ludger looked at Veron, who was moving his body and asked that question.
Veron's body, which had been decapitated, rose from its spot again. It was his bizarrely transformed right hand that had stuck out at Ludger.
Veron stretched out his left hand, which was still in human form.
There was a mouth in his palm.
"I was surprised. I didn't expect such an ambush."
"…Is it your insect form?"
"Oh. So you know?"
It was Bruno whose specialty was dealing with insects.
On the contrary, his older brother, Veron, had a big body and didn't deal with bugs, so Ludger had wondered why they were called the insect brothers.
'Was it because of that?'
Veron was a black wizard whose body itself mutated like some kind of insect.
Such a body wouldn't occur naturally, so he had actually used his own body as an experiment of black magic.
Veron was an example of why black wizards were full of crazy people.
"Even so, your head was cut off, so I didn't expect you to be fine."
"My body is no longer that of a normal person's."
At the same time, when he said that, Veron's body mutated with the chilling sound of crunching.
The black robe surrounding his body expanded, and countless spines popped out.
Ludger backed off.
Veron—who already had a giant body—looked down at Ludger as he was growing even bigger.
He had a horrible form of monster that looked like a mixture of various insects.
At that point, it was hard to tell whether he was a black wizard or a Cryptid.
[I can't believe you killed my younger brother. I'm not sad, but I'll make you take responsibility for it.]
Veron's arms pulled back and shot at Ludger like arrows.
Ludger immediately flew up using a wire launcher.
Veron's stab passed by Ludger's feet and penetrated the soldiers who were lining up behind.
"Aaaaaah!"
"Run!"
Veron didn't care, even though his men screamed and died.
[Oh my. You're quick to make a move. You're literally like a flying insect.]
Veron looked up and tried to find Ludger.
Boo-boom!
At that moment, the steel structures on the ceiling collapsed and fell over Veron's head.
Baam!
Veron was fine, even though a considerable weight of iron had fallen upon him. There was only a slight scratch on his shell, and there was no wound.
[Were you trying to draw my attention with this?]
Veron turned his huge head and looked at Ludger, who slowly landed on the ground with a wire.
It was obviously a provocative act, but Ludger didn't respond much.
'What a bother.'
Veron's body was already out of the ordinary insect's league.
The shell surrounding such a huge body was also hard, so it was no wonder that he was called a monster beyond a mere black wizard.
'This is why they're black wizards.'
Ludger, who was about to shoot his revolver, quit and withdrew all his weapons.
He realized that even a hundred shots wouldn't work for Veron.
[Oh. Are you giving up?]
Veron laughed at Ludger's actions, but Ludger stretched his hand out toward Veron instead.
[What is he doing?]
Ludger's actions, who stretched his arms toward Veron, went beyond provoking Veron's curiosity and even triggered his displeasure.
[Is he trying to use some kind of magic?]
However, it is practically impossible to attack Veron unless it was a spell above the fourth tier.
Ludger, according to his judgment, was a 3rd rank wizard.
His spellcasting speed was so fast that it was bizarre, but that was all.
He didn't think that Ludger could deal proper damage to him.
[It's not bad to give a little generosity and see what this cute intruder is trying to do.]
Veron made that judgment.
"I didn't want to use this in this situation, though."
[Hmm?]
"Well, it can't be helped."
As soon as Ludger finished his sentence…
The interior of the laboratory was filled with white light.
* * *
* * *
"Huu. Haa. It's still chilly."
Hans, who was waiting for Ludger outside the abandoned factory, trembled as he reached into his pocket in the cold, still night air.
It'd already been half an hour since Ludger went inside.
'It's almost time for him to finish it.'
Ludger had tried hard to not make it obvious, but Hans realized that he was very angry.
Well, he would be angry as well.
He couldn't believe that those nuts had kidnapped a seven-year-old kid and his parents and used them as human experiments.
No matter how much he was someone who couldn't be fair and square, there was a 'line' that should be protected, even by people who did his kind of job.
That Shamsus school crossed that line too hard.
'He's a bit late. Was it hard since they had two black wizards?'
All the more so if the black wizards were the insect brothers, who had their own reputation in the underworld.
But Hans didn't think that Ludger would die.
They'd known each other for years.
Ludger was a man who should have died a long time ago.
There was only one reason why he hadn't died:
He was that strong.
'He doesn't seem to intend to make it obvious.'
He was a hunter who had hunted the monster in Jévaudan alone in the first place.
There were more than five knights that the monster had eaten, and Ludger had hunted such a monster alone.
Moreover, Ludger did not use only the identity of 'Abraham Van Helsing' as a hunter.
He was also a private detective,
A mysterious thief,
A criminal consultant,
A mercenary,
An artist,
And so on.
He had many faces, and each of the masks he had used in the past had always made a great impact.
Startle!
Just when he thought it was about time, a strong light that made his eyes hurt came out from the entire abandoned factory.
Whiiiiirrrrr!
At the same time, the light turned into flames, transforming the abandoned factory into a sea of fire.
It was a terrifying power that blew up the huge factory.
Hans knew very well who had done that.
'So he used it.'
Hans himself referred to that skill as 'it', but in fact, Hans also didn't know what kind of ability it was.
He had asked Ludger about it once before.
The only words that he had heard was Ludger's strange answer that it was 'a real magic'.
'Magic is magic. What's real magic anyway?'
Anyway, Ludger's use of that skill meant that the opponent was that tough.
And it showed how serious Ludger was about it.
***
Ludger put the data from the laboratory and the experimental drugs that they had used for the experiments in a suitcase and went outside.
Hans, who was waiting outside, greeted him.
"You came? Let's leave this place first. The police will come here even if it's an abandoned factory since what you did here is quite fancy. How about the inside?"
"I've taken care of everything."
Ludger had checked deep into the lab after dealing with Veron.
The horrible experiments' appearances that were trapped in a cage in the dark…
They were all ordinary people who had enjoyed their daily lives.
But their daily lives were eventually broken.
They were those people who suffered from crossing boundaries where their bodies mutated. They had lost their reasoning and were no longer able to be called human.
The only mercy Ludger could give them was to let them go to the hereafter without any pain.
Ludger had blown up the entire laboratory, killed the scientists, and came out with their research reports and experimental results.
"Is this it?"
Hans asked when he saw an ampoule containing red liquid inside the suitcase that he received from Ludger.
"Yes."
"The world has become so scary. Who would have thought that there were people who do human experiments in a place like this? I never imagined that scientists and inventors would have joined hands with the black wizards."
"That's not all."
"Yeah? What else is there?"
"How do you think they got a secret laboratory that big?"
"That's…"
"There's someone behind them who's been giving them a huge amount of money."
"…That's obviously a big problem."
It must have required a huge amount of money to build a laboratory like that secretly.
It meant that there were a lot of people behind the scenes who supported their backs.
"Don't worry. I already know who it is."
"Are you for real?"
"Yes."
Hans felt uneasy at Ludger's answer.
"Don't tell me…"
"Why?"
"It's not… that… right?"
Ludger did not ask what Han meant. He just stared at Hans once.
Ah.
Hans couldn't stop him, then.
Hans, who immediately realized it, accepted the suitcase.
"I'll go to the hideout first. If you're going to stop by there after work, just come."
Hans walked away without listening to Ludger's answer.
Ludger stood still in his spot for a while.
The bright red flames of the burned factory in the distance brightened the dark abandoned factory zone.
It was like the most spectacularly burning candle just before the fire went out.
***
"You brought me this kind of food?!"
Praang!
In the interior of a luxurious mansion, the millionaire Belfort Ricksen threw a plate of food that was brought by the maid.
The maid, who was struck by the plate, flopped down, her forehead bleeding.
The food on the plate stained her clothes and face.
But no one could assist or help her.
An old man in his 60s, whose white beard had been growing for years, showed a loathful glare at his maid and clicked his tongue.
"Are you telling me that was food? What a load of crap for something I paid for."
Belfort stood from his seat and left the dining room.
He was a man who stood tall as a very successful capitalist in this era of revolution.
But when he was successful, it was an old man full of wrinkles whom Belfort saw in the mirror.
After all, he had dedicated his youth in order to gain his position.
So he wanted to regain his youth.
With that wish in mind, he had aided the black wizards in doing some kind of experiment.
Recently, some of the experiments had escaped, and he was told that the experiment was messed up.
'Damn it! Idiots! Useless trash!'
'How much money do you think I've invested in you?!'
Belfort returned to his room in a rage.
'Still, the experiment itself wasn't meaningless. Sooner or later, there will be a decent result from it.'
A drug that would bring the weakened human body back to its prime…
The ability to gain back his youth was not far off.
He wanted not only to be young again but to also be healthier and stronger.
It was the moment when he tried to turn on the light in his large room that had previously been dark while being immersed in such thoughts…
"Belfort Ricksen."
"Wh-what?! Who are you?!"
There was someone in the center of the room.
Belfort tried to turn on the magical light, but the light didn't turn on because something was wrong.
Belfort was trapped in the room alone with an unidentified intruder in the darkness without moonlight.
"S-security! Security!"
"They won't hear you, even if you call them."
He had already spread out a sound barrier in the room. Of course, since it was a millionaire's house, if someone used that kind of magic, the alarm would ring right away.
Ludger's magic was so secretive that even the magic in the alarm wouldn't catch it.
Ludger, who was sitting in a chair, stood up.
And he slowly approached Belfort…
"Belfort Ricksen, let me ask you a question."
"Wh-what?! Who are you?! Reveal yourself!"
"A seven-year-old kid is desperately trying to survive this terrible reality, witnessing himself and his parents becoming monsters…"
Baam!
Ludger stretched out his arm, grabbed Belfort by the collar, and pulled him close to his face.
His eyes glowed red in the dark.
"How do you think the person who knew they had no choice but to burn them to death feels?"
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