I Got a Fake Job at the Academy
chapter-34

Ludger still couldn't forget that moment.

—The kid's clear eyes that had looked up at him while licking his injured mother.

Even when Ludger had used his spell to kill them, he had shown a genuine smile as if saying ‘thank you’ to him instead.

He couldn't forget it.

He could never forget it.

“I… I don’t know! How am I able to know? More than that, who the hell are you?"

“You don’t know?”

Ludger threw Belfort Ricksen, whom he held by the collar, down to the floor.

Belfort, whose body was in bad shape due to his old age, grasped his waist as he fell on the floor.

“Argh. Who, who the hell are you?"

"Do you know what this is?"

Ludger took an experimental drug that he had prepared in advance out of his pocket and threw it in front of Belfort.

It contained a red liquid that seemed like a melted ruby inside a transparent glass tube.

There was no way that Belfort, who had instructed the scientists to make the drug, could not recognize it.

“This… this is.”

"Do you know it now?"

"What… what do you want from me? Do you want money?"

Belfort realized that the opponent had his weakness and went on with showing a submissive attitude.

In addition to him being able to sneak into his room skillfully, the opponent even had the drugs of the experiment he was involved in, although Belfort didn't know how he had gotten it.

‘No way, is he affiliated with the Nightcrawler Knight Order from the Security Department?’

‘Damn it! How the hell did those insect brothers not do their job?'

What did they think he was thinking when he invested a lot of money in it?

Not only did they miss the experiments who escaped, but they had also let this mysterious man come to his residence.

However, he could not immediately express his complaint.

He didn't know who the man in front of him was, but there was no doubt that the man was clutching his life in his grip.

"I… I won't hold you responsible for sneaking in here. And since you secretly came to find me, you must have something that you desire, right?”

“Something I desire?”

“Yes. What do you want? Because I have a lot of money, I can give you as much as you want."

But the answer that he heard from Ludger was far beyond Belfort's expectations.

“Answer.”

“Wh-what?”

"Answer the question I just asked you."

"The question you asked me, you said?”

Belfort racked his brain as hard as he could and recalled the question Ludger had asked him before.

It was what he thought about a seven-year-old kid.

Belfort opened his mouth in wonder.

"Was it you who got rid of the experiments that escaped?"

“…”

“Hahah! I see! It was you! Why didn't you tell me? Ahem. If you suddenly threw me down like this, there was bound to be a misunderstanding. Thanks to you, the incident didn't spread like a wildfire."

"Just answer what I ask you."

“I… I get it, I get it! That seven-year-old kid, he's an experiment, right? What's the problem? He'd rather die since he had already become a monster so he won't be caught by others."

“…”

"Isn't he someone from a lower class whom people don't even know existed anyway? Is it something to be sad about if many of those guys died? They had made a noble sacrifice of their lives to produce excellent results instead."

A noble sacrifice…

Belfort Ricksen genuinely thought so.

What did it have to do with him if some of those lowly people rolling in the mud of society, whether they were laborers or poor people, died?

They were rotten eggs that did nothing for society.

Rather, if they became cornerstones as experiments that helped the completion of drugs that would bring back human youth…

Wasn't that their way that would have normally been beyond their capabilities to contribute to humanity?

"Even if those dirty, low people work in a factory for 100 or 1000 days, could they really get some money?"

It was much more productive to use those meaningless lives in a more valuable way.

—To be someone's experiment for drug development.

That's what they meant to Belfort.

"Did you finish giving the answer?"

"Yeah, that's enough."

“Then…”

"You were too full of yourself and got blinded by it."

Grab!

Ludger grabbed Belfort by his neck.

Belfort opened his eyes wide and grabbed Ludger's forearm with both of his hands, but his rough grip was too powerful for his old body to fight back.

“Cough! Why… why?!”

He answered it properly!

Belfort's eyes showed complaints toward Ludger.

Instead of answering, Ludger put a bottle of medicine in front of Belfort's face, then poured it into his mouth.

Bloop bloop!

Belfort tried desperately to resist the drug, but even that was impossible because he was being choked.

Gulp.

The red drug flowed through Belfort's throat.

At the same time, changes began to take place in Belfort's body.

“Urk! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

With a severe pain that seemed like his body was tearing apart, Belfort's body slowly began to swell.

Ludger let go of Belfort's neck, then he stepped back and watched the scene.

His skin, which was full of wrinkles after being swept away by the tides of time, turned tight, and soon, his skin split from side to side, then fur grew out in a massive amount.

But his mutation didn't stop there.

His growing fur fell out, revealing his red skin, and the skin began to swell like a bubble.

Belfort had drunk all the drugs in the bottle.

In fact, in the case of the experiments, only a small fraction of the drug was injected into them, considering they couldn't even handle it and that it would cause severe mutations.

The amount of drugs that the old Belfort had drunk had already exceeded his own capability.

“Aaaaaaaaaargh! Why?! Why?!!!”

While his body was torn, twisted, and mutating, Belfort had no choice but to shout toward Ludger.

It was when his face was strangely distorted and half mixed with the appearance of a beast…

It was not a human cry or a beast's cry that was shouted out of Belfort's throat, but a voice that belonged to something else.

Aaaaaaaaargh!!!

"No matter what I say, you won't even understand it, let alone repent."

‘Then he doesn't have to understand.’

‘Instead, he should also feel the pain he has caused to others.’

Ludger lifted the sound barrier that had been spread.

Brrrrrrinngggg!

At the same time, a mana-detecting alarm rang out throughout the house. Following that, the shout of Belfort, who had become a monster, echoed.

Aaaaaaaaaargh!

"What's this sound?!"

"It's an intruder! The voice was heard from Master Belfort's dwelling!"

“Master Belfort! Master Belfort!”

Bam! Bam!

Security from the outside knocked on the door strongly.

Soon, the locked door broke, and bulky men rushed inside.

Among them was a freelance wizard who was hired to protect Belfort.

“It… it’s a monster!”

"Where did this monster come from?"

"Everyone, get out of the way!"

The wizard immediately casted fire magic and burned the monster.

The monster was burned easily, unlike its hideous appearance.

It had a very persistent vitality, so even though the body was burned, it continued to regenerate, but that just made the process of burning the monster last longer.

The wizard also felt some kind of threat and poured all his mana into the flame magic.

When an hour passed like that…

The monster's body collapsed; it was no longer regenerating.

“Haah. Hah. It's finally over."

“How about Master Belfort?”

“Find him!”

No matter how bad he was as a person, he was still the employer who paid them salaries, so the people were eager to find Belfort Ricksen.

However, no matter how much they wandered around, they couldn't see Belfort, and they couldn't find any trace of him.

Everyone in that place eventually had no choice but to reach one conclusion:

It was that Belfort Ricksen had been eaten by that monster.

It was an absolutely absurd situation.

At the same time, they didn't know…

The secret safe that was hidden in Belfort's room…

A safe containing Belfort's property that was hidden in a secret space behind a large portrait…

It had been taken by someone.

* * *

* * *

“You came?”

The hideout that Hans told him to meet at was a shabby house located deep in the alleyway of Leathevelk's commercial district.

Worn out signboards, creaky doors, and exterior walls and windows that were filled with oil stains.

However, that only applied to its exterior, and when he went inside, there was no smell, and the interior was very clean.

It looked like a normal pub on the outside, but it was just trickery.

"You chose a pretty good place."

"It's in the commercial area adjacent to the factory area. I had a hard time getting this."

"How about the surrounding location?"

"I'm not done checking yet, but I'm sure that the back alleys of Leathevelk are pretty complicated. I need more time."

“I see.”

Ludger said so and put the safe he had brought on the floor.

Hans opened his eyes wide when a bam sound was heard.

“What’s that? You must have had a hard time bringing it here."

“Not really.”

"So is this a safe? It looks exactly like one."

“Yeah. It was magically secured, but I released the security magic on my way here, so you can open it right away."

Hans didn't argue with such words.

Hans, who opened the door of the safe and checked its contents, immediately closed it.

"…There are too many."

"Use some of it as a supply for your work. Hide the rest of its contents in the right place for now."

"Well, then I would have no objection. Rather than that, are you going to go now?”

“Yeah.”

"You look a little tired. Why don't you take a break first before you go? I have a separate room for you."

"I'll check it out later. I think I'll be back here soon anyway."

"What identity will you use when you come here?"

"The most suitable identity to do activity in the underworld."

“Oh, you mean that?”

Hans didn't ask any more questions. More than anything, Ludger must have been pretty exhausted from the day’s fight.

“Please rest well. I'll finish my work as soon as I can too."

“Yeah.”

Ludger stepped out of the hideout with tired steps.

The air in the back alley, where people rarely come and go, was stale and warm, and the humidity adhered to the skin like glue.

Whenever he walked on a road with a stale smell, he could feel the gazes that were exploring him beyond the darkness of the deeper alley.

—Hyenas of the back alley.

They looked at Ludger like they were going to scan through him, and eventually, they realized that he wasn't someone they could mess with, so they stepped back.

When he was completely out of the alley, Ludger took off the hood on his head and pulled down a hood that covered his mouth and nose.

As he was staring at some steamboats that were still wandering around Ramsey River, a loud bell rang out from the clock tower standing in the center of Leathevelk.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

It was the sound that notified people of midnight.

Ludger continued to stare at Ramsey River in the dark.

Until the memory of the eyes that the child had shown him completely washed off into the river.

***

[The millionaire Belfort Ricksen is dead]

It was the front page of the newspaper's headline published in the city of Leathevelk the next day.

The death of Belfort, the evil entrepreneur and one of Leathevelk's millionaires, was enough to heat up Leathevelk.

—Even more so because the cause of death was a werewolf attack.

The monster was eradicated by a wizard who had been guarding the inside of the mansion, but the death of Belfort was a big issue.

Some said that Belfort was punished by heaven, and the others said that Belfort met a disaster when he used evil black magic and couldn't control it by himself.

Reporters clamored for days in front of the Ricksen’s mansion, begging to get inside of it.

Creaaak.

Then a black car stopped behind the reporters.

“Huh?”

The reporters stared at the person who got out of the car, as they were full of curiosity.

‘Who is it?’

There were a total of three people who got out of the car, and all of them were wearing the same attire.

—A black uniform with a golden epaulet on the shoulder.

The eyes of the reporters widened as they recognized the attire, which was commonly called the black coat, that only authorized people could wear.

“Sec-Security Department!”

"The Nightcrawler Knight Order, too, moreover!"

The security department was not a particularly secretive organization. Rather, they had a tremendous reputation in the light and a terrible notoriety in the dark.

The reporters gulped down their saliva.

They had gone to the entrance of the mansion simply for gossip, but if the security department stepped up, it would be a different story then.

Exclusive…

Such a word continued to linger in the reporters' minds.

‘It… it won’t work like this. Since I won't be able to go inside anyway, I'll have to write something related to the security department.’

‘If even the security department is stepping up, it means that this is really a big deal. Moreover, the person who stands at the lead.….’

—Cold, silver hair that contrasted perfectly with a black coat that had a combination of gold and red embroidery.

The sharp-looking woman who tossed her hair up to show her forehead was a very famous person.

Terina Lionhowl.

She was the head of the Lionhowl Marquis family, which symbolized the protection of the Empire.

She was the Knight Commander of Nightcrawler Knight Order, who was affiliated to the Security Department.

Her widely famous nickname was ‘Lord Protector’.

The lion's cry had become a symbolic phrase for her, who had so far eradicated countless people who posed a threat to the Empire.

The reporters were split side to side and made way for Terina, who walked unhesitantly toward the mansion.

With her sharp charisma, she was the idol of all the female Knights within the empire.

“Open the gate.”

As the security department stepped up, even the guards guarding the entrance were bound to be drenched in a cold sweat.

“We… were told not to let anyone in…..”

“The gate.”

Terina spoke while pointing her finger at the guards.

“Open it.”

“Yes… yes!”

The guards whose faces became pale immediately moved.

The tightly closed gates of Ricksen's mansion opened wide.