Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 230: Entangled Truth (2)

There wasn’t much to write in the letter.

All that mattered was delivering a warning—so in truth, even using stationery was more than it deserved.

And yet Ludger wrote it out carefully, even sealing it with his personal crest—perhaps because he wanted to mess with them just a little.

‘It’d feel too bland if I just left it at that.’

He figured Hans could deliver it as an errand.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve been too busy lately to even step into the city.’

He had no classes tomorrow, so he’d head out at daybreak to check in on how things were going.

Reports had all been positive so far, but there’s a difference between reading and seeing things with your own eyes.

‘And I should check in on the team too. It’s been a while.’

He hadn’t seen them recently—he planned to at least say hello.

* * *

The next morning.

Ludger climbed into a carriage to leave Seorn, but frowned when he saw the crowd gathered at the front gates.

‘A lot of reporters.’

Journalists packed the entrance, kept outside by the guards and visibly frustrated that they couldn’t get in.

It wasn’t typical for this many reporters to show up—something had obviously brought them here.

‘Don’t tell me this is because of me.’

Reporters were fast. Among them were always those sharp-eared enough to hear what had gone down at the Arcane Chamber.

They’d heard about Ludger Cherish and his major discovery—and had come in droves to get an interview.

Blinded by the prospect of a scoop, they’d stormed Seorn without an appointment and were now stranded at the gates.

“What should we do, sir?”

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The carriage driver looked back and asked.

Even he had picked up on how annoying things could get if they were swarmed by reporters.

“It’s fine. Proceed.”

“...Will you be all right?”

“I don’t mind.”

With Ludger’s response, the driver didn’t press further and activated the golem.

Click.

The gear-driven mechanical horse powered up, and the carriage began to roll forward.

“Someone’s coming out!”

“Who is it?!”

The moment the gates opened and the carriage rolled through, every reporter’s gaze zeroed in on it.

“Who’s inside that carriage?!”

One reporter called out, and the driver hesitated to answer.

That hesitation was all it took for the sharp-eyed reporters to catch on.

Could it be—?

“Who’s inside? Is it Ludger Cherish?”

“I think it is!”

Several journalists rushed toward the carriage.

The guards shouted at them to back off, but they were too desperate for a scoop to listen.

“Is it true?! Are you Ludger?!”

“Please show us your face!”

Reporters pushed past the guards and clung to the carriage.

With a clunk, the door was forced open—

Their faces lit with anticipation... only to freeze when they looked inside.

“What the—? It’s empty?”

The interior of the carriage was completely vacant.

Disappointed, the reporters stepped back, assuming they’d barked up the wrong tree.

Not a single one bothered to apologize to the driver for their rude behavior.

“Maybe it was a carriage going out to pick someone up?”

“Ugh. What a waste of time.”

As the crowd began to disperse, the driver took the chance to slip the carriage out of sight.

He glanced back and spoke softly.

“No one’s following.”

“Good work.”

From the supposedly empty carriage, Ludger’s voice emerged.

And then, like a mirage forming from thin air, Ludger appeared right where there’d been nothing moments before.

“How did you do that, sir? Was that magic too?”

“It was. Magic based on the principles of light.”

He had slightly distorted the light around himself so the reporters couldn’t see him.

“Incredible. Invisibility magic...”

“It only works on non-mages who can’t perceive mana. Against a mage, it’s nothing more than a child’s trick.”

Isn’t that still amazing though?

The driver thought so, but Ludger’s tone made it hard to praise without sounding awkward.

After all, very few people used light-element magic—it was rare.

So shouldn’t he be a little prouder?

‘Can’t make sense of genius-types.’

The driver kept that thought to himself and kept the carriage moving.

When they arrived in Rederbelk, the carriage stopped on a side street.

“We’ve arrived.”

“Thanks. I’ll head in from here.”

“Take care, sir.”

The carriage pulled away as Ludger walked toward the slums.

Normally, this part of the city wouldn’t have had much foot traffic—but today was an exception.

The closer he got to the slum area, the more people there were—until the moment he stepped onto the main street and found it packed like a marketplace.

The slums were no longer called that.

Their new name: Royal Street.

The area had been completely transformed and had become the most renowned street of innovation in all of Rederbelk. It was bustling every day.

‘I hoped things would go well, but this is almost overwhelming.’

As Ludger paused to take in the surroundings, a small child spotted him and scurried over.

The boy gave a polite bow and spoke in a small voice.

“Welcome back, Owner.”

“You know who I am?”

“Yes, sir! There’s no one in this neighborhood who doesn’t know you.”

Such a crisp reply—from a child, no less.

The people here considered Ludger their savior.

They were thoroughly educated about the Owner, and they were taught from the bones up that he must be treated with the utmost respect.

“There are a lot of people today. I’ll take you through the shortcut.”

“Lead the way.”

Though the streets had been remodeled, the maze-like alleys still remained.

These narrow paths were unknown to outsiders—only those from the slums had access.

Thanks to the boy’s guidance, Ludger arrived at the hideout faster than expected via the shortcut.

He pulled a coin from his pocket and handed it to the boy.

“Thanks. Go buy yourself something tasty.”

“Okay! Thank you!”

The boy accepted it without hesitation and ran off with a happy laugh.

Ludger watched his retreating figure, briefly overlapping it with a scene from the past.

A memory from the Delica Kingdom—one he would never see again.

Ludger shook his head.

‘I’ve grown sentimental.’

When he entered the hideout, Alex—lounging lazily in the living room—greeted him.

“Oh, Leader! Long time no see.”

“It has been, Alex.”

Ludger greeted him, then paused as he noticed the massive figure seated beside Alex.

“...Phantos?”

It was indeed Phantos—who fixed his gaze on Ludger and gave a small nod.

“What on earth happened to you?”

The Phantos Ludger remembered had a hulking, muscular build made entirely of pure strength.

But the man sitting in front of him now?

‘He looks like he’d roll if you nudged him.’

Even if it hadn’t been that long, he’d gained an absurd amount of weight.

“What in the world happened?”

“Well, see...”

Alex scratched his cheek awkwardly and explained what had happened.

After listening to the whole story, Ludger muttered in disbelief.

“So... you thought he looked bored sitting still all the time, so you gave him snacks... and this is the result?”

“He’s always like a statue, right? But I knew. Even if he’s calm on the outside, on the inside he’s dying to go wild.”

“...Right.”

“So then, since he said he was getting restless just sitting around, I told him to go help people here and there—and that’s what he did.”

Phantos had helped with the rebuilding of the slums.

He’d taken charge of hauling heavy materials and moving loads from one place to another.

Of course, that alone wasn’t enough to ease the discontent buried deep inside Phantos—but it was enough to extinguish the immediate spark of restlessness.

Until the real problem came up.

“Apparently the people he helped were so grateful, they started giving him food. One of those gifts turned out to be... chocolate.”

Phantos had once prided himself on being a warrior, constantly fighting to push past his limits.

Right up until Ludger summoned him to Rederbelk, he’d been out hunting whales in the rough sea.

To him, food was nothing more than a means of sustaining energy for the body.

Nothing more, nothing less.

“But then, this guy tasted something sweet for the first time in his life—and it was all over.”

Phantos had his first encounter with chocolate in Rederbelk.

He was instantly captivated by the sweetness.

And that alone was enough.

That single taste was enough to turn a nearly two-meter-tall mass of muscle... into something round and soft like a ball.

“You could’ve stopped him.”

“Hey, I tried. I mean, come on, he’s basically eating that stuff for every meal now. You think I didn’t say anything?”

“So you didn’t just sit back and enjoy the show?”

“What do you take me for...? Okay, fine, yeah, I did laugh at first. It was kind of funny.”

“I thought so.”

“Ehhh... yeah, well, at first. But after a while, I realized it was getting out of hand. I tried to get him to eat something else, but this stubborn ox wouldn’t listen.”

Alex had tried to stop Phantos when he started putting on weight.

But the response he got in return was absurd.

“What did he say again? Don’t stop me. I’m a warrior testing my limits. That’s what he said.”

“...He really said that?”

Ludger looked back at Phantos in disbelief—only for the man to return a look as if to say, “What of it?”

It was clear Alex hadn’t made up a word of it.

“...Hah.”

Come to think of it, even as they spoke, Phantos was still popping pieces of chocolate into his mouth.

He was doing it so smoothly that Ludger hadn’t even noticed.

Phantos, chewing slowly, mumbled:

“This... is a trial.”

“Say it after you swallow.”

Gulp. “This is a trial.”

“What exactly is so trial-like about it?”

“The temptation of this dark confection. In other words...”

“Chocolate?”

“Yes. Chocolate.”

He didn’t even know the name of what he was eating?

Ludger and Alex gave him an utterly baffled look.

Phantos, unfazed, declared:

“The taste of this heavenly nectar... the supreme delight I’ve never experienced before. It is a fated trial sent to test me on the path of the great warrior.”

“...And yet you’re eating it?”

“That’s what’s strange. Aren’t trials meant to be overcome?”

When Phantos asked that with genuine confusion, Alex was left speechless.

“A warrior does not shy away from hardship. He meets it head-on. That’s how it is.”

“I mean, this isn’t like ‘I’m afraid of sweets so I’ll eat them all to defeat them’ or something...”

“I do not yield to trials. Though my form may have lost some of its former glory, grown heavier than before...”

“So you do know you’ve gotten fat.”

“For one who walks the path of a great warrior, this level of hardship shall be overcome in due time.”

With that, he popped another piece of chocolate into his mouth.

Alex shook his head in exasperation.

“You see that, Leader? That’s what I’ve been dealing with.”

“...We’ll need to arrange something for Phantos soon.”

Phantos, who had once pushed himself to the brink just to climb a wall, had turned into this.

Ludger realized he bore a fair amount of responsibility.

At this rate, Phantos might become the first beastkin to die of diabetes.

He’d need to come up with a plan to get him moving again—soon.

“So what brings you here, Leader? Haven’t you been super busy lately?”

“I’ve wrapped up most of the urgent matters. Besides, there’s something I need to update you all on. More importantly... there was quite a crowd outside.”

“You saw that, right? Even I was surprised. Who would’ve thought the area everyone avoided would turn into this?”

“Anyway—where’s Hans?”

“He’s up on the second floor. Want me to call him?”

“No need. I’ll go up myself.”

“Got it.”

Ludger headed up to the second floor, where Hans worked, and knocked on the door.

“Come on in.”

At Hans’s voice, Ludger opened the door and stepped inside.

Hans was seated at his desk, buried in paperwork.

“Hard at work, I see.”

“Huh—wh-what? Boss?! When’d you get here?”

“Just now.”

“Come on! A little warning would’ve been nice!”

Ludger took a seat in an empty chair.

As he looked around Hans’s room, something new caught his eye—and his gaze sharpened.

“A crow, huh. Are you keeping that now?”

“Oh, that one?” Hans looked over at the large crow perched by the open window and answered nonchalantly.

“Seems like my powers have been getting stronger lately. Used to be I could only command rats. Then one day, bam, the crow started listening too.”

“Makes sense. Crows are intelligent creatures, after all.”

The crow had been staring intently at Ludger since he entered the room.

“Careful, Boss. That one’s got a nasty temper. If you get too close, it’ll jab at you with its beak.”

Heeding Hans’s warning, Ludger slowly reached out his hand toward the crow.

With a flap of its wings, the bird took off—heading straight for him.

Hans panicked and started to shout, but fell silent when he saw what happened next.

The crow landed ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) softly on the back of Ludger’s hand.

“...Huh. I’m shocked. That thing doesn’t approach anyone it doesn’t know.”

“Seems calm enough to me.”

“Maybe it’s just because it’s you, Boss.”

When Ludger gently brought a finger close, the crow leaned its head in and nuzzled it.

Surprisingly affectionate for such a large bird.

“Hans.”

“Yes, Boss?”

“With this one... we might be able to spy on the royal palace.”