Academy's Undercover Professor

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

Chapter 21 – Abraham Van Helsing (2)

“Mm, more than that.….”

Ludger interrupted Hans when he was about to say his real name.

“Now my name is Ludger. Call me Ludger Chelysie.”

“Ludger Chelysie, you said? Ah. Come to think of it, you also used that name when you sent me the letter. What on earth happened? Why didn’t you meet me in the capital city where we were supposed to meet?”

“It’s a long explanation. More than that….”

Ludger shook his head as he glanced at Hans.

“You’re still causing accidents no matter how much time has passed, huh. What kind of appearance is that this time?”

“Damn it. Who do you think would want to be like this?”

Hans’s current appearance resembled a werewolf that could make anyone who was walking on the street scream and run away.

However, that was because the surroundings were dark, but if people had seen this appearance in bright daylight, they would have felt rather odd instead of running away.

Hans’s appearance had no ferocity peculiar to a werewolf at all.

To be exact, he even had a cuteness that did not match his size.

“What did you get bitten by this time?”

“I don’t know. It was some kind of a furry brown puppy. Who would have thought that he would bite me after suddenly jumping down from an old lady’s arms?”

“I can tell roughly what kind of dog breed it is from that appearance.”

Hans, who had the shape of a half-human and half-beast, had brown fur on him.

However, the brown fur was not a dark and dull of a wolf that had been traveling throughout the wild, but rather it was more of a noticeable brighter brown.

Above all, the shape of his face was very different from that of a wolf. He had a shorter muzzle than a wolf’s long head and bigger eyes.

Right. 

He looked just like a [Pomeranian] that was famous for its cuteness as a pet.

The furry puppy that Hans said had bit him was a Pomeranian.

“I’ve been feeling this way for a long time, but you have a very interesting body type.”

“Damn it. Don’t make fun of someone else’s hardship. I wonder if I’ve actually been cursed.”

Hans was a human being who was born with a rather unusual body type.

When an animal bit him, that animal’s genes were expressed into his body, and he was mutated into their shape.

The legendary werewolf whose human skin was suddenly torn and their wildness exploded when they saw the full moon…

That was Hans.

‘However, should I say that it’s a flaw that he is different from ordinary werewolves?’

“Werewolf” meant transforming only into a wolf, just like the name suggested, and it only reacted when the full moon rose, but Hans was not like that.

Hans was still intact even when he saw the full moon, but only when he was bitten by an animal did he forcibly mutate.

And he would transform into the animal that bit him.

If he got bitten by a wolf, then he would be a werewolf.

If he got bitten by a tiger, then he would be a weretiger.

If he got bitten by a bear, then he would be a werebear.

Hans, who could mutate through thay way, had quite enormous power.

The problem was that he was born in the wrong generation.

‘Where are the wolves, tigers, and bears in the cities in this current age where civilization and science have developed?’

They were the men who had to go somewhere in the deep and perilous mountains to discover those animals.

And the precondition that they could only change when they got bitten was ridiculous.

If they got bitten by a wild predator beast, they would die with one bite, let alone being able to transform, so how come they could only transform when they’re bitten?

If they didn’t want to die, it was better to give up the idea of mutating to something wilder.

As a result, Hans could only mutate himself into animals in the city that could easily be encountered, whether they were wandering street cats, wild dogs, or pets raised by noble ladies.

It seemed that his unusual body type might have had some kind of effect, as the problems when the animals were rushing to Hans overlapped with each other.

It didn’t matter if something like an animal’s fur only touched his skin.

As soon as the animals bit him because they were being attracted, that cursed ability was awakened.

There was no such thing as letting him mutate by his own will.

There was also no proper way for him to control the ability.

If Hans lowered his guard for even a little bit, he would be bitten by a small animal and forced into mutating into the form of a half-human and half-beast.

—Just like his appearance in front of Ludger at that moment.

—A strange power that’s different from magic.

What Hans had was actually more of a superpower.

“Take this.”

Ludger took an ampoule jab containing a green chemical from his pocket and threw it to Hans.

Hans hurriedly grabbed the ampoule with both hands and injected it right into his forearm with a happy face.

Shoot!

Then a change occurred immediately.

The fur that had grown thick on his body thinned, and his big size gradually decreased.

The bright, cute Pomeranian face had also changed to a slightly mean-looking man.

Returned to his original state, Hans touched his body here and there and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Phew. If it weren’t for you, I’d have been going through a lot of suffering for a few more days.”

“It’s right now that I think about it.”

It was quite a long time ago that Ludger had met Hans.

At that time, Hans was being chased here and there, being called a monster because he couldn’t control his own body.

Still, if he had the power to turn into a beast, he could pretend to be a king in the back alley, but he was a man who couldn’t fight, so he just wandered from place to place to avoid persecution.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime fortune for Hans to meet Ludger at that time.

“I almost died when I first met you.”

“You did. I thought you were a Cryptid that was roaming around the city.”

A Cryptid was a mysterious creature that appeared implicitly throughout the city now that the monsters had disappeared.

They were some kind of monster remnants.

Compared to monsters in reality, they were a little more like a supernatural phenomenon.

Magical beasts, spirit beasts, and the other strange beasts… Or also beings who reacted to negative emotions and magic power then embodied them.

That was a Cryptid.

Ludger had also met Hans because he was asked to eradicate Cryptids.

But when he had first met Hans, Ludger was quite taken aback when he realized that he was not the werewolf he had imagined.

That was because Hans at that time was a half-human and half-beast that had a similar shape to a Chihuahua.

He was a so-called werechihuahua.

“I was quite surprised to find out later that you were a human being with a decent ability to talk.”

“Was that a surprise? I was rather surprised by your ability to develop the cure to it in such a short time.”

“It is not a cure. It’s more like a neutralizer.”

“Well, that’s that.”

* * *

* * *

Hans snorted.

“If it weren’t for this medicine that you made for me in the first place, I might have been hunted as a monster somewhere in the back alley.”

Ludger nodded as he didn’t deny such a statement.

“But this time, you said your alias was Ludger Chelysie. And a Professor at Sören Academy? When the hell did you create that identity called Ludger Chelysie? It sounds a little chaotic. How surprised I was to hear that you suddenly became Sören’s professor in the letter.”

“It’s a little long to explain the situation.”

Ludger explained how he became a teacher of Sören, starting with the terrorist attacks on the magic engineering train.

When Hans heard his last sentences, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Kekek. Hahahaha! You’re really amazing, too. How could you say that you’re Ludger right there?”

“I had to do it if I wanted to live.”

“If it were me, I would have stuttered and acted extremely suspicious. Even worse, Ludger was originally a member of an unidentified secret society?”

“He’s also an executive called the First Order.”

“Hmm, First order… First Order, huh.”

“Do you know anything about it?”

Hans was immersed in contemplation as he stroked his chin.

It was his habit when he tried to think of something.

“Well, I think I’ve heard of it. No, it’s surely within my memory. Have you heard of the recent turmoil in the Empire’s underworld?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Well, it’s quite recent, so you might not know. They say there are a lot of new guys out there, but they’re all pretty strong and crazy. Oh well, those guys call each other as members or whatever and classify each of them with what-what-Order.”

“I think it’s certainly them. What’s the name of the society?”

“They’re called the Black Dawn Group. Some people call them the Black Dawn Society.”

The Black Dawn Group, or the Black Dawn Society.

Ludger mused on the name.

The guys involved with him were definitely not normal, nor were they average.

They had planted many of their members in Sören, assassinated the employees, hid their identity, and even did an infiltration.

They must have been extremely vigilant people.

“Do you have any more information about them?”

“It’s very recent, so I don’t know the details. What I know is just the name of the organization and its rank, but did you just become their First Order recently?”

“It’s not that I became the First Order. It’s a situation where I have to wear the mask of the original First Order.”

“Right now, you’re lucky that they passed it with that face, but if you make a mistake, won’t you get caught?”

“Yeah.”

And if he got caught, he’d be tortured in a way that went beyond imagination.

Ludger clicked his tongue and rummaged through his pockets.

“So I have to prepare.”

Ludger took out the pillbox and tried to take the pills inside, but he realized that he had eaten all the pills the other day and stretched his hand to Hans.

“My suitcase.”

“Oh, I brought it here.”

Hans brought a black suitcase hidden in the dark of the alley and handed it over to Ludger’s hand.

Ludger confirmed that his suitcase was intact.

“So you didn’t open it.”

“You think I’m crazy enough to open your bag? I couldn’t open it even if I wanted to.”

Hans was fed up and denied Ludger’s half-joking sentence.

“I know. More than that, did you meet Sheridan?”

“The little kid? Well, of course I met him beforehand. He was the one who was waiting for you in the Empire at first.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. Did you or us know this was gonna happen?”

Ludger opened his suitcase and examined all of his personal items inside.

It was still the same as when he organized and put the luggage in the suitcase before sending it.

Ludger took out two pills from the pillbox and poured them into his mouth.

Hans looked at Ludger with a slightly pitiful eye.

“You’re suffering a lot, too.”

“Well, you’re not the only one.”

“Well, I suffer too, indeed, but come to think of it, you and I are both living while heavily dependent on drugs.”

“But unlike narcotics, it’s fortunate that our drugs have no side effects.”

“So what are you going to do with your future plan? Do you have an appropriate method? Ludger is an unintentional identity, so there must be a lot of restrictions on him.”

“I’ll have to think about it later.”

Originally, he had intended to use Sören’s power to control them or disrupt their plans, but that alone seemed to not be enough.

It was too optimistic to expect Sören alone to take care of the Black Dawn Society.

He also needed to move more actively and uproot them.

“Hmm.”

Ludger, who was trying to lock the suitcase again, suddenly remembered something, so he asked Hans a question all of a sudden.

“Hans. If you arrived here two days ago, why didn’t you ask me to meet you on that day? Why did you ask me to wait two more days?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you even ask? Rumors spread all over Leathevelk that a werewolf appeared at night two days ago. There was someone who even saw you in Sören.”

“Eh? What do you mean? I just arrived in Leathevelk today. “

“What?”

Ludger asked back without realizing it.

It was the same with Hans.

“More than that, there were rumors of werewolves in Leathevelk? Even before I came?

“Yeah. I thought it was you.”

“No, I just came here today. And you know my personality. If I had come the day before yesterday, I would have asked you to meet me right away. What reason would I have to stand by here for two days?”

The two men were speechless for a moment.

So who had caused the werewolf rumor to spread?

Owoooooooo!

At that moment, a cry was heard from beyond the foggy darkness.

In a civilized society, they were supposed to no longer face the dangers of wild animals.

There was no way the two men in the present could not identify the cry of such an iconic beast.

“Hey.”

“Yeah.”

Ludger leaned his back against the wall and was on guard, watching his surroundings.

The sound of something moving fast with rough breaths in the wind echoed in his ears.

“It’s really a werewolf.”

“So it wasn’t a rumor. It was real?”

“Maybe.”

At that moment, Ludger and Hans looked up at the same time.

In between the factories that were built with bricks…

On the high rooftop, they could see a black shadow crossing quickly.

A black-furry beast shed a bloody red glow in its eyes through the air.

The distinctive disgusting smell of a beast could be smelled on the tips of their noses.

His instincts sensed that it was not fake.

“Crazy, it was real… Shall we leave this place now? I don’t think he can recognize us right away.” Hans asked as he swept the goosebumps rising above his skin with his hands.

“It’s only a matter of time.”

The werewolf was moving around fast.

But it didn’t go far away. It was currently wandering around the factories in the industrial area.

It was currently looking for prey.

‘It seems like there was something on the werewolf’s neck.’

When the werewolf had shown its appearance in that brief flash…

Ludger’s eyes had penetrated the thick fog and clearly scanned the werewolf.

What caught his eyes was something similar to an identification tag that was hanging on its neck.

‘Is it the belonging of someone that it ate? No. It was more like a leash.’

Maybe he was mistaken.

It was such an instant moment that he might have been mistaken about it.

But the fact that the werewolf appeared in Leathevelk and its rumors also spread in Sören disturbed him to no end.

“Hans, I think I’ll have to check it.”

“Check it, you said? Don’t tell me you’re going to catch that werewolf?”

“Something is fishy about that werewolf. Maybe someone artificially made him and released outside.”

“What? Who the hell…”

“I’ll have to check it out now.”

Ludger said so and picked up his items one by one from his suitcase.

He wrapped a leather belt around his waist. The multifunctional belt was full of empty holsters.

Ludger put all sorts of things into the empty slots of the belt one by one.

—Thrown weapons, close combat weapons, drug bottles with chemicals.

—Lastly, two black revolvers.

Clack.

Ludger checked the firearms quickly and stuck them on his back.

Click.

Ludger even finished putting on gauntlets with mechanical devices on both of his arms.

Looking at Ludger putting on his equipment one by one, Hans recalled the first time he had met him in the past.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you use them.”

Despite the addition of all kinds of equipment, Ludger’s appearance had not changed.

As such, the tools that he used were very secretive and seemingly unobtrusive objects.

“Was it when you were a Cryptid hunter? Didn’t you use an alias then, too?”

“You are right.”

“What was your name at that time? You have used so many aliases. I don’t really remember it. Va… Van what?”

“Van Helsing.”

With all the equipment on, Ludger got up from his seat while closing his suitcase.

His face was shaded by his hat.

“Abraham Van Helsing.”

It was the name that Ludger had once used when he was a hunter.

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