Academy's Undercover Professor

C64: Chasing the Shadow (2)

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The sun had completely set and night had come. I headed to the depths of the forest where the eyes and footsteps of the students had not reached.

The members of the Black Dawn who stole the Almighty Stone were hidden inside this forest.

I saw the guards of Theon tracking down the order members near the entrance to the forest, but they were guarding the outside without going inside.

I easily broke through the weakly guarded entrance since they were not aware of my existence in the shadows.

‘There are many dense forests like this inside the campus because this is Theon.’

There are three big forests inside Theon. First, the ‘Secret Forest’ where no living things lived, second, the ‘Silent Forest’ where all sorts of creepy things and bizarre psychic phenomena appear and third, ‘The Forest of Dreams’, where all kinds of spirits and supernatural phenomena occur with enormous vitality.

The forest itself is an off-limits zone that goes back and forth between risk levels 2 and 3. It’s surprising that such a place exists inside the Academy grounds, but it’s even more surprising that they left it alone.

‘The safety awareness of people in this world should not be viewed as the same as on Earth in the 21st century. Still, I can’t help but not understand.’

I thought I was quite accustomed to living here, still, I can’t help but feel a sense of separation from my previous life.

In any case, all three forests are designated as dangerous areas and among them, the place where the men who stole the Almighty Stone ran away is the ‘Silence Forest’.

‘A forest full of magical beasts designated as dangerous and powerful.’

I heard that this land was used as a cemetery before the founding of Theon. The corpses and death piled up in the cemetery for a long time spread into a supernatural phenomenon due to their magical response after the establishment of Theon.

If you enter the wrong way, you will be possessed by a spirit and become a lost child, or you will be forced to ‘turn around’ because of your thoughts. Anyone who enters will disappear without a sound or rumor. So silence was attached to the name of the forest.

In fact, Theon also took action several times with respect to the Silent Forest. It seems that some of the successive presidents argued that this forest should be pushed out because of the dangers.

Still, there is only one reason why the Forest of Silence remains and that’s because they all failed.

‘Was it said that if you cut down a tree, it will grow back the next day?’

It is said that some of the fellers went crazy and even wizards with powerful magical powers suffered from nervous breakdowns and nightmares. Even fire doesn’t work because the forest doesn’t burn.

Many presidents failed to eliminate the Silent Forest. In the end, they choose to impose an access ban on the forest itself.

‘However, the Silent Forest has boundaries as if it were drawn with a line. As long as you don’t cross that line, there will be no impact.’

It doesn’t matter if you keep looking at the Silent Forest from beyond the border, if you don’t go in, everything ‘s fine.

‘Even if the rumors about the forest are exaggerated, there must be some dangers in the Silent Forest. Are they confident or have they  been forced to run away there?’

I sighed and stopped walking. It’s been quite some time since I entered the silent forest and I started to hear voices.

[Die. Die. Die.]

[Heh heh heh. hate. I hate it.]

[Help me. Someone get me out of here.]

It kept ringing in my head, but I didn’t really care because I’m always going through something worse than this.

At this point, it should be okay to dispel the magic so I immediately disarmed “Ater Nocturnus” and poured a magic pill into my mouth.

‘Are they around here?’

Whitish spirits flew through the air and wandered around me but they never approached me or did any direct harm to me. Rather, they glanced at me and ran away with a strange scream.

I lightly ignored the spirits and searched for traces of the escaped secret society members.

‘Found them.’

There are footprints in the dirt on the wet ground and there are about 5 people.

‘Unexpectedly, the number of people is less than I thought. I heard there were at least 10 people.’

The rest were torn while fleeing, or they could not escape and were caught by the pursuers’ hands. In other words, these five people who managed to escape are the ones with the most proper skills.

I followed the footsteps and kept moving.

The forest was dark because there was no light, and even the night fog made it hard to have a sense of direction but it didn’t matter to me. I followed the traces of the ground with steady steps and headed deeper into the forest.

‘People are waiting outside. Right now, they’re just waiting at the entrance to the forest but if they get reinforcements they’ll run right inside.’

So before that, I have to finish my work. Not as Teacher Rudger Chelici, but as [John Doe], the First Order of the Black Dawn.

“Murmur murmur.”

As I continued walking, I stopped when I heard a sound coming from beyond the hazy mist but this sound is not a sound made by spirits, it’s made by people. After walking along the trail, I finally reached my destination.

* * *

“Demires, what now?”

“There is a tracking party outside the forest.”

“You’re right. Besides, in this forest, even just by standing still, your heart will continue to be eroded. We go on like this.”

“Shut up!”

Demires shouted at the words of the Third Order.

“I have a plan! So, don’t be silly and just follow along!”

“…….”

The Third Order kept their mouths shut at the words of Demires, who were close to a threat but their anxiety could not be resolved with just a few words.

One of their comrades who had already entered this place couldn’t stand the magic of the Silent Forest and went crazy. They couldn’t afford to help either, so they threw him away in the middle of the forest, and they didn’t want to even imagine what would have happened to him.

‘Damn. If the chase team comes in, we will all die, right?’

The Third Orders had the same thoughts in their minds.

They believed in the words of the second order, Demires, and followed him but should have already had a gut feeling that things went wrong. Demires did this without informing the First Order with an irresponsible statement that he will take responsibility for everything.

‘Right now, there are only two First Orders in Theon.’

‘Even if he’s a second order, can this be fixed?’

Everyone closed their mouths and rolled their eyes. In fact, Demires was also worried. He was good until he got the job done, but frankly, he didn’t really care about the aftermath.

‘Damn! The Almighty Stone it’s useless!’

Demires looked down at the fist-sized stone in his right hand. It was because of the Almighty Stone that he was confident in his plan.

The stone emitted a mysterious power just by holding it in his hand but that was all. The Almighty Stone exudes power, but granting wishes never happened.

‘I believed in the power of this stone and did it!’

Demires felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff. His original plan to make a wish and obtain enough power to ascend to a higher position so he even kept it a secret from the First Order.

‘Damn. How am I supposed to use this?’

Obviously, the power flowing out of the stone is real. However, this power is separate and not mixed with the mana he deals with.

They separated perfectly, like water and oil and as a result, Demires had no idea how to handle this power. When he made a wish in his heart or used magic power the stone remained silent. At this point, it’s nothing more than a pretty magic stone.

Suddenly the sound of stepping on the grass was heard. All the members of the Black Dawn were startled and looked at the place where the sound was coming from.

“Who are you?”

Demires shouted and a man in a black suit appeared out of the darkness. Everyone thought it was the enemy and they pointed their staff and weapons at him.

“Are you all here?”

The members of the Black Dawn trembled unknowingly at the piercing voice full of irritation of the other party. It was kind of a reflex and at the same time they realized who the other person was.

Demires, who had become accustomed to the darkness, recognized the other person’s face and hardened his expression.

“Fir, First Order John Doe!”

The rest of the members recognized Rudger and fell to their knees in front of him. Demires also bit his lip and lowered his head.

Rudger nodded his head contentedly at their reaction.

Demires raised his head slowly and managed to move his lips.

“John Doe, what’s going on here…….”

“Second Order Demires.”

“First order sir!”

“Why do you think I am here now?”

“…….”

At his question Demires stayed silent.

‘Does he know everything?’

There is only one reason why the First Order, who hid in the teacher’s seat, came to this place in person. He wanted to hold them accountable for causing the incident on their own.

Demires head was spinning quickly. The opponent is an executive of the organization that there are only seven like him in the Black Dawn.

There was no way that he could have won that position simply by networking or luck. Codename ‘John Doe’ was famous for his personality, a man who even kills members of the Black Dawn if they misbehave.

‘Even after doing that, there wasn’t any criticism from Zero Order.’

The First Order is now holding him accountable. If so, what should he do here? Should he bow his head right away and apologize?

‘Can I live like that? No, there were a lot of followers out there in the first place, but how the hell did John Doe get here?’

“Give me the stone.”

“That……!”

Demires raised his trembling hand and offered the stone politely to Rudger but at the same time he recited the most optimal words in his position, chosen by his own instinct.

“This is the relic called the Almighty Stone.”

“Yes.”

“I dedicate this to the First Order.”

He didn’t make excuses but simply offered the item he desperately obtained as a tribute to his superior, Rudger. It’s definitely something that hurt his self-esteem but he didn’t have the courage to go against Rudger.

“…….”

Rudger did not answer for a while.

The rest of the subordinates’ lips burned at the silence and 10 seconds felt like 10 years but instead of opening his mouth, Rudger took action.

He grabbed the Almighty Stone that Demires had given him.

“I know.”

The subordinates, who were very nervous, were relieved at that one word. As a result, I couldn’t respond properly to Rudger’s next words.

“And good-bye.”

“Yeah? What do you mean…….?”

The darkness on the ground shook, and then a thorn came out and pierced everyone.

Demires looked at Rudger with wide eyes in disbelief, his mouth was about to say, ‘What the hell?’ but Rudger looked down at him with cold, expressionless eyes, and didn’t answer.

The dead bodies pierced through the vital points were scattered on the ground. Rudger had no intention of keeping them alive. If he leaves them alive and his tail is caught on, his place will be in jeopardy.

‘Is this the Almighty Stone?’

Rudger unwrapped the cloth over the stone and his eyes turned sharp when he saw the dark green emerald stone. His expressionless face frowned slightly.

‘This……It’s not a Relic.’