Chapter 80 October 3, 2022
Chapter 80 – Approaching Footsteps (2)
“…I’ll get ready and go there soon.”
I closed the door and went back to my room.
Standing still in front of the closet, I thought about why it became like that.
I couldn’t believe the Security department had come to Leathevelk. If they were Knights, of course it would be the Nightcrawler Knight Order.
‘Were they the ones I saw last night?’
‘Why did the Security Department’s Knights come to this place?’
They must’ve been busy investigating the incident in Leathevelk, so why would they come to Sören to visit me?
No way, were they certain that I was the culprit?
‘No. No. It’s a useless concern.’
If they knew I was the culprit, they wouldn’t simply come to me as a guest, they would have issued a warrant and dragged me away.
Or they would’ve snuck up on me stealthily in the middle of the night.
The fact that they came in such a polite way meant that they didn’t know I was the criminal yet.
‘But they still came here. What do I have to do with it?’
I could immediately recall it.
‘Werewolf…’
Belfort Ricksen’s death in Leathevelk was discovered to be a werewolf’s doing.
—And the werewolf had also showed up in Sören.
‘I’m the one who killed the werewolf.’
That must’ve be why they came to see me.
They were having a setback in the investigation of the case. They obviously knew something had happened, but the core piece of the puzzle was lost.
Maybe the only clue left was Sören.
Then my identity hadn’t been revealed yet.
‘However, it is too early to let my guard down. If I show any suspicious signs, they will immediately doubt me.’
Especially if the guest who was visiting me was that woman that I knew, Terina Lionhowl.
In some ways, it could have been counted as the biggest crisis of my life.
Her senses belonged to something higher, not humans.
Even so, I could not refuse to meet with the people who visited me.
If the new professor refused the visit of the Nightcrawler Knight Order out of the blue, he would look suspicious.
If I didn’t want to meet them with an excuse, they would give an excuse to stick themselves more toward me in turn.
‘For now, I should try to meet them.’
After all, they knew me as the new professor of Sören, Ludger Chelysie.
They didn’t know about me in the past.
The meeting was just a simple response to their investigation.
With that thought, I adjusted my collar and dressed neatly. I wore a black frock coat and tied my flowing hair with a lace.
Since it was still morning, the air was a little cool, so I put a muffler on my neck lightly.
That much would be enough.
Having checked my outfit in the mirror, I put on my shoes and opened the front door immediately.
—And what I saw was a pink ball of cotton under my eyes.
“Ah. Professor Ludger! You came out?”
The cotton ball turned around when she heard the door open.
Well, it was Professor Selena.
“Don’t tell me you’ve been waiting for me?”
“Yes, well…”
She smiled awkwardly while slightly averting her eyes from mine.
“If I had known that, I would have come out a little earlier.”
“N-nooooo! I was the one who decided to wait for you, Professor Ludger, so you don’t have to rush because of me!”
“Thank you for your consideration. Then, shall we go?”
“Yes!”
Well, we were just fellow professors who were going to the academy anyway.
No one would say anything in particular, right?
I wanted to ask Professor Selena the whole story anyway.
I walked as I matched my stride with her and naturally asked her a question.
“The Security Department suddenly came to see me. Did you hear their reason?”
“Ah, yes. I think it’s because of the investigation into the werewolf situation. Maybe it’s because there was a werewolf appearance in Sören recently as well, they want to ask you, who solved the matter.”
“I see.”
‘Hmmm. As expected, was it because of that?’
But they wouldn’t be able to hear their desired answer, even if they asked me.
It wasn’t like they didn’t know that, but how were they able to catch a rotten rope somehow?
“More than that, have you finished with the exam preparation? This is the first mid-semester exam.”
“Yes. I prepared, and it turned out ok somehow.”
“Whoa! Awesome. I’m thinking about how to set the difficulty and how to submit the questions so that students can do their best to solve them.”
“I agree.”
Certainly, it was quite difficult to create an exam question from the perspective of a professor.
It shouldn’t be too easy, but it shouldn’t be too difficult either.
There were variations in each question, but even if the questions were difficult to develop, it was important to let the students think carefully about the questions rather than just putting endlessly difficult questions.
The questions that required a change of thinking were best.
Students would be satisfied if it was a question that required them to feel a sense of accomplishment by saying, ‘Ah!’ rather than cursing harshly because it was too difficult from their perspectives.
‘But it’s not as easy as it sounds.’
Every person had their own way of perceiving things. Since it was not possible to give everyone proper satisfaction, it was quite a headache for the examiner.
‘Well, let’s take it lightly for the first round of the exam anyway.’
How much would those students have learned after they came to Sören?
What’s important was to see how solidly they had built up their foundations.
It would only be appropriate to submit exam questions that required an in-depth process after the third round of exams.
At least, I thought so.
Sören’s main building was in front of me. It was my time to part ways with her.
“I’m going to go and greet the guests now. Please work hard.”
“Yes! You should work hard too, Professor Ludger!”
She waved to me and was about to leave, but she suddenly called me, as she seemingly remembered something.
“Oh right! Professor Ludger!”
“Yes. Do you have anything else to say?”
When I asked her, Professor Selena spoke with a slightly meaningful smile.
“They’re pretty scary people, so please be careful.”
Then she turned her back and went far away with hurried steps.
Be careful? I was already fully aware of it without her saying that.
‘Scary people, she said? Did she meet them in person?’
‘But why would Professor Selena say that to me?’
Was it a deliberate warning? Or was she simply advising me because she thought I was nervous?
I didn’t know the reason, but it wasn’t the important thing right then.
I raised my head and turned my eyes to where my professor’s office was.
‘The Security Department’s Knights?’
I had no choice but to meet them.
I went into the main building and headed to where my professor’s office was.
There was no one I encountered in my way, and the interior was quiet.
It was probably because it was in the middle of class hours.
But that quietness strangely bothered me.
Soon after arriving at the professor’s office, I took a breath and opened the door.
Clack.
The door opened and what I saw was my office and my personal space, which was the same as before I left.
The only difference was there was a person who was thumbing through the books in the study.
As the guest felt a sense of someone’s presence, he looked back at me.
I stared still at his figure.
“Oh, so you’re Ludger Chelysie.”
No…
It wasn’t the woman I had thought of.
It was a man standing in front of me. He was also a man who possessed a neat look, with his hair tucked back and rimless glasses on his face.
He wore a black uniform and a golden epaulet.
It was apparent from his outfit that he was the Security Department’s personnel.
‘So it wasn’t Terina Lionhowl.’
I might have been mistaken that day.
I accepted his greeting with an inward sigh of relief.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Ludger Chelysie, a Sören professor.”
“I’m Lloyd, an agent of the Security Department.”
Lloyd. He had no surname, but I could not conclude that he was a commoner.
—Because the Security Department’s agents didn’t properly expose their own identities.
Moreover, the Knights wouldn’t even say it. They just said that they were agents.
Were they intentionally hiding it, or did they think that they didn’t have to brag about their identity?
I rolled my eyes slightly to examine his attire. It was a neat attire without any wrinkles.
There were also no messy parts in his hair, and his posture was straight, as he seemingly lifted his upper body.
It was obvious that he was quite a neat and tidy person from his outside appearance.
‘His hands are bare without any gloves.’
His sturdy build and rugged hands that were apparent from his uniform were clearly proving that he was a Knight.
“I’ve kept you waiting for a long time.”
“No. On the contrary, I am sorry that I came without prior notice.”
“Please, sit down. Do you like coffee or tea?”
“I’m sorry. It’s a precaution to not put anything into my mouth during my work hours.”
“Understood.”
I sat face to face with Lloyd with the guest table in the middle.
He was staring at me intensely like he was trying to penetrate me.
As I had been worried about the appearance of a lion, his stare only felt like I was facing a wildcat.
“So why did you come to see me?”
I went straight to the point at once.
“I heard a werewolf appeared in Leathevelk.”
“Yes. But it’s been a while since that appearance.”
“And I also heard that it was you who got rid of the werewolf, Mr. Ludger.”
“You’re right. I took care of them.”
“You’re quite something.”
“I just did what I had to do as a professor as a matter of course.”
They were light questions and answers.
Exchanged words.
But there was a subtle atmosphere flowing in it.
“So what I’m saying is…”
Lloyd was silent for a moment.
I thought that the time had finally come.
“Didn’t you notice anything strange about the werewolf?”
“Anything strange, you said?”
Yes. As expected, the Security Department noticed that the werewolves were involved in something.
But I didn’t show my feelings on the surface.
There was no peculiarity nor giveaways in my facial expression.
It was just the unvarying attitude toward a guest, like the first time.
“I don’t know what I should’ve found strange in the werewolves.”
“It was strange that a werewolf appeared in Sören.”
“The investigation discovered that the werewolf came from outside, from a huge sewer pipe that connected Sören and Leathevelk. They crawled through the sewer to get here.”
I didn’t lie.
Because the werewolves really had crawled through the big sewer to enter Sören.
It was impossible for an ordinary human being, but a werewolf could do it.
“Hm. I see. I heard that Mr. Ludger fought directly with the werewolves.”
“Yes. Right. The werewolf tried to intimidate the students, so I stepped up.”
“How did you fight them?”
It was a strange question.
But it was because he was nervous, as he couldn’t get the answers he wanted.
Instead of asking why he asked that, I answered the facts as they were.
“I used magic. It was elemental magic. I tried to avoid its attack as much as I could, burning its fur with flames and piercing its body with a spear of ice.”
“I see.”
“But maybe because it was so strong, as it felt that its life was threatened, it ran away into the woods. So I chased the werewolf and succeeded in killing it inside the forest.”
“Did you face any problems other than that?”
“There were no other problems except some energetic students who said that they wanted to catch the werewolves.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Lloyd didn’t look very surprised.
He showed a more natural reaction as if he already knew it.
‘I see. He already heard the report and knew the details of the incident, but he asked me again to pry on me.’
Was there any difference between my testimony and the details that he confirmed?
As expected, perhaps because he was also a member of the Security Department, he was thorough not to miss any peculiarity in that moment.
“Then I’ll ask you another question.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
Lloyd asked me questions several times more, but I answered naturally without being flustered.
The question and answer that followed the conversation did not end until five more minutes had passed.
Lloyd stood up from his seat and offered a handshake to me.
“Thank you for giving your time amidst your busy schedule.”
“You’re someone who works for the country, I’m rather obliged.”
I shook hands with Lloyd.
“Then I’ll be on my way. It was an honor to meet you. Professor Ludger Chelysie.”
“Yes. It’s an honor to meet you too. Sir Lloyd.”
Lloyd gave me a light salute and left the professor’s office.
The interrogation by the Nightcrawler Knight Order of the Security Department ended like that.
***
“Pheew.”
Lloyd reflected on the conversation he just had while waiting for his boss at their appointed place.
When their appointment time was 10 minutes away, two familiar figures were seen from far away.
“Captain. Welcome.”
“Yes.”
They were Terina Lionhowl, the captain, and Enya, the lieutenant.
The two were also visiting Sören. However, unlike Lloyd, who had met Ludger Chelysie, the two had come to check the scene.
“Did you find any clues?”
“No. I even got permission to investigate the scene with the principal’s help, but I don’t see anything like a clue. And what have you discovered?”
“No. I didn’t discover anything in particular.”
“What’s suspicious about the guy named Ludger?”
“First of all, I didn’t feel anything strange from him according to what I knew.”
“Hmm.”
Terina didn’t get her expected answer, but she wasn’t disappointed.
Just in case, she had also given Lloyd one order.
“Lloyd. Did you carry out my order properly?”
“Yes. Before we parted at the end, I did as you told me.”
When asked by Terina, Lloyd nodded with a solemn face.
“So how was it?”
As if this were the most important thing, Terina asked with a keen eye.
“His hand that you held, did it belong to a trained man?”
Comment