Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 279: Shadow Conference (2)

The moment Mandelina saw Ludger, she froze like a frog before a snake.

In a way, it was the only natural response.

Because this man—he was none other than Jack the Ripper, the one who had annihilated Black Ops, the unit she had belonged to seven years ago.

How could she possibly forget?

Mandelina's current mission was to gather information on Ludger’s past identities ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) under direct orders from the First Princess, Aileen.

Given her role, there was no way she could claim ignorance.

“Answer me, Mandelina. Why are you here?”

As Ludger narrowed his eyes and spoke, Mandelina’s body trembled like a leaf in the wind.

The terror of that day still lingered deep within her bones, like a scar that would never fade.

As Ludger’s pressure began to sharpen, the one who extended a hand of salvation was none other than the First Princess herself.

“That’s enough. She’s my loyal subordinate now—I’d prefer you didn’t press her further.”

Ludger realized he had been too harsh and withdrew his presence. Still, he couldn’t resist offering a pointed remark.

“To take in someone who once turned against you... That’s no small amount of courage.”

“Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have, but Mandelina has a rather peculiar personality. She piqued my interest, so I kept her around.”

At the mention of her peculiar personality, Ludger nodded unconsciously.

Team Black Ops were unlawful specialists who would use any means necessary to accomplish a mission.

Kidnapping, blackmail, torture, and murder—these were everyday occurrences for them.

That’s why most members of Black Ops were psychopaths or people with virtually no emotional expression.

They were barely human, apart from their high loyalty.

Except Mandelina.

She never took orders seriously, always behaving with a flighty attitude.

She possessed anti-magic abilities that made her absurdly effective against mages, yet she was a coward who disliked fighting.

She had a pitiful lack of patience, even getting genuinely flustered when teased by children on the street.

Mandelina’s disposition was so strange that it was a mystery how she ended up in Black Ops in the first place.

“I remember now. Back then, you begged me pathetically to spare your life.”

“Ugh!”

When Ludger recalled that memory aloud, Mandelina shrank back.

Apparently, she remembered it too—her expression turned sour.

“Oh? So she did that with you as well?”

“Don’t tell me... again...?”

“Indeed. When I personally came to root out the remnants of the coup, she knelt before me and threw her hands up in surrender.”

Aileen remembered that day clearly.

The moment Mandelina saw the First Princess Aileen among the pursuers chasing her, she immediately raised her hands and shouted:

—I surrender! I surrender! Please just spare me!

The pursuers, who had been tense at the thought of dealing with a former Black Ops Alpha member, lost all desire to fight at her ridiculous behavior.

Even Aileen, who had fully intended to mete out brutal punishment, found herself too dumbfounded to carry out the execution.

Ludger, too, recalled the moment from seven years ago.

Back then as well, Mandelina had surrendered the moment she saw him.

While the rest of her teammates arrogantly tried to fight him, she cowered alone in the corner.

‘Yes. Just like back then.’

She had thrown herself face-down on the ground, pleading so pitifully for her life that Ludger, blade poised, lost all interest.

But that was precisely why she was still alive now.

“Well, maybe that was the case back then, but now she’s my loyal dog. You don’t need to worry.”

“P-Princess, calling me a dog is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“You don’t like it? I could always let you off your leash and turn you back into a stray.”

When Aileen sent her a chilling look, Mandelina turned pale and shook her head fiercely.

“N-No! Of course I don’t mind! Just give the order! I’m your loyal hound, Your Highness! Hehe.”

“......”

Seeing how tightly the First Princess had Mandelina in her grip evoked not satisfaction, but a strange sense of pity.

‘I wanted to ask how that brat Aidan learned anti-magic from her...’

But this wasn’t the right moment to bring it up.

Now that he knew Mandelina had become a direct hound of the First Princess, there would be other chances later.

“So then, Mandelina. What did you learn?”

This wasn’t a reunion for idle chatter. Aileen cut straight to the point.

Mandelina, now serious, reported what she had discovered.

“Yes. As ordered, I tracked their trail... and I confirmed they’re still within the capital.”

“Inside the capital, huh. We combed the place like rats—so there are still places we missed.”

Though she said it aloud, Aileen clearly already knew the answer.

Ludger, listening silently beside her, also spoke up.

“The underground sewers.”

“Yes.”

Mandelina nodded, affirming the suspicion.

“I followed their trail into the underground sewers, but I judged it impossible to go further, so I came back.”

“Oh? Impossible, you say?”

Aileen asked with interest at Mandelina’s honest report.

Despite her usual unreliability in speech and behavior, Mandelina’s skill was the real deal.

She hadn’t gotten into Black Ops through connections, and her anti-magic abilities weren’t luck.

She was strange, yes—but in terms of raw skill, Mandelina was top class.

If even she had backed off, then the underground sewers were clearly their base of operations.

“Infiltration was impossible? Why?”

“There were watchers everywhere. The only place I could enter without getting spotted was just near the entrance.”

“Hmm. Well, I did send you for reconnaissance, not combat. That’s enough for now.”

Now that they knew the enemy was underground, that alone was a gain.

Ludger, having quietly listened up to this point, spoke again.

“This was supposed to be a royal visit for rest, but... it seems I came at an unfortunate time.”

“Ha. You say that with such ease—any child on the street would see through that lie. So what will you do now?”

“Just a moment.”

As Aileen asked, Ludger lifted his head.

As though waiting for something.

Aileen was just beginning to wonder what he meant.

Far in the distance, something black and grayish flew toward them.

It was a large crow.

‘A crow?’

But to their surprise, the crow had a small note tied to its ankle.

As Ludger extended his hand, the crow landed naturally on his forearm.

Oh...

Mandelina, watching from the side, let out a quiet gasp of admiration.

The sight of Ludger calmly extending his arm and summoning the crow was like a scene from a painting.

Though, considering this was the same man who had destroyed her former workplace and nearly killed her, it was ridiculous to think such things.

Still—scary was scary, and cool was cool.

“Well done.”

Ludger took the note from the crow and spoke softly.

The crow cawed once, then flew away again.

“Astonishing. You can control birds now?”

“It’s not me. My subordinate handles them.”

Ludger answered while quickly scanning the message.

Then, without hesitation, he burned it to ash with mana.

Seeing this, Aileen asked curtly,

“What’s so amusing that you had to read it alone?”

“It’s a habit—I’m used to taking security precautions.”

“Was it something I shouldn’t know?”

“Not particularly.”

“Oh? And yet you burned it right in front of me? Admirable. I wish my subordinates would learn from your example.”

“Oh, really?”

Mandelina asked innocently from the side, and Aileen gave her a sharp glare.

As if to say, ‘Are you seriously this dense?’

Mandelina immediately shrank back, her shoulders slumping.

“So, what did the message say? You’re not thinking of brushing it off, are you?”

“There’s something in the underground. Something massive.”

“Massive?”

“Yes. Report says... an unimaginably large plant.”

At the word “plant,” Aileen narrowed her eyes.

* * *

“Ha, Hans, are you sure you sent it properly?”

“Of course I did. By now, the boss should’ve received the message I sent.”

The massive underground structure beneath Lindebrune.

Hans and Bellaruna moved quietly through the dim underground sewer.

“Even so, it’s strange. I knew the capital was big, but I never imagined the underground sewer would run this deep.”

Hans frowned, recalling the complex paths they had taken.

Even with a map in hand, the maze-like layout made it impossible to move with confidence.

If he could communicate with rats, it would’ve been different, but not a single one could be found near this area—not even Hans’s usual informants.

They were too afraid to come anywhere near.

“This isn’t an ordinary sewer. It’s much deeper and more intricately constructed.”

Hans muttered as he looked around.

Bellaruna nodded in agreement.

“I know it’s the Thousand-Year Empire and all, but still—I didn’t expect the underground to be this vast and complicated.”

“Buildings can only go so high as time passes, but you can keep digging deeper underground. Still, judging by the lack of upkeep, I’d say this area’s been abandoned. I’ve never even heard of a place like this existing in the Empire.”

The fact that not even rats ventured into this forsaken place made it all the more suspicious.

They were in an area deeper than the sewer tunnels.

It might’ve once been used as a waterway, but now it was an abandoned underground facility.

“And that thing we saw on the way in... Was that a giant tree root? Do you know anything about it?”

That withered, massive root they saw as they entered the structure—

Even Hans had never seen anything like it.

‘How could a tree grow underground when there’s an entire city above it?’

His doubt was entirely reasonable.

Bellaruna pondered the question for a moment before speaking.

“Honestly, even I can’t think of anything that big.”

“What? But you’re an elf. Shouldn’t you know?”

“E-Elves don’t know everything, okay? I’m learning too!”

“And yet you’re always trying to use me as your test subject?”

“That’s part of the learning process!”

“If you ‘learn’ one more thing, someone’s going to die.”

“Don’t worry. Hans, you’re not an ordinary human, so you’ll be fine.”

“...That was supposed to be a compliment, right?”

“That’s why I think it’s okay to rough you up several times.”

“It was a compliment, wasn’t it?!”

As the two bickered along the way, they stumbled across another massive root.

Twisted and faded to the point where it was more ivory-colored than dark brown.

It jutted out through one wall of the sewer facility. Hans’s expression grew grim.

“We’ve walked pretty far, haven’t we?”

“Probably?”

“And yet it’s growing out over here too...”

“Which means the size of this root is enormous.”

“Do you think something like this is normal?”

“Honestly? No, not at all.”

“So even now, you still have no idea? You’re an elf, for goodness’ sake.”

“I’m telling you—elves don’t know everything.”

Even while protesting, Bellaruna stared intently at the root, her unruly orange hair shifting slightly.

“This...”

“No matter how you look at it...”

The two of them opened their mouths at the same time, then fell silent, locking eyes.

“Well? Out with it.”

“Me? Didn’t you figure it out too?”

“Truth is, it crossed my mind a moment ago, but I felt like saying it out loud might be a bad idea. I’ll defer to the plant expert elf.”

“You only acknowledge I’m an elf when it’s convenient?”

“That’s exactly why I should at least do it in times like this.”

Bellaruna, not confident in verbal sparring, sighed and stepped closer to the root.

“No matter how you look at it... it seems like that.”

“That?”

“...The origin of us elves. The World Tree.”

She stared at the wall where the root had emerged.

Toward the place beyond it—where the source of the root must be.

Skrrrrkkk!

A strange noise echoed from somewhere.

Bellaruna turned to Hans. Hans looked back at her.

“What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?”

“Wasn’t that sound from you?”

“I thought it came from your stomach.”

“How dare you. What kind of person’s stomach makes an animal noise?”

“And I’m an elf—why would I make an animal sound?!”

Skrrrrrrk!

“......”

“......”

They both went silent at once.

Forcing their stiff necks to turn with a creak, they looked toward the passage they had come from.

Through the faint light from afar, something—a shadow—was approaching them.

Run. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Without needing to say a word, Hans and Bellaruna turned and bolted at the same time.

* * *

“Your Highness. Is there... something beneath the capital?”

According to the report Hans had delivered, there were massive structures and something like a tree root underground.

The idea of something like that beneath the thriving capital was beyond belief.

But Hans wasn’t the type to send a false message.

Taking all of it into account, it meant the underground facility and the enormous root were both real.

“There’s something deeper beneath the sewers.”

“......”

There was something there.

And First Princess Aileen... had an inkling of that truth.