Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 258: Shadow of Dartangs (1)

Upon arriving in the metropolis of Dartangs, Ludger and Hans made their way to a reasonable distance near the industrial zone.

“Let’s take a break here.”

Hans, carrying a large suitcase, groaned in relief at Ludger’s words and dropped it to the ground with a heavy thud.

“Ack!”

A shrill voice cried out from inside the suitcase, and the lid flung open as a small girl burst out.

“You did that on purpose to hurt me, didn’t you?!”

A well-built dwarf girl with copper-toned skin and long white hair tied into twin braids.

Seridan Ironfeet glared at Hans, fire in her eyes.

Hans immediately raised his hands in defense, feigning innocence.

“What are you talking about? Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through to sneak you ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) in? You don’t even have ID, and you were stuffed in a bag! And do you even care how heavy it was?”

“Me? Heavy? There’s no dwarf in the world as light as I am!”

“You think it was just you in that bag? You crammed all kinds of junk in there too and made me carry it!”

“What? You wanna say that again?”

“Ack! Did you just bite me?!”

Ludger let out a deep sigh as he watched the two bicker.

It didn’t look like they were going to stop anytime soon, so he stepped in and separated them.

“Enough. It’s fine if your bond is growing stronger, but now’s not the time for that.”

“Hey, what do you mean by bond, my lord?!”

“Exactly, boss. Do I look like I’m getting all chummy with this little gremlin? Ow—damn, she really bit down hard.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t draw blood.”

“I agree. If I’d turned into a dwarf from that bite, I’d be having nightmares for weeks!”

“What did you say?!”

Seridan’s twin braids practically stood on end with rage.

Ludger rubbed his brow, suppressing a mild headache, then smacked Hans on the back of the head.

Whack!

“Gah! Why’d you hit me, boss?!”

“Hans. You’re not a kid. How long are you going to act like this? We have more important things to do. We need to find the hidden factory.”

“Well, yeah, I get that. But do we have any leads?”

“They’re manufacturing gunpowder—there’ll be some kind of trace.”

Just then, Seridan raised her hand with confidence.

“Hold on! If it’s gunpowder, I think I can help.”

Ludger and Hans turned to her in unison.

“Ah.”

“Come to think of it...”

Seridan Ironfeet.

Captured as a mine slave, yet still capable of crafting improvised explosives daily under brutal conditions—a truly exceptional dwarf.

“If it’s related to gunpowder, leave it to me. I’ve got a nose for this stuff.”

The two decided to trust her word, at least once.

* * *

Amazingly, Seridan more than lived up to her claim.

No—she went beyond expectations, leaving even Ludger and Hans speechless in awe.

“This way. I smell it. That’s white gunpowder. Pretty rare. It’s usually odorless, but the way it mixes with dwarf sweat and salt gives it this distinct scent.”

“What kind of description is that...?”

Hans stared at her in disbelief.

“I don’t know! That’s just what it smells like, okay? Go with it.”

“R-Right. But are you sure? Smell alone seems a little...”

“Take a look at this.”

Seridan crouched beside an alley near a factory and touched the ground.

There was white powder scattered there. She brushed her fingertips across it and blew gently.

“They’ve mixed white gunpowder with magnesium powder. You don’t see this kind of stuff lying around just anywhere.”

“You sure about that?”

“Factories don’t usually use gunpowder—unless they’re for munitions. And even then, they’d be using black powder. White powder’s trickier to handle and way rarer.”

As Seridan rattled off a storm of technical terms, Hans clutched his head, overwhelmed.

That was when Ludger stepped in.

“Whatever the case, it’s clear something suspicious is going on in that factory. We’ll need to scout it out and confirm.”

“Boss, and if it turns out to be the place?”

“What else? We destroy it. Completely. No trace left.”

“My lord, I love that answer!”

Seridan grinned and held up a small bomb from her pocket.

“Let’s get started!”

“Start what?! And when did you even make that?!”

“I got bored in the suitcase, so I whipped one up.”

“When the hell did you even have time for that...?”

Hans muttered blankly, stunned.

In a cramped, airless suitcase with no light... she’d made a bomb?

No—more importantly, did that mean the suitcase he was carrying around could’ve exploded at any moment?

He didn’t know how powerful it was, but thinking back to the explosion that had collapsed the mine shaft...

A cold sweat trickled down Hans’s back.

“Hold on. We don’t know how many people are inside. Let me scout ahead first.”

Just as Hans moved to stop her—realizing she might blow up the entire district—

Vroooom!

A convoy of vehicles roared down the distant street.

Ludger, Hans, and Seridan instinctively slipped into the shadows of an alleyway.

“Boss. Those cars...”

“Yeah. They’re definitely not ordinary.”

The black-painted vehicles were military-grade.

“Those are Garteng Company’s newest models. Only the rich or high-ranking officials can afford them.”

“The tinted windows say it all—whoever’s inside doesn’t want to be seen.”

“The rest must be escort vehicles. And that dump truck in the back? That model’s exclusive to the military.”

“Which means whoever’s inside is at least a high-ranking officer.”

“Exactly. Someone with the authority to deploy a War Mage to an underground mine, no doubt.”

Seridan blinked in surprise at how smoothly Ludger and Hans worked together.

Their deduction continued without pause.

“Hans. What reason would a general have to visit such a remote industrial zone?”

“Even my dim little brain can’t think of many possibilities. Only one, really... Maybe there’s a secret weapon inside that would interest a general.”

“A secret weapon. How secret do you think?”

“Well, I’d say something like... gunpowder that isn’t affected by [Silence of Fire]?”

Just then, the convoy stopped, and a group of people climbed out.

Their disciplined and orderly movements made it obvious—they were military.

But one man stood out: an elderly figure with a stocky build and white hair.

“That guy...”

Hans’s eyes lit up.

“You recognize him?” freewebnøvel.coɱ

“Lieutenant General Geto Davineux.”

“Didn’t expect you to remember a general’s name.”

“I couldn’t forget if I tried. That man’s a real piece of work.”

Hans elaborated for Ludger’s sake.

“Geto Davineux. Third son of a noble family, not in line to inherit, so he went into the military. Shot up the ranks thanks to family support. But he’s got problems—lots of them.”

“Such as?”

“Typical noble elitism. Arrogant. Always causing trouble. Worst of all, he’s a die-hard imperialist and warmonger. Never fought in a war himself, but firmly believes they’re righteous.”

Ludger nodded.

“Someone like that having stars on his shoulders is almost comical.”

“Well, his backing’s strong. And honestly, it’s not just him. Judging by everything that’s happened, it feels like the entire military is full of warhawks like him.”

Geto Davineux, flanked by soldiers, entered the factory.

Some soldiers took up positions outside, keeping a tight perimeter.

“...Boss, we’re not getting in easily, are we?”

“Definitely not.”

The security was airtight.

The most concerning figures were the officers with swords at their hips.

“Military knights.”

“Mages and knights. Not the kind of people they just casually send around. This has to be the place.”

The problem was figuring out how to get inside.

“It’s a weapons factory, so they’ll have strict fire suppression systems.”

Even Seridan’s bombs might be useless.

And with mages guarding the place, any external explosion would be nullified by [Silence of Fire].

“It’s basically impossible to break through that kind of airtight security and blow up the factory.”

Hans shook his head.

“...I don’t think we can even infiltrate this place to begin with.”

He briefly considered targeting Lieutenant General Geto himself, but even that wasn’t a realistic option.

Even if they somehow succeeded in breaking through that wall of guards and assassinating him, the aftermath would be catastrophic.

Besides, judging by the scale of this operation, simply killing Geto wouldn’t be enough to resolve anything.

“Why do you think it’s impossible?”

At Ludger’s remark, Hans couldn’t erase the confusion from his face.

“Boss, do you actually have a good plan? That place doesn’t look like something you can just punch a hole through.”

“Why are you so fixated on breaking in? Blowing it up is still an option.”

“How? Any external bombardment won’t do much. Most explosions from the outside won’t even work.”

“It’s already inside, isn’t it?”

Special-grade gunpowder.

Immune to the effects of [Silence of Fire].

No need to smuggle it in—it’s already stockpiled inside.

All the necessary ingredients were in place.

“Wait. Wait, wait. Boss. That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

“What is?”

“There’s no way those bastards would just leave the gunpowder lying around. They’ll have stored it in the most secure location. The weapons too—they’d have fire precautions out the wazoo.”

“That’s true.”

“No, that’s not something you just agree with! The security is already tight as hell, and we don’t even know what else is in there. Do you honestly think we can reach the storage?”

Hans had a valid point.

It would be ideal to set off an explosion from inside and ignite the gunpowder—but realistically, that plan was almost impossible.

“No. It is possible.”

But Ludger spoke with absolute certainty.

Hans hesitated, unsure of how to respond to that confidence.

“I mean, even if you say it like that...”

“I’ll need your help. Hans, I need you to find out where the gunpowder is stored.”

“That’s...”

“Can you do it?”

“...I’ll try.”

Hans finally raised his hands in surrender.

He closed his eyes and attempted to connect with the rats of the city.

But it wasn’t easy. The connection wasn’t working as well as he hoped.

“Hans.”

“Grr... Just a little longer.”

“Hans.”

“I can do it. No—I will do it.”

“It’s not working like this.”

“...”

Hans opened his eyes and looked at Ludger.

His pupils trembled with anxiety. He already knew what Ludger was about to say.

“...Do we really have to go that far?”

“It’s necessary.”

As Ludger spoke, he held out his hand.

Hans reluctantly took what Ludger gave him.

A razor-sharp rat fang.

Hans looked at the tooth fragment like the sky was falling, groaning in despair.

“Ugh, seriously. First you ride me like a mount, and now this?”

“Are you refusing?”

“...Damn it. Fine, I’ll do it.”

Hans grimaced and shoved the rat fang into his mouth.

The transformation hit immediately.

Fur sprouted from his skin, and soon he became a grotesque half-man, half-rat with the head of a sewer rat.

“...Squeak.”

He twitched his whiskers in frustration.

Ludger silently crossed his arms, and Seridan—who’d been watching the whole thing from the beginning—murmured in amazement.

“Holy crap. That’s disgusting.”

“...Ugh, this is why I didn’t want to do it!”

If only it had been a wolf fang. Rats were... rats. Wolves were at least cool.

Still grumbling, Hans didn’t forget his task.

Once he entered his full wererat state, he tried psychic communion again—and this time, rats began crawling out from the cracks in the sewers one by one.

Ever since becoming a true wererat, Hans had gained stronger control over them.

“I’m counting on you.”

Squeak squeak!

As soon as Hans spoke, the rats scattered and dashed toward the factory.

The guards around the facility didn’t think much of it. The area was filthy anyway, so seeing a few rats wasn’t all that unusual.

They just thought it was odd that there were more than usual today.

The rats infiltrated the factory and scurried around its labyrinthine interior, feeding Hans bits of information.

Eventually, one of them discovered a tightly guarded location in the deepest part of the building, and Hans opened his eyes.

“Boss. I found it.”

“Where?”

“There’s a warehouse at the heart of the factory. Surrounded by mages. The security’s intense.”

“That’s our target.”

“So what now?”

“You’ll see.”

Ludger turned his gaze toward the factory in the distance.

“Distance: 300.”

He gauged the distance with his eyes, estimated its width and depth, and deduced the location of the central warehouse.

“Final confirmation. That’s the core of the factory, yes?”

“No doubt about it.”

“Good. Hans, pull the rats back.”

Hans did as he was told.

The moment he issued the command, the rats came pouring out of the factory.

Once he confirmed they were clear, Ludger began drawing mana into himself.

“Coordinates locked. Target designated.”

Focusing on the factory, Ludger worked through an intricate spell formation, and finally cast his magic.

“Casting spell on designated coordinates.”

Nothing seemed to happen near him.

Hans was just about to ask what he had done, when—

A massive explosion erupted deep inside the factory.