Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 346: Non-Attributed Magical Beast (1)
The training hall where the special lecture on magical beast summoning was being held.
Unlike usual, it was bustling with noise.
Each student present had a magical beast at their side.
‘I didn’t expect every single one of them to succeed.’
Ludger observed the magical beasts one by one.
Most of them had taken the most common form—animals.
Which was natural.
A magical beast, born from a mage’s mana, was a companion or familiar.
And people’s perception of familiars inevitably leaned toward that of a pet.
Flora had summoned a massive navy-blue jaguar.
On the shoulder of Sheryl Wagner perched a parrot, its feathers the same color as her hair.
Then, a stir rose among the students.
At the center of it was Erendir.
The reason became clear once he saw the magical beast perched on her forearm.
A golden eagle, gleaming with a brilliant light.
Regal, majestic, exuding the presence of a king—it captured attention with its sheer splendor.
Among all the magical beasts summoned so far, in terms of appearance alone, it was unmatched.
Ludger clicked his tongue.
‘A magical beast isn’t all about looks.’
But the students didn’t know that, and to them, Erendir’s magical beast must have seemed extraordinary.
Ludger glanced at Erendir.
Now that she was suddenly the center of attention, her face was filled with joy.
She was trying hard not to show it, but the slight twitching of her cheeks betrayed her.
It was almost doubtful whether she truly carried imperial blood.
‘Well, I’ll let her enjoy this for now.’
Normally, Ludger would have scolded her lightly, telling her not to be pleased just because of its looks.
But he didn’t this time—not after witnessing her miserable situation firsthand at Dvalk Imperial Castle.
Overshadowed by her eldest sister, Aileen, and even relentlessly bullied—her life couldn’t have been easy.
‘And Aileen calls that “showing affection.”’
The problem was how twisted that “affection” was.
What might feel like a playful poke to a normal person could feel like being crushed for someone as fragile as a hamster.
Ludger decided to let Erendir bask in the rare moment of being the center of attention.
But perhaps fate wasn’t going to let her have it.
The students’ curiosity soon shifted to someone else.
“Huh? What’s that?”
“That’s a magical beast... but it’s shaped like a sword?”
The focus moved to Aidan, who was staring intently at his magical beast.
Unlike the others, Aidan’s magical beast had taken the form of a tool.
A sharp longsword.
A faintly glowing blade of mana floated in front of Aidan.
The students looked at him with a mix of envy and jealousy.
Leo muttered under his breath.
“As always, he sure knows how to draw attention.”
A cat, the same color as Leo’s hair, sat curled around his neck like a scarf.
Leo, thinking his own magical beast was rather ordinary, glanced at Taishy.
Taishy was staring at Aidan’s magical beast with wide-eyed disbelief.
On her head bloomed a sunflower.
A plant-form magical beast.
Considering Taishy’s usual fiery personality, a sunflower didn’t seem to suit her.
But it wasn’t an ordinary sunflower.
Its petals were made of flames, glowing faintly red.
Taishy’s magical beast, in terms of appearance, was far from ordinary.
And she herself felt proud of it.
She thought this would finally let her put those who had looked down on her in their place.
But that crucial role had been stolen from her by none other than Aidan.
“How... how did you summon a magical beast like that...?”
“Taishy, calm down. Professor Ludger said looks aren’t everything in a magical beast.”
“Phew... yeah, you’re right, Aidan. Looks aren’t everything. But still, a tool-form magical beast isn’t common.”
“Taishy, your magical beast is just as impressive. I mean it.”
“...Really?”
At Aidan’s compliment, Taishy’s expression softened slightly.
But just as it began to brighten, it darkened again—when she noticed Iona.
The reason: the gauntlets on Iona’s arms.
“How... two tool-form magical beasts in one class...?”
Iona’s magical beast had also taken the form of a tool, just like Aidan’s.
While Taishy sulked, Leo approached Iona.
“Your magical beast looks cool.”
“Oh, um, thanks. Yours is... cute.”
“Cute, huh? No need to sugarcoat it.”
“I’m serious.”
Watching the exchange, Ludger quietly marveled to himself.
‘Two tool-form magical beasts among those four, huh.’
And there was Martin, who had summoned a humanoid magical beast.
Out of eighty students, having even one unusual magical beast was rare—this exceeded expectations.
‘Other than that, there’s nothing noteworthy.’
Most were animal forms.
Birds, dogs, cats, mice.
A few stood out, like turtles or fish.
‘The only other unusual one would be Julia Plumehart’s magical beast.’
Some students, thinking the same, couldn’t take their eyes off Julia’s magical beast.
Given her exceptional magical talent, her enigmatic smile, and her aloof attitude, it was natural to assume her magical beast would be something dazzling.
A peacock, perhaps, or a snow-white tiger from the frozen mountains.
But Julia’s magical beast was nothing like that.
A jellyfish?
It floated gently in midair, its translucent body swaying.
From afar, it almost looked like an angel clad in white robes.
Its mysterious aura even resembled Julia herself.
The rest of the students had mostly plant-form magical beasts.
‘A humanoid form, two tool forms... there’s nothing left to surprise me now...’
Just as he thought that, Ludger’s eyes widened when he saw the last student.
At the end of his gaze stood ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Rine.
Or more precisely, Rine’s magical beast.
‘What... is that?’
The first thought that came to Ludger’s mind was pure doubt.
Ludger wasn’t a magical beast specialist.
Naturally, his knowledge couldn’t compare to that of an expert.
But thanks to Grander’s rigorous education, he had studied enough obscure knowledge to surpass ordinary mages.
Yet even he had never seen anything like Rine’s magical beast.
‘What do you even call that? A... geometric shape?’
It wasn’t an animal, a plant, a tool, or a humanoid.
It was a form no magical beast had ever taken.
Floating in the air, it was a three-dimensional geometric shape.
A semi-transparent polyhedron, constantly shifting.
After taking a moment to collect himself, Ludger realized where he had seen such a form before.
A polyhedron.
An imperfect quasi-regular polyhedron, roughly spherical but clearly a dodecahedron.
More astonishing was that the polyhedron didn’t stay in one fixed shape.
Even now, it was shifting in real-time—from a cube to a hexa-octahedron, then to an octahedron, and back to a dodecahedron.
Even Rine, surprised by her own magical beast, turned to Ludger.
“Um, Professor. My magical beast...”
Before Rine could even finish her sentence, something strange happened to her magical beast.
The geometric-shaped magical beast began to tremble violently, emitting a faint glow.
At the same time, a sound like shattering glass—“Cheng-grang!”—rang in everyone’s ears.
Did something break?
Before that question could even be answered, the surrounding magical beasts began reacting uncontrollably.
“W-what? What’s happening?”
“C-calm down! I said stay still!”
“Argh! I can’t control it!”
The magical beasts present here were, in human terms, no different from newborn infants.
Reacting violently to the unknown waves Rine’s magical beast emitted was, in a way, to be expected.
Ludger found himself thinking that perhaps even a magical beast summoned by a veteran mage might not have stayed calm in this situation.
But that wasn’t important right now.
If these magical beasts went berserk, the entire training hall would descend into chaos.
‘I need to calm them down.’
Without hesitation, Ludger summoned his own magical beast.
[Ater Nocturnus]
Sensing Ludger’s intent, it manifested not in its usual clothing form but as a crow perched on his shoulder.
“I’m counting on you.”
At Ludger’s words, the crow gave a reluctant nod.
Its form dissolved, melting into Ludger’s staff.
The most effective way to control a magical beast was through its summoner.
But if the summoner couldn’t properly control it, external intervention was inevitable.
And naturally, nothing influenced magical beasts more effectively than another magical beast.
Thud.
Ludger struck the training hall floor with his staff, now imbued with Ater Nocturnus.
From the tip of the staff, black shadows spread outward.
Like pouring thick black ink into clear water, the dark pool quickly expanded, radiating from Ludger’s position.
Ludger channeled more mana into Ater Nocturnus.
The shadow greedily devoured the mana, growing even larger, as if satisfied.
In mere moments, the pitch-black shadow engulfed half of the training hall.
The rampaging magical beasts froze.
They had sensed the overwhelming presence of a superior magical beast.
Like prey cowering before a predator, the newborn magical beasts were powerless in the face of such instinctive terror.
Some couldn’t withstand the pressure and were forcibly reverse-summoned.
“The magical beasts... they’ve calmed down!”
“Wh-what is that black stuff?”
The panicked students finally realized Ludger had taken action.
“My goodness...”
Flora whispered in awe as she stared at Ludger.
Beside her, her jaguar growled, baring its teeth in discomfort.
There were eighty magical beasts present.
Over seventy had been on the verge of panicking and rampaging.
And Ludger had suppressed them single-handedly.
‘And this scent...’
As Flora caught the rich, familiar scent wafting from the shadows, Ludger raised his head and spoke.
“Everyone. Stay still.”
Ludger swept the room with a cold, predatory gaze.
Some students—and even some magical beasts—instinctively ducked behind their summoners as soon as his eyes fell on them.
‘Damn, those eyes...’
‘He scared magical beasts with sheer presence?’
‘And that black shadow... that’s Professor Ludger’s magical beast?’
The students were stunned, seeing Ludger’s magical beast in action for the first time.
How on earth could he make a magical beast this massive, covering half the training hall?
‘Is this... the power we’ve only heard about in rumors?’
‘And this isn’t even his full strength, is it?’
Just when they thought they had already seen enough to be amazed, Ludger proved there was more.
The students now looked at him with something close to reverence.
Ludger himself, however, felt far from glorious.
‘This is exhausting.’
He hadn’t even summoned Ater Nocturnus in its true form—he had deliberately altered it.
On top of that, he had poured an immense amount of mana into it to frighten the magical beasts.
Such a simple action demanded a constant, massive mana drain.
He had to finish this before his mana ran out.
“Rine.”
Ludger called her name, slowly approaching her, careful not to provoke her mysterious magical beast.
Fortunately, after its initial strange behavior, Rine’s magical beast hadn’t shown any further signs of acting up.
Perhaps it was cowed by Ater Nocturnus’s overwhelming presence.
Just as Ludger thought things might be fine—
Rine turned to look at him.
“Professor.”
Her eyes glowed with a dazzling light that pierced through Ludger’s sealing magic.
At the same time, a single tear rolled down her cheek.
“Why... why are you showing me such emotions?”
“...”
Before Ludger could respond, Rine collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
As the summoner lost consciousness, the strange magical beast vanished, reverse-summoned.
Before she could hit the ground, Ludger summoned his shadow to catch her.
Checking her condition, he found her breathing steady and her complexion normal.
She had merely fainted.
“...”
Ludger recalled the shadows he had spread.
Whoooosh.
As if time was reversing, the black shadows flowed back into the tip of Ludger’s staff.
At the staff’s end, the shadow reformed into the shape of a crow.
All eyes followed the retreating shadow, then turned to Ludger.
No one spoke.
“Today’s lesson ends here.”
