Episode 89. Professor (7)

“Whoa… . Hick! Grrr… .”

The gloomy breathing heard from beyond the cage was like the groans of drug addicts sticking needles into their veins.

Even the students, who were busy chatting with each other with their textbooks closed, now looked down at the new spectacle with their heads all the way back.

In place of Charlotte, who had been trembling and unable to look ahead after seeing the iron bars, Yuri also opened her eyes and glared at the iron bars.

“what? It doesn’t even look right.”

“It must have been enchanted to block the light.”

“Eh? It’s boring… . If that’s the case, why the hell did you bring it?”

The monster cage, surrounded by darkness, could hardly be seen inside.

Yuri quickly shook her head and returned to her seat.

“Charlotte, can you see inside?”

“Yes.”

Yuri looked curiously at Charlotte’s profile.

“Vampires can see in such a dark place. It will be convenient when I go to the bathroom at night.”

“Rather, we can’t see very well in bright places.”

Charlotte plucked up the courage to look into the cage again for Yuri who wanted to see the beast.

“It’s a very, very big dog… .”

“dog?”

Inside the cage, the hounds, excited by the smell of humans, were shedding bloody tears with torn eyes.

These dog-like beasts had the skin around their mouths ripped all the way to their ears, revealing their wriggling jaw muscles, and were squirming on their long, rabbit-like hind legs.

“uh? I think I saw that in a book.”

At Charlotte’s explanation, I flipped through the textbook with thick glass.

“found!”

Small Beast, Hound.

Equipped with jaw-dropping power that can shatter steel and leaping power strong enough to surpass a castle wall, the hound is known as a demonic beast that must be eliminated on the battlefield.

It is known that the background of such an evaluation is largely influenced by the risk of the hound’s unique characteristics, rather than its teeth and leaping power… .

“That, what is it?”

“It says berserk.”

The moment a certain amount of light enters the pupil, the hound enters a berserk state.

It is said that when a group of hounds fall into a frenzy on the battlefield, an order to retreat is immediately given to all knights around them.

This is because the hounds, who started rampaging, ravaged the surrounding area at a speed that even the eyes of the Rangs could not follow.

but… . At this time, even the same monsters become ferocious enough to bite them, and they usually hide between other monsters with their eyes closed, only looking for an opportunity to cross the castle wall… .

It was written that way in the book.

“I think that’s why they made the demon cage so dark.”

“Well, then those eyes are wide open right now… ?”

“… Wouldn’t that mean that he would catch even a little bit of light and bite off the whole thing in front of his eyes?”

“It’s very dangerous… ! Can I bring something like that to school?”

Those who don’t stop rampaging until the wizards cut off all light sources are like living bombs.

However, on the contrary, if they could only block the light source, they were also able to be fully controlled.

“After Professor Cliff devised the method of capturing the beasts, this year’s first practice lecture was given on credit.”

“Then it must be safe… ? If it was dangerous, you wouldn’t have been allowed to teach… .”

“They say it is, but honestly, I have to be careful.”

“eww… .”

“It’s okay, Charlotte. Professor Dana is still with you today, right?”

Hearing those words, Charlotte turned around and saw Dana standing on the other side of the classroom.

But still… . I couldn’t completely erase the slight anxiety that something might be going wrong.

“… Why are you here?”

Professor Dana was looking towards the cage with infinitely nervous eyes.

* * *

“Hey, Elsie! What are you doing there!”

“We are demons… ! Professor Cliff really made this happen!”

Elsie, who was continuing her reasoning with Rox about the unidentified female student who overpowered Yuri, suddenly poked her head into the hound cage placed on the podium.

“This is a real hound! Wow, the day will come when you will see this in real life… !”

Before Rox could even stop her, Elsie went into the cage.

It is said that their sense of smell and hearing are developed enough to accurately determine the landing point even with their eyes closed, but the Hounds, who could not see through Elsie’s invisibility, seemed to be confused by the appearance of an unknown entity.

Originally, it was true that he, as a senior, had to bring Elsie, who might interfere with class preparation, and punish him.

Being placed in the same space with them gave Rox goosebumps, so he couldn’t bear to follow Elsie into the cage.

“Has Kiruna improved a lot? Even when I went there, they made me memorize things like the number of hound teeth. There has never been a class that shows the real thing like this.”

“Don’t make trouble for nothing, come out quickly when I say nice things… ?”

“Please, can we look around a little longer? When I was young, my future dream was to be a monster hunter.”

“What are you going to do if you do something wrong and they get released? Are you going to take responsibility?”

“If Professor Cliff was that lax, the school headquarters would have fired him long ago. This iron fence is very strong. Hounds can never get through this.”

“Still, there is one thing in ten thousand. Inseok-ah, is it because you don’t know that everyone here will die if someone opens it?”

“So the restraint tool developed by Professor Cliff… .”

“Hey, why don’t you talk?”

“The restraints… ?”

Elsie squeezed through the bars and came out in a cold sweat.

“Did you taste it a bit?”

‘… What?’

Dana, who had been watching the two goons squabbling while pretending to be watching the Witchbeast, began to take a closer look inside the cage as soon as she heard Elsie’s words.

“Don’t play around. How do you know if it’s broken or not?”

“I was originally a member of the Witchcraft Research Department, right? I had a lot of accidents there, so I was transferred to the Indigenous Magic Research Department.”

As Elsie said, one of the four hounds had teeth marks on the choker hanging around her neck.

“What? Shouldn’t we tell Professor Cliff to drop the class right now?”

“I would love to, but… . We’re on a top-secret operation right now. No one but the principal should know about our infiltration.”

“then-“

“There won’t be any cases where the cage will be opened during class. Let’s go up to the school headquarters and report. The principal will take action.”

“Yes Yes… .”

* * *

‘Like a woman named Elsie said, there’s no problem with bars. However, I can’t leave the slightest possibility that the children are in danger-‘

Dana was about to shout to Professor Cliff that he should stop class right now.

“What are you talking about now, Yuri?”

Professor Cliff’s eyes flashed unusually as he listened to Yuri’s presentation, so he decided to observe the situation first.

‘If I provoked that human for no reason, things might get messed up… .’

Cliff was staring sharply at Yuri, who was standing in front of everyone.

“Vampires and humans reconciled? There is no such thing as absurd in my book.”

“professor. It’s clear from the textbook that 30% of vampires are serving on the front lines of the Empire-“

“You don’t seem to know how to read between the lines. In front of that sentence, isn’t it written that vampires are a race that caused enormous damage to our empire?”

“That’s over 600 years old-“

“stop! Do you think you can try to teach the professors just because you use your own magic? Don’t be mistaken. I’ve been studying for a lot longer than you guys!”

“That’s not what I said… .”

“You keep trying to argue. Yeah, did you say 600 years ago? It was when the first war with the demons broke out.”

This is not the first time that the demonic beasts have been systematically targeting the borders of the empire.

“Right after the vampires fled to the far west, Esca Castle. Our empire has summoned all the knights who survived the fivora to exterminate those abominable vampires.”

The monsters, who had bitten their families and comrades until yesterday, took refuge saying they would serve the guardian spirit only after being driven into a predicament.

“Would you leave them alone?”

“… .”

Even Esca, the god of the night, could not comfort the hatred of the humans who had shed too much blood.

Without time to repair the scars left by the war, the Empire declared total war against Esca Castle.

“At that time, the vampire forces were literally on the verge of being rooted out, so there must have been a reason they didn’t want to miss that golden opportunity.”

A final blow gathered to suffocate the opponent without even recovering from the damage suffered.

That irrational judgment saved the empire in a way no one expected.

“The day before the advance, demon beasts started raiding all over the empire. If we hadn’t summoned troops under the pretext of repairing the damage, humanity would have perished.”

At that time, the beasts did not systematically maintain the front lines as they do now, and did not aim only at the borders of the empire.

They appeared sporadically without any notice and attacked all races, and at this time, the vampires who fled to Esca Castle became the core of the monster extermination.

“Like the hound you are seeing right now, it is because there are many monsters that vampires are easy to deal with.”

While the vampires prevented the spread of the Demon Beast, the different races that had somewhat completed their power recovery participated in the war.

Due to the active activities of adventurers and vampires wandering around the world, demonic beasts disappeared from the world at the time.

Having heard that far, Yuri finally raised her voice.

“In the end, vampires fought against the demons and regained trust with other races, right?”

“no. They just passed the risk of being annihilated by the inundation of demonic beasts. I won’t deny the fact that they are helpful in hunting witch beasts. After all, there were those who were hunted by vampires, and the fact that they still appear occasionally is a certain fact.”

Cliff pointed a finger at Yuri in an exasperated voice.

“The most accurate expression would be that the war is being postponed indefinitely due to unavoidable circumstances. Reconciliation with vampires? Sounds funny! No matter how hard they tried to hide it, their nature didn’t change. They are still beasts who drink someone’s blood, and if you let go of your reason, you won’t even recognize yesterday’s close friends!”

“… .”

“Vampires are fighting for their lives on the front lines of humans? Of course it should. They can never escape the sins of their ancestors. The only way to prove my clan’s innocence so that they don’t get invaded and become extinct is to die fighting the beasts!”

“As far as hating vampires, I’d say it’s because I’ve conceded a hundred times.”

Yuri glared at Cliff and said.

“However, to insult the courage of vampires who risk their lives to protect humans on the battlefield… . I can’t hear you.”

“Ha, what courage is—”

“A professor who has never fought a witch beast for someone has no right to say such a thing.”

“… Ha ha ha ha ha… ! That’s funny. But, seeing you yell at me like that, is it possible for you to show your courage first?”

Prove that you are worthy of such words.

“Come out, Yuri.”