NOVPUBThe festival ended, and Seorn returned to its usual routine.
The students chatted about the events of the past festival, expressing their regrets and looking forward to next year.
Because of that, many students were still caught up in the lingering excitement and struggled to focus.
Several classrooms saw students failing to concentrate.
But Ludger’s class was not one of them.
“I still see some of you living in festival mode.”
As he glared from the podium, the students immediately straightened their backs.
The momentary looseness among them was replaced by rigid tension.
“If I catch any of you slacking off, I’ll be watching very closely to see how your results turn out in the third test.”
Under his stern warning, the students had no choice but to behave.
He was a teacher who meant what he said.
Most importantly, Ludger had been caught up in the recent festival incident and even injured.
To talk about still wanting to enjoy the festival now would be like pouring oil on his fury.
The students weren’t that oblivious—they wisely shut their mouths.
Thus, the class proceeded quietly and ended without incident.
“Wrap things up.”
“Y-yes! Uh, sir—what about you?”
“I have somewhere to stop by.”
After instructing Sedina, his assistant, to bring the class materials to the faculty office, Ludger stepped outside Seorn.
With no appointments and plenty of time to spare, he went to check on the progress of a business project underway in Rederbelk.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve come out to Rederbelk due to how busy I’ve been.’
Rederbelk hadn’t changed.
Though the atmosphere had been shaken by the Kunst Auction House incident, time had passed, and even that had cooled down.
Carriages and automobiles moved through the streets.
Chimneys puffed out smoke.
Workers labored diligently.
The only difference was the frequent presence of people in clerical robes.
‘Are they people dispatched from the Bretus Theocracy?’
Perhaps it was due to the appearance of a cryptid that had shaken the foundation of a nation—now the fading Lumenis Church was starting to raise its head again.
What they’d do next remained to be seen.
Of course, that wasn’t the only change in Rederbelk.
‘This is the place.’
The location he arrived at had undergone the most dramatic transformation in all of Rederbelk.
‘It’s gotten much cleaner.’
Even when he had stopped by in the middle of the project, construction was actively underway.
Now that everything was complete, the slums—once filled with filth and stench—were completely transformed.
The cleanliness of the appearance was one thing, but the number of people walking about had also increased compared to before.
And the biggest change was the energy that filled the streets.
The powerful, positive aura radiated by those who had tasted hope.
And that energy influenced others drawn in by the atmosphere, infusing even more life into the area.
“Catch me if you can!”
“Hey! Come back here!”
Children with small wind-up mechanical toys rushed past Ludger in a swarm.
They were children who, under normal circumstances, would have been forced to inhale factory smoke while laboring.
Or, children who would have had no choice but to steal or pickpocket to survive.
Now, those very children were laughing and playing with joy.
Ludger glanced briefly at their retreating backs, then resumed walking.
Soon, he arrived at the busiest clothing store on the street.
Ding!
Before Ludger could step inside, the door opened, and two customers exited.
They were middle-aged women in their forties who looked affluent.
Dressed in newly purchased clothes, they wore expressions of great satisfaction.
“I didn’t know there was such a wonderful shop in the world.”
“Oh, I told you! This place’s become really popular lately. It’s been featured in so many magazines too.”
“I’ll have to casually drop a mention to some of my acquaintances later.”
As the two walked off laughing together, Ludger entered the store.
Ding.
At the sound of the door opening, a female clerk approached Ludger.
“Welcome! What are you looking for today?”
“Is the manager here?”
“Pardon? Miss Violetta is currently handling work upstairs, but...”
“Call her down.”
“Uh... may I ask who you are to be asking for the manager?”
The clerk asked with a hint of wariness in her voice.
Don’t tell me she doesn’t know who I am.
Ludger paused a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Just tell her the owner is here.”
“T-The owner?!”
The clerk trembled slightly, as if remembering something.
She hadn’t been working there long, but she wasn’t ignorant.
She knew well how significant the ‘owner’ was on this street.
Even Manager Violetta had emphasized many times that if the owner ever showed up, she was to be informed immediately and treated with utmost hospitality.
“I-I’ll go call her right away!”
Shortly after the clerk disappeared, the sound of hurried footsteps thudding upstairs echoed down.
Then Violetta appeared, her face urgent.
“There was no need to rush like that.”
“How could I not show my face when the owner has arrived in person?” 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
She quickly regained composure and spoke calmly. Ludger shrugged in response.
Violetta, slightly pouting, said:
“You could’ve let us know ahead of time. I would’ve prepared something.”
“There was no need to go through the trouble. It would’ve only bothered the staff.”
“Judging by how you’re saying that, it sounds like you’ve already seen everything on your way here?”
At Violetta’s question, Ludger nodded.
“It’s completely transformed. There’s vitality in everyone’s expression.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Owner.”
“I only invested. It’s your capabilities that brought it to life.”
“If you say so, then I’ll leave it at that.”
Violetta agreed readily.
Even though this man had not only funded the project but provided the very idea behind it—and despite owning the majority stake in the transformed district—he didn’t flaunt his contribution or boast about it.
That was the kind of man he was.
“So what brings you here, exactly? Just out for a stroll?”
“I did come with time to spare, but I also heard there’s been a lot of interference lately.”
“That’s putting it lightly. People who never used to care are now getting desperate and sticking their noses in everything. It’s exhausting.”
But the meddling from merchants was manageable.
The real problem came afterward.
“You must’ve heard, since you came all the way here, right?”
“I did.”
“...As you know, Silver Sun used to rule this underground world long before the Red Society. They may be in the legal light now, but they’re far more brutal than those Red Society thugs.”
And now they’d grown even larger.
In the current favorable conditions, Silver Sun was like a typhoon standing in their path.
A disaster ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) no mere ship could avoid.
Violetta couldn’t help the shadow of worry on her face.
“You know they’re not like the Red Society. That’s what makes them dangerous.”
“Of course.”
You couldn’t just laugh them off as simple criminals.
Silver Sun had both mages and knights in their ranks.
There were plenty of former knights who, unable to qualify for official posts or crushed by gambling debts, ended up joining the underworld—sometimes by choice, sometimes not.
The same was true for mages.
All because of money.
Even more so now than in the past, the world revolved around capital.
People still claimed that knights and mages made up a core part of the world’s military power.
But even they could become powerless before the force of capital.
Silver Sun bound such individuals tightly with money and turned them into loyal tools.
Violetta knew this well. The moment she heard they had set their sights on this area, she lost sleep.
“They won’t move right away, but we’ll need to prepare.”
“Exactly. That’s why I came. First, I need to meet with the person in charge of their side and—”
Just then, the store door slammed open.
“S-Something terrible’s happened! Miss Violetta!”
“What is it?”
“It’s an attack! Some guys rushed in and set fire to the printing factory!!”
“What?!”
Violetta’s expression turned deadly serious.
An attack, right at the moment they were discussing this?
Before Violetta could say anything, Ludger moved.
“I’ll go first.”
Ludger burst out of the shop and used his wire launcher to ascend to the rooftop.
Scanning from above, he quickly spotted smoke rising not far away.
Without hesitation, Ludger ran toward the source of the fire.
* * *
Mercenaries wearing white kerchiefs around their mouths attacked the printing factory without a single word of explanation.
“Wipe everything out!”
“Flip it all!”
The staff working there couldn’t react at all to the sudden assault.
Silver Sun’s members smashed the printing machines with metal pipes and mercilessly beat anyone who tried to intervene.
Screams of pain echoed from all directions.
“Set it on fire!”
They doused the stacks of magazines in one corner of the factory with gasoline and lit them.
The paper caught immediately, and the flames spread violently.
“That’s enough. Let’s get out!”
Just as quickly as they had swarmed in, the attackers disappeared in a rush.
Ludger arrived at the chaotic scene only afterward.
“......”
The interior of the factory was in shambles, and people were running frantically, trying to fetch water to extinguish the flames.
If left unchecked, the fire would engulf the entire building.
‘Magic...’
Ludger was about to put out the fire with magic—when something in his inner coat pocket began to hum.
‘This is...’
He took it out just in case—it was a spirit stone glowing with a fierce red light.
‘The spirit stone left behind by Quasimodo when he died.’
As it neared the roaring flames, the stone began to tremble more violently.
In that moment, Ludger realized exactly how to use it.
“Move.”
Pushing through the crowd, Ludger stepped forward and raised the spirit stone.
The fire that had been blazing wildly began to stir.
“T-The fire...?”
“It’s... getting sucked in?!”
The flames that had been consuming the factory were drawn into the spirit stone Ludger held forward.
Before long, the spirit stone had devoured all the fire.
And it seemed, just faintly, to glow a bit brighter.
“T-The fire’s out!”
“Quick, get the injured out!”
As he watched the people busily rushing around, Ludger glanced at the spirit stone again, then returned it to his pocket.
But then he realized—there were two people who should’ve been here but weren’t.
‘Deon and Mastella?’
Originally, the printing business was operated by the Old Kids, one of the former slum organizations.
And the ones running the Old Kids were the elderly Deon and the doll-like girl Mastella.
But neither of them was in sight now.
‘No...’
With a darkened expression, Ludger headed toward the adjacent wooden building where Deon and Mastella usually stayed.
He flung the door open—and saw it.
The horrific scene inside.
The back of the building was drenched in blood, filled with corpses.
Most of them wore the white kerchiefs—Silver Sun members.
And at the center of that slaughter stood Deon and Mastella.
“Grandpa... please open your eyes.”
Deon lay collapsed on the floor, covered in blood.
One of his arms was gone, and his body was riddled with stab wounds.
He had bled so much that a pool had formed beneath him.
In contrast, Mastella had not a single wound.
Though she was splattered with blood, none of it was hers.
With a wrecked, tear-stained face, she shook Deon’s unmoving body.
“This is...”
Sensing Ludger’s presence, Mastella turned toward him.
“Owner... you’re here? I-I’m sorry. We... we were supposed to come greet you...”
“...Mastella.”
“Huh. That’s weird. My eyes won’t stop crying... They’re not supposed to...”
Mastella’s face was a mess of tears and mucus.
And Ludger understood what had happened.
During the arson at the printing factory, some of Silver Sun’s members had specifically targeted Deon and Mastella.
And Deon had fought to protect her.
“Why...?! Why do they only do this to us?!”
Usually composed and mature beyond her years, Mastella could no longer hold back and screamed.
They had only just started to hope.
Only just begun to believe they might succeed.
To believe that, at last, they might live without suffering.
Was that so wrong?
Was it truly a sin to look upward and hope?
“We just... wanted to live like people.”
Abandoned children, huddled together in the freezing cold of winter, supporting each other.
Some were beaten for failing to bring back money, some starved for not even getting a slice of bread.
When they begged for help, people said:
“You filthy things were born sinful.”
That even trying to live like human beings was a mistake.
And yet, in such a world, they had never given up hope.
They had clung to it, stubbornly.
And even so, the world kept trying to take away what mattered most to her.
“Please... help us.”
If there was a god, then please—
Please hear our story.
Mastella’s voice quivered as she spoke.
But before she could say more, Ludger reached out and gently covered her eyes with his hand.
“It’s all right.”
At his kind voice, Mastella’s body gave a little jolt.
It was a voice so gentle, so soft, she couldn’t believe it came from the man she knew as “Owner.”
“Everything will be all right.”
Ludger comforted Mastella, but his gaze never left Deon.
Deon’s eyes were losing focus—he could die at any moment.
And yet, with what little life he had left, he stared at Ludger with desperation.
As if to say: Please... take care of her.
That was what his eyes were pleading.
It must have been agonizing.
If he had fled, he might have survived.
But instead, Deon chose to fight.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
A wounded child was crying.
An old man was dying for that child.
And if the future promised nothing but sorrow...
Then—
“Seal control, release.”
