NOVPUBWhile chaos raged inside, Hans crouched quietly just outside the tavern door, hiding in the shadows and waiting for the fight to end.
He had no reason to join the fray between Ludger and the Red Society.
Despite how he looked, Hans wasn’t a fighter.
The sight of a hulking, black-furred werewolf—over two meters tall—sitting docilely on the ground looked like something out of a surreal dream.
Oh.
Hans twitched his ears, listening intently to the noises inside.
Soon, he rose to his feet.
It’s over.
The violent sounds from within, the crashing and clashing, had all gone silent—like a lid closing on a boiling pot.
The last thing he’d heard was the agonized scream of Dutrieu—the so-called Red Snake and boss of the Red Society.
Ludger was probably torturing him for information or whatever else he needed.
And now even that scream had stopped. Which could only mean one thing—it was all over.
As expected, the moment he stepped inside the tavern, a thick, metallic scent of blood hit him.
“Urgh.”
With his heightened werewolf senses, Hans clicked his tongue and carefully stepped over the corpses to avoid getting any on him.
Ludger was sitting at the front bar, sipping quietly from a clear glass filled with alcohol.
“It's all done?”
“Yeah.”
Ludger didn’t even look back.
“And those two quasi-knights?”
“At your feet.”
The floor around Hans was strewn with corpses.
He didn’t bother asking for the details.
“Ugh. Staying in this form really screws with my head—the smells are way too sharp.”
Hans immediately jabbed the injection ampoule Ludger had given him into his forearm.
Shhhp.
His swollen, muscular form shrank, fur receding until he returned to human shape. He quickly threw on the coat he’d prepared in advance.
Looking around at the bloody scene, he gave an involuntary shiver.
“You’re seriously something, boss. You can drink in a place like this?”
“You get used to it.”
“By the way... what’s that drink? Smells damn nice.”
Even in his human form, his heightened post-transformation senses picked up the rich, sweet scent from Ludger’s glass.
The aroma was deep and clean—no trace of impurities. Whatever it was, it had to be high-end.
“Gorgogne vintage. Thirty-eight years.”
“What?! That rare stuff? Are you kidding me? Let me have some too!”
“Didn’t you say your stomach couldn’t handle this kind of place?”
“I don’t care if I puke—that stuff’s worth it!”
Ludger handed him the bottle, and Hans grabbed an empty glass from the bar and poured himself a drink.
A dingy tavern filled with corpses.
The air reeked of blood and booze, mixing into a strange stench.
And in the middle of that, the two men sat side by side, casually sharing a drink.
“So, did you finish off that Dutrieu bastard for good?”
“Not yet. I still need him—for information, and maybe more.”
“Right, right. You did just move in, after all... What was that you told me before? Something about handing out rice cakes?”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t really get what that means, but it’s something like... letting the neighborhood know you moved in, right?”
“You got it.”
“And since the Red Society ruled this area and was already notorious as hell... other groups will love it if you hand him over alive.”
Of course, this didn’t mean the entire Red Society was gone.
They ran a criminal empire in a city this big, so they had to have over a thousand members.
But not all thousand were truly Red Society material.
If anything, the hundred men who’d gathered tonight were the core of the organization.
“With the leadership dead, the rest are basically finished. What’s your plan? Gonna absorb the stragglers?”
“No.”
Ludger shook his head.
There was no point bloating the numbers with useless rabble. The organization would rot from the inside.
“I’ll only keep the ones I need. Of course, I’ll need a few decent ones for sub-contracting work, but not everyone. Pick out the clever ones with decent personalities.”
“Hmm... so we’re playing the long game, huh.”
“Hans. I’ve done everything I needed to. The rest of the documents are upstairs in the office on the second floor. Files, secret ledgers—it’s all there. You can handle it from here.”
“Damn. Guess I’m back to being busy again.”
Hans sighed.
He’d spent days busting his ass to gather intel and prepare for this.
And Ludger had wrapped the whole thing up in a single night.
Of course, that was what made Ludger so remarkable.
Still, Hans couldn’t help but feel a little bitter.
Then again, I did choose the safe path instead of fighting for my life. So I can’t really complain.
Sure, collecting intel was dangerous, too—but even then, he could always fall back on his special ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) physiology.
That only made Ludger’s prowess all the more impressive.
There was a reason Hans followed him so loyally.
“Still, even if we’ve got a new base... it’s just you and me for now. What are you planning to do about that?”
“If we don’t have people, we’ll gather them.”
“Gather them? You just said you wouldn’t bring in any random trash...”
“I wasn’t talking about nobodies. Hans. You know I’ve got a few people I trust.”
“...Ah.”
At those words, Hans’s face twisted into a deep scowl.
“You serious?”
“What’s the problem?”
“What’s the—?!”
“Oh, right. I forgot you don’t get along with them.”
“It’s not exactly that I don’t get along, more like...”
Hans trailed off, clearly reluctant.
He knew exactly who Ludger meant.
People he trusted enough to summon personally—each of them top-tier in their respective fields.
The problem was... personalities.
That part couldn’t be vouched for.
“They’re actually coming? Those stubborn freaks? You know they don’t budge for anything.”
“I already sent letters. Surprisingly, they said they’d wrap up their work and come.”
“Ah, hell.”
Hans muttered irritably as he drained his glass.
“Do you hate them that much?”
“Not hate. More like... discomfort. None of them are normal. And I know I’m weird too, but come on.”
“Why not just try getting along?”
“You say that because you don’t know. Every last one of them has an awful temper. One of them even treated me like some lab experiment, remember?”
“Did he?”
“He did! Absolutely! He only toned it down when you were around. The moment you’re gone, I will die. Are you staying here with me?”
“I’m a little busy maintaining my Ludger identity, you know.”
“Exactly!! Every time you’re gone teaching at Seorn, do you know how much I’m going to be dying inside?!”
“That’s your problem, isn’t it? You think you’re actually going to die?”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Of course, Hans wouldn’t actually die—but he might as well, with the amount of stress he’d be under.
He let out a heavy sigh.
Arguing with Ludger about it now wouldn’t change anything. It was already set in motion.
“...Haa. When I think about it, for a job this dirty, there’s really no one else more suited than those bastards.”
“They’re highly capable.”
Just look at the equipment Ludger used—those people had played a huge role in creating it.
“Still, what about you, boss? Are you really okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a Seorn instructor now, right? And this time, unlike before, your real face is out in the open. Isn’t that a problem?”
“It was. That’s why I’ve been moving like this.”
“I heard they were already getting suspicious of you at Seorn. So is it really okay for you to be wandering around the city like this?”
That was what Hans had been worried about the most.
If Seorn was suspicious of Ludger, shouldn’t he be laying low instead of showing his face in public?
Especially when the other party involved were mages—you could never be sure how they might be spying on you.
That meant Ludger needed to be extremely careful.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Seriously? But we’re talking about mages here.”
“Hans. What is your impression of mages?”
“Hmmm. Well, they’re mages ‘cause they use magic, obviously. But if I had to put it into words... highly rational, cold-blooded scholars? That kind of vibe.”
“Close enough. Like you said, mages are very rational. Or rather, they believe they must be. They don’t tolerate even the smallest mistakes.”
Casting magic requires an absolutely calm mindset.
Of course, mages were still human—they weren’t immune to all errors.
But they prided themselves on minimizing mistakes, and that self-discipline was a core value of their identity.
Especially the higher their rank, the more precise and careful they became.
“The Headmaster is a 6th-circle mage. And she’s smart. If someone like that is suspicious of me, I understand your concern.”
“So why are you saying it’s still fine?”
“Let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that she is watching me—monitoring me in secret.”
“Okay, let’s say that’s true.”
“Then what happens if I notice it? And confront her? What do you think the Headmaster would do if I asked why she was tailing me?”
“Uh...”
Hans fell silent, unable to answer right away.
If someone was tailing a suspect, and the suspect caught on?
That wasn’t good.
Especially if the suspect asked directly—‘Why were you spying on me?’
And you had to answer with something like, ‘Because I suspected you’?
“Can’t she just avoid getting caught?”
“Sure, but there’s no guarantee she won’t. Even if the chance is one in a million—that slim ‘maybe’ is what matters. So, Hans, what would you do in that position?”
“...Hmm. Yeah. I’d take the safer route. If I wasn’t completely sure I wouldn’t get caught, I wouldn’t risk it.”
“Exactly. I’m a Seorn instructor, and no one knows the full extent of my abilities. If she tails me and I catch her, even the Headmaster would end up in a very awkward position.”
“So better not to act than take the loss if something goes wrong?”
“That’s how mages are. Besides, I’ve shown myself to be an exemplary teacher so far. If she were to screw that up by making a false move, her own credibility would suffer.”
If it came out that the Headmaster didn’t trust her own faculty and was caught spying on one?
Even that fact alone would damage her authority.
Of course, knowing the Headmaster’s personality, she’d make sure to build as many safeguards as possible—but the moment she had to resort to “hedging,” that was already a kind of defeat.
“The Headmaster’s position—especially when she’s not fully supported by all the instructors—means she can’t just act as she pleases. She has to be cautious. That role demands it.”
“Ahh. I see. So you’re saying you can move around freely now, because that’s exactly the opening you needed?”
“Exactly. Though, if I get too careless, it will come back to bite me. The longer the tail, the more likely it gets stepped on.”
That was why Ludger managed his public image so carefully as a teacher—why he fortified his reputation.
Thanks to that, he could move around like this. Even if the Headmaster had some suspicions, she wouldn’t dare to track him directly.
Especially not on a day like today—when Seorn had been thrown into chaos by a duel between a noble and a commoner.
“Got it. So for now, I don’t need to worry.”
“That’s right.”
“So now that we’re finally putting this organization together, have you decided on a name?”
“A name?”
“Yeah. You and I are properly setting up shop in Rederbelk now, aren’t we? We should settle on a name. Even if we don’t bother with things like ranks and titles, it’d feel off without at least a proper name.”
“You’ve got a point.”
Trickle...
Ludger finished pouring the last of the bottle into his glass. It was finally empty.
It had been a high-end drink, and it tasted like it too. He felt a small twinge of regret that it was gone.
Still, they had plenty more.
“How many people will we have once they all arrive?”
“Hmm. Including you and me, we’ll have... maybe six or seven?”
“Small.”
“Very. Not enough to form a proper organization.”
“But more will come. Once we add a few more, ten seems like a good number.”
“Ten? Yeah, that’s decent. So, did you come up with a name?”
“A name, huh...”
Ludger thought back to something—a novel he’d read in his previous life.
A masterpiece, so well-known that its lines still lingered clearly in his memory.
One character from that story stood out in particular.
A man who judged those the law could not.
A man who eventually destroyed even himself in pursuit of that ideal.
“...Unknown.”
“Huh? ‘Unknown’? What’s that supposed to mean? Like a pun on being unidentified?”
“Yes.”
“Pff—has a nice ring to it. I actually like it.”
And so, Ludger’s new organization was named: Unknown.
“Boss. One last drink?”
“Sure.”
Clink.
To mark the birth of their new group, Ludger and Hans clinked their final glasses together in a quiet, satisfied toast.
In the alleyway...
Inside a blood-soaked tavern...
This was the night the new organization was born.
