I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 738 - Side Story 11: Old Friend (1)

The man, Hans, lightly swirled the glass in his hand. With a clinking sound, the ice in the glass collided with it, making a noise.

On the bar table sat a bottle of liquor with a label. It seemed he had already drunk several glasses before coming, as the liquor bottle was about half empty, and Hans' face was flushed, perhaps from intoxication.

However, his eyes were not hazy and unfocused, but rather shone more brilliantly than before.

Hans silently handed over the empty glass along with the bottle and Rudger checked the name of the liquor written on the label.

It was an unfamiliar liquor he had never seen before. However, just from the subtle aroma, he could tell it was a luxury item.

Rudger filled the glass containing ice with the liquor and took a light sip. He didn't usually drink much anyway, but it was a pure body that had barely touched alcohol for three years.

The alcohol rushed through him instantly. In the past, he would have suppressed it with mana, but Rudger didn't do that.

"It tastes good." 

"It's expensive."

Hans, who had been looking straight ahead even when entering the shop, turned to look at Rudger for the first time.

It was a welcome face he was seeing after three years. Other people had changed quite a bit over three years, but Hans was the same.

"You haven't aged at all."

Was this why these were the first words upon seeing his face? Hans made an incredulous expression and took a sip of liquor.

"Maybe it's because it's a face that withered early, but I'm fortunate I'm not aging any further from here." 

"In about 10 or 20 years, you'll be told you look young for your age." 

"Ha. That's truly gratifying to hear."

Rudger said with a slight laugh.

"So, how have you been?" 

"You're asking that now? For meeting after three years, you're quite lacking in affection." 

"What's between us? Or should we embrace each other and shed tears first out of joy?"

Hans tried to picture the scene Rudger described. No matter how he imagined it, it didn't suit them. Having a calm conversation like this was closer to their way.

Hans belatedly realized he had been caught by Rudger's words and let out a sigh.

"Brother. You know what? When I heard you had returned, I naturally knew we would meet like this." 

"Right. That's why I came looking for you like this." 

"Others said you were dead when you disappeared for three years, but I didn't believe it. I thought you'd come back someday. I didn't know it would be three years, but well, in the end my thinking wasn't wrong."

Hans lifted his glass and stared at its contents. His face was faintly reflected in the crimson glass.

"I thought quite a bit about what I should say when you came. No, actually I thought about it a lot. For three years."

Normally, he wouldn't have said such things. He would just be a little hurt, asking why.

But it was three years. That period was enough to pour out the emotions that had accumulated, borrowing the spirit of alcohol.

"Why on earth did you do that?"

What Hans chose was interrogation. He had no choice. After the fight ended, Rudger had simply left beyond the dimensional door he had created.

It was a situation no one had anticipated. That was the same even for Hans, who had worked with Rudger for a long time.

At the time, he was too flustered to have any composure, but afterward, he realized that only Rene had returned through the opened door and Rudger hadn't come back.

What Hans felt was a deep sense of betrayal.

"Couldn't you have told me? If not that, you could have at least given me a hint. Was I that untrustworthy? Because I'm just a half-wit swayed by the beast's factor?"

The more he spoke, the more the emotions of that day revived. Hans's increasingly intense gaze glared at Rudger.

He wanted an answer. Why on earth he did that, why he made such a choice.

"Hans."

Rudger called Hans' name. That voice was unchanged from three years ago.

He didn't try to soothe Hans, nor did he try to rebuke him for being angry. He treated him as if they had met just yesterday, as usual.

Rather, that attitude doused the flames rising in Hans' chest with cold water. When Hans was mumbling and unable to speak, Rudger opened his mouth again.

"The door I created was for crossing over to another world."

He brought up the story in a low voice. Where that door led. What was in the world beyond.

"That place is a completely different world from this one. Magic doesn't exist and different races don't exist either. Science has developed to a bizarre degree, and the land is enormously vast. There are over hundreds of nations alone, and the history is very deep too."

Hans didn't understand why Rudger was saying these things. To begin with, he didn't quite understand what Rudger was even talking about.

He had no choice. For Hans, who lived in this world, the idea that a completely different world existed seemed too much like a fairy tale.

But at the same time, Hans felt that everything Rudger was saying was the truth. He spoke calmly as usual, but his unwavering blue eyes proved it.

Having spent time with Rudger, Hans had come to be able to vaguely guess what he was thinking from his expressions or actions. Moreover, having completely made the beast's factor his own, his senses had become sharper than before, which played a part.

Hans quietly listened to Rudger's words.

"You wouldn't know, but I came over from that world. Rather, the current world is my second one."

A truth he hadn't revealed to anyone except Rene and Grandel flowed from Rudger's mouth.

"I wanted to go back. And I wanted to meet my old family. Yes, it was such a trivial reason."

And so he crossed the Crystal Corridor, finally reached Earth and met the mother he had missed so much.

The meeting itself wasn't long, but Rudger realized that the path he had walked wasn't wrong.

The huge lump in his heart, that thing that caught his eye no matter how much he tried to ignore it, that wouldn't budge no matter how he tried to remove it melted away like magic.

"To be honest, I had intended never to come back."

Rudger confessed a fact he hadn't told anyone. That if he returned to Earth, he would never come to this world again.

Hans was surprised by this, but also nodded in understanding, recalling what he had gone through.

Rudger had suffered much pain. What he had seen beside him was just a part of it.

Rather, it was surprising that Rudger hadn't become disillusioned with this world and turned hostile.

"But after having conversations with my family there and looking back on the path I had walked, I came to realize where I should live. Yes. Like a fool, I have come to love this world more than my original world."

That's why he handed over his research materials to Rene and sent her back alive. Because he had the conviction that someday she would come to rescue him.

"The reason I didn't tell you and the other comrades about that fact was because I thought it would be good for both of us."

Rudger put down his glass with a self-deprecating smile.

"I was wrong." 

"Brother..."

Hans stared at Rudger, then perhaps getting choked up for no reason, downed the remaining liquor in one gulp.

"Enough. Why are you saying such heavy things that ruin the taste of the liquor? Let's just forget about the past and enjoy only this moment's reunion right now."

Rudger looked at Hans with eyes widened in surprise, then soon smiled and nodded.

The empty glasses were filled with liquor. With a clink, the two men's glasses lightly collided.

"Come to think of it, doesn't drinking like this remind you of the old days?" 

"The old days." 

"You know. When you called me and I entered Leathervelk."

Perhaps because the memory of that time came back, Rudger shook his shoulders with a small laugh.

"I remember. After turning you into a werewolf, we swept through the Red Society." 

"It seems similar to then and now. The atmosphere too. Of course, there's no smell of blood or corpses."

Hans added his last remark.

"So isn't that better? Because this is more peaceful." 

"Peaceful. Yes. You're right about that." 

"Brother, you seem to have changed a bit." 

"Me?" 

"I should say you've become a bit more honest with your emotional expressions than before."

Hans said he had said something pointless and to let it pass, but Rudger shook his head.

"I seem to have changed as you say." 

"Oh, really? It was just something I said." 

"If a person doesn't change over three years, isn't that a problem in itself?" 

"The brother I saw seemed the same even after several years passed." 

"That's just how it seemed. As the world changes, people change with it. Isn't this a peaceful world that has come at last?"

Hans seemed slightly dissatisfied with the word peace.

"Hmm. I'm not so sure. Although the Bretus Holy Kingdom disappeared and the demons disappeared too, all sorts of fights are still breaking out in this world." 

"You seem to have seen a lot." 

"After you disappeared, we had to return to our original places. Ah, of course it was all agreed upon. As you know, the situation at the time was a bit, wasn't it?"

Powerful people from countries around the world gathered in one place and fought. They succeeded in defeating the common enemy that way, but what remained afterward was the discomfort that arose when people who had no previous acquaintance suddenly faced each other.

The Owens members were officially affiliated with the Demon King's army, so it was even more so.

"Well, they didn't hold us responsible. Instead, should I say, the fact that we did something was also erased."

Hans scratched his head. In effect, they were treated as non-existent, as if they had been from the beginning.

It was because they acknowledged that they had discovered the Holy Emperor's conspiracy and had rather tried to resist.

Of course, there were those who didn't do that.

"Typically Alex." 

"Alex? Ah, certainly."

Not just Alex but Pantos too. The two had fought against the allied forces, and the knights at that.

Even if the few who were at the scene overlooked their actions, not everyone else could.

As for Pantos, since he was a different type, the Iron Mask Lord Rotheron said he would handle it and took him away, but Alex couldn't do that.

"What on earth happened to Alex?" 

"Well, Alex was sent to the capital. Regardless of anything else, Captain Luther personally took him." 

"There wasn't any problem, was there?"

At Rudger's question, Hans chuckled.

"Do you think that guy would have problems? Well, he'll get involved in troublesome matters, but not to that extent. For the details, it would be better to meet and talk about it."

At Hans' words, Rudger decided to put aside his needless worry. Seeing that he was told to meet and hear the story, it seemed Alex was guaranteed at least enough freedom of movement to come here.

"More than that, how have you been?" 

"Well, what would it be like? After you disappeared and Owens effectively lost its center, I just lived doing what I wanted to do. At least Royal Street had to be maintained, so I helped with work for about a year." 

"I see." 

"After that, well, I had money saved up and all, so I tried to do what I wanted. I built a house."

Hans had a dream, to spend the rest of his life peacefully in a private house where he could see beautiful wheat fields.

Sitting in a rocking chair drinking beer while watching the setting sun, checking the newspaper to see what happened today. It was an ordinary yet leisurely life.

"I spent all the money I had to buy land and build a house, and just in case, I built a large warehouse too." 

"Is the land in the Empire?" 

"Yes. The Empire's location is good to begin with, but I'm also in a position where it's difficult to leave the Empire arbitrarily."

Information about Hans was treated as top secret. Hans, who could transform into the Beast of Gevaudan, was equivalent to a strategic weapon in his very existence.

So the Empire provided him with conveniences.

Actually, rather than conveniences, it was closer to them being concerned about Hans going to other countries and leaving their sight.

"Well, I know their intentions too. But what can I do? Since they're offering, I thought I should properly take advantage of what I'm receiving." 

"You managed to come all the way to the capital. Wasn't there a watchful eye?" 

"Not surveillance exactly, but they do periodically send people to check if I'm there. That said, I'm not in a position where I can't go anywhere." 

"How?"

Hans grinned and resolved Rudger's question.

With a creaking sound, his right arm transformed into pitch-black wings. They were crow's wings.

"You know what? I can fly in the sky now too." 

"You could fly with the power of the spirit beast to begin with."

Rudger laughed softly. Seeing Hans utilize his abilities very well, he felt that he too had grown.

"The power of the spirit beast isn't cost-effective. After it's over, I get incredibly hungry too. Besides, from before, I wanted to try it once like you transforming into a crow." 

"Is there a particular reason you have to do that?" 

"Because it looks cool. That's all." 

"Ah."

At Rudger's exclamation, Hans held his stomach and giggled. As they were having such frivolous conversation, the door of the bar opened.

"Oh my, am I too late?"

Alex walked inside, seeing Rudger and Hans who had arrived first. Rudger examined Alex's attire. It wasn't the comfortable clothing he usually wore, but fancy formal wear that nobles would wear.

Above all, what caught Rudger's eye was Alex's left ring finger. The glittering thing made of jewels was unmistakably a wedding ring.