Chapter 220 An Office, A Flask, And Many Books

The basement of the Oukiwa Academy of Nobles was one of the busiest places in the entire institution and one of the safest. While the external buildings usually had no more than one or two floors, the basement of the primary school building had five floors.

Within this ample space were several rooms for different disciplines, such as Advanced Potion Manufacturing, Alchemy, Cadaveric Medicine, and, for some reason, Business Administration.

After Luke snooped around the gossip of two female teachers talking about professor Vinigo, he discovered that the office of the respected Alchemy Professor was located on one of these five floors. There was a rumor that Vinigo was sick and hadn't left his office for several days.

The half-wolf was very surprised and happy to find clues so quickly without even looking for them.

So, he went to the grand, snail-shaped staircase in the main building of the Academy, which connected all the floors, including the underground ones.

It would be an immense amount of work to look for Professor Vinigo's office, but Luke had fifty minutes until his next class, so he thought he could at least check the first floor.

However, this soon proved more challenging than he had expected.

'Why the hell is this floor so big?' he thought, as he got lost on the first floor. For some reason, the only signs in the hallways were the numbering on the doors.

The corridors in the basement were as beautiful as the corridors in the upper buildings. They had an intense illumination due to the blue crystals of luminosity placed every three meters, and the luxurious feel of the rest of the Academy still prevailed. Not even the doorknobs escaped the golden touch, being all golden and immaculate looking.

Besides being lost, Luke had to keep hiding from the students passing by because he thought it would be terrible if they found out that a teacher who teaches at the upper part of the school was snooping around the underground.

After a few minutes, Luke finally found something at the end of the second floor. On a large double door, which was over three meters high and also quite broad, there was a sign with silver letters that said:

[Office of the Alchemy Professor.]

'Finally, I found it!' Luke mentally celebrated.

Before opening the door, he looked at both sides of the hallway, and seeing that there was no one around, he pushed the door open.

'If you are doing anything wrong these days in here, you will be caught in the act now.'

Truummm~

The dragging on one side of the heavy door made a rubbing noise while Luke opened it.

When it was finally fully opened, Luke found a warm, cozy hall. A large fireplace was just in front of the door, whose flames were at medium sizes, although the firewood was almost gone. The walls were made of dark brick, but there were paintings, diplomas, and the skull of Goblorc, a mid-level Floor Boss, to try to disguise the age of the place.

In the center of the living room floor was a rug made of an old grizzly bear. Surrounding this rug were two couches and a table. On the sofa on his right, Luke saw a man lying down, covered by a thick wool blanket.

This man was startled by the sound of the door opening, so he lifted his back with the bit of strength he had, coughing a little.

"Cof... Cof... Cof... Who's there?" Vinigo asked in a weak, catty voice. He tried closing his eyes to get a better look, but still couldn't recognize the person because of his blurred vision. "Namor? Is that you?"

Luke was surprised that Vinigo was really sick, so he assumed a less threatening posture. He still could choose to take advantage of the fact that the professor was weak to be able to threaten him and get him to confess, but if he didn't confess, would Luke kill him? Things were not so simple. Now, Luke had a name to cherish, and Ayumi's name was directly involved.

Then, he took a deep breath and began to lie:

"Ann... excuse me for barging in, I'm a new Teacher, and I was exploring the basement. If I may ask, are you well? Are you sick?"

"Ah, a new Teacher? Well, don't worry about me... I just have a silly virus that has infected me and I should be like this for a few more days until my antibodies can eliminate it."

Luke didn't understand what Vinigo meant, but he understood that he shouldn't stay there for long.

Before he left, the half-wolf took a good look at the face of this professor, who was connected directly with the demons and the Chimeras. This certain Doctor Vinigo had a big, fat face disguised by his white beard and long hair, which looked like white woolen threads. The old man also had a very protuberant belly, drawing attention even under the blanket. Luke was sure he would recognize him if he saw him in the school hallways or in the teachers' lounge.

"All right, get well for you. Sorry again for my intrusion." Luke spoke and took two steps back to pull the heavy door on.

"Cof... Cof... Hold on a second, new guy. Can you get my medication that's above my desk? I almost... Cof... can't walk." Vinigo pointed to a large wooden table that was well away from the couch he was on.

"Sure." Luke replied. In that second, he again pondered whether he should take advantage of the moment of weakness to do something, but decided again not to do that.

The half-wolf walked over to the man's table and realized that the man was taking advantage of this to try to recognize him, but his vision still seemed to be too blurred for that. As Luke approached the table, he found many books, which he was interested in at the moment, but being watched so closely, he didn't risk touching them. Besides these books was a rounded flask made of glass. Inside this flask was a green liquid, which didn't look anything like a healing potion.

Luke took the bottle and handed it to Vinigo. When the Doctor opened this flask, a strong smell of herbs reached Luke's nostrils. This smell was like the smell of earth after rain, but it also had a delicate touch of flower fragrance.

"Pwaaah!" Vinigo exclaimed after drinking some of this unusual liquid. "Thank you very much, young man... I won't forget that favor. What is your name?"

Luke looked at him and replied:

"Luke Lange. I'm the new Dueling Professor."

At that moment, Professor Vinigo slowly turned to look the half-wolf in the face. At the same time, Luke heard with his keen hearing Vinigo's heartbeat increased more and more.

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