C21: Abraham Van Helsing (2)
“More than that……”
Rudger interrupted Hans to reveal his real name.
“Now it’s Rudger. Call me Rudger Chelici.”
“You mean Rudger Chelici? Ah. Come to think of it, that was the name that sent me the letter. What the hell happened? Why aren’t we meeting in the capital where we were originally supposed to?”
“It is long to explain. Rather….”
Rudger glanced at Hans and shook his head.
“Even now an accident happened. What kind of bullshit is that?”
“Damn it. Who wants to be like this?”
Hans’s current appearance resembled that of a werewolf and anyone who would see him on the street would scream and run away.
It’s dark now, but if they saw this in broad daylight, people would have felt puzzled rather than running away because Hans’s appearance did not have the ferocity characteristic of a werewolf. To be precise, he even had a cuteness that did not match his size.
“What bit you this time?”
“A brown puppy in the arms of an old woman suddenly ran up to me and who knew she would bite me?”
“Looking at your expression I can roughly tell what happened.”
Hans, half-human and half-beast, has brown hair. However, rather than the dark and dull color of a wolf roaming the wild, it is closer to the conspicuous bright side.
Above all, the shape of the face is very different from that of a wolf. A little shorter than the long head of a wolf, with a short mouth and bright eyes.
Its appearance was very similar to the [Pomeranian], which is famous as a cute pet dog. The hairy puppy that bit him was a Pomeranian.
“I’ve felt it for a long time, but you are born with a very interesting constitution.”
“Damn it. Don’t laugh at someone else’s business. I don’t think I’ve been cursed or anything.”
Hans is a human born with a slightly unusual constitution. That is, when an animal bites him, he changes into its form and right now he looks like a werewolf.
‘However, it’s a flaw that it’s different from a normal werewolf.’
Werewolves, as the name suggests, only transform into wolves during a full moon, but Hans did not. Hans remains normal even when he sees the full moon, but only forcibly mutates when bitten by an animal.
It can be said that Hans, who can change in this way, has quite a lot of power, the problem is the timing.
‘In today’s advanced age of civilization and science wolves, tigers, and bears are found only in the mountains.’
And the precondition that he can only change through bites is absurd.
As a result, Hans said that the animals he could easily encounter in the city were stray cats, wild dogs, or pet dogs kept by the ladies.
It even overlaps with the problem of whether his unique constitution is working in some way, or whether the animals rush to him when they see Hans.
If Hans is a little careless, he will get bitten by a small beast and forcibly transformed into a half-human and half-beast.
Hans’ powers are different from magic and closer to supernatural powers.
“Take it.”
Rudger took an injection ampoule of green reagent from his pocket and threw it at Hans.
Hans hastily grabbed the ampoule with both hands and put it directly into his forearm with a happy face. Then immediately a change occurred.
The hair that had grown on the body decreased, and his size that had grown was gradually reduced. The bright and cute Pomeranian face also changed into a man with a slightly mean look.
Hans, who returned to normal, touched his body here and there, and sighed in relief.
“Wheeyu. If it wasn’t for the hyung, I would have been struggling for a few more days.”
“If you think about it, yes.”
It’s been quite some time since Rudger met Hans. At that time, Hans could not control his constitution, so he was called a monster and was being pursued.
Still, if he had the power to turn into a beast, he could act as the king in a back alley, but he was a guy who couldn’t fight by nature, so he just wandered around to avoid persecution.
Meeting Rudger at that time was the fortune of a lifetime for Hans.
“I almost died when we first met,” he said.
“I thought you were a cryptid wandering the city.”
Cryptid refers to a monster that appears in various parts of the city now that real monsters have disappeared. These guys can be seen as the remnants of monsters.
Compared to monsters that exist in reality, it was more of a supernatural phenomenon. Demon beasts, spirit beasts, and other strange beasts or beings shaped by negative emotions in response to magical powers.
The reason Rudger sought Hans was because he received a cryptid subjugation quest. But when he first met Hans, Rudger was quite embarrassed to realize that he was not the werewolf he had envisioned.
Hans at that time was half-human, resembling a Chihuahua.
“I was quite surprised to find out that you were a human being who could speak properly.”
“Were you surprised by that? I was even more surprised by your behavior, who developed a cure so quickly.”
“It is not a cure. It’s more like a neutralizer.”
“That’s it.”
Hans snorted.
Rudger nodded as he did not deny it.
“Rather than this, your pseudonym is Rudger Chelici. Are you also a teacher at Theon Academy? When the hell did you change your identity as Rudger Chelici? It sounds like you blew it up a bit. Do you know how surprised I was that you suddenly became a teacher at Theon?”
“It’s a long story.”
Starting with the terrorist train attack, Rudger explained how he became a Theon teacher.
After hearing the last words, Hans couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Pu ha ha ha! Big brother is great. How could you say you were Rudger there?”
“If I wanted to live, I had to.”
“If it were me, I would have considered it rather suspicious. Rudger is even a member of a mysterious secret society?”
“He’s an executive called First Order.”
“Hmm….First Order.”
“Do you know anything?”
Hans patted his chin and fell into anguish. It was his habit when he was trying to think of something.
“Hmm…I think I’ve heard of it. No, I definitely remember. Have you ever heard of the recent uproar outside the Empire?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, it’s completely recent, so you might not know. They say there’s been a bunch of new guys lately that are pretty strong and crazy. They grade their members by Order.”
“It seems you are certain. What is the name of the organization?”
“Some call it the Black Dawn.”
Rudger pondered the name. Those with whom he was associated were certainly not normal.
They planted that many people in Theon and assassinated members of the academy to hide their identity.
“Do you have any more information about them?”
“It’s so recent, I don’t know the details. All I know is the name of the organization and its ranking. But now you’re the First Order there?”
“It was a situation where I was wearing the mask of the guy who was originally the First Order.”
“You were lucky enough to get over it, but if you make a mistake, it won’t be noticed, right?”
“For now.”
“If caught, you will be tortured in ways beyond your imagination.”
Rudger grunted and rummaged through his pockets.
“So I have to be prepared.”
Rudger, who took out the medicine box, was about to eat the medicine inside, but realizing that he had eaten the last yesterday, extended his arm to Hans.
“My bag.”
“Ah. I brought it here.”
Hans immediately took the black suitcase hidden in the dark alley and handed it to Rudger.
Rudger checked if his luggage was in good condition.
“You open it?”
“Am I crazy enough to open your luggage? Even if I wanted to open it in the first place, I couldn’t.”
Hans shrugged and denied Rudger’s half-joking and half-serious words.
Rudger opened his suitcase and looked at all of his personal belongings inside him. It was the same as when he put it in after organizing it before sending it off.
Rudger took out two pills from the vial and popped them into his mouth.
Hans looked at Rudger with a slightly pitiful gaze.
“Brother is suffering too. Now that I think about it, both brother and I are in a position where we have to live on drugs.”
“Unlike drugs, it doesn’t have any side effects, so it’s a shame.”
“So, what are your plans for the future? You must have been restrained a lot because of your new identity.”
“I will have to think about it later.”
Originally, I had planned to use Theon power to suppress them or sabotage their plans, but that alone felt insufficient. It is too optimistic to hope that Theon will take care of the Black Dawn.
It was necessary to move a little more actively and uproot them.
“Hmm.”
Rudger, who was about to lock the suitcase that had been opened, suddenly remembered something and asked Hans a question.
“Hans. If you had already arrived here two days ago, why did you ask me to wait?”
“What do you mean?”
“Rumors of a werewolf appearing spread all over Leathervelk, even in Theon, there was someone who saw you.”
“Yes? Older brother, what do you mean? I came to Leathervelk today.”
“What?”
Rudger asked the question without realizing it.
It was the same with Hans.
“There were rumors of a werewolf in Leathervelk? Before I came?”
“I thought it was you.”
“No, I came today and you know my personality too. If I had come yesterday, I would have asked to meet you right away.”
The two were speechless for a moment. So, who the hell is the werewolf in the rumor that is spreading now?
“Ooooooooo!!!”
At that moment, a cry was heard from beyond the misty darkness. There was no way the two men present could not hear the cry of this iconic beast.
“Older brother.”
“Huh.”
Rudger leaned his back against the wall and looked around him. The sound of something moving fast along with the harsh breathing in the wind resounded in his ears a little.
“A real werewolf.”
“You mean it wasn’t a rumor, it was true?”
“Maybe.”
At that moment, Rudger and Hans lifted their heads at the same time and looked up. Above the high roof, just then, a black shadow could be seen passing swiftly across.
A black-haired beast shed blood-red traces of its eyes in the air. The foul odor peculiar to the beast filled their nostrils.
“Crazy, it was true…… Brother, shall we leave for now? I don’t think he recognized us right away.”
“It is only a matter of time.”
Werewolves were moving around quickly but it didn’t go far. He was roaming around the factory area, wandering here and there.
The bastard is now looking for his prey.
‘I thought there was something on the werewolf’s neck.’
When the werewolf appeared in an instant Rudger’s eyes pierced the thick fog and scanned his body clearly. What caught his attention in particular was something similar to a dog tag on the guy’s neck.
‘Is belonging to someone he ate? No. Rather, it was more like a restraint, a leash.’
Maybe I saw it wrong. It was such a fleeting moment, so I might have misunderstood something. However, the fact that that werewolf had appeared in Leathervelk and the rumor had spread to Theon was caught up in the news.
“Hans. I’ll have to check it out.”
“Are you sure? Are you going to catch that werewolf?”
Rudger said so, picking up items from his suitcase one by one.
He wore a leather belt around his waist and the multifunctional belt was full of empty holsters. Rudger put all the objects one by one into the empty slots on the belt: throwing weapon, melee weapon, vials of reagents and finally, two revolvers. Rudger quickly checked his guns, and then crossed them onto his back.
Rudger finished by wearing gauntlets with mechanical devices on both forearms.
Watching Rudger put on his gear one by one, Hans remembered the first time he had met him.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen brother use it.”
Although all kinds of equipment were added, Rudger’s appearance did not change. As such, the tools they are using now are very secretive.
“It’s the same equipment you used as a cryptid hunter? You used a pseudonym even then?”
“I did.”
“What was that name? Brother has to use a lot of pseudonyms and I can’t remember it.”
“Van Helsing.”
Rudger, with all his gear, closed the suitcase and stood up. A shadow fell on his face, with his hat pressed down deeply.
“Abraham van Helsing.”
It was the name Rudger once used as a hunter.