I Made An Academy's Undercover Professor Fanfic Because I'm Starving

I made an Academy's Undercover Professor fanfic because I'm starving

I took matters into my own hands, and made an AUP fic because I needed this so badly. Plus I'm craving any kind of professor/professor work in general. So I hope you enjoy.

Academy's Undercover Professor, where Ludger does more teaching than fighting.

I'm manhwa only and I'm craaaving more of Ludger's hilarious internal monologue and snarky remarks. I also wanted him to do more teaching because his school interactions made me happiest. I also wanted to challenge myself: can I make a romance for a character like him? It never felt right to me for the AUP canon to have romance, and I thought about what kind of enigma she'd have to be to match Ludger equally. What kind of character interactions would they have? What about their character arcs? How do I make it realistic? How do I make it enjoyable for people?

Anyway, I ramble because I got excited over writing this. I plan on writing more chapters.

Through the Shadows of Shame - AO3

academy's undercover professor tinfoil hat theory before the final arc concludes !!!

spoiler alert obviously. this feeble attempt at a theory post will touch mainly on lumensism, the largest religion cult of aupverse.

TL;DR of my theory: Lumensis' end goal isn't as straightforward as the characters has been led to believe.

The current perception of AUP world history is as follows:

Gods set up the world, put it in a cage that keeps people in and external gods out. They create the relics that can be used to break the cage and agree to leave it to the mortals to break it if they can.

Lumensis sets up their religious order in Bretus and grants power to worshippers. Unlike other gods who make 1 immortal apostle, they have 2 human ones. 1 is the holy king of Bretus, who has the power to brainwash, and the other is the Saint, who has the judgement eye and can see the future. Together, both apostles can do large scale mind control.

For reasons unclear, Lumensism takes a turn. Lumensis kills gods. Lumensis Order kills non-humans and brainwashes others to propagate their goals. Apostles of other gods and strong non-humans begin beefing with Lumensis Order.

Surna, a then-weak apostle and St Arkensis have a 1v1. Saint sees a future she doesn't like and decides to not kill Surna, defying Lumensis. Lumensis gets mad and nukes Surna personally but Arkensis tanks the hit and dies.

Throwing a nuke has its penalties. It reduces Lumensis' ability to influence the world, but Bretus still can use divine power, albeit less. Having become the most powerful, they continue using religion to justify corruption and don't want Lumensis to come back and boss them around.

The old empire plots a rebellion against Bretus. Surna plots to have Basara ruin it. Bretus comes in, and brainwashes everyone using artificial saints and establishes the Exilion Empire.

Lumensis makes Heathcliff, the holy grail, with the intention to possess him and regain control of the world.

Bretus knows. They try to kill him in succession disputes.

Heathcliff runs away and is saved by Grander after falling into the well where he finds the first relic fragment.

the current image of Lumensis as described by the narrative are pretty straight-forward: an unkind god who expects complete subservience from their people and desires dominion over the entire world. Everything that's wrong with the world seems to be Lumensis' fault. And it could well be that this is all there is to it, but I'm insane about AUP and began thinking about it in relation to the themes of the story.

*puts on tinfoil hat*

In the dream world arc, Ludger gets to speak to Noksanna, goddess of dreams, where sayren writes about the relationship of gods and humans in AUPverse.

AUP's take on gods is that the execution of their good intentions is pretty terrible and causes serious harm because they are incapable of empathising with humans. What if Lumensis is the same? What if they aren't purely oppressive, but think everything they've done is for the greater good, including betraying their own fellow gods?

And now onto the next part of the theory, ft. Ludger.

^ Lynne and Violetta on Ludger

^ Ludger's vibes

^ Nirva's assessment of Ludger

Being the embodiment of 'equal to everyone' yet 'sitting quietly and alone' up high + being a Holy Grail who has been completed with his own life experiences... To me, this reads as foreshadowing that Ludger has the potential to transcend humanity and become a god himself, despite being created to be used by one. The solution that Lumensis created to bypass the penalty they self-inflicted by interfering in the world has ALSO defied their will.

If you've been counting, it really looks like the great Lumensis who straight up slayed other fellow gods AND probably has all his apostles' powers of brainwashing, judging human nature and seeing the future is simply incompetent at making a legit plan for world domination. Which, uh, I was expecting better from a whole god.

Yes, of course it is possible that Lumensis is just THAT stupid and completely lacks understanding of humans and thus keeps putting the L in Lumensis, and if it is so then this whole theory goes to the bin. However, I really hope that Lumensis has more depth in this because it would be anti-climatic if the big bad who's responsible for Ludger's existence was just one-dimensional and a plain control freak. Just look at our key antagonists and side characters in AUP: many of them have a certain degree of depth and development. If they can have it, why not the antagonistic god?

Lumensis seemed to be into 'freezing the moment' at when the church and the world was most ideal (good intention), but went about it by curbing human development (bad execution). My flimsy theory is that Lumensis has by now realised that they effed up and sent Ludger into the world for the minor chance that Ludger, with his strong ties to his own humanity, his OP holy grail status and a certain degree of godly wisdom, will be able to surpass Lumensis and repair the world.

Yup, that's pretty much it, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Through the Shadows of Shame: an AUP fanfic | Ch 6 - Bento

Through the Shadows of Shame Ch 6: Bento, or: he thinks he's being poisoned.

An Academy's Undercover Professor fanfic AU, where Ludger does more teaching than fighting.

Chapter 6: some girls who have a crush on him make him a bento. He thinks they're out to poison him because he gave them low grades for their last project.

Ludger is a dumbass but he's our dumbass.

Through the Shadows of Shame: an AUP fanfic | Table of Contents (Masterlist)

Here's a TOC of my fic, because I realized it's probably going to have at least 50 chapters, at least that's what I've outlined so far.

Last update: October 12, 2024

NOTE:

Not everything written is a summary to prevent spoilers as best as I can. I just put in things I find interesting about the chapter, even though they're not the main focus.

Subject to change.

PUBLISHED Chapters:

Chapter 1: Why I did this work -- my rationale on why I wanted to write it, and why I made the decisions I did.

Chapter 2: Flashback - meant to set some of the dynamic up.

Chapter 3: Library - here we really get to see their current dynamics.

Chapter 4: In His Element - Ludger gets the praise he deserves for teaching

Chapter 5: Braid - People simp for Ludger and his braid

Chapter 6: Bento - Ludger's students cook him a homemade meal. He thinks it's an assassination attempt.

Chapter 7: Doodles - Ludger being Ludger, not understanding his students' intentions as he rants.

Chapter 8: Scooped - Something bad happens to Erina's research. Ludger is there. Wholesome

Chapter 9: Sausage Octopi - Erina cooks for Ludger. Hilarity ensues.

Chapter 10: Fops - Faculty Meeting about an upcoming magic test. Ludger fights for commoner students.

Chapter 11: Library Shift - Ludger does double library shifts. He makes some students cry (in a good way)

Chapter 12: Cheeky - Erina is a pillow murderer. Ludger has fast reflexes. Erina accidentally talks about one of Ludger's secret identities. Sometimes having fast reflexes is bad for you.

Chapter 13: Consultation Hours: Aidan - Ludger gives relationship advice to Aidan. He has no idea what he’s doing. It works?

Chapter 14: Flashpoint part 1 - see definition of flashpoint ;)

Chapter 15: Flashpoint part 2 - some cool magic thing/magic lore happens

Chapter 16: Croquettes - semi-spicy(?); i got secondhand embarrassment when I wrote this chapter.

Chapter 17: Lavender and White Violet - this whole chapter was so chaotic. Just read it, no spoilers.

Chapter 18: Invisible - (secret) asks (secret) to have a blind date with (secret)

Chapter 19: Whiskey Business - UN Owen appears. Bellaluna making crazy drinks.

Chapter 20: Stay - Ludger doesn't usually get drunk but when he dpes he can keep you up all night long.

Chapter 21: Dragon - What better way to forget all the stupid shit you did while drunk by fighting a dragon?

Chapter 22-24: Okay (1-3); Healthy communication yay.

Chapter 25-27: Encrypta (1-3) - Ludger has a new assistant professor. Magic lore (non-canon) Chapter 28: Flora - Flora subplot has been Triggered (TM)

Chapter 29: Lap - Ludger has a genius idea on how to make Erina stop overworking.

Chapter 30: (School)work-life Balance - Ludger helps Sedina manage her schedule. Sedina asks how to make friends.

Chapter 31: Candidacy - A sort of retelling/adaptation of the canon mana output research arc starts here

Chapter 32: Try - Fluffy end

Chapter 33: Warm - Erina talks about Moriarty without knowing she's talking to Moriarty

Chapter 34: Ripe - Erina and Sedina *ahem* use creative problem solving to get more research participants

Chapter 35: Punishment - Repercussions, punishments, and... other stuff 🦯

Chapter 36: The Moon is Always Shining Somewhere - Ludger trains Erina and he passes out. Erina finds a certain pill bottle.

Chapter 37: The Goddess of the Moon

Chapter 38: White Peonies, White Lilies

Through the Shadows of Shame: an AUP fanfic | Ch 5 - Braid

Through the Shadows of Shame Ch 5: Braid, or: students simp for Ludger's braid

An Academy's Undercover Professor fanfic AU, where Ludger does more teaching than fighting.

Chapter 5: a chapter where I just want to see people simp for Ludger

Through the Shadows of Shame: an AUP fanfic | Ch 4 - In his element

An Academy's Undercover Professor fanfic AU, where Ludger does more teaching than fighting.

I think my female OC for him is pretty cute cause she's so geeky and dorky as a researcher but also sassy AF. I wrote the reasoning on why I made her in the first part of the story.

Through the Shadows of Shame Ch 4: In His Element, or: Ludger gets the praise he deserves.