Ludger Cherish

* Mahnwa
* Novel

**2nd Life (current)**

* Benedict Van Bretus (father)†
* Unnamed mother
* Salesin Van Bretus (older brother)
* Deanna Van Bretus (older sister)
* Lawrence Van Bretus & Laurelia Van Bretus (older twin siblings)
* Petra Van Bretus (older brother)

**Elemental Attribute**

* All 10 (publicly 5)

**Ludger Cherish** (not his real name) is the protagonist of *I Got a Fake Job at the Academy*. After he died during a car accident on earth, he was reborn in a world where magic and sciences coexist. Originally, he was on the way to Lindenbrought **to look for fragments of a relic**, before the raid on the train happened.

He accidentally ended up with the identity of Ludger Cherish, a professor of the famous Theorn Academy. Due to John Doe, the executive of Black Dawn who planned to infiltrate Theorn Academy with that identity, he is now stuck between the forces of the Theorn Academy and the secret organization Black Dawn that infiltrated the academy.

## Appearance

Ludger Cherish is a tall man (1,80m+) with sharp, blue eyes (in reality red eyes) and long, black hair. He is described to have sharp jawlines and strong, unshakeable, yet charismatic eyes. His nose looks as if a sculptor had sculpted it with all his might and he has long eyelashes. He is indescribable handsome.

Outsiders describe him as a noble man, "far nobler than any other noble. Every step he took is like a painting". He is often considered as unique and charismatic. Those who receive such a gaze from him will automatically feel embarrassed.

His trained body, which stood out subtly under his clothes, showed that he was different from a normal wizard. The stigma that the Lumensis Church engrave on illegitimate children is visible on his back.

Only gods are able to see the halo, a complex barrier made up of three layers, floating above Ludger's head.

## Personality

Ludger comes across as stoic, solemn, highly intelligent and skilled. Due to his harsh childhood in his second life, he is an expert at bluffing, setting the mood, and is highly observant of his surroundings. He values self-preservation and is quick to eliminate sources of potential threat to his welfare and identity, such as when he burns the werewolves and contemplates killing Aidan, who he thinks is suspicious of him.

In reality, he does often get anxious and caught off-guard by the appearances of his past nemeses and the situations he winds up in, but always hides this behind his stern exterior.

Even before he took over the identity of Ludger Cherish, he was a very thoughtful and careful person. Although it isn't shown much, he has a lot of empathy for helpless people, up to the point where he becomes active himself. Due to his past, he is extremely sensitive to child-related matters.

Ludger has low self-awareness and therefore doesn't realize how powerful he actually is. His standards are ridiculously high, which is why he dismisses his own achievements as nothing special. He admires pretty much every kind-of-powerful person because they are 'talented', but doesn't seem to notice his own talent and intelligence. He often attributes his genius to the knowledge he obtained in his first life.

He is considered as a light in the darkness by the U.N. Owen Members, because he saved them during their darkest moments.

## Background

### 1st life (on Earth)

"Son. You become a shaman", is what Ludger's mother told him back in middle school, after his father passed away early and he was growing up with his ferocious little sister. Since he didn't want to become a shaman, he studied even harder to become a true member of modern society. His mother constantly bothered him about religious things and taught him all kinds of bizarre knowledge (poetry, magic and witchcraft), telling him that he has the qualities of a shaman and all kinds of spirits are watching over him. She even told him that he would get hurt one day and ten years later, he died in a car accident.

### 2nd life

Ludger reincarnated in the world with only the memories of his past life. He did not have any special abilities. Having little support from his new parents, he had to survive on his own.

When Ludger first found out that magic existed in this world, he believed that he would become an arch mage that would go down in history. The fact that he was reincarnated in another world was enough to make his hope. But that dream was soon abandoned, because he didn't have a great talent to learn magic.

The only friend Ludger had at that time was Catherine.
When the royal family discovered that Heathcliff was able to hear the voice of god, they felt threatened by his existence and began a series of assassination attempts. They tried poisoning him, but since a goddess (shown throught the 6th sephirah 'Tiferet') protects and heals him, they weren't able to kill him.
After he encountered Grander who was being hunted by the Holy Kingdom of Bretus, he agreed to follow her and they escaped from the Holy Kingdom of Bretus when he was 7 years old, knowing that if they ever found traces of him, they will try to kill him.
The voices Ludger hears and the powers of the gods are the reason he takes mana pills. He needs them to suppress the holy powers.

He received his Master's spartan teachings and was soon able to confidently say that his basics of magic were more solid than anyone else. From then, the scientific knowledge of the early 21st century was grafted into the procedure of learning magic. Source code was a prime example of that.

He has spent his life in all parts of the world and had many identities and jobs.

Originally, he was on the way to Lindenbrought **to look for fragments of a relic**, before the raid on the train happened and he ended up with the identity of Ludger Cherish.

## Skills and Abilities

### [Source Code]

Ludger developed a way to shorten the spell casting time for the Manifestation System called 'source code', together with his master (he had the idea, but the master actually composed it). It's a kind of blueprint, that outputs a set result immediately by inputting a value, and is made by grafting into the magic itself. He created it based on his memories of his past live.

A hardware (wand or wizard itself), a program (crafted spell) and data (magic) are needed for it. With the source code, one is able to just "stamp" out the formula, just like a printer (compared to a handwritten text). Also, the issue with mistakes made during chanting doesn't exist, but only spells up to 3rd rank can be used with his method. The Source Code formula consists of a total of **four frameworks**.

Despite that, a 6th ranked wizard would still be faster than the source code.

### Real Magic

'Real Magic' is not about magic or knowledge of this world, but magic with the occult and mythological knowledge his 1st life.

When Ludger uses it, he doesn't need to calculate the formula, or cast spells with his mouth, or use his hand gestures in vain. He needs to truly believe, follow, and pray, and the law of change will follow his command.

It's the faith for miracles.

The problem is that the after effects aren't a joke. There is a sound that kept tormenting him and only be suppressed by using magic power, so he is forced to consume magic power. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically replenish my insufficient mana.

With the 'real magic', Ludger is able to heal even scars. The 'real magic' is much closer to the magic of the old age than the magic of the new age (Magic Tower).

It is later revealed that, when he uses Tiferet, an abandoned goddess who truly loved humans (but was betrayed) appears. She can bring back people to live as long as they breathe, but the downside is her appearance (black tentacle alien). The greater her healing is, the more "payment" she demands. The payment refers to human bodies.
**Bhumisparsha Mudra** and **Ars Goetia** also belong to his 'real magic'.

### Ater Nocturnus\*

Ater Nocturns (mahnwa: Ather Nocturnus) is his **Magic Beast** (dark spirit), which usually appear as a black raven or a cloak. It allows him to become invisible. His magic beast, which has another space inside through shadows, can swallow objects and carry it like an invisible bag.

(\*This is the correct spelling that is written in the original novel, meaning 'black nocturne' in Latin.)

### Coordinate Designation Method

A method that allows him to cast magic way father away from its body. Normally it is limited to 1 meter, but Ludger is able to extend the radius. It is magic that transcends space. In combination with his Magic Beast, he is able to teleport himself.

### Klein Bottle

This is an experiment to see the extent to which the magic created through mana can reach. The reason he created the Klein Bottle was because his curiosity for mana was not satiated. With mana one can jump through space (Coordinate Designation Method) and the Klein Bottle was created to prove that as it was a magic that can be manifested in 4 dimensions. However, it only serves to prove the hypothesis because there was still not enough research to apply it to other magic. For now, the magic is purely theoretical and has no practical applications.

### Ars Goetia

When active, Ludger becomes "**ghost-likely**" and gains incredible **self-healing abilities**. It takes a lot of magic power and feels like his body doesn't belong to himself. He then speaks in Latin and says: "Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas" (earthly life is ultimately empty), "Vanity, vanity, all things are vanity" (everything we do is ‘vanity’: empty, futile, and short-lived) and "Vanitas" (worthlessness). It's kind of says that "human activity is pointless".
**Ars Almadel**, meaning "Altar Wine". The beings summoned through this altar were members of the family with celestial powers who had the opposite tendency to demons. It's not actually summoning the celestials.
When activated, Ludger summons sculptures of a winged angels on top of the white marble pillars located in the north, south, east, west, and west. After that, four angles appear, covering their faces with white hoods. They each descended to the ground with a halo of their own symbol floating above their heads:
- Raphael at Easter (spring)
- Uriel from St. John's Tide (summer)
- Michael from Michaelmas (autumn)
- Gabriel of Christmas (winter)

## Pseudonyms

Through his 2nd life, Ludger changed his name quite often. He was a private detective, a thief, a crime consultant, a mercenary and an artist among other things:

## Notes

* Lower ranked spirit fear him, except for dark spirits[*Citation needed*]
* Lacks aspirations or dreams[*Citation needed*]
* Frequently changes clothing (habit developed from constant disguises)[*Citation needed*]
* Tends to underestimate his own abilities
* Has a habit of downplaying his own achievements[*Citation needed*]
* Possesses immunity to poison
* is the vessel created to contain the power of Lumensis and control the world on his behalf (according to Nirva)
* talented at catching fishes

## Synopsis

*For more detailed information, see Rudiger Chelsea/Synopsis*.
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode 1
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Chapter 1
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 7
4. ↑ Chapter 340
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 191
6. ↑ Chapter 308
7. ↑ Chapter 317
8. ↑ Chapter 571
9. ↑ Chapter 338
10. ↑ Chapter 278
11. ↑ Episode 19
12. ↑ Chapter 172
13. ↑ Chapter 74
14. ↑ Chapter 182
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 240
16. ↑ Chapter 202
17. ↑ Episode 32
18. ↑ Chapter 451
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Episode 34
20. ↑ Chapter 389
21. ↑ Chapter 262
22. ↑ Chapter 399
23. ↑ Chapter 558
24. ↑ Chapter 597