Hero Academy (3-14)
"Haa… haa… haa…."
Seong Sua barely made it to the bathroom, ignoring the heart that felt ready to burst from her chest.
When she first woke from the dream, the only real trouble had been a brief disorientation — the boundary between dream and reality blurring just enough to leave her startled.
The real problem came after.
Something had been pressing between her thighs, right where Sung Suho had been lying.
"It can't be… That's impossible…. Right… this week was that time of the month, wasn't it?"
Seong Sua desperately hoped the alien sensation between her legs was nothing more than the monthly magic that visited once every four weeks.
If it really was that clear, sticky fluid she was thinking of — the kind that looked like water-diluted glue — she was fairly certain she would despise herself.
Just recognizing that she had been aroused was enough. Guilt toward Sung Suho spread through every capillary in her body like ink blooming through water.
She lifted her skirt, slowly lowered her underwear, and looked.
"……Whew."
It was stained red.
"Must have started while I dozed off."
Seong Sua pulled a pad from the bag she had brought and changed it.
And yet, in a place that should have held only menstrual blood, she could still feel liquid rolling and sliding.
"No… it can't be…. That's ridiculous…."
She shook her head, muttering like someone casting a self-hypnosis spell, finished cleaning up in a hurry, and headed back to the empty classroom where Sung Suho was still waiting.
Seong Sua walked with Sung Suho from the empty room toward the magic classroom.
"I'm sorry…. My head suddenly got dizzy…."
"No, it's fine. I'm just glad you're all right. I should have gone after you — I just panicked when I woke up so suddenly…."
"Ah, no, it's okay…."
Seong Sua's eyes went wide for a second as she muttered inwardly.
Normally he really would have followed me…. Thank god he didn't.
She tried to walk calmly, but she could not stop her legs from trembling.
And the thing making her condition worse than anything else was Sung Suho walking right beside her.
Haa… Not only did I fall asleep by accident, I even had a dream like that….
Seong Sua did not suspect Sung Suho in the slightest.
She simply decided the dream had been a natural phenomenon born of her own frustration.
Still, she had never expected to receive a massage that stirred sexual feelings from the younger Sung Suho.
…Is it because of my period? Am I really that pent up?
With that thought, she glanced sideways at Sung Suho walking next to her.
He was already looking at her.
"…Is something wrong?"
"Ah, nothing at all!"
She whipped her head the other way and muttered to herself.
If it had at least been Instructor Sung Suho — the adult version — I wouldn't feel this mortified….
Burdened by the guilt of having done something unspeakable to the younger Sung Suho, she walked toward the classroom with heavy steps.
Seong Sua started class, barely managed to pull her mind together, and focused on teaching the cadets.
Cho Seohyun tended to rely on physical movement, so once her body got going, her attention usually locked onto the lesson on its own.
Seong Sua, by contrast, ran classes that were mostly explanation — which demanded even greater concentration.
Under those conditions, she gave everything she had to staying focused.
After pushing through the lesson, she finished class to the cadets' farewells.
"Thank you for your hard work~"
"Right, you all did well. See you tomorrow."
In a gentle voice, Seong Sua sent the cadets back to the dormitory.
Only after confirming everyone had left did she let out a long breath and turn to me.
"You worked hard today. And… I'm sorry."
"Hm? Sorry for what, exactly?"
"I was trying to let you rest. Instead I just got in the way…."
Seong Sua clasped both hands over her lower abdomen and began apologizing.
My eyes fixed on the lower belly where her palms crossed.
Damn… I need to stamp a Womb Crest on that spot already.
[….]
While I was briefly distracted by Seong Sua's womb — no, her lower abdomen — her apology kept going.
"I even fell asleep on top of everything…."
I snapped out of it at the endless stream of apologies and cut her off.
"Instructor Seong Sua."
"…Yes?"
"If you keep apologizing like this, I'm the one who ends up embarrassed."
"B-but…."
I stepped closer to the hesitant Seong Sua and spoke with a bitter smile.
"You were looking out for me and trying to help. If you keep apologizing for that, I won't be able to face you anymore."
"Th-that's…."
"And…."
"….?"
I pretended to hesitate, then let out a deep sigh and opened my mouth.
"I don't want this kind of distance growing between us, Instructor Seong Sua."
"Ah…."
Fortunately her expression softened. She smiled and looked up at me.
She stared for several minutes, then stepped closer and whispered quietly.
"I'm truly sorry. I only ended up putting pressure on you for no reason."
Having said that, she gave me the same bright, fresh smile as always.
"Even setting the earlier incident aside, the fact remains that I burdened you today."
"No. It wasn't that bad…."
"Would you happen to be free Friday evening?"
"Friday evening?"
Seong Sua explained that she planned to leave right after Friday classes this week — not Saturday — to buy a legitimate copy of Animal Village.
I almost laughed out loud at that.
"Couldn't you just sleep in and go on Saturday?"
"No! Do you have any idea how hard it's been not being able to play? Honestly, the reason I accidentally fell asleep earlier was because of that."
Seong Sua planted both hands on her hips and insisted she had dozed off from the fatigue of not being able to game lately.
The sleep had been my skill, of course — but thanks to the magic circle, she seemed not to have sensed my magic at all.
If even someone at Seong Sua's level couldn't detect it, this thing is basically broken in this world, isn't it?
Even so, please exercise caution. You used Enel for mana recovery after only ten minutes of use.
Got it. I'll just have to watch anti-magic resistance carefully.
The reason I hadn't been able to follow Seong Sua when she panicked and fled the moment she woke was mana exhaustion.
Inside the dream it barely registered — but the second I woke, the backlash hit like a truck.
I really need to be careful. Unless it's a special case like Seong Sua, I should stick to either Sleep or Dream Intrusion — not both.
While I was filing away the points I needed to watch, Seong Sua confirmed the appointment again.
"So — are you free this Friday evening?"
I gave a light nod at her question.
"I am."
"…Why isn't he here?"
Cho Seohyun tapped the sole of her foot against the floor, waiting for Sung Suho.
He hadn't actually missed the appointed time, but her muttering still carried a note of complaint.
"What's so important about that damn meal that he has to eat it every single time…. Don't tell me he's late because he's eating with Seong Sua."
Her brow furrowed; her eyebrows twitched.
An image flashed through her mind — Sung Suho and Seong Sua laughing and chatting over a meal.
And then the image of herself, waiting for him alone.
"…Just you wait. Starting tomorrow, I'm eating dinner too."
The moment she made that private resolution—
Whoosh.
The door to the VR training room opened, and Sung Suho strolled in at an easy pace.
"I'm here. Shall we go in?"
"…."
He hadn't done anything wrong.
And yet the sight of him approaching with that bright smile somehow felt unfair.
Some people wait alone in silence, and some people get to eat with a woman….
Grumbling inwardly, she finished operating the capsule, then turned to look at Sung Suho.
"All right, let's head in… Wh-what's wrong?"
Sung Suho had turned his head and was staring somewhere with terrifying eyes.
His face wore a killing intent she had never seen from him before.
Even though he wasn't looking at her, Cho Seohyun froze on the spot; her forearms began to tremble.
The atmosphere of the Sung Suho who usually behaved so properly in front of her had flipped so completely that she couldn't easily get words out.
She barely managed to steady herself and open her mouth.
"I… I-I'm sorry…."
"Hm? Sorry for what?"
Sung Suho instantly switched back to his usual bright expression and looked at Cho Seohyun.
She continued in a dejected tone.
"I… I'm sorry I broke our promise yesterday… and sorry I didn't greet you properly earlier…."
"What? Where is this coming from all of a sudden…."
"Looking at your face just now… it was obvious you were angry…. I'm sorry…."
"Hahaha!"
"Wh-why are you laughing!"
Sung Suho laughed for a long while at Cho Seohyun's flustered face, unable to explain the reason.
Only after he had laughed himself out and climbed into the VR capsule could Sung Suho finally offer an explanation.
At that explanation, Cho Seohyun pressed a hand to her chest in relief and grumbled.
"…Seriously, you make a face like that just because you saw a fly?"
"Haha… I'm sorry. I really hate them."
"Haa… Why would you make someone misunderstand like that."
"My apologies. I'll be more careful."
Sung Suho bowed his head in apology.
Cho Seohyun looked past him to the opposite side and let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Whew… So he wasn't mad at me. Thank god.
It wasn't that Cho Seohyun had felt fear or dread from Sung Suho's killing intent itself.
She had felt fear and dread in a different sense entirely.
She had been afraid that Sung Suho, watching her sulk and complain, had taken offense.
Afraid that he might have started to dislike her.
…I really need to drop this habit of grumbling.
Looking at Sung Suho walking calmly beside her, Cho Seohyun became certain of one thing.
She wanted to keep staying next to him.
While she was thinking that, the two of them arrived at the shooting range.
Cho Seohyun in a cadet's appearance. Sung Suho in an instructor's uniform.
"Um… Instructor. I'll be in your care again today."
"Of course. I'll teach you everything I know, as far as I can."
Looking at each other, the two of them smirked and began archery training.
"Hoo…."
The moment Cho Seohyun entered her room, she dove onto the bed the way she always did.
As the mattress bounced, her lips loosened at the same time.
"The instructor role… really suits him."
Cho Seohyun had been receiving archery training from Sung Suho for quite a while now.
Throughout the sessions he kept suggesting that once she reached a certain level, it would be better to find someone else.
Since her real purpose had never been learning archery in the first place, she let those comments slide right past her.
"Hmph… Why would he say something like that… idiot…."
But setting archery aside, he had planted a sense of security in Cho Seohyun.
He was not the kind of person who shook like an aspen and left wounds with every branch.
Sung Suho was like a great old tree she could lean against.
And what had taken root deepest in Cho Seohyun's memory was the physical contact with him.
Those hands might have felt unpleasant if they had been real — but Cho Seohyun never found them unpleasant at all.
If anything, there was only a version of herself that looked forward to that touch.
She rolled onto her side, fidgeted, and muttered.
"I really… that person… no…."
Cho Seohyun swallowed the word that had almost left her mouth and kept it inside.
She was alone.
There was no one around.
And yet the feeling that someone might somehow hear her made her refuse, in the end, to let her true feelings out.
Even Cho Seohyun herself still found her emotions ambiguous.
In that state, she did not want to speak the words aloud and turn them into something definitive.
But she smiled as she felt that ambiguous state.
What does it matter either way…. It's not like someone like him would ever like someone like me….
Cho Seohyun's bright smile shifted into a bitter one as she closed her eyes.
As I entered VR, I spoke over the comms.
Armonia, can you take a photo of SaintBlue's face and run an identity check through Zodiac?
It is possible, but it will not be easy.
The main difficulty was that the photo would have to be taken inside VR.
Even if the appearance was nearly one hundred percent synchronized, identifying an ordinary person from a face alone was no simple task.
On top of that, SaintBlue normally played a reaper-concept character — a skull face wrapped in a cloak.
No matter how clearly the face came through, nothing about the rest of the appearance could be known, so tracking them down would take enormous time and cost.
Can't we just crack the VR server?
That would be impossible for Zodiac as well as for the Sanctuary.
…Why?
I couldn't understand it.
Those two protagonists couldn't touch the VR system?
Both protagonists are, by nature, figures built on raw combat power. They could learn hacking-related skills, but at this stage they would consider the Enel cost of leveling in that direction a waste.
So they're nothing more and nothing less than tools raised for Enel.
Whether it was Cho Kang-hyun or the leader of the freaks, in the end they were nothing but protagonists manufactured so the gods' proxies could harvest Enel.
From their perspective, of course, they had become the strongest in their world — so they had no reason to complain.
Besides, they wouldn't even know other worlds existed….
More importantly, this world's VR system was created by a genius in the past, and to this day there has never been a single successful hack — it is that solid.
Whoa….
I listened to the lecture on the VR system as I logged into Watch of Legends.
Still, at least for a while I should be able to play Watch of Legends alone. That's a relief.
After finishing Cho Seohyun's archery training, I had advised her not to play the game.
("It's not like I love that game all that much…. Can't we just play together?")
("I think archery training is fundamentally about mental strength. It's better to avoid anything that might scatter your focus as much as possible.")
("…Fine. I'll do as you say, In.struc.tor.")
("Haha….")
Cho Seohyun would probably follow my words, so I didn't have to worry about her dropping in midway.
And if she snuck in anyway, I could just bluff that I'd been waiting just in case….
The moment the login confirmation appeared, someone was already waiting for me today, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"You're even later today."
"Hello."
I smiled at the brightly grinning SaintBlue and spoke over the comms.
Tell them to look into it even if it takes a long time.
Understood.
After that, I continued my undefeated streak of games with SaintBlue.