Bloodstains on the Rooftop
"Are you two all right?"
The moment those words came through, Cho Seohyun's mind snapped sharp. She twisted clear of another charging creature and pressed her wrist to her mouth.
"What the hell was that? Did you just shoot that?"
"We'll talk about that later… Is Instructor Seong Sua all right?"
"…"
Seohyun's brow twitched. She turned her head and checked on Seong Sua.
Seeing Sua push herself upright, Seohyun spoke straight into the watch.
"She's fine."
"Good. I'll keep providing cover."
"…Okay."
A moment later, the smartwatch screen flashed a message that the call had ended.
What the hell? He calls me, asks about her, and hangs up? You little…
Seohyun swallowed the surge of indignation and sprinted over to Sua, shouting as she ran.
"Just stay put! In the state you're in, being alone is more dangerous!"
Sua looked up at the woman who had come racing to her side—not with gratitude, but with a strange, complicated light in her eyes.
"Unnie… do you talk to Instructor Sung Suho that often?"
"What? Where is this coming from all of a sudden?"
Seohyun floundered, on the verge of babbling—but neither of them had the luxury of fretting over it.
The creatures that had faltered under that golden shaft of light were already charging again.
Thwip…
"—__!"
From far off came the snap of Sung Suho's bowstring, and an arrow buried itself in the chest of the creature bearing down on them.
Sua pulled herself together.
"I—I'm sorry for saying something weird. Let's deal with this first."
"…"
As if in full agreement, Seohyun dropped straight into her stance.
After that, things went more smoothly than either of them expected.
Suho's arrows kept coming, and Seohyun fell into rhythm with his covering fire, cutting the creatures down one after another. Sua stayed behind her, under her protection, waiting it out.
Relief washed over Sua—and right on its heels, a flush of shame.
Of all times… he had to see me when my mana was completely gone…
The moment Suho had stepped in was precisely when her mana had run dry. Mana wasn't the kind of convenient power you could top off just because you wanted to.
And another memory kept needling at her.
She hadn't caught the details, but right after loosing that beam of light, Suho had called Seohyun.
Not her.
Those two… are they close enough to call each other like that?
Seohyun had started showing up at lunch every single day, wedging herself between Suho and Sua at the table. A woman who never set foot in the cafeteria had suddenly made it a habit.
Sua had always looked kindly on Seohyun taking an interest in a man.
The problem was that the man was Sung Suho.
…No. No matter how I look at it, those two don't suit each other at all.
Sua shook her head without realizing it and scanned the surroundings.
With Seohyun's assault and Suho's covering fire working in tandem, the situation was nothing like before. The number of creatures pouring in was steadily dropping.
WEEE-OOO-WEEE-OOO!
A shrill siren blared across the academy grounds, and a warning message rolled out over the speakers.
Multiple intruders detected within the Hero Academy! Combat personnel on campus, respond immediately. Non-combat personnel, evacuate the buildings at once…
The broadcast continued, hammering home the creatures' weak points.
Crunch!
"Whew… one less thing to worry about."
The words had barely left Seohyun's mouth when several instructors appeared across the grounds and threw themselves into the fight. With the creatures' numbers thinning fast, the situation was all but resolved.
Seohyun let out a long breath, then lifted her smartwatch and tried to call.
She stared at the screen for a long moment, then tilted her head and muttered,
"…What? Why isn't he picking up?"
"Instructor Sung Suho?"
"Yeah… Why won't he answer?"
At Seohyun's puzzled frown, Sua's expression turned grave.
"Unnie… Instructor Sung Suho… who did he go up to the roof with?"
"…"
Seohyun thought hard for a beat—then her body shot forward as she shouted,
"Oh, fuck!"
"W-wait, me too—!"
"No! You stay here!!"
Seohyun left Sua behind and bolted into the building Suho had climbed. She cut straight through cadets and instructors alike, ignored the creatures still thrashing on the floors, and took the stairs two and three at a time.
One leap carried her to a landing; the next put her on the floor above. She tore up the stairwell at a dead sprint, praying under her breath.
Please… please…!
Whatever state he was in—just let nothing terrible have happened to him.
BOOM!
She hit the rooftop, kicked the steel door open, and burst outside.
"Hah… hah… hah… What the…"
What met Cho Seohyun's eyes was an empty rooftop, painted in blood—and not a soul in sight.
The chaos that had erupted in the night was only barely brought under control by morning.
Sunlight washed over the Hero Academy's buildings, catching on their surfaces in beautiful, gleaming colors—but the scene around them told a very different story.
Corpses littered the grounds both inside and outside the academy, proof of the ferocious fighting that had raged through the night. Most of the bodies belonged to the creatures, but here and there cadets lay face-down on the pavement, cold and still.
Not only the cadets—every member of the academy staff had turned out to begin clearing the grounds.
Two figures walking toward the central campus watched the cleanup with furrowed brows as they talked.
"This is a disaster… What's the damage?"
"My apologies. It's still too early to assess the full scale…"
The man asking the questions looked to be in his mid-forties, standing a little over six feet with a hard, intimidating face. His name was Oh Jinho—the principal of the Hero Academy.
The woman answering him stood around five-seven, dressed in a monochrome tailored suit that all but screamed secretary. She was in her mid-thirties. Her name was Park Heehyun, the principal's secretary.
They kept walking as they spoke.
"Even last break didn't blow over easily… This time they're going to sink their teeth in and not let go."
"Judging by what was stolen, their objective seems quite clear."
"…The capsules."
The principal's face tightened as he pictured the VR capsules housed in the academy's training facility.
"Damn it… Have you contacted them?"
"Yes. But Evrica—the company that leased us the VR capsules—hasn't given us any meaningful response yet."
"This is a nightmare… I'm more worried about them than the bastards who did this…"
Evrica Company.
The only corporation in the world that manufactured and sold VR equipment. Their main business was VR headgear, though they occasionally leased full VR capsules to key institutions in certain countries.
The Hero Academy was one of those institutions.
The public believed the capsules could be purchased outright. In reality, they were available only by lease. Evrica rented them exclusively to organizations that met their stringent conditions—and management was handled solely by staff the company itself dispatched.
"If they tell us to pull every last capsule, I might end up the sacrificial lamb and lose the principal's chair."
"That wouldn't… well, it is… possible, but…"
"…Just say it's possible."
Muttering darkly, the principal stalked on toward the central building.
When the two of them arrived, others were already waiting.
Four people—two men and two women of varying ages—sat around a table and opened the discussion.
"So… I hear this whole mess was staged to force the principal into early retirement. Is that true?"
"What? You crazy bastard…"
The man who'd asked the question laughed it off, easing the tension in the room. After a few more light exchanges, the man they called Principal steered them back to business.
"The leaders of the three guilds, the representative of the Mage Tower… and the Holy Father of the Church, who has yet to arrive… Thank you all for coming."
"Have you identified them?"
"…Not at all. If they'd been the kind of faces you half-recognize, I might have had a lead. These were people I'd never seen before."
The three guild leaders traded observations among themselves.
"I only got a brief look, but their outer shells were no joke."
"They had weak points, though—didn't look like much once you knew that."
"The problem is magic doesn't work on those shells."
"Good lord… If things like that start running around, the magic-track cadets are going to face a job crisis."
For all the gravity of the incident, the conversation in the room had the casual tone of neighbors gossiping about a domestic spat. They said whatever came to mind as they picked over the attack on the academy.
Then the woman who had been silent until now—the one called the representative of the Mage Tower—quietly raised her hand.
Long hair. Beautiful eyes. Neat attire… and the face of a little girl. At a glance she looked no older than thirteen.
Even so, the principal bowed his head and addressed her with full honorifics.
"Yes, please go ahead, Lady Ye-riel."
Ye-riel—classified as a top-tier mage in the magical division. Her physical growth had stopped at some point, leaving her with the appearance of an elementary-school child, yet she was old enough that everyone in the room owed her deference.
She regarded the principal with a blank face and asked, soft and even,
"Have you determined their objective?"
"…The capsules."
"That is serious."
With that, Ye-riel closed her eyes and sank back into thought. In the silence that followed, the three guild leaders picked up the thread again.
"If it was the capsules, security on those is airtight even on a normal day, isn't it?"
"…And they still got taken. On top of that, we're looking for the security officers in charge—and so far, no word that any of them have been found."
"Two possibilities, then…"
"Either they were in on it, or their bodies are lying somewhere waiting to be recovered…"
Everyone in the room took it as given that those officers were already dead. Anyone bold enough to pull a job like this wouldn't have bothered leaving the guards alive.
They were still talking when someone else entered the principal's office.
"My, my~ Forgive me for being late."
A man with a smile plastered across his face strolled in at an unhurried pace. He wore a white suit and stood somewhere in the mid-to-upper five-foot-nines; by appearance, he looked to be in his fifties.
Grinning from ear to ear, he took a seat across from Ye-riel.
The principal looked at the man in white and spoke.
"Thank you for coming."
"Hahahaha~ When the principal himself extends the invitation, of course I come."
The man in the white suit lifted both palms slightly and beamed. He was Shin Seokwon—the Holy Father of the Church.
Wearing that sly, oily smile, he went on,
"I was briefed on the full situation on my way here. The moment I return to the Church, I'll dispatch our people."
"Thank you. With your help—"
"However!"
"…?"
At Shin Seokwon's interjection, every head in the room turned and fixed on him. Confirming he had their full attention, he smiled even wider.
"We will be taking custody of every last one of those creatures' corpses."
"…"
The principal and the three guild leaders answered him with silence.
The Church's influence was overwhelming beyond words. The Hero Academy was a national institution, yet it did not run on tax revenue. Seventy percent of its operating funds came from the Church. The remaining thirty percent was donated by the Mage Tower and the three major guilds.
Neither the principal nor the guild leaders had any desire to pick a fight and invite headaches.
While the room sat in that heavy quiet, one person raised a hand straight up and voiced her opposition.
"That won't do."
"Hahaha…. Lady Ye-riel."
Shin Seokwon answered her with a bright, cheerful laugh.
"I wasn't asking for your consent."
"…"
"Or… does Lady Ye-riel possess the means to quietly bury yesterday's incident at the academy?"
"…"
Shin Seokwon smiled brightly as he looked at her. Ye-riel stared back, expressionless.
The Church—the most powerful organization in the world—and the Mage Tower, which had always occupied the shadow just behind it, were something close to natural enemies. But the gap in capital, the Church's deep roots through politics and finance, its power to crush the press flat… one could almost say a god had set an unbridgeable wall between first and second place. The power dynamic was that stark.
Even so, Ye-riel showed no sign of backing down.
Fortunately, there was someone in the room who could mediate. The principal spoke up.
"Ah… Lady Ye-riel. I believe it would be best to yield on this occasion."
"…Hmph. Do as you like."
She closed her eyes and fell silent once more.
Shin Seokwon gave a soft little clap of his hands.
"Then I'll take it there are no further objections. Of course, we'll also handle the external press on our end."
"…"
Discontent sat plain on every face—but no one raised another objection.