Hero Academy (3-46)
Two cloaked figures were approaching me.
No matter how hard I tried to make out their faces beneath the hoods, I couldn't see a thing.
From a distance they looked like the same person, but once they drew close enough for a proper look, the differences became unmistakable. One walked with a refined, careful gait; the other practically bounced along with a restless energy that was impossible to miss.
I leaned toward the one with the graceful stride and whispered quietly.
"Alright. I'm counting on you."
"I will do my utmost."
"It's just night watch. No need to make it sound so serious…"
I gave a hollow little laugh, and both of them flipped their cloaks back over their shoulders, revealing their faces.
Rena and Beatrice.
Rena settled her cloak behind her and spoke in her usual calm tone.
"I have cleared out as many of the nearby monsters as possible. You should have no trouble reaching the other tents."
"Thanks."
"But why go through all this hassle, nyang? Couldn't you just use that travel magic and get there instantly, nyang?"
The travel magic Beatrice was talking about was warp. She had only ever used it to reach the Demon King's Castle, so she had no idea what the limitations were — which was why she was so puzzled.
"There's a daily limit on how many times I can use it."
"Ah, I see, nyang…"
"Alright. Lead the way."
"Got it, nyang."
I pulled my own cloak on and followed Beatrice toward the tents where Oh Jin-ho and Park Huiyeon's group were camped.
As I trailed behind her, I ran my hands over the fabric of the cloak. Even a casual touch was enough to tell the material was absolute garbage.
This trash-tier fabric costs ten thousand Enel apiece…
The effect, however, is quite reliable.
These were the same Perception Impairment Cloaks the infiltrators had worn when they broke into the consulate. I wasn't recycling their dirty laundry — I'd simply seen the item at the time and been able to craft it with Enel.
The problem was that each one cost a full ten thousand Enel. A serious sum.
In any world, the ability to conceal one's identity is extremely useful. Raising it as a Trait would be ideal, but leveling a cloak of this grade would consume an enormous amount of Enel.
And I haven't run into anyone who already has that kind of ability, either.
I smirked to myself and kept following Beatrice.
Thanks to her sweeping the area clean of monsters, we didn't encounter a single one on the way. And even if we had, I planned to slip past them with Stealth.
After about an hour of nonstop walking, I finally spotted a bright glow of firelight in the distance.
The two camps weren't that far apart, but without a clear fix on each other's positions, both groups had been wandering in circles.
As luck would have it, two cadets were standing night watch when we arrived.
I approached as silently as Stealth would allow, put both of them under a Sleep spell, and whispered to Beatrice.
"Beatrice. Keep an eye out."
"Got it, nyang."
Rena had already cleared the nearby monsters, but you never knew what the world might throw at you.
I checked the tents and confirmed where Oh Jin-ho and Park Huiyeon were sleeping.
Might as well dive into both of their dreams while I'm at it.
I didn't need to put them to sleep — they were already out — so mana wouldn't be an issue.
Oh Jin-ho first…
I formed a Dream Intrusion magic circle over Oh Jin-ho, who had magic resistance, and cast the spell.
"Is that true?"
"Have you ever known me to lie?"
Oh Jin-ho was sitting across a table from a shady-looking man in a sealed room. Between them, resting on the tabletop, sat a marble no bigger than a piece of candy.
Oh Jin-ho rolled the marble gently between his fingers and muttered under his breath.
"An item that creates gimmicks…"
"Though it doesn't create the gimmick you want — it's random. And obviously, it only works inside a dungeon."
"That's more than enough. Something like this is already incredible… Any other conditions?"
"It burns through a lot of mana. Though for someone at your level, that shouldn't be a real problem."
"Random results and heavy mana cost. So… how much?"
Oh Jin-ho raised his eyes, making his intent to buy perfectly clear.
The shady man stroked his goatee, then curled his lips into a smile.
"A hundred."
"Fuck…"
Whatever "a hundred" meant, it sure as hell wasn't a hundred thousand won. At minimum, he was talking four extra zeroes.
Oh Jin-ho kept turning the marble over in his hand, staring at it with the look of a man who couldn't bring himself to walk away.
The man rubbed his chin and murmured,
"You know how I am. Start haggling and the deal's off. I'm only giving you this price because it's you."
"Haa… Fine. But it really works, right?"
"You worry too much. Have I ever scammed you? If anything goes wrong, just call me."
The man laughed, handed the marble to Oh Jin-ho, and left the room.
The scene shifted to the interior of a dungeon. Oh Jin-ho, Park Huiyeon, and the rest of the party that had entered earlier began making their way through it.
As they walked in silence, Oh Jin-ho slipped the marble from his pocket, rolled it between his fingers, and started scattering gimmicks among the cadets.
But every time one of those gimmicks went off, his expression didn't look entirely pleased.
Then the dungeon itself began to shake with a deep vibration, and Oh Jin-ho smiled thinly under his breath.
"Perfect…"
…
I pulled out of Oh Jin-ho's dream immediately and dove straight into Park Huiyeon's.
Park Huiyeon was on a call through her smartwatch, her voice thick with irritation.
"Mom… just stop. Why would I even bother meeting some guy like that?"
(Think about your age!)
"?? I'm only twenty-eight."
(You're almost thirty!)
"Haa… Why does age even matter that much… I'm not doing blind dates."
After that, Park Huiyeon had to sit through an unbroken torrent of lecturing through her smartwatch.
She endured the earful for a long while before a question finally cut through the noise.
(Do you have a boyfriend?)
"…I don't know."
(You do, don't you!? You totally do!)
"Haa… I don't know. It's not like that."
Park Huiyeon sighed and opened her mouth.
"I'm not doing blind dates, so I'm hanging up."
(Hey! If you hang up, I swear I'll—)
Park Huiyeon ended the call and immediately powered off the smartwatch entirely.
The scene shifted from a room to the entrance of a dungeon.
She and Oh Jin-ho had just come out of a dungeon and started talking — and the entire conversation was nothing but complaints about me.
"This is so annoying…"
"Don't make it so obvious."
"But…"
"I'll handle it. Just put up with it until then."
"Hnn… Fine."
The irritation that had been written all over Park Huiyeon's face a moment earlier vanished. She broke into a bright smile and fell into step behind him.
"Krrrk… krrrk…"
When I came out of two consecutive Dream Intrusions, the first thing that greeted me was Oh Jin-ho's snoring.
So it was this bastard. Snoring piece of shit…
What did you see in the dreams?
Well…
I explained everything I'd witnessed inside the dreams to Armonia.
He likely kept activating it because of the randomness you mentioned.
Well, I've got the culprits…
But so what? Even if I reported them, it wasn't as if the Church would take my word for it.
And if I went to the consulate, I'd only make my own position more awkward. The Church would almost certainly lean on them to have me fired.
Given how carefully I needed to stay out of the spotlight, the smart move was to let it slide quietly.
And yet…
Fuck. Smart is smart, but just letting this go is pissing me off.
Looking at what these two had done, I could barely believe it.
Where the hell do they get the balls to pull shit like this?
Because the status of a Hero carries that much power.
I'd been trying to understand their behavior by the standards of the world I'd come from.
That was the problem.
The psychology of people who called themselves Heroes — especially the ones living under the Church — was nothing like what an ordinary person would think.
They fought life-or-death battles in places where death was always one step away, and in return they earned the title of Hero. And if their affiliation was a good one, the organization would cover for them no matter what happened.
The Church, in particular, was powerful enough to clamp down on the media the moment anything inconvenient came up.
Except these two seem to be confusing 'powerful' with 'untouchable.'
They cause trouble precisely because nothing ever sticks to them.
Their goal wasn't the cadets' respect.
They simply wanted to draw a clear line between themselves and me — to make the cadets understand just how much power mattered.
Fuck… How much of a scene did I make that they'd go this far — far enough to think about killing people?
And from what I'd seen, they didn't seem particularly concerned about Yoon Jia either.
If Yoon Jia, the cadets, and I all died, they could just bury the truth and move on. What mattered to them was bringing back the cadets under their own command without a single scratch — and making sure everyone knew it.
Hide the process in the shadows. Present only the shining result.
I'd more or less figured out the situation.
The problem was what came next.
The second our groups meet, they're going to start throwing gimmicks again and making life hell…
If the two groups joined up as things stood, their dissatisfaction would almost certainly push them to set off more gimmicks. Right now the party composition was still decent, but if Yoon Jia and the cadets ever got separated from the rest of us, things could turn extremely dangerous.
Armonia.
Yes.
Pull up those two's Traits for me.
"Nngh…. Hah—!"
The male cadet lifted his eyelids, staring blankly for a moment — then his eyes flew wide as if he'd been struck by a seizure, and he whipped his head around to check his surroundings.
Three tents. A lantern casting light across the area. And a female cadet dozing against his shoulder, breathing softly.
Once he'd confirmed all of it, he exhaled a long breath of pure relief.
"Whew…. Thank god."
Nothing had gone wrong while he'd dozed off. The tension drained from his face and his head drooped forward.
Then he turned that drooping head just slightly to look at the girl leaning on him.
"…Of course she's asleep too."
At first he found the whole situation absurd — a girl sleeping on his shoulder — but as the panic settled, he started thinking it wasn't entirely a bad thing.
He left her where she was and muttered to himself.
"Why ban dating for cadets, anyway…"
He was still mumbling when he looked back toward the front.
"…Huh?"
There was nothing visible, exactly — but a low, guttural howl began sliding into his ears.
Kreeeeek…
The moment he recognized the sound pressing against his eardrums, his face hardened. He jerked his shoulder and knocked the girl's head off it.
Thwack!
"Kyaah! Wh-what!?"
"Everyone up! Hostiles!"
"H-hostiles!?"
At the cadet's shout, shapes that had been nothing but blurs in the darkness began resolving into the clear outlines of monsters.
Crunch!
"Kieeeek…"
The insect-type monster, its torso split clean in two, let out a short death cry and went still.
Park Huiyeon finished it off and immediately started grumbling.
"Haa… Of course it had to be while we were sleeping…"
"Nngh…"
"You okay?"
She walked over to Oh Jin-ho and checked on him. Compared to her and the cadets, he looked thoroughly exhausted.
"Yeah… I'm fine…"
"You look anything but fine…"
Park Huiyeon laughed and gave his shoulder a couple of light pats.
Guess he'll never get over how badly he handles sleep.
She thought that to herself as she scanned the area.
Because of the sudden attack, the cadets had been forced into the fighting this time — unlike before.
Damn it… This field trip really has the worst luck imaginable.
She kept complaining under her breath, but on the outside she put on a smile and called out to the cadets.
"Good work."
"…Thank you for your efforts."
"Hey, this is experience too, right?"
The cadets answered with bitter little smiles and started slowly clearing away the corpses.
Park Huiyeon was about to start giving them instructions when she stopped mid-sentence.
"Alright, everyone, pile the bodies over th— wait…"
"…?"
At her words, everyone went still. Even Oh Jin-ho reacted, looking up at her.
"What is it?"
"Everyone… weapons up…"
Following her gaze, the cadets slowly turned their eyes toward the darkness.
Staring into that black space, Park Huiyeon murmured under her breath.
"You… who are you?"
…
In the dark, a cloaked figure stood perfectly straight with a sword in hand — like a reaper waiting in the shadows.