Berserker Blood
From the far end of the sparring grounds, I watched William blaze with blue light.
Something had changed in him without warning. The azure radiance erupted outward, his mana surging so violently that even I, standing opposite him, could feel it with absolute clarity.
I knew exactly what that blue light meant.
His S-rank talent: Effort.
Unlike other talents, which only granted skills related to their own nature, Effort allowed its owner to acquire and use any skill whatsoever — limited solely by how hard they were willing to work for it.
In the story of Hero Con Brio, William had overcome trial after trial through sheer will and courage, and each time his talent rewarded him with a new skill. The result was a growth rate no one else could match — higher, faster, always climbing. A talent worthy of a true protagonist.
And that special quality was revealing itself right now, in the middle of our spar.
Awakening. Growth. The acquisition of a skill.
The stronger William became, the fewer crises this world would face — and the fewer crises I would face along with it. He was the protagonist, after all. Destined to grow, and grow again, until he saved the world.
Obviously, the protagonist getting stronger was a good thing. It should have been a good thing…
So why does this piss me off?
I thought about it for a moment. Ah. That was it.
He was looking down on me. Using me as a stepping stone.
…You dare try to use me as a foothold?
Of course, growth of this level still wouldn't be enough to beat me as I was now. It was nothing more than a crushed insect thrashing underfoot. Meaningless struggle. But I didn't like it. A seething discomfort rose from deep inside me and took hold of my emotions, and the mana that shared that fury answered its master by burning even redder, even fiercer.
Arrogant.
William's sudden growth event seemed to have run its course. Blue mana still wreathed his body as he fixed me with eyes that had grown noticeably deeper.
Arrogant bastard!
Then came his new activation chant. At that eyesore of a sight, I compressed mana into the weapon in my hand and recited a chant of my own.
"<O sword, become the light that cleaves despair.>"
Sword Impact
His wooden sword flared so brilliantly that its shape vanished from the naked eye, flaunting its power.
"<With movements like light, crush the enemy.>"
Charge of Annihilation
I thrust my mana-laden staff toward him as well, leaving a trail of crimson afterimages as I became a falling meteor.
Staff and sword closed the distance at blistering speed, trailing brilliant red and blue radiance. The two intensified forces were about to collide —
"Sorry, but anything beyond this is out of bounds."
Thud.
Someone appeared between William and me as if rising from the ground itself, and the skills we had unleashed were stopped with almost insulting ease.
"!!"
"!?"
Only after registering that my skill had been blocked and deactivating Dragon Blood did my racing heart finally settle. The boiling rage melted away the instant the skill was released, vanishing like snow under the sun.
"W-who are you?"
William's ultra-focused state from the awakening shattered, and he stood there flustered, unable to process what had just happened.
A beautiful silver-haired woman stood before us, still holding a wooden staff in one hand and a wooden sword in the other, residual mana still rippling along both weapons. The moment I saw her face, I knew exactly who she was.
The strongest student currently enrolled at Hero Academy.
"Dorothy Rothermere."
In the game, she and her older brother Gawain Rothermere — heir to Duke Rothermere — were famous as an overpowered sibling duo. Neither was a playable character, but every time they appeared in the story they left a massive impact. Gawain had already graduated from the Academy, but Dorothy Rothermere entered the story as the Academy's strongest student, holding the position of Student Council President at the time of the protagonist's enrollment. She showed up often enough that her popularity was enormous. I'd seen hundreds of fan arts of her online alone. There was no way I wouldn't recognize that face.
"My, my. Did we forget the word 'senpai' somewhere along the way? Win. Ches. Ter. Junior."
She clearly disliked my attitude; I could feel her grip tighten on the wooden staff. But with the spar already over, I had no reason to keep holding a weapon, so I simply let go of the staff.
"Dropping your own weapon? That's a demerit for a hero."
Having unintentionally confiscated my staff, she stared at me with an incredulous look.
"That belongs to the Academy, not to me. Since you took it, kindly return it to the equipment room."
"Hmm."
Dorothy looked me over the way one might examine a curious animal, then shrugged as if conceding the point. She released William's sword as well and spoke.
"It seems Junior Winchester already knows who I am, but still."
She cleared her throat with a small ahem and looked between William and me.
"My name is Dorothy Rothermere. Second-year. I serve as Vice President of the Student Council at Hero Academy, which you'll both be attending starting today."
"It's an honor to meet you, senpai. I'm William Grants. A commoner."
William seemed to have calmed down somewhat; he bowed his head to Dorothy in a steadier voice. Since both of them already appeared to know my name, I skipped the self-introduction and went straight to the question that was bothering me.
"Why is a second-year in a first-year training hall?"
You have no business being here.
The student training facilities were open to everyone at the Academy, but each year had its own building. A second-year should have been using a different hall entirely — there was no reason for her to be here at this hour of the morning.
"Well, first of all, I apologize for watching your spar without permission. I was out jogging when I heard the sound of clashing mana early in the morning, so I came by as a member of the Student Council to check things out."
She said she was truly sorry, and I almost doubted my own ears. The training hall was sealed by a mana-blocking barrier that cut off all mana flow between inside and outside — and yet she claimed to have heard the sound of clashing mana from outdoors, while running. That was a feat beyond anything I could even imagine.
I'd believe she was an active-duty hero out in the field.
A monster like this was only one year our senior.
Having apologized, Dorothy's expression hardened slightly as she continued.
"But you two aren't blameless either. As freshmen you might not know this yet, but Hero Academy strictly forbids the use of skills during student spars without a professor present. That's a serious violation of school rules, you know?"
"I'm sorry, senpai. We'll be more careful from now on."
Dorothy nodded, apparently pleased by William's prompt apology, then fixed her gaze on me — who had said nothing — with eyes that clearly asked, Aren't you going to apologize?
"…Fine. I'll show leniency."
She didn't seem satisfied with my answer; I almost thought I saw a vein twitch on her elegant forehead. But I had no intention of apologizing any further.
What? Why? So what?
Yes, she was on the Student Council, and yes, she would eventually rise to Student Council President — but right now her position was only Vice President. She had no authority to punish us. The most she could do was report us to a professor, and at the start of the term no one was going to hand down a serious penalty. More importantly, there weren't many professors bold enough to discipline the heir of House Winchester.
So what exactly do you think you can do?
I'd only broken the rules in the first place because I'd already thought that far ahead.
"Besides, those last skills you used — someone could have been seriously hurt. You don't want to spend your first day of school stuck in a hospital bed, do you?"
I gave a slight nod at her words. She wasn't wrong. That final exchange had crossed a line after I'd lost control of my emotions. Even so, with my current stats I could have finished things without any real damage.
Tch. In the end, all I did was waste time.
I'd come out for morning exercise, and this was the mess I'd walked into.
"I'll be heading back. Clean up after yourselves."
The heat of the spar had completely cooled. On top of that, I needed to think more carefully about the problem I'd discovered during the fight, so returning to the dorm was the right call. Leaving the two of them behind without a second thought, I turned and headed for the exit. Dorothy shouted something noisy behind me, but I ignored it and stepped out of the training hall.
Click.
Shhhhhhhhh.
In the dormitory shower, I let the cold water pour over me and thought about what had just happened.
"Damn it! Of all things, that skill had to be a goddamn berserker-type."
The skill name floating on the hologram beside the shower head read Dragon Blood — a skill that massively boosted every stat, including the user's mana. When activated, small horns sprouted from the head and the user's mana turned blood-red.
But during that spar, I'd discovered a serious problem with my reliable workhorse of a skill.
A berserker skill.
In the game Hero Con Brio, "berserker" referred to skills used by the Berserker talent of the warrior class — skills that granted enormous stat boosts for a limited time in exchange for a detrimental effect called Frenzy. In the game, Frenzy sounded dramatic but amounted to little more than a continuous drain on Mind Points — MP, essentially mental energy. And even if MP hit zero, the character didn't die. The skill simply ended. So for all the talk of "detrimental effects" and "frenzy," it was no big deal.
But once it became reality, the danger was entirely different. How dangerous a skill that actively eroded your sanity in real time could be needed no explanation. It didn't even have to reach zero. Just keeping Dragon Blood active a little longer during the spar with William had been enough for something trivial to send rage boiling up through me — until fury swallowed my mind whole.
"Worst possible start."
My memorable first day of school was stacking an ominous flag before it had even properly begun.