A Test From Day One
The status window said she was the heroine. And yet my instincts were telling me to keep my distance.
Everything about her was off, from beginning to end. I could accept the part where she was unidentified, but even her behavior was strange.
The moment she met me, she blurted out her name and asked for mine. Then, after I told her, she immediately gave me her phone number and asked for mine too. That was weird enough on its own.
But more than anything, it was her attitude that felt wrong.
She looked painfully awkward, almost as if she wasn’t used to doing any of this at all.
It was like she wanted to show interest, but had no idea how to go about it and was struggling through every word.
“Um... well. We’re heading the same way, I guess?”
“Yeah. Are you in the Hero Department too?”
“Uh-huh.”
If there was one thing I could infer from that exchange, it was this: the girl named Blanca was absolutely not the sociable type.
She kept trying to make conversation, clearly aware that staring at someone like that was awkward, but in the end it always petered out after a word or two, just like this.
Which made it even stranger.
Someone with that level of social clumsiness had suddenly decided to talk to me of all people? It made no sense.
I hadn’t saved any beast-folk in the past or anything like that.
And if she’d been one of those people who only fell for handsome faces, that still didn’t fit. Sure, I had a face handsome enough that I could look in the mirror while washing up each morning and think, Yep, not bad. But I still wasn’t at the level where someone would fall for me at first sight like this.
Besides, if she really were that shallow, she would’ve walked past me dozens of times by now. She hadn’t. She’d shown interest only in me.
Like the rich kid we’d just passed, Im Changwon.
Even if she knew nothing about his background or abilities, she’d still be able to tell he was a lot better-looking than I was.
And yet she had only spared him a single glance before returning to stare at me again.
She was definitely approaching me for a purpose. I just had no idea what that purpose could be.
There was no way to know, since she hadn’t existed in the original story to begin with.
Even if I opened the destiny-character list and checked her entry, there was nothing there except her name, her photo, and her physical information.
The physical information was the only part I didn’t already know, but that didn’t help me figure out who she really was.
Still, uh... it was impressive. In what world was she supposed to be a first-year?
No matter how good the heroines’ bodies were, they were only at the level where you could think, Okay, yeah, she’s a student.
But this one looked like she could pass for an adult, never mind a third-year at the academy.
“If you’re going to stare that hard... it’s a little uncomfortable.”
Ah. Right. I lowered my head and apologized.
Blanca flailed and said it wasn’t that big a deal, then sighed as if she was already used to this kind of thing. Probably a complex. I’d have to be careful.
When I entered Class A, she followed in naturally behind me. So she really was in Class A too.
By the time I reached the classroom, there were no empty seats left except in the back.
So I took the roughly middle seat at the very back, and Blanca sat down beside me... no, not beside me, but at the far end of the window side, as if that was the most natural thing in the world.
...That gave me a scare.
- - - -
I had never intended to steal the protagonist’s seat, but I still wanted to tease him once.
So I’d slipped by and glanced over, only to notice his face go sour in an instant. Then I realized I’d overdone it.
It wasn’t intentional, but he was the guy who’d already been cheated out of the reward he was supposed to get because of me.
But that didn’t mean I could rob him of the chance to sit next to the heroine too, right?
Feeling guilty, I sat by the window. I wanted to keep an eye on him from a distance, after all.
Still, that wasn’t the only reason I chose the window seat.
“Huh, Blanca? You’re in Class A too?! Nice! You ran off ahead without saying anything, so I thought maybe you were in a different class...”
It helped that the game’s protagonists were sitting right in front of where I’d chosen to sit. Since they were the main characters of the board, it made sense to keep close to them anyway.
So I played along, saying things I didn’t mean like, “You’re in the same class too?” and “What a coincidence,” then naturally exchanged phone numbers and made a chatroom with them.
I was used to saying things I didn’t mean, so it went down as easily as swallowing water.
We were still chatting when the front door slid open and the homeroom teacher walked in.
And the students who recognized her immediately began to stir.
“Good to meet you, future heroes. My name is Yustitia, and I’ll be your homeroom teacher starting today. Perhaps you’re more familiar with the name Gazer?”
Black hair, black sunglasses. Her outfit was a little too striking to be called that of a teacher, but too modest to be considered a hero costume.
“The Rank 14 hero Gazer is our homeroom teacher...? I knew Heros Academy was prestigious, but... wow. I never thought a current hero, and one ranked that high, would be teaching us...”
One of the students muttered in disbelief, as though he’d just seen something impossible.
If a hero was in the rankings—especially top 20—then even Heros Academy couldn’t just order them around however it wanted.
Honestly, the strange one was Gazer, for agreeing so readily.
As she looked around the classroom, her gaze landed on me tucked away in the corner, and she gave the faintest smile.
I was smiling too, glad to see someone familiar, but I only smiled with my eyes and mouthed, Later.
There were a few too many people watching right now.
“Eek. Jinhyun. Don’t tell me you don’t know Gazer? You at least know who Number One is, right...?”
The game’s protagonists in the front row were repeating the exact lines I’d seen before.
Hearing it in person made it feel like I was watching unused dubbing for a story that had never originally existed. It was a little strange.
“It’s Invictus, isn’t it?”
“Right... so you do know that much... He’s not in the top ten, but he’s still a hero respected enough that even a lot of S-class hunters acknowledge him. You need to pay more attention to the world around you...!”
If an aspiring hero didn’t even know the names of ranking heroes, what exactly was he supposed to do?
Yeonhwa scolded Jinhyun, but like always, she ended with a sigh and muttered that she wondered how he’d survive without her.
“Your energy is wonderful to see. Youth, after all. But energy alone doesn’t make a hero. To become a hero—someone who saves others—you must first know yourself.”
Yustitia set the stage slowly.
Good. So this was happening as planned. I’d been quietly nervous that maybe this had been canceled because of me too.
“For today, we’ll start with something light: finding out your limits. Change into your training clothes and gather at Stadium Alpha.”
It was the Limit Test.
If you asked what a Limit Test was, it wasn’t anything grand. It was just a test that squeezed students until they reached their limits.
It was meant to make children who had never gone all out before actually push themselves to 100 percent.
Of course, it also tested the many abilities expected of heroes, but the main purpose was to make students aware of their own limits.
The second purpose was to let the teachers properly assess the students’ abilities.
That way, they could tell which students needed close supervision and which ones should be left to realize things on their own.
“A test from the very first day...”
“It’s called a test, but they said it’s not the kind that ranks us. Come on, Jinhyun, let’s do our best!”
“No, but they still said we have to use our abilities. It feels a little off, honestly.”
“Maybe, but we’re not using them on people! Besides, this is going to shape first impressions, so you’re not planning to half-ass it like always, are you?!”
Yeonhwa was still berating the listless Jinhyun like some overbearing mother.
For a grown man to look so completely powerless. It was embarrassing to watch.
“If I want to draw everyone’s attention... is there really no other way?”
Minho, on the other hand, didn’t look the least bit listless.
Rather, he seemed to be trying to somehow patch up the twisted course of events.
Maybe the entrance ceremony quest had gone wrong, and he was trying to fix whatever had gotten tangled up because of it.
I had no idea how it would turn out, since the original story never had a case where a quest changed because the plot got derailed... but still, I guessed he’d manage to get through it somehow.
“What a pointless thing to do.”
“Hah? If I’d known we were doing something like this, I’d have brought a gold necklace! Damn it.”
“Let’s work hard so we don’t tarnish our grandmother’s name.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this...”
The other students were showing all kinds of reactions too.
Yustitia snapped her hands once to straighten out the noisy atmosphere, and after everyone fell quiet, she spoke again.
“That sounds grandiose, but in reality it’s just a physical fitness test using your abilities. And no, we won’t be ranking you. Still, don’t think that means you can approach it carelessly. If your total score falls below the standard... you may be moved to a lower class.”
“W-What...!”
Yeonhwa looked visibly flustered and tried to say something to Yustitia, but the teacher didn’t even let her begin.
“You may have made it into Class A, but from here on out there’s no need to worry. If you came here thinking that, you should think again. Class A is a place for the best of the best. Not for those who settle where they are, but for those who keep pushing forward, forever reaching for the summit.”
Right. This was that kind of event.
There was no such thing as a benevolent lie here.
It was a brutal way of showing how ruthless the academy was, by telling them bluntly that if they failed to meet the standard, they’d be cut without hesitation and sent to a lower class.
“If you came here hoping for a pleasant academy life, then I’m sorry to disappoint you. Heros Academy will keep asking you whether you’re truly worthy of sitting where you are.”
As she spoke, Yustitia removed the sunglasses she’d been wearing the entire time.
“At the end of all those countless proofs, I wonder who among you will still be standing... I’ll be watching.”
The dark violet eyes hidden behind the sunglasses began to glow, and the students’ bodies quite literally froze.
Most of them blinked in panic as they found themselves unable to even breathe for a moment, while a few—Jinhyun and Yeonhwa among them—strained desperately to break free.
Only Minho and I remained still without resisting at all. Her ability wasn’t something you could shake off by struggling.
“...Since this is part of the curriculum, I thought I’d be a little mischievous. Academy or not, I am rooting for you all. Now then, would the student in the front row on the left please come up first?”