The Eve of the Entrance Ceremony (3)
While it was a bit disappointing that I hadn’t gotten the chance to introduce myself to the roommate I’d be sharing a room with, it wasn’t a major problem. My plan from the start had been to offer a quick, polite greeting and immediately head out to meet the Hero anyway.
Besides, I would have to return to the dormitory come evening, so I could just greet her then.
‘Ah… if only I could see this with my own eyes.’
The thought had lingered in my mind ever since I stepped foot into the academy.
Though more than two years had already passed since I was thrust into this world, I still couldn’t forget the sheer awe I felt as a complete novice when I first laid eyes on the academy in the game.
I desperately wanted to experience that wonder once again.
‘Is there really no way to cure this?’
If I had known I would actually end up inside this world, I never would have selected blindness and deafness as my demerits during character creation.
Had I known, I would have chosen literally anything else. I would have never, ever picked those two.
Of course, if I hadn't, my body might have turned out far frailer than it was now—reducing me to nothing more than a pathetic healing vending machine that could barely squeeze out recovery spells. But since a weaker constitution would have brought even greater agony upon myself, it wouldn't have been half bad.
Honestly, I hated being blind far more.
Being transported into this world wasn't so terrible in itself, but the fact that I couldn't see this world with my own two eyes, nor hear it with my own two ears, was excruciating.
‘Will I ever be able to see one day?’
If only I could gaze upon the world I loved so dearly, even just once more.
Nursing those tangled thoughts, I walked along the path until, before I knew it, I arrived at the training grounds.
‘So this is the training ground.’
The layout was identical to what I remembered from the game.
Just as I had barely managed to quell my yearning to behold the scenery, the familiar architecture stirred up nostalgia from two years ago, tinging my heart with melancholy once more.
Sure, sensing the world through mana was better than being trapped in total sensory deprivation, but I couldn't help the lingering sense of sorrow.
…
Or maybe it was for the best.
If I had witnessed limbs being torn apart and people’s upper and lower torsos completely vanishing right before my eyes with perfect clarity, it would have taken a terrible mental toll.
Perhaps the reason reality felt somewhat muted—the reason the horrors hadn’t broken me—was precisely because everything still felt like a video game.
‘I have to meet the Hero soon. No time for pointless distractions…’
Lightly patting my cheeks with both hands to pull myself together, I smoothed my expression into something neutral and stepped inside the training grounds.
If my calculations were correct, tracking down the Hero should be child's play.
Just as I, bearing the Saint class, had my own background lore, an uncustomized default Hero had his own scripted backstory as well.
Now, how did the very first event in the Hero’s storyline go again…?
‘Ah, right. I remember.’
The day before the entrance ceremony, he got into a massive brawl at the training grounds, ended up suspended, and couldn’t attend the ceremony at all.
Even while serving his suspension, he sneaked back to the training grounds out of sheer boredom to swing his sword, only to stumble across a demon preparing an ambush.
To make matters worse, a wizard who arrived late got lost and wandered into the training grounds, turning it into a three-way standoff. The Hero and the bewildered wizard ended up joining forces to slay the ambushing demon.
Back when I was playing the game myself, the plot progression hadn’t felt particularly weird. But looking back on it now, it felt absurdly contrived.
Regardless…
‘I suppose the safest route is to let the fight happen and just introduce myself.’
Even if I derived euphoric pleasure from absorbing the pain of others through healing, intentionally letting someone get hurt just to chase that high was something I had left behind during my Saint class-change quest.
I hadn't thought that way at first, but after watching so many people die in the Demonic Realm, my mindset had shifted.
So rather than needlessly interfering and stopping the Hero's fight…
Wait. Hold on a second.
‘Can’t I just deal with it myself…?’
What a brilliant idea!
There was no need to let the Hero get into a brawl and face suspension.
It would be far better if I got suspended instead, skipped the entrance ceremony, and subjugated the demon myself.
Since my very presence in this world threw any guarantee of the original plot out the window, and since there was no way the freshmen could comfortably handle an intermediate devil appearing this early in the academy arc anyway…
Wouldn't it be far more profitable if I stepped up and eliminated it in advance?
Every reason to hesitate vanished in an instant.
My eyes practically lit up as I began scouring the area for the Hero.
‘There are so many people here…’
Even though the entrance ceremony hadn't even taken place yet, plenty of students were already hard at work training throughout the grounds.
In the game, players could battle illusions of monsters they had previously slain, earning a modest amount of experience points even if it was less than hunting the real thing.
The game had explained it away as some magitech innovation—a fusion of magic and scientific engineering—describing it as a form of illusion magic that extracted a person's past memories via thought waves and allowed them to fight those memories again.
At the time, I’d dismissed the whole explanation as utterly ridiculous, assuming the developers had simply slapped together some nonsensical technobabble as a patch for game mechanics.
Yet experiencing it firsthand, the sheer sophistication of it was astonishing.
‘Thought waves are pulsing from every direction…’
Some students were paralyzed with fear, others marveled in wide-eyed wonder, and still others burned with fighting spirit against foes they had failed to overcome in the past.
Ever since I gained the ability to read mental resonance, peeking into the thoughts of those around me had become one of my favorite pastimes. If circumstances allowed, I would have loved nothing more than to linger and observe.
But right now, I had to find the Hero.
Where on earth could he be?
That was the question…
‘It’s hard to imagine him using this training facility.’
As I noted before, if the player didn't manually pick that class, the character spawned with default traits.
Having sunk thousands of hours into this game, even now, two years later, I still remembered the finest details.
That included the Hero's core personality.
So while I couldn't predict his every move with absolute precision, I had a pretty good idea of how he would act.
He wasn’t the type to meticulously explore fancy systems, and even if he knew about them, he placed paramount importance on the absolute basics. The odds of him engaging with the facility's illusion system were practically zero.
And considering the incident involved a brawl…
Naturally, he wouldn't be here fighting holographic phantoms.
Besides…
‘To that swordsmanship maniac, the most fundamental thing of all is swinging a sword…’
That left only one place.
Without hesitation, I pivoted on my heel and made a beeline for the Swordsmanship Training Ground.
The moment I stepped inside, the pungent reek of sweat hit me like a physical blow, nearly knocking the breath out of my lungs.
‘W-Whoa… where have I smelled this before?’
After a moment’s thought, it clicked.
It was the exact same stench of sweat I had endured day in and day out during my two years in the Demonic Realm.
I had smelled it far too often to ever mistake it.
‘How dare you mock my master’s sword…! I’ll never forgive you!’
A violently agitated thought wave reverberated through the air. And judging by words like "master's sword," this had to be—
‘The Hero!’
He was already fighting?
I immediately backtracked the emotional resonance, hurrying my pace.
If a brawl was breaking out, a sizable crowd would surely have gathered.
‘Right around here…!’
Reaching that conclusion, I expanded my spatial perception and sharpened my focus on the human silhouettes nearby.
Sure enough, not far ahead, two figures stood squared off against each other, encircled by a ring of spectators.
As I rushed toward them, my breath caught in my chest.
Panting softly, I quickly assessed the scene.
Both boys had lost their tempers entirely, blinded by rage to the point of ignoring the surrounding crowd as they drew their weapons.
‘Well, no time to deliberate.’
My body moved before my thoughts could.
“Phew…!”
I instantly cast a divine barrier directly between the two boys, whose live blades were milliseconds away from colliding.
The very instant steel was about to meet steel, their strikes were intercepted by a golden, radiant wall of sacred power. Both boys froze, utter shock written across their faces.
I intended to expand the barrier to shield them from view and give them time to sheath their swords, but—
“You there.”
Uh-oh…
Uh-ohhh…!!
“The use of magic in the training grounds is strictly forbidden.”
Because of the angle, the professor hadn't seen the Hero and the other male student about to cross live blades. All eyes had already snapped to me, rendering any cover-up utterly moot.
A moment later, a brisk, crisp rap of knuckles descended squarely onto the crown of my head, sending a delicious shiver coursing through my spine.
‘Ahhh… that feels so good…’
Is this what ordinary, everyday happiness felt like?
Getting disciplined by a stunningly gorgeous female professor felt far better than it had any right to—
Ahem.
Sensing the flustered students stepping forward to explain that the fault lay over there and not with me, I immediately slipped into character to cut them off.
“[I-I’m so sorry…!]”
I projected my thought waves loudly, broadcasting my voice so everyone could hear—and implicitly warning them to back off.
Taken aback by my dramatic outburst, the female professor momentarily froze.
…
Wait, did I lay it on too thick? Did I blow my cover?
“…As much as I would like to overlook this, regulations strictly prohibit magic outside designated zones. My hands are tied. I am sorry.”
Ah, she thought I was panicking as if I had committed some unpardonable crime.
Thank goodness.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
‘Well, I prevented the Hero's suspension, so that’s all that matters.’
Now that I was the one getting suspended, maybe I could sneak out during the entrance ceremony to solo the demon and cement my self-sacrificing Saint concept at the same time?
To be honest, I also needed to gauge exactly how strong I currently was.
Only then could I map out a definitive course of action for the future.
Just then—
“…Professor. May I have a moment?”
The Hero strode confidently toward the professor and me.
Still holding his drawn steel blade, no less.
‘Wait, why are you holding that…?’
…
Ah.
Ah!
‘Oh right! His personality!’
The default Hero's personality was, naturally, uncompromisingly righteous, morally upright, and chivalrous to the point of being a total naive pushover…
There was no earthly way he would ever stand by and let someone else take the fall without explaining his own actions.
‘I’m completely screwed.’
My plan had gone right out the window.