Chapter 83
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Negative Reality is Hard to Accept (4)
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While Jenny and her group left Bastia and headed back to Hasler, and around the time Kane entered the imperial library and was flipping through books he'd never seen before, his eyes nearly popping out of his head...
Something was happening at the Hero Academy.
Something minor at first, but enough to start turning the entire academy upside down.
"This fucking sucks! I can't do this anymore!"
One of the students suddenly hurled his staff to the ground during sparring class and shouted.
"Student Hind! What do you think you're doing?!"
His name was Hind Gati.
The son of Sola Gati, a high-ranking official in the Aventus Magical Republic, and a hero candidate specialized in magic.
A current third-year student, top of his class among the heroes.
Due to the Magical Republic's culture of worshiping magic and scorning bladed weapons, he had that quirk, but otherwise, he had a good personality and got along well with others.
So, no one had ever seen him explode like this, spewing curses.
Especially not in the middle of class.
Both the surrounding students and the instructor were stunned.
"Throwing your weapon mid-spar? That's no way to treat your opponent! Pick it up right now."
The instructor in charge of sparring class immediately got angry and ordered him to resume the match.
But Hind didn't obey.
Instead, he glared at the instructor.
"The academy's been weird lately."
With that, he pointed out the recent changes in the academy, one by one.
"Casualties in practical classes have suddenly spiked. Just like three years ago."
The Hero Academy had always been brutally unforgiving to students, based on the creed that "heroes and legends are forged in trials."
They'd send kids into the wilderness with no guidance, tell them to hunt monsters, and casualties happened along the way.
But starting three years ago, those incidents dropped sharply.
The existing students like Hind knew the reason.
Jenny Harkur's arrival.
Her thorough preparations and vast knowledge, spread through her, had changed things.
Well, precisely, she was just following the record holder's methods, but still.
Then, the moment that central figure, Jenny Harkur, left...
Casualties started cropping up in practical classes again.
They'd never truly internalized the teachings for themselves.
They'd just superficially copied the top student.
Without that number one, it couldn't last.
And the academy's response afterward was laughable.
"They suddenly got passive about practical classes."
The number of practical sessions plummeted noticeably.
They assigned ridiculously easy tasks, obviously forcing down the casualty rate for anyone to see.
Even now.
Third-years should be out hunting ogres by now, but they claimed a curriculum change and kept doing endless sparring.
"Everyone knows the solution, right?"
Hind scoffed in disbelief.
The solution.
Everyone knew it.
Students, teachers—everyone.
"Just change how practical classes work, no?"
Like Jenny Harkur had done before.
And like that teacher always beside her, emphasizing the importance of "knowledge," had done.
"......"
The sparring instructor glared sharply at Hind.
"Are you saying the academy's ways are wrong?"
They would never admit it.
The Hero Academy's methods—the ones that had produced heroes and legends, the ones they'd experienced themselves—were never wrong.
They just didn't want to admit it.
Especially since the one pushing it was a "commoner" with no abilities, a mere "ordinary person."
"Yes, they're wrong! You're being this passive because you already know it!"
The teachers must realize it now, too.
The difference between the last three years and now.
And who created that difference...
"We need to admit it and learn! From that commoner teacher... Instructor Kane's methods!"
Hind hadn't liked Kane either, the guy who became a teacher through connections with no real skills.
He'd even joined in mocking him as a half-baked instructor.
But rationally, he had to acknowledge him.
The vast theoretical knowledge that seemed to pierce through everything.
The approach of preparing thoroughly based on that knowledge, turning trials into non-events.
Prioritizing safety without abandoning teaching or experience.
Wasn't it the best education for growing students?
Most students thought it was "Jenny's way."
Because all they saw was Jenny Harkur; the person behind her was invisible.
But top students like Hind.
Those who could see Jenny up close.
And the teachers who saw behind her—they knew better.
Who was behind it all.
Who shattered the old academy ways and built a new image.
They just hypnotized themselves because he was a commoner.
Students were smart, teachers taught well, academy methods were great.
It was all because they were superior.
But after three years, with Kane gone...
The hidden reality surfaced, breaking the hypnosis.
"Kane...? That fake instructor?"
"What methods could that guy have..."
"Oh, the one always stuck to Senior Jenny, maybe...?"
"Sh-Shut up!!"
Even ordinary students who didn't know the full story started murmuring, and the teacher exploded.
"Why the hell is that bastard's name coming up here?! He's... just a dumb, worthless commoner trash!"
The teacher was practically screaming now, desperately denying it.
"...I'm not sure anymore. If this combat-focused, theory-be-damned education is right."
The Magical Republic had brilliant mages, but also top researchers behind them.
Thanks to them, new, efficient, powerful magic was born from research.
Mages could use it because researchers devoted their lives to theory.
They just stayed in the shadows, unnoticed.
Hind used to think mages were supreme, researchers just mana-less trash.
Most Republic mages still did.
But he'd experienced it himself and changed.
How the world shifts with or without supporting theory.
"Th-The academy's just in a temporary slump..."
"Come to think of it, that adventurer guild Hasler branch where Instructor Kane got hired is making waves lately."
Hind cut off the teacher's excuse.
"Oh, Senior Jenny quit being a hero and went there too."
"Scarlett Harkur's there..."
"Rumor has it that demon-possessed girl is there too. Supposedly strong enough to freeze dozens of dragons at once?"
Students recalled rumors and newspaper articles, buzzing again.
Now that he thought about it, it was weird.
The moment Kane left the academy, it started declining.
The guild he joined skyrocketed, even improving adventurers' image.
Of course, Jenny switching to adventurer helped too.
Why did Jenny suddenly become an adventurer?
Maybe... because of Kane?
"...Lyn Pacifick went from demon-possessed weakling to powerhouse there."
"Didn't Senior Jenny learn from Kane?"
Once the hypnosis cracked, it shattered fast.
"...We looked down on him as a commoner. But Senior Jenny respected him a ton."
"Yeah, she said he was the person she admired most..."
Commoner prejudice ran deep, so counterarguments persisted.
"Nah, that guy's just a powerless regular commoner."
"What nonsense."
But their basis was just that Kane was a powerless commoner.
Until now, that had sufficed in their world.
Commoners—not heroes, legends, or even nobles—were nothing.
But.
Hero Academy, Hasler Guild Branch, Jenny Harkur, Lyn Pacifick.
Connecting the real examples...
Anyone not a total idiot reached the same conclusion.
"...For real?"
That moment.
The students' hypnosis broke.
Jenny's methods they'd trusted were Kane's teachings.
The academy crumbled the moment he left.
And instead of stubbornly pushing their ways, they turned passive at the first sign of casualties and pressure.
With the hypnosis, their absolute trust in the academy shattered too.
"To become like Senior Jenny... we need to learn like him?"
"No, before that."
...You could become a great hero or legend without near-death trials?
Then what were all these years of learning?
The classmates who died under the guise of trials?
The indelible trauma scars?
"If we don't have to die... shouldn't we do it that way?!"
"The last three years prove it!"
"How can it change this much without one instructor?!"
Students stepped up one by one, rebelling.
The sparring instructor could only fidget helplessly, unable to retort.
"Uh, er..."
He knew they weren't wrong.
He'd just kept brainwashing himself that their ways were right, the half-baked commoner teacher's words all lies.
"Abandon methods that ignore student safety!"
"Ramp up theory and safety education now!"
"At least create conditions for students to learn on their own!"
The Hero Academy, already battered from outside criticism...
Now, long-ignored internal grudges erupted.
It started in one third-year class.
From one hero candidate student's complaint.