A-Class Hero Valkyrie (2)

The scheduled time for the broadcast announcing Valkyrie's promotion to A-class was six in the evening.

Everyone else in the Hero Union had already been told about the promotion and had kept the secret ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tightly from Valkyrie herself.

Then Han Juyeon, the operator who often handled missions with her and was a close friend, hurriedly called her before six o'clock.

"Seol-ah! Where are you right now?"

"Juyeon unnie? I'm at home. What's going on?"

"We've got a problem! Can you get to headquarters right away? I'll explain everything once you're here!"

"...! Yes! I'm on my way!"

About ten minutes later, Valkyrie flew in through a fifteenth-floor window of Union Headquarters with her wings still spread, gasping for breath.

"Hah... hah... Unnie, what happened? Is it a terrorist attack? No one's dead, right?"

"Get over here, quick! Look at this!"

Han Juyeon pulled Valkyrie into the monitoring room with its massive screen.

The moment the clock hit six, the large screen in the monitoring room lit up with the news.

"...Huh?"

"Tada! Congratulations, Seol-ah!"

Han Juyeon, the other operators, and several heroes all set off party poppers at once and jammed a cone hat onto Valkyrie's head.

"Congratulations on the A-class promotion, Valkyrie!"

"Congrats! You're finally A-class!"

"Congratulations, Valkyrie. Honestly, it always felt a little strange that someone with your skill was still stuck at B-class. Now that we're the same rank, I look forward to working with you. Just... don't go pulling any weird stunts like last time."

"Ironfist-nim..."

When Ironfist brought up the impulsive mess she had caused with Kim Sejin, Valkyrie's face flushed crimson and she dropped her head.

"Nightingale deliberately left that part out of the report, so we figured she was covering for you two and decided not to escalate it upstairs ourselves. But you're a proper A-class now. We trust you won't do anything strange again."

"Y-yes..."

"Aigoo, I went and ruined the celebratory mood with a lecture. All right! We bought pizza and fried chicken just for this! You haven't had dinner yet, have you? The fridge is packed with cola and cider and all kinds of drinks, so eat until you burst!"

After that, the party celebrating Valkyrie's A-class promotion continued.

Heroes from D-class all the way up to A-class came to congratulate her. Especially for the C- and D-class heroes, Valkyrie was someone they looked up to, so she found herself surrounded by so many people she hardly knew what to do with herself.

"Senior Valkyrie, congratulations!"

"I want to be just like you someday!"

"Senior, really, congratulations! With you, even S-class isn't just a dream!"

"Th-thank you, everyone..."

Below B-class, promotions happened relatively often, and even reaching B-class itself, while difficult, was not impossibly rare. But A-class was a completely different story.

Most heroes stayed B-class until retirement. Reaching A-class required both exceptional ability and results that only a tiny fraction of an already small elite could produce.

Skill was the baseline; on top of that you needed consistent long-term achievements, and those achievements had to come while minimizing harm to civilian society. Finding someone who satisfied every condition was extremely hard.

A B-class hero being promoted to A-class happened maybe once a year at most, so the public paid close attention and the Union threw a proper celebration.

Completely blindsided by the news that she herself had become A-class, Valkyrie felt more dazed than delighted.

She took a bite of pizza and asked her A-class senior Ironfist,

"Nom... So, Ironfist-nim. What actually changes when you become A-class?"

"Oh, I've been waiting for that question! What changes, huh... Starting with the good parts, your lifestyle gets a lot more comfortable right away. The activity stipend from headquarters jumps way higher than anything you saw as a B-class, and unless you go completely wild, headquarters will usually cover most of the property damage costs."

The heroes B-class and below let out admiring noises at that.

"You won't always have the free time, but you can take vacations on the resort islands the Union owns, and headquarters foots the bill. Your voice carries a lot more weight when planning operations, and when you write opinions into reports they seem to get considered more often than before. And, well... there are a few other benefits, but those ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠aren't things to talk about here, and they're optional anyway. If you don't want them, you can refuse."

"Huh? What kind of benefits are optional and sometimes refused?"

"Ahem... It's a little awkward for me as a guy to explain this to a young woman... Plus I've never actually used that particular perk myself. Ask the other female A-class seniors about it."

When Ironfist deliberately held back, Valkyrie thought she understood why.

A few days ago she would never have guessed, but after the Kid G scandal she had learned what kind of organization the government really was, and remembering that the Union had coexisted with that government for a long time made the general picture clear.

She could no longer dismiss the thought with a simple "surely not..."

If Nightingale were here, I could have asked her...

If Nightingale had been present she would have congratulated her today, and Valkyrie could have asked her all sorts of things for advice. The empty place where her admired senior should have been felt painfully empty.

While everyone was still eating, drinking, and celebrating her promotion, Valkyrie felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and took it out.

When she saw the name on the screen she flinched, then stood up.

"I need to take a quick call. Please keep eating."

Out in the empty corridor, Valkyrie quietly answered the phone.

"Wh-why are you proud of it? Shouldn't you be worried instead?"

"W-we? What are you talking about..."

"My attendance is bad because of this job in the first place! Headquarters can sort that out later. You're just a delinquent. Don't lump us together."

"You—! Lee Yechan, you only called to mess with me!"

"Ha... ordinary college classmate, my foot."

Hearing the shamelessness from the man who was actually Kid G left her speechless.

Thinking about it, Lee Yechan had always been like this.

Shameless, tossing out complete nonsense without batting an eye, yet somehow still looking after her in his own way...

The moment that thought formed, Valkyrie startled herself and adjusted her grip on the phone.

Why am I thinking anything nice about this guy?

"What manager? You're just the deadweight who trips me up at every turn!"

"Sh-shut up! Always saying weird, useless things... I'm hanging up!"

With her face burning, Valkyrie ended the call and stuffed the phone back into her pocket. Lee Yechan did not call again.

She steadied herself and was about to return to the party room when she spotted someone standing behind her and nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Ahhh!!!"

"Hehehe... What? Was it a guy?"

Operator Han Juyeon had been waiting behind her with a sly grin.

"U-unnie! You almost gave me a heart attack! D-did you hear the call?"

"From the 'we're more than that' part?"

There had been nothing concrete enough to serve as a real clue, so Valkyrie felt a wave of relief.

She did not even understand why she was relieved.

"Seol-i, you went off to college and got yourself a boyfriend? Wow, I did not see that coming. I thought you'd completely sworn off romance, but I guess not? The quiet cat climbs onto the stove first, huh? I see you in a new light."

"H-he's not my boyfriend! He's not even just a guy friend..."

"Really? The way you talked sounded way more comfortable than how you talk to us. Sure it's not a boyfriend?"

"It's not! We're not anything. Just... college classmates."

"Hmm, is that so? Well, maybe for now, but those kinds of kids always end up as campus couples later. Anyway, good luck."

"Ugh... Unnie, eavesdropping on someone else's call is the worst!"

"Oh my, look at you. I was just heading to the bathroom when you decided to take the call right in the middle of the hallway, so I had no choice but to hear. Don't worry. I'll keep it secret from everyone. Our Seol-i has a prospective boyfriend now♥"

"Unnie, seriously!"

Han Juyeon giggled, playfully tapped Valkyrie's shoulder once, and headed for the bathroom. Valkyrie, still red-faced and grumbling, returned to the room.

A good number of the partygoers already had alcohol in them and were laughing even louder than before while chatting about all sorts of things.

"Sorry, I'm back."

"Oh, Valkyrie. The guest of honor disappearing for a bit made us feel lonely. Sit, sit. You've got to eat heartily if you want the strength to keep living as an A-class hero! Wahahaha! If there's not enough food, just say the word! I'll order as much as you want!"

Ironfist laughed heartily and gulped down more liquor.

Looking at him, Valkyrie finished the question she had started earlier.

"Ironfist-nim, about what you were saying before. You said there are advantages and disadvantages to becoming an A-class hero. So what are the disadvantages?"

"Oho, already thinking about the practical side? All right, since you want to know, I'll tell you. Disadvantages, huh... First, everything you do comes with a lot more responsibility. With great power comes great responsibility... you know the saying. And the danger level of the operations you're thrown into goes way up. You'll see some ugly things along the way. They even say that if you've got a weak stomach, you can't survive as an A-class hero."

"Th-that bad...?"

"Think about it. How big is the gap between the B-class-and-below villains you've been dealing with and A-class-and-above villains? From now on, those are the ones you'll be facing. If you're really unlucky, you could get assigned to a meat-shield operation where the plan is to buy time against an S-class villain, fully expecting you might die."

"I... see."

It was a question she had asked herself, but learning the darker side of being an A-class hero still made her a little anxious.

That anxiety, however, was nothing compared to what she heard next.

"Ah, and for you there's one more special reason you got promoted to A-class. The government side decided on the promotion partly because you've cornered Kid G more often than anyone else so far."

"...... What?"

"Ahem... Embarrassing as it is, I went out against Kid G twice and looked pathetic both times. So the government seems to think that you, who have the most experience fighting him, are the right person for the job going forward."

"The right person for... what, exactly?"

"What else? The order to exterminate Kid G, of course. From now on, you'll probably be the main lead on the Kid G extermination operations for a while. Just my personal opinion, but I don't really see anyone else who fits the bill either. Come to think of it, last time you crashed an ongoing operation because you wanted to catch Kid G so badly that you couldn't stand being left out as a B-class, right? Well, now you can join as much as you want. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hahahaha!"

"Ah."

The fact she had temporarily forgotten because it had nothing to do with her came rushing back, and Valkyrie felt her heart drop straight into her stomach.