A Hero Should Smash at Least This Much

"Teacher... Teacher..."

I reached out in my sleep. Sunlight slipped through the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠narrow part of my eyelids, and I understood that it had been a dream. Memories scatter. Recollections thin and drift away. The face and the voice, already lost, are smudged even inside the dream, erased into something vague.

The only thing I still remember is Teacher's scent. And yet, for someone who can no longer smell, that memory hardly means anything at all.

When I opened my eyes, I was in my dormitory room. Ever since I returned from the Snowfield, nightmares of monsters giving chase have come to me now and then. I drew the soft blanket down, and my thin nightclothes showed beneath.

A scent sachet, still holding the fragrance of the flowers of home. Mother sends me a parcel from time to time. I lifted the little pouch to my nose and drew a quiet breath, hoping to catch that familiar scent.

For the Fox ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tribe, smell is the first sense to awaken after one is born.

...Today, too, there is still no scent at all.

But this is no time to sink into gloom. I set the sachet neatly beside my pillow, tidied the bedding, and changed my clothes. Today is the day of the first class — Professor Neferna's class.

...If I grow as strong as the professor, might I be able to carry myself with a little more confidence?

The question I had asked him in the Snowfield came back to me without warning.

I hesitated a moment, then picked up the pendant I had left at the edge of the desk and set out for class. It traveled from pocket to palm and back again before it finally came to rest, chiming, against the nape of my neck, which trembled with an awkward unfamiliarity. At the strange touch of metal slipping below my collarbone, my shoulders gave a faint shiver.

"Well! A pleasure, a pleasure, students! By the most auspicious good fortune, and borne up by your fervent support, the lectures of none other than I, Professor Eugene Sir Neferna, in Practical Magic Array Structure have safely reached their opening day! Hahaha! A round of joyful applause, everyone! Haha! I'm touched."

Clap, clap, clap. Even a rough count put the room at fewer than twenty. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The applause, thin as it was, came from three places in particular: Undine, eyes glittering as she clapped like a seal; her older brother Ignis, worn down by that same Undine's pestering and slapping his hands together with obvious reluctance; and, at the very edge, Cecilia, thoroughly wilted under Rebecca's gaze and yet still offering a dutiful little finger-clap. How commendable.

Heh. Would you look at that. Gets me right in the nose.

Forcing the class open had been the right call after all.

"...What applause. If I hadn't filled in as the last body, this class really would have been canceled."

Freyja, seated among the students, narrowed her eyes and stared at me. I had no choice but to whistle, badly, and pretend to be looking at something else.

A professor sitting in on another professor's lecture is hardly difficult. Counting even her toward the headcount, however, requires an adult's privilege in several respects — which is to say, the Chairman's authority. The only excuse I had was that it couldn't be helped if I wanted to keep the class from being shut down. Whatever the case, the Chairman's privilege had worked splendidly. Thank you, Chairman.

And I'm sorry, Freyja. Later I'll buy you about twenty of those orange candy cakes from the shop in front of the school, the ones you like.

"Ahem! All right, let's begin! The reason we've come outside today, rather than staying indoors, is simple. I need to take the measure of what you can do."

I tossed a crystal orb I had prepared onto the lawn. Opaque as jelly, and yet bouncing with the spring of a water balloon — the students' eyes gathered on that strange sphere of their own accord.

"Anyone know the name of this round, soft, springy little tool, and how to use it?"

Undine's hand shot up first, eyes sparkling fit to catch fire. I am not the sort of man to take that passion at face value.

...If only she threw herself into her other classes with the same heat. The things I hear from the other professors send a chill straight down my spine.

I folded her plainly self-interested enthusiasm into a charge of impudence and pointed instead at Ignis, nodding off behind her. Collective punishment, this time. As her older brother, he could take it gladly.

"Excellent posture, Ignis. Let's hear your answer."

Undine, ignorant of the circumstances, glared at the brother who had stolen her chance as if she meant to kill him. Wounding the bond between siblings is, for a teacher, a deeply painful thing. It couldn't be helped.

Ignis smiled bitterly and swept back his neatly groomed hair.

"Let's see... ah, right. It's a measurement orb— no, I mean, it's a measurement orb. You cast magic and it absorbs it on its own, then roughly converts the caster's magical ability into a Class...? I've heard people usually measure with a Signature Phantasm."

If you're going to be polite, be polite. If you're going to be casual, commit.

I swallowed a flat sigh and nodded.

"Correct. I trust each of you has a Signature Phantasm of your own? Your most confident original. Cast that signature at maximum output toward this crystal orb. We'll go in order. Undine — can you give us a demonstration?"

"Hehe, of course, my belo— ahem. My respected Professor."

Trembling at having been chosen at last, Undine forced down the corners of a mouth that wanted to climb, and came to stand before the orb with elegant steps. She cast a spell of about the level that might earn a student a moderate word of praise, and the measurement orb briefly held a glow.

"Ah, the result is... let's see... Congratulations. 3rd Class at your age? Impressive."

"It is the fruit of tireless effort under Teacher's instruction. Ohoho."

...She's settled on a strange concept. Don't smile with your eyes. I'll end up fond of you for no reason.

To a scatter of applause and murmuring, Undine withdrew. Ignis, who followed, also wrapped things up at a reasonable level. He had chosen a spell that looked flashy, and a few of the girls began cheering his name, so I hurried the turn along.

"Hmm... Rebecca, this time."

I hadn't had any separate contact with her since returning from the Snowfield. That she was the one who had sent Cecilia falling that day was known only to me and Undine. Reporting it to the school would accomplish little: she was not a regular student, only a short-term transfer, and besides the heavy label of a hero's party, Rebecca's family was an influential noble house even within the Empire — a risk as troublesome as they come. If I told the Chairman directly, there would be measures, but with no proper evidence, a satisfying result was never going to come of it. Above all, my own movements inside the school were restricted. I had concluded that watching her from close by was the best I could do.

Putting her in my class had been a unilateral decision. I had thought there might be a quarrel. Contrary to expectation, Rebecca came forward without a word and simply cast, as if she had been waiting.

A low rumble. Rock spears thrust up through the earth, and the measurement orb answered them.

"Hmm... let's see. Somewhere between 4th and 5th Class? Remarkable for your age."

I checked the result and was, quite honestly, impressed. The surprise was that Rebecca's Signature Phantasm leaned so heavily toward support. Given her temperament, I had expected something more aggressive, but the habit of supporting a hero seemed to have set hard.

"As expected of Lady Rebecca, the youngest ever to reach 4th Class."

"I heard a rumor she passed the 5th Class national exam the other day. As expected... she's already beyond the level of students like us, isn't she?"

"Hmph! I am Rebecca. What do you take a daughter of House Clorand for? Trivial junk like this, I graduated from ten years ago. You ask me to display a Signature Phantasm? It's so pathetic I could laugh. They said this was one of the finest schools in the Empire, and I can see the standard well enough. ...Or is it the professor who's only at this level?"

Being the center of attention did not seem to displease her. Rebecca swept her hair back, making no effort to hide a thoroughly elevated smile. I didn't particularly mind even that. If anything, I was grateful she wasn't strutting any harder.

...The problem was what came next.

KRA-BOOOOOOM!

"......Hm. Is this all it amounts to?"

The roar died into a low, heavy voice. I hadn't even called a name, and some lunatic — in that much of a hurry — had fired magic first. Had it been only a spell, a warning would have ended the matter. The problem was that he was Kim Yu-seong, master of the 6th Holy Sword, and that, hero or not, his volume of mana was difficult to dismiss.

"Hm. It breaks at merely this? Strange. I only tossed off the most ordinary, most basic spell I know, and lightly at that. I thought I had lowered the output, and yet I never imagined the thing couldn't withstand even this much."

"Tsk, the measurement orb broke?!"

"As expected of the Hero! Even a basic spell has power like that!"

"Whoa... a hero really is a hero. I was nothing but a maggot."

Wait...?

Calm down. Right. I must have misheard. A measurement orb. The measurement orb... broke...? For real? Truly?

......Ah. Ah, it's real. It really broke. You've got to be kidding me.

Th-th-th-that maniac!!!!

"Nooo! Aaaah! No! My precious measuring tool! School property!"

"Hm. My apologies. I had allowed for the possibility of a cliché in which a crystal orb for measuring mana gets shattered... mutter, mutter... Perhaps I failed to regulate my strength... mutter, mutter..."

"An apology won't bring a broken measurement orb back! Do you have any idea what this costs?! No less than—!"

A heavy laugh from a middle-aged man cut through my sweat-soaked words and rang boldly across the training yard.

"No less than two months of Professor Neferna's salary! Bwahahahaha!"

Crash!

Glass exploded from a window on the fifth-floor landing of the main building, and a man in a black suit leapt out. Glitter, flash. It was a suit that ought to have been formal, and yet a grotesque fashion that left those exuberant muscles entirely on display. He landed with a heavy thud, and a cloud of dirt rolled outward.

The Chairman of this school. In other words, my boss.

"I heard school property breaking, and I came! I am the chairman of this school! Hahaha, Professor Neferna! It's been a while! How was that Snowfield practicum the other day?"

Whether he had come straight from lifting weights, his sweat-slick hands gleamed brighter than his smooth head. And had that old man just smashed a window on his way out?

I swallowed dryly and worked desperately to rake the shards of the measurement orb together with the toe of my shoe.

"Chairman?! What brings you— ha, haha, hahahahaha! Of course! Your loyal right hand, Eugene Sir Neferna, reports a safe return, with not a single student injured!"

"I heard the accident in the Snowfield was settled smoothly. As expected of Professor Neferna — you've proved my eye wasn't wrong! Now I can hold my head up in front of the other professors. Hahahahaha!"

"Of course, hahahahaha!"

"By the way, I came because I heard a measurement orb breaking. Are those the shards at your feet?"

The laughter cooled at once. I had excuses enough, but the responsibility for negligent management would still fall on me, and that would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not change. Two months' salary, gone. My vision swam. The color drained from my face, and the world before my eyes spun, bright and dizzy.

The hero — ah, shit... I can't even swear at him...

Ha... am I going to have to starve this month...?

Far off, my eyes met Freyja's as she laughed, a stifled little giggle.