A Sweet, Suffocating Hell
The Academy is an educational institution specializing in training supernatural ability users. Every single student enrolled here is a supernatural user. Igniting fires without a heat source, predicting the future—albeit temporarily—accelerating to break the sound barrier, or mass-producing oneself through clones... It was a training ground that gathered young superhumans capable of performing such logic-defying miracles.
The purpose of their education is to battle the monsters threatening humanity. Even at this very moment, this place nurtures the future 'heroes' who will protect people from the vicious monsters invading through rifts in space. That is the Academy. Naturally, it is different from a normal school. If one had to make a comparison, it was closer to a military academy. Yet even that wasn't a perfect analogy, as the curriculum was skewed to an extreme degree toward combat.
In the first year, they at least make a pretense of teaching other subjects, but as the years go by, even that facade disappears. The Academy completely disregards anything outside of battling monsters. All education is thoroughly focused on 'combat.' It might seem harsh, but there is no other way. Even if things look peaceful right now, the world is steadily being pushed into a corner. The process is simply too slow to be easily noticed.
The monster invasions have persisted for three hundred years, and they will clearly continue. A truce is out of the question; communication with monsters is impossible in the first place. If you can neither avoid nor run away from them, you must stand and fight. However, only supernatural users can fight monsters. Ordinary humans struggle to even look at one. Naturally, humanity's reliance on supernatural users grows by the day, and the ceiling of combat power expected of them rises along with it.
It is no surprise, then, that the Academy's curriculum is completely saturated with combat training. Improving combat execution directly impacts victory rates and survival rates. Humanity is waging a long, drawn-out war. Every single soldier fighting this war is a core asset that cannot be artificially mass-produced. The Academy's extremely combat-biased curriculum is for the sake of humanity, but at the same time, it is also for the students themselves.
The students will soon join the war against the monsters. They are already reserve forces who can be deployed to actual combat in emergencies. If they do not grow stronger, they will die. It wouldn't be strange for them to perish at any moment, in any way. To prevent the loss of precious military strength, and to stop precious lives from vanishing in vain, the Academy continues to train its students ruthlessly today.
And that is exactly why I am currently huffing and puffing, running my heart out around the school grounds. This is already my thirty-second lap. If I were still my old self from before I became Lucia, I would have collapsed ages ago. True to the Academy's reputation for making everything grand and colossal, the training ground is nothing like a normal school's yard. I don't know the exact dimensions and can only eyeball it, but if you took my high school's sports field and blew it up tenfold, would it look like this? No, it has to be more than that. Maybe twenty times, not ten. Even if it were larger, I wouldn't be surprised. After all, it is absolutely massive. Too big. Vast.
I get that they made it spacious so supernatural users can unleash their abilities without restraint, but this is still way too wide. It's a miracle I've run thirty-two laps around a place like this and still have some energy left. But I'm nowhere near done. The target Angelica set was sixty laps.
"I-it's so hard..."
My breath caught in my throat. My gym uniform was already drenched in sweat. The thumping of my heart reverberated in my ears. Even though the spring weather was still chilly, a burning heat radiated from my body. When I grabbed my shirt and shook it, the sour smell of sweat and white steam drifted up. I panted with my tongue out, looking like a dog trying to cool off.
"You're only halfway there! What's with those of you already falling behind?! Don't stop your legs! Run even if it's hard! Run even if you feel like you're going to die! Don't you dare decide your own limits! I am the one who decides your limits, not you!!"
Angelica shouted as she chewed on her unlit cigarette. Her roaring voice carried a weight as solid as bedrock. Despite having run thirty-two laps alongside the students, her breathing wasn't even slightly disrupted. She wasn't even sweating. For someone who smokes so much, you sure have incredible stamina, Teacher.
Quite apart from their unique abilities, all supernatural users are superhumans. Their physical capabilities are on an entirely different level compared to ordinary humans. Even if they get shot, it only amounts to a "Ow, that stings!" or "Ouch!" and getting hit by an anti-aircraft gun is nothing a little rest can't fix. This is the baseline specification for supernatural users. Even if their bodies grow without any training, they still reach this level. If they actually train on top of that, they become exponentially stronger.
After all, an ordinary person who has never exercised and a rigorously trained athlete perform at completely different levels, right? It's the same for supernatural users. Most of them naturally begin training the moment they awaken their abilities—whether they want to or not. While there are differences depending on when they awakened, by the time they enter the Academy, they have undergone at least a baseline level of training.
Yet even these students were hitting their limits and dropping out one by one, while not a single trace of exhaustion could be found on Angelica's face. As expected of an Academy instructor. Only the most outstanding talents among the heroes earn the right to teach students. To nurture exceptional heroes, the instructors themselves must be exceptional.
"Lucia! Aris! Anastasia! Marie! Sophia! Your legs are slowing down! I believe I told you that anyone who drops out and fails to complete sixty laps will have to run them all over again from the beginning after school! Did you forget already? Don't give up just because it's hard right now! If you don't want to suffer even more later, run with everything you've got!"
But that's exactly what I want? Let's run together after school, Teacher.
Even when I took a breath, it didn't feel like I was breathing. My body was completely drenched in sweat. It was hard. So incredibly hard. I still had some energy left, but pain was still pain. My lungs ached, throbbing as if they were broken. I panted as I ran. That made thirty-three laps. Still twenty-seven to go.
This is the best... If it's this hard now, it's going to be even worse later, right? What about around lap forty? Will I be able to keep running? Lap fifty? Won't I pass out? It's hard to breathe, in a completely different way than when I'm choking myself. Ah, this feels so good. It's incredibly stimulating. If I had known it would be like this, I shouldn't have worn a sports bra. It would have been so much harder.
"Eu-he, he, hu, ah, hah..."
Aris gasped heavily for air. This was brutal torture for a literary girl who had done nothing but read books. Though she was running tenaciously with a tearful face, it was clear she would drop out soon. Her raw firepower might be the best in the Academy, but in terms of physical stamina, she was undoubtedly the weakest.
"...This kind of training, inefficient."
Anastasia's situation was a bit different. Unlike Aris, she still had plenty of leeway. She was only lagging behind because she simply didn't want to run. Ever since she got caught trying to make a clone run in her place, she had been wearing a sullen pout. She jutted her bottom lip out and let her arms dangle limply. She occasionally rubbed her head, as if the knuckle sandwich she had received still smarted.
The running continued. On the thirty-seventh lap, the first casualty finally emerged. It was Aris, collapsing onto the ground.
"I-I... can't go... any... fur... ther..."
Flop. Aris had fallen in battle. Swallowing my tears, I had to leave her behind and keep running. I'm sorry, Aris. I'll drop out around lap fifty-nine too.
Starting with Aris, the students began to drop out one by one. By lap forty, only two-thirds of the class remained. By lap forty-five, about half were gone. And by the time we hit lap fifty, everyone except for a tiny minority had become one with the ground.
By this point, I had no energy left either. My breathing was incredibly ragged. It felt like my windpipe was on fire. Every breath I exhaled felt as hot as lava. I felt like I was going to die of suffocation. No wonder everyone else collapsed and couldn't run any further.
But a masochist is invincible, and Lucia is a god. It was agonizing, like I was suffocating, but... He-het, it's fine. I can still run. My legs and soles hurt like hell, but who cares? It's fine. Everything is fine. Huh, my vision is acting weird? Why is it tilted like this? Ah, I'm the one tilting. Oh dear, this is bad. If I fall now, I won't be able to get back up.
"Eu-he?"
My legs buckled at a right angle. There were still seven laps left... I should have at least completed six more before collapsing...
Crash! Roll, roll!
Since I fell while running, momentum sent me rolling across the ground. Once. Twice. Thrice. Four times. Five times. Six times. Well, whatever the case, I guess I technically completed six "laps" of rolling.
"Are you alright?"
"Ah... please bury me next to Aris..."
"Aris isn't dead."
"Then when Aris dies, bury her next to me..."
"You aren't dead either."
Angelica summoned a clay golem to lift me up. After placing me in the shade alongside the other dropouts, the golem crumbled back into sand and vanished. In the end, only four people managed to complete all sixty laps. Or perhaps I should say as many as four people did.
"How's that, Yujin! It's my victory!"
The first one to complete the sixty laps was Leo. Ever since the ability evaluation, he had harbored a strange sense of rivalry toward Yujin, and now he wasn't even trying to hide his competitiveness. Leo shouted energetically despite his heavy panting. At the end of his glaring gaze, accompanied by a pointing finger, stood the second person to complete sixty laps.
"...?"
"What's with that clueless look?!"
"Since when were we competing?"
"I told you before we started!"
"Is that so... I see..."
"Ha! Well? Do you feel frustrated now?"
"...?"
"Why are you making that clueless face again?! Did you not hear me?!"
"No, I did... but not really? More importantly, aren't you embarrassed to compete by yourself and declare victory like that?"
"Okay, that's it. Let's fight, you bastard!"
Leo grabbed Yujin by the collar and shook him violently.
"You guys are so noisy, seriously."
Arin, the third to complete sixty laps, spoke as she wiped her glasses, which were smudged with sweat. Her shoulders heaved as she took deep, heavy breaths. It seemed she had pushed herself quite hard.
"Mm... Me, victory. Free after school. Angelica is a dummy."
The last one was Anastasia. Though her face remained expressionless, the corners of her mouth were slightly curled upward. It was likely because she no longer had to run after school. As expected of the Golden Generation. Even though Aris and I, who are also part of the Golden Generation, failed.
"Good work, everyone," Angelica said once the running was over. Unlike the four who showed clear signs of exhaustion, Angelica was perfectly serene. I patted Aris on the back, my eyes sparkling. He-he, I dropped out. I failed. That means I get to run again after school, right? This time, I'll definitely hit sixty laps. Even if I suffocate, I can make it if I just grit my teeth. It was painful in a completely different way than choking myself. It was agonizing enough to make my entire body tremble. My lungs and heart throbbed, and my mind went hazy. Yes, running is the absolute best.
However, I never got to run those sixty laps. As it turned out, the target Angelica actually expected was forty laps, and she had intentionally exaggerated the goal to test our limits. Thanks to that, everyone who ran over forty laps passed. Aris, on the other hand, had to run around the school grounds after school, on the verge of tears. If I had known this would happen, I would have dropped out right when Aris did. Ah, so this is karma. I shouldn't have abandoned my friend...