The Hierarchy of Power

The Astra Hero Association ranks the heroes affiliated with it from E-class to S-class, taking into account the output and proficiency of their awakened superhuman abilities. The missions each hero is assigned naturally vary according to their rank.

E-class. Essentially civilians who possess nothing more than an ability. Their duties include guiding citizens to safety during disasters and handling cleanup after incidents.

D-class. The stage where one has awakened some degree of power and gained combat capability. They usually operate in teams, patrolling small neighborhoods and dealing with petty criminals and tiny mutated insect-type monsters.

C-class. The stage where one has established their own style. They typically work alone, overseeing towns, townships, or neighborhoods, fighting small-to-medium monsters and buying time against larger threats.

B-class. City-level powerhouses. They take responsibility for an entire city and primarily handle foreign villains sneaking in or the elimination of large monsters.

A-class. National-level elites. Unlike other heroes who maintain assigned territories and work diligently, their main role is to conserve their strength for emergencies. With abilities and output on an entirely different scale, their mere existence acts as a deterrent against villains. They primarily respond to disasters expected to cause at least city-wide casualties.

And then there is S-class. The highest rank designated by the Hero Association and an honorable title given only to the absolute strongest superhumans in the world—only six of whom exist globally. They transcend national boundaries to protect all of humanity. Among them are the president of the Hero Association, Ignis, and Saint, who is said to have raised countless patients from their sickbeds…

As for villains classified under the same ranking system…

“Hmm. The ranking system is more complicated than I thought.”

I nodded slowly as I read through the Hero Association’s official hero ranking system displayed on the monitor.

The day after I made that intimate promise with Astra, I decided to learn more about my own ability. While I was at it, I figured I might as well look up what other superhumans’ powers felt like, so I’d been scouring the internet. Besides, the restaurant was closed today anyway.

“If I had to guess, I’d probably be E-class.”

I had no intention of revealing my ability to the Association, but I couldn’t help wondering what rank they would assign me if I did.

“There was another buffer-type ability user, right?”

On top of that, I grew curious about the other buffer users Astra had mentioned, so I searched for them briefly. I had looked them up once before, right after I first awakened, but the feeling was different now.

“Let’s see… B-class hero. Enchanter.”

I found a suitable example and watched videos and newspaper articles showcasing the hero’s feats.

“I watched this video before.”

I’d heard she was retired now, but back when she was active, Enchanter had been quite famous. Thanks to her rare ability to strengthen others, she often appeared wherever renowned A-class heroes were fighting.

Back when I had just awakened my Buff Cooking ability, I had compared my power to hers while watching these very clips.

“At the time, there was no comparison at all.”

The only thing I knew my ability could do back then was raise an ordinary person’s strength to the level of someone who exercised regularly. Naturally, when compared to the buffs Enchanter used in the videos, mine looked utterly pathetic. That was why I had given up on expecting much from my power.

But now that I knew the buffs were different when used on myself versus when used on Astra…

Isn’t mine actually better…?

Even while watching the buffs of a hero who had risen to the upper ranks, that thought crossed my mind.

According to the news reports that came out later, the monster that appeared in my neighborhood had been ranked B+. That was a monster even a B-class hero would struggle to handle alone; it usually required two or more heroes working together. Yet Astra, after receiving my buff, had taken it down all by herself.

If I registered as a hero, would I at least qualify for A-class?

I had no plans to reveal this to the outside world, but simply knowing my ability was exceptional made my shoulders rise with pride.

While I was at it, I decided to compare Astra’s level—after receiving my buff—against other heroes by watching more footage.

She defeated a B+ monster… so does that put Astra at A-class?

I tried to find videos of A-class heroes, but while there was plenty of footage of B-class heroes, A-class and above rarely had their feats recorded and shared publicly.

Still, I refused to give up and kept digging through old videos until—

“Oh?”

I didn’t find the A-class footage I was looking for, but I stumbled onto something even more incredible.

An article written about twenty years ago. Attached was a video of rather poor quality, but it captured the feats of an S-class hero, not even A-class.

I knew S-class heroes were famous, but I’ve never seen just how strong they really are…

I was aware of their existence since S-class heroes were occasionally mentioned on TV, but I had never actually witnessed their power firsthand. My curiosity exploded, so I clicked the article. The video that played next was—

—Kwaaaaaaaaah!!!

“….Holy shit. What the hell is that?”

The scene looked like something straight out of a myth.

A colossal giant literally the size of a mountain. A being with skin tough enough to shrug off every kind of heavy weaponry the military could fire. And that giant was being annihilated by a single entity.

The moment a dragon—no, a person—with flashing yellow pupils exhaled, the mountain-sized giant was incinerated and erased from existence. Even with the low resolution, the sight sent chills down my spine.

“The president is insane.”

I stared at the giant red dragon in the video, then, on a whim, typed “Hero Association President” into the search bar.

What came up was a photo of a beautiful woman with red hair and a cynical expression that suggested she couldn’t care less about the world. It was hard to believe she was the same person as the red dragon I had just seen.

“They called her Red Dragon, right?”

The pinnacle of mutation-type superhuman abilities, where the body transforms into something resembling an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠entirely different species. The person who had awakened the ability known as Red Dragon, and the monster who had protected the Hero Association for over a hundred years.

“There’s no way I can compare to that.”

The overwhelming majesty made me reflect on how I had secretly thought that Astra, after receiving my buff, must be incredibly strong. Seeing this humbled me instantly, and I quietly closed the internet browser.

“S-class is obviously impossible… but maybe I could barely scrape into A-class?”

Still, thanks to the A-class heroes who had appeared alongside her in the video, I was able to get a rough idea of what I wanted to know. Judging purely from footage had its limits, but at least I could gauge Astra’s approximate level after receiving my buff.

Power that barely reached the threshold of A-class. Even then, it was only her raw output that barely kept up; her sense and control of her ability were still severely lacking. That was probably the limit of what Astra had reached back then.

I wonder what would happen if I fed it to someone else?

After roughly calculating the level of the buffs I had used, I suddenly became curious about what would happen if I fed my cooking to other people.

For example… what if I buffed Ignis, the one from the video I had just watched? Would she become strong enough to surpass S-class? Or was it impossible to make someone already that powerful any stronger?

Well. Since I had no intention of feeding my buffed dishes to anyone other than Astra—who I had no choice but to share the secret with—it was a meaningless hypothesis.

Stop thinking useless thoughts.

I shook off the stray ideas, closed the windows filled with other heroes’ information, and instead typed “Astra” into the search bar.

Since we were going to be in the same boat from now on, I realized I only knew her as the hero in charge of my neighborhood. I didn’t know much else.

I should at least look up her past activities… Hm?

I tried searching with older dates to find out what kind ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of hero Astra was, but the results came out a little strange.

“Huh? A-class?”

The Astra I knew was a C-class hero, yet the article title clearly said A-class hero. Intrigued, I clicked on it.

“Ah…”

As I read the article, I felt a strange sense of dissonance. Then I noticed the date and realized it had been written fifteen years ago. The words stirred up some faint childhood memories.

Come to think of it, I remember there being a huge fuss when I was little about an A-class hero dying at the hands of a villain.

I vaguely recalled being led by my parents to the memorial service for a short while. So the hero who died ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back then was also named Astra?

The Hero Association usually avoided giving duplicate hero names to active or former heroes. Was there a particular reason they gave Yuna the same name as this past hero?

While ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looking through the records of the previous hero who had used the same hero name as the Astra I knew, I ended up reading the entire newspaper article. It included a photo of the young child whose life had been saved by the sacrificed hero’s actions.

Huh?

The moment I saw the child’s face… a strange sense of unease washed over me. It felt like I had seen that face somewhere before…

…

“Haa.”

In the training facility inside the Association headquarters, she pushed her ability to its limit once again and measured her superhuman power output. Her friend stared at her with her mouth hanging wide open.

“You’re going to catch a fly like that.”

“This is impossible…! Why did it speed up again?! I thought the rate of growth had gone back to normal…!!”

At Snow White’s words—her friend who burned with rivalry toward her—Astra looked at the superhuman power measurement results that had clearly grown far more than yesterday.

Just as I thought. It’s all thanks to Siwoo’s cooking…

The Association had claimed her ability was awakening after she once went into a frenzy during a life-threatening crisis and defeated a B+ monster. But Astra knew the true cause of this explosive growth lay somewhere else.

The first male awakener in history. A man with a special ability unlike anything seen before. It was definitely thanks to that man’s cooking that she had been able to grow like this.

It’s an absurd ability…

She had felt it with her own body, but seeing the actual results in front of her made her feel both newly astonished and afraid. Was it really right for her—a mere C-class hero—to carry this secret alone and hide it?

Maybe I should persuade Siwoo somehow and make him use this power for the Association… for heroes far greater than me?

For a moment such thoughts crossed her mind. She even wondered if revealing the secret would be better for everyone. But Astra kept her mouth firmly shut.

She could not betray Siwoo, who had used this incredible ability just to help her. And…

With Siwoo’s ability… maybe I can…

Now that she had coincidentally come to share that man’s secret, the current situation felt like a once-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity.

Yes. She could not let this chance slip away.

Astra had a reason she absolutely had to become a high-ranking hero.

“To fill the empty space left by the person who died because of me…”

Having decided to seize this opportunity that might never come again, Astra made up her mind to protect this secret at all costs.

“Huh? What is it?! Did you secretly eat something good for your body again?!”

She gently soothed and calmed down Snow White, who was charging at her with burning rivalry.