Snow White

—CRACK-BOOM!!

"Haa…"

In the Hero Association's training room, Astra poured out her power the way she always did, then checked the superhuman force reading on the gauge. Her face lit up.

Compared to her last measurement, her maximum had climbed by ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠roughly a hundred and fifty points, and her average output by about fifty.

I knew it. Siwoo was the answer.

When she trained alone, a whole week of grinding only ever raised her numbers by three or four points. This was more than ten times faster. Astra smiled to herself, quietly proud that she had chosen to share her secret with that man.

The pride did not last. The moment she remembered what she had sacrificed for this growth rate, her face burned all over again.

Ugh… even if it was for the sake of getting stronger…

For the first time in her life she had seen a man's thing with her own eyes, touched it with her hands—and even taken it into her mouth. The memory made her brush her lips without thinking, tasting that moment all over again.

It wasn't as bad as I expected—ah, no!!

The trouble was that recalling it did not bring only shame. Something else stirred underneath. Astra twisted where she stood, trying to scrub the lewd images out of her head.

I've barely even looked at men properly until now…

She had never dated anyone. She had never even known a man well. Everything of the past few weeks had hit her with crushing intensity, and even with her eyes shut the scenes kept replaying. She could not focus on work at all.

Siwoo is probably running the restaurant around now…

She tried to chase the filthy thoughts ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away with something else—only for Siwoo to surface again. For days now, her mind had been nothing but him. Curiosity about his ability. Gratitude for how he had accelerated her growth. A raw, sexual interest born from her first brush with anything so explicit. All of it tangled together, and every time he rose in her thoughts, what had started as simple curiosity sank a little deeper.

"Yuna! What are you thinking about?"

"Eep—ah. Seol."

And then the very person who made her head even more complicated walked right into the middle of it.

"Aha… so you were thinking about that guy."

"W-what are you—!!"

Baek Seol grinned, reading her perfectly. Astra denied it at once—but she had been thinking about Siwoo, and for a split second her composure cracked. Anyone else might have missed it. A friend who had stood beside her for years did not.

"Look at this little minx…? So it's true? And you still claim there's nothing going on?"

"I-I'm telling you, there isn't…!!"

Seol kept prodding, fishing for the shape of their relationship. Astra denied it every time—yet the harder Seol tried to push them together, the more a faint, unwanted possibility took shape in Astra's own mind.

"That's enough! If you're going to talk nonsense, I'm leaving!"

"Ah—Yuna!"

Shaking off the thoughts crowding her head, Astra managed to peel Seol away and head for the locker room. Seol kept teasing her with that playful look until Astra vanished completely—then the expression wiped clean off her face.

"…."

Blank-faced, she read the superhuman force record Astra had left behind. Without hesitation she stepped into the measuring chamber herself.

—FWOOOSH!!!

She unleashed everything she had, pouring every feeling inside her into a blast of cold that slammed into the machine. The result appeared a moment later.

"…."

Compared to Astra's explosive growth, it looked pathetic. Objectively, raising her average by nearly ten points in roughly two weeks was impressive…

"Haa… haa… and even this isn't enough?"

Set against the growth she had just seen from Astra, it lagged badly. Seol's eyes narrowed in frustration. Still, she refused to quit. Catching her breath as best she could, she began dumping power into the machine again the moment it recovered—and before long, onlookers drifted over.

"What, who is still in there that they haven't come out yet?"

"In there? That's Baek Seol. Don't you know her training-room time has basically doubled lately?"

"Seriously? She and Astra were already the two biggest users of this place. And she increased it again?"

"That's what I'm saying. Someone should stop her. At that point it isn't training—it's self-harm."

Because her power lowered the air temperature around her, Snow White had quietly become the other heroes' personal air conditioner. Heroes who had just finished wrecking their bodies often gathered near wherever she trained to soak in the cold and chat, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠today was no different.

"Leave her. She's probably a mess right now."

"A mess? Over what?"

"Astra's growth rate is insane lately. She took down a B-plus-class monster alone last time, and ever since then she's been climbing like ten times faster. You didn't know?"

"Yeah, I heard. People are saying she'll hit B-class before the year is out."

"What, so Baek Seol's jealous or something?"

"Wouldn't you be? Those two are always stuck together. One of them shoots ahead, so the other gets impatient and starts grinding like that."

They laughed among themselves and kept trading stories about Astra and Seol. The training-room door was cracked open just enough for Seol to catch every word. She snorted.

Jealousy? Don't make me laugh.

She sneered at the way the other heroes twisted what she felt into something as ugly as jealousy.

This isn't jealousy.

How could it be? She knew how hard her friend had worked all this time—and why. How could jealousy even take root? If anything, she was glad. Glad that her friend, Astra, was finally shining. Glad that she was moving toward the place she had always belonged.

If anyone's jealous, it's you.

Seol fixed the heroes outside with a cold look she never showed Astra or civilians. Oblivious to the way she was staring at them from inside the training room, the other heroes shifted the conversation fully onto Astra.

"That girl really is lucky. She awakens a great power, rides out a rampage without dying, and then just keeps growing."

"Tell me about it. Aah… why doesn't anything like that ever happen to me?"

"Right? And ever since she started climbing, the way she looks at me and the other D-class types has changed a little, don't you think?"

They wore the mask of heroes, but the talk spilling out of them was no better than common street trash. Ugly jealousy at a comrade who was finally growing—and for a few of them, jealousy that slid into outright gossip and tearing Astra down. Who would hear that conversation and still call them heroes?

Fakes.

Listening, Seol condemned every one of them in her heart. People liked to imagine heroes as noble and pure—storybook champions out of a fairy tale. The Hero Association worked hard to craft exactly that image, too: custom suits tailored to each hero's theme, forcing them to shout technique names mid-fight, and all the rest. But between the image the Association sold, the heroes people dreamed of, and the heroes who actually existed, the gap was wide.

"Ugh, this is so annoying… maybe I should just quit. I'm still stuck at D-class while people next to me are talking about making B-class this year…"

"Same. I thought I'd at least be C-class by now, but staying here any longer…"

Plenty of the people who awakened and joined the Association did so less out of justice or duty than for the massive salary and prestige the Association offered. Before their powers, they had been ordinary citizens; luck had handed them abilities, not a sudden injection of righteousness. Rookie training did include character education and lessons meant to cultivate a sense of justice—but plenty of heroes still worked purely for money and other worldly reasons. Seol lumped them all together and called them fakes.

The heroes I dreamed of weren't like this.

She let their words wash past one ear and thought back. Childhood. Getting swept up in the Association's propaganda, clutching a swollen dream, becoming a brand-new hero. Then the reality of active heroes, so far from anything she had admired. True ones with real justice and real responsibility existed, rare as rain in a drought—hard even to meet. She had been ready to quit, telling herself this was not what a hero was supposed to be, when she appeared…

A real hero, carrying a sacred mission.

"…I'm not losing either…!!"

She had probably decided it the moment they first met. In a world crawling with fakes, she would stand beside the genuine hero who had appeared among them and watch her grow.

So…

"Me too. No ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠matter what it takes…!!"

By any means necessary. By grinding herself down to the bone if she had to. She would catch at least half of Astra's soaring growth. Seol whipped herself onward and kept training her power.

And on the other side of that resolve—

So who even is that man, that he can put that look on Yuna's face?

She thought of the man who had made the friend she admired, yearned for, and loved wear an expression she had never seen before.

From the way she talks, they're not dating… but it still feels like she's hiding something…

A little deeper interest settled on a civilian she would normally have treated as just another face in the crowd.

I did something pretty awful to him, too… yeah. I should go find him. Apologize properly, and while I'm at it, casually figure out what he and Yuna really are…