How Shall I Put This to Use?
The sense of wrongness had been there for a long time.
Ever since I checked the three girls' skills through Slave Exploitation.
Luca, Tia, and Yuri's nametags read , , and . All 2-Star Intermediate.
But the techniques they could actually wield had long since soared far past that level. However gifted they were, no amount of raw talent explained skills of that caliber.
Without advancing to , , or , they could never receive advanced instruction — everything they had was self-taught, and self-teaching has limits.
The three had first arrived at the Academy together with Aisha.
With the Holy Kingdom quietly campaigning for enrollment and small conflicts flaring up without end, the whole continent was stretched thin — which made it deeply strange that Aisha would be idling at the Academy during such a time.
For someone who came here immediately after the Demon King's subjugation, there could be only one duty more important than the war itself.
Something along the lines of keeping watch over the Heroes.
With the Goddess's oracle as corroboration, the Principal must have seen through the three girls' identities the moment he laid eyes on Aisha.
I only reached certainty myself after watching the Principal's reaction.
The reason I never arrived at that conclusion on my own was the nametags, plain and simple.
As long as they displayed 2-Star, it stood to reason that none of them could be 5-Star Heroes.
From everything I had experienced, I had come to regard the rules of the nametags as absolute.
A law woven into the fabric of the world at its creation — something not even the Goddess could tamper with at will.
That conviction was part of why I'd resolved to challenge the Chair Professor's seat. I had trusted the rules, not the Goddess.
But learning that a doomed, fallen goddess could twist them however she pleased left me oddly deflated.
The four characters burned above my own head had caused me no end of grief, after all.
Needless to say, it had never been a pleasant experience.
Even with my emotions strangled down, the anger had quietly piled up somewhere, waiting for the day it might finally erupt.
Perhaps exempting her own favorites is a freedom she grants herself, in a world she made.
I honestly can't tell what she wants.
Is amusing herself with her own private toys really that enjoyable?
That Luca, Tia, and Yuri were Heroes came as a considerable shock, admittedly.
Going by what Luca had said before, if I simply asked the three of them, they could probably rob a 4-Star of their class somewhere without much trouble.
Of course, I have absolutely no intention of asking them to do anything so morally bankrupt. They became Heroes through their own blood, sweat, and endurance.
They were overflowing with talent to begin with. Not even a fingernail's worth of what they achieved can be credited to the meaningful lessons I gave them as children.
Yet word had spread that I was the Heroes' teacher, little by little, simply because they chose to think of me that way.
I've already reaped the benefit. I have no desire to ride their coattails further at the cost of staining their hands.
So I have no intention of resigning my professorship now.
The 4-Star rank was the goal at the start, but now that the contract is in force, seeing it through is a matter of principle.
Above all, I currently have twenty-four students of the Earth House who deserve my responsibility.
The nametag, I will change by my own ability, full stop.
A few months in, and it turns out to be a more enjoyable line of work than I expected. Far better suited to me than the merchant trade I'd done purely for money.
And the only reason I'd become a merchant in the first place was that I'd been transmigrated into an unwanted slave merchant and saddled with merchant-line skills.
Luca, Tia, and Yuri must have felt much the same.
They were forced into becoming Heroes, then spent ages honing swordsmanship, magic, and healing arts they never wanted to practice.
The two-year expedition must have been grueling for them as well.
Fighting the demonkin without pause, crossing the line between life and death again and again, until at last they felled the Demon King himself.
And even after surviving all that, they still smile so brightly. I'm genuinely proud of them.
It makes me want to dash over and bathe all three in a tub of candy this instant.
Remembering the roles the three of them played in the original history only makes my chest swell that much more.
There is just one thing that nags at me: they were hiding their identities from me.
When I asked Luca about Aisha, it was to determine whether there had been a clear intention behind her actions.
And I confirmed that the three of them had agreed among themselves to keep their Hero status concealed.
Now I intend to dig the reason out of Aisha.
Aisha was family to Luca, and seeing how freely the three girls mingled with her, she was the one most likely to know.
"When did the three of them become Heroes?"
At my question, Aisha's eyes trembled with alarm.
Shall I push a little harder?
"Luca has already confessed everything."
"What? No! I told you it's classified! Even if you're their teacher, you can't just say you know!"
"I'm lying."
"I beg your pardon."
Aisha clutched her head. Before her feelings could be hurt any further, I decided to offer my thanks first.
I bowed to her with all formality.
"First, allow me — not as a professor, nor a noble, but as a private individual by the name of Wicker — to express my deepest gratitude to the Sword Saint."
"...What is this."
"Thank you for looking after Luca all this time."
"Oh, come now. She's my little sister."
Aisha glanced away, looking a touch embarrassed.
"It must have been costly, feeding her."
"Don't I know it. Meat, meat, and more meat — and then she refuses fish outright. Turns her nose up at every vegetable except roasted garlic."
"Puree the vegetables into a paste, mix it into the steak sauce, and she'll never notice."
"Huh. Never thought of that. Seems like a lot of hassle, though."
"Make a big batch once, freeze it, and keep it in your Item Box."
"Really? You're quite the homemaker. Wait — so am I, actually. Years of army rations will do that."
"I understand."
"*Sigh*... Just, Professor, whatever you do, don't get tangled up with the Emperor, that bastard. I can't even imagine what schemes he'd come up with."
Apparently the topic of Luca had loosened her up, because Aisha slumped back against her chair.
"You mean Lucas, right. She had the Hero's Crest from the very first day I met her. As for when the nametag changed — let me see. Two years after the Demon King appeared, so about three years ago now."
"And Tia and Yuri?"
"No idea. I didn't meet them until the expedition myself."
"Why would their nametags have been changed?"
"Huh? Hasn't anyone told you, Professor?"
Aisha explained, sounding genuinely surprised.
"Apparently the Goddess granted them a new mission. That's why they have to keep their identities hidden."
"I see."
A new mission, hm.
It was a story I could accept, and yet something about it didn't sit right.
"It's only *now* that you're curious? You really are the laid-back type, Professor."
Aisha made light of it. It had never once crossed her mind that I'd been in the dark about the three girls' identities all along.
"What is the mission?"
"I don't know. They said it's something only the three of them can know."
"Hm."
I couldn't even begin to guess.
I want to march over and ask the three of them right now — but if the Goddess broke her own rules and even altered their nametags, the incident must be serious.
If I asked, they would surely answer. But there's every possibility that doing so would throw a wrench into that mission.
At the same time, I'm not willing to let the three of them become entangled in some affair beyond my knowledge. It could be dangerous.
If forced to choose between the two, I would ruin the Goddess's business and demand the whole truth.
"Understood. I'll look into it myself."
"Excuse me? You really shouldn't."
"Why not?"
"I've overheard bits and pieces in passing, and they kept saying that under no circumstances could the Professor find out. Something about it all being void, or having to start over from the beginning."
"If it's that critical, you'd think they'd simply hide the mission's existence from me entirely."
"...Right? Gods, I can't."
Aisha scratched the back of her head.
She really is hopeless.
Still, for now, Aisha is the only one I can use to reach the three of them.
"Then, Sword Saint, I ask you to investigate the mission's details on my behalf."
"*Me?*"
"Yes. Pass along whatever keywords you can within the limits of what I'm permitted to learn. At the very least, I need to know whether they're safe and what they're doing."
"Is that really necessary? I rather doubt anything in this world could put those girls in danger."
"Naturally, I worry anyway."
"They're already in their twenties, you know. Lucas is twenty, so she's been a legal adult for four years now. Couldn't *you* worry a little less on my account?"
"I see. Then I'll worry that the Sword Saint, knowing too much, will have every piece of information stripped from her head by the Emperor's mind-manipulation magic."
"Come on, even so — I'm the Sword Saint."
"The Emperor is an unofficial Sage."
Aisha snorted.
"Oh, please. He's just a lunatic who happens to know some magic. How many real Sages does the continent even have..."
When I offered no rebuttal, Aisha's expression darkened.
"...You're serious?"
"He's at the 8th Circle by now."
"The 8th Circle? Is he even human?"
"He'll go down in history as the first human ever to reach it."
"...So *that's* why the kid's gone more and more off the rails every year. I should've thrown in my resignation that day."
Aisha bowed her head and heaved out a long, long sigh.
"Sixth Circle to Seventh is the gap between Master Mage and Sage. So Seventh to Eighth would be..."
"The gap widens by that power again."
"Squared? What does that even mean?"
"Think of it as roughly Hero-level. Possibly beyond."
"Squared equals a *Hero*?"
"Regarding the Emperor."
"Squared equals... Sandra?"
"The Emperor is Hero-class."
"Oh. Oh, I see. That's... dangerous."
Aisha clicked her tongue and tilted her head.
"Then what does 'squared' actually mean?"
"I'll lecture you on it some other time. More importantly — does the Emperor know about Luca, Tia, and Yuri's mission?"
"Ah. Yes. I... accidentally reported it."
"Luckily he seems content to leave it alone. He must have judged them uncontrollable on account of the mission. But he may well scheme to summon them to the battlefield whenever it suits him."
"Exactly. I'm against that too."
"Then we're agreed. Am I safe in assuming you'll cooperate?"
"*Ugh*... Fine. I'll dig around a little."
"Thank you. And I look forward to working with you as Dungeon Studies supervisor as well."
"Leave it to me."
Aisha rose from her seat and started for the office door. Halfway there, her footsteps stopped.
"Um. Actually, Professor."
"Yes?"
"H-have any... marriage proposals been coming your way, by any chance?"
An unexpected question pulled a chuckle out of me.
"I have rather high standards. So far, no one has met them."
"Is... that so? What are your conditions? Must they be nobility?"
"Noble or commoner, it makes no difference. But first, I would have to become someone worthy of standing beside them."
I pointed at my own nametag.
"You're a Chair Professor, aren't you? And surely there are people who don't care about such things. There are, you know."
"Whether or not the person themselves cares, others would still make them suffer for it. I refuse to let my woman be humiliated on my account."
"...I see. Whoever it is, she'll be a lucky woman. That was very informative. Well then — until next time."
Aisha gave a nod and left the office.
Alone now, I took a slow sip of what remained of my tea.
Luca, Tia, and Yuri — Heroes.
The things I wanted to talk through with them piled up like a mountain.
I wanted to shower them with praise, with comfort, with everything.
Piling up snacks and tea and trading war stories late into the night — wouldn't that be wonderful?
No need to rush. We can take it slowly.
Their safety comes first, after all.
That said, I have no intention of sitting quietly and drooling like a fool while I wait.
"The Heroes' legendary teacher," hm.
When I first heard that rumor, I'd thought it the most ridiculous gossip imaginable.
But if it isn't rumor after all — if it's truth — then there's no reason to be modest about it any longer.
So. How shall I put it to use?