The First Real Class
The long-awaited day of class had finally arrived. I headed toward the lecture hall for Basic Combat Studies without even trying to hide the way my lips kept curling upward more than usual.
Dana… it’s been a really long time. I wonder if she’s been doing okay?
The last time I saw her was when I left the lab, so it had been almost a month. I’d figured I wouldn’t run into her until summer break at the earliest, so being able to meet her this soon was completely unexpected.
I should ask her about that while I’m at it.
Why Dana had quit being a hero and decided to teach at the academy was an important question that would affect the latter half of the story. Plus, I genuinely wanted to chat with someone I was actually close to for once.
I’d been casually greeting the main and supporting cast like Aria and Siwoo whenever I saw them, but they always looked like they’d rather be anywhere else. Thanks to that, I hadn’t exactly been living out a proper school life. The thought made me a little gloomy, but I couldn’t show up in front of Dana looking all depressed after so long.
I slapped both cheeks hard enough to make a loud smack, then forced my usual bright smile back into place.
“Finally, a real class! I’m actually excited for this!”
With light, almost bouncy steps, I walked all the way to the lecture hall and threw the door wide open. I’d expected the room to be mostly empty since there was still some time before class started, but contrary to my expectations, it was surprisingly lively.
“Whoa… I never thought I’d live to see the day I get to take a class from one of the 5 Greats!”
“Right? The best I ever got was a B-rank hero. The academy really is on another level.”
When I listened in, most of the students were chatting with clear excitement about Dana, who had just been assigned to teach this course.
Hmm… is that all?
Of course, I was the exception. I had trained under Dana for several years, but the only real achievement I could claim was lowering my control error margin to the triple digits. There had been a few other accomplishments, but most of them came from my own ridiculous talent rather than her excellent teaching. If Dana ever heard me say that, she’d probably beat the floor in frustration while the guilt buried in the corner of my heart twitched violently. Still, as long as I didn’t say it out loud, no one would know.
While having those disrespectful thoughts, Plea gave the students in the classroom a sly once-over.
That guy… don’t know him. That one too… total stranger…
Maybe they felt my gaze, because several students hesitated, pointed at me, and started whispering. But the moment I looked their way, they quickly averted their eyes. I wondered why they were acting like that, but it probably wasn’t anything important.
Losing interest in them, I scanned for anyone I knew who might have an empty seat next to them. I spotted three familiar faces: Siwoo, Aria, and Camilla. Unfortunately, Aria and Camilla were already sitting with their own groups of friends. That naturally left just one person.
“Siwoo, is this seat free?”
“Uh, um? Well…”
“It’s free, right? Thanks!”
With a completely straight face, I plopped down beside him. Of course, if someone had actually been planning to sit there I would have given it up, but there was no way I was going to respect the opinion of someone who was rolling his eyes around desperately looking for an excuse. I simply ignored Siwoo’s hesitation and sat down.
After all, didn’t they say all relationships between people begin by taking the first step? If I kept reaching out like this, I was bound to make plenty of friends eventually. That’s what I told myself.
“Wait a second, you’re making Siwoo uncomfortable!”
“Huh?”
The sharp, clear voice that rang out could only belong to Aria. She was the model student type who loved sticking her nose into everything, so it seemed she was once again giving a lecture to a problem student.
“Excuse me, are you ignoring me?”
But… why did it sound like Aria’s voice was coming from right beside me? Was I imagining things?
“Plea, I’m talking to you!”
“Eh? Me?”
I looked around once before pointing at my own face. She was really talking to me? That was kind of hurtful…
“Come on, I can sit next to Siwoo, can’t I? Are you jealous or something?”
“J-jealous?! Don’t say such ridiculous things!”
Aria’s face flushed bright red as she shouted. Seeing her cheeks burning with embarrassment actually made me feel a little guilty. Even if I’d been stung by a kid snapping at me, saying “are you jealous” was… yeah, even I could admit that had been a bit too harsh.
And if there was one thing I’d learned since I was young, it was that you should apologize immediately when something bothered you.
“Sorry. Jealous… yeah, that was a little over the line.”
“Ah, um? Well, as long as you know…”
“Yep. Then enjoy the class.”
I tried to turn my attention to the blackboard at the front of the room, but Aria immediately cried out “Wait!” and hurried over to my side.
“Wait! What do you mean ‘enjoy the class’?! We’re not done talking yet!”
“What? I just apologized. Isn’t that the end of it?”
“Not that! I’m talking about how sitting next to Siwoo makes him uncomfortable!”
Oh, right. The first thing Aria had said to me was that Siwoo felt uncomfortable.
“I guess that’s true…”
Aria clutched her forehead like something was deeply upsetting her. The girl who seemed to be her friend kept glancing nervously at me while gently tugging on the hem of Aria’s skirt. Was she trying to send some kind of signal?
“Hmm… Siwoo, does it really bother you that much if I sit next to you?”
Aren’t we friends? Is it really that uncomfortable? With that meaning behind my words, I poked him repeatedly in the side. He glanced at me, then slowly shook his head.
See! He really is my friend! Honestly, I’d been a little worried he might still be holding a grudge over the whole rock incident from a week ago, but it looked like that wasn’t the case.
“See? Siwoo says he’s fine with it.”
“That’s not— he was clearly giving you signals…! No, never mind… Plea, would you like to sit with me instead?”
“With you? I don’t really mind either way…”
To be honest, it didn’t matter to me whether it was Siwoo or Aria. I just didn’t want to sit alone and feel lonely. The only thing that worried me was how Siwoo might feel after losing his seatmate… I gave him a slightly wistful look, but he just nodded with sparkling eyes like he was thrilled about something.
“Then, Plea? Let’s sit together in the… I mean, at the very front.”
“Front row sounds good. Let’s go.”
Aria grabbed my hand tightly and led me toward the seats right in front of the podium. And yes, I do mean she held my hand the entire way.
Whoa… so this is what girl-on-girl skinship feels like?
Back when I was a guy, just having another man’s body touch yours was considered unpleasant. If two dudes were walking around holding hands for no special reason, people would definitely whisper about whether they were gay. But between girls… there was none of that? They could just grab hands and hug whenever they wanted? It was… actually pretty nice?
While Plea was feeling a strangely uplifting mix of friendship and subtle pleasure, Aria felt none of those warm emotions toward her. In fact, her feelings were probably similar to those of most of the other students.
She didn’t even take the entrance exam, and not only did she snatch a top rank through every kind of dirty trick imaginable, she’s also completely self-centered! No matter how strong she is, this is just the worst!
Plea’s actions were beyond the understanding of normal people. And people tend to judge things they don’t understand using their own common sense. That’s why the students had begun dismissing most of Plea’s achievements as the result of corruption.
Didn’t take the entrance exam? That has to be cheating, right?
The students who didn’t know that defeating one of the 5 Greats in a duel was the special admission condition had no choice but to think that way.
Received a full scholarship without doing anything in the entrance evaluation? That smells like corruption too.
What kind of student would instantly see through a professor’s illusion ability, head up to the second floor, and casually watch the desperate survival struggle of the other students against demons?
Advanced all the way to the aptitude test finals by forfeit? That’s blatant cheating.
Who would imagine that a single student possessed the power to crush a professor like an ant, and that the school had granted her byes all the way to the finals purely for the safety of the other students?
Aria was no different. Because she couldn’t imagine any of it, she judged Plea’s behavior by her own standards, and as a result, her opinion of Plea kept plummeting further and further.
Still, the fact that she didn’t fear Plea like the other students was already commendable. Unlike the others, she had never witnessed Plea threatening or intimidating anyone, so she had concluded that Plea wasn’t the type to hit people without reason.
Even so, that didn’t change the fact that she disliked her…
And so Aria held Plea’s hand tightly, forming an unwilling pair with her. She kept gripping that hand firmly right up until the professor arrived, as if afraid Plea might do something reckless.
After a few minutes had passed, just as a warm dampness began to form in Aria’s palm, the front door burst open with a loud bang. A single woman strode in.
Blonde hair, tall stature, and an impressive chest. A glamorous appearance that could instantly capture the gaze of any man. The moment she appeared, every student in the lecture hall felt a surge of admiration.
Her name was Dana. She was one of the 5 Greats, the third seat among Helline’s greatest heroes, and a living symbol of the nation.
Of course, there was one person who didn’t feel admiration when looking at Dana, but rather a sense of warm familiarity.