Brown Tail's Arrival
"Kyo Professor~!!" From high in the sky, Professor Jin Se-yeong, clad in her hero suit, trailed a long streak of brown aura before landing right beside me.
"It's Brown Tail...!"
People who recognized her swarmed over, snapping photos. The chaos from moments ago was already forgotten. Jin Se-yeong was a B-class hero famous for her flashy aerial acrobatics. Combined with her innocent smile and pretty appearance, she enjoyed enormous popularity. It was only natural that her sudden appearance caused an uproar.
"Good evening, Professor Jin. Were you on emergency standby? Hard luck, having to work on a Friday."
"Where's the villain?"
I tapped the barrier on the ground with the tip of my shoe.
"Huh? What's this?"
Professor Jin peered curiously at the writhing body parts trapped inside the small barrier, as if pleading to be released.
"What kind of bastard causes trouble right in front of the academy?"
"The Management Bureau will figure that out. Judging by his behavior, he seems to be an Unconscious Villain."
"That makes sense. But you're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm fine. As you can see, I'm perfectly intact."
"Thank goodness you were here, Professor. If you hadn't been, the damage would have been far worse... Hmm... already this bad..."
Jin Se-yeong's voice trailed off as she looked at the injured people protected by the barrier. No. This was actually quite mild. Without me, this place would have become a sea of blood by now. In that sense, Han Min-ha and Yoo Hee-won's actions, though reckless, had been an extremely effective initial response. If not for those girls, dozens more would have been torn apart while I was still assessing the situation and making my way here. I still didn't know exactly why they had been here, but... it was the kind of thing that required extraordinary courage.
"Huh? Min-ha? What are you doing here?"
Jin Se-yeong's eyes widened when she spotted Han Min-ha sitting behind me.
"Ugh... my whole body hurts..."
"Hee-won...?"
When Yoo Hee-won came stumbling over at that moment, Jin Se-yeong gave me a bewildered look. Any professor would have worn that expression upon seeing two academy students in torn gym clothes at the scene of a villain attack in a busy district on a Friday night.
Right now, Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha had broken academy rules, and the matter was extremely serious. Unauthorized departure. Coming all the way here in those outfits clearly meant they had flown without permission. On top of that, they had nearly died. This could become a massive incident capable of damaging the academy's reputation or even leading to its closure. Han Min-ha, if not Yoo Hee-won, might even be expelled.
I activated my specialized skill alongside Basic Defense: Bluffing.
"We came out for a mentoring meeting and dinner."
I cut in before any of the three could speak.
"It's Friday, after all. Perfect timing."
"I see. Well, I'm just glad everyone is safe. Hee-won, are you... all right?"
"Just a little sore, that's all."
Just then, Chae Ga-yun came running, shoving people aside.
"Professor Kyo Suhyeon!!"
"Eh? Administrative Manager?"
Jin Se-yeong and Chae Ga-yun exchanged dazed glances upon spotting each other.
"Emergency standby...?"
"What are you doing here...?"
If things went wrong here, I would be the one in an awkward position. Time for my specialty again.
"I happened to run into the manager in front of the spicy intestine restaurant and we ended up eating together, Professor Jin."
Chae Ga-yun had been about to protest the blatant lie when she noticed the two girls standing on either side of me. After looking at Han Min-ha, Yoo Hee-won, and then my face in turn, she burst into laughter and waved her hand.
"Ahaha! That's right. I was craving spicy intestines and when I got there, Professor Kyo and the kids were already there."
Her judgment was impressively quick. Someone like that deserved to be the administrative manager at her age. Fortunately, the innocent Professor Jin took the words at face value without suspicion.
Police and ambulances arrived late on the scene. Professor Jin Se-yeong, who had deployed on emergency sortie, handed the scene over to the police in her capacity as the assigned hero. The still-twitching body parts of the Unconscious Villain were each packed into alloy boxes and sent to the Management Bureau.
"Well then... I'll be going now."
Having wrapped everything up, Jin Se-yeong bid us farewell. In her hand was the bag of egg bread I had bought for her. She would be stuck on night duty in her suit without being able to go home, so I had gotten it for her to snack on when she got bored.
"Take care, Professor Jin."
When Jin Se-yeong shot upward with her brown aura, the crowd cheered.
"Let's get going too. Before the reporters show up."
I led Chae Ga-yun and the girls out through the crowd.
"Huh? My phone!"
Yoo Hee-won suddenly shouted and patted her pockets.
"Damn... I must have dropped it earlier."
Something caught on my foot. Looking down, I saw a phone with a cracked screen. It was the very phone Yoo Hee-won never let go of.
"Is this it?"
As I picked up the phone, my finger accidentally pressed a button and the screen lit up. But the lock screen...
"Give it here!"
Yoo Hee-won snatched the phone from my hand, fuming.
"Why is a thirty-something man making a fuss over a high school girl's phone? How creepy..."
She muttered something under her breath and hurriedly stuffed the phone into her pocket. Hmm... strange. I could have sworn the lock screen showed a side profile of me.
I had intended to take the girls straight back to the academy, but that proved difficult. When I heard they hadn't even had dinner, what kind of advisor would send students back on an empty stomach? So we found a secluded kimbap restaurant tucked away from prying eyes. Chae Ga-yun, who often came to Graford City, said it was a hidden gem she knew.
Since we had barely eaten anything at the spicy intestine place before fleeing, Chae Ga-yun was probably hungry too.
"So... you were supposed to eat chicken with the professor... but he didn't show up, so you went looking for him yourselves...?"
After hearing the explanation for why the girls had been in the middle of Graford City in gym clothes, Chae Ga-yun stopped her chopsticks mid-air over her kimbap and let out a dry laugh.
"Haha... kids these days are ridiculously bold... Oh, sorry, sorry."
I knew Yoo Hee-won's explanation was a lie, but I said nothing and simply sliced my pork cutlet. Sometimes, when you want to hide or cover something up, simply staying silent without trying to actively conceal it can be effective enough.
"Anyway... since the professor is vouching for you, I'll let it slide this time, but this is a really serious mistake. You know this won't end with just demerit points, right?"
"Yes..."
Han Min-ha answered while chewing, her mouth full of tuna kimbap as she reached for the pork cutlet kimbap.
Yoo Hee-won didn't answer, busy picking out rice cakes from her ramen.
"Putting rice cakes in ramen... that's a first."
"Hee-won, are you listening?"
"I'll be more careful from now on. As long as the professor keeps his promises properly."
"Professor, buy them chicken. If you break another promise, they'll all get expelled."
At Chae Ga-yun's words, I only gave a faint smile. Since she had decided to help, I could relax for now. The front gate entry records were managed by the administrative office anyway, so a little tampering would suffice. I would have to speak with the assistant teachers. Assistant Bae Ye-bin would be easy enough to handle with words, but Yoo Hee-won's sharp-tongued assistant, Kim-Yi Bit-na... it would be better to leave that to Yoo Hee-won herself.
"By the way, Hee-won, are you really all right?"
"I don't think I have any injuries."
No matter how talented she was, Yoo Hee-won was still an academy student. The academy taught students that even if they encountered a villain outside, they should never fight and instead run and report it. No matter how much of a hero candidate they were, they were not yet heroes. The gap between the two was like heaven and earth. Yet Yoo Hee-won had fought the villain head-on, bought time, and survived unscathed. Still, she should get checked once we returned. There might be internal bleeding or hairline fractures she didn't notice. As an only child, had she inherited all of her father's talent? I wondered how far she would grow by graduation.
On the other hand, Han Min-ha... Han Min-ha, cheeks stuffed with kimbap, still couldn't use her aura even after what had just happened. In such an extreme situation, survival instinct should have triggered her aura. As expected, the only option was to tell her everything about her parents and work together to overcome her trauma. For today, I would just feed them and send them back. Tomorrow was the weekend, so we could talk then. Academy students were normally allowed overnight stays on weekends, but freshmen were not. Their schedule was almost like a military academy, with only one week of vacation.
"Eat plenty. Both of you worked hard."
"But Professor, what kind of technique did you use exactly?"
I answered Yoo Hee-won's question kindly.
"It's nothing special. I simply applied the basic barrier."
"Hmm... you can do that much with just a barrier?"
Yoo Hee-won asked with a very skeptical look.
"It's not difficult. As long as you can create a barrier of the desired shape, strength, and location, that's all there is to it."
"You make it sound so easy."
Yoo Hee-won grumbled, but Han Min-ha listened quietly with shining eyes.
"Min-ha."
"Y-yes!"
"If you can use aura, you could do everything I did earlier very easily."
"Ah... yes."
Yoo Hee-won clicked her tongue at the sight of Han Min-ha slightly lowering her head.
"If you had just helped me earlier, we could have finished it."
"Sorry. But I was too scared..."
"Do you even plan on graduating?"
When Han Min-ha said nothing, Yoo Hee-won frowned in displeasure.
"And stop stuffing yourself with kimbap and eat some ramen. You'll choke to death at this rate."
"Ramen makes my glasses fog up and it's uncomfortable..."
"Then take them off and eat."
"Oh...? I guess that would work."
"Geez, seriously..."
I spoke gently to Han Min-ha, who was being one-sidedly scolded rather than bickering.
"It's all right, Min-ha. What you did earlier was truly brave. Without being able to use aura, you're no different from a civilian, yet you stood in front of a villain in that state. Of course, you nearly died, but still."
Yoo Hee-won muttered to herself that she was the one who had actually fought, yet the wrong person was getting praised.
"You too, Hee-won. Ignoring the academy's advice not to confront villains was reckless, but thanks to you, it didn't turn into a major disaster. Well done. But don't do it again."
"Getting praised while being stabbed in the side feels pretty good."
I smiled at the sarcastic Yoo Hee-won and added,
"And... I'm sorry."
"Huh...? For what?"
"For all the words and actions that hurt you until now."
Having deceived myself into thinking I had possessed Han Tae-woo's web novel, I had misunderstood Yoo Hee-won as the ill-tempered heroine from the story. That was why I had avoided and rejected her from the beginning. But now that I knew the whole truth, looking back, Yoo Hee-won had simply been pushed away without understanding why. Of course... her personality being terrible hadn't changed, but still, I had to admit that my attitude toward her had been inappropriate. And in such cases, an apology was the right thing to do.
"Uh... ahem... what's with the sudden..."
Not knowing the full story, Yoo Hee-won avoided my gaze and cleared her throat at the unexpected apology. A faint blush rose on her face.