Sad Premonitions Never Lie
Sad premonitions are always right. When she heard the definitive confirmation of her parents' deaths, Han Min-ha let out a small, quiet "Ah" and said nothing more. She probably had no idea what words could possibly fit the moment. So I didn't wait for her to find any. I simply continued in a calm, even voice.
"Like I told you before... your parents, Min-ha, worked on the same team as me. Several years ago we were given a mission, moved to the target region, and carried it out. We were ambushed there. Your parents died on the spot. And... their deaths were my fault. I failed to raise a barrier in time."
I recounted the scene I had witnessed at the Management Bureau headquarters without softening a single detail. Han Min-ha listened with a face drained of color, nodding her head with painful slowness.
"That's how it happened. The shock caused me to lose every memory of it... Or, to be more precise, I blocked myself from remembering."
"Because of the Mental Barrier... right?"
"Exactly. It was only after my visit to the Management Bureau this time that I finally learned the whole truth. And... about your parents... I'm sorry."
I lowered my head in apology.
"It was all because I couldn't support them properly. If I had only managed to put up a solid barrier, they wouldn't have died."
"No... It's not your fault, Professor..." Han Min-ha's voice was barely above a whisper. "You did everything you could... Thank you..."
She bowed to me.
"Thank you, Min-ha. For understanding."
"And Professor... please don't let Mom and Dad's last request weigh on you too much..."
The oath her parents had forced me to swear—Make Han Min-ha an S-class hero.
"Since something like that is impossible anyway... the fact that you accepted me as your student is already more than enough. Thanks to you, I didn't drop out. I was able to keep attending... and I even made a friend like Hee-won..."
Han Min-ha spoke gently, her voice dry and careful, each word placed with quiet precision.
"You did your best then, and you're still doing your best now... so it's all right..."
Was it the Mental Barrier? Even though sorrow and guilt should have been crushing me to the point of tears, I felt almost nothing. The emptiness was suffocating. This wretched passive skill that didn't just protect the user's mind but turned them into an emotional void—it was unbearable. If I could tear the damn thing down, I would finally be able to breathe. I wanted to cry until my chest gave out. I wanted to share the grief of losing Han Tae-woo and Seo Ji-ah, the only friends an orphan like me had ever known, with their daughter. But I couldn't. And that frustration clawed at me.
Instead, I reached out and gently patted her shoulder.
"I'm sorry. But my intention to raise you to S-class hasn't changed one bit. And it's not impossible, either."
"...Yes."
"Your parents were powerful heroes. You carry their blood, and you possess an exceptionally dense aura. It's more than enough. So don't worry and—"
I stopped. What kind of idiot says something like that to a girl who just learned her parents are dead? Han Min-ha stared down at her knees with hollow eyes. The reason she wasn't crying now was probably because she had already cried herself empty for years. Right now, I was the one who wanted to cry... Damn this Mental Barrier.
"How... can I use aura?"
Han Min-ha lifted her head and asked. The moment our eyes met, I saw something flicker in her gaze. I couldn't name it, but it was unmistakably different from the eyes that had looked at me yesterday. Whether it came from finally accepting her parents' deaths or from believing I wouldn't abandon her, I didn't know. But I answered her question.
"To use aura..."
There was one method that was crude, even stupid, but by far the fastest.
"Ugh, I told you I need to go get a new phone," Yoo Hee-won grumbled behind me.
"Just give us a little time. This is for a classmate."
When I chided her, she shot a quick glance at Han Min-ha before turning back to me.
"Then you have to buy me something good today."
"You had tteokbokki ramen yesterday."
"Is the sun that rose yesterday the same one that rose today?"
"Of course it's the same. There's only one sun in the solar system."
Yoo Hee-won opened her mouth in disbelief at the bizarre comparison. We were on our way to the academy's Anti-Monster Combat Training Ground. It wasn't normally open on weekends, but supplementary lessons for underperforming students were permitted under a professor's supervision.
At the training ground, I intended to awaken Han Min-ha's aura. By forcing her to confront a monster she could never handle without it.
If you push someone standing at the edge of a cliff, they fall and die. But a hero soars.
Yesterday, the Han Min-ha who had stepped in front of that villain couldn't awaken her aura. Today's Han Min-ha would be different. The sun yesterday and the sun today were the same, but she was not. At the clinic, after learning of her parents' deaths, the look in her eyes when she asked how to use aura had convinced me. That was why we were here. A crude but fastest method.
There were gentler approaches—meditation and the like—but with more than half the semester already gone, they weren't practical. We needed rapid results before the end-of-semester evaluation if she was going to be placed in an upper class next term. Freshman year covered shared fundamentals; from this year onward, the curriculum shifted to developing each student's unique traits. She had to reach the upper class before that transition, no matter what.
And how well she refined those traits would determine the strength of her hero identity and signature techniques, which in turn fed into public popularity. Heroes who captured the public's hearts advanced more easily. If that happened, Han Min-ha reaching S-class would stop being a distant dream.
"Min-ha. You really have to master it today?"
Normally she would have called her "blockhead" or "tithead" and told her to drop out if she couldn't awaken her aura. But I'd already hinted to Yoo Hee-won that Han Min-ha had learned about her parents, so she was watching her words. In moments like these, she really did seem like an ordinary high-school girl.
"I know. I'll do it."
Han Min-ha nodded with firm resolve.
"Hello. We'd like to use the training ground. It's supplementary instruction for a low-performing student. The subject is Basic Defense."
The weekend staff member handed us the application form. Supervising professor, target student, usage time. And most importantly... the type of monster.
After filling everything out, we left our phones at the desk. Violent movement tended to destroy them. Especially after what had happened to Yoo Hee-won's phone yesterday during the villain fight.
"Whoa, it's seriously huge."
Neither of them had taken anti-monster combat classes yet, so this was their first time seeing the facility. In terms of area, the training ground was practically the size of a zoo. It was exactly why the academy grounds could be described as "vast" without exaggeration.
The Anti-Monster Combat Training Ground was divided into lecture zones, practice arenas, and breeding pens. The pens were deepest inside, enclosed by triple layers of superalloy fencing carrying high-voltage current. The three of us stepped into the circular practice arena and stood facing the massive iron door on the far side. When it opened, the monster would emerge from the connecting passage.
Han Min-ha bit her lip hard, clearly tense. She had been the one insisting we do this immediately, but now that we were actually here, fear was inevitable.
"No need to be nervous. I'll put some safety measures in place first, then we'll begin."
"Y-yes..."
"Hee-won, help me out. I can do it alone, but there's no harm in you experiencing it beforehand."
"It's hot, so hurry up."
As she said, the weather was growing warmer. The shadowless practice arena made the heat feel even worse.
"All right. Let's finish quickly and go eat."
I raised my hand. The iron door began to open with a heavy groan.
"Huk...!"
Han Min-ha gasped when she saw what emerged. Even Yoo Hee-won stared in open surprise.
The monster I had selected was a Death Hunger. It looked as though countless mechanical parts had been forcibly fused into the shape of a scorpion. These creatures didn't occur naturally; they were the result of a villain's trait manifesting in an animal. Not common, but not extremely rare either. Some villains even captured and tamed them for use as living weapons.
The Death Hunger clacked its pincers, producing eerie mechanical screeches, while its eight massive legs twisted its body in every direction. It was so enormous compared to the unconscious villain from yesterday that even the slightest shift sent clouds of dust billowing up.
"Th-th-th... that thing... m-me..."
Han Min-ha's stuttering finally failed her completely. She turned to me with eyes brimming with terror.
"You can do this, Min-ha. This is the most effective method. If we want results before the end-of-semester evaluation, there is no other way."
"Haa... ha... that thing..."
"Just watch out for the poison stinger on its tail. That's all."
"Even getting stepped on... feels like it would kill me..."
All the while, the Death Hunger watched us with its cold, bowling-ball eyes.
"Stay here a moment. I'll set up the safety measures and return. Hee-won, follow me."
"Yes."
Yoo Hee-won, facing a monster for the first time herself, stuck close behind me like an obedient child. I planned to jam jagged fragments of barriers into every joint to slow its movements. A scorpion-type with decent speed—if I didn't cripple its mobility, Han Min-ha would waste the entire day just running away.
"Watch carefully. This will help a lot when you take the anti-monster combat course."
I surrounded the Death Hunger's body and tail with layers of barriers to lock it down, then slowly approached from the front. The creature gnashed the gear-like teeth around its maw, rage radiating from every violent rotation. At the sound, Yoo Hee-won unconsciously gripped my arm with surprising strength.
"That... hurts a little."
"Ah, sorry."
Her grip was no joke. Now I just needed to implant irregular barrier shards into each joint. Before starting, I double-checked the barrier restraining its tail. No problems.
Work begin—
"Huh...? Professor, that—?!"
Yoo Hee-won pointed at its snout in alarm. The instant I saw it, I shoved her aside without a second thought. At the same moment, a vicious circular saw blade exploded from the Death Hunger's maw.
Damn it...! A mutation!
The hideous blade slammed into my chest. The impact shattered every barrier I'd placed on its body.
"Professor!"
As Yoo Hee-won rushed toward me, the Death Hunger's tail stinger plunged into her shoulder. Struck by the poisoned barb, she crumpled without a sound.