Education System Overhaul
The official document regarding the education system reform (2) read as follows. Given how extremely grave the current situation was, it stated that there was a need to overhaul the education systems of the hero academies to some degree. Wondering what this "current situation" referred to, I found a table below it listing dates, locations, and incident details. "There are this many?" Professor Jin groaned as she looked at it. The table contained a list of incidents similar to the ones we had seen earlier—attacks suspected to be coordinated villain operations, along with the number of heroes who had fallen victim. Judging by the dates, these incidents had been occurring steadily for nearly a month already. At first, I had wondered why an official notice was being sent over just a few villains showing up, but this was clearly an extremely serious matter.
"The villains' movements have been suspicious lately. Those who used to operate alone or in small groups have been showing signs of some kind of organized activity recently," the department head explained to the professors reviewing the document. "We don't know the details yet, but the Management Bureau believes the villains who once acted independently may be attempting to form a coalition with a unified command structure."
In other words, a villain alliance. The professors exchanged grave looks. If the Bureau's assessment was correct, this was truly dire. The reason the world had not descended into chaos despite the existence of so many villains was because they lacked any command-and-control system like the Management Bureau. Heroes mostly operated through individual offices and moved independently, but they were ultimately under the Bureau's oversight. That meant the Bureau could forcibly mobilize nearby heroes if a particular district faced an overwhelming threat. Though such instances were rare, the existence of an organization with legal authority and the ability to manage heroes' identities while imposing appropriate restrictions was crucial. No matter how much havoc the villains caused, they were neutralized by the Bureau's organized response. But the villain coalition the department head had just mentioned could completely overturn that dynamic—a potential game changer. That was why the Management Bureau and the Ministry of Education had rushed out this official notice.
And what the document instructed was this: "So the Ministry of Education wants us to switch this year's new students to a team-based education system right away."
The education system overhaul outlined in the document meant transitioning from the existing class system to a level-based team system. With hero offices being wiped out one after another, the current way heroes operated would only lead to more casualties. No matter how forcefully the Management Bureau tried to mobilize heroes, it would be difficult to respond to sudden ambushes or surprise attacks, and active heroes would never quietly follow such controls for long. It seemed the Ministry of Education intended to pilot this system with the new students, who had not yet been fully steeped in hero culture. The goal was to create organized heroes capable of countering the villains' own attempts at organization. To achieve that, countless changes would need to be made to the Management Bureau's combat hero formations, but that was not my concern. As an academy professor, all I had to do was teach the students in accordance with the revised education system.
But what exactly would this team system entail? The details were laid out in the following section. "The Ministry's current plan is to form teams of three to five students and assign professors to oversee several teams each," the department head said. Professor Yoo responded, "Team system sounds nice, but isn't this basically just creating homeroom professors?"
"Well, yes, that's true. However, whereas classes previously followed the exact same curriculum, from now on we'll be forming teams that maximize combat effectiveness by considering individual ability matchups, and they'll learn group combat methods tailored to those compositions."
"Sounds like the same thing to me." At Professor Yoo's pointed remark, the department head wiped the sweat from his brow, looking flustered. "Anyway, the reason we called this emergency meeting is because we need to classify the students and form teams before the semester starts."
Sighs could be heard from various places around the room. Some professors had already been unable to properly enjoy their vacation due to home visits, and now, just two days before the semester began, a sudden workload bomb had dropped. Assigning teams based on student characteristics and matchups, then matching them with appropriate professors, was no easy task. Moreover, all the students were currently at home. In the end, everything would have to be handled through documents alone, without any in-person meetings—which would be incredibly difficult.
"Hnnng…" Professor Jin Se-yeong let out a sound like a dejected puppy, her face falling. "One of my two precious vacations a year is about to fly away…"
"What can we do? When they say jump, we jump."
"It's so sad… But given the circumstances, I can't just complain."
The other professors felt the same. Depending on their personalities, some sighed, others muttered curses under their breath, and some crossed their arms with furrowed brows. It was partly because their vacation had been ruined, and partly because the sudden situation left them bewildered and worried.
"The dean is on his way now, and I expect all faculty will have returned by tomorrow morning. So don't be too disheartened… Ah, honestly, I'm flustered too." At the department head's words, the professors murmured things like "Can't be helped" and "It's all right." Everyone understood that this wasn't anyone's fault. Not the Ministry of Education and Management Bureau for issuing such an insane directive two days before the semester, not the dean for calling the emergency meeting, not the department head who had to push through this absurd workload, and certainly not the heroes who had fallen to the villains. If anyone was to blame, it was those damned villains. If this villain coalition truly existed, the world would no longer be the same, and the academy would have to prepare for it. As professors, we had to do our utmost to improve our students' survival rates after graduation.
Though, now that I thought about it, this approach was exactly the same as how Secreto organized heroes into teams. Had the Advisory Chairman's influence played a role? Or perhaps it was inspired by the high survival rates of Secreto heroes. And so, the entire faculty of Graford Academy began two days of all-night work.
"Haa, it's finally over…" Professor Jin sighed, slumping against the back of her chair. She was usually bright and energetic, but today her face looked like faded wallpaper, her eyes half-lidded with exhaustion. "Ah, I'm so tired… Are you all right, Professor Kyo?"
"I'm fine."
Two days of grueling overnight work. All the professors had thrown themselves into fulfilling the Ministry's directives without rest. No matter how serious the situation was, demanding that an education system in place for years be overhauled in just two days was an unreasonable order. Still, we had managed it in the end. There had been some friction along the way. I had strongly objected when there were signs that Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha were going to be placed on separate teams. Many professors had been eyeing both the top-ranked Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha, who had distinguished herself in the recent PVP Combat Evaluation. Though I rarely got angry thanks to Mental Barrier, feigning anger had been easy enough. The professors, who had never seen me like this before, were quite taken aback, and the department head had taken my side. It seemed like a form of repayment for my decision to take Yoo Hee-won as my advisee despite the Advisory Chairman's pressure at the beginning of the semester. If I had stubbornly insisted, things would have become quite troublesome. Back then, I had taken Yoo Hee-won in order to include Han Min-ha, and now it was paying off nicely. Thanks to that, next semester I would become the homeroom professor for both Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha, teaching them in earnest.
Originally, teams were supposed to consist of at least four or five students, but after distributing students while considering hero ranks and subject importance, no students had been assigned to me—a C-class professor teaching the unpopular subject of Basic Defense. In that case, we would simply continue with the existing advisory group for the entire semester. That worked out rather well.
"But you know, I still don't understand what the difference is supposed to be," Professor Yoo said, rubbing her brow. "Wouldn't it be simpler to just add a group combat course to the existing curriculum? It's not like homeroom professors can teach every subject anyway. In the end, the existing subject professors will just be handling advanced courses. Why go through all this trouble?"
"That's true. Honestly, I don't expect any dramatic effects either."
"Well, the Management Bureau and Ministry of Education aren't exactly full of idiots. They must have something in mind if they're pulling this crazy stunt of flipping the education system two days before the semester starts."
"It's only a pilot program. If it doesn't work out after one semester, they'll revert it."
"That would be annoying in its own way." Professor Yoo shook her head as if she had no more energy to argue. "We're done now, so how long are you planning to stay? The semester starts tomorrow—you should go rest. Wait, it's already today."
Glancing at the wall clock past midnight, Professor Yoo sighed. "Come on, Professor Kyo. Let's head back."
Professor Jin grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.
I headed toward the faculty dormitory with Professors Yoo and Jin. The lukewarm summer night breeze felt sticky, and perhaps because of that, Professor Yoo seemed particularly on edge. "This damn academy. I should put in a transfer request next year and go back to the field. I'm so sick of this."
"Heeeng. Professor Yoo seems really upset after her overseas trip got canceled."
"You wouldn't be any different if it were you, Professor Jin. And I even got called back for an emergency meeting in the middle of my advisee's home visit."
So she had worked right up until the very last moment without any vacation at all. It was stranger that she wasn't angry.
"Still, the winter break is a few days longer, so why don't we go on a trip together then?" At Professor Jin's suggestion, Professor Yoo let out a small laugh. "I'm not joking. Let's really go. The three of us would be perfect, don't you think?"
"Two rooms? One for me, and one for you and Professor Kyo?"
"Huk……" Professor Jin gasped and glanced at me. Since I had no particular opinion on the matter, I simply smiled. "Well… Professor Kyo only has eyes for Min-ha and Hee-won right now, after all."
"That's right. Professor Kyo is the very model of an academy professor."
"Haha. I'm just concerned because they're my advisees." I laughed and brushed off their words. Even as I dismissed it as a joke, I found myself hoping the semester would start soon—not for any other reason, but because I was eager to educate Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha under the new system. There were no deeper feelings involved. Truly.