Educational System Reform (5)
After that day, Yoo Hee-won never again suggested we train together. She probably hadn't expected it and got hit hard. No matter how good her stamina was, it couldn't compare to mine after years of active duty in Secreto. If your body can't keep up, even the most expensive suit can't handle rapid aura maneuvers. It was the same principle as cutting-edge fighter pilots with all sorts of flight assistance devices who never slack on strength training.
Yoo Hee-won, who had only been at the academy for a year, would probably need until graduation to catch up to me. And even then, the chances of her beating me were very high.
Anyway, it seemed my supposed chronic illness really had been a defense mechanism created to block mental shock. I'd run for the first time in ages, yet instead of getting out of breath, I felt refreshed. Thinking back on how I'd been moaning about a fake illness was pretty funny.
The faculty had created the final curriculum for this semester and received the dean's approval. The original curriculum had already been made before the break, but the sudden educational system reform meant we'd built everything from scratch. The core of this semester's curriculum was 'Understanding Cooperative Combat.'
This educational system reform was an enormous undertaking that completely overturned the existing combat concepts of heroes. The current freshman class had grown up watching star heroes who stood out alone through various media from a very young age. To the students, heroes were already imprinted as celebrity-like beings who solved everything by themselves and received all the public's attention.
Popularity, fame, high salaries, and so on. This was why students applied to hero academies despite the dangerously harsh working conditions. It would take time to shatter what was firmly embedded in their minds and teach them to understand fighting as a 'team.' That's why we'd decided to dedicate this entire semester to 'Understanding Cooperative Combat.'
Of course, it wasn't about sitting at desks for theoretical classes. Like in the military, we'd make them move together constantly to build team awareness, and all classes would be taken by team. The lecture content centered on cooperative combat, and for this purpose, several specialized heroes had been invited. I could guess without checking that they were active Secreto members sent separately by the Management Bureau. After all, the only heroes currently operating in teams were from Secreto.
Right now, I was heading to the research building to attend a seminar these experts were giving for the professors. The research building had a large seminar room where the academy professors held various events like this.
"Hello, Professor Kyo."
Chae Ga-yun, the administrative manager who was checking the attendance sheet in front of the seminar room, greeted me. I was slightly surprised when I saw her face. If a corpse walked out of a morgue, wouldn't it look exactly like that? Chae Ga-yun's face was now a pale ashen color, and her hair was as dry and frizzy as a broom made of bush clover. The rumor that she was working while hooked up to nutritional IVs seemed true—she had a small band-aid on her arm.
"You've been working hard. You don't look well at all."
"It's already been over five years since I came to the academy, but I've never seen a semester as brutal as this one."
"I can imagine."
"After the emergency summons, I haven't been able to sleep properly for weeks... I really feel like I'm going to die. Still..."
Chae Ga-yun looked up at me with a tired smile.
"It's nice to see you like this, Professor. It's like getting a hundred-thousand-won nutritional shot."
"Is a hundred-thousand-won one good?"
"It's quite expensive."
"Ah, I see. Thank you."
Chae Ga-yun smiled and checked my name with a heart shape next to it.
"Please go in, Professor."
The seminar room was already more than half full, and staff members continued to enter behind me. The academy had hundreds of faculty and staff. I didn't know the exact number. Of course, that figure included everyone from simple environmental cleaners to facility managers, while the actual number of faculty and staff responsible for student education and administration was just under a hundred.
As I sat down, the heroes who would be conducting the seminar soon brought their laptops to the podium and began setting up. There were two of them, a man and a woman, and I'd never seen their faces before. In Secreto, unless you're on the same team, you rarely see each other's faces or know what they're doing. They might not even be from Secreto. Since they were wearing plain clothes with no markings, I couldn't tell.
"Professor Kyo!"
Professor Jin, sitting behind me, tapped my shoulder with a bright smile.
"Hello, Professor Jin. You look like you're in a good mood."
Professor Jin was always bright and energetic. Although the sudden institutional reform had been a bit difficult for her recently, she seemed to have overcome it all like the flight specialist hero she was and risen again.
"There's nothing particularly bad about it. How about you, Professor Kyo?"
"Same here. I'm doing very well."
"I heard you've been training really hard with Min-ha and Hee-won lately?"
"Since we've been working together since the first semester, it seems like we're making rapid progress."
"I'm jealous. Our kids are still bumping into each other and causing all sorts of chaos."
"You've been through a lot. I hope this seminar helps a lot."
"Hey, Professor Kyo."
Professor Yu Hyeon-ju greeted as she sat down next to Professor Jin. The strong smell of cigarettes came from her breath.
"It's absolute chaos, isn't it?"
Professor Yu looked around the noisy seminar room.
"When I asked the active heroes, they said the field is in turmoil too. The Management Bureau keeps trying to bundle several hero offices together, and the heroes are all resisting, saying they hate it."
"That's only natural. The offices are private businesses. What right does the Management Bureau have to tell them what to do?"
"From what I hear, they're saying if they don't comply with the control measures, they'll forcibly limit the number of requests, but active heroes aren't the type to take that lying down."
"That's seriously crazy talk."
Both Professor Jin and Professor Yu were active heroes. They belonged to the Management Bureau and had been dispatched to the academy. Currently, the only one officially retired on paper at the academy was me.
Just then, the dean entered the seminar room with the department head professors in tow. The dean, who had gone up to the podium, shook hands with the invited heroes and took the microphone.
"We are truly grateful that experts in the relevant field have taken the time to help us with this educational system reform."
After a polite and formal greeting, the dean handed the microphone to one of the invited heroes. It seemed one would lecture while the other operated the laptop.
"Hello. I am a hero from the Management Bureau. It is an honor to be able to lecture to the finest faculty of this academy."
The female hero who took the microphone introduced herself simply as a hero, without specifying any position or affiliation. The lecture order covered the seriousness of the current situation, the necessity of the system reform, the concept of cooperative combat, and training know-how.
When body cam footage of heroes who had fallen to organized villain attacks appeared on the screen, sighs and groans erupted among the attendees. It was as devastating a sight as what I'd seen right after the emergency summons last time. The hero explained that villain activities had recently shown signs of becoming more systematic, and for this reason, heroes also needed to form teams and operate accordingly.
Next came the part about how we professors should actually teach the students. As I listened to the hero's explanation, I became strongly convinced that this woman belonged to Secreto. The content matched Secreto's methods exactly. Using three to five members as the basic model, the individually assigned missions and situation-specific response methods were all from Secreto's playbook. The training method I was currently using to teach Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha was exactly that. I'd seen it so many times that I could predict what content would come next.
But the format of that educational material displayed on the screen looked incredibly familiar...?
That...
The lecture ended with a question-and-answer session. As expected with such a sensitive topic, many professors and staff wanted to ask questions. The hero calmly pointed to them one by one and answered.
"Hello, I am Jin Se-yeong, professor of Flight and Guidance. I have a question regarding the evasive maneuvers mentioned earlier."
Professor Jin Se-yeong, who was sitting behind me, stood up while holding the microphone. Her question was about the trajectory of evasive maneuvers following area attacks. As the female hero answered, her eyes happened to meet mine. Even while continuing her response, the hero's gaze remained fixed on me.
After Professor Jin Se-yeong's question, the seminar concluded. Everyone stood up and left the seminar room while chatting noisily. I was just about to exit through the door when someone called out from behind.
"Excuse me!"
When I turned around, I saw the female hero who had conducted the seminar running toward me.
"What can I do for you?"
"Um, by any chance... aren't you Gray Steel?"
Gray Steel was my callsign from my active duty days.
"That's correct."
"Ha, fancy meeting you here."
I tilted my head as I looked at the smiling hero.