Ch.129Episode 27. Lecture (End)

My overall assessment of the students after sparring with them was not bad.

If you asked me if they could be used as heroes right away, I would firmly say no, but their passion was commendable.

The special class had been sparring with me for months, so that’s understandable, but it wasn’t bad seeing students from other classes fearlessly charging at me despite not being used to sparring with me.

The A-class students, in particular, were better than I expected.

Though clumsy, they showed proper counterattacks, and those with good reactions even managed to follow my movements. Of course, they were quickly beaten down.

Anyway, after finishing the sparring session to assess their capabilities, I gave them a brief rest before making them use their skills to deplete their stamina.

“Huff…! Huff…!”

“Isn’t this… too… intense for the first day…?”

“Hey, ask the instructor if we can take a break.”

“Are you crazy? Don’t talk to him! I’m dying here!”

The students’ speech became irritable as they continued to deplete their stamina. It’s amusing to see how these bright-faced kids when they first came in are now turning dark.

Is this the pleasure of an instructor drilling trainees? It’s quite delicious indeed.

“Cramming theory into your heads is important, but if you want to become heroes, you need stamina first. This is how lectures will proceed from now on.”

My words were met with wails from the students. They had a premonition that they would suffer throughout the semester.

I understand their feelings.

In my world, I once mistakenly took a brutal elective course and complained about it all semester.

But at least you’ll have some stamina left. The knowledge from my elective disappeared as soon as vacation started, you know?

“Every day this semester will be like hell, and it will be incredibly tough. But if you endure it, you’ll be much closer to becoming heroes than others.”

After all, the foundation of strength, ability, and skills is based on the body and stamina.

Without physical fitness and stamina to support you, you can’t even qualify as a hero.

“Keep using your skills to deplete your stamina. Until you collapse from exhaustion. After this painful time passes, you’ll see a better version of yourself than yesterday.”

Despite my words, the students continued using their skills while sweating profusely.

After some time had passed, unfamiliar workers appeared in our training arena. From their attire, I could tell they were from the maintenance department.

“Wow… We got a report about a broken ceiling, but I didn’t think it was real.”

The maintenance workers took off their hats, looked up at the ceiling, and held their foreheads. They seemed dizzy just thinking about the work ahead.

I tried to lighten the mood with a joke.

“Don’t you feel like the stuffy air in the training arena is becoming clearer?”

“…Instructor Yujin, you’re quite the joker.”

“Heh heh…”

Seeing the maintenance workers who couldn’t bring themselves to laugh, I awkwardly chuckled before finally apologizing.

“I’m sorry.”

* * *

While the maintenance department was repairing the ceiling, the students continued depleting their stamina, and soon, one by one, they began to collapse.

Honestly, the students collapsed in order of their class rankings. Starting with D-class and ending with A-class. However, the special class was still moving and activating their skills.

“Huff…! Huff…!”

“Potion…! Please give me a potion!”

“No. You’ve worked hard to reach your limit, and if you drink a potion now because it’s tough, all your efforts will be wasted. Endure it.”

The whining of the students was quite irritating, but I decided to be understanding until they adapted. The special class was like that too, after all.

“But, Instructor, why are those students sparring differently from us?”

One of the A-class students voiced his question while looking at the special class students who were still moving.

Unlike the others who were wasting skills to build stamina, the special class had been given individual menus that each needed to develop.

Because of this, they couldn’t help but activate skills less frequently than the students who were using them indiscriminately, but I can definitely say this:

The ones having a harder time aren’t these collapsed students, but the special class.

The menus I gave them are by no means easy.

“I gave them different menus. Their stamina is already at the level of active heroes.”

“Is that so?”

As if captivated by the performance of the special class, students from other classes were watching them in a daze.

“How can those guys move like that?”

“Isn’t the special class supposed to be a collection of problem students? I can’t call them problem students anymore…”

Even the A-class students weren’t blindly asserting their pride like during the joint sparring session.

Well, they must have felt the extraordinary nature of the special class during the joint sparring, so it’s understandable that their thinking has changed.

“Yes, you’re right. Those kids are no longer simply problem students.”

As I was about to praise the special class students, I heard:

“Jung Iyeon. We need to coordinate.”

“Senior, you should be more moderate with your attacks! You’re being too rough! We’re not in sync at all!”

Jung Iyeon and Yeon Muhui were arguing with raised voices.

“What?!”

So Yeon Muhui has started raising her voice too?

It was quite refreshing to see her, who usually deals with everything emotionlessly, honestly expressing her emotions to someone else.

“From now on, I won’t respect you as my senior!”

“Huh. You talk as if you’ve been respecting me until now? Come at me.”

The two began a real sparring match instead of completing their assigned menus.

Clang—!

Just as I was smirking at the intense sound, I heard some discord from Gu Yeonhwa and Yu Ari’s direction as well.

“Gu Yeonhwa.”

“Yes?”

“When we went to Comic World before… how far did you go with the instructor?”

At Yu Ari’s suggestive question, Gu Yeonhwa tilted her head and snapped her fingers before answering.

“…We went all the way! Perfectly!”

“You did? You really did? All the way?”

“Of course I did!”

“I haven’t even done that yet?!”

“Oh, could it be that Senior Yu Ari has also opened her eyes to cosplay? Great~ Later, let’s—”

“I was going to do it first…! But if you’re not dating, then at least the promise is being kept… Still…!”

What kind of conversation are they having?

“Wow~ Cosplaying is really amazing.”

“To do it while cosplaying. Even I haven’t tried that yet! You…!”

They were clearly having a conversation, but something was off. It was fascinating how they were continuing a dialogue with clearly different subjects.

“Gu Yeonhwa. I can’t forgive you. I was supposed to be first…!”

“What?”

Just as Gu Yeonhwa was asking in confusion, Yu Ari had already grabbed her from behind. But Gu Yeonhwa seemed to have anticipated this and ignited a flame behind her.

“That’s not fair. How can you ambush me while I’m talking?”

“Gu Yeonhwa… You’ll have to tell me everything that happened that day.”

Yu Ari said, avoiding the flames. She was threatening Gu Yeonhwa, exuding blatant hostility.

“Fine. I’ll tell you. But only if you beat me.”

The two finally clashed.

The reason for their fight was so trivial that I couldn’t even laugh.

What kind of reason is that to fight?

I glanced at the students’ expressions. They were all looking at the special class with expressions that seemed to say, “What kind of girls are these?”

It seemed impossible to create a good image for the special class.

* @ *

Click, click.

The sound of shoes echoed through the corridor of the academy’s main building. The footsteps were leisurely but clearly powerful.

As she walked, the cold air that leaked out caused condensation on the corridor windows.

“You’ve arrived.”

The principal’s secretary bowed deeply to the woman approaching with blue hair flowing.

“Yes. Is he inside? That damn old-timer.”

“…Yes. The principal is inside.”

The secretary wished she would correct her reference to the principal as a “damn old-timer,” but the other party was not someone who could be corrected.

After all, if she had become a villain, South Korea would have had to declare itself an anarchist state by now—that’s how influential she was.

Knock, knock, knock.

The secretary knocked on the principal’s office door.

“Come in.”

At the voice from inside, the secretary opened the door, and the blue-haired woman strode into the principal’s office.

“Welcome. Ms. Ha Yuri.”

Ha Yuri.

The current number one in the hero industry and South Korea’s representative hero.

With blue hair and eyes, her distinct features stood out against her pale, almost white skin, giving her a very sharp impression.

Ha Yuri glared at him with an expression that couldn’t be colder.

“I told you not to call me that, Principal Yoon Kyungbin.”

“Hmm. Did I? Hero Ha Yuri.”

“…After catching those troublemaking Russian villains, I come back to find you summoning me already? Are you playing with me? Where’s your shame? Is it because you were my instructor who raised me that you think you have the right to act like an old fogey to me?”

“Heh heh…”

In response to her rapid-fire complaints, Yoon Kyungbin could only laugh awkwardly.

“Acting like an old fogey? That’s a bit harsh—”

“Whatever. Just tell me why you called me.”

The blue-haired woman plopped down on the sofa and cut off his words.

“To think South Korea’s number one hero has such a personality… I must have raised my disciple poorly.”

Ha Yuri’s personality was well-known to everyone in the hero industry. In some ways, she was more direct and caustic than Lee Bangsil.

Because of this, she had quite a few anti-fans.

“Raised? My potential was exceptional from birth.”

“…”

Yoon Kyungbin couldn’t refute her words because they weren’t entirely false. He sighed instead of letting out the curse that almost escaped.

“It’s not something urgent… I called you to give you advance notice, so don’t worry too much and just listen.”

Although he usually used a stiff tone like the association president, he started speaking more comfortably with her because of their teacher-student relationship.

“I’m sure you will.”

His brow furrowed slightly at her continued sarcasm, but he continued.

“I contacted you to request your help for the ‘MT’ we’re planning to go on in about a month. We can’t have the same thing happen again.”

Her eyebrows twitched at the mention of “that time.”

Even though she was overseas, it was something she couldn’t help but know about.

The unprecedented incident where a student died because of villains inside Aegis Academy.

Due to the extensive media coverage, it inevitably reached her ears even overseas.

“I heard about it. About those trash who infiltrated the academy. If I had been there, I would have frozen them all to death.”

“Indeed. What a shame.”

“But I heard the person who stopped them was a newly appointed instructor this year? I heard he has connections with the association president.”

“That’s right. Instructor Yujin, who currently has an S-rank assessment.”

“Yujin… Ah~ That person who rose to 5th in the hero rankings? The fifth S-rank…”

Ha Yuri took out her phone to check the rankings. She pressed firmly on Yujin’s photo, which was marked as “rapidly rising.”

“Hmm. He’s handsome. Looks like the type who would charm many women.”

“…”

“So how skilled is this person?”

“Strong. Very much so.”

“As much as me?”

“Yes. Unofficially, Instructor Yujin overwhelmingly defeated the Lotus Dragon hero.”

“Lotus Dragon… Even I find him a bit challenging. Not bad.”

“Plus, he recently discovered and suppressed a secret laboratory set up by Akcheon and captured two executives.”

“Hmm… He captured two executives of those cockroach-like Akcheon guys? Interesting fellow.”

She stared at Yujin’s photo before turning off her phone screen.

“Will Instructor Yujin also attend the MT?”

“Of course.”

“Good. I’ll do it. I’m guessing the request is to protect the students who go on the MT?”

“Yes.”

“It’ll be nice to feel some nostalgia for my academy days.”

And have some fun on the side.

Thinking this to herself, she smiled meaningfully.