Chapter 30: Teacher

If human souls had colors, mine would be black.

In both my past and present lives.

Although my body may have changed, that fact remains the same.

It’s only natural that Seoran dislikes me.

She and I are beings standing at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Therefore, if I were to be loved by her, it would require tremendous effort.

---

“Let’s go.”

I hesitated for a moment before moving. The boy looked up at me with anxious eyes. Children are quicker to sense things than adults might think.

He may have noticed the shift in my mood.

“Owen, take care of this child.”

“More meddling? What’s this about?”

“Take him to the shelter. It would be better if you can find his parents.”

Owen’s eyebrows twitched. He clearly didn’t want to be burdened with another responsibility, but I had things to do.

[You’re not planning to escape, are you, master?]

No matter the situation, I was confident in my ability to hide.

So.

‘Let’s just assess the situation for now.’

Climbing to the highest rooftop, I could see a distant, dark mass approaching.

---

“What did you say?”

“…I said we’ve retreated.”

Immediately, Lisa grabbed the district manager by the collar. The manager, barely over 170cm, struggled in the air like a wine bottle, his feet kicking helplessly.

“By the authority of a special hero, I’ll be taking over the situation from here. Do you understand?”

“Abuse of power! Cough! Ugh… abuse of power!”

The manager’s pupils rolled back as Lisa’s grip tightened.

“Shut up. Reverse the retreat order and summon the heroes immediately. Disobey, and I’ll execute you on the spot.”

“I… I can’t!”

“Foolish.”

Lisa’s intent to snap his neck was clear. The manager, desperate, added a hasty explanation.

“Physically, it’s impossible!”

“Explain.”

Her voice was icy, and the manager’s body trembled as his attempt to wriggle free from her unyielding grip failed.

A special hero.

Realizing the weight of her name, the manager gave up resisting, his eyes squeezed shut as he finally shouted.

“They’ve already fled!”
“What?”
“They all… they left two hours ago…”
“What?”

The strength drained from Lisa’s hand as the manager slid down the wall, panting and sputtering.

When he lifted his head again, he saw a shocking sight.

“….”

Lisa’s face had turned pale.

A hero revered as an empress, one of the seven pillars of the Hero Association, now trembling like an ordinary girl.

“Did you… already know the villains’ movements?”

Lisa understood the scale of the attack. She had been disillusioned by the fact that such a large force was in motion without anyone realizing, yet they had known about it all along?

“Why didn’t you evacuate the citizens?”

“That, I…”

Creeeak.

The concrete pillar wobbled under the pressure of Lisa’s mana. The anger radiating from her mana weighed heavily on the district manager, making it difficult for him to breathe. He gasped for air.

“The order…”

“Order? Who, who in the world could give such an order to a district manager of the Hero Association?!”

“…The higher-ups.”

In the end, the district manager’s eyes fluttered open, and he fainted.

Lisa, her mind boiling, scratched her head in frustration.

“These damn bastards!”

Bam!

Her fist crashed into the wall, causing it to collapse. On the 19th floor of the Hero D-8 branch building, Lisa could see a massive army sweeping through the streets in the distance.

“Is the next one me, after Gwangma and Reminis?”

A flame ignited deep within Lisa’s blood-red eyes.

For a moment, I recalled the hero candidate girl I had just met.

“Ha…”

A soft breeze swirled around her body.

“…Alright. I’ll do as you wish.”

The empress would disappear from this area after today.

However…

“I’m taking a thousand with me.”

She soared into the air.

---

“I told you, didn’t I?! This area is dangerous!!”

The woman shouted as she ran wildly through the streets. A name tag swayed gently at her chest.

Royal Messages.
Junior Reporter.
Emily Lindsell.

“I’m out of breath, so don’t talk to me, just follow me!”

The senior reporter ahead gritted his teeth. Yet, his junior didn’t seem to tire, still chattering as they ran.

“You wanted to cover the Red Blaze, right?! Well, wish granted! Now you’ll experience it firsthand!”

“Shut up!”

“I’ve actually hated your mustache for a while, senior!”

It seemed like she had been doing morning jogs every day just for this moment. Her overwhelming lung capacity kept bothering her senior reporter.

‘Why? Why?!’

Meanwhile, senior reporter Peter’s head was filled with question marks.

No matter how covert the villain’s actions were, didn’t it make sense that they didn’t notice an army like that approaching so closely?

[Villain alert. Citizens, immediately evacuate to nearby shelters…]

“Shelters can freeze to death!”

The heroes in the D-8 area couldn’t handle such a large army. The villains would mercilessly trample over the heroes’ corpses and stretch their reach to the shelters.

There was only one way out.

‘We need to head to C-2!’

The structure of Nova was easier to understand if you thought of it as concentric circles.

---

The innermost circle was the A-1 area.
The second circle was the B-1 to B-4 areas.
The third circle was C-1 to C-16.

---

Thus, the city of Nova was surrounded by five circles.

And the D-8 area connected directly to the C-2 area.

“Ugh! Can we ditch the camera?!”

Her non-stop chatter had clearly drained her energy. Peter, exasperated, snapped at her.

“Are you thinking of throwing your gun away in the middle of a war?!”

• “This is a camera!”
• “This is our gun!”

In truth, the camera hanging from Peter’s neck was capturing every bit of the chaotic D-8 area.

On the congested streets, office workers were hurriedly exiting their cars.

A student, riding a bicycle ahead of others, was quickly overtaken by a crowd and had his bike stolen.

A retriever sat by the roadside, panting, waiting for its owner.

All of this, even if Peter were to die, would remain as vivid footage for documentation.

“Se-senior!”

At a desperate cry, Peter turned around to see his junior, Emily, looking terrified.

Behind her, a group of ability users was rapidly approaching.

“Haha! It’s a party, you guys! Enjoy yourselves as much as you want!”

When a man holding a dagger raised his blade, cheers erupted from the crowd.

‘Shit, is this it?’

A powerless person could not defeat an ability user. Perhaps with professional combat training, it might be possible, but modern people had little time for such luxuries.

Soon, the entire street would be painted red with blood.

Despair was evident on the faces of Peter, Emily, and all the citizens.

“Go!”

The first to make a move was a water ability user, marked with a raindrop tattoo beneath his eye.

He slid down the side of a building like riding a wave on a surfboard.

In an instant, the man reached above the reporters’ heads and immediately tackled Emily from above.

Looking up, reporter Emily stopped running. A look of resignation filled her eyes.

The villain’s rough hand was just about to grip Emily’s head.

“Pests.”

Whoosh!

A powerful gust of wind blew from behind.

As the villain sensed the change, he turned around, and the last thing he saw was a fist enveloped in wind.

“What—”

Thwack!

The man’s neck spun 360 degrees, and he stopped breathing without even letting out a final scream.

“…Ugh.”

Emily, who had narrowly escaped death, hiccupped.

Tap, tap.

A pale blue braid fluttered in the wind, and the hero in front of her dusted off her leather gloves.

She was dressed in a professional, composed manner, like a career woman.

As soon as Emily recognized her, she gasped.

“Your Majesty…!”

“….”

Lisa glanced at Emily briefly before taking a step toward the villains.

Hoo.

She took a deep breath and, with a sharp look in her eyes, raised her voice.

“Special Hero Lisa has a message!”

The villains froze for a moment as they stared at Lisa, their posture stiffening in response to her commanding presence.

“There was a false report caused by villain interference!”

Her voice, infused with mana, traveled far beyond the street, reaching people several kilometers away.

“The evacuation area is C-2! C-2 area!”

A heavy silence hung over the entire street.

And then…

“Why aren’t you going!?”

The citizens, who had been running aimlessly before, suddenly changed course. Their faces brightened as they sprinted toward safety.

“Where are the other heroes…?”

Muttering to herself, Lisa glanced at Emily. Upon reading her name tag, Lisa exhaled deeply, almost like a sigh.

“This attack is a diversion. The others are blocking the other side. If you’ve cleared up your doubts, move. You’re a hindrance.”

“…Ah.”

Immediately, Emily began to run as well.

However, Peter, who had been running beside her, suddenly stopped.

“I knew it. Hey, you go ahead.”

“…Huh?”

“As a reporter, it’s my duty to capture Your Majesty’s heroics on camera…”

Before Peter could finish his sentence, he suddenly closed his mouth.

“Is it really Her Majesty, the famous one?”

“….”

Though Lisa didn’t answer, the man at the front grinned.

“It looks like you’re looking at a cockroach.”

“….”

Lisa, seemingly uninterested in engaging in conversation, activated her power. A gust of wind, as fierce as a storm, swept through the area.

Yet, the man remained unbothered.

“By the way, Your Majesty, are you confident in your pest control?”

“….”

“Are you sure you won’t miss even a single cockroach?”

Lisa’s face slowly began to darken as she understood his intentions.

“We’ll go with the plan we set up in advance.”

The man reached out his hand.

“Only half of the ability users remain.”

“You son of a—!”

The storm that had been raging finally swept over the group of villains, but it was blocked by the abilities activated by several of the ability users.

And then…

Hundreds of villains began to bypass Lisa and move to attack the citizens.