---

“It’s the first day of school. Everyone in the class looks like corpses, except for one person. Can’t blame them, really.”

After a month of sleeping in and living the lazy life, there’s no way they could immediately snap back to their usual routines after just one day.

Ah, wait. Maybe it’s the case that this leisurely yet pleasant lifestyle has become their ‘norm.’

Changwon, our class president who takes his role way too seriously, didn’t even bother nagging the kids to wake up.

He was just happy enough to sit properly, and when our homeroom teacher arrived, he simply asked for everyone to behave like this for the time being.

“Ugh, what on earth did I do to deserve a first day back at school already? I feel like… yawn… I didn’t really do anything at all, ugh…! I’m so tired…”

Yeonhwa, wearing her summer uniform, was still half-asleep, yawning and stretching as she fought her way through the sleepiness.

Meanwhile, she lamented why the break ended so quickly.

“I hung out with friends, went to training camp, hit the beach, fought Mimics, visited Blanca in the hospital, went to the department store…”

Jinhyeon, exuding despair, started listing all the things Yeonhwa did as if he was trying to draw it out like a sad story.

“Hearing that makes it seem like you did a lot, though… Still, was it even necessary to remind me of that, Jinhyeon? Normally, people empathize during times like this.”

“Ah… right. Hmm, picking up on cues is tough…”

Looks like Yeonhwa’s all about helping Jinhyeon hone his situational awareness skills. Poor guy, he’s really trying. He’d be better off just giving up and looking for a new boyfriend instead.

“But still, after just wasting time at home and finally coming back to the Academy… I kinda feel more human, I guess…”

Lapiz, catching Yeonhwa’s vibes, chimed in that the end of break wasn’t all that bad. Honestly, I agree.

Back in the day, I wouldn’t have cared spending time alone, but these days, being all alone just feels like rotting away.

It was reassuring and fun to meet someone and chat like this.

Plus, the Academy facilities are way better, which also helps.

Even if they spray air freshener every day, it can’t completely mask the awful smell that seeps into the room and never quite goes away.

“Same here. After squatting in my dark little corner of a house, stepping out into the light feels like I’m actually living now.”

Upon agreeing with Lapiz, she looked at me excitedly and asked if I felt the same.

“Blanca too? That’s surprising, I thought you’d hate it!”

Yeonhwa, hearing I didn’t really dread the start of school, asked if I was serious.

“If I said I was completely thrilled, that would be a lie. Honestly, I still don’t want to go to class. But, you guys are here, right?”

That was reason enough for me to show up. When I answered like that, Lapiz looked a bit moved and went, “Oh…”

“Oh, right. Blanca, are you feeling better from your cold now?”

Yeonhwa, seemingly lost in thought, suddenly remembered to ask if Blanca had fully recovered.

“I got better ages ago! Seriously, it was no big deal!”

Hearing that, a memory popped back into my head and I reacted a bit exaggeratedly.

“If you’re joking like that, then you really must be okay. Thank goodness for that, but be sure to set a timer next time you sleep. Otherwise, you might catch another cold like last time!”

Even though I’d never actually caught one, I just spun it like I completely forgot for just one day.

Minho had been chatting with Seolhwa about something they did, and was recalling that time when they had visited Heros Company to pick up an Artifact.

Had they snuck off together without us knowing? Going on dates to a research facility? Man, Minho, you’ve got a long way to go.

Ageha was just dozing off. Not much for us to do, so I decided to finish up my gossip session with Lapiz and Yeonhwa.

Then, the front door opened, and in walked Justitia for the first time in three days.

“…Oh, the homeroom teacher is here. Let’s talk later.”

Yeonhwa quickly stopped our conversation, waking up the drowsy Lapiz in the process.

As Lapiz snapped to attention upon seeing Justitia, Changwon stood up to salute her, and somehow, the kids immediately straightened up and greeted Justitia.

“It’s good to see all your faces again. And also, there was quite a serious… incident during the training camp.”

Justitia said this while giving me a pointed look. She knows all the details, and yet here we are.

Believe me, I feel wronged too.

“At least, no one got seriously hurt, so I suppose we should be grateful. It’s common sense, but please take care of yourselves. Just because you’re heroes doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice everything for others.”

Justitia said that, leaving us wondering if that’s really what a current hero should be saying to students, while distributing the notices with the guidelines.

“There will be no shortened classes today since it’s the first day back. We’ll jump straight into the regular curriculum. I’ll definitely understand if you’re still feeling tired, but please don’t act careless in class.”

“Yes!”

When the kids responded, I thought about how I’d just casually agree while planning to sleep during class. I mean, I already know this stuff, so why bother reviewing it again?

It’s already all in my head.

I need to save my energy and think about what mischief to pull during this afternoon’s free training.

– – – –

“By the way, did they say anything about club activities today? Hey Minho, didn’t you get any word?”

During lunchtime, while I was scarfing down some ramen made with the essence of chicken, Blanca asked me.

“Hmm… I haven’t received any messages. But they should probably be happening, right? The classes are running normally, after all. So it’s likely the clubs will too.”

I couldn’t say for sure since I hadn’t thought about it, but it made sense that they’d be holding the clubs.

“Really…? Ugh, that crazy upperclassman seems like she’s actually going to try and dissect me this time…”

She grimaced, showing her mistrust and worry about Senior Meilin.

“Haha, there’s no way she’d actually do that. And if she did, it’d probably cause an uproar at Heros Company; I doubt she’d risk it. That upperclassman has an insatiable curiosity but knows where the line is, trust me.”

“I suppose you’re right?”

Blanca still had an expression full of disbelief, but maybe she grasped that Heros Company recognizes her as a special presence, which slightly eased her tension.

“Oh, Blanca. Seolhwa and I need to chat about something for a bit, so could you let Yeonhwa know we’re stepping away?”

“Sure thing.”

Blanca gave me a strangely amused smile and mouthed something to Seolhwa before heading off toward the snack bar with Ageha.

“…What’d she just say?”

“A secret.”

Which only made me want to know more. But with no way to find out, I decided to drop the thoughts and continue with what I was going to say.

“Seolhwa, that Director, didn’t he seem… off to you?”

During the break, the two of us had revisited that research facility we’d been to before.

I was hoping to dig up some info on Heros Company, maybe even something related to Blanca.

And we ended up running into him completely randomly.

“Yeah. For sure. Last time we met, he looked nervous, or maybe he was just oddly angry, I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

“Plus, the way he subtly dropped hints about something and then said to take care moving forward…”

“Like he was preparing to leave.”

The Director had a strangely haggard look compared to last time and dark circles under his eyes.

He even seemed to voice regrets about starting this whole mess while dropping vague references to the prisoners, which made it seem like he was subtly admitting the source of the Artifacts we had received.

Anyone could see he looked like a man on his last legs.

I recognized the look from somewhere else, having seen it before a few times in the past.

“…Is there nothing we can do?”

While it might sound careless to say it didn’t matter to me if he lived or died, I didn’t want to watch someone I knew go down that path.

And after seeing that face, there was no way I could just let it be. He was clearly asking for help.

“I’m not sure either. I don’t even know why he made that face. And if our suspicions are correct, it’s not something we should meddle in.”

“That might be true…”

Our theory was that the pain the Director was going through was tied to creating Artifacts from those Executors.

The first time we got the hint, it was from Blanca, so she might just have a degree of involvement in this too…

But that was purely speculative and not something we could judge recklessly.

Judging by the clues that either she or the Director dropped, it was certain that either her Artifacts or my Eisen came from grinding up Abilities Users.

For a moment, I was shocked that the original source of those Artifacts came from such a dark background.

At the very least, we needed to console him and tell him it wasn’t his fault to prevent him from taking that drastic step.

The issue was, we didn’t have a good enough reason to help him feel better. And I had no idea how to comfort him.

It’d be too late to say it wasn’t his fault when we were already drinking deeply from the marrow of these Artifacts, and I doubted our words would even reach him.

“…How about we just be straightforward?”

“Straightforward? You mean, charge right at him?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t seem like a great idea, but sitting around brainstorming isn’t yielding anything good either.”

This wasn’t my strong suit, so this was the best I could think of.

 

---