“What’s with the sudden rain? What a mess.”
“Right? I’m sure there weren’t even any dark clouds before we ate.”
A false peace is like a disease.
“Guess today’s just unlucky.”
“Totally~ Anyone going to the PC café after school?”
“How can you say that when we don’t even have umbrellas...? We should think about how we’re getting home first.”
Because a false peace makes people think they are safe.
“Since practical training got canceled today, can’t we just run to the school store and buy umbrellas?”
“I guess, but... Ah, I don’t have any money—”
“I’ll pay for you, punk.”
“Thank you. I will never forget this kindness.”
Because it makes them believe that safety will last forever—it is like a disease.
“All right, everyone, quiet! It’s class time, so sit down!”
“Ehh, but practical training got canceled—”
“Since practical training got canceled, we’re having regular class!”
“...What about the option where we’d rather get rained on and do practical training?”
“Quiet. Sit down! Open your books!”
A peaceful everyday life. It had merely rained all of a sudden, merely made them think they were a little unlucky—a day like any other. In truth, however, it was not safe at all. It was nothing more than a misconception held by those living in a world where crime and terrorism happened as naturally as eating meals, a world crawling with villains.
“Now, where did we leave off?”
“Shouldn’t you know that, teacher?”
If such an everyday life could be called a disease—
“...Why is it so noisy outside today?”
“It’s raining. How would we hear anything from outside... Huh?”
Then the villain who pries open the cracks in that false peace and burrows inside,
“Teacher!”
“What is it?”
“Over there—isn’t smoke rising?”
“...What?”
Could be called a virus.
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Peace overturns in a single instant. With the smallest trigger, peace can turn into disaster.
For example—just as the trigger that overturned a perfectly peaceful everyday life was a single gunshot.
No one knew who fired it. They knew it had been fired by one of the countless villains, but it would be difficult to guess exactly which villain it was. However, one bullet fired by one of them was enough to take one life—
“Kyaaaaaaaah—!”
And the classmates who saw the student’s head burst open before their eyes began to scream and fall into chaos.
“—It’s villains!”
“Get behind me! And call the other heroes!”
The teachers desperately protected the students thrown into panic as they activated their abilities. But the same was true for the villains.
Villains who killed people with mere firearms were a minority. Most villains in this world were nothing more than people who murdered others with weapons like guns or knives, but these were not such small fry.
“These bastards are strong! Everyone, be careful!”
A hero who had been emitting electric shocks from his entire body broke into a cold sweat as he shouted at a villain defending himself with a barrier made of air. Only then did they realize something was strange, seeing that the villains they had thought they could subdue in an instant were fighting them on equal footing.
Figures moving with their entire bodies wrapped in black cloaks. And on those cloaks, the emblem of a black rose—
“—The Brigade of Evil!”
“Those bastards again!”
The worst villain organization in history, where even the lowliest rank-and-file member possessed a superpower. The news that such people had attacked this place was nothing short of the worst possible development for them.
Under the Brigade of Evil’s assault, the heroes broke into cold sweat, and an ominous feeling flashed through their minds.
The attack had been sudden and stealthy. Even though every teacher was either a retired hero or an active one, it had been so covert that not a single person noticed. From the front gate to the wide sports field, from the sports field to right in front of the school building, and even until the moment villains infiltrated the inside of the building, no one had realized.
“Damn it...!”
Failing to protect even a single student was a painful blunder. But if countless villains had stormed in and only one person had lost their life, that alone proved the heroes were capable.
Moreover, they were not weak heroes. Before retirement, each of them had been someone of note, and those still active were people who consistently ranked within the Top 100 heroes.
It might be somewhat difficult for them to fight while protecting students, but they were not people who would be pushed back so easily. And yet their expressions were far from good. The reason was none other than this—only three heroes were fighting evenly against more than fifty villains.
“—Are the Hero Course students out on practical training right now?”
“They said it was canceled because of the rain!”
These people were mere rank-and-file members, so low-ranking the heroes did not even know their faces. And if the Brigade of Evil had launched such a large-scale attack, there was no way a villain organization like them would have sent only foot soldiers. That meant at least executive-level members must have moved somewhere else instead of here. And if so, wasn’t it obvious where they had gone?
“Then that place is in danger?!”
“It’s even worse if they went somewhere without teachers!”
“If they wanted to eliminate variables, of course they’d go where the kids are!”
They did not know what the enemy’s objective was, but it was clear that executive-level villains—each of whom could overpower most heroes alone—were moving toward the young sprouts still growing. They might still be young, but they were hero material. And now that the academy was under attack, the variables would undoubtedly be the Hero Course students.
“What about the principal?!”
“We contacted her! She’ll be back soon!”
But even knowing that, there was nothing in particular the teachers could do. After all, those now pulling out guns and knives to target them, and those trying to use abilities to target the students, were ultimately villains. The teachers had people to protect, and they were not in a situation where they could move right away.
“Just trust them! Most of the fourth-years aren’t here, but the ones who are now third-years are still at school!”
“Right! Our job is to focus and subdue these bastards as quickly as possible! There are three teachers over there too, so they’ll make up for what’s lacking! Besides, those kids are—”
Most fourth-years on the verge of graduation were now at the stage where they went out into society to build recognition. Therefore, the ones remaining were third-years, who could still be immature—but despite that, the teachers trusted them.
“The ones called the golden generation!”
So what if they were third-years? So what if they were younger than them? Even when the teachers themselves had been students, they had never overcome so many trials. But those students had endured trials that were burdensome even for heroes, not once but four times. Their skills were already beyond reproach. To the teachers, they were people respected not as students, but as heroes.
“—Sia! Protect the students!”
“I’m already protecting them! You guys hurry up and move!”
That was why they fought. That was why they did what they could. Though corroded by false peace, they still moved—and they could truly be called the teachers of real heroes.
They believed, and they focused on the villains before them as they poured out their abilities. Praying in their hearts that, even where they were not present, the other students—everyone—would be safe, they did their utmost.
“—Teacher!”
However—
“Oh? This is a teacher?”
Reality is crueler than one might think.
“No wonder he’s not in uniform but plain clothes. Hmm... I’ve really been feeling this lately, but aren’t heroes just too low-level?”
The teacher currently active as a hero under the name Handsome was breathing roughly and bleeding. Both his arms were already bent at angles they should never bend, and one of his legs had its knee shattered, leaving him unable to walk.
“To call someone like that a hero is—”
The middle-aged woman who had literally smashed a hero to pieces—the branch leader of the villains who had planned and personally joined this academy assault—glared down at him indifferently, sneered, then turned her gaze away.
“I’d sooner believe you were the hero. Don’t you think? Student.”
She smacked her lips as she looked at the student who had saved that hero and was still glaring at her.
“...Don’t insult my teacher!”
“Your character’s upright too. Much better than someone who started cursing at me the moment we met, attacked me, and then had to be saved by his own student.”
Seong Hangyeol’s face twisted as he heard her words.
There was no way he could be happy about being recognized as a hero by a villain. Especially not when those words came from someone who was mocking and trying to kill a teacher who had fallen while trying to protect a student.
What use was there in dragging out the conversation? He thought of his classmates, who were not here because they had gone to save their juniors, and clenched his teeth—then used his ability as he glared at the villain. A strange light flashed in his violet eyes, an invisible force lifted desks and chairs into the air, and her body began to be pressed down by a peculiar power.
“—Oh? You’re going to fight?”
An invisible force. And on top of that, a poltergeist phenomenon that looked as if a ghost had appeared.
She looked at the student before her—no,
“Telekinesis, huh. That’s a good ability.”
She looked at the one hero showing hostility toward her and smiled broadly.
“You can capture villains without even touching them. It’s useful for rescuing lives, competent in all sorts of ways—in a sense, it might be the best kind of power for heroes. And it doesn’t seem that weak, either.”
She tried to raise her hand, but it was caught by the invisible force and would not move properly. Even so, she still did not lose her smile, and continued speaking as if giving a lecture.
“But do you know?”
No, this was not a lecture—
“No matter how compatible or all-purpose an ability may be,”
It was probably meant to teach him a cruel reality.
“If it lacks power, it means nothing.”
After she finished speaking, she took a step forward. Seeing that, Hangyeol’s eyes widened as if he had witnessed something unbelievable.
His ability was telekinesis. Yet that person was still moving. What did that mean?
“You monster...!”
He did not know what ability she had, but it meant she could break through his power and target his life.
“A monster, am I—”
Realizing that fact, Hangyeol immediately hurled every object floating around him at her—
“That’s what the others call me too—!”
And the villain seeking to take a hero’s life swung her fist toward them and shouted.