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Chapter 271: Omen of Destruction (1)
As time passed and the excitement and tension of the new semester began to fade...
The fourth-year classes were, as rumored, brutally intense.
From basic physical training to real combat simulations.
Since the curriculum was designed with the assumption that students would be leaving school next year to begin life as professional heroes, the classes were so demanding that they sometimes felt tougher than what actual heroes had to go through.
However—
‘This is boring.’
That was only true for the average cadet.
For someone like me—or for Yurina, Iris, or Camilla—who were among the elite even among current heroes, the classes could only feel a bit dull.
‘I’d be better off training alone at the party house during this time.’
That sweet temptation brushed through my mind.
‘No, no. Focus!’
I can’t end up in last place again!
Just as I was pulling myself together and resisting the temptation—
“Alright, as previously announced, today’s lesson will be party formation,”
Professor Lucas said.
“Ugh…”
“It’s finally here.”
“No, no! This means we’re getting assigned randomly again!”
Groans erupted across the lecture hall at the mention of party formation from Professor Lucas.
“It’s been a while since the semester started… Surely, you’ve all had your eyes on potential party members by now, right?”
“……”
Of course, I had someone in mind.
The problem was whether they’d been eyeing me too.
All eyes in the lecture hall turned to Yuren, Iris, and Maurice.
“Based on skill alone, Yuren’s definitely the top pick.”
“Iris and Camilla are practically a set, so if I can talk Iris into joining, I get two for the price of one.”
“Maurice might be overshadowed by Yuren, but he was second in the class last year.”
“Being second is still impressive!”
Like beasts hunting prey, everyone’s eyes gleamed as they scanned for potential party members.
But in the middle of this fiery atmosphere…
There was one place that felt particularly cold.
‘Damn it.’
No need to ask where.
It was the seat of the bottom-ranked cadet.
‘I’m being ignored again?’
That familiar sense of loneliness and sadness from my past life filled my heart once more.
‘Damn it all.’
I hadn’t gone all out in recent classes, sure—but considering how I was easily keeping up with the curriculum, everyone in the lecture hall should know by now that I wasn’t actually bottom-tier.
No—maybe because they knew, it was worse.
‘I didn’t tank my grades on purpose, you bastards.’
The gap between my real skill and my academic record was so wide that people had started thinking, “Whoa, this crazy bastard is really doing everything possible to stay at the bottom.”
In other words—
They saw me as a thrower. A sandbagger.
‘It’s so damn unfair.’
To shake off this cursed bottom-tier label, I—
‘Actually, now that I think about it, I didn’t try that hard.’
I didn’t intentionally mess up, but I hadn’t exactly spilled blood and sweat to get top marks either.
The truth is, I never aimed to be valedictorian or salutatorian.
All I wanted was to escape being last, so there wasn’t much reason to push myself beyond that.
Of course—
‘I’m still in last place right now.’
But.
This time will be different.
This semester, I will…!
“You all look like you still haven’t decided on party members,”
Professor Lucas said, clicking his tongue as he looked around.
“I told you from the first day—figure out who you want in your party ahead of time.”
“Ugh…”
“I’ll give you 30 minutes to form your parties. Anyone who doesn’t have one by then will be randomly assigned, got it?”
“W-Wait, Professor!”
“Thirty minutes isn’t enough!”
“Not enough?”
Professor Lucas let out a dry chuckle.
“At the mercenary guild, you’ve got even less time than this to form a party and take on a quest.”
“But that’s the mercenary guild…”
“What, you think you’ll never go there? You probably think only the dregs of the hero world end up as mercenaries.”
“……”
“Let me enlighten you. More than half the people in this room will start their careers at a mercenary guild.”
“No way…”
“Come on, starting as a mercenary? Seriously…?”
The lecture hall turned cold, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on it.
“Hahaha! You kids still haven’t woken up, even in your fourth year?”
Professor Lucas burst out laughing.
“You know what the first thing a big guild or government agency says when you show up fresh out of school with just your hero license?”
“Huh? What?”
“‘Hmm… everything looks good, but you don’t have any experience.’ That’s what they say.”
“…But we just graduated. Of course we don’t have experience.”
“Right? But those places? They still ask for hero experience first.”
“That makes no sense! We’re trying to get in to gain experience! Where are we supposed to get it if no one lets us in?”
“I told you already.”
Professor Lucas turned to the board and wrote Mercenary Guild.
“You get it there.”
Still don’t get it?
“If you don’t want to start as a mercenary, then you’d better have top grades, an incredible résumé, or a really powerful family backing you.”
A smirk crossed his lips.
Professor Lucas let out a low chuckle.
"How many of you can meet even one of these three conditions?"
“Ah…”
A heavy silence settled over the lecture hall.
Faced with the harsh reality right in front of them, the cadets could only sigh in despair.
"I'll be back in 30 minutes."
Click.
Professor Lucas opened the lecture hall door and walked out.
“Who, who wants to party up with me?”
“Is anyone here ranked in the top 100 overall?”
“Start with your designated fields! Find people from your designated fields first!”
The moment Professor Lucas left, the classroom descended into chaos.
The heat of the room was like a battlefield, filled with desperate scrambling and shouting.
"What a mess."
I let out a dry laugh, looking around at the chaos.
‘Seriously, the guy looks like a gorilla, but he sure knows how to handle people.’
He didn’t become a professor for nothing.
‘Anyway, guess it’s time for me to go find a party too.’
Even in all this chaos, not a single cadet approached me to ask to form a party together.
‘No matter.’
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Because I already had the most reliable party members anyone could ask for.
I grinned as I glanced over at Yuren, Iris, and Camilla.
We had already formed a tight-knit party—practically family—not just some temporary group cobbled together for class exercises.
In other words...
‘Say whatever you want about me, ignore me all you want—I’ve already got a party I can trust with my life.’
Heh.
I wore a victor’s smile as I looked at the desperate cadets, struggling to find party members.
‘Let’s see… counting me, Yuren, Iris, and Camilla, that’s four.’
Now, who should we take as the fifth?
Thinking about that, I walked over to where Iris was.
“There you all are.”
Yuren and Camilla were already gathered beside Iris.
“Anyone got ideas for the last spot?”
“Hm? Last spot?”
Iris tilted her head, looking puzzled.
“Me, you, Yuren, and Camilla—that makes four.”
“Huh? I never said I was going to party up with you.”
“…What?”
W-What are you talking about?
“You’re… not going to party up with me?”
“I’m planning to team up with Yuren and Camilla. As for you… hmm, not sure yet~”
“No, wait.”
Why are you doing this to me all of a sudden?
“B-But we partied together for the final exams last year!”
“That was last year, wasn’t it?”
Iris shrugged and smirked.
“You’re not seriously thinking of excluding me from the party, right?”
“Hmm~ who knows? It’s hard to say if there’s even a spot left for someone who won’t even get engaged to me, let alone marry me.”
“……”
Ah.
So that’s what this is about?
“I-I told you we’d talk about that after graduation.”
“Mhm. You definitely did.”
Iris folded her arms and nodded slowly.
“And I’m just a poor girl, watching my boyfriend flirt with girl after girl, feeling so anxious I wanted to at least get engaged… but nope. Not even a pinky’s worth of understanding from him, just telling me to wait for a whole year.”
“……”
“Maybe you should wait for one of the other cadets to invite you to party up?”
She gave me a sweet smile and waved me off like shooing a fly.
“Uh… S-Saintess.”
“Oh my, not even calling me by my name now?”
“……”
Should I just go ahead and slam my head into the ground right here?
“Alright, let’s do this.”
Iris stood and walked toward me.
“I’ll let you join the party—on one condition: you grant me any one wish I ask for.”
She whispered into my ear, her breath warm and ticklish.
In exchange for joining the party, I’d have to grant her a wish?
I had no idea what kind of wish she’d make.
“…Fine.”
What choice did I have?
If not this party, I’d be stuck in the random assignment pool.
“Hehe. Promise?”
She winked as she stepped back.
“But what kind of wish…”
“Shh. Let’s save that for the fun of later.”
……
Why do I have a bad feeling about this?
“Ugh, Iris! That’s not fair! I want—!”
“Oh? Are you sure you want to say that… looking like that?”
Yuren, who had puffed up her cheeks in protest, flinched.
“Hehe. Yuri—oops, I mean, Yuren, you’ll get your turn. Being alone with Dale is fun and all, but sometimes sharing is good, right?”
“Well… yeah.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of him and return him in one piece.”
“Ugh. Fine.”
“……”
Hey.
I’m not some kind of rental item, you know?
“Use and return”?
Really?
The words boiling up from deep inside didn’t even make it to my mouth.
They just sank back down.
“…Haaa.”
Well.
What can I do?
This is all my fault anyway.
“…Let’s just finish forming the party.”
“So who should we take as the fifth member? Juliet? Or maybe Albert again like last time?”
“Hmm… who would be good?”
I was scanning the room, lost in thought when—
“Ah, Dale.”
A cadet approached our group.
He had jet-black hair, as dark as obsidian.
“Do you have one spot left in your party?”
It was Maurice Jin, the vice top of the class and adopted son of the Falling Blossom Sword, Khalid Han.
“If there’s still a space, would you mind letting me join?”
Maurice smiled warmly as he looked around at the party.
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