Chapter 27: Inevitably, the Heroine

I Hate Training (2)

"Teacher."

"Oh, you're here."

Unlike before, there was no cauldron or hazy smoke in the ordinary faculty room. Rei Meyer greeted Xenon with a wave of his hand.

"Where did all those things go?"

"To another space."

The same faculty room, but another space? It was impossible to understand what he was saying. Moreover, it was difficult to adjust to this attitude, which was completely opposite to the Reisha I knew.

"...But I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Back then, when you came to me and cried, were you being sincere?"

I still remember Reisha's face as she sobbed in my arms. The way her nose bubbled, her eyes and face turning red as she cried... that person was Rei Meyer. I frowned at the sense of incongruity, but Rei Meyer opened his mouth with an indifferent expression.

"Yeah."

"Yes?"

"People can cry, can't they? Top Heroes aren't allowed to cry?"

"...No, it's not that, but..."

"Inside the academy, in front of people other than you, I still live as the clueless 'Reisha'. Besides, you didn't know I was Rei Meyer back then, so of course I was being sincere."

Why would he go to such lengths to take a job as a professor at the academy? Of course, he said it was 'just because', but no matter how I thought about it, it was impossible to understand.

"Well, anyway, I should tell you why I asked you to come to me after school every day."

"...Don't tell me it's that thing we did when we were kids?"

"That's right."

"Sigh..."

I was puzzled by their conversation, but when I saw Xenon's expression darken, I swallowed my words. It was the first time I'd seen him look so pale. From what I heard, it must be about something I'll be doing soon. What exactly was I going to do that made him react like that?

As if to answer my worries, Rei Meyer opened his mouth.

"I heard that Aisha fought villains in District B, and that the unidentified villain she encountered in District A was Hera Carmen. I don't know how you fought, but I also know that you have the skills to buy time against Hera Carmen and escape."

"...Yes."

"You know that if you just stay like this, you'll die without a sound if they attack you unexpectedly, right? It's a bit much to say this as someone I used to know, but the Carmen family are mostly twisted people."

When I nodded weakly, Rei Meyer made a sound of 'hmm' and seemed to be pondering something.

"...Anyway, since you have some skill, I don't need to push you as hard as Xenon. It's better to train Xenon and you in different ways."

"Training?"

"The basic goal of the club is to make students into Heroes who aim for higher positions."

However, I couldn't imagine her training anyone. I knew that her Ability was magic, that she could show a space full of cauldrons and smoke like before - or teleport - but it was such an abstract Ability that I couldn't imagine exactly what method she would use or how the training would be conducted.

"Well, it's faster to do it directly than to talk about it. Xenon, get ready."

"...Yes."

With Xenon's listless reply, the after-school class of the Magic Club began.

#

Kwang-

"This is... training?"

A shower of meteors slammed into the floor of the empty lot. When one hit the ground, two more meteors were created in the sky. Xenon was dodging the meteors falling to the ground at high speed, destroying them one by one. He was using his sword, his body, and sometimes even his head to explode the meteors. All I could do was mutter in disbelief as I watched.

Rei Meyer seemed pleased with the training, wearing a satisfied smile.

"This is my Ability, magic. As long as my mental strength allows, I can achieve most things I can imagine."

"...I didn't know what this was at first because it's the Magic Club."

"Magic exists. I'm here, and your Ability is kind of similar to magic, isn't it?"

Certainly, magic was a branch of superpowers. Ability and superpower ultimately had the same meaning, so this Ability world might as well be a world with magic. My Ability, the ability to control ice, was ultimately similar to a kind of magic that was manifested through imagination.

"It's definitely similar."

"In my opinion, you're not at the student level right now."

"No, you're even better." Adding that, Rei Meyer floated a small ice crystal in her hand.

"Controlling ice is by no means easy. Shaping it requires artistry, and artistry requires a sense of an artist. Shaping it and using it in battle is by no means easy. And you, I heard you know swordsmanship?"

"Yes... well, yes."

Although it wasn't swordsmanship that I had learned myself, but swordsmanship that my body remembered. It was true, so when I nodded, Rei Meyer smiled brightly, as if satisfied.

"As expected of the person I brought in and wanted to raise. Good, I like it very much."

"T-Thank you."

I was momentarily stunned as she patted me on the back, expressing her intense joy. Then, her expression turned serious and a small wooden stick appeared in her hand.

"This is my wand, one of the Support Items."

"I thought you said you don't use Support Items?"

"I don't use things that other people make, this is something I made myself."

The value of each Support Item would be worth the value of a decent city, but I gave up thinking when she said it as if it was no big deal. A normal way of thinking or values didn't suit her. Top Hero Rei Meyer was that kind of person.

She raised her wand and created a round circle in the air. Inside the circle was pitch-black darkness. Rei Meyer looked at me and gestured for me to enter the circle.

"...You want me to go in there?"

"Heh, yes. Don't tell me you don't trust me? I'm someone who even showed you tears in front of you. I'm not that heartless."

Zhiiiiing-

A blue square floated from her hand. The detailed shape of the cuboid, which had become a three-dimensional shape, was a maze.

"If you go back through that circle, you'll end up here. You'll strengthen your Ability there."

Strengthening my Ability. I had thought about it to some extent when I joined the Magic Club, but when I actually saw it in front of me, I started to get a little nervous. Training with the direct help of a Top Hero. When I saw Xenon's face earlier, I didn't think it would be easy.

Whenever I asked him about what happened with Rei Meyer, he would always frown, so it was probably a more difficult training than I imagined. But, wasn't it entirely my fault that Hera Carmen was targeting me? I clenched my fist, calming the pounding in my chest from the tension.

"...Hoo."

"Since it's your first time today, let's just do it for an hour. Then, good luck?"

Nodding at her words, I jumped into the black circle.

#

The sensation of being sucked into something was by no means a pleasant one. I frowned at the unpleasant feeling that covered my body, but I grasped my current state.

A cold floor, a ceiling that stretched out long and high to an unknown end, and blue walls that completely blocked my vision. Remembering that this was the 'maze' that Rei Meyer had shown me earlier, I slowly got up.

To artificially create such a space, could such an existence be called a person?

Kwazik-

I shot ice at the wall, but the ice only shattered without even a small scratch. I guess I have no choice but to find a way out. I wasn't confident in finding a way, but I groped along the wall, recalling the maze-solving tips I had seen on the internet before.

...So, if you stick to one side of the wall and keep walking, you'll reach the exit?

I kept walking, sticking to the wall. There was no sense of time. She said it would be an hour before I went in, but it wasn't easy to guess the time in this space without a clock, sun, or moon.

"This can't be the end."

Rei Meyer mentioned that what I had to do in this space was to strengthen my Ability. Maybe something would appear every time I went further in this maze. Thinking that, I made an ice pillar rise in front of me.

Soon, the ice broke and shattered, revealing a sword. The 1st Sword, Moonlit Night, that I had taken out before.

In the original story, Aisha's limit was the 7th Sword. Of course, she had only shown up to the 5th Sword. I was currently in a state where I could draw the 1st Sword.

As Aisha, who had potential equal to the protagonist, I still had more than enough room to grow. How far could I reach? The original story I knew was up to Part 3. The starting point of Part 3. That was where I was possessed while reading. When I reached the end of Part 3, I didn't want to just watch.

Kuuuung-

As I thought, a roar came from far away. I couldn't see it because it was blocked by the wall, but judging from the vibration that made this space tremble for a moment, it wasn't an ordinary guy.

And when I directly faced the owner of that sound, a burst of laughter erupted from my mouth.

"...Fire?"

The intense heat that melted the surrounding walls. It was a wall that wouldn't break even if I hit it with ice. Thinking that, I slowly created ice, and I could see moisture forming around me. A flame with only eyes and a mouth engraved on it laughed wildly. Heat haze rose, and the ice around me began to melt quickly.

"It's melting..."

It wouldn't melt with ordinary fire, but seeing the ice melting with fire that hadn't even touched it, I put the Moonlit Night that I had taken out earlier back in. It wasn't an existence that could be cut with a sword.

I think as I watch the fiercely rising flames. Unfavorable match-up, even if I made ice and trapped it, it would surely melt. Yes, that would be the case with ordinary ice. My Ability comes from imagination. The fact that the ice is melting means that the ice I imagine is just ice that melts in the face of fire.

Crack-

I imagine. A cold that will subdue even the fire, even the fiercely burning blue flames. Ice that suppresses the heat and is created by feeding on the fire. Ice covers the ground. The ice thorns rising along the walls opened their mouths towards the monster as if they were gaping.

Was it releasing its last strength? Blue flames soared and struck the ice. Fragments of ice that were shattered in an instant scattered around. As I made eye contact with the wildly burning flames that seemed to swallow me whole, I raised my hand.

Crack-

It was a moment for the ice thorns piled up around to reach one point. No matter how strong the flames were, there would be no time or gap to avoid it. Wouldn't it be close to a punishment from hell for dozens, hundreds of thorns to pierce one enemy?

The thorns that touched it froze. The greed to completely swallow the flames that still had remnants, the ice that swallowed the flames as if it had become a living thing, soon froze into a spire.

...Easy.

Muttering that, I started walking towards the exit of the maze again.

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