Chapter 10 – A Hero’s Arrival Was Always Late (1)

===================

Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

======================================

This morning, Headmaster Media suddenly summoned me through the dorm supervisor. At first, I found it suspicious, but according to the supervising instructor, a private meeting between the headmaster and the top incoming student was academy custom.

In front of the door to the headmaster’s office.

I straightened my clothes once and knocked.

Knock. Knock.

“Headmaster, this is Kang Geom-ma.”

Oh, come in.

That captivating voice came from beyond the door. I carefully opened it. A large desk crammed full without a scrap of empty space, piled with books and scrolls and the like. Along the sides, old books were packed tightly into the shelves too.

The window behind the desk was made of stained glass in five colors. The soft lighting created an antique yet dreamlike atmosphere. If I had to compare it to something, it felt like an extension of the academy library. Except a lot dirtier.

“Oh my, our Geom-ma has lost a lot of weight! He doesn’t look like a little boy at all anymore.”

“…”

“Just a second. Let me finish getting dressed before we talk.”

Media was belatedly pulling back up the robe that had slipped as far as her upper arm. This despite the fact that I had definitely knocked and even announced myself before coming in. She was the kind of woman who showed you everything she was thinking, in more ways than one. The fact that her inside and outside matched too perfectly only made her harder to deal with.

“Should I come back later?”

“No, what are you saying! I’m a busy woman, you know!”

It seemed she had deliberately tied the front of her robe loosely too, because with even the slightest movement it looked like I might end up seeing her chest. When my eyes involuntarily dropped, Media smirked for some reason and buttoned it up all the way. Every time pale skin flashed through the gaps in the cloth, that red magazine I had found in the library yesterday wrapped around my thoughts.

“Want something to drink? Green tea, coffee, black tea, pretty much every kind of beverage they sell at the campus mart is here.”

Brushing her hair up in a pleased motion, Media opened the refrigerator and spoke.

I nodded enthusiastically.

It had been two whole days since I had given up trying to survive the murderous campus-mart prices and started drinking plain tap water. This was no time to be worrying about pride or decorum. When someone offers, the proper thing to do was accept.

“Um, in that case, chilled green tea, please.”

“Hm? What?”

The old habit from long ago slipped out, and Media blinked rapidly several times. A faint look of confusion passed over her face for a second.

“You mean you want something cold?”

“Ah, yes.”

Smiling lightly, Media tossed me a plastic bottle of green tea, then sat down across from me and crossed her legs. The way the flesh of her thigh pressed beneath the cloth was dangerously provocative.

“What kind of kid says hiyashi? Hiyashi, really. Geom-ma, are you actually some old man on the inside or something?”

“Pffft-!”

At that, the tea went down the wrong way and sprayed right back out of my mouth. The edge of Media’s robe got a little wet.

“Honestly, you too. Drink slowly, slowly. No one’s going to snatch it away from you.”

Her eyes widened into circles, and then she came over to sit beside me, gently rubbing my back and wiping the corner of my mouth with her sleeve. Sneaking a sideways glance at her, I found myself thinking.

It would’ve been nice if she weren’t seventy.

I rubbed my cooling chest and gave a slight nod. It was my way of thanking her.

At that, a pleased curve appeared across Media’s face.

“How’s academy life going?”

“…Mm, well… more or less.”

To be honest, it wasn’t easy, but given the consideration she’d already shown me, it wasn’t like I could say, “No, actually? This academy is fucking awful.”

Even so…

There was still something I needed to say.

“But is the campus-mart stuff always that expensive? I mean, a single bottle of water costs ten thousand won…”

At my words, Media threw her head back and burst into laughter.

You were laughing? Was a commoner funny?

After laughing for quite a while to the point of tears, clutching her stomach, Media finally seemed to calm down a little and took a sip from her teacup. The fragrant scent of black tea brushed past my nose.

“Sorry, sorry. The way you said that in such a housewife-like tone was just too cute and funny. If it upset you, I’ll apologize.”

She took another sip of tea and, tapping the cup lightly with her finger, continued.

“Right? The campus mart is ridiculously expensive, isn’t it? Even I start trembling whenever I try to buy anything there.”

“You too, Headmaster?”

When I asked with a tilted head, Media let out a sigh and added.

“This position is only headmaster in name. The pay is lousy and the benefits aren’t much either. It’s basically an honorary post, really. The former headmaster pushed it onto me, so I’ve been serving in the role, but honestly I want to escape from that desk as soon as possible too.”

Media seemed to fall into thought for a moment, and her voice fell silent.

The reddish light of sunset cast a halo over the side of her face, and the beauty there was different from Abel’s. It had a mature elegance. As I looked at her for a moment, a loose smile spread over her face.

“Why? Am I so pretty that you can’t stop staring? Or should the two of us just run away from the academy together~?”

That’d be amazing.

Setting Media aside, if I could just escape this academy, wouldn’t I be able to skip all those troublesome future plans I’d drawn up? When I swallowed and looked genuinely serious for a moment, Media smiled sweetly and pressed a neat index finger to my forehead.

“Our Geom-ma is adorable. But not yet. Maybe when you get a little older, but right now you’re a student and I’m a teacher. Think about it after you graduate.”

Letting out a mischievous giggle, Media crossed her legs the other way. Then she pulled a card from inside her robe and handed it over.

“Here, use this, Geom-ma.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a faculty discount card. I don’t really shop much myself, so it’s not that useful to me. If you compare the discounted prices, they’ll probably come out to about the same as prices outside the academy.”

“Is it really okay to just give something like this to a student?”

“If a student is going hungry, then as an educator I can at least do this much, can’t I? And top students are supposed to get special treatment anyway. So don’t feel burdened and just take it. If anything, I feel bad for not giving it to you sooner.”

She winked at me. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve thought it was sly, but right then it simply looked lovely. So much so that age itself felt like an empty shell.

As my lips trembled with obvious happiness, Media kept smiling and clapped her hands together once.

“Anyway, let’s end today’s conversation here! I’ve got something on the schedule. Thanks for taking time out on a Sunday! And if you ever need counseling about anything, come find me right away-okay?”

So, after bowing deeply and saying goodbye, I turned to leave. But just as I reached the door, Media called me back.

“Ah, right. Was the magazine fun?”

“…”

“Hehe, our Geom-ma really is a man after all, isn’t he? If you ever want to see the real thing, just say the word, any time.”

Without even turning around, I hurried out of the office.

Sage Media. She was a woman completely beyond my ability to handle.

* * *

Academy life passed more peacefully and quietly than I had expected.

I had been deliberately avoiding Chloe’s gaze in the classroom because I was afraid of running into her, but before I knew it, she had made some friends and settled into the class well enough. We occasionally made eye contact, and each time she would let out her signature little “eek,” blush, and turn her head away. Whenever that happened, the friends she’d newly made would send cold glances in my direction.

Well, since I was a special advancement student, by this point I was already used to being ignored or looked at with detached contempt.

I wasn’t the only special advancement student in the class.

That said, there were so few of us to begin with, and for some reason there was an atmosphere of mutual avoidance between us. I figured it was probably a kind of inferiority complex particular to special advancement students.

Even so, I felt proud of the past me for refusing the upper classes and insisting on Wolf Class. By now, Star and Dragon Class would be full of students judging each other, forming factions, and burying themselves in political maneuvering.

Even when I played Miracle’s Blessing, those classes were bad enough to make me click my tongue at how viciously they tore at each other, so if I had been assigned there now that I’d become a local in this world, I’d have been dragged here and there until I couldn’t even maintain my lonely outsider lifestyle.

It was actually pretty livable, in a way.

Thanks to the faculty discount card Media had given me, my overall quality of life had improved too. I still wasn’t exactly living in luxury, but at least I could now eat reasonably balanced meals. I owed her enough gratitude to bow three times a day toward the headmaster’s office and still not be done repaying it.

And with proper nutrition finally reaching every corner of my body, the results of my training became more visible by the day. Maybe because I was in my growth period, I could feel muscles coming in as I ate and height increasing as I slept.

In fact, it wasn’t just in my head. The fit of my uniform pants had clearly grown shorter compared to before the entrance ceremony.

Come to think of it, without really realizing it, I had been faithfully carrying out my duties as a student. I was participating in the morning assembly runs and training with decent consistency, and I was even forcing myself to keep up with the theory classes.

Up to now, things had been good. In the short time that had passed, I hadn’t left behind any trace that could negatively affect the main scenario, and I hadn’t stood out either. Even the instructors seemed to be tacitly pretending not to know that I was the top incoming student.

If I could just keep up this state for the next three years, I felt as though I really might reach that hopeful future I had envisioned.

“At least, for now…”

I was staring blankly out the window with my chin resting in my hand when the mood in the classroom suddenly grew restless. Before I knew it, all the students except maybe two or three had gone out into the hallway.

Of course, there was no one to tell me what was going on. Since I didn’t care anyway, I decided to use the short break to catch a nap. Every time fatigue piled up, a quick doze was the only way I could keep focusing during class.

The theory lesson in the afternoon was about the history of the academy’s founding. They say history was a mirror that reflects the future, but for me, who already knew the rough shape of the story, it was a pointless subject.

I smacked my lips and carefully selected the textbook that would serve best as a pillow for my nap.

The history book was too hard and angular, and this one had too much scribbling on the cover, so it’ll probably leave a mark on my face…

At that moment.

Wow, was that him?

No way, he was seriously handsome.

He wouldn’t come to our class, right?

No chance. He was obviously Star Class material.

The murmuring from the hallway suddenly grew much louder. Somehow, a strange kind of excitement settled over the students. I didn’t pay it much attention and went back to my pillow-selection process, but then an inexplicable sense of unease swept quickly through my chest.

What day was it today?

I pulled out my phone and checked the date.

Might 5, 2034.

Didn’t tell me.

I hurried out of the classroom. Then I searched for the place where all the students’ attention had gathered.

There were too many people. I shoved through the crowd and pushed toward the front. Every time I brushed past someone, they glared at me with contempt, but I didn’t care.

After wading through the sea of people for quite a while, I finally managed to reach the very front row. I caught my rough breath, quickly looked around, and then asked a female student with a rough, delinquent-looking face standing next to me.

“Do you know who showed up today?”

“Would you mind not talking to me? You’re disgusting.”

She glanced at the color of my name tag and looked as if she didn’t even want to share the same air with me.

“Answer me, unless you want to die.”

When I sharpened my eyes slightly and intimidated her, she flinched in surprise and pointed with her gaze. My own head naturally turned toward where she was indicating, as if dragged there by a magnet. And I muttered, almost like I was reciting it to myself.

“So he’s here.”

The protagonist of this world.

Leon van Reinhardt.

There was no doubt.