"Is everyone sitting down?"
Our homeroom teacher stood at the front in sloppy clothes, her dark blue hair tied in a ponytail. She looked like she was in her late twenties. She stared at the class with a totally bored look on her face.
"Okay... since it's our first day, we'll just go over a quick orientation."
She let out a big yawn. It was obvious she didn't care at all.
"Is she actually a Vanguard teacher?"
"I heard the person who gave us our room assignments earlier was just a sub."
A few students mumbled to each other. They were clearly unhappy with how lazy our teacher seemed.
It was a letdown that someone teaching at the world's top hero school could act so unbothered. But a few students stared at her with deep interest. Even though she looked very different from her glory days, some kids still recognized her. Up until a few years ago, she was always on TV, the internet, and in the news.
"Let me introduce myself first. My name is Diana Reed." She quickly scribbled her name on the board. "I am ranked 93rd among the nation's heroes, and I will be your teacher."
The room filled with whispers. Being rank 93 meant she was a top-tier hero. The nation's heroes are famous all over the world. This was especially true for Diana Reed, who had amazing powers at her peak. She wasn't active anymore, so her rank had dropped, but she used to be ranked much higher.
"Diana Reed used to be a hero?"
"Wait, the same Diana Reed who stopped the Port City infection outbreak?"
"She almost made it into the top ten."
She was a young star who took the hero world by storm. People thought she would reach the top ten, and everyone saw her as the face of the next generation. However, she quit fieldwork after a huge infection disaster a few years back.
"Anyway... enough with the boring introductions."
She suddenly glared at the class. A sharp, intense energy filled her sleepy eyes. The students jumped back in their seats the moment she looked at them.
"As you know, Vanguard is the nation's best hero school," Diana's voice echoed in the room. "The competition is brutal here, and we have the best talents from all over the world. Thinking about the fun of being a freshman? Hoping for a school romance? Wake up and drop those silly dreams."
I thought this was a dating sim game. Yet here she is, telling us to forget about romance entirely.
"You might have been called a genius back home, but at Vanguard, you could be dead last. If you don't want to fail, you have to work harder than anyone else."
The class stayed completely quiet as they listened.
"Vanguard will judge you constantly. Every single thing you do is recorded and graded. You have to fight against your classmates and prove your value. That is, if you ever want to join a top clan."
The students nervously looked around at each other.
"Simply put, you will fail if you get lazy just because you have some talent. Vanguard does not give second chances. Lots of students drop out or get kicked out every single year."
"Ah."
"But, it looks like we have a few decent kids this year."
Diana quietly looked at a few specific people. It looked like she spotted Julian Vance, Damian Steele, and Serena Sterling. Everyone had heard of those three because they were famous prodigies.
"Also." She cleared her throat and spoke slowly. "Since you got into Vanguard, you all received a temporary hero license. This license lets you enter dungeons and fight monsters. It also protects you from getting sued if you cause property damage while catching bad guys."
This rule was super important for Lily Pierce, since she was just a student. Without it, there would be no normal way for her to fight monsters, catch criminals, or go into dungeons.
"There are other perks, too. But you don't just get free rewards. With great power comes big responsibilities." Diana sighed and kept talking. "As trainee heroes, you have duties. If there is a big emergency, you will be drafted to fight. You must protect normal people from villains and monsters."
"...."
"Under the law, you are basically adults now. Before today, you were just kids who needed saving. That ends now. You aren't the ones being saved anymore; you are the ones saving others."
"...."
A fierce light suddenly sparked in Diana's eyes.
"The weight on your shoulders is way heavier now. Also, Vanguard is going to train you hard so you aren't useless. This is totally different from middle school. Most of you will want to give up and run away."
I listened to Diana's classic speech and got myself ready. I knew she was about to do the 'initiation test' I had only seen on a screen. Seeing it happen in real life made me feel really nostalgic.
"In middle school, you didn't do real combat practice because they thought it was too risky. Now, you are going to feel things that only happen in real battles." She dragged out her words. "For instance..."
Diana showed a scary, cold smile.
"...like this."
Shivers filled the room.
"...!"
"...Huh?"
"W-what is happening?"
"Ugh, ack, gasp."
It happened in a split second. The students started shaking wildly. They looked like terrified mice trapped by a cat. A few kids started sweating heavily and panicked. One boy was breathing really hard and tried his best to glare back at the teacher. That was the most they could manage; just staying conscious was hard work.
At least Julian Vance, Damian Steele, and Serena Sterling looked fine. They frowned and breathed slowly, but they dealt with it way better than the rest of the class. Even so, they were still fighting the pressure.
...Everyone except for me.
All I got was a few goosebumps.
This feels exactly like the game described it. Is this what they call killing intent?
Killing intent. It is basically an energy that makes you feel like someone is going to murder you. In the real world, this doesn't exist. It only belongs in comic books and movies. But in Heroic Hearts Academy, it is very real.
It acts like an invisible wave pushed out by really strong people. Heroes who can feel it say they use it to measure how strong an enemy is. But this killing intent didn't affect me at all.
Why? Was I just too strong for it?
No, absolutely not. That was completely wrong. As I said before, you have to be at a certain power level just to feel the killing intent.
That meant...
I am so weak that my body can't even detect the threat.
Darn it. That is just sad. Does this rule even make sense? Before I got my past memories back, I trained so hard. But now I'm such a weakling that I can't even feel Diana's aura.
I knew this fact from the game, but feeling it in real life really hurts.
Look at the other kids. They are all shaking in fear from the intense aura. They are Vanguard freshmen just like me. But what about my situation? It makes all my years of hard work feel like a total waste of time.
...How did I even pass the Vanguard entrance test? Even though I got in from the waitlist, did my written test score really carry me that hard?
Thinking about this made me feel pretty sad.
"...."
"Hm?"
For a second, I thought someone was staring at me. Or was I just imagining things? Either way, I pushed those useless thoughts aside. Knowing that the killing intent doesn't work on me was all that mattered right now.
I had already thrown away my dream of being the best hero. Now, I just needed to focus on staying in the back and helping out. I shouldn't try to show off, especially after today proved exactly how weak I really am.
"Let's stop here."
The heavy pressure in the room suddenly vanished. Well, that's just a guess. I couldn't actually feel the aura, after all. I felt like a total outsider looking in.
"Huff, puff, huff."
"I feel sick to my stomach."
"Ugh... I have never felt an aura this scary. Is this what a top-tier hero feels like?"
"Gasp, wheeze..."
The kids wiped the sweat off their faces and tried to breathe normally. Some of them had felt killing intent in the past, but others were totally crushed by feeling it for the very first time.
"If this small trick messed you up, then quit wanting to be a hero. Real monsters and villains have an aura that is way worse than this."
"...."
"Well, at least a few of you handled it okay."
"...."
Diana slowly looked around the room.
"Oh, is it that late already? Let's end the orientation here. I am leaving. Get ready for your next class."
Diana checked the clock and walked out of the room looking bored. She acted like she wasn't the monster who just scared everyone half to death. She went right back to being lazy.
"Phew..."
A loud sigh came from my side. Lily Pierce was breathing a little fast.
"That was way tougher than I expected. The pressure I felt before was nothing compared to her."
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, but it was a pretty cool test. We never did anything this exciting back in middle school."
"Right."
If a teacher did this in middle school, angry parents would have rushed the school to complain.
"Was that her way of saying welcome to the school? Ha."
Lily smiled brightly, her eyes shining with thrill. Right now, she couldn't use her full power and barely handled the teacher's aura. But one day, she was going to be way stronger than Diana.
"What about you? Oliver, you've always been pretty weak, right?"
"Oh, me? I was fine, completely fine."
Lily clearly didn't realize that I was so weak that I couldn't even detect Diana's aura.
And I definitely wasn't going to correct her. It was much better to stay quiet instead of becoming a laughingstock. There was no good reason to tell the truth. Plus, it was honestly super embarrassing to admit. Isn't it?