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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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Since that day, Yoo Hee-won never again mentioned doing physical training with me.
She must have been caught completely off guard and hit hard.
No matter how good Yoo Hee-won’s stamina was, she couldn’t be better than me, who had run in active service in Secreto for several years.
If your stamina doesn’t support it, your body can’t handle rapid Aura maneuvers even if you wear an expensive suit.
It’s the same principle as state-of-the-art fighter pilots with all sorts of flight assistance devices not neglecting strength training.
Yoo Hee-won, who had only been at the academy for a year, would probably have to wait until graduation season to catch up to me.
And there was a very high chance she wouldn’t be able to even then.
Anyway, it seemed my lung disease really was a defense mechanism created to block mental shock.
Even though I had run for the first time in a very long time, instead of being out of breath, I only felt refreshed.
It was a bit funny to think I had been sickly with a nonexistent feigned illness.
The faculty department created the final curriculum for this semester and obtained the dean’s approval.
The original existing curriculum had already been created before the break, but due to the sudden reorganization of the educational system, it was created anew from scratch.
The core of this semester’s curriculum was ‘Understanding Cooperative Combat.’
This reorganization of the educational system was a tremendous event that completely overturned the existing combat concepts of heroes.
The current freshman class was a generation that grew up watching star heroes who performed outstandingly on their own through various media since they were very young.
To the students, a hero was already imprinted as a celebrity-like existence who solved everything alone and received all the public’s attention.
Popularity, honor, high salaries, etc.
For these reasons, students applied to hero academies despite the perilous work environment.
It would take time to break down what was firmly embedded in those students’ minds and make them understand and teach them to fight as a ‘team.’
So, it was decided to use this entire semester for ‘Understanding Cooperative Combat.’
Of course, it wasn’t about sitting at a desk and taking theory classes.
Like in the military, they would constantly move together to foster a sense of team, and all classes would also be taken by team.
The lecture content focused on cooperative combat, and several specialized heroes related to this were invited.
Those heroes were individuals sent separately by the Administration, and even without specifically checking, I could guess they were active Secreto members.
Because Secreto was the only group of heroes currently operating in teams.
Right now, I was on my way to the research building to attend a seminar those experts were holding for the professors.
The research building had a large seminar room where various events that academy professors might hold took place.
“Hello, Professor Kyo.”
Chae Ga-yoon, the head of administration, who was checking the attendance list in front of the seminar room, greeted me.
Seeing her face, I was slightly startled.
If a corpse walked out of a morgue, would it look just like that?
Right now, Chae Ga-yoon had a pale, ashen face, and her hair was dry and brittle like a sorghum broom.
The rumor that she was working while hooked up to a nutrient drip seemed true, as she had a small bandage on her arm.
“You’re working very hard. You don’t look well at all.”
“It’s been over five years since I came to the academy, but this is the first time a semester has been this tough.”
“I can imagine.”
“I haven’t slept properly for weeks since the emergency summons…. I really feel like I’m going to die. Still….”
Chae Ga-yoon looked up at me and gave a weak smile.
“It’s nice to see you like this, Professor. It feels like getting a hundred-thousand-won nutrient drip, perhaps?”
“Is a hundred-thousand-won one good?”
“It’s quite expensive.”
“Ah, yes. I see. Thank you.”
Chae Ga-yoon smiled and checked off my name with a heart shape next to it.
“Please go in, Professor.”
The seminar room was already more than half full, and faculty members continued to enter behind me.
The academy has hundreds of faculty and staff. I don’t know the exact number myself.
Of course, this number includes simple environmental beautification and facility management personnel; the faculty and staff actually in charge of student education and administration numbered just under a hundred.
As I was sitting in my seat, the heroes who were about to give the seminar soon brought their laptops and began setting up at the podium.
There were two of them, a man and a woman, and they were faces I hadn’t seen before.
In Secreto, unless you were on the same team, you rarely saw each other’s faces and didn’t know what others were doing.
Perhaps they weren’t from Secreto but other people.
They were wearing plain clothes with no markings, so I had no idea.
“Professor Kyo!”
Professor Jin, sitting behind me, tapped my shoulder and smiled brightly.
“Hello, Professor Jin. You look well.”
Professor Jin was always bright and energetic.
Although she had struggled a bit recently due to the sudden system reorganization, like a flight-specialized hero, she seemed to have overcome it all and risen again.
“There’s nothing particularly bad. How are you, Professor Kyo?”
“Me too. Very good.”
“I hear you’ve been training Min-ha and Hee-won incredibly hard lately?”
“Perhaps because we’ve been working together since the first semester, we seem to be making progress quickly.”
“I’m envious. My kids are still clashing with each other and causing all sorts of trouble.”
“You’re having a hard time. I hope this seminar will be very helpful.”
“Hey, Professor Kyo.”
Professor Yoo Hyun-joo sat down next to Professor Jin and greeted me.
I could smell the strong scent of cigarettes on her breath.
“It’s a complete mess, really.”
Professor Yoo looked around the chaotic seminar room.
“I asked some active heroes, and they said the field is complicated right now too. The Administration keeps trying to group several hero agencies together, and the heroes are all resisting, saying they don’t want to.”
“That’s natural. Agencies are private businesses, so on what grounds would the Administration tell them what to do?”
“Well, rumor has it that if they don’t comply with the controls, their number of requests will be forcibly limited, but active heroes aren’t pushovers.”
“That’s truly crazy talk.”
Professor Jin and Professor Yoo were also active heroes.
They were affiliated with the Administration and then dispatched to the academy.
Right now, I was the only one at the academy who was officially retired on paper.
Just then, the dean entered the seminar room with department-head-level professors behind him.
The dean, who went up to the podium, shook hands with the invited heroes and took the microphone.
“Regarding the reorganized educational system, experts in the field have graciously made a difficult journey to help us.”
After a polite and formal greeting, the dean handed the microphone to one of the invited heroes.
One would lecture, and the other would operate the laptop, I presumed.
“Hello. I am a hero from the Administration. I consider it an honor to be able to lecture before the best academy faculty.”
The female hero who took the microphone simply introduced herself as a hero, without mentioning her rank or affiliation.
The order of the lecture was the seriousness of the current situation, the necessity of system reorganization, the concept of cooperative combat, and training know-how.
When bodycam footage of heroes recently attacked by organized villains appeared on the screen, sighs and groans erupted from the attendees.
It was a scene as devastating as the one we had seen right after the emergency summons.
The hero’s explanation was that recent villain activity was showing signs of systematization, and to counter this, heroes also needed to form teams and operate.
Next was the part about how we professors should actually teach the students.
Listening to the hero’s explanation, I became strongly convinced that the woman was affiliated with Secreto.
The content was all exactly the same as Secreto’s.
The basic model of three to five members, individually assigned tasks, and situational response methods were all Secreto’s methods.
The training method I was currently using to teach Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha was exactly that.
I had seen these things so many times that I could even predict what content would come next.
But the format of the educational material currently displayed on the screen looked very familiar somehow…? That….
The end of the lecture was a question time.
As expected, since it was a sensitive issue, there were very many professors and staff members who wanted to ask questions.
The hero calmly pointed to each person one by one and answered their questions.
“Hello, I am Jin Se-young, Professor of Flight and Guidance. It’s about something else, but I have a question regarding evasive maneuvers earlier.”
Professor Jin Se-young, who was behind me, took the microphone and stood up from her seat.
Professor Jin Se-young’s question was about the trajectory of evasive maneuvers following an area-of-effect attack.
The female hero, who was answering her, happened to make eye contact with me.
Even while continuing to answer, the hero’s gaze remained on me.
The seminar ended with Professor Jin Se-young’s question.
Everyone stood up from their seats, murmuring, and exited the seminar room.
I was also just about to go out the door when someone called me from behind.
“Excuse me!”
Turning around, I saw the female hero who had conducted the seminar running towards me.
“What is it?”
“Um, by any chance… aren’t you Graysteel?”
Graysteel was the callsign I used during my active service days.
“That’s right.”
“Ha, to meet you here.”
I tilted my head, looking at the smiling hero.
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