Chapter 6: The Tutorial That Changes Fate (1)
The villain’s identity was, as expected, a member of “Blood,” a contract organization from Karagas.
On her wrist was an intricately carved heart tattoo, the mark of Blood’s members.
Blood’s plot was to eliminate Kal and his brothers, who were a thorn in Karagas’s side.
And so, the incident was resolved.
“Gerard.”
Just as I was about to leave the scene, someone called out to me.
It was Kal.
“What’s up? Didn’t you go to be questioned?”
“The brothers went for now. I stayed behind because I have something to say to you.”
“What is it?”
There was no response.
Puzzled, I looked toward Kal, and what I saw was him bowing so deeply that his head nearly touched the ground.
“You’re the first person to listen to us without any prejudice. Thank you, truly.”
“How many times do I have to say it? I didn’t do it to help you guys.”
“Whatever. And also…”
Kal paused, then spoke in a serious tone.
“You’re our brother now.”
“?”
What’s he on about?
“I’m not planning on being brothers with thugs like you.”
“Thugs?”
“Yeah. Look at you. It’s like ‘thug’ is written on your forehead. If I hang out with you guys, I’ll get a bad rep at the Academy. No way.”
Kal stared at my face for a moment.
Then he chuckled.
“Now that I look at you, your face is pretty wild too. Don’t you think we’d actually go well together?”
Crazy bastard.
I couldn’t exactly argue, so I just flipped him off.
“Heh. It doesn’t matter if you refuse. Your opinion isn’t important. Whether you accept it or not, you’re already our brother.”
Oh, so it’s a declaration?
But honestly, it didn’t feel bad.
Someone with the potential to become one of the Five Evils considers me a brother…
“Fine, whatever.”
He grinned and lightly patted my shoulder.
And so, Kal left the Academy.
We parted ways for now, but it’d be a lie to say I wasn’t looking forward to our next meeting.
How much stronger will he be by then? If I want to cash in on that insurance, I’d better stay alive until then.
I was lost in these thoughts when—
“You seem to make friends outside the Academy more than within it.”
Baron, who had approached unnoticed, spoke to me.
He’d been chatting with the head of security for a while.
Guess their conversation was over.
“They’re not friends.”
“Then what?”
“Brothers, apparently.”
“Brothers?”
Baron’s face flickered with an unreadable expression for a brief moment.
“Well done, anyway.”
“For what? I just did what needed to be done. If anything, I should be thanking you. It would’ve been tough without your help, Professor.”
“I only did what I was supposed to. A professor should believe in their student.”
“Oh? So you’ll keep believing in me from now on?”
A deep crease formed between Baron’s brows.
“You’ve gotten cheeky since I last saw you and talkative, too.”
Oops.
My real personality slipped out without me realizing.
The Gerard that Baron remembers is supposed to be cold and brooding.
I quickly tried to cover it up.
“I mean, I thought I should try to change a bit.”
I gave an awkward smile and glanced to the side.
But when I looked at Baron, there was a warm smile on his face.
It was the first time I’d seen him smile.
“It’s a good look.”
“Huh?”
“I said it’s a good look. This new side of you. I’m looking forward to what’s next.”
Looking forward to what’s next.
The moment I heard those words, something fiery surged hotly in my chest.
So this is what it feels like to be praised by someone.
To have someone watch me, acknowledge me, and have expectations for me.
My heart felt like it was floating.
I could barely keep the corners of my mouth from turning up.
I wanted to live up to those expectations.
Beyond just surviving, I wanted to earn more recognition.
Then Baron’s voice broke through.
“You asked if I’d keep believing in you, right?”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“I’m no longer just your advisor. I’m the Head of Student Affairs now.”
I stared at him, confused by the sudden statement, but a beat later, his words hit me.
[The Head of Student Affairs has more authority than an advisor.]
I looked at him with a blank expression for a moment.
Then I grinned.
Yeah.
This was enough.
Even though today’s events would likely be overshadowed by the massive event tomorrow and fade from people’s memories.
People remain.
Kal and his brothers and Baron Tesda.
Their trust was surely more reliable and valuable than any reward, wasn’t it?
I’d been worried that today would just pass by like yesterday.
But I felt relieved.
“Hm? Perfect timing. Over here.”
It was then.
Baron suddenly waved behind me.
I turned my head and saw a silhouette approaching us.
“Huh? That’s…”
Her.
The pretty girl.
The one who was with the villain.
But why was she here?
Wasn’t she supposed to have been taken to the Capital Defense Force with the villain?
That’s when the doubt hit me.
Then it dawned on me—nobody else in this place knew she was connected to the villain except me.
“Oh.”
I finally pieced it together.
Nobody knew her true identity.
Yet she hadn’t fled and was still here, which meant she was biding her time for another opportunity.
Her original target, Kal, had just left for Icata with the security team, so it couldn’t be him.
Then?
Oh! It’s me.
Revenge for her comrade. Something like that?
Now that I thought about it, she was one cunning fox.
“But you’re out of luck.”
I smirked and swiftly grabbed her wrist.
Just like I did with the villain earlier.
Before she could pull away, I yanked up her shirt sleeve.
A smooth, pale forearm was revealed.
And on it, as I expected, the heart tattoo of Blood—
“?”
…should have been there.
But it wasn’t.
What?
Thinking it might be higher up, I pulled the sleeve further, but all I saw was more flawless skin.
That’s when I felt an intense gaze on my face.
“Gerard. What are you doing?”
At Baron’s question, I countered.
“Isn’t she supposed to be investigated?”
“Yuria?”
Yuria?
“Who’s that?”
“Who else? The owner of the arm you’re holding.”
Oh. Right.
But why was he calling her so familiarly?
“Do you two know each other?”
At my question, Baron gave me a strange look.
“Of course. Yuria is a new cadet who enrolled this year. Class of 890.”
“?”
“You didn’t know? Didn’t you meet her last week? At the welcome party for seniors and juniors… Oh, right. You weren’t there.”
I stared blankly at the girl.
No, at Yuria, whom I’d thought was just an ordinary girl.
Her obsidian-like eyes stared back at me.
The emotions in them… well, they were complicated.
I wasn’t sure about the rest, but there was definitely displeasure.
So I carefully lowered the sleeve I’d yanked up.
I fixed her clothes back in place and gently smoothed out the wrinkles.
But I must’ve pulled too hard, because the sleeve was slightly torn.
A soft, clear voice hit my ears.
“You’re not going to say I tore this myself, are you?”
“…”
What kind of expression did I have right now?
I don’t know.
I just know I was mortified beyond belief.
Baron’s laughter came from the side. This guy acted all stern and serious, but he sure laughed easily at times like this.
“Anyway, Yuria has something to say to you. You two talk. I’ll take my leave.”
I wanted to yell for him not to go.
But Baron was already far gone.
In the middle of the festival crowd.
The two of us left behind stared at each other.
“Let me formally introduce myself, Senior. I’m Yuria, admitted to the Academy this year as part of the Class of 890.”
Yuria, Class of 890.
The Class of 890 meant she was in the same year as the official protagonist of Heroes of Frey.
And the moment I realized that, it felt like I’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer.
My mind went blank.
“…”
“Senior?”
When I didn’t respond, Yuria called out to me again.
But I didn’t answer.
No, I couldn’t answer.
I was too busy sifting through fragments of my memories.
But the conclusion was always the same.
Yuria.
Yuria.
Yuria.
No matter how much I thought about it.
In the future I knew, there was no character with that name.
* * *
The Plaza of Valor.
This structure, boasting unparalleled grandeur within the Academy, was vast and massive enough to accommodate countless people.
Stendhal Syndrome.
The towering outer walls of the Plaza of Valor instilled both awe and a sense of intimidation in those who beheld them.
Like the Colosseum.
It was typically used for regular sparring among cadets, events to showcase martial prowess, or swordsmanship tournaments.
But today was different.
The final day of the Entrance Festival.
Countless citizens gathered here, at the Plaza of Valor, to celebrate the entrance ceremony.
The stands were filled with the cheers of citizens watching the ceremony.
The blue sky was adorned with colorful flower petals fluttering about.
As the marching band played, the cadets lined up in the plaza, and with the announcer’s voice, the entrance ceremony officially began.
The cadets wore tense expressions under the flood of attention.
Some bit their lips to contain their excitement, while others glanced sideways, searching for family members in the stands.
Each was experiencing the ceremony in their own way.
“All familiar faces.”
I was overlooking the entire scene from the very top of the stands encircling the plaza.
I recognized many faces.
The main characters who drove the central story.
Faces I’d only seen on a monitor, so I felt both a sense of familiarity and a strange nostalgia.
Deep in my chest, complex emotions stirred.
Honestly, I’d been looking forward to this day.
The day I’d meet these people I’d only seen on a screen.
Of course, I couldn’t view it with purely innocent excitement.
After all, I’d end up cornered by them eventually.
Naturally, he was there too.
The player character, Ivan.
The protagonist at the center of this world, destined to save the continent from evil and someone I was inevitably bound to clash with one day.
A thief like me and Ivan, who would come to harbor a deep hatred for the Beltus Cult, were fated to be incompatible.
Today, that hatred would be etched deep into his bones.
For both him and me, today was a turning point.
I glanced at Ivan briefly before turning my head elsewhere.
Black hair swayed in the breeze.
Among the fifty new cadets, she exuded an undeniable presence.
No, I’d mistaken her for a girl due to her youthful appearance, but she was a full-fledged Academy cadet.
Even in this situation, she wore the same cold, expressionless face as yesterday.
Feeling once again that she was like an emotionless doll, I let out a small chuckle.
Yuria.
It had been a day since I heard her name, but I still couldn’t recall her.
But today, I finally understood why.
It was only natural I couldn’t remember her.
She was going to die today.
At today’s entrance ceremony.
In the game, it happened during the tutorial that kicked off right as the main story began.
My memories of the future were limited to the perspective of the player character, Ivan.
Naturally, I wouldn’t remember a character who died somewhere at the start of the game.
There wasn’t even any specific mention of her as the game progressed.
All there was, was a passing reference to a single cadet among the many victims who died.
It was only moments ago that I managed to recall that her name was Yuria.
Perhaps that’s why.
I felt a strange sense of kinship with her.
Yes, in the sense that we were both heading toward death in the near future.
You could say we were walking toward similar fates.
Plus, after yesterday’s events, it’s not like we were complete strangers, right?
If I could, I wanted to save her.
But I couldn’t.
Because I had my own task to attend to.
That task was directly tied to my survival, so it had to take priority above all else.
“What a mess.”
The clear sky looked as peaceful as it did on the first day of the festival.
But soon, this plaza would turn into a battlefield.
A sudden shower of magical beasts would engulf the stands, turning this entrance ceremony into a hellscape in an instant.
This was the tutorial scenario of Heroes of Frey.
The ceremony had now reached the vice-dean’s speech, who handled external affairs in place of the dean.
The vice-dean’s deep, powerful voice echoed across the plaza through the voice amplifier, commanding the attention of everyone from nobles to common citizens with admiration and respect.
It was at that moment that a small spark flickered in the empty air.
The location was above the southern stands.
Directly opposite the northern stands where I was standing.
From the start, I’d been staring at that spot, not the vice-dean, so I was the first to notice the spark.
Crackle!
Another spark burst.
At the same time, a few professors who sensed something off stood up.
Their faces were grim as they scanned their surroundings, and as more joined them, the atmosphere froze in an instant.
Thud—
The vice-dean’s speech cut off.
The voice amplifier had suddenly malfunctioned.
A silence followed.
The occasional crackle from the amplifier added a strange tension to the stillness.
The new cadets held their breath, looking bewildered.
The stands buzzed with confusion over the situation unfolding on the stage.
And then,
Crackle!
When a massive spark burst, noticeable to everyone,
The vice-dean’s urgent shout shook the plaza.
[Stop it!]
The professors leaped into action.
Toward the southern stands.
But by then, the rift had already begun to open.
From the gaping maw of the temporal-spatial tear, like the jaws of a demon, reddish-brown rocks came tumbling down.
At a glance, there were more than twenty.
The citizens below screamed and tried to flee, but some were crushed, spraying crimson mist in all directions.
In the fog of blood, massive figures began to rise one by one.
Magical beasts.
The entire stands, witnessing this instinctual terror, began to surge like waves caught in a storm.
“Aaahhh!”
“Beasts! Magical beasts!”
“Orcs!”
Raaaargh—!
Everyone rushed toward the exits.
But with so many people and only a limited number of exits—one each in the north, south, east, and west—people were trampled and crushed, leading to a flood of casualties.
The secondary damage from the evacuation was proving even worse than the initial damage from the beast shower.
In this chaos, the only ones keeping their wits were the “Helper” badge-wearing peers like me.
No, I was wrong.
Even those who had just finished their second year were mostly dazed, experiencing such a sudden catastrophe for the first time.
I shouted at the peers nearby.
“Hey!”
No response.
Damn it. What was that guy’s name?
I couldn’t remember, so I called out his physical trait instead.
“Hey! Horseface! Snap out of it!”
Horseface looked at me.
His eyes widened.
“…Gerard?”
“Can’t you see people getting hurt and dying out there? Why are you just standing there?”
“Oh.”
“Oh, my ass. We need to get these people to safety! Move!”
Maybe because the incident had started in the southern stands, the citizens were flocking toward the relatively distant northern exit.
I directed the crowd toward the eastern exit.
Starting with Horseface, other quick-witted peers followed my lead, guiding people to the western exit.
The professors were holding off the orcs pouring into the southern stands.
The situation was still chaotic, but it seemed to be stabilizing bit by bit.
However, the real terror hadn’t even begun.
That spatial rift.
The terror weapon of the Beltus Cult, later called the “Beast Pouch,” wasn’t only unleashed here.
At this moment, Beast Pouches were erupting simultaneously all across the Academy.
Escaping the Plaza of Valor didn’t mean safety.
As if to prove it, the evacuation line heading toward the western exit suddenly started flowing back inward.
Citizens who had left were pouring back into the plaza.
“They’re out there! There are beasts outside too!”
“What? Damn it! Don’t push! Stop pushing!”
“Get back inside! Inside! It’s safest here!”
The fragile order collapsed like a sandcastle.
Chaos descended once more.
Professors and cadets swung their weapons and shouted, desperately trying to quell the disorder, but it was futile.
There was no way to control this many citizens in the first place.
They could only blindly deal with what was in front of them.
And I had been waiting for this moment, where only instinct and chaos remained.
Countless people were frantically running for their lives. In a moment like this, how many would even notice me?
None. No one.
I’d left a strong, brief impression on my peers, so my alibi was secured.
When I was certain no one would notice my absence,I slipped my badge into my pocket and quietly slipped out of the plaza and I ran.
To execute the plan I’d been crafting for the past two months.
Right now, all of the Academy’s defense systems were disabled.
It wasn’t just the beasts.
The truly terrifying aspect of the Beast Pouch was the shockwave it unleashed when the rift opened.
That shockwave temporarily paralyzed the surrounding mana field.
This was called “Mana Freeze.”
Mana Freeze completely immobilized mages below a certain level.
It also paralyzed the mana field, shutting down all magical arrays and devices within its range.
Most of the Academy’s facilities were built on magitech, and Beast Pouches had erupted all over the Academy.
So this was the situation.
All of the Academy’s systems were currently paralyzed.
All barriers on restricted zones and critical facilities, where outsider access was strictly controlled, were down.
Alarms, seals, and other security measures were nonfunctional.
With even the Academy’s security forces out fighting the orcs,
The Vault was now a treasure trove that would open with a single touch.
Yes, the Vault.
That was my target.
More precisely, the secret tomes collected by the Empire over centuries, stored within.
Stealing them and making them mine was the best growth strategy I, a thief, had chosen for survival and progress.