Chapter 26: Inevitably, the Heroine

I Hate Training (1)

"...So, you're saying you're joining the magic club because Reisha Professor is Rei Meyer, just like you said?"

"Yeah."

Xenon nodded as if it were obvious. Certainly, if it were Rei Meyer, simply following the curriculum would be helpful. But the fact came so suddenly that I couldn't think calmly at all.

The power of the former 'Top Hero' was beyond imagination. She was only mentioned in the original work, and she didn't even appear in the parts I read... Suddenly, her name is revealed like this, I couldn't figure out where it all went wrong.

In the first place, Reisha had no presence in the original work, and the magic club wasn't mentioned, so it probably wasn't even established. Is that why the unexpected name of Rei Meyer is popping up now?

But more importantly, how did Xenon recognize Rei Meyer? There was nothing similar on the surface, and he did look at Reisha with strange eyes... But seeing him say it with certainty now, he must have seen something to say that.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't think of any connection between Xenon and Rei Meyer. How on earth? Just as my eyes narrowed in contemplation, Xenon opened his mouth.

"...I roughly know what you're thinking, you're wondering how I recognized her."

"How did you recognize her?"

"How should I explain it..."

Xenon, looking troubled, rested his chin on the desk and stared into the air before opening his mouth.

"...She's just someone I saw a few times when I was young. Surprisingly, she was more interested in me than my father."

"When you were young?"

"Yeah, she looked completely different back then, and to be honest, I almost didn't recognize her either... But something felt familiar. Her Ability too."

A familiar feeling, I knew what a strange sense of déjà vu was. But even so, there was too much of a difference in appearance between Rei Meyer and Reisha. Thinking about him seeing her when he was young... There must have been something specific.

I didn't think he was lying. There was no need to lie, and there was no need to join the magic club while lying. Maybe joining the magic club is purely because of the existence of Rei Meyer.

But if he could recognize that their Abilities were the same, if he could recognize it enough to feel a sense of déjà vu, why didn't that content appear in the original work? But that question was quickly resolved as simply as possible. Originally, there wouldn't have been a magic club.

Aisha and Xenon neither heard of nor joined the magic club. It was Reisha's theory-based class. It would have been difficult to identify her by Ability.

...First of all, I had to meet her.

#

"Do you really think that's her?"

"...I'm sure. I saw something too."

Before I could even ask what Xenon had seen, Xenon burst open the door to the faculty room without knocking.

"...What is it?"

What came out was a questioning voice. When I opened the door to the faculty room, what I saw was a room filled with acrid smoke, not smoke from cigarettes or humidifiers, but a very peculiar type of smoke, with cauldrons placed everywhere as if I were looking at a witch's workshop from a novel. I had definitely been to Reisha's faculty room before, but there was nothing like this.

As I stared blankly at this space that had changed beyond comprehension, Xenon quietly opened his mouth.

"I guess you're not even trying to hide it anymore, Professor."

"...I showed it to you once earlier. I thought you'd tell Aisha."

"So you released the barrier."

What I heard from over there was definitely Reisha's voice. But her unique languor had disappeared, and I could feel a sharp momentum. A feeling so intense and hot that my body tingled for a moment. The cold gaze of Rei Meyer, with her previous dazed appearance completely gone, was directed at me.

"...Hello, Aisha. Did you come to apply for the club?"

On the surface, she seemed happy and smiled, but behind that, I felt like her complicated feelings were revealed as they were. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were not. I simply stared at her, at her completely contrasting appearance from what I had seen so far.

"I understand, you wouldn't have known why I'm here. It's only natural that you don't know how Xenon recognized me, or what kind of relationship we had."

"...Are you really saying that Reisha Professor is that... Rei, Meyer?"

"Yeah, well. If the club establishment had been rejected, I was going to leave the academy anyway, but now that it's like this, I can't leave."

"...Ah."

I could finally understand why Xenon didn't recognize Rei Meyer in the original work. She was going to leave the academy if the club was rejected, so the connection would have disappeared and Rei Meyer would naturally not be mentioned. I don't know what Rei Meyer did after that, but it was clear that the development had gone wrong once again.

"Anyway, I heard about it from Xenon to some extent. You're being targeted by Hera?"

I was momentarily choked up when I saw her mention Hera Carmen so casually, but since it was true, I nodded, and Rei Meyer scratched her head and sighed.

"Haa, what is she trying to do to kids who are only in their first year? Given my situation, I can't directly help. Ah, if I hadn't used Blink earlier, I wouldn't have been caught...!"

"You can't directly help, that means..."

Judging from Xenon's attitude and Rei Meyer's acceptance of it without hesitation, I could tell that the two were quite close. For such a person to say so definitively that she couldn't help, there must be a reason.

Then, is it because she changed her appearance? But if she changed her appearance, why would she bother getting a job as a professor at the academy, where someone might notice? As if sensing my question, Rei Meyer opened her mouth.

"The reason I changed my appearance... well, I don't think I can tell you yet. I only got a job at the academy to keep an eye on Xenon. I took care of him for a while when he was young, so I was a little curious about how he was doing."

"So... there's no special reason for coming to the academy?"

"Yeah."

Well, that's why she thought about leaving if the club was rejected. It was a somewhat anticlimactic reason, but even so, she was a Top Hero. Such a person's club, simply following the curriculum would be more helpful than I could imagine.

I stared at the club application form presented in front of me for a moment, and then wrote my name on it without hesitation. If I wanted to fight Hera Carmen, it was nothing short of an obvious choice.

When both Xenon and I had filled out the application forms, Rei Meyer looked at us with a satisfied expression. She said that she had now avoided rejection, and after carefully inserting the application forms into a file, she opened her mouth.

"Okay, now don't be too disappointed when you hear what I'm about to say."

"...What are you going to say?"

Xenon's face contorted. As if he was uneasy, Rei Meyer cleared her throat and continued, in response to his questioning voice.

"Hmm, so... you guys are the only members of the magic club."

"Excuse me...?"

"Our club has exactly two members."

"No, wait a minute. The club's quota is 10 people, and you clearly said last time that you couldn't avoid rejection if you only had one more person, didn't you?"

My temples began to throb at the sudden declaration. Why is she suddenly changing her words? Only two people, me and Xenon, then isn't it going to be rejected in the first place?

"It's okay, I filled out the list."

"How on earth..."

"Just fill it out with the names of 9 non-existent people. To be honest, the reason I created the magic club was to directly nurture any potential talents I might find. I was thinking about taking on a disciple, and you just caught my eye. The reason I left one spot open was purely to bring you in."

"Me?"

"Yeah, when you froze Xenon and Kaiser in the auditorium last time, that's when you caught my eye."

Hearing those words, my heart fluttered strangely. The former 'Top Hero' had decided to nurture me, and I felt a little good, as if I had been recognized. Is it because I have now completely accepted that Aisha is me that I feel good about this kind of praise?

"But now I have to raise two people."

With those words, Rei Meyer smiled.

#

After the club establishment was completely finished, Rei Meyer told us to come to her faculty room every day after school, when all the regular classes were over. A sigh escaped me at the thought that my schedule had suddenly become tight, but I couldn't help it.

She urged us to focus on training our Abilities for the time being. She said that she planned to train with maximum efficiency according to each of our methods, so it would be good to keep our minds firmly in place. I asked Xenon, but he just nodded with a dark expression and didn't add anything about the method.

...To be honest, I had realized a long time ago that my Ability usage was still far from sufficient. I had been utterly defeated by Hera Carmen, who was nothing more than a mid-boss in the first part.

The objective measure of Aisha's realm is the swords, which range from the 1st sword to the 7th sword. Before facing Hera Carmen, I was planning to draw out the 3rd sword.

What means are there to strengthen my power? Rei Meyer said she would train my Ability, but I had never thought about strengthening my Ability, and I didn't even have any memories of having such an experience, so it was just unfamiliar. What I'm learning at the academy is still just basic things like combat manuals and things to be careful about when using Abilities.

The first thing that comes to mind is support items.

I don't know if I can get them because support items are so expensive. Even among ordinary heroes, there were significantly fewer people who wore support items.

Perhaps Rei Meyer, who once reigned as a 'Top Hero' without even support items, is much more amazing than I thought. In fact, when I was reading the novel, I only had abstract thoughts like she's just incredibly strong, and I wasn't feeling the greatness as much as others were.

Rather, I'm curious how such a person was caught by Xenon.

When I suddenly had that thought and asked Xenon, he chuckled and opened his mouth.

"I kept looking at her face, and I felt like I had seen her somewhere. That kind of feeling is rarely wrong."

"So?"

"I went to her later and asked. It was probably around the time you were talking to Frey about the club. I asked her if she was Rei Meyer."

"...No way."

She wouldn't have really answered, would she? Fortunately, my thoughts were avoided, but Xenon's answer was something even more absurd than that.

"Then she disappeared in front of my eyes in an instant, not with invisibility or warp. There's only been one person who disappeared like that so far."

"So that's how you knew..."

She used the Ability of magic in front of his eyes, and the person who saw it already knew that Ability, so it was perhaps inevitable that she would be caught.

...She seemed like a surprisingly sloppy person.

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