In a corner of the western border area, a swarm of monsters was wriggling around a defensive barricade.

Amid the few people desperately holding back the monsters trying to leap over the barricade, loud shouts echoed.

“Hey, focus! If you mess up now, it’s not just you who’ll die, but your friends will go down with you!”

“I-I’m sorry. But I can’t gather any more strength…”

“Ugh… Just fall back and swap with the one recharging their mana! The rest of us will hold them off somehow!”

Perhaps due to the extended battle, a male student shouted as he smashed the head of a monster that was trying to climb over the barricade with a blunt object, addressing a female student who was staggering from exhaustion.

“Uncle! Those things are coming again!”

“Tell me something I don’t know! Damn it, observation team! They said there wouldn’t be any problems here, and look at this mess!”

As the female student screamed, pointing at the approaching horde of monsters, the man grumbled, recalling the confident claims of the observation team that this area had a low concentration of mana and shouldn’t see many monsters.

Countless monsters were appearing along the western border area.

Because of a lack of personnel, the observation team deemed this place relatively safe, leaving only four students and one hero supervisor stationed here.

As a result, they were barely managing to hold back a horde of over a hundred monsters with just five people.

They were severely understaffed.

Even with the barricade, having untrained students — or even experienced heroes — to fend off such a large number of monsters was nearly impossible.

After swapping out with the exhausted female student, another student who had been recharging their mana stepped up to prepare an area-of-effect spell.

While mages lacked the physical endurance and combat sustainability compared to others, if they had enough mana and preparation time, they could shine on the battlefield more than anyone else.

If only they could use area magic, they might still deal a significant blow to the monsters, but right now, there was an absolute shortage of people to buy them the time they needed.

“I-I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like there are even more now…! We can’t hold them off!”

The barricade was barely being defended by four people. During the moment when one female student stepped away and another prepared to cast a spell, a gap opened up, allowing a monster to slip through the barricade.

If monsters began to climb over the barricade, it was only natural that they could no longer be held back.

The student preparing the spell was now exposed, and a monster charged at them.

“Damn it! Hey! It’s targeting you! Quickly cancel that spell and block the one behind!”

“D-Don’t you see? If I cancel now, there’s no way I can hold them off. Even if I die, I’ll shoot this spell and take my chances. Just get your revenge for me!”

Realizing that they would all die if they didn’t reduce the number of monsters, the student reached out beyond the barricade, ignoring the monster charging towards them to focus on casting the spell.

At that moment, hearing the student’s resolve, the man felt tears start to form in his eyes.

Suddenly, a sword flew in from somewhere, creating a shield that blocked the monster’s attack.

In that split second, the spell the student had been preparing activated, and a wall of flames soared, incinerating the monsters clustered near the barricade.

As the monsters scattered momentarily from the barricade, the man, still smashing the head of a monster against the barricade, spotted a boy with white hair rushing towards them.

There were two barricades they needed to defend. The boy had gone alone to check the other side where monsters were trying to climb over.

Thinking that surely someone had to go to hold it off, the man asked, assuming the boy would have given up and returned:

“Did that side get breached? Should we just abandon this place and retreat?”

“No need,” the boy replied.

With a sword emanating a light as white as his hair in hand, he placed his other hand on the barricade.

“I just cleaned it all up on my way here.”

With that, the boy leaped over the barricade and jumped into the horde of monsters.

“Hey, are you crazy—!”

The man’s exclamation was cut off the instant he looked beyond the barricade.

His mouth hung open in shock for a while.

In his eyes, the sight of a boy plunging into the horde of monsters, swinging his sword with flair, was something unbelievable.

The boy wasn’t wielding just one sword.

Every time he dropped a sword from his hand, another appeared just as quickly.

With a one-handed swing, the boy decapitated a monster,

With a thrust of a thin sword, another monster fell,

And with a swing of a large sword, surrounding monsters were swept away.

He maneuvered multiple types of swords like extensions of his own body, moving with complete grace.

There was no hesitation in letting go of a sword and grabbing another; he weaved through the horde with ease.

It was as if gravity had reversed; the dark blood of the monsters flew upwards into the sky before showering down, yet not a single droplet touched the white-haired boy, who stood impeccably as the true master of his blades.

Clearly, all the students present were supposed to be first-year students.

“How can that possibly be a student…”

The man thought, awestruck by the scene, feeling a chill run down his spine.

A monster from Aegis Academy had appeared.

*

After the situation settled, the supervising hero escorted Yoon Si-woo and his group to a nearby teleportation portal, expressing admiration and support for the young student, affirming that he would surely become a great hero in the future.

After bidding farewell to the hero, Yoon Si-woo led his nearly-collapsed classmates through the portal back to the designated camp.

Due to safety measures, inter-barrier teleportation between the outside and inside was impossible, forcing them to travel directly inside.

The area around the portal was bustling with heroes returning from their missions, including the remaining students and their homeroom teacher, Eve.

“Aegis Academy, first-year, class A, group 1, all present.”

As he was the only one remaining relatively intact among his teammates, Yoon Si-woo reported their return to Eve.

A deep sigh escaped Eve as she saw the sorry state of the rest of the students.

“Si-woo, what happened?”

“Ahaha, monsters crashed our party. Quite a lot of them…”

To be honest, “quite a lot” was an understatement.

There were terrifying moments where it felt like everything could go horribly wrong without him, yet since everyone was back safe, Yoon Si-woo managed a wry smile as he replied.

“Really? That must’ve been rough. But I’m glad to see that everyone seems fine…”

Eve sighed with relief at Yoon Si-woo’s response.

“It seems like something happened at school too. I hope everyone there is okay.”

Yoon Si-woo’s expression hardened at her worried words.

“Something happened at school?”

“I don’t know the details, but we received a signal that the gym doors were closed. The students who stayed behind should have been able to handle most monsters, but the fact that the doors were closed indicates that something must have gone horribly wrong for them. For now, I’ve asked the fastest person I know to go check on the school, but I really hope nothing serious has happened…”

Yoon Si-woo’s mind flashed back to Scarlett, who had said she would stay at school this morning.

He wanted to check immediately if she was safe.

Since the situation was resolved, she probably stayed at school a bit longer before returning home.

However, after telling him to not worry about her, if he went to find her now, she would surely dislike it, and so he had no choice but to suppress his feelings.

[You’re really in deep trouble.]

Lucy mused, observing his internal storm.

He knew.

He was aware that harboring such feelings was a burden on her.

Yet, no matter how much he tried, the emotions that sprang up at the mere thought of her were impossible to smother. For Yoon Si-woo, who had never opened up to anyone else but Lucy, controlling these feelings was simply out of reach.

Ever since he obtained the Sword of Truth, he had become wary of trusting people easily.

Even benign lies intended to avoid hurting someone or to win their favor sowed the seeds of distrust in his heart when he saw others telling lies without any variations in their expressions.

However, the girl he had observed had never uttered a single lie, not even in telling difficult truths.

Initially, it had been simple curiosity, but seeing her speak without ever casting a lie only deepened his affection, realizing that people like her actually existed.

Even when she pushed him away and rejected him, his feelings for her ballooned uncontrollably.

Interest bloomed into affection, and affection slowly morphed into a deeper, unshakeable liking.

Even if this one-sided love tormented him, simply looking at her was like being addicted to an inescapable drug.

When she smiled, he felt joy. When she was sad, his heart ached alongside hers.

In no time, the significance of her existence had swelled tremendously in his heart.

“For now, everyone has worked hard, so let’s go home and rest! See you all at school tomorrow!”

With that declaration, Yoon Si-woo thought as he returned home.

Yeah, he could see her at school tomorrow.

That night, Yoon Si-woo had a dream.

He dreamed of a red-haired girl smiling.

In reality, he wished for her to be able to spend her days smiling like that, always wearing an expressionless face.

And even if it was only rarely, he desperately hoped she would smile at him that way too.

*

The next day, her empty seat.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but yesterday, an intermediate-level monster attacked the school without being weakened.”

Eve announced with a stiff expression during the morning assembly.

“Because of that, Evande got seriously injured and is currently hospitalized.”

Yoon Si-woo didn’t even know what expression was on his face.