Time passed quickly, and the day of the Academy entrance ceremony arrived.
During the three months or so I had, I did not spend my time catching up on the education and training I had missed as a latecomer to the Hero world.
Since we would not be able to see each other for a while, I spent the time solely with my family.
‘You should’ve just stayed home.’
Right now, we were on our way to the dimensional gate described in the notice, but in reality, it was closer to me dragging Mom along.
I understood. After all, this was the first time in seventeen years that I was leaving my parents’ side.
After a tug-of-war of pulling and resisting, our family arrived in front of the dimensional gate that led to the Academy.
The dimensional gate I encountered for the first time was far from what I had imagined.
“Dad, can we really trust this thing?”
I thought it would be a bit more sleek and scientific.
But the dimensional gate before my eyes was geometric to an almost bizarre degree.
Thankfully, unlike Mom, Dad was capable of smooth communication.
“Everyone reacts like that when they see one for the first time. Of course, this dad of yours didn’t.”
When I showed a look of distrust, Dad stroked my shoulder.
“It’s fine.”
I looked for a moment at the two of them, who had entered a brief lull.
‘It’s time to say goodbye.’
It was hard to understand. No one had decided it for me, yet the word goodbye vaguely came to mind.
“Well then, I’ll be going!”
Farewells ought to be cheerful.
When I smiled, only then did Mom speak with an expression that said she had no choice.
“Wonwoo...... Make sure you eat properly!”
Dad must have felt awkward too, because he brushed the tip of his nose with his index finger.
“It’ll be fun once you settle in.”
Carried by my parents’ encouragement, I pushed myself through the dimensional gate without hesitation.
***
What should I call this feeling? Perhaps it was closest to being wedged inside a cramped refrigerator.
‘It’s surprisingly stifling.’
Fortunately, just when I felt I could not bear it, sunlight drove away the cold air, and a vague sense of openness came out to greet me.
“Wow......!”
Since the scenery had changed in an instant, I could not help but admire it inwardly.
The place I had been transferred to through the dimensional gate was a fairly wide avenue flanked on both sides by dense forests.
‘There are more people than I expected, aren’t there?’
The fact that the avenue was packed full of incoming students like me made it even more fascinating.
Between the incoming students, there was something that appeared to be the Academy’s main gate, and a strange barrier was spread widely over it.
VWOOOOM!
Even as I was looking around, the number of incoming students increased.
But this was......
‘Anyone seeing this would think they gathered only people you’d never run into in ordinary life.’
Every single incoming student had a distinct individuality. Not only their hair colors but even their eye colors varied widely.
‘Hmm, should I assume this kind of thing was also influenced by mana?’
The moment the last dimensional gate closed.
-As of this moment, all incoming students are requested to enter through the main gate.
A polite male voice bloomed in my head. It seemed to have been transmitted to everyone.
Some incoming students nodded naturally as if they were used to it, while the incoming students experiencing it for the first time, like me......
“......!”
“......!”
As if they had paired up at some point, they met each other’s startled eyes and shared their feelings.
‘Is this Voice Transmission Magic?’
Unfortunately, however, the incoming student beside me failed to pair up with me.
Compared to the environment I had grown up in, this was not enough to surprise me.
‘Looking back, they’re all memories now.’
Before sleeping, instead of fairy tales, I had watched Mom fight magical beasts bare-handed outside the window. Instead of lullabies, I had often fallen asleep to the screams of monsters.
If someone like me were surprised by this much, it would be terribly disappointing.
By the time I had been briefly soaked in memories, several incoming students were already heading toward the main gate.
‘This isn’t the time.’
So I ended my thoughts and also moved toward the main gate at the tail end of the procession.
Perhaps the Academy had put great effort into its main gate. It was truly vast, so it did not even look like there was any need to form a line.
But still.
‘Am I the only one bothered by this?’
From afar, the barrier had only looked magnificent, but the closer I got, the more threatening it felt.
Since I was at the tail end of the procession anyway, I naturally activated the Heavenly Hound’s special ability and looked into the barrier.
The barrier enveloping the Academy’s main gate.
“......Hmm.”
The first thing that caught my eye was the spell formula densely filling the barrier.
Next, I saw lightning striking mercilessly inside the barrier. Lightning attribute...... Yes, lightning-attribute mana was flowing through it.
‘So the spell formula is trapping the lightning-attribute mana?’
After somehow grasping the barrier, I looked this way and that around the main gate, but first of all, climbing over the walls seemed impossible.
In other words, the Academy was forcing us to challenge the barrier.
At some point, a strange battle of wits began over who would be the first to start.
“Everyone’s way too frozen sti-!”
THUD! HISSSSS......!
The moment an incoming student who looked like he loved stepping forward at a glance touched the barrier, he trembled violently and slumped onto the ground.
Steam rose from his whole body, and the smell of well-grilled squid tickled my nose.
Judging by the way he twitched intermittently, he was fortunately still alive.
‘I think I was taking this too lightly. Let’s watch a little longer.’
Since I could not think of a suitable method right away, I decided to watch a little longer.
The next incoming student to step forward was a small girl with bobbed hair.
“......”
When she stopped in front of the barrier and muttered something to herself, a strange sight soon unfolded.
A translucent membrane wrapped around her entire body.
‘Wow...... That’s magic, right?’
It seemed she was one of the magic-types I had only heard about. Moreover, the effect of the defensive barrier was truly impressive.
After all, the lightning-attribute mana striking down without mercy ultimately could not pierce the defensive barrier.
Thus, the first incoming student of this cohort to cross the barrier was that bobbed-haired girl.
Up to that point, there was no problem.
‘Something’s strange, though.’
But normally, wouldn’t people be happy? Why is she making such an arrogant face?
She was making an expression as if, unlike the rest of us, she was superior.
‘She’s an unusual kid...... or not.’
Until then, I had thought that girl was unusual, but that thought was quickly shattered.
“......Unbelievable. Seriously unbelievable.”
“Move. I’m going in.”
Because in an instant, the incoming students began charging toward the barrier all at once. The term incoming students felt meaningless when applied to them.
‘I can’t believe that girl ended up looking normal.’
Just look at them now, coating both hands in mana to create a gap in the barrier.
‘Anyway, what should I try?’
The Heavenly Hound’s special ability did not seem particularly helpful for passing through the barrier.
For a moment, I watched the incoming students being divided by the barrier.
‘So it’s a basic qualification.’
Crossing the barrier was the most basic of basics.
Everyone had been given the chance to become a Hero, but that chance had to be seized with their own hands.
‘Wait......?’
The lightning-attribute mana trapped in the barrier suddenly went berserk as if having a seizure, so the incoming students’ attempts naturally entered a lull.
“Let’s wait until it settles down.”
“It’s not broken, is it?”
However, unlike the other incoming students, I judged that this was not something to dismiss as a mere malfunction.
‘Does mana have a self too?’
Because I had activated the Heavenly Hound’s special ability, and the seizure of the lightning-attribute mana looked like a struggle to seek an audience with its master.
When I also focused my senses in the direction toward which the mana’s desperate resonance was aimed......
-I can no longer even soar......
The voice of an unfamiliar being I had not been able to hear rode a single strand of wind and reached me.
It was unfamiliar yet familiar, uncomfortable yet comfortable.
‘Why is a Divine Beast here?’
The aura of Divine Beasts, contradictory in that way, was what felt most familiar to me.
‘For now, it looks like the lightning-attribute mana in the barrier responded to the Divine Beast.’
More than anything, Divine Beasts were all willful in their own ways, so their very existence naturally stirred my curiosity.
I was naturally the curious type. Unlike before, I had now also been given an environment where I could satisfy that curiosity.
‘That wouldn’t be bad.’
For the moment, I had no proper way to overcome the barrier, so I decided to place meaning in the very fact that the lightning-attribute mana had responded to a Divine Beast.
Since I had already been at the tail end, I used the turbulent atmosphere as cover and stepped back.
“They didn’t tell us to hold our places. I hope they don’t complain later.”
In the chaos created by the barrier, one person disappearing would not stand out at all.
***
Finding the Divine Beast grumbling to itself was not particularly difficult. Once I perceived their aura, it lingered like an echo.
The place I headed to was the forest stretching long to the left with the barrier as the standard.
‘I think I know.’
Before long, I was able to encounter a gigantic bluish-gray eagle.
She looked asleep, but even so, lightning continuously flashed between the two horns rising from her head.
I compared the characteristics with the knowledge I had and rummaged through the cracks of my memory to recall her name.
‘Right, she’s probably the Thunderbird.’
Fortunately, she was a mythological being I knew about. In fact, it would be fair to say there were fewer cases where I would not know.
My worry-ridden parents had not even sent me to school. Separated from the world, the only thing that filled my empty time was reading.
In any case, according to a book I had read when I was young, the Thunderbird was a Spirit God of Lightning that annihilated magical beasts according to a god’s command.
However, the Thunderbird before my eyes did not look capable of ruling the world, let alone lighting a bulb.
So I gradually became convinced that the Thunderbird had approached the barrier to recover her strength.
‘Her condition is terrible.’
Just look at her now. She does not even know I am nearby.
I did not know what story had led the Thunderbird to this state, but......
‘If I can just lead the Thunderbird to the barrier...... I can overcome it, can’t I?’
That was not important to me right now.
I had left my family’s embrace for the first time in order to become a Hero. My highest priority was simply passing through the barrier.
To be fully prepared, I activated the Heavenly Hound’s special ability.
Slowly, the Thunderbird, who had looked like a bluish-gray eagle, began to appear as a woman whose night-sky-colored hair fell to her waist.
At some point, the two horns had transformed into a sickle and a hammer gripped in her hands.
No matter how weakened she was, that appearance proved she was the Thunderbird.
After removing every negative factor in that way, I spoke to the Thunderbird.
“Are you okay?”
“......!”
The moment the Thunderbird recognized me, a gleaming sun-and-moon light rained toward me from her eyes.
“You can see me? ......For a mere human, you carry quite an unusual aura.”
It was only natural for the Thunderbird to be surprised. Even my parents could not perceive Divine Beasts.
Perhaps I might be the only one who could see Divine Beasts and hear their voices.
‘I still haven’t seen anyone else do it.’
Even among the incoming students right now, I was the only one who had perceived the Thunderbird’s voice.
I had a guess that the reason had something to do with the secret of my birth, but I did not think too deeply about it.
I merely considered everything that allowed me to perceive Divine Beasts and obtain their Authority in the form of special abilities to be my own special ability.
In any case, the Thunderbird was quite aggressive, but that did not mean I needed to show hostility too.
“It just happened.”
“......You even understand my words? This is somewhat interesting.”
Toward the Thunderbird, who seemed a little flustered, I lightly shrugged.
It was a familiar reaction for me. The Divine Beasts I had seen in passing while growing up had all found me strange.
‘Still, this is my first time meeting a Divine Beast of this caliber.’
But even if I looked quite relaxed on the outside, I was actually extremely tense inside.
Because the Thunderbird was known to tear the bodies of magical beasts apart with a sickle imbued with lightning energy and smother even their screams beneath a hammer filled with thunder.
Her personality was often defined simply.
Battle maniac.
Even so, the reason I could face the Thunderbird like this was because she was a Divine Beast.
It did not suit the current situation, but I lowered my head in a small bow.
‘No one else may know, but I do.’
The reason Divine Beasts appeared in the human realm.
It was because Divine Beasts stood on humanity’s side and annihilated magical beasts.
Even while denying their own worth.
Perhaps the reason she had grown this weak was tied to such a process, and that made me uncomfortable.
As if she had read my eyes, the Thunderbird exhaled a rough breath and laughed.
“Pity from a human. I should die this very instant. Still, I did want to speak with a human at least once......”
The Thunderbird’s tone became considerably lighter. Her eyes held an emotion difficult to describe.
I approached her.
“For some reason, I feel like we’ll meet again.”
“......Heh heh, what an insolent child.”
Unlike her laughing face, the Thunderbird slowly began to lose control, and her entire body started to be enveloped in blue lightning energy.
“Perhaps...... I also find myself wishing that were so, child.”
Dark clouds that seemed to speak for the Thunderbird’s grief rolled in like waves.
FLASH!
The dark clouds that had gathered like a disaster swirled. Soon, a blue flash of light struck down from their center toward the Thunderbird.
Flutter! Flutter!
And so, only bluish-gray feathers remained where the Thunderbird had been, falling pitifully.
However, there was not the slightest hint of disappointment in me.
‘This much is enough.’
Even after the Heavenly Hound, I had watched the ends of Divine Beasts, both directly and indirectly.
So I knew that the Thunderbird had not reached the end of her lifespan. She had merely lost her strength and could not maintain her form.
This feather was closer to the Thunderbird sealing herself away to protect herself.
Just as I was about to take the Thunderbird’s feather.
CRACKLE-!
“......That startled me.”
I almost dropped the Thunderbird’s feather. The Thunderbird’s intense desire had surged through my hand and into me.
Her belligerent nature, yearning to soar into the sky right now and annihilate magical beasts, was conveyed to me.
Her arrogance, demanding that the barrier offer up its lightning-attribute mana to her, was conveyed to me.
‘Fine, I’ll get it for you.’
When I emerged from the forest with the feather and approached the barrier, or more precisely, the lightning-attribute mana......
A thundercloud swollen full of lightning followed behind me.
The students nearby looked up at the sky.
“Did they say it was going to rain today?”
“No, I didn’t hear anything......”
FLASH-!
The lightning bolt that fell from a clear sky permitted no idle chatter.
BOOM-! BOOM-!
Thunder that called to mind the sound of drums struck the sky in succession with a sharp ring.
‘I told you to wait.’
That sound reached me like the heartbeat of the Thunderbird, wishing to soar once more.