A Shameless and Unwholesome Proposal
Shuo Hero Academy. Teacher’s Office.
After School.
Inside the teacher’s office where elite heroes gathered from all over Japan are working as instructors.
After all classes ended, among those handling their duties, was Mayuzumi Mayu, the homeroom instructor for 1st Year A-Class.
A stunning beauty with flowing pink hair, Mayuzumi Mayu clicks her pen.
The computer monitor in front of her glimmers like a firefly.
“Heehee…”
A cute sigh escapes Mayu’s lips.
His figure comes to her mind.
Kim Deok-Sung.
The student of her 1st Year A-Class.
A boy with a delinquent-looking face, striking black hair, and dark eyes.
The moment he came to save her just before she collapsed during the school trip keeps replaying in her head.
“You can rest now.”
His words from just before she was about to faint resurface.
Flush.
Mayu’s face turns red.
“Oh, no.”
Slap.
Mayu lightly slaps her cheeks.
She is a teacher, and Kim Deok-Sung is a student.
There’s an unspoken line that cannot be crossed between a teacher and their student.
Moreover, she’s already twenty-four years old.
An age that would generally be considered an ‘old maid’ in society.
Targeting a student is shameless.
“But…”
The image of his muscular build she glimpsed at the hot spring floats back to her mind.
A body that any woman would easily fall for.
Such a physique is simply unfair.
Not to mention.
The EX Rank Villain, Berserk.
A villain with overwhelming power who was a disaster waiting to happen during the school trip.
When she was on the verge of collapsing, he saved her.
Refusing to run away, he protected her.
He fought against evil to save her and everyone else.
Truly a hero in every sense.
Had she not been a teacher, she might have fallen for him instead.
No, in fact, she already…
Just then, Mayuzumi Mayu recalls the conversation with Han Seo-Jin.
Mayu was flustered after witnessing Kim Deok-Sung with the other female students in the hot spring.
To calm her down, Han Seo-Jin took her to the changing room and said:
“At twenty-four, you’re not considered an old maid in Korea. Rather, it’s seen as a prime age.”
“Mayuzumi Mayu, I don’t know how you feel, but there’s no need to hide it.”
“Before being an instructor, you are also a woman. I understand your heart well as I’m a woman too.”
“Even the chairman, who is much older than you, has feelings for Kim Deok-Sung.”
“Whether you believe me or not is up to you, but at least Kim Deok-Sung will not distance himself thinking of you as an old maid.”
“Please have some confidence.”
Thump.
Mayu’s heart races.
In Korea, she is not an old maid.
And Kim Deok-Sung is Korean.
Naturally, to him, she would seem like a woman, not an old maid.
A woman.
As Mayu’s thoughts reach that point, flowers bloom in her mind.
In that moment, Mahiro’s mind blossomed with insanity.
‘Maybe Mahiro too…’
Swish.
Mahiro’s face turned red.
Thump, thump, thump.
Mahiro’s heart, out of control, raced like crazy.
If what Han Seo-Jin said was true, she might not need to hide her feelings after all.
But her remaining conscience as an instructor doused her flaming heart with cold water.
‘No way. I’m the instructor, and he’s the student…’
At that moment, a devil in the guise of Han Seo-Jin whispered in her ear.
[The Chairman also has feelings for Mr. Kim Deok-Sung.]
Chairman of Shuo Hero Academy, White Empress Yoshizaki Seira.
The realization that the much older woman had feelings for Kim Deok-Sung hit Mahiro.
If that’s true, then maybe her feelings would be okay too?
‘No matter how much of a “spinster” Mahiro is, I’m still better than the chairman!’
Mahiro clenched her fists.
Though the world labeled her a spinster, she was still better than the grandmother-like chairman.
If that statement were true, then she might not need to hold back any longer.
Just as Mahiro was thinking that, her computer’s messenger notification blinked.
[Instructor Mayuzumi Mayu. Please come to the Chairman’s Room.]
A message written in stiff office language.
Sender: Chairman Yoshizaki Seira.
Gulp.
Mahiro slightly trembled.
‘What could the Chairman want with Mahiro…’
They say that thoughts of a person cast shadows, and now, just as she was thinking about the chairman, Seira called for her.
‘Maybe…’
This could be her chance to confirm Han Seo-Jin’s words.
Memories of past meetings with the chairman floated in Mahiro’s mind.
Before the new semester began this year, the Chairman was the only surviving member of the Five Crowns, a charismatic heroine worthy of the title that saved humanity.
But it seemed her majesty had gradually faded over time.
Crucially, whenever she requested a private audience, it had mostly been about Kim Deok-Sung.
It had been the same back at Imgan School.
She had summoned Mahiro to discuss changing the outcome of Kim Deok-Sung’s class arrangement.
Every time Kim Deok-Sung’s name came up, she remembered the unusually happy expression on the Chairman’s face.
She had dismissed it as coincidence.
But after hearing Han Seo-Jin’s story, Mahiro could no longer brush those memories aside as mere chance.
‘Could it be that Han Seo-Jin’s words are true…?’
Creak.
Mahiro stood up from her seat.
She shook her head vigorously.
“No way!”
Mahiro shouted aloud.
No, the Chairman couldn’t possibly think that way.
There’s no way she, being much older and like a grandmother, would have such shameless and impure thoughts about a student who is the savior of humanity and revered worldwide as a member of the Five Crowns.
She shook her head vigorously.
The impure fantasies that had crossed her mind scattered away.
Other instructors in the staff room turned their attention to her.
“Gasp.”
With a flushed face, Mahiro covered her mouth.
Biting her lips, she stormed out of the staff room.
Click clack.
Walking the corridor of the academy with the sound of her heels, other students and instructors tried to greet her, but she stiffly nodded in response, unlike her usual self, and stood before the Chairman’s office.
The Chairman’s room, usually big, seemed even bigger today.
Thump, thump.
With her heart racing wildly unlike usual, Mahiro knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
“Chairman! It’s Mayuzumi Mayu.”
“Come in.”
As Mahiro’s words ended, permission fell immediately.
Squeak.
The door opened.
Inside the spacious Chairman’s office, atop the luxurious desk lay a nameplate.
Chairman of Shuo Hero Academy.
Yoshizaki Seira.
Beyond the nameplate, she was there.
With long, flowing white hair reminiscent of pure snow, blood-red eyes, and a smiley girl dressed in a black gothic dress contrasting sharply with her porcelain skin.
Eyes. A beautiful girl dressed in a black gothic dress that contrasts with her snow-white skin.
A small figure, sitting in a plush chair that seems to belong to a wealthy chairman, her feet dangling above the ground.
It was Yoshizaki Seira.
Thud.
As Seira snapped her fingers, her telekinesis closed the Chairman’s Room door.
“Why did you call for Mayu, Chairman?” Mayuzumi asked, her voice trembling in an unusual way.
Seira nodded and smiled at her question.
“I’ve called you for something very important.”
“What is it?”
Mayu stepped forward.
“It’s related to the upcoming Sports Festival.”
The Sports Festival matter. This could have been discussed during a faculty meeting with the other instructors.
Why was she the only one being summoned?
A seed of doubt, planted by Han Seo-Jin, began to sprout in Mayu’s mind.
Whether Seira knew Mayu’s thoughts or not, she wore a buoyant expression.
Swish.
Seira opened her black lace fan and said, “Cutting to the chase…”
Mayu’s eyes widened as she heard the ensuing main point.
The chairman had feelings for Kim Deok-Sung.
The story that she had desperately denied and didn’t want to believe from Han Seo-Jin was indeed true.
An uncomfortable truth.
Unless her story was false, there was no way she would make such a shameless and impure proposal.
‘This isn’t the Chairman I know!’
The person reflected in Mayu’s eyes was no longer the savior of humanity, an extraordinary hero, Five Crowns, Japan’s greatest heroine.
Just a woman.
No, a grandmother coveting a boy who was the same age as her grandson.
‘No way!’
She couldn’t hand over her precious student to a grandmother who was older than herself, a single woman.
She had to protect him.
It was her duty as his homeroom instructor.
‘That’s the duty of Mayuzumi, Kim’s homeroom teacher!’
It wasn’t out of any other intentions.
It was solely her responsibility as a homeroom instructor.
Yes, just that.
The moment Mayu made her firm resolution inside,
“… will you?”
Seira’s red gaze turned to Mayu.
Sadly, as a mere instructor, Mayu had no right to refuse such a shameless and impure proposal from Seira, the academy’s owner.
Mayu nodded.
“Yes…”
Her pink eyes sparked with determination.
“Very well. Then let’s get going. I’ll deal with my pending work afterward.”
With Mayu’s approval, the smile on Seira’s face widened.
A shared delusion.
The moment the meeting between the two women, holding different thoughts, came to an end.
*
Secret city in Siberia, Soviet Union.
New World League Headquarters.
In a chapel, colorful sunlight streamed through stained glass engraved with the savior’s myth.
On the podium were models of a white bow, a red sword, a black scale, and a pale scythe.
The Four Horsemen.
The four riders leading the end of the current world, corrupted by gods and demons, symbols of the four villains closest to the Messiah.
At the same time, artifacts that indicated their fates.
Puff.
The red sword, symbolizing war, turned to dust and disappeared.
It was the death of Berserk.
Looking at that scene, the Messiah frowned.
“Berserk is dead.”
A mournful voice slipped from the Messiah’s lips.
“Undertaker is injured and recovering in a safe house in Japan. It’s such a severe injury that even the Immortal Heart couldn’t heal it in a day.”
Swoosh.
The Messiah turned his back.
There, two villains knelt down, bowing their heads.
A handsome man with glasses representing famine among the Four Horsemen, Professor.
And the villain wearing a black hat, a grotesque bird-beak mask, and thick coat, representing plague, Dokta Shinahel.
“… this operation has totally failed.”
“Perfectly failed.”
It was a failure.
Due to an unforeseen variable.
Under normal circumstances, there would have been no chance of failure.
“Kim Deok-Sung, you really got hit hard by him again. Hahaha, hahaha!!”
Messiah grabs his black hair and laughs.
Kim Deok-Sung’s name echoes in Messiah’s mind.
Kim Deok-Sung.
He thought this time he had devised a perfect plan to capture him.
The Hero Association’s support troops were to be held back by the Undertaker, and in the meantime, capture Kim Deok-Sung using Berserk while also taking care of all the cadets, including Kurosawa Yuji, in a diversionary operation.
There was no way for him to escape.
If it was Berserk, an EX Rank Villain, even if all the cadets and instructors jumped at him at the same time, he could effortlessly annihilate them.
Unless, of course, one of those cadets had awakened as an EX rank, a completely nonsensical probability.
But that nonsensical, almost miraculous variable happened to strike this time.
Luck.
Describing it that way was irrational.
Then.
“There’s an unidentified, unknown ally helping you, Kim Deok-Sung. An ally who must be at least EX rank or higher.”
A smile formed on Messiah’s lips as he conceived this astonishingly close-to-the-truth guess.
“Indeed, Kim Deok-Sung. How long has it been, meeting such a worthy opponent who entertains me so? My heart races.”
Messiah’s crimson lips parted.
Until now, all that had stood in his way were merely boring foes.
Those who couldn’t even lay a hand on his plans and fell victim to him.
Even those Five Crowns who saved the world and humanity were like that.
They never suspected him until they met their demise ten years ago, at his hands.
That’s why it was boring.
But Kim Deok-Sung was different.
He constantly saw through Messiah’s plans, outsmarting him and breaking them.
What a fun opponent he is.
What a thrilling match this is.
In this long-awaited confrontation, Messiah’s blood boiled.
“Very well. I cannot just sit back and lose.”
First, he needed to order the Undertaker in Japan to investigate the identity of the mysterious ally next to Kim Deok-Sung.
Just then, as Messiah was thinking that,
“Master. If you grant me full authority, unlike Berserk, I will capture Kim Deok-Sung and present him before you this time. Coincidentally, I’ve secured an Omega rank interspecies creature from the gate opened in Siberia, and soon there’s going to be a Sports Festival at Shuo Academy, creating an opening in the academy’s security…”
The Professor bowed his head and spoke.
“Professor. Your plan is, of course, outstanding, but now is the time to take a step back. The operation will be put on the back burner for now.”
Messiah resolutely interrupted the Professor’s words.
“I will prioritize the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone and the investigation into Kim Deok-Sung.”
If they could complete the Philosopher’s Stone and heal the wounds,
They could escape this dreaded frozen land of Siberia and venture toward the promised land.
The underground ruins of Shuo Academy, the Broken World.
If that happens, they could reach it.
Then, they could save everyone.
Then, they could save the world.
Creating a New World where neither gods nor devils exist, just humanity.
“Understood.”
The Professor nodded in acknowledgment of the Master’s decision.
‘Master. I apologize. For the swift execution of the New World plan, I am willing to do anything.’
Even if it means going against your orders.
The image of his beloved mentor, Yoshizaki Seira, appeared in his mind.
‘Master. This time, for sure.’
I will guide you to the New World.
To a new world where you will suffer no more.
With that thought, the Professor clenched his fist.
The lenses of his glasses sparkled in the stained glass light, shining in a myriad of colors.
