Frondier looked around at the four students and thought.
'Twisted good and tight.'
Someday he had been preparing to teach students, but not now.
To begin with, the time for students to choose electives had already passed. If things were moving normally, there shouldn’t be a single student in Magic–Combat Combined until break.
'You abnormal bunch.'
Frondier let out a sigh and said,
“Let’s make something clear first.”
“Yes, what is it?”
Vasileo shot back, brimming with spirit.
“As I said a moment ago, class is still in preparation. This isn’t Atlas’s regular hours right now. Whether it’s weekends, holidays, or break, it’s not like I come here all the time.”
“Yes! We don’t intend to steal the teacher’s rest!”
No, you already are.
Frondier ignored that for now and said,
“And for the same reason, I don’t have room right now to teach you. Watching is fine, but don’t expect me to pay attention to each of you one by one. The curriculum for the class isn’t complete, either.”
Frondier spoke off the cuff as things came to mind so as not to put too much burden on himself.
But Pielot, listening a little from the back, let out a breath of a silent “ah” and shook his head. Vasileo’s eyes shone even brighter.
“......Why the happy face?”
“As expected of Teacher Frondier! You’re going to redo the curriculum for us!”
“......Huh?”
“You feel the existing curriculum for Magic–Combat Combined is insufficient!”
Ah.
Only then did Frondier realize why Pielot had shaken his head. He’d noticed that Frondier had misspoken.
It had just been an appeal that class prep wasn’t done, but now he’d ended up about to actually draft a curriculum.
“......Anyway, don’t expect anything. I’ve got nothing to teach you.”
“Yes!”
For some reason, Vasileo was all smiles at that explicit expression of refusal.
Then Frondier’s eyes turned to Ias.
Ias was not looking at Frondier.
He was looking at Glaukos.
With an openly hostile gaze.
His murderous intent was so blatant that Glaukos noticed and rolled his eyes hard. His face said, Did I do something wrong?
“......Hey.”
Ias called Glaukos.
“Ah, yes?”
“You’re Glaukos, right?”
“Y-yes. That’s right. I’m Glaukos, enrolled this year. I look forward to your guidance.”
“Why are you here?”
Ias asked with a face that looked displeased about something.
In truth, Frondier was curious about that as well.
He could understand why Pielot or Vasileo had come here. Pielot was uneasy that his growth curve had stalled, and Vasileo had outright declared himself Frondier’s pupil.
Ias wasn’t hard to speculate about either. He knew that with his pride wounded, he would approach Frondier sooner or later. He just hadn’t expected it to be today.
But Glaukos had no point of contact with Frondier at all. The only person among them with a point of contact would be Pielot. And that was just one Makia spar.
“I wanted to learn from Teacher Frondier.”
“......From me?”
Frondier cocked his head.
With a clear face, Glaukos said,
“Among the people who were in the gym during Makia, you were the strongest.”
“......How would you know that?”
“Just because.”
Frondier was surprised at those words.
Inside the gym, he had always been tucking away his aura. As all the strong ones do.
There had been a bit of friction with Lady Achaia, Eriboia, but it wasn’t a contest of strength.
'He saw at a glance the mana and aura I was hiding, and among all those people, picked me out?'
Of course, people with excellent detection will roughly read the volume of an opponent even if they’re hiding it. Elodie, Aten, and Runia also knew that after Frondier obtained the mana of Helheim, his mana quantity had increased.
But that’s when there’s an object to detect from the start, and there aren’t that many people.
From Glaukos’s position, Frondier would have been a complete unknown; to pick Frondier out among that many people—
“......Tch.”
Ias clicked his tongue as if it offended him.
He looked at Frondier.
“Teacher, I want to spar with Glaukos.”
“......”
Frondier looked at Ias with a cold eye.
You just want to pick a fight legally.
Has this guy not progressed at all since getting clobbered by Pielot?
“I don’t want to.”
The one who opened his mouth then was Glaukos.
“What?”
“A spar only happens if both sides consent. I don’t want to spar.”
Glaukos knit his brows as if he truly disliked it.
“Why not?”
When Ias asked, Glaukos said,
“Because among us here, you’re the weakest, senpai.”
In that instant,
Vasileo gasped, drew in a breath, blinked twice, and the next instant—
K-BOOOOM!
Ias and Glaukos, both of them, at the same time,
were on the floor.
“G-gh, ugh!”
“U, mmph......!”
Their bodies were pinned by Heukcheon and they couldn’t budge an inch. Ias was lying on his back, and Glaukos was face-down.
Relatively speaking, Glaukos, who could put both hands on the floor, was at an advantage for exerting strength, but—
“W-what is this......!”
Even with his strength, overcoming Heukcheon was hard. All the more so if his posture wasn’t proper.
Frondier’s cold eyes looked down at the two. The moment Ias and Glaukos, on the floor, met those eyes, they hurriedly lowered their gazes.
After their spirit had been completely crushed, Frondier slowly opened his mouth.
“Pielot, Vasileo.”
He called the remaining two.
“Go back.”
“Y-yes?”
“You two were not here today. Therefore you saw and heard nothing. Understood?”
At those words Pielot blinked, then his expression quickly went cold.
“Ah, understood.”
Still not understanding those words, Vasileo opened his mouth.
“Master, what do you—mmph!”
“Be quiet and let’s go out!”
Pielot swiftly covered Vasileo’s mouth and dragged him out.
It was the moment Pielot became Vasileo’s savior.
“......”
“......”
Of course, Ias and Glaukos, who were hearing this entire conversation, felt their fear climb vertically to the point of madness.
The two who had almost just fought looked into each other’s eyes.
Their wordless look said, Is a teacher even allowed to say that!
By the time the two had gone far off and disappeared from sight, Frondier looked down at the pair again.
“Glaukos.”
“Y-yes.”
Glaukos answered, tense to the extreme.
“Try pushing it off.”
“......!”
At those words, Glaukos once more put strength into his arms. But what hadn’t budged before wasn’t about to move now.
“Ggh...... ugh.......”
Watching that, Frondier reduced the amount of Heukcheon pressing down a little. His shoulders and lower body were freed; now Heukcheon pressed only across his whole back.
“How about now.”
“......Hrrmph!”
This time he even tried using the strength of his legs, but it was still nowhere near enough.
The amount of Heukcheon decreased once more. Now Heukcheon pressed only the center of Glaukos’s back.
“This is the last. Try pushing it.”
“Urmph!”
Still, it didn’t move.
There Glaukos realized it. Regardless of posture for applying or not applying strength, from the start his full power couldn’t push this Heukcheon off.
“Glaukos.”
“Yes.”
“What were you about to do just now?”
“J-just now, you say.......”
“Right after you spat out to Ias that he was ‘the weakest.’”
At those words, Glaukos’s face went pale and he dropped his head.
“You were planning to fight Ias from the start. You aimed for the opening that would arise in the Ias swept up by anger. A serious injury could have occurred.”
At that, Ias looked at Glaukos.
“W-what......?”
He hadn’t noticed at all. He’d just said it without thinking, and of course he’d assumed it was a fight the other was picking first.
But the opposite—that Glaukos had tried to attack him from the very start?
“And then you were going to appeal self-defense to me. Saying you weren’t at fault because Ias had jumped you first. You dare to play such little tricks before me.”
“......I, I......”
“Right. What was the next thing you were going to say? Let’s hear it.”
“......I’m sorry.”
Glaukos closed his eyes. He admitted his intent.
“I have heard many stories about senior Ias. That he’s the strongest senior at Atlas. So I wanted to fight him. I wanted to see what would happen if I aimed for the opening that would arise after provoking him, and what would come after.”
“Glaukos.”
Frondier called his name.
“Know your place.”
It was a merciless voice.
“Don’t pull that kind of petty stunt in front of me. Don’t you dare measure me carelessly by a fragment of my strength you felt.”
“......Yes.”
“I’m ending it with words this time because you’re a student. I decided to give students one chance.”
Frondier completely released the Heukcheon pressing on Glaukos.
“But there won’t be a next time.”
“Understood.”
“Go. That’s enough for today’s lesson. Go home and engrave it well.”
With that, Glaukos bowed his head and left with a face that looked quite shocked.
Only Ias remained.
“Ias.”
“......Yes.”
Frondier released the Heukcheon pressing on Ias.
“Stand up.”
“......”
Ias hesitated and stood.
Frondier said,
“What did you learn from the spar you had with me before?”
“......!”
“Or when you took a single blow from Pielot and fainted.”
“Ugh......”
“If not that, then when you forfeited yourself in the class representative selection.”
Each of Frondier’s words stabbed Ias in the vitals.
The facts he’d been forcibly turning his eyes away from.
Frondier ruthlessly reminded him of the moments when his pride had been thoroughly trampled.
“Are you a guy who doesn’t learn?”
“N-no, I’m not!”
“Why did you come here?”
“E-excuse me?”
“You asked Glaukos. Why he came here. Then why did you come? Did you come to brawl right before my eyes?”
Ias turned his head to the side.
“......I wanted to see the teacher’s techniques. After seeing them, I wanted to learn......”
“And after you learn, then what?”
“......I wanted to get stronger.”
“Of course.”
Frondier nodded impassively.
“Because you’re weak.”
“......!”
“Experiencing helplessness in a spar is something anyone goes through. So many times you can’t count. Most are used to facing a skill gap that feels like a wall.”
Even Aster Evans.
In a spar with Atjie, he had been in a situation similar to Ias. A spar that ended without him so much as grazing Atjie’s skin, unable even to activate Divine Power, and what’s more, without Atjie himself taking the least bit of injury. An overwhelming difference in skill.
It’s something anyone goes through.
“Don’t make a fuss as if the whole world has collapsed just for you.”
“......!”
Ias clenched his fist.
He was indeed unfamiliar with defeat. He wasn’t used to humiliation and shame. Because of that, it was also true that his mental state had been greatly shaken.
However, another impatience separate from that existed in him.
He felt eliminated from the stage. He didn’t know where that feeling had arisen from, but the more time passed, the more clearly he felt it.
A fate of ending after achieving nothing. As if what awaited him lay on rails like that.
“Teacher, I......”
“......Hoo.”
Frondier let out a sigh.
“You’re doing something truly foolish.”
“E-excuse me?”
“You have power sufficient to become a hero. I thought you, more than anyone, knew that well.”
At Frondier’s words, Ias looked up in surprise.
A hero. He had originally believed without doubt that he would become one.
But he hadn’t expected Frondier to say that. And to say it with a face this devoid of feeling.
“Did I misjudge you? Are you a vessel who will be satisfied as an ordinary person?”
“No! I, it’s just......!”
As Ias tried to protest something, Frondier asked, as if he truly couldn’t understand,
“Why aren’t you deciding?”
“......Deciding, you mean?”
“I mean the decision to become a hero.”
At those words, Ias blinked a few times, then his eyes quietly grew very wide.
“The decision to become a hero......?”
“Yeah. Isn’t it obvious.”
Frondier spoke as if there were nothing to be surprised about.
“Becoming a hero. You have to choose that path to become a hero. Not keep putting it off without end.”
“......”
He was putting it off.
The choice and the decision had already been given to you, and you were putting off the decision.
Like someone who doesn’t even know that a choice must be made.
So Frondier said,
“Being a hero isn’t something that happens on its own.”
