How to Teach a Hero at the Academy

Chapter 4: The Janitor of the Academy (1)

Abel narrowed his eyes.

He stared at Monika's right forearm, sealed in emptiness.

“How did you lose your right arm.”

At Abel's question, Monika shrugged.

“I must have lost it because there was a reason to.”

“I want to hear the precise story.”

Monika tilted her head. She thought he was a strange man. It was rare for a professor to even try to talk to a mere janitor, and Abel's motionless expression, as if he were wearing an iron mask, was suffocating.

“I refuse.”

Monika replied, her amber eyes shining.

“My pain is mine and mine alone.”

“You're not wrong.”

When it came to the ownership of pain, it should belong solely to the one in pain. Abel stood up with a calm expression.

Monika gave a slight nod and turned her back. The sleeve tied around her severed right arm swayed in the wind. Staring at Monika's small shadow, Abel took out his journal.

『 Values of ‘Monika Lohengrin’ 』

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral.

─ I am one who lives for the sake of living.

Though I have taken on the semblance of a human form, I wish to reproduce with an instinct akin to an insect.

Survive. Survive. You must survive.

Amidst the corpses, like a nest of vermin buried at the base of a tree, I took up the Holy Sword to comply with the last words left by the dead.

‘She seems like a difficult Hero to guide.’

Abel thought as he examined Monika's values.

The disposition of the Hero varied from world to world. While there were those who faced the Demon King empowered by hope, there were also those who accepted their identity as a Hero out of practicality, desire, or simply being intoxicated by power. Among them, cases like Monika's were among the worst.

‘Did she awaken suddenly?’

While living as a janitor, without education, without training,

And even without a right arm, did she become the Hero?

“──Abel Argento!”

At that moment, Konstanze's roar reached Abel's ears.

Konstanze was standing next to Abel, panting for breath.

“What on earth were you talking about with a janitor? I won't stand for any more strange excuses. For example, if you were to say that child is the Hero you were looking for……”

“She is the Hero.”

“……What?”

The strength drained from Konstanze's stiff expression.

She had never imagined he would actually utter such an answer.

“I will take the final test with that child.”

“Wait a minute! Did the name Monika Lohengrin actually exist? No, more importantly, I told you to choose a student, not a janitor……”

“Then I shall make her a student.”

Abel placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

He felt the worn scent of his beloved sword with his own hand.

‘The lack of a right hand is not a problem. There are many ways to substitute for it. Therefore, being a janitor is not a problem either.’

Above all, Monika must have the talent of a Hero latent within her.

Abel bowed his head towards Konstanze.

“If I manage to prove that child's talent……”

Please take measures so she can be educated at CIAR.

Muttering so, Abel stared at his own shadow, drenched in the sunset light.

* * *

Gugugu──!

The sound of the route airship's propeller echoed. Leaning against the vibrating inner wall of the airship, Monika let out a breath drenched in fatigue.

The janitors of her age, gathered on the shabby seats, were chattering. They were children who had to seek wages at a young age, but their voices were imbued with a sweet innocence.

The janitor job at CIAR wasn't bad.

It was rare to find a place that treated a laborer with a missing right arm so well.

It was just that working with only one arm was strenuous. Not only did she often stagger due to her unbalanced body, but she was also prone to attracting the stares of ill-mannered noble children.

Monika fumbled inside her clothes.

She placed a wrapped piece of bread on her thigh.

As she fiddled with the cloth wrapping the bread, she glanced straight ahead.

“Would you like to have some with me.”

“I'll pass.”

Abel, who had been sitting upright across from Monika, replied.

“Did you follow me on purpose? Waiting until I finished work……”

“You are a child who will be my personal disciple. It is only natural for a teacher to observe his disciple's daily routine.”

“……That's incredibly creepy.”

Monika chewed on the piece of bread.

Munching with her pale lips, she looked out the window. The route airship had finished its preparations to land near the capital. As the propeller sound subsided, the night view of the capital, shining with specks of light, grew closer.

The capital, Naflansee.

The origin of the Holy Numeros Empire.

The continental roads, entangled like the veins of the earth, all lead to Naflansee. If so, Naflansee must be the heart of the central continent.

A place where buildings with their own respective histories are arranged along the main streets, and also called the city that never sleeps, because the Blue Arrow River that runs through the center of the capital sparkles during the day, and because it is rife with expensive electric lights at night.

‘He doesn't seem like he'll let go easily.’

Leaning her head against the window, Monika thought.

‘Running away……. Would it be impossible?’

Monika's gaze shifted towards Abel.

‘I need to correct her eating habits.’

Looking at the piece of bread Monika was holding, Abel thought.

‘This should be the time she should be eating her fill.’

Abel's gaze shifted towards Monika.

Their eyes met.

The two turned their heads in different directions.

.

.

.

“Be careful not to get involved in any crimes.”

Monika said as she walked.

“This is the territory of Two-Tongued Tarkan.”

“Two-Tongued Tarkan?”

“He's a half-orc with a forked tongue. Tarkan's organization rules this street. The residents have to pay protection money every month. Myself included.”

Abel was walking through the slums on the outskirts of Naflansee. An area like a shadow concealed by the high spires of the capital. Amidst the illegally extended buildings woven together like a maze, most of the passersby on the unmarked streets were minority races such as orcs, trolls, and dwarves.

“We've arrived.”

By the time the moon had deepened,

Monika's steps came to a halt.

“This is my home.”

“Are your parents undertakers?”

Abel asked, looking up at Monika's residence.

A sign attached to a shabby building was barely shining.

‘Five-Eyed Funeral Home’.

A wooden board was nailed over the sign with those words written on it.

Grave-robbing prevention spells available, will never defile corpses, welcome mass-killing corpse collection……,

Abel tilted his head as he read the phrases written on the wooden board.

“I have no parents.”

Monika, who was unlocking the door, replied.

“I've just occupied the office of an undertaker who skipped town in the middle of the night. A place that handles corpses may seem unclean at first glance, but it's actually different. If you don't pay attention to hygiene, evil spirits will gather.”

Would you like to come in.

Monika asked, opening the old iron door.

Abel stepped inside Monika's residence.

There were coffins everywhere.

The table was a coffin. The wardrobe was a coffin. Even the bedding was spread on top of a coffin.

She was using the coffins left behind by the undertaker as furniture. The inside of the residence was neat for a slum building, but the smell of preservatives that hadn't been fully washed away lingered like the spirits of the dead.

“Shall I make some black tea.”

“I'll pass.”

While Monika heated a teapot, Abel examined the paper notes stuck all over the walls. The ink letters written on the surface of the recycled paper were smudged.

‘Terrible handwriting.’

It seems learning to write is also necessary. Abel narrowed his eyes and deciphered Monika's handwriting. It was none other than instructions for her daily routine.

From waking time to sleeping time.

Every procedure was designated in 30-minute intervals.

It was now 8:15 p.m. Time to drink black tea.

“Why did you write all this down.”

“So I don't forget.”

Monika said, pouring black tea into a cup.

“Because I forget everything if I don't write it down. The way to live is also the same.”

Abel reviewed the other paper notes.

Records of her movements as a janitor, trivial details of her monetary spending, the relatively safe shops in the slums. It was truly a life controlled by clumsy handwriting. Every sentence was written for the purpose of survival.

If so, the names written without context, which made up most of the content of the paper notes, must also be necessary for Monika's survival.

“There are many papers with people's names written on them.”

“They are the names of the people who lived in my hometown. My parents' names are mixed in as well.”

“For what purpose did you write them all down?”

“I believe I told you. So I don't forget.”

The names of the dead are also quickly forgotten,

Monika said so.

All the names written on the paper notes belonged to the dead.

Monika said she grew up in a rural area called Sarrifis, which didn't even have a single resident knight. A place so remote that not even monsters would attack. In other words, Sarrifis was a suitable place to experiment with forbidden spells.

“During the height of the Mirror War, a spell for mass killing was being researched in the underground of Sarrifis. The villagers didn't know about the existence of the research facility.”

By the time they realized it, it was already too late.

The enemy army, who had identified the existence of the experimental site, invaded, and the mages activated the magic circle that had infiltrated the ley lines to conceal the spell.

The enemy forces all disappeared. The mages also vanished. Even the residents lost their lives. In the first place, the spell eliminated everything without leaving even a single blade of grass.

“But I survived.”

Monika said, holding the cup of black tea.

“I escaped the range of the spell by a hair's breadth. My mother threw me and shouted for me to survive. So I am living.”

Aren't you curious.

How I have survived until now.

A child with one arm missing, and ignorant of the ways of the world.

Monika whispered in a small voice.

“I survived because I am weak.”

Because killing a child leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

A child who has lost their parents and doesn't even have a proper home.

Because there would be no gain in killing such a child.

Do you understand.

I have told you everything, and.

Muttering so, Monika stood next to Abel.

The silence continued.

“──So please, spare me.”

Finally, Monika's lips parted, and a threadlike voice escaped.

“I don't know what your purpose is. But seeing as you followed me all the way here, you probably don't intend to let me go easily.”

“I believe I told you. My purpose is to make you my personal disciple.”

“As if I'd fall for such a lie! Why don't you just say you'll buy me candy if I follow you?”

Monika panted roughly, then finally took a sip of her black tea. An uncomfortable silence. Monika's face was reflected on the surface of the rippling tea. Biting her trembling lower lip, Monika knelt before Abel.

“To a high-ranking person like you……. I must be an endlessly insolent existence.”

Monika's left hand began to tremble.

“I heard that fanatics single out and kill those with disabilities. Saying that the main gods do not permit those with defects. I also know that there are nobles who kidnap boys and girls with disabilities. Because there is no limit to the depraved tastes of nobles.”

I don't care what your purpose is.

I have no power at all.

Won't you just spare my life.

Monika pleaded with her head bowed.

“I must survive. If I die, the names of the people who lived in Sarrifis will be forgotten. So please, just don't take my life.”

Abel then finally realized. The fact that fear was seeping into Monika's gaze. He hadn't noticed because she had been glaring so sharply.

‘Did she feign calmness to not be overwhelmed by his presence.’

Because one cannot survive in the slums with a frightened face.

‘A being that lives for the sake of living.’

Abel repeated the phrase written in the oracle.

Her parents told her to survive, so she's just doing her best to survive.

Is it just a life of merely prolonging her existence without a special purpose, surrounded by the names of the dead who will be forgotten as soon as she dies?

“I apologize.”

Abel placed his hand on Monika's head. Monika's eyes widened at the sudden warmth that descended upon her.

“You must have been afraid of me.”

Abel withdrew his hand and turned his back.

“Get some sleep. It will be tough starting tomorrow.”

“What……. are you talking about?”

“I received permission from the Vice President of CIAR. If you prove your talent, you will live not as a janitor of CIAR, but as a special scholarship student. We don't have much time. Let's start training tomorrow.”

“What did you say?”

Monika's stiff expression began to waver.

“Talent……? Special scholarship student……? Training……? No, no, more than that!”

Monika hastily stood up.

“Weren't you…… going to torture or humiliate me.”

“As I said, I only intend to make you my personal disciple.”

Abel opened the iron door and took a step.

Amidst the sound of the old hinge twisting,

“My name is Abel Argento.”

Abel's blackish-blue eyes were visible through the gap of the closing door.

“I'll come to get you tomorrow.”

That was the end of it.

The firmly closed iron door. The fading footsteps.

Monika slid down to the floor.

The black tea in the cup had grown cold.

“……Abel Argento.”

After taking a sip of the cold tea,

“What an incredible……”

Monika muttered, scratching the cup with her fingernail.

“……madman.”

The breath carried in Monika's voice scattered listlessly.

How to Teach a Hero at an Academy