After the field trip ended, the Hero Academy quickly returned to its usual rhythm. The cadets attended their classes diligently, gaining the knowledge and experience they needed to become heroes. But that wasn’t the case for me. Because of the incident during the field trip, Professor Kane had slapped me with a two-week suspension.

I lay sprawled on my dorm bed, writhing like a bored worm. “I’m suspended again.”

Not even a year had passed since I regressed to this life, and I was already on my fourth suspension. Honestly, at this point, it felt like the universe itself had something against me.

There wasn’t much else to do while stuck inside, so I muttered, “Haah! Maybe I’ll go train or something.”

However, just as I was about to head to the training grounds to practice with the Cataclysmic Flame, my Hero Watch chimed. It was a message from Laneige.

Laneige: Dale, can you help me train today?

“Huh?”

Why does she want training all of a sudden? I thought.

Dale: What about your classes?

Laneige: Ah! I-it’s fine. Today’s self-study time.

Dale: Really?

Laneige: Yeah.

Dale: Then, when do you want to meet?

Laneige: R-right now!

She was unusually fired up today. I tilted my head and replied to her message. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Dale: All right. Then let’s meet in thirty minutes.

Laneige: Okay!

After ending the chat, I quickly washed up, changed into my training clothes, and headed to the meeting spot. When I arrived, Laneige was already there, energetically waving at me in her training uniform.

“Ah! D-Dale!”

The way she dashed toward me like a happy puppy made me chuckle.

She grabbed my wrist, tugging me forward. “Same place as last time, right? Let’s go to the back mountain!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “What’s with the sudden passion for training?”

Her expression dimmed for a moment. “Ah, t-that’s...”

But she quickly forced a smile and shook her head. “Hehe. It’s nothing. I just, um, wanted to get better at controlling my Blessing.”

“Yeah?”

Clenching her fists, she declared with fiery determination, “Mhm! That way I can be even more helpful to you, Dale!”

I nodded and followed her into the forested hills behind the academy. Soon, we reached the open clearing where we usually trained. It was a wide, barren patch of earth, stripped clean of grass.

We had probably trained here too much. This area was in the middle of the lush forest, yet it looked like a bald patch on the earth’s head. I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.

Still, it was better to train here than burn down the academy again. Last time, my failure to control my power had nearly turned a school building to ash, so the remote location was safer for everyone.

I turned to Laneige. “All right, shall we begin?”

Laneige nodded, stepping into the clearing. “Y-yeah.”

Just as I was about to follow her, she turned around. “T-today, I’ll do it alone.”

“Huh? Alone?”

“Y-yeah. I have to be able to control my power even when you’re not beside me.”

“Well, that’s true.”

She was definitely better at it than before, but handling the power of her Blessing of the Frost alone was still risky.

She said, “Dale, you can train nearby. Just... If things get dangerous, you can step in, okay?”

“Hmmm. Got it.”

While I was worried, if that was what she wanted, I didn’t have a reason to stop her. Sooner or later, she would have to learn to control her Blessing on her own.

“O-okay! I’ll go over there to practice!”

She sprinted off to the far end of the clearing.

Now, I couldn’t just sit around either. I took a slow breath, awakening the Primordial Flame that slumbered deep within my heart. Unlike before, when it had roared like a wild beast out of control, the flame burned calmly, obediently following my will.

I could definitely feel it. Ever since absorbing that ember, I could draw out much more of the Primordial Flame. Back when I had first regressed, the most I could handle was a flame the size of a candle. Now, it had surged high enough to envelop my body and beyond.

Of course, I was still nowhere near mastering it. A portion of the fire raged out of control in the distance, refusing to obey my command. I wondered what kind of being I would become if I could bring even that into perfect harmony someday. It was hard to even imagine.

I could become someone even more absurd than the Demon God. If the source of the Demon God’s power truly was the Primordial Flame, then inside me lay something else, a second, unknown power: the power to extinguish fire.

I still didn’t know what it was or why it existed within me. But one thing was certain. The day I could command both of those powers, I would be able to change that blindingly white future.

I exhaled softly. “Huff.”

As I drew the fire upward again, ashen flames licked up my arms, wrapping around me. Gray smoke seeped from my pores, spreading like mist.

Let’s start small. Ten meters, I thought.

I invoked Cataclysmic Flame, and a ring of fire circled outward from my feet. However, mana drained from my body at an alarming rate, pouring out like water from a broken dam.

“Ugh!”

It ate up mana way faster than I thought. I had expected the technique to be mana costly. After all, I was altering the physical laws of the surrounding space itself, but this was beyond anything I had imagined. I was consuming mana faster than I could replenish it, even with Ignition running. If I used Blazing Fire here to increase my mana reserves, I could probably maintain Cataclysmic Flame a bit longer, but in the end, that would only be a temporary fix.

“Yeah. It really is different. Using it for real feels nothing like doing it inside the mindscape,” I muttered.

The power and effects of Cataclysmic Flame were just as overwhelming as they had been in the mindscape. But the problem lay elsewhere: My control was still lacking. When I actually used this technique, I realized how much mana I was wasting unnecessarily. It was like trying to drink from a bowl full of holes. The skill consumed more mana than I had expected, sure, but much of that mana was simply lost, bled out from inefficiency.

I decided to reduce the technique’s range to about one meter. Calling something that small an area expansion was a bit pretentious, but it was better to start small than to spread too wide and have the whole thing fizzle out moments later.

“All right then, let’s go again.”

As if answering my call, the ashen-gray flames surged up once more, wild and alive.

***

Hours passed as I got lost in the rhythm of training. Suddenly, I thought of Laneige, wondering how she was doing. When I finally turned toward the direction she had gone, I found her there, drenched in sweat, struggling to control the power of her Blessing of the Frost.

“Laneige, how’s the training going?” I asked.

She forced a weak smile and nodded. “Ah, y-yeah. It’s fine.”

I picked up a towel and gently wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Take a break. You’ve done enough for now.”

“N-no! I can still keep going!”

“Maybe so, but you should at least eat something first.”

“Um.”

I took her hand. “Come on.”

I led her to a tree stump nearby. “Let’s see. What’s for lunch today?”

She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a few wrapped buns. “I, um, I bought some bread from the campus store.”

I blinked in surprise. “Bread? Not your usual bento?”

Until now, every time we trained together, she always packed a homemade lunch for us. She was probably busy today. Then again, making a lunchbox every single time couldn’t be easy.

“Sorry. I couldn’t make one this time,” she said.

I wasn’t heartless enough to complain about something like that. “Don’t be. You’ve fed me plenty already. Honestly, this bread’s not bad. It’s kinda nostalgic.”

Laneige nodded weakly, nibbling on her bread without much energy. “Yeah.”

For a while now, I had noticed a shadow hanging over her face, a heaviness she couldn’t quite hide. So, I asked, “Laneige.”

“Y-yeah? What is it?”

“N-no, it’s nothing. I’m just tired, that’s all.”

I said, “Hmm. Then maybe we should stop here for today?”

In a trembling voice, she said, practically shouting, “N-no! I want to keep training! No, I need to keep going!”

I frowned and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I told you before. Overdoing it will only make things worse in the long run.”

Laneige lowered her head, lips pressed tightly together. “You do the same too.”

“What?”

“You always push yourself.”

“That’s...”

“You keep doing it because you can’t die, right?”

“No, that’s not...”

“But you still feel pain, don’t you? It still hurts when you’re injured. It still makes you suffer.”

Her voice trembled, and she looked fragile, as if she would shatter if I touched her the wrong way.

She gripped my hand tightly with both of hers, biting her lip hard. “You keep pushing yourself even when it hurts. Even when it’s unbearable. You keep trying anyway.”

“Laneige.”

“So can’t I just try a little harder too?”

Something in my gut screamed that letting her go on like this wasn’t right. So, I said, “Let’s go back.”

“Dale...”

“We’ll train again tomorrow, okay? That’s fine, isn’t it?”

Since I was suspended anyway, I had no classes for the time being. I could make time to help her train again tomorrow.

She nodded faintly, smiling as she stood. “Okay.”

Her hands gently released mine. “You really are kind, Dale.”

“What’s that supposed to mean all of a sudden?” I asked.

“Hehe. Nothing.”

Just like that, after a simple lunch, we made our way back to the academy.

“I’ll message you tomorrow,” I said.

“Mmhmm. See you then, Dale.” She waved lightly.

***

As Dale headed toward his room, he was unaware that Laneige just stood there, silently watching his back. Laneige finally moved after Dale had disappeared from her view, but she didn’t go back to her dorm. Instead, she turned toward the wooden hills behind the academy, the same place where they had trained together.

As she stood there, certain words replayed in her mind, echoing again and again. No, “replayed” wasn’t the right word. Since that day, those words hadn’t stopped replaying; they were all she could think about.

The previous day, she had asked, “Dale. In my past life, what happened to me?”

Dale had said, “Laneige, you were...”

“P-please, tell me the truth!”

She shouldn’t have asked. She should have left it alone.

“The Witch of the Night.”

That was what Dale had called her. He had told her not to worry, that the future had changed, that she would never become a witch. And she knew that. She knew the future had changed and that she no longer had to tremble in the cold. But still, it wasn’t good enough.

She thought, Look at me now.

Laneige slowly summoned the power of her Blessing. A swirl of snow and frost surrounded her as sweat trickled down her temple. Even as she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, the power of the Blessing of the Frost refused to obey her.

“Ah! Ugh.”

A tear welled up in her eye and fell, mixing with the sweat that rolled down her face.