21st Round Consultation fee

As soon as Teacher Morals opened her eyes, she realized she had been rendered immobile by spinal problems. Hence, she immediately started lecturing me.

How long had it been…

“Listen carefully, student Kang Han Soo. They say there is no happiness in comfort, for it is brought forth by suffering.”

“Oh! Then you will be very happy!”

Having herniated discs would teach her that true pain could penetrate even her very bones.

Our relationship began to deteriorate from the 2nd round when she first made contact with me.

If I had just finished my studies, we could have parted on a good note.

It had been 200 years now.

And that was surmountable to the colossal duration of 20 years on Earth!

The director was the one that had to be blamed the most for what happened to me, but Teacher Morals still contributed to it since she didn’t teach properly.

“Student Kang Han Soo just couldn’t cope with the curriculum.”

“Maybe.”

However, if one called themselves a teacher, they should know how to teach even the students lagging behind.

A-rank Hero Sieg, introduced to me by Teacher Morals to learn the “right course of action” from him, was now forever stuck in primary education.

In other words, before judging a student’s ability to learn, it was worth first looking at whether the teacher was really up for the job.

“That is also your fault!”

“How so?”

“Your class activity was to imitate student Sieg, but you influenced him badly instead.”

“That’s make-belief, and you know it.”

Teacher Morals insisted that I somehow influenced Sieg, but we had little in common.

He loved elves so much that he betrayed his people.

What about combat power?

Even after I got married, I still constantly developed. On the contrary, developing only Male Strength, he became a punching bag after marrying Sylvia.

And we had a different approach to our journey as heroes.

I didn’t waste precious time trying to save one or two locals, which was the exact opposite of his actions.

“Need more explanation?”

“You made a punching bag out of him. It’s okay to love elves. His journey didn’t go as planned, and that’s why he betrayed humanity.”

“If I gave up because my journey didn’t go as planned, I would’ve given up thousands of times during my first round.”

“Not certainly in that way.”

“What?”

“You should have surrendered right away.”

“Oh?”

“Advising you to end your life when you were unaware of the concept of regression would’ve been weird, but your 1st round was terrible. You should have abandoned the path of the Hero and lived a normal life… Kya-kh?!”

“God! Don’t twitch.”

She had a misaligned 5th vertebra in her lumbar spine, disabling her from supporting her upper body.

“You’re the one who grabbed me!”

“I don’t want to leave such a good teacher with amazing logic lying on the floor.”

Teacher Morals, now seated on a chair, sweated profusely.

“The problem is that you defeated the Demon Lord by choosing the most difficult path and discarding everything you were taught. You cannot issue a diploma to a student who has 0 points. The Fantasy Institution is not a place to educate elite soldiers to defeat the Demon Lord. Here, we guide students towards the right path, working not only on their strengths but also on their personalities.”

“I remember how you ran away all the time, telling me you have a lot to do, but your stream of words can’t seem to be stopped at all today.”

“…”

“Strength and personality, huh? Strength is relative, and personality is absolute. However, when it comes to evaluations, strength is objective, and personality is subjective. You ran away every time and lost touch with your student.”

Someday I would tell others about my 1st round.

Many times, like parrots, the locals, frightened by the cruelty and strength of the Hero’s Party, said only one phrase, “Thank you so much for your help!”

And the Hero’s companions, drunk with complacency, never looked back. They were not interested in the further fate of the countries, cities, and people they supposedly saved.

They seemed to think that once they had saved them, they would forever live in bliss.

They carried such terrible ignorance and blind faith that surpassed even fanaticism.

“What the hell do you even know, student Kang Han Soo?!” Professor Moral exclaimed.

“Surprise me.”

“Ha! You said that you have too little time to save the locals yourself. However, the average student does a lot of good deeds. Defeating bandits, punishing loan sharks, preventing political marriages, eliminating slave traders, and reforming countries.”

“The bandits may have reasons why they have come to such a life, the usurers have families to feed, and a political marriage can save an entire country. Slave traders? First, you need to check the laws of each country to determine if it is a crime for them. Heroes shouldn’t even be reforming countries. Those in this profession should carefully listen to the opinions of experts and the masses, assess the situation from different points of view, and only then begin to act. They shouldn’t rush headstrong with only the power of friendship in mind.”

“…”

“…”

We looked at each other for a long time, without saying a word.

The first to open her mouth was Teacher Morals.

“I am a teacher.”

“And?”

“I always try to understand what’s on my students’ minds.”

“Go on.”

“But I can’t understand student Kang Han Soo at all.”

“Not even a little?”

“Yes. The Hero cannot provide perfect assistance to all the locals. If they do what I mentioned, the adventure will drag on so long they’ll gain no progress, rendering them unable to defeat the Demon Lord.”

“Hahaha!”

“What’s so funny?”

“I did not expect this, but you think like me.”

“I… I think like you? That is a very unpleasant remark…”

“Why unpleasant? You said it yourself just now.”

“What?”

“It’ll take too long.”

“…”

“I think you finally get it. It’ll take too long. If so, then a question arises. What is a “hero”? Are they just mercenaries who carry out orders, but for free? I remember extensively arguing against my companions about this.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I came to one conclusion. Heroes need to do what only a Hero is capable of. Defeat the Demon Lord with the support of the Hero perk, which boosts their experience gain by five-fold, allowing the Hero to gain swift victory over the Demon Lord.”

“My God…”

She was stunned, like a lamb seeing a lazy God.

“Hey, hubby.”

“What?”

Ssosia, who had previously only listened to us, suddenly intervened.

“I think you misunderstood the essence of the Hero’s 5x experience gain multiplier perk.”

“Misunderstood?”

“It wasn’t implemented for the sake of defeating the Demon Lord as quickly as possible. It didn’t even exist at all before. Back then, students had to train all day, which made most of them give up. It was designed to provide students with a sense of accomplishment while providing free time.”

“And for that, they needed a five-fold experience gain?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m shocked.”

I thought the concept was very different.

I assumed that in 10 hours of training, one could pump 100 skill mastery.

For me, Hero was a special training profession that allowed me to train for 10 hours every day to gain 500 skill mastery.

However, other heroes trained for 2 hours to gain 100 skill mastery and spent their remaining 8 hours on love and friendship with their companions.

“It looks like you finally get it. Your way of training is wrong.”

“I understand now.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“I understand the difference in our views. I don’t think my way is wrong at all.”

“You’re just as much of a mistake of our school as the First Hero. That’s why I took the risk of coming here.”

“A teacher breaking school rules?”

It was really curious.

Faculty members were bound by school rules, which prevented them from interfering with the student’s educational process.

But Teacher Morals, who entered the world of Fantasy, not only opened a grocery store but also prompted Sage to incite and concoct.

This was a clear, out-of-bounds interference.

“Don’t insult me. I have never broken school rules and didn’t break any this time either. A classroom without students is just a normal room.”

“Aha!”

It sounded like a play on words, but I understood what she meant.

The world of Fantasy collapsed whenever the Hero died, but now we had gone a year in the past where there was no hero. And the world was alright.

In other words…

“There may be more teachers across the continents of Fantasy looking for the First Angel.”

“The director?”

“Yes. While we are preparing for Mollansoft’s inspection team, teachers and school staff are trying to find her before investors come in and offer an alternative.”

“Is that so…”

They interfered with my activities.

But this was also an opportunity to deal with the faculty members who were distorting Fantasy.

Despite having two divine powers, I still couldn’t enter the teachers’ lounge.

Now, however, they voluntarily walked out of its safety and into my territory.

“Are you going to go looking for them, cowardly hubby?”

“No.”

I didn’t need to look for them. It was quite obvious where and what the teachers and staff of the school were doing.

They didn’t have many goals.

Connoisseur Shakespear.

Sword God Alex and Snow Woman.

Black Dragon Noebius.

The Sword Princess and our son Chris.

Giant King Phoenix.

Snow Queen Elsh.

Queen of Wisdom Malfaricia.

… The list was longer than I thought.

There might be others, including the overlords stationed in the Demon Lord’s Tower, but if they wanted to harm me, the ones I mentioned would attack them.

But they wouldn’t make a mess in this world.

School teachers and staff also wanted the school to prosper.

They only feared that its ownership would pass from the director to the Demon Lord.

“It is necessary to beautifully pack Teacher Morals so she can be used as a bargaining chip later. The First Hero will love this.”

“Wait a second! Student Kang Han Soo!”

FSUH!

I tore off any unnecessary clothes she had to minimize her weight, carefully tied her with red tape, then put her in the Demon Vault.

Ssosia stared at me in surprise.

“What?”

“You forgave her easily for some reason.”

“Me? When?”

“You fixed her 5th vertebra.”

“My strength is imprinted on her spine.”

She would never get back on her feet again.

“Ah…”

“Let’s finish the work we started.”

Clap!

We went down to the basement of the store where the abducted women were being held.

In films and short stories, the prisoners were beautifully packaged and awaiting rescue, but in reality, things weren’t so beautiful.

They couldn’t move because their arms and legs were tied, so their asses were stained with their own feces.

The power of thought couldn’t stop physiological processes.

Their eyelids were swollen since they had been crying nonstop, their eyes were empty, and their nails and teeth with which they tried to cut the ropes were broken and bleeding.

Some of them had even already died.

There were buckets of water and cattle feeders with food in the corner of the cellar to keep them from starving, but they didn’t seem to have been used all that much.

These girls were mentally broken. Their mind died first, followed by their body.

▶ Disappointment: This is too much… To think a senior colleague of mine, who taught morality no less, would do something like this…

‘Cheer up, Trainee Teacher!’

She committed a crime and would pay for it.

I loved evil.

When someone had a distorted sense of justice, it was hard to call it “evil.”

On the other hand, evil so obviously malevolent and vile made everything much easier since it made punishing perpetrators much freer of guilt.

▶ Hope: However, not all of my senior colleagues are like that. I want to believe in that, at least.

‘Don’t worry, Trainee Teacher with a beautiful body and soul!’

I would rip out the teachers’ spines who drove my secret friend to depression and use them as a clothesline.

But before that…

“I know you’re spying on me, my dark and demented senior. Would you talk to your junior if I put Moral’s ass on the line?”

There was no answer.

Was ass not enough? Did his consultation fee also include her breasts?

▷ Fatigue: Enough…