The Last-Seat Hero Has Returned

75. Observation Class (1)

A few days after successfully completing the ruins exploration.

Professor Lucas addressed the cadets gathered in the lecture hall.

“As you all would have received through your Hero Watch, next week we have scheduled an observation class inviting parents.”

Parent observation class.

An annual event held around this time of year, it was one of the few occasions when the hero school, which operates on a full dormitory system and strictly prohibits the entry of outsiders including parents, opens its doors to the outside.

‘There was a lot of talk that it might be canceled due to the incident during the Sealing Festival, but it seems it’s happening after all.’

In fact, it was an event that had little to do with me, as I had no ‘parents’ to come visit.

That was only the case for special cases like mine.

For other cadets, the situation was entirely different.

“So, it’s that time of year again.”

“Ugh… I hope they don’t come this time.”

“Yeah, really.”

“I mean, we’re not 10-year-old kids, so why do we have a parent observation class?”

“Sigh. I thought it would be canceled because of the Sealing Festival incident.”

Sighs leaked out from various parts of the lecture hall.

It goes without saying, but only a very few cadets welcomed this observation class.

Most cadets, as one of them said, were wondering why they had to have such an observation class when they were not 10-year-old kids.

‘Well, this observation class also serves as a social gathering for active heroes.’

Due to the nature of stigmas, which are traits inherited from parent to child, most cadets’ parents were often active heroes.

The parent observation class was an event that provided a ‘pretext’ for active heroes, who rarely had the opportunity to gather, to come together.

‘I heard that in extreme cases, some parents come to the observation class and leave without even seeing their child’s face.’

Of course, such cases were very rare, and most parents would check if their child was behaving well and getting along, see how different the current school curriculum was from their time (over 80% of parents were graduates of the hero school), and then meet other parents.

No matter how much the cadets were classified as adults by continental law, in the eyes of their parents, they were still seen as no different from 10-year-old kids.

“This year’s observation class will be prepared more thoroughly under the special instructions of Principal Lionel.”

“Ugh!”

“Oh, please.”

“I’m already busy enough with assignments, what preparation now….”

Once again, sighs erupted from here and there.

Professor Lucas looked around at the candidates and let out a short sigh.

“Considering the incident that happened recently, everyone should understand.”

The beast rampage incident that occurred during the sealing ceremony.

Because of that incident, the school needs to show the parents, ‘Our school is this safe!’

“Alright then. You all know what’s most important in this ‘preparation’ since you did it last year and the year before, right?”

“…….”

“Is there no one who can answer?”

Silence followed.

Professor Lucas, who had been looking around at the candidates with intense eyes, turned his gaze towards me.

“Then, Candidate Dale….”

“Damn it! Fine, I’ll answer!”

At that moment, Albert stood up abruptly.

Albert looked at Professor Lucas and clenched his fists, trembling.

“You were going to call me again anyway, weren’t you?”

“No. I thought it seemed like I always called Candidate Albert, so today I was going to call Candidate Dale….”

“What? R-Really?”

“Since you’re already up, go ahead and answer, Candidate Albert.”

“Damn it!”

Bang.

Albert slammed the desk and screamed.

I looked at Albert’s back and smiled brightly.

‘Thank you, Albert.’

Because of you.

I exist.

“Alright, go ahead and answer. What’s the most important thing in our preparation for the observation class?”

“That is….”

Albert, deep in thought, took out a small notebook from his pocket.

Inside the notebook was a faded photograph.

The photograph showed a young Albert and his parents smiling brightly.

“I believe this is the ‘smile’ of our cadets.”

“Oh.”

“Why do you think parents from the Empire, the Holy Kingdom, and the Republic travel such long distances to come to the Hero School? Isn’t it because they want to see with their own eyes how well their children are doing, and to make sure they are not in pain?”

“Go on.”

“In other words, the smile that reassures such parents that we are doing well! And to ensure that we can smile like that, we should not give cadets excessive assignments during this period! I believe that is the most important factor we need to prepare for the observation class!”

Albert, with a clenched fist and eyes full of strong conviction, shouted.

Professor Lucas, with his arms crossed, nodded as if he had answered.

“Hmm. Indeed… To reduce assignments for the sake of smiles, huh… There was such a method.”

“Then!”

“But.”

Professor Lucas shook his head slightly.

“Cadet Albert. You are making a very big mistake.”

“…A mistake?”

Professor Lucas put his arm around Albert’s neck and raised the corners of his mouth.

“A smile is not something that can only be made when you are happy and joyful.”

“Yes?”

“Let me give you an example. Cadet Albert. Try smiling now.”

“Even if you suddenly ask me to smile….”

With his arm around Albert’s neck, Professor Lucas clenched his fist, the size of a head, and shook it in front of Albert’s eyes.

“Smile.”

“Hahahahahaha!!! Oh, come on! Why are you doing this, Professor!!! Hahahaha!”

“How is it, are you happy now, Cadet Albert?”

“Hahaha! I am so~ happy, Professor!”

“Are you happy?”

“Of course! Hahahaha!”

“Yes, yes. As expected, it’s you.”

Professor Lucas, with a satisfied smile, lowered his fist.

With a face pale as a ghost, Cadet Albert burst into uproarious laughter, gasping for breath as he escaped from Professor Lucas’s embrace.

“As you all saw, people don’t have to be joyful and happy to laugh.”

Even when in pain and hardship, people can laugh.

So then.

“What we need to prepare is not something like a smile.”

The most necessary thing to prepare for the parent observation class.

From noble mtl dot com

That is….

“Cleaning.”

“…….”

“A perfect cleaning, so spotless that you could lick the floor with your tongue. That’s what you need to prepare.”

Professor Lucas raised the corners of his mouth in a grin and placed the cleaning tools he had prepared in advance on the podium.

“Today, we will start with a full water cleaning of the lecture hall.”

“…Ah.”

The sighs that escaped from the cadets’ mouths.

Imagining endless cleaning within the school until the parent observation class was dizzying despair that clouded their vision.

“Professor Lucas.”

In the midst of those despairing sighs, I confidently raised my hand.

“What is it?”

“You said cleaning is necessary to prepare for the parent observation class, but shouldn’t those of us who don’t have ‘parents’ coming be exempt?”

“Oh.”

“I have lived without knowing my parents’ names. Telling someone like me, who grew up lonely in an orphanage, to clean to impress parents! This is a form of violence!!!”

“Huh. I see. I failed to consider Cadet Dale’s aching heart….”

Professor Lucas let out a low sigh, unable to continue speaking.

I stood up abruptly and appealed to Professor Lucas.

“Then please exempt me from cleaning….”

“It can’t be helped. This time, I will have to become Cadet Dale’s parent.”

“What?”

What are you talking about?

“Though I am still a bachelor who hasn’t even married! To comfort a wounded student’s heart, what wouldn’t I do!”

“No.”

“Well, from now on, you can call me father. Candidate Dale.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Even if you don’t want to, you still have to clean.”

“Damn it.”

Despite my desperate resistance, in the end, all the candidates, without exception, were mobilized for school cleaning.

‘Even if you know the future, there are things you can’t change.’

In the face of the unstoppable flow of a great destiny, I felt a deep sense of helplessness as I cleaned the hallway with the mop in my hand.

As I was continuing to clean.

“Hmm?”

I saw Yuren staring blankly out the window in the distance.

“Are you slacking off?”

“Huh…? Da, Dale?”

When I quickly approached and spoke, Yuren looked startled.

“Why are you so surprised? Are you afraid I’ll tattle to the professor?”

“N, no. It’s not that…”

Yuren scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

“I was just… thinking about something else.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Judging by the bitter expression and the way he avoided my gaze, it didn’t seem like ‘nothing.’

‘Well, if he doesn’t want to talk about it, there’s no need to pry.’

Everyone has at least one or two worries.

‘If it’s Yuren, he’ll handle it well on his own.’

Isn’t Yuren the hero who fought fearlessly against that ‘demon’ until the end?

If it’s the Yuren I know.

If it’s the sun I’ve seen.

He’ll handle a couple of trivial worries without any problem, even without my intervention.

“By the way, your parents are coming to the class this time, right?”

“…Me?”

“Yeah. You have your mother, don’t you?”

Come to think of it, I knew almost nothing about Yuren’s mother.

By the time I finished my mercenary life and teamed up with Yuren, she had already passed away, and Yuren himself rarely talked about his family.

“Oh… if it’s about my mother, she won’t come. She’s always so busy.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She didn’t come last year or the year before either.”

“Hehe. So she’s just like me then?”

In my case, I don’t have any parents who would come looking for me.

Anyway.

“Then, should we just hide somewhere and train that day? We can’t participate in the observation class if our parents don’t come anyway.”

“Oh? R-really? Should we?”

Yuren nodded with a bright expression.

While we were deciding on the time and place to meet during the observation class.

-Ding.

A clear chime rang from Yuren’s Hero Watch.

“Oh? Wait a minute. It looks like I got a message.”

Yuren turned on the Hero Watch and checked the message.

With each line he read, Yuren’s face, which had been shining brightly, began to darken rapidly.

“What does it say?”

“Uh, my mother…”

Yuren continued in a trembling voice.

“My mother… is coming to school.”

On Yuren’s face, there was an expression I had never seen before.

Yes.

An expression I had never seen in the ten years I had spent with Yuren.

An expression he hadn’t shown even in the face of the demon.

“……”

Yuren was now, terrified.