Self-Harming Heroine

Chapter 7

It might seem obvious, but there isn’t just one academy.

When you think about it, it makes sense. All minors with supernatural abilities are required to attend an academy, and there’s no way a single academy could accommodate all of them. Even though supernatural ability users are rare, they aren’t that scarce.

North, West, East, and South.

There are four academies in total, and the one Lucia attends is the Southern Academy.

It wasn’t exactly a groundbreaking setting. In Dawn’s Blade, the Southern Academy was the most important one because it was where the protagonist studied, while the other academies were mentioned only in passing. Still, there was a reason I brought up the other academies—they served as points of comparison.

Academies, with their long histories, naturally had buildings that aged and deteriorated over time. However, every facility in the Southern Academy was pristine and state-of-the-art. It was no wonder—its remodeling had only been completed last year.

Sure, academies were places where money was tossed around like confetti, so the others probably weren’t much different. Still, compared to the others, the newly designed Southern Academy boasted superior facilities. Just looking at the library was enough to prove that.

The academy’s library was an 11-story high-rise, each floor packed with shelves brimming with books. Its collection was vast—novels, essays, poetry, biographies, workbooks, encyclopedias, magazines, comic books, philosophy texts, children’s books, newspapers, and research papers. Finding something not there would probably be easier.

Everything was designed for the students’ convenience. It was part of the adults’ efforts to ensure that students faced no inconveniences while attending the academy. Maybe it was a bit excessive, but who was I to complain? As one of the beneficiaries of this convenience, I was nothing but grateful.

Actually, now that I thought about it, maybe it wasn’t so excessive after all. The academy’s students were practically child soldiers who could be sent to the battlefield at a moment’s notice. If we were going to be forced to sacrifice ourselves, the least they could do was offer us this level of comfort.

After class, I headed to the library. There was something I needed to check.

I knew a lot about this world, but all of that information came from Dawn’s Blade. Everything I knew was based on what I’d read in that novel. So, I needed to verify it. I had to cross-check how much of this world matched the novel’s setting. If this world was only similar to the novel but still different, then my knowledge would be completely useless. The last thing I wanted was to get blindsided because I trusted the novel’s setting too much.

“Huh. Doesn’t seem all that different, does it?”

After spending over two hours pacing between the bookshelves and flipping through countless books, I reached that conclusion.

First, history.

The invasion of the Beasts of the Beyond started about 300 years ago.

It was around that time that monsters began pouring out of sudden dimensional tears, known as “Rifts.”

That era was a time of chaos.

There were no systematic countermeasures in place like there are now, so several nations were wiped out during that period.

People died, and died, and died again—so much so that death became part of everyday life. It was only after this endless cycle of death that humanity barely managed to fight back.

Led by the Order, supernatural ability users united and began resisting the Beasts of the Beyond.

Humanity’s first counterattack, after being pushed back time and time again, was a success. From then on, the exhausting war between humans and monsters began.

Next, the Beasts of the Beyond.

They, too, were just as described in the “original work.”

As the term “Beyond” suggested, they were uninvited intruders from another world. Whenever a Rift appeared, they poured out in droves. Their appearances and abilities varied widely, but they all had one thing in common—an uncontrollable rage toward humanity.

They killed humans. As if that was their sole reason for existing.

But if that were all, the chaos of the past wouldn’t have been as severe. Humans have always been a species that can’t kill each other fast enough. Even back then, there were armies and established combat techniques, so why were humans so helpless against the Beasts of the Beyond?

It was because of the monsters’ fatal characteristic.

Humans couldn’t look at them. The moment they laid eyes on a Beast of the Beyond, they would collapse into seizures, foaming at the mouth. Prolonged exposure drove them insane.

It was called “Mental Corruption.”

The Beasts of the Beyond shattered human minds just by being seen. This was the fundamental reason humanity had been slaughtered so one-sidedly in the past—and why supernatural ability users were regarded as humanity’s only hope.

Supernatural ability users were immune to Mental Corruption.

They could look at the Beasts without suffering any mental damage. On top of that, they possessed powers capable of fighting the monsters. Naturally, supernatural ability users became increasingly valued, and today, they were treated like heroes destined to save the world.

And finally, supernatural ability users and the Order.

She must’ve been trying to carry all those books by herself and wiped out spectacularly. Judging by the uniform, she was a fellow academy student. It wasn’t like a supernatural ability user would have trouble lifting that many books, so she must’ve tripped or bumped into a shelf. Geez. Strength doesn’t mean you can just overexert yourself like this.

If I hadn’t seen her, I could’ve just walked away. But since I had seen her, helping was the decent thing to do.

I carefully picked up the books to keep them from getting bent and spoke to her.

“You okay?”

“Ah, ah, ah... Y-yes! Y-y-y-yes! I-I’m fine! Ah...”

The girl shot her head up and answered energetically, but then trailed off, probably realizing her voice had been way too loud.

Right, this was a library. Keeping quiet was just basic manners.

Wait a second... Haven’t I seen her before?

No—scratch that. I definitely saw her all the time. We were in the same class.

Deep navy hair, like the depths of the ocean.

Round eyes of mismatched colors.

A sharp nose and small, rosy lips.

Cheeks that looked irresistibly pinchable and an innocent, delicate expression.

“...Aris?”

“Huh? Ah, yes! Ah, ah, Aris! That’s me!”

Aris answered energetically but immediately clamped her mouth shut again. Too loud.

Her face turned red as she hurriedly picked up the scattered books. I joined in to help her, working quickly.

But... wasn’t this a bit much?

How did she even carry all these by herself?

She couldn’t have seen a thing with that stack blocking her view. No wonder she tripped—I probably would’ve fallen too.

Was Aris part of the library staff or something? I didn’t think the academy had a library club, though.

“Th-th-thank you for, um, h-helping me... L-Lucia... right?”

“Yeah, that’s me. Just call me Lucia—it’s fine. But what’s with all the books? Were you moving them somewhere? Did the librarian ask you to do this?”

“Eh? Oh, n-no. I was... b-borrowing them...”

“...All of them?”

“Y-yes... Is... i-is there a p-problem with that?”

There had to be over twenty books here. Was she really borrowing all of these?

...Well, it was Aris, so maybe it made sense.

In the “original,” she was portrayed as a massive bookworm.

Aris.

She might’ve looked fragile, but she was actually one of the elites—part of the so-called Golden Generation, like Eugene, Leo, and Arin.

Remember that girl who wiped out five golems with a beam attack during ability testing? That was Aris.

When it came to sheer firepower, she was the strongest in the academy.

And she was also the main heroine of Dawn’s Blade.