Monday morning.

I took Seo Ye-in with me and headed to the student cafeteria.

Hong Yeonhwa had arrived first and was waiting nearby. Ever since the start of this year, the three of us had been eating breakfast together all the time.

We’d gotten closer at the Ruby Mage Tower, and we’d ended up in the same class too.

The moment they spotted us, they came running over.

“Morning......!”

“Good morning. Let’s go in.”

“Yeah......!”

Today’s breakfast menu was a spread of little round rice balls, prepared in a variety of flavors.

Salmon, chicken mayonnaise, bacon roll, cheese.......

We # Nоvеlight # each took a few and placed them on our trays according to taste.

“........”

In the middle of that, Seo Ye-in stared at one spot as though she’d discovered something.

I followed her gaze and saw a tray full of red rice balls.

“Spicy ones.”

“Yeah.”

“You tried those before.”

“......Defeat.”

She’d once picked one up out of curiosity, taken a bite, and caused a whole disaster.

That was how I found out she absolutely could not handle spicy food.

Even so, I threw out a teasing remark.

“Want to try again?”

She shook her head quickly from side to side, then stepped away from the spicy rice balls.

Hong Yeonhwa was the complete opposite.

The moment they found the red rice balls, their eyes lit up with life, and they enthusiastically loaded them onto their plate.

I glanced at them, then turned my head—and suddenly caught sight of something suspicious.

A small tray tucked away in one corner.

On it were things even redder than the rice balls Hong Yeonhwa had just piled onto their plate.

Is that a rice ball or a lump of Hellfire?

Was food like that really supposed to exist in a student cafeteria?

While I was quietly doubting the chefs’ intentions, Hong Yeonhwa also discovered the Hellfire rice balls.

And looking delighted beyond belief, they filled their plate with even more red.

Soon, we found an empty table and sat down, popping the mini rice balls into our mouths one by one.

For fun, I tried a few of the Hellfire lumps too, and as expected, it wasn’t the kind of spiciness a normal person could endure.

Still tastes good, though.

Just as expected from food prepared at Dragonslayer Academy for Hero candidates, it had been made with real care.

Then, in the middle of that, Seo Ye-in was staring at me again, so I spoke.

“Want to try one? Half.”

“......No.”

“A quarter?”

“......No.”

“That’s unusual. You usually challenge it at least once.”

“Today, I’m a coward.”

“Got it.”

I dipped my chin as if it were nothing.

Sometimes people just had days when they didn’t feel adventurous.

I went back to moving my chopsticks when members of the Discipline Committee walked into the cafeteria.

The usual four-person group—Song Cheonhye, Jo Byeok, Geum Johan, and Lee Seulbi.

It looked like they’d just finished their morning duties.

Soon Song Cheonhye’s gaze swept across the room, and then, like a ghost, she found us immediately.

After saying something to the others by way of excuse, she came over by herself.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning.”

“It’s okay if I sit next to you, right?”

“No, it isn’t.”

I answered with a straight face, and a flustered look flickered across Song Cheonhye’s face.

But maybe she’d learned something from all her previous experiences, because she quickly regained her composure and asked,

“......That’s a joke, right?”

“It is, but why aren’t you eating with the Discipline Committee?”

“I just...... felt like this today.”

And then she awkwardly added, “I’m always with them anyway.”

I tipped my chin in a do whatever you want sort of way, and Song Cheonhye left with a pleased smile.

A moment later, she came back with mini rice balls piled on her plate.

She ate a few, then opened her mouth.

“This week’s raid battle.”

“Yeah.”

“......Have you decided who you’re going with?”

“These two, obviously.”

I pointed at Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeonhwa without even a second of hesitation.

Song Cheonhye looked a little disappointed, but carefully asked again,

“If it’s a four-person dungeon.......”

“Go Hyeonwoo.”

“And if it’s five.......”

“Han Somi.”

“.......”

“What, did you want to come with us?”

“As if.”

Song Cheonhye became thoroughly sulky.

It brought to mind a hedgehog curling itself up into a chestnut burr.

Whether she did or not, I picked up another spicy rice ball and said to Hong Yeonhwa,

“This one’s good. The more I eat it, the less spicy it feels.”

“Right......?”

Maybe because they’d gained another comrade in spicy food, they looked proud.

Next, my gaze shifted to Seo Ye-in.

The moment it did, she seemed to realize exactly what I was about to say and struck first.

“Spice weakling.”

“You’re admitting it without resistance?”

“I admit it.”

“Very good.”

I decided to let her off today.

Then I turned my head back to Song Cheonhye.

“You’re not very good with spicy food either, are you?”

“It’s not that I can’t eat it. I just don’t, because I don’t like it.”

“The more I look at you, the more it seems like you just can’t handle it.”

“There you go again. Give me one.”

As always, her boiling point was low.

Maybe it was because Seo Ye-in had just used the term spice weakling.

Either way, her spirit of challenge was admirable enough, so I picked up a Hellfire rice ball with my chopsticks and brought it to Song Cheonhye’s mouth.

“Say ahh.”

“I can eat it my—”

“Ah......?”

“You already picked it up.”

“No, still.”

“What’s the big deal? Hurry up. Ahh.”

Caught off guard, Song Cheonhye parted her lips a little.

The bright red rice ball slipped right inside.

With everyone watching, Song Cheonhye chewed for a moment, then said as if nothing was wrong,

“It’s edible. It’s not even that spicy.”

But unlike her words, her hand was already reaching quickly for her cup of juice.

I tossed out a comment.

“So the moment you reach for a drink, what does that mean? That it’s spicy, right?”

“It’s because I’m choking. It’s a rice ball.”

“For that, your speed looked awfully suspicious.”

“No, seriously. It’s not spicy at all.”

“Really? Then eat another one.”

I picked up another rice ball and offered it to her.

Song Cheonhye’s lips twitched, but in the end she reluctantly opened her mouth, and another lump of Hellfire vanished inside.

“.......”

“Wow, you really are strong with spicy food. You ate two and still haven’t taken a sip of water.”

“......!”

“That’s incredible, Song Cheonhye! Everyone, applause!”

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP,

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP,

We clapped for quite a while—not loudly enough to be disruptive, but long enough.

Because of that, Song Cheonhye missed the timing to drink her juice while glaring at us like, That’s enough already, right?

And the more the heat tormented her, the redder her face gradually became.

Then—

SNIFF.

Before she even realized it, her nose started running.

Her eyes watered too.

It was extremely difficult to preserve your pride to the very end in a situation that extreme.

Especially for a weakling.

*****

The teacher in charge of raid battles this year was Seo Cheongyong again.

Just like Lee Sudok, his contract had apparently been extended by one year. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Still, even if both had been renewed, the atmosphere was at opposite extremes.

When Lee Sudok walked into the classroom, it felt like the end of the world had come early. But in Seo Cheongyong’s case, everyone welcomed him.

Ordinary conduct really was that important.

Wearing his usual gentle smile, Seo Cheongyong continued the lesson.

“This is a topic we covered before, but do you remember? What dungeons are created for, and why they have to be as complex as mazes.”

Several students raised their hands, and one of them answered the question.

“You said it was to consume as many of the challengers’ resources as possible.”

“Very good. Then next question. The higher-rank a dungeon is, the larger and more complicated it tends to become. Why is that?”

“Well....... because the challengers are stronger?”

“That’s right.”

Seo Cheongyong gave the student a pleasant smile, then continued explaining.

“In a way, it’s obvious, isn’t it? The stronger you become, the greater the amount and quality of resources you’ll have. To consume those, the dungeon also has to prepare stronger monsters and more complicated gimmicks.”

.......

“A representative example would be [Role Assignment]. Some of you have probably experienced it before, right?”

When roles are divided, that means combat strength is divided too.

Not only does the risk of being picked off individually increase, but coordinating teamwork becomes much more difficult.

The possibility of variables cropping up rises just as much.

They had to be considered harder than dungeons where the party simply moved around as one group.

A good example was [Eclipse Land (Replica)], the dungeon we’d cleared during the D-rank promotion evaluation.

The boss was sealed at the very center, and ordinary monsters launched wave after wave of attacks from all directions to free it.

So some party members had to take on the role of protecting the boss, while the rest roamed throughout the dungeon collecting an item called luminous stones.

Then they had to throw those at the boss to weaken it. That was the basic concept.

“No matter how much I stress the importance of cooperation, it still wouldn’t be enough. Situations like that can arise anytime, even outside dungeons. So during this week, we’ll be focusing on role assignment.”

Soon the rules and environment appeared on the board.

MAP: [Random Dungeon]

RULE: [3 People+][Role Assignment]

“Just in case you’ve forgotten, I’ll say it again. Only the designated dungeons that match this week’s rules will count toward your grade. And—”

While Seo Cheongyong continued his explanation, I checked the notification message that had just arrived.

[Sub Quest: Weeks 2–3 Raid Battle] (In Progress....)

▷Objective: Clear the designated dungeon

▷Reward: Scaled based on completion rate

At present, the Top Rank students, myself included, had earned the right to enter up to D-rank dungeons.

Stat-wise, we were already well above that, so clearing them itself would be no trouble at all, but—

I’ve got an extra plus alpha on top of that.

[Would you like to use the ‘Challenge Book’?]

[Accept/Decline]

When I selected Accept, the Sub Quest updated.

[Sub Quest: Weeks 2–3 Raid Battle] (In Progress....)

▷Objective: Clear a dungeon with a capacity of 4 or more people (-/4 people)

▷Condition 1: Clear it with a party of 3 or fewer people (-/3 people)

▷Condition 2: Party composed only of mages

▷Condition 3: Clear within 10 minutes

▷Reward: Scaled based on completion rate

If you wanted to clear a four-person or six-person dungeon with only three people, each individual naturally needed to be that much more capable.

Since roles still had to be divided, there was a limit to how much one person could accomplish alone.

On top of that, the mages only restriction narrowed the options even further.

And finally—

Time attack.

To clear it within the limit, you needed not just skill, but excellent coordination between party members too.

The conditions were troublesome from every angle, but by pure coincidence, highly promising candidates were sitting immediately to my left and right.

I looked to Hong Yeonhwa first and made the offer.

“Want to go down together?”

“Gladly......!”

Recruitment success in exactly one second.

After glancing at Hong Yeonhwa, who looked like their invisible tail was wagging, I threw the same offer at Song Cheonhye.

“You want in too?”

“You said you were going with other people. You’d already planned everything out up to the five-person dungeons.”

She was still sulking because of our conversation that morning.

And after I’d fed her two Hellfire rice balls in a row, she was sulking twice as hard.

To that chestnut-burr hedgehog version of Song Cheonhye, I spoke in a rather serious tone.

“It’s not because of any personal feelings. I just listed people in the order I spend the most time with.”

“.......”

“But it’s better to build parties flexibly depending on the situation.”

“......I agree with that.”

“Especially this time, teamwork matters. And I remember working well with you. What do you think?”

At that, Song Cheonhye curled up the corners of her mouth as if she’d never been upset at all.

“We did work well together. Are the three of us going?”