In cultured literature, there are several legendary positions in which a protagonist, heroine, or other romantic interest might find themselves.

The Princess Carry.

The Lap Pillow.

The Breast Cushion.

The Accidental Panty Shot.

And so on. Most of them are depraved, and I consider it a major red flag when a person actively enjoys seeing these legendary positions in stories. The Princess Carry is relatively inoffensive when used appropriately, and the Lap Pillow can be cute, but, in general, this type of fan service damages the integrity of perfectly good stories.

This has been my opinion for long enough that it influenced the way I wrote Thaddeus as a character. It was specifically noted in his setting:

Thaddeus uses the fireman carry to move unconscious people.

It was a decision made with practicality in mind, and also because I have a personal distaste for perverts of every variety.

How fitting, then, that I would awake to find myself being fireman carried by Thaddeus.

“Ughh…” I groaned as the world bounced and swayed around me with every step he took. Bile rose in my throat and I fought against the urge to vomit.

“Oh, you’re awake?” Thaddeus said. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like a heroine who just got rescued after being tortured.”

“Nice.”

“‘Nice’?” I repeated. “What do you mean, ‘nice’?”

Thaddeus paused. “I’m going to let you down. You feel up to walking the rest of the way?”

“To where?”

With my cooperation, he carefully put me down. I took the opportunity to examine him up close.

He was just two inches taller than me, but his broad shoulders made him seem much bigger. Wearing his characteristic white t-shirt, flannel button-up, and jeans, he looked pretty much exactly the same as he did in the gym and in the classroom.

When my eyes met his sharp gaze, the corners of his lips twitched.

“Done looking?”

I shrugged. Gesturing to my own attire, I said, “Considering I’m wearing a bathrobe, I was thinking we probably stand out a lot.”

He chuckled. “Fair enough. Sorry about that, by the way. It was the only thing I had on hand.”

I scratched the back of my neck ruefully. “Honestly, I don’t remember everything that happened all that clearly. I remember the explosion, and I vaguely recall hitting the gate, but after that…”

“I healed your injuries and carried you away before anybody could ask questions,” Thaddeus said. “I figured you’d prefer it that way. If I was wrong…”

“No, you were right,” I interrupted. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

He folded his arms and I mimicked the action unconsciously.

“So, what now?”

“You remember that discussion about Master-class monsters in class?” he asked.

I nodded.

“I’m headed to Professor Lincoln’s office. It’s just around the corner, but I took it slow ‘cause I was waiting for you to wake up.”

“...”

‘Why was he waiting for me?’

Seeing my confused expression, he said, “I’ll explain everything. Since I healed you and carried you this far, will you sit in at the meeting and hear me out after?”

“...Sure.”

I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but I decided to roll with it for now. This seemed to be a change resulting from the Editor’s tampering.

Thaddeus held out his hand for a handshake. “Looking forward to working with you.”

While I wasn’t sure how this came about, becoming part of the main character’s party was one of my primary objectives. Without hesitation, I clasped his hand and shook. As I did, my eyes were drawn to my right hand.

Small reddish-purple lines spiraled away from the palm of my hand and through my wrist, stopping halfway to my elbow. The lines drew an elaborate ‘circuit’.

“A mana scar…” I muttered.

Thaddeus followed my gaze. “Sorry,” he said. “I healed everything I could, but mana scars are too hard for me right now.”

“Obviously.”

Mana scars were a reflection of damage to the internal mana circuit in the body. At the current level of magic knowledge and development on Earth, they were impossible to heal. Thaddeus and his friends would eventually discover a method to heal them in the Demon Realm, but that was still a long way off.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to cure it someday,” Thaddeus promised. “Wait until then. You’re not anywhere near the limit yet anyway, right?”

‘The limit, eh?’

Every person has a limit to their ‘vessel’. Whether that limit is due to innate talent or environmental conditions is a debate as old as magic, but that limit is lowered by the presence of mana scars. It is harder for mana to flow in a damaged mana circuit, and stressing the circuit could result in even further damage. Until I got this healed, the act of pushing my limits would threaten my life and the lives of everyone around me.

“It should be fine, for now,” I agreed.

Thaddeus nodded and smiled. “Then let’s head out.”

We made our way around the corner and reached a large, metal door. There was a little screen and a pin pad next to it. Thaddeus touched the ‘call’ button and we waited while an annoying tune played.

“Hello?” Professor Lincoln’s deep voice came through the speaker, accented by a bit of static.

“Professor, it’s Thaddeus. I’m here to discuss the matter from earlier.”

“Ah yes. Come in.”

There was a beep, followed by a click, and the door slid into the wall, revealing the office within.

Professor Lincoln’s office was a place I described several times in the original novel since Thaddeus had tons of reasons to go there. Lincoln Linker was one of the main character’s more important allies. In the words of my one and only sponsor:

ClojureGod69 - 16 months ago.

Thanks for the chapter! Man, the prof is a real bro. I can’t believe he…

Oh, I’m gonna cut off the recollection there. That was almost a major spoiler. Suffice it to say, he was a popular character with the one and only person who ever paid for my work.

His office was decently sized, with enough room to hold a large desk, four chairs, a few cabinets and bookshelves, and a stone bust of the current President of the United States.

Professor Lincoln closed his laptop as we walked in and moved it aside. Folding his fingers together under his chin and resting his elbows on his desk, he said, “I’ve been waiting for you. Take a seat.”

Thaddeus and I made our way over and pulled two chairs from the side, placing them in front of the desk before sitting down. The professor’s eyes followed me as we did this and I gave him a little half-wave.

“Before we begin, may I ask why you brought Cadet Layer along?”

Thaddeus placed a hand on my shoulder and said, “For now, I’ll say that he’s working with me.”

Prof. Lincoln nodded slowly. “If you say so. As you probably guessed, I asked you here because of your claim that you fought a Master-class monster. Can you tell me more about that experience?”

“Yessir,” Thaddeus said while retrieving his hand. “It was two years ago, just south of Westcott in the forest. I was performing a mission when a new dungeon formed at my location and drew me in. The monsters were mostly giant spiders, and the Master-class was an arachne. She was capable of speaking English and stronger than any monster I’ve faced to date.”

Prof. Lincoln frowned. “I recall reading that report, though I wasn’t aware that you were the person in question.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Thaddeus furrowed his brow. “I wasn’t aware that the empire sent reports to Horizon Academy.”

The professor dismissed his comment with a wave of his hand. “It isn’t just the Western Empire—everybody sends us reports.”

I followed the conversation half-interested, half-concerned. This was a conversation that happened between Thaddeus and Professor Lincoln at the start of his second year in the original novel. If this followed the usual flow…

“Thaddeus, to my knowledge, only a very few, select people are aware that Master-class monsters exist, aside from those who received your report. The only reason some professors know is that we all fought on the frontlines for years, and some of us have actually fought them.”

The main character narrowed his eyes. “Then why have you kept it secret?”

“Because…”

“Because we were fighting the demons, the aliens, and the treaders until recently,” I interjected. “Right?”

Prof. Lincoln studied me for a moment before answering, “More or less. There are a few other political details, but that is the essential point.”

Having received confirmation, I continued my estimation of the situation. “The monsters were a minor threat compared to the other three invaders because dungeons only result in civilian casualties when we fail to clear them, whereas the demons, the aliens, and the treaders could appear anywhere and attack at any time. I imagine the Heroes collectively agreed to set aside the Master-class monster problem until after the other issues were resolved. In reality, very few people have encountered them despite monsters having been a problem for over thirty years.”

“That is correct,” the professor said with a hint of surprise. Knowing him, it was a pleasant surprise. “You mentioned the existence of Master-class monsters in class…”

I knew he couldn’t ask the question he wanted to, so he was prodding me for information. Since I wanted him to be an ally in the future, I decided to drop a bit of bait.

“I don’t currently work for any government, nor have I in the past.”

In this universe, at least.

“Is that so…”

Nobody spoke for a few seconds, a symptom of the need to process new information and form a new direction for the conversation. It was Thaddeus who broke the silence.

“Is that all that you need from me, professor?”

“That is all for today,” he replied. “I need to confer with some people first before progressing this discussion any further. Until then, I ask you to keep quiet about Master-class monsters.”

Thaddeus and I rose to our feet and offered our hands. Prof. Lincoln mirrored our movement and shook our hands before saying, “Gentlemen, I hope to speak with you again soon.”

We both nodded before making our way out of the office. Once we were a good distance away, Thaddeus said, “So what did you think?”

I took a moment to think before replying, “He was sounding you out. Not many people are supposed to know the things we do. If we wanted to, we could cause some issues for the people in power. The general populace is ecstatic that we finally reached a peace agreement with our enemies—nobody wants to be told that the Heroes who protect us have been hiding yet another enemy from us all this time.”

“Fair enough.”

Now it was my turn to ask my question, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer. “Why did you ask me to participate in the meeting?”

He smirked. “As you may have heard, I didn’t really need to come to Horizon. I was working actively as a Hero in the Western Empire, and I was decently successful at it.”

“Right…”

“There are a few reasons that I chose to come here anyway, and one of them is the reason I asked you to sit in on the meeting.”

I resisted the urge to shout, instead clenching my fists to hide my excitement. These were exactly the words I wanted to hear from him.

“I’m looking for comrades. I need strong, resourceful, intelligent, and trustworthy people.”

Feigning indifference since I knew my excitement would bleed through and hopefully look like ‘curiosity’, I asked, “What are you trying to do?”

He turned to face me with a serious expression. “Brick, will you save the world with me?”

I folded my arms and pretended to think for a bit before answering, “If you’re talking about the monsters, then yes.”

He beamed. “Excellent.” Then he pulled out his cell phone and said, “Let’s exchange numbers. I got a glimpse at your capabilities in the training field earlier, and I think I can help you get started on the right path.”

I glanced down at my bathrobe, sliding my hands into the conspicuously empty pockets. “Sorry bro, I seem to have lost my phone…”

“Oh, right.”

He opened his storage and retrieved my phone, cadet license, and magic staff before passing them back to me.

“Thanks, man. You’re a hero.”

“Anytime.”

We exchanged numbers. Before we parted ways, I asked the final question that was dwelling on my mind.

“I have a serious question…”

“What’s that?”

I met his gaze with the deepest, most solemn expression I could muster and asked, “Why didn’t he ask why I was wearing a bathrobe?”

***

After parting ways with Thaddeus, I made my way over to the dorms. My room was still as dull and boring as usual since I hadn’t made any changes to it in the last week, except for the growing pile of unwashed cadet uniforms in the corner. Light from the midafternoon sun filtered through the dusty blinds, meaning I could sit in half-darkness and pretend like I wasn’t acting like a shut in. A row of little tree-shaped disposable air fresheners I picked up a few days ago dangled from the ceiling, desperately challenging the world for scent supremacy and losing horribly.

I leaned my magic staff against the wall next to the door and tossed the bathrobe on top of the pile of dirty cadet uniforms with a mental note to wash and return it to Thaddeus later, I changed into fresh clothes before sitting down at my desk. Leaning back in my chair for a moment, a relaxed sigh left my lips.

“What a day,” I muttered to myself.

And it wasn’t quite over yet. I still had to enroll in my courses for the upcoming semester. Straightening up, I retrieved my phone and license from the pocket of the bathrobe and collapsed onto the bed. Then I pulled up the course catalog on my phone and began scrolling.

Now that I had finished the rank examinations, I needed to enroll in my courses for the semester. Since I was enrolled in the combat course, there were certain types of classes I needed to take before the end of my time here to graduate.

I couldn’t help but sigh as I glanced at the list. I thought I was done jumping through all the hoops when I finished my Electrical Engineering degree…

“Why do I have to take Fine Arts classes to become a Hero…?!”

In the next three years, I had a total of six semesters and two summers to pass eighty credits worth of classes. Of those eighty credits, six had to be Fine Arts, four had to be Communications, four had to be Ethics, and four had to be Diversity credits.

Similarly, I had to take at least twenty-two Physical Education credits, another twenty-two had to be Magic-related, and the remaining eighteen were set aside for Electives.

In summary, my course load would be three to four classes per semester if I want to take the summers off (which I obviously do).

If that block of text was a little hard to organize, here is a numerical summary*:

Two Fine Arts classes.

One Communications class.

One Ethics class.

One Diversity class.

Six to eight Phys Ed classes.

Six to eight Magic classes.

And five to six Electives.

*These numbers are estimates based on the fact that most courses are worth three or four credits.

Since I had a pretty weird learning curve compared to the other students who have lived in this world their whole life, I decided to take a mix of easy and hard classes. This semester, I would take one Fine Arts, one Physical Education, and two Magic classes.

With the types of classes I wanted in mind, I scanned the catalog for Magic classes first:

Introduction to Magical Theory and Principles

Fundamentals of Mana Circuit Development

Magic Theory II

Introduction to Mana Conductors

Fundamentals of Mana Signal Processing

Introduction to Magic Power

Magic Circle Design

…

Divination

Fundamentals of Astromancy

Introduction to Black Magic

Ethical Necromancy

…

“Hmmm…”

The most useful classes were probably Magical Theory and Principles, Mana Circuit Development, and Magic Power…

On the other hand, Ethical Necromancy would double as a Magic credit and an Ethics credit…

I wasn’t all that interested in being a necromancer…

But what the heck, it was a two-for-one. Nobody enrolls in university to take actually useful classes.

I selected Introduction to Magic Power since I was likely to get a crash course in Mana Circuit Development from Thaddeus. For my second course, I naturally chose Ethical Necromancy for the reasons described above.

Now for the Physical Education course…

Introduction to Martial Body Conditioning

Fundamentals of Body Enhancement

Sword Technique Development

Bow Technique Development

Spear Technique Development

…

Swimming

Bowling

Golf

…

I had a lot more options here since cadets could learn to use just about any weapon in a specialized course. I hadn’t stolen any skills related to using weapons yet, though. While I could certainly put in a ton of effort and develop weapon skills in hopes of stealing a relevant weapon art in the future, the more efficient path was to train my body.

With that in mind, I chose Introduction to Martial Body Conditioning. I actually had a second reason for choosing this course:

Thaddeus was in it.

It should be beneficial to spend as much time around the main character as possible.

Finally, I had to choose my Fine Arts course:

Introduction to Visual Arts for Heroes

Basic Drawing for Heroes

Writing for Heroes

Introduction to Women's Art History

Introduction to Creative Writing

Acting for Heroes

Pottery

Digital Photography

Heroic Dancing

Dance Appreciation

Culture of Dance

…

Introduction to Film

Introduction to Heroic Music

Introduction to Jazz

History of Rock’n Roll

…

There were way too many options. I had no idea why I needed to take any of these courses when I was an engineering student, and I still had no idea why I would care as a Hero cadet.

At first glance, the obvious class for me to take might seem to be ‘Creative Writing’, but that’s where you would be wrong.

You see, I took a creative writing class for a Fine Arts credit in university, and I had a love-hate relationship with it. It was cool because I got all sorts of interesting prompts to write about.

But I am an artist. When the prompts felt constricting, it was like being choked by a boa constrictor on an airplane while sucking on ghost pepper sauce. It was awful, painful, miserable… yet I had to do it anyway because I was getting graded.

Never again.

None of the music classes interested me, nor did I care about drawing, painting, pottery, or any of that stuff.

There was one class that unexpectedly drew my eye.

Heroic Dancing.

“What in the world is Heroic Dancing?”

There was no course description for some reason, only dates and times. Since it didn’t conflict with my already selected courses, and since I needed to take one of these stupid classes anyway, I decided to go with this one.

If you need a semi-reasonable reason for why I would take that class over the others, then I’ll say this:

‘Dad always told me that learning to dance would make me more popular.’

With my selections chosen, I tapped through the menus to generate my schedule and submit my course selection.

Introduction to Magic Power (T/Th 9:40-11:10)

Ethical Necromancy (W/F 12:40-2:10)

Introduction to Martial Body Conditioning (M/T/Th/F 7:25-8:15)

Heroic Dancing (W 7:25-8:45)

It was an odd mix of classes, but at least two of them were relevant to my development as a powerful Hero in this world. Just as I was about to put my phone away, I received a text message from Thaddeus.

(Thaddeus) See you at the gym tomorrow morning!

(Me) Sure thing!

I smiled after sending my reply. My stomach grumbled and I stood up, putting my phone away before setting off for the cafeteria to find some dinner.