Today marked our first official day at Vanguard Academy.

  We navigated the massive hallways toward our assigned classroom. Looking around, the wide corridors were packed with students happily chatting with one another. The air practically hummed with the vibrant, eager energy typical of incoming freshmen.

  "Hehe, looks like we're stuck in the same class again," Lily Pierce chirped brightly as we strolled down the hall. "I can't even remember how many years we've been classmates. Ugh, I'm so sick of seeing your face~."

  Humming a cheerful melody, she gave me a playful jab in the ribs. Despite her sarcastic words, she was clearly thrilled that we'd been placed together.

  Now that I thought about it, thanks to the whole "childhood friend" trope built into her lore, Lily and I had shared a classroom nearly every year since elementary school.

  "This campus is ridiculously huge compared to our middle school, right? We even took the campus shuttle, and we still have to walk this far? I swear I almost got completely lost during the convocation!"

  "Vanguard Academy's total land area is actually slightly bigger than Central Park."

  "Whoa, really? I guess that makes sense since it's the top hero academy in the nation."

  Based on the game's lore, Vanguard was a globally renowned institution. It housed artificial dungeons, sprawling combat arenas, tactical simulation centers, elite gyms, a dedicated security bureau, artifact research labs, magical guilds, top-tier hospitals, historical museums, faculty apartments, and massive student dormitories. The sheer volume of facilities and cutting-edge equipment was mind-boggling. The permanent population residing on campus was basically equivalent to a small city.

  "Ah, here it is. Class 1-1."

  After several more minutes of walking, we finally reached our destination. I mentally took a deep breath, my heart pounding against my ribs for a multitude of reasons.

  Class 1-1 at Vanguard Academy was far from average. This was the exact class that grouped Lily, myself, and the main male capture targets together. You could essentially call Class 1-1 the primary stage of Heroic Hearts Academy. Just opening this door meant diving headfirst into the core of the game's plot.

  "Ah, hold on a sec," Lily suddenly stammered, a faint pink dusting her cheeks.

  "Hm? What's wrong?"

  "I, uh, need to hit the restroom real quick..."

  "Right now? Are you getting stage fright or something?"

  "I am not nervous! Just... anyway, you go on inside first, Oliver."

  "Are you sure you won't get lost on your own? Your sense of direction is terrible."

  "It is not~!"

  Offended by my jab at her navigational skills, Lily puffed out her cheeks in a deep pout. Seriously, what was with that reaction? Was she deliberately trying to act cute?

  ...Well, she was undeniably cute.

  "Remember when we were kids, and you went to run an errand but got so lost I had to track you down while you were bawling—"

  "Gah! Stop!" she yelped, frantically cutting off my recounting of her embarrassing childhood trauma. "Anyway! I'll be right back, so make sure you save a seat for me, okay?"

  "Yeah, yeah. Got it."

  Shooting me one last piercing glare, Lily spun on her heel and marched down the hall toward the restrooms with an exaggerated, haughty stride. I watched her retreat, realizing her little outburst had actually managed to calm my nerves.

  Phew... thank God for that.

  Alright, time to go in.

  Gulping down the lump in my throat, I grasped the handle. As I slowly pushed the door open, the interior of the classroom came into view. It was immaculately clean and incredibly spacious, featuring a tiered, semi-circular layout that looked more like a premium university lecture hall than a high school classroom. I had only ever seen this room through a screen, but seeing the high-quality facilities in person was breathtaking.

  Now, let's take a look...

  The room was buzzing with loud chatter. Students were already clustered together in small groups, talking animatedly. Since many cadets had graduated from the same middle schools, familiar cliques had naturally formed. Old friends were laughing and catching up, while others awkwardly but earnestly tried to break the ice with new people.

  But amid the chaos... one particular crowd stood out glaringly.

  A massive ring of boys and girls had formed around a single male student who radiated an icy, unapproachable aura. I shifted my gaze toward him. His dark hair held a subtle, frosty blue tint, and his eyes carried an air of elegant melancholy. He looked like a masterpiece, as if a master sculptor had painstakingly chiseled every flawless angle of his face. His sheer attractiveness demanded absolute awe.

  That's Julian Vance.

  The golden heir to the Vance Conglomerate, Julian Vance. Seeing him up close, his looks were even more ridiculous. He had the face, the talent, and the elite pedigree... It was no mystery why he had an army of fangirls. Honestly, it made me a little jealous.

  "Julian, did you catch the gala hosted by Apex Corporation the other night? I'm Hannah Bennett, by the way, and my father is..."

  "Is it true you're close friends with Valerie Cross, the protégé of the Grand Swordmaster?"

  "Congrats on taking the valedictorian spot, Julian. You're seriously on another level!"

  Was this simply the reality of being the heir to one of the nation's wealthiest mega-corporations? A swarm of students practically groveled at his feet, desperately wagging their tails for his attention. Watching these teenagers shamelessly suck up for a crumb of his favor made me let out a tired sigh. They were so young, yet already such skilled sycophants.

  "Yes, Hannah. I hope your father is doing well?"

  "Oh! Yes! You should totally come over for dinner sometime..."

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  Julian handled the suffocating crowd with an effortless grace, clearly accustomed to being the center of the universe. The girls around him erupted into a fit of giggles just from a brief nod or a microscopic smirk.

  I observed Julian for another second before tearing my eyes away. He wasn't the only critical capture target in this room. There was another central male lead I needed to check on: Damian Steele.

  "Yaaaawn."

  "Um, excuse me, Damian?"

  "What?"

  Slouched in the very back corner of the classroom was the crimson-haired Damian Steele. He had his chair tilted back, his boots kicked up onto his desk, and looked ready to fall asleep. With his tie hanging loose and his collar unbuttoned, he gave off the exact vibe of a lazy street punk.

  "I'm... Chloe Hayes, and I was wondering..."

  "Hey."

  Annoyed by the brunette girl trying to make conversation, Damian cut her off with a vicious scowl. Completely accurate to his in-game persona, he despised anyone who interrupted his sleep, and he didn't care if they were a guy or a girl.

  "What the hell do you want? You're being loud. Get lost."

  "Ah, right. I'm so sorry."

  Flinching at Damian's sheer hostility, the girl broke out in a nervous sweat and frantically bowed in apology. Damian just scoffed in annoyance and immediately closed his eyes again.

  "You idiot. I told you not to poke the bear," her friend whispered, patting Chloe's shoulder consolingly.

  "I know..." Chloe murmured, before a dopey smile spread across her flushed face. "But still... I'm just happy he actually looked at me... Hehe."

  Even after being verbally swatted away, she was giggling and blushing. I stared at her in sheer bewilderment. Are you kidding me? Is that the kind of free pass you get just for being hot? Damn it all.

  Man, Damian Steele... he's just as aggressively feral as he was in the game.

  I guess that's what you'd expect from the descendant of the nation's greatest hero. He was cocky, entirely self-absorbed, and exceptionally volatile. While a portion of the fanbase hated his thuggish attitude, he still maintained sky-high popularity because of his secret "soft spot" for the girl he fell in love with. Classic tsundere bad-boy trope.

  "...Zzz."

  Damian was already dead to the world. Unlike Julian, he didn't have a massive crowd hovering around his desk. People kept their distance, opting to steal nervous, admiring glances from afar.

  Makes sense. His family is genuinely terrifying.

  The Steele Clan was forged by a legendary hero, sure, but its origins were soaked in blood. The clan was built by violently subjugating rogue ability users who were basically supervillains. Even though they operated legally these days, they retained a brutal, militaristic hierarchy that made them much more intimidating than other hero families.

  Julian Vance and Damian Steele... Well, I just hope they hit it off with Lily.

  Securing those two as her primary allies would be a massive advantage. Their combat potential was off the charts, and their political backing was airtight. Having a mega-corporation and the nation's most lethal clan in her corner would guarantee her safety.

  "Oh? Oliver~ Hey there."

  Suddenly, a guy slapped a heavy hand on my shoulder and sidled up next to me.

  "Man, I saw the class rosters yesterday, but it's still wild seeing you here. You actually scraped your way into Vanguard." He laughed, throwing an overly familiar arm around my neck. "Your combat scores were pretty trash, right?"

  The guy sporting the buzzcut and the overly inflated muscles was Tyler Evans.

  "But hey, what can you do? Vanguard isn't the kind of place where you can just skate by on good test scores. You're gonna get eaten alive here, huh, Oliver?"

  Regrettably, I knew him; we had gone to the same middle school. Tyler was your textbook opportunistic hyena. He thrived on stepping on people he deemed weaker to artificially inflate his own ego. Kissing up to the strong while punching down at the weak was practically encoded in his DNA.

  If I hadn't just dumped Lily, this meathead would've been the very first guy to jump on Julian or Damian's bandwagon and bully me out of sheer spite.

  It was a massive relief that I had severed that fake romantic tie before Academy life even began.

  "Ain't that right?"

  "Yeah, whatever. Get off me." I forcefully shrugged his heavy arm off my shoulders. Seriously, why do guys like him always have to be so physically clingy?

  "So, you and Lily still going strong?" Tyler asked, a slimy smirk on his face.

  "That's really none of your business, is it?"

  Of course, he brought her up. Tyler had always been weirdly obsessed with the fact that Lily and I were together. He was constantly muttering about how we were a mismatch, wondering what she saw in me, completely consumed by jealousy.

  "Damn, don't be so defensive. I'm just curious, man. How long are you and Lily gonna keep playing house—"

  "Playing what?"

  Suddenly, a sharp, familiar voice sliced through the air from behind us.

  "Oh, Lily. Hey."

  "Hey."

  Lily had returned from the restroom and was standing right behind us.

  "Why is my name in your mouth, Tyler?" she asked coldly.

  "Uh, well, just..." Tyler stammered, suddenly looking like a deer in headlights. It seemed he didn't have the spine to question her dating choices directly to her face.

  Seeing the perfect opening, I decided to drop the bomb.

  "He was just asking if we were still dating," I supplied casually.

  "Excuse me?" Lily's brow furrowed in irritation, and she shot Tyler a withering glare. "Why do you care about my personal life?"

  "Oh, no reason, just curious," Tyler laughed nervously, shrinking under Lily's icy stare.

  "You're awfully invested in other people's business for the first day of school..."

  "We broke up," I interjected smoothly.

  "Huh?"

  "I mean, we decided it was better to just go back to being friends."

  By cutting Lily off and publicly broadcasting our breakup, I left Tyler blinking in sheer disbelief. He clearly hadn't anticipated that answer in a million years.

  "Oh. Wow. I see. My bad for bringing it up then," he said, barely masking his excitement.

  "Don't sweat it. It wasn't a messy breakup or anything," I smirked, shrugging effortlessly. "We've been friends since we were little, and after 'dating' for so long, the romantic spark just kind of faded out. Right, Lily?"

  "Ah... yeah. Exactly," she replied.

  She frowned slightly, twirling a strand of dark hair around her finger. She looked a little annoyed. Was she upset that I announced our split on day one? Well, from her perspective, I suppose it made sense. Our fake relationship had been the ultimate bug-repellent against annoying guys, and I had just stripped that shield away.

  "I don't see why we had to announce it the second we got to school. Now people are just going to gossip," she muttered.

  "It's better to rip the band-aid off and clear the air right away," I countered.

  Because there was a very specific reason I had to be loud about it. A certain someone was currently standing nearby, their ears practically swiveling like radar dishes to eavesdrop on our conversation. I needed to broadcast loud and clear that Lily and I were no longer romantically involved.

  "Makes sense, right?"

  "Whatever. Do what you want," she sighed indifferently.

  Yet, just beyond Lily's shoulder, a male student was staring holes into us from across the room. Despite the massive throng of admirers surrounding him, his piercing gaze was locked entirely onto Lily and me.

  It was Julian Vance.

  "..."

  "Julian? Is everything okay?" a girl beside him asked, following his intense line of sight. She clearly noticed that his attention had wandered.

  "It's nothing. Just looking around," he replied smoothly. Yet, even as he answered her, his eyes kept darting back in our direction.

  Of course he was watching us. The sudden news of our breakup was bound to grab his full attention.

  Finding out that Lily and I are done on the very first day... This gives him the perfect opening to make his move.

  After all, the three of us had gone to the same middle school. While we never really interacted back then, my meta-knowledge of his character profile confirmed that he had harbored a massive, secret crush on Lily for years.

  It must have been agonizing for him to keep his distance while I was officially playing the role of her boyfriend. But I was out of the picture now. The coast was totally clear.

  Isn't that right, Julian?