"Huff, huff... I’m—I’m exhausted. How did it even come to this?"
A few days later, Eugene’s and the servants’ predictions had not only come true but had been surpassed by a far more chaotic reality.
Yugo, his face a mask of utter fatigue, returned to his room in the Fifth Dormitory and collapsed onto his bed. Ryuga peered out the window at the gathering crowd, a wry smile touching his lips as he spoke to his partner.
"Nice work today. It looks like the crowd out there has grown even more 'enthusiastic' since yesterday."
"There are more of them every single day... Seriously, what is going on?"
Outside the window, a massive throng of female students and parents—likely high-ranking nobles—had gathered. Almost every single one of them was there for the sole purpose of speaking with Yugo. He had barely managed to fight his way through the sea of people to reach the dormitory, having spent the entire day dealing with similar mobs across the campus. Ryuga sat on his own bed and shot another wry smile at him.
"You must have expected this on some level, right? Honestly, it’s a surprise it didn't happen sooner."
"I didn't know it would be this bad! It happened so fast, I can’t even process it!"
Watching Yugo looking so thoroughly fed up, Ryuga felt a sense of relief. In a way, it was exactly the reaction he had expected from his partner. However, he also understood the mental toll it was taking. He shifted his gaze back toward the window.
"In the few days since we returned from Wind Island, news of the incident, your role in resolving it, and your victory over the mastermind, Abyss, has spread everywhere. It’s likely reached Yamato by now, too. You’re a global hero. More importantly, you’re a promising young talent who is technically still disowned by the prestigious House of Clay. There’s no way the nobility would ever pass up an opportunity like this."
"That might be true, but it’s still a nightmare. Total strangers are asking for my hand in marriage or offering to adopt me. It’s exhausting."
Just as Ryuga said, Yugo’s achievements had echoed far beyond Wind Island. Since a young Magic Knight Apprentice had resolved an unprecedented crisis on a crowded tropical island, the world’s fascination was inevitable.
While Professor Uno and the rest of the faculty were honoring Yugo’s wishes by blocking formal press inquiries, they couldn't stop the rumors. Word of Yugo’s past exploits—even those previously kept under wraps—began to circulate, and with it came a flood of people trying to claim a piece of him.
The most frequent intruders were the daughters of high-ranking noble houses. He had lost track of how many girls had cornered him, demanding he marry them so he could become the next head of their respective families.
Even students from less prestigious backgrounds were just as aggressive. Figuring the House of Clay might reinstate Yugo after his recent feats, they swarmed him in hopes of securing a wealthy marriage. In several harrowing instances, they had even tried to crawl into his bed.
Melt and her group kept a sharp watch for "bad insects," while Setsuna and the others used the weight of their own Yamato lineages to drive off rivals, claiming they had already "staked their claim." Ryuga acted as the final line of defense, keeping intruders out of their shared room. However, the adults were the real problem.
"I want you to become my family’s adopted son," or "Marry my daughter and succeed me as head of the house..." Even Setsuna, despite her pedigree, struggled to deflect powerful adults making these demands. They swarmed in numbers that rivaled his student admirers.
Some even offered to hire Ryuga and Fee as future subordinates just to sweeten the deal, a move that only served to irritate Yugo further. To him, Ryuga and Melt were his friends, not his employees. Melt dreamed of becoming a distinguished Magic Knight, and Marcos surely had his own aspirations. Binding them to him as subordinates would do nothing but stifle their dreams. Above all, he wanted Fee, who would undoubtedly walk a different path entirely, to be free to live as he chose.
"I’ve been turning them down flat this whole time. Don't you think they'd give up eventually? They're being way too persistent..."
"It just means you’re so valuable that they’re willing to go to these lengths to get you. I’m afraid this commotion is going to last for quite a while."
"Ugh... Are you serious?"
They say that if you win the lottery, relatives you’ve never met will suddenly appear. This was worse. People he had never seen or heard of were practically breaking down his door to join his family tree. Yugo let out a long, weary sigh and stared up at the ceiling.
"I always wanted to be a hero, but I never wanted... this."
Helping the weak and crushing the strong. Risking one’s life to fight for the freedom of the people and the peace of the world. He had spent his life chasing the ideals of those Sunday-morning heroes—the legends of Nichiasa. He had finally become someone the world recognized, but he hadn't asked for the fame or to be traded like a commodity.
He just wanted to be there for people. He just wanted to be a hero his brother could be proud of.
Fee certainly was proud of him now, but Yugo couldn't shake the feeling that his brother’s life was now at risk because of his own rising profile. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out the communication device Anhel had given him to check on his brother. He let out another heavy sigh, realizing that he had become a living example of that old classification.
"So that's how it is, huh? There’s the One Who Is Already a Hero, the One Who Aspires to be a Hero, and then there’s me... the One Who Has Become a Hero."