Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 44: Mission Day [I]
"Come in," Saki said, and Kōya opened the door carefully, glancing inside just to be absolutely sure before entering.
Saki was sitting professionally behind her desk wearing her usual white lab coat, and her hair was even properly combed this time.
Every trace of that undignified woman who had been flashing her breasts earlier had completely vanished.
He breathed a genuine sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him and sat down in the chair opposite her desk and they both looked at each other for a moment in silence.
"Like whatcha saw~?" she teased suddenly with a playful smile.
Kōya’s face reddened immediately.
"I’m just kidding... you should see the look on your face right now," she said, clearly amused. "Anyway, I called you here today for something important I’ve been meaning to discuss with you."
"Okay," Kōya said, recovering his composure.
He wondered why she had specifically messaged him first thing in the morning for this meeting.
"I watched the stream yesterday..." she said, leaning forward slightly.
Kōya sighed internally.
Of course everyone had watched that damned stream... he hadn’t heard the end of it all day yesterday.
But at least he’d gotten FP and money from it, and those were what actually mattered.
"You were able to deal with four Iron-class Praetorian Broodminders in less than ten minutes..." Saki continued, her tone becoming more serious and professional. "And being able to constantly activate and deactivate Mana Mode so smoothly while fighting shows incredible mana control and a lot of natural potential. So I would like to offer you personal training classes."
"Huh?" Kōya looked at her with genuine surprise.
She wanted to give him personal classes?
"As you can see, I’m a blue-liner, and I know quite a lot about advanced mana theory and combat applications," she explained earnestly. "You could learn a tremendous amount by allowing me to train you properly. The other Great Clans can come and recruit you with whatever flashy offers they want, but..."
She suddenly took both of his hands into hers across the desk, her eyes were intense.
"I’m still the better choice for your development. I don’t want you to waste any of your incredible potential, Kōya-kun, and I’ll genuinely help you become the strongest you can possibly be."
「ⓘ Sub-Heroine: Tanizaki Saki’s affection has increased to 5」
’I don’t know why, but I’m thinking this affection system is completely rigged...’ Kōya thought with internal exasperation. There was absolutely no way women just randomly gained this much affection at every single waking moment for no reason.
And what would happen the moment he actually did something they disliked... would all that carefully accumulated affection go down the drain instantly?
Saki suddenly seemed to realize that she had impulsively grabbed the hands of her own student. She pulled herself back quickly, looking slightly embarrassed.
"I apologize for my outburst just now..." she said, trying to regain her professional composure.
This was Class 5’s prodigy... someone who she could potentially use to shut up those countless arrogant noble professors who looked down on the lower classes in this damned academy. She needed to be more delicate and strategic in her approach.
"Please take as much time as you wish to think about my offer," she said more calmly. "But I would appreciate an answer by the end of today if possible. You are dismissed for now."
Kōya stood up and stepped outside, closing the door behind him carefully. It was barely early morning, and he was already mentally and emotionally drained from everything.
「Well, Host, what are you waiting for? We can use these personal classes as an excellent opportunity to strengthen the affection between you and Professor Saki, and who knows... maybe you can finally pop your cherry with a hot professor. We both know that you’re very into teacher-student scenarios~」
Kōya dragged his hand down his face in frustration.
’Why are you so disturbingly accurate about my preferences...?’ he thought with resignation. ’Well, whatever. Is there really even a need to take actual classes on mana control? Can’t I just buy a skill for that or something?’
He had plenty of FP accumulated now... why not just use it efficiently?
「And here you were complaining endlessly about the prices being too expensive... Host is such a tsundere~」
’Shut it,’ Kōya snapped mentally.
...
Kōya walked into the Class 5 classroom a while later. It was almost time for the first period to begin, and while there were still some students lingering outside in the hallways, most were already inside and seated.
However, the atmosphere of the classroom seemed to have changed quite noticeably, and he soon understood exactly why.
On one seat was Renji as usual, but the guy seemed to be grinning far too widely... like he’d just a lottery.
And on Kōya’s own assigned seat was a girl he didn’t immediately recognize.
She had a wonderful figure with long dark hair, but she was sitting in his chair without permission. He wasn’t even sure he had seen her in their class before at all.
As he walked closer to investigate, he noticed her tie color and immediately understood the situation.
She was wearing an orange tie meaning she was an upperclassman from Class 4. What was a Class 4 student doing all the way down in Class 5, especially when classes were about to start?
"I guess your friend is here now, Renji-kun," she said with a sweet smile as she stood up from Kōya’s chair then she leaned down and kissed Renji directly on the cheek before hurrying out of the classroom with a slight blush.
She passed right by Kōya, who was also blinking in complete surprise at what he’d just witnessed. Kōya stood there processing what he’d just seen. Renji had been kissed on the cheek by a girl? In public?
A strange feeling of betrayal suddenly surfaced in his chest as he looked at Renji’s extremely pleased face. The bastard seemed incredibly satisfied with himself.
Kōya walked over to Mio’s table first, deciding to handle that matter before confronting Renji. He pulled out the cleaned lunch box from his storage ring and placed it carefully on her desk.
"Thanks, the food yesterday was amazing," Kōya said with a genuine smile. "I ended up eating it in the afternoon while I was out hunting, and I’ve already washed the container thoroughly."
Mio nodded with her usual tired expression.
"I’m glad you enjoyed it," she said as she absorbed it back into her own storage ring then she brought out another identical lunch box.
"I made another lunch box for you today as well... please enjoy it when you have time."
Kōya made the critical mistake of glancing briefly at Misora across the room. She was giving him an absolutely withering glare that could have melted steel. Kōya placed a hand behind his head nervously, recognizing the danger.
"I really appreciate it, but Misora already made one for me this morning," he explained carefully.
Mio looked over at Misora with a genuinely questioning expression. Hadn’t the woman been the one who had explicitly told her to find out everything about Kōya and get close to him?
Now Misora was the one directly compromising Mio’s own assigned mission by monopolizing his meals.
"I see..." Mio said neutrally, returning the lunch box to her storage ring. "It’ll be here whenever you want it in the future..."
「ⓘ Heroine: Kamemori Mio’s affection has decreased to 10」
’She barely even liked me to begin with... what the hell,’ Kōya thought with some confusion.
With that awkward interaction concluded, Kōya finally returned to his own seat and gave Renji a pointed look.
"So what exactly did I just witness?" he asked directly.
Renji continued tapping away on his Academy phone, clearly extremely pleased with himself and whoever he was texting.
"Well, Kōya-kun, what you saw was that I, Renji the legendary womanizer, have officially gotten myself a girlfriend," he announced proudly, patting his chest.
Kōya gave him a skeptical look. He generally trusted his best friend, but Renji had never mentioned this girl before at all... not even once. It honestly sounded extremely suspicious given the timing.
"You never told me about that girl before today," Kōya pointed out. "Where exactly did she come from?"
"Well, she asked me out yesterday on the school roof, and we started going out immediately after," Renji replied while trailing off somewhat.
"Doesn’t that sound incredibly strange to you?" Kōya whispered while leaning in closer. "What if she’s actually one of the assassins who are meant to kill you...?"
Renji did have a significant target on his back after all, considering what he’d done to Shion. However, Renji immediately pushed Kōya’s face away defensively.
"Kisawa-chan would never do something like that... she’s a sweet, kind girl who pulled herself together to confess her genuine feelings to me," Renji whispered back firmly. "She’s not some killer."
Kōya shrugged while facing forward again, deciding to drop it. There was a saying that all love was blind... or alternatively, Renji was just dumb as hell.
Kōya personally leaned toward the second option.
Just then, the Academy bell sounded loudly throughout the building, and the rest of the students rushed into the classroom quickly to avoid being marked late.
It became quiet as they all mentally prayed for their homeroom teacher assignment.
They desperately wanted literally anybody except Shusuke... that history teacher would genuinely be the death of them all and then they could hear the distinctive sounds of footsteps walking down the hallway in their direction.
Someone was approaching steadily then Professor Moriyama Shusuke entered the classroom, causing immediate groans of despair all over the room.
The middle-aged professor adjusted his tie professionally and held his briefcase as he walked to the podium.
"200 IP docked from every student for that collective groan of disrespect," he said coldly.
There was a chorus of pinging sounds from everyone’s phones as their points were automatically deducted. Every single student had just lost IP for a simple sound.
Shusuke cleared his throat once more.
"Learn to be respectful to your elders and superiors..."
’Respectful my foot,’ Kōya thought with internal annoyance. The guy was just genuinely irritating and seemed to enjoy wielding his authority arbitrarily.
"Anyway, your actual homeroom teacher, Professor Tanizaki Saki, is currently occupied with administrative duties right now," Shusuke announced. "So I’ve taken it upon myself to introduce your new classmate... the last student of Class 5, making you all 26 total now."
He pointed toward the classroom door. Almost all of the male students in the class immediately pressed their hands together to pray desperately to the White King.
They were all silently begging that the new member would be a girl... the absolute last thing they needed right now was another guy in the class.
"Please step inside," Shusuke instructed.
A girl stepped through the doorway, wearing the standard Academy uniform properly. She had messy blond hair that looked slightly unkempt but cute, warm amber eyes, and walked confidently to the podium beside Shusuke.
"Introduce yourself, young lady," he said.
"Hello everyone... I’m Yui Ichinose!" she announced cheerfully. "I’m a pretty popular streamer who does brand deals and sponsorships, so if any of you want to advertise your business or products—"
Shusuke gave her an extremely withering look. She coughed awkwardly, catching herself.
"S-sorry... I just hope to get along well with everyone here," she finished more appropriately.
With that, Shusuke pointed to an empty seat near the back.
"Go sit there, next to Kamemori-san."
Yui nodded and began walking over to the seat beside Mio. The way she walked, her body proportions, everything about her presence drew the immediate attention of every boy in the class.
She was truly a goddess on the same level as Misora and Mio, even her chest was impressively sized.
Kōya half-expected Renji to drop some of his usual perverted comments about her appearance.
However, Renji didn’t give a single inappropriate remark... he had apparently really transformed into a loyal boyfriend overnight. As Ichinose walked past Kōya’s row, she suddenly noticed him and gave him a friendly wave and bright smile.
That single gesture immediately directed everyone’s attention directly to Kōya. He swore he could actually hear multiple neck bones cracking as heads turned toward him with various levels of jealousy.
Ichinose sat down next to Mio, and Shusuke continued.
"As much as I would personally enjoy teaching all of you today," he said in a tone that suggested he absolutely would not enjoy it, "I will not actually be conducting any lessons."
There was an immediate cheer from multiple students. Shusuke pointed directly at the student who had cheered loudest.
"You...I’ll be doubling your history homework assignment specifically," he said coldly. "Complete pages 8 through 12 and submit everything tomorrow morning. And the rest of you will also submit your original homework tomorrow instead of today."
"We had history homework?" Kōya blinked in surprise.
"Yeah... didn’t you remember?" Renji asked. "We were supposed to submit it today originally."
’I completely forgot about it,’ Kōya thought.
But since Shusuke was postponing the due date anyway, he could just copy the answers from Misora later tonight.
"Now, everyone open your Academy phones," Shusuke instructed. "There should be a new notification tab available."
Everyone pulled out their phones and checked and there was indeed a new feature that hadn’t been there yesterday.
"Tap on it," he said.
The students complied, and a new interface appeared on all of their screens simultaneously.
"This is a function that has been accessible exclusively to the top three classes until now..." Shusuke explained. "We’ve now made it available for the lower classes as well, starting with Class 4 and Class 5. Today, your work will not be here at the Academy... instead, you’ll be completing city missions."
’It’s happening already, huh?’ Kōya thought. ’A bit earlier than I expected, but okay.’
It was similar to what that guy had been doing on the road on the day Kōya had first reincarnated in this world while heading to the library. That Awakened had been completing an Academy mission.
Missions were usually done in groups of two or more students, and since this was the first time for Class 5, they would be paired up appropriately.
"That interface is the official Mission Board," Shusuke continued. "It will be Class 4 and Class 5 leaving the Academy premises for missions today specifically. Once you’ve selected a mission and confirmed a teammate, you are free to exit the grounds and proceed to your mission location. Only one person per team is allowed to access and submit through the Mission Board. There are numerous missions available, ranging from D-rank to E-rank, and the IP rewards for completing them successfully are quite substantial."
Shusuke stood there waiting as students began scrolling through options.
Misora, Mio, Yui, and even several other girls in the class were all mentally preparing to ask Kōya to be their teammate. This was an excellent opportunity to get close to him outside of school.
However, before any of them could even open their mouths...
"Yo, let’s be teammates," Renji said casually with a slight sigh, already assuming Kōya would agree.
"Sure, sure. What mission should we pick?" Kōya asked, showing his phone screen to Renji.
There were over 500+ missions currently available on the board.
For a city that housed millions of people, these missions seemed relatively limited in number.
Other mission tabs were already beginning to show checkmarks beside them. It seemed like other student pairs were rapidly claiming missions.
"Go for the one at the very top of the list..." Renji suggested, pointing.
Kōya tapped on it to read the details. It honestly didn’t sound particularly difficult or dangerous based on the description.
As he selected it, a confirmation form appeared where he had to input both his and Renji’s full names, student IDs, and class designation.
After filling everything out properly, he hit the submit button.
His screen changed, displaying the full mission details:
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ KEROPOLIS CITY MISSION BOARD - CLASS 4/5 ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MISSION ID: KC-2026-D-0847 │
│ RANK: D-RANK (Low Risk) │
│ CATEGORY: Investigation & Civilian Assistance │
│ POSTED BY: Keropolis Police Department │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│MISSION TITLE: │
│ Assist in Missing Persons Investigation │ ╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
MISSION BRIEF: Multiple civilians have been reported missing from the Lower Commercial District over the past two weeks. Keropolis Police Department requests Academy assistance in gathering witness statements and investigating last known locations. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
OBJECTIVES: □ Interview witnesses in designated district
□ Document last known locations of missing persons
□ Report any suspicious activity to KPD
□ Gather physical evidence if discovered
□ Submit detailed report by mission end
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL: 2 Students (Paired Assignment)
ESTIMATED DURATION: 4-6 hours
MISSION LOCATION: Lower Commercial District, Sectors 7-9
DIFFICULTY ASSESSMENT:
Combat Risk: MINIMAL
Investigation Required: MODERATE
Civilian Interaction: HIGH
Expected Threats: None (Information gathering only)
REWARDS UPON COMPLETION:
Individual Points (IP): 1,500 per studentMonetary Reward: 8,000 crowns (split between pair)Class Points: 2,500 (contributed to class total)
SPECIAL NOTES:
Students must maintain professional conduct with civiliansReport to KPD Station 7 before beginning investigation
Maintain communication via Academy phones
Return to Academy by 8:00 PM mandatory
WARNING: Do NOT engage suspects directly. Report findings to KPD immediately if criminals are located.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ASSIGNED TO:│
│Amagi Kōya (Class 5, Student ID: ALI-2026-C5-017) │
│ • Kusaba Renji (Class 5, Student ID: ALI-2026-C5-023) │
│ MISSION STATUS: ACTIVE │
│ DEPARTURE TIME: 10:00 AM │
│ MANDATORY RETURN: 8:00 PM │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ APPROVAL: Professor Tanizaki Saki - Class 5 Supervisor DISPATCH: Keropolis Academy Mission Control
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
"Their UI design is smooth as fuck," Renji commented appreciatively as he stood up from his seat. "Alright, let’s head to Station 7 and officially start this mission."
...
About two hours later at 10:10 AM, both of them were standing in a busy section of the Lower Commercial District.
There were multiple shops lining the streets... restaurants, convenience stores, small businesses and a lot of civilians moving along the roads going about their daily business.
They were no longer wearing their distinctive ALI Academy uniforms.
Instead, they’d changed into plain undercover clothes... simple black pants and white shirts that helped them blend in. The police station hadn’t wanted the citizens to become nervous about seeing obvious Academy students investigating in their neighborhood.
"Kōya-kun... we even got our own temporary police IDs," Renji said with an excited grin as he flashed the official-looking identification card.
Kōya sighed at his friend’s enthusiasm.
"Let’s just focus on the actual mission," Kōya said seriously. "We have human traffickers to find and people to save."
