[The Snow Queen invites you to the world of ‘False Mirror Shard.’]

The ominous notification faded, and simultaneously, the blizzard obscuring my vision vanished.

In its place appeared a massive, beautiful ice monster.

Its thin mosquito wings looked like remarkably intricate lace, and its elongated proboscis resembled a straight icicle.

Even knowing it was a monster modeled after a mosquito, for a moment I found myself genuinely under the illusion that it truly was a ‘queen.’

‘Seeing it in person, its presence is no joke.’

Getting spooked by a mere mosquito. My small, cute pride tried to take a hit, but there was no time for that. I needed to strike before it pulled anything.

“Everyone, prepare for combat.”

“…….”

“……X-Class?”

You guys? Why no response— I thought, turning around—

“……!”

My overpowered students were nowhere to be seen; all I could see were woodlice writhing across the snowfield.

“Sob, hic, waaah……!”

“M-mom. Mom. Save me…….”

“I’m sorry, Angelina. I’m sorry.”

Damn it. They’d all lost their minds! So that False Mirror Shard whatever was a mental attack!

The reason it didn’t work on me aside, one thing was certain.

At this rate, it’s a total party wipe. I’m completely useless in combat, after all.

What do I do? In this situation, I needed someone who could still move. Someone unaffected by the monster’s mental attack. More precisely, someone who couldn’t be affected even if they tried.

First, I frantically searched through the fallen Twin-braid’s belongings. Sorry, but this is an emergency!

‘This is it.’

A Soul Stone glowing gold. Having seen one before, I recognized it immediately.

I reached out and snatched it—

“……Professor.”

Gabana, a girl with red bob-cut hair, appeared before my eyes.

A face subtly resembling Twin-braid’s. Outwardly indistinguishable from a living person, but the fact she wasn’t affected by the mental attack confirmed she was indeed a ghost.

I opened my mouth. I knew it was terribly rude to say something like this to someone I’d just met without even a proper greeting, but please, Bob Hair.

“Your specialty is electric-type magic.”

“……Yes.”

I moved my hand and pointed at one person.

The most urgent priority was waking up the one among them who could take a jolt of electricity and shrug it off.

“Give them a jolt to snap them back to their senses.”

Let me show the one still trapped in nightmares a sharp taste of reality.

It’s not quite a universal truth, but there’s at least one rule that holds in <Hero Rampage>.

‘The kinder and gentler they seem, and the frailer they appear, the more wary you should be.’

A good personality implies having the luxury of composure. And to have such luxury in this world, you first need the power to back it up.

The weak raise their hackles to assert themselves, while the strong merely smile quietly.

In that sense, who was the strongest person in the current Snow Queen subjugation party?

‘There’s a reason attack magic isn’t her specialty.’

It wasn’t simply because she was a supporter. She never needed to learn attack magic.

She could crush opponents with physical ability alone.

A being that could be called X-Class’s ultimate weapon.

“Kya, kyaak! Ayaya……. Oh my, Professor?”

The Healer, having come to her senses, looked my way with a bewildered expression.

Even if Bob Hair had held back, she still took an electric attack—wasn’t she looking far too unscathed?

“Bell Freesia. Can you dispel mental magic?”

“Ah, uh, yes! I’ll manage somehow. But my mana…….”

This time, I fished through the Protagonist’s pocket and tossed her the Magic Core that the toad had spat out.

Protagonist, you can manage fine without this, right? I taught you about self-directed whatever, didn’t I? You need to wake up first to do anything.

“And—”

Actually, Model Student and Lion were also strong, but they relied on magic.

The Healer, on the other hand, was the ‘real deal.’

Of course, she was in a position where she had to hide her true identity and power.

That’s right. The kind of character that always seems to show up in the Protagonist’s group.

“You’d best tuck away your ears and tail.”

“Huh? A-ah! Why are they……!”

The appearance of a demi-human with animal traits.

‘I believe she was a Wolf-human hybrid.’

If I could see the Healer’s status window, I’d have lost my mind envying her A-grade strength.

Wolf-humans are a race born with a silver spoon for muscles, after all.

But due to a long and complicated past, the Healer abhorred the strength and violence characteristic of Wolf-humans. That was precisely why she so obsessively appointed herself as everyone’s generous caretaker.

In other words, unless it was truly the very last of last resorts—a mutual destruction scenario—the Healer couldn’t switch positions. She was, quite literally, the real ‘final’ weapon.

‘I’d prefer to prevent things from reaching that point if possible.’

So I decided to ask the Healer only to fulfill her supporter role.

Of course, I had my own part to do.

Pretending not to notice the Healer glancing at me, seemingly wondering ‘Is the Professor alright?’

“……Hmph.”

Feigning resistance to the mental attack.

‘Chris’ was displeased. After all, a mere monster had dared to peek into her abyss!

‘This is nothing. Ultimately, it’s a monster’s cheap trick. Child’s play to one who has seen true hell.’

I tried to convince myself of that, furrowing my brow and glaring at the enemy before me.

……I could have sworn the Snow Queen flinched. My character roleplay works even on a giant mosquito? Have I finally reached some kind of realm?

Wheeee.

As if to say ‘as if,’ the Snow Queen flapped her wings and took flight, then scooped up something cocoon-like from the snowy mountains behind her.

‘That’s——!’

Definitely Real Angelina. In other words, the Snow Queen’s mana supply source.

So she hadn’t followed up with additional attacks because she was running low on mana. I thought it was just a form of villain etiquette—waiting for the Protagonist to recover.

“……I see, Professor. You made the opponent reveal its target faster than expected.”

Bob Hair whispered in a quiet voice.

No, it’s probably a side effect of the System forcibly jacking up the difficulty.

But I didn’t deny it. Because that’s ‘Chris’…….

Anyway, I needed to deal with that before she literally stuck a straw into Real Angelina.

“Bell. Are you done yet?”

“Almost everyone else is ready! B-but there’s just one person…….”

The Healer trailed off.

“Ugh, my head hurts. What’s going on?”

“Didn’t expect it to use mental magic too. Can’t let our guard down.”

“Eup, twetwe! Was I face-down in the snow this whole time?!”

Sure enough. Unlike the others who were waking up noisily all over the place, there was one still lying sprawled out without a care in the world.

“Gasp, gasp, urk…….”

Even under the Healer’s care, he was drenched in cold sweat and writhing. Clearly not an ordinary nightmare.

‘It’s only natural, I suppose. He’s the Protagonist, after all. He has the darkest, most trauma-riddled past of anyone here.’

I could roughly guess what the Protagonist was seeing right now. And the fact that if left in this state, the boss monster might be replaced by a rampaging Protagonist.

‘The guy who had a mental breakdown from hearing some parent insults from an extra is probably experiencing it all in full 4D immersion right now—no way he’s fine.’

Seriously, that Protagonist from his sunfish days. A walking time bomb.

I truly had no confidence in stopping his Rampage a second time.

So it had to be that method, after all.

“Bell Freesia.”

“Y-yes.”

“Prepare a mental link spell. I’m going in myself to bring him out.”

You know how it goes—someone in a coma, another person entering their subconscious to persuade them to return to reality. I recalled this novel having a similar magic.

“Professor……? Are you serious? If this goes wrong, you could get trapped in Michael’s mental world and never make it back!”

Oh, I didn’t realize it was dangerous enough to make even that mild-mannered Healer raise her voice like this? In the original work, the overpowered Protagonist just did it casually, so I assumed it was no big deal?

But it was too late to back out now. And if I failed to save the Protagonist, dying one way or another made little difference.

Having made my decision, I lowered my voice and looked into the Healer’s eyes.

“Then do you intend to leave him suffering?”

“But!”

“Have you forgotten? You’re all in the middle of field training. And I’m technically your professor.”

“That’s…….”

“Ultimately, the leader bears all responsibility.”

“But this situation isn’t your fault, Professor…….”

I was just throwing my weight around to get her to follow my orders, but the kind-hearted Healer seemed to interpret it differently. Seriously, this girl is so naive it’s worrying. She’d suit ‘puppy-human’ better than ‘wolf-human.’

With no other choice, I let out a sigh and delivered my next line.

“I fail to see what the problem is. You’ll be standing by anyway, won’t you?”

“Huh?”

“If anything goes wrong, you just sever the connection and pull me out.”

“Ah…….”

Truth be told, I was dumping this on the Healer because I couldn’t use magic myself.

To put it simply, it’s the difference between jumping into the sea and jumping in with a rope tied around your waist while someone else holds the other end.

“Yes, Professor! I will absolutely, no matter what it takes, make sure you come back, so please don’t worry.”