Chapter 61: New Program 2

Julian’s philosophy on growing stronger had always been simple. He’d never do anything that put himself in real danger, like diving straight into a battlefield without any confidence he could actually win.

He’d rather play the coward, build up his strength quietly, and only step onto the battlefield once he actually had the odds in his favor.

Same principle applied here. Julian couldn’t help but think about just how terrifying the Academy staff’s intentions toward their own students actually were.

The students had been coddled for far too long. Sure, their skills had progressed, but only ever within that narrow scope. They barely had enough real combat experience to help them avoid life-or-death situations. And if a situation like that did happen anyway, at the very least, they needed to know how to walk out of it alive.

So, if Julian had to design a program, he’d choose something rooted firmly in his own cowardly way of thinking.

Face weak Invaders first, build up experience and combat instinct, and keep doing that until your Rank progress climbs high enough.

As for life-or-death experience?

That wasn’t something the Academy needed to manufacture at all. Once students chose to become Hunters, they needed to be prepared for the very real possibility of death.

The core point was, genuine life-or-death combat would come on its own eventually. Whether a student could survive it or not depended entirely on them, and there was really only one thing the Academy needed to focus on.

Help them grow strong enough that they’d never need to face that kind of life-or-death situation in the first place.

Or, teach them how to run from a fight they genuinely couldn’t win.

Julian, of course, never once used words like "coward" or anything that sounded remotely demeaning. He simply worded it carefully, trying to make it sound convincing, that what he was suggesting wasn’t something negative at all.

Feeling their eyes on him, Julian let out a small sigh and added:

"Running away doesn’t mean losing, because students can still grow and return to fight another day, and win. But once they’re dead? Everything becomes meaningless. At that point, running is the only correct choice left."

A wise line, right?

Julian nodded firmly to himself internally, that had actually been a quote from a character he’d once played in a film.

So, saying it out loud here again gave him a genuine flicker of nostalgia.

And just like during a script read-through, as Julian lifted his head and looked at the academy staff and senior officials, all of them stared back at him in silence, though visibly stunned.

’Yeah, this feels exactly the same.’

It felt like everything was overlapping.

***

’That... actually makes sense.’

Adelle couldn’t understand it, why hadn’t she ever thought of the exact same thing before?

No, it wasn’t that she’d never considered it, it was just that the pressure coming at her from every direction had clouded her own judgment.

She’d tried designing a program to make students grow strong quickly, but had never truly considered how they could actually get through that process properly.

Because forcing students directly into life-or-death combat could easily lead to something genuinely catastrophic, breaking their mental state entirely.

Adelle realized this the moment Julian laid out his suggestion. It also brought back memories of a few cases she’d heard about at the elite academies.

Academies where student deaths sometimes occurred, where students suffered severe psychological trauma and all sorts of other things that had quietly been buried and closed off.

The elite academies ran incredibly strict training regimens, while here in Canelo, the training had essentially become garbage, coddling its students at every turn.

So, Adelle realized she shouldn’t be focused on how to force rapid growth onto her students, but should instead start with something far simpler, gently encouraging gradual growth instead.

Just as Julian had said, simply help them become strong enough that the odds of them ever getting trapped in a life-or-death fight shrank as small as possible.

The core of the program Julian had proposed, Adelle grasped it perfectly.

And that was, ’Build up the students’ abilities until they’re capable of managing risk on their own.’

As Adelle sank deeper into thought, the other staff members began speaking up again.

"Oh... this actually sounds new, and genuinely good?"

"You’re right. If we implement this program, couldn’t we finally address the problem we’ve been dealing with lately?"

"Exactly. The issue of Hunter deaths climbing steadily, while only a handful actually grow stronger, right?"

"Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. Besides, isn’t this program genuinely unique?" the man stroked his beard, speaking with obvious satisfaction. "Canelo won’t be producing students who grow strong fast, but we’ll be producing students who keep coming back alive from the battlefield, no matter how brutal it gets. This sounds far more promising."

Even without Adelle needing to say a word in support of Julian’s decision, everyone else already seemed thoroughly convinced, starting to praise just how brilliant the idea was.

Of course, Julian himself couldn’t help but find their reaction genuinely bizarre, utterly failing to understand their reasoning. I mean, how could he possibly make sense of it?

’...They actually agree with that cowardly program?’

Julian could only sit there in silence. Since they’d already agreed, let this meeting end already, please!

The world needed some justice!

Meanwhile, on the completely opposite side of things, right there with Adelle, the woman simply couldn’t stop admiring Julian, even starting to feel a certain something she couldn’t quite put into words.

It was a strangely complicated feeling, something that could genuinely be called territory Adelle had never once explored in her entire life.

So, she simply brushed it aside, chalking it up to just how deep and vast her admiration for Julian had grown.

After that, the rest of the discussion flowed smoothly, and after a grueling twenty more minutes, Julian was finally, blessedly free.

His whole body ached with stiffness. Sure, he might’ve become a Hunter by now, but that hadn’t reached the level where he could sit through several days without exhaustion catching up to him.

He left the meeting room immediately, exiting the building, greeted right away by a cool, gentle breeze sweeping through, tossing his hair wildly. Sunlight painted the sky a beautiful golden hue, birds singing overhead.

Julian savored every bit of that peace, drinking in the nature he’d been missing so dearly these past few days.

"I’m free..."

He genuinely, truly felt free.