Chapter 117: Blind Shoot

Three days passed.

Julian went back to living his usual life. He still always woke up in the morning, enjoyed his life, watched the news. It was just that, unlike before, the time he set aside for that became less frequent.

Taking advantage of the fact that he had a talent giving him quick understanding, Julian started spending more of his time studying instead.

But, compared to that, Julian’s biggest change lay in one situation that was starting to confuse him.

“…”

Julian kept being haunted by the dangerous matter Killac had told him about. Under normal circumstances, Julian would feel terrified.

Fine, Julian was still afraid, it was just that he didn’t feel it as badly as before.

Why was that?

‘After that endless string of terror, I suppose it’s natural I’d develop some immunity, even if slowly.’

As a coward, Julian understood it well. The fear he felt had to be so immense that even a coward like him could gradually start getting used to it.

Regardless, this was good news received just as well.

Besides that, there was still more good news.

After some time had passed, a new program that had been planned would soon be implemented by Canelo Academy.

That meant, Canelo Academy students would soon gain experience fighting directly and gain progress for their ranks.

Along with that, the same applied to Kina, who was at the Elite Academy. According to information, they would soon head into direct combat to boost their progress.

With all that, Julian couldn’t hold himself back from feeling somewhat excited.

These past three days, Julian hadn’t made too much progress. At most, he’d only tried digesting some information and trying to gather more information too.

With these two pieces of good news, his growth would once again increase tremendously. And, the stronger Julian became, the easier it would be to handle whatever problems came in the future.

Julian also now had access to enter the elite region whenever he wished. He could even choose to live there if he wanted, it’s just that Julian chose to stay in the Central region and keep Ilunia company.

It was hard not to feel anxious even though the girl had foresight of the future, so compared to Kina, who was watched over by the great Zoldia family, Julian actually worried more about Ilunia, who always played around with her prophecies.

In the end, it was Julian’s responsibility to take care of the blind girl.

So, that’s what Julian did.

He’d been wandering around the Academy for quite a while just to find Ilunia. But, it took quite some time to find her, and even then, it happened thanks to several students helping Julian track down Ilunia’s trail.

The girl, it turned out, was more often found at a small garden located across from the academy, specifically across from the cafeteria. There, students usually gathered, but the place would be quiet in the afternoon hours.

“Ilunia, what are you doing here?”

Ilunia was seen sitting on a bench with a book that looked unusual. Julian only glanced at it briefly, then looked back at Ilunia, who looked up, somewhat startled.

“….Master?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Ah.”

The girl looked somewhat startled, she stroked the book in her hands, then smiled sweetly.

“I’m studying a skill book.”

“…Don’t you need a special device to study it?”

Ilunia didn’t need a skill book herself. The girl used a device specially designed to read that skill book aloud.

So, seeing Ilunia not using any special device and simply touching the book made Julian a bit confused.

However, Ilunia’s expression in response didn’t change at all. The girl remained confident and simply smiled as she answered.

“Well, hehe, this is a book I got from Aclyris.”

“…When?”

Julian tried to recall, but he couldn’t remember when Ilunia had traded for an item other than information during her meeting with Aclyris.

There was no way Ilunia secretly met Aclyris without Julian’s knowledge, right?

But, that wasn’t something Ilunia could do. Oh, unless it involved someone she referred to other than her own acquaintance, then that might be possible.

Like… Ilunia stayed at the academy, while her acquaintance was the one who went to Aclyris to get the book for her.

But still, that didn’t answer Julian’s initial question about why Ilunia wasn’t using a special device designed for her?

Ilunia’s next answer surprised him a bit.

“This is a skill book that came from Aclyris. Unlike regular skill books that need to be read, this skill book actually implants every sentence directly into the reader’s brain.”

Ilunia let out a small sigh and continued, “Still, understanding it is difficult because Aclyris isn’t fluent in the human language.”

‘Is that even the important point here?’

Julian couldn’t help being startled. He ignored Ilunia’s last sentence and focused on the first point.

Had Ilunia just stated that the skill book given by Aclyris could really be used like that?

However, it seemed, just because every sentence was injected directly into the brain, Ilunia still had to study it like normal.

‘Is the visual like having every page of that book inside your brain and then reading it all at once while studying it?’

That seemed to be the case.

Julian blinked.

“So, what skill book is that?”

“That… is an E-Grade skill book.”

Based on what Ilunia said, the skill book she was currently studying related to her wish to use a bow as her primary weapon.

Because of that, since Ilunia was blind, she actually needed a great many skills capable of giving her plenty of assistance for determining a target’s location, calculating, and similar things before drawing her bowstring.

And, what Ilunia wanted couldn’t be found in the academy’s archive or anything humanity currently possessed. That was why Aclyris played a crucial role in Ilunia’s development, because that creature had the skill Ilunia desperately needed.

It was Blind Shoot.

That didn’t mean it allowed Ilunia to shoot and automatically target someone without seeing. But, more precisely, this was a Skill that gave Ilunia an extremely high shooting instinct.

The less visual information available, the sharper the user’s instinct in determining the direction of their shot.

With that skill, combined with her hearing skill and the skill that could tell her a step of good fortune, Ilunia would practically have a chance to shoot and kill her opponent.

At the same time, that Skill was genuinely only useful for someone like Ilunia, who lacked the ability to see, allowing her to maximize that skill’s potential.

So, for someone with normal vision like Julian, that skill might be useful, but it wouldn’t be nearly as effective as it was for Ilunia using it.

‘That’s a great skill.’

Ilunia had gotten exactly what she needed, perfectly on target. With that, Julian could ease something that had been making him worry a great deal about the girl.

‘I was a bit worried when she chose a bow, but that worry turned out to be unnecessary.’

Julian let out a small sigh.

With this, Ilunia finally had a clear direction to work toward. Even though being an archer wasn’t her main class, it was enough for Ilunia to at least have the power to protect herself in dangerous situations.

So, Julian simply gave a brief nod, glanced at Ilunia for a moment, and said:

“The fight against Invaders will begin soon. At most within these five days, so prepare yourself. This will help a lot.”

“Yes, Master.”

After that, Julian didn’t want to disturb the girl’s training any longer. He decided to watch in silence for a few minutes, then finally walked away for some other business.

This time, Julian went to see Adelle.

“…”

“…..”

“You look exhausted.”

Julian was greeted with a sight he usually saw. It was Adelle, always looking exhausted every time she returned from her special duty in the invaded territory.

Seeing the woman’s unenthusiastic face and how her eyes had dark circles underneath made Julian feel sympathetic.

‘Always reminds me of Manager.’

Well, forget about that. Julian had come here with a different purpose.

This was related to the soon-to-be-implemented program. Because the fight against Invaders would indeed take place in invaded territory, that also meant danger could arrive at any time.

I mean, fine, the territory they’d be heading to was very close to the Safe Zone. However, after recalling what Killac had told him, Julian couldn’t help but feel worried about the students’ safety.

That was why Julian came here, with a single purpose, namely that he wanted to join in as a supervisor and carry out his duty as one of the academy’s Professors.

Even though his status was actually that of an honorary teacher.

And, who was Adelle, really?

She was just an academy headmaster who was extremely exhausted and had work as heavy as a mountain pressing down on her petite shoulders.

So, when she heard that Julian wanted to participate, she immediately felt like crying and wanted to hug Julian tightly right then and there.

Well, somehow, she managed to hold herself back.

Regardless, Julian easily got what he wanted.

Meanwhile, at the same time as Julian, a fanatical event was happening at the Church of Ascension.

A row of people in dark robes could be seen. All of them knelt, lifting their heads high, then slamming them back onto the cold floor while shouting.

“Hail to the most exalted!”

“Hail to the most sacred!”

“Hail to the most exalted!”

“Hail to the most sacred!”

That was an event Ilunia had once seen in her prophecy.

Happening, right at this very moment.