Chapter 54: Church of Ascension

A disciple’s progress would flow back to Julian, multiplied a hundredfold. That being said, whatever understanding Julian gained could, in turn, be passed back to his disciple.

That was possible, sure, but it never happened easily or overnight. Julian had to actually grasp what he wanted to convey first, and his disciple had to be able to work through the problem using the understanding Julian handed them.

"Yeah, it takes time, but it’s already pretty good."

Julian murmured under his breath, walking through the quiet Academy corridor during afternoon class hours. Class would be wrapping up soon, and Julian needed to prepare to head home.

Before that, he arrived at a specific room, knocked on the door, and said, "I’m here."

"Just come in, Lord Julian, the door’s unlocked."

Adelle’s voice carried out from inside, and without hesitation, Julian pushed the door open. His flat expression met a modest headmaster’s office, lined with bookshelves, the scent of old books hanging thick in the air.

’...No idea what problem this is about, but here I am, called in again.’

Despite his blank expression, Julian always felt his nerves fray whenever he got summoned for something like this.

He let out a sigh internally. As it turned out, besides Julian, the room also held the vice-headmaster, Inna, and a representative from the Zoldia family, Lurker.

Counting Adelle and Julian, that made four people total.

Lurker gave a slight bow of his head the moment Julian walked in, his expression stiff and noticeably grim. Seeing that, Julian wasn’t quite sure how he was supposed to react.

’He hasn’t recovered yet, but he’s forcing himself through it anyway.’

Even the past few days, Julian had consistently noticed Lurker wearing that same expression.

Tense, pale as a sheet, breaking into cold sweat, and every once in a while, jolting oddly whenever he happened to glance at Julian.

’Hmm...’

Julian mulled it over briefly, then decided to just let it go. He’d already told the man to see a doctor if he genuinely felt unwell.

So, once Julian finally settled into his own sofa seat, Adelle spoke up immediately:

"So, Lord Julian, the reason I called you here is because I felt you also had the right to know this. Regarding the Breach incident and the operation we carried out that day, did you know that Breach was actually planned by someone?"

Hearing that, Julian’s expression didn’t shift at all, though internally, he genuinely struggled to process it for a moment.

’Wait... what? Seriously? Doesn’t that mean someone’s actively targeting the Academy?’

Julian felt his stomach twist with nausea, forcing himself to push past it and nod in understanding.

Adelle misread that nod entirely, assuming it was only natural someone like Julian would already be aware of something like this.

Still, Adelle pressed forward with her explanation:

"The people responsible for this are exactly the ones we were targeting in that operation, some kind of organization, a cult of sorts. They worship the Aliens, believing that humanity can only find salvation by humbling themselves before them."

Adelle hesitated, giving a bitter smile, clearly wanting to curse aloud over how thoroughly she despised that cult.

"As it turns out, they deliberately exposed their own location that day just to draw us out and give chase, while their real target the entire time was the Academy. Once again, thank you so much for your help back then, Lord Julian!"

Julian listened closely, genuinely stunned that something like this had been unfolding behind the scenes all along.

It was genuinely shocking, especially considering how calm everything had looked on the surface, the students hadn’t even seemed to notice the professors’ absence that day.

’Ugh... what is even going on in this world? These people actually believe humanity has no chance of surviving?’

Thinking back to how the current Breach hadn’t been strong enough to unleash anything above Rank-A, Julian found himself wondering if they might actually have a point.

If that day ever came, wouldn’t this world just collapse effortlessly?

Even a mere Rank-D had already been terrifying enough.

Julian then looked at Adelle. ’So why is she telling me all this? Just because I supposedly have the right to know? Or does she need help? No, no, no, there’s absolutely nothing I can actually do here!’

Julian had already been pushing himself outside his comfort zone, starting to play his role as a Master properly, but beyond that?

He was refusing, for now, though if the opponent turned out weak, maybe that’d be fine.

Julian let out a small sigh. "So, what do you want?"

’Please! I’m begging you, I’m perfectly fine with my current situation!’

Adelle looked genuinely startled, giving an awkward smile as she raised her hands. "That’s not it, Lord Julian, I wasn’t thinking of asking you to do anything. How could I possibly ask that of you?"

Adelle coughed, twisting a strand of her hair around her finger as she looked away. "O-of course, if Lord Julian happens to be willing to help, we’d be incredibly grateful."

"....." Across from her, Inna glanced at Adelle, then looked away with an expression difficult to read.

Lurker himself simply stayed silent, frozen in place, occasionally glancing at Julian with a grim expression.

Given everything that man had gone through, he genuinely struggled to stay composed whenever he found himself near Julian.

As for Julian himself, he barely had any idea what kind of help he could actually offer here.

In this room, wasn’t he clearly the weakest one present?

Julian decided to stay quiet, pressing his lips shut tight. He intended to gather more information before committing to anything.

But to Adelle, that silence read exactly like a refusal, and the woman let out a regretful sigh.

"Getting back to the topic," She coughed. "So, at first, we assumed this cult wasn’t nearly as large as we’d suspected. But we were dead wrong about that."

Adelle glanced at Lurker, who looked pale. Feeling that gaze on him, the man struggled to steady himself and took over the conversation.

"The information we got from capturing the cult’s operatives made it clear their actual numbers are far larger than we thought, scattered across multiple locations throughout the invaded territories, and some have already infiltrated directly into the safe zones."

Lurker paused, hesitating slightly, and with a strained expression, continued, "We’re worried they might have done something extremely dangerous, like actually communicating with the Aliens themselves."

If that turned out to be true, then what had started as simply fighting fanatical humans who worshipped Aliens would become something far more terrifying, humans and Aliens actively working together to wipe out the rest of humanity.

Worse still, there was the fact that... humans themselves could actually contribute to opening Breaches, even help stabilize them further, to the point where high-ranked Aliens could eventually emerge.

But for the other matter at hand, what Lurker actually wanted to say...

"Lord Julian, since you’ve already foiled their plan once, I’m afraid they might start specifically targeting you from now on."

The room fell silent, the air itself seeming to drop in temperature as Julian’s gaze and expression stayed perfectly flat, yet somehow generating a tension none of the three others could simply ignore.

Their breath caught in their throats, while Julian,

’Just kill me already!’

Unable to bear that silence any longer, Adelle quickly forced her lips into motion. "That’s only a possibility, Lord Julian. We just felt you deserved to know, so you could prepare yourself in case an ambush ever happens."

Hearing that, Julian finally felt a little better. Just a moment ago, he’d been ready to cling to Lurker’s and Adelle’s legs, begging for protection, but thankfully, it was only a possibility.

Julian also felt relieved they weren’t asking him to go hunt down those bizarre fanatics himself.

’Well, this is fine, as long as they’re not the ones hunting me.’

"....."

’They’re not going to hunt me down, right?’

"..."

’Just kill me already!’

How could he possibly not worry about this?