Healer Dad Changes Careers to Robot Vacuum

"You are the Marines' new generation of elites! You have undergone the harshest training, and some of you have even mastered the Six Powers!"

Zephyr was addressing the Training Camp cadets on deck, who had emerged completely unscathed from the fierce battle. It was the first time he had ever lectured cadets while they were all intact, and the feeling was somewhat strange.

"But look at your performance. You were no different from raw recruits who had just enlisted!"

"You all fought on the battlefield and earned merit in your former branches. So why, now that you are far stronger than before, did you become so hesitant when facing the enemy?"

Zephyr slowly paced before the cadets' neat formation. His stern expression and icy gaze made them as silent as cicadas in winter, utterly extinguishing the excitement of having just wiped out a notorious pirate crew with a bounty of 58 million.

"Was it because the enemy was stronger? Because they outnumbered you?"

"Those are not the key! Willpower! You lack the unyielding will to meet the enemy head-on in a fight to the death!"

"When you first enlisted as ordinary soldiers, you mainly relied on firearms to kill enemies. Powerful foes who required close combat would be held back by officers of every rank, and naval battles even had warship artillery to support you! Back then, your enemies were mostly disorganized rabble. The Marines' superior equipment alone was enough to crush their courage!"

"But on the Grand Line, even in Paradise, the pirates here are elites who have survived countless battles through natural selection. Their individual strength is formidable, yes, but their willpower is even stronger, because anyone without sufficient willpower died long ago!"

Sweat appeared on the cadets' foreheads. Following Zephyr's reasoning and thinking back, they realized it was true. In their previous battles, the well-equipped Marines and pirates would open with a barrage of cannon fire that crippled the enemy. During boarding actions, officers dealt with dangerous targets, while ordinary soldiers like them mostly faced weak fodder or enemies whose courage had already been shattered—in other words, they had almost always fought favorable battles!

Most of the Military Merit that earned them a place at Headquarters had come from outstanding performances in favorable battles, as well as from potential that made them worth cultivating. Very few had been recommended for feats such as defeating the strong while weak in unfavorable circumstances.

"Now, although you possess a strong foundation and systematic combat techniques, your long stay in the Training Camp has left you lacking the will to face life and death directly, the resolve to remain calm in the face of great danger and turn peril into safety, and the awareness that even in death, you must prove your own worth!"

"What did I see in that battle just now? Getting injured, being unable to dodge, and closing your eyes to await death? Being surrounded, your techniques becoming chaotic and giving the enemy openings? Seeing an enemy at a disadvantage and, instead of defending, going closer to watch the show?!"

Anger simmered beneath Zephyr's voice. This was practically the homeroom teacher image every student knew all too well—

"You are the worst class I've ever taught!"

There it was! The true homeroom teacher, Zephyr!

"If you had not been fortunate enough to have a healing-type ability user with you, then even if I had intervened, at least one-third of you would have had to leave the battlefield due to your injuries this time! How would you realize your ideals and ambitions? How would you uphold your justice?! Think carefully about what the Death Quota means!"

Wright blinked innocently. Was Teacher Zephyr building up his reputation for him? Ah, honestly... well done! Hahahaha!

"Now go back and recover. Each of you will write a combat report—consider it a self-criticism if you like—and hand it to Instructor Gumir tomorrow morning. Properly summarize the lessons from this battle!"

"In the next battle, Wright will not heal you during the fight. Only those who survive until the battle is over will receive healing—battle is not training. If you get yourselves killed by making stupid mistakes, then go fill the Death Quota!"

"Dismissed! Wright, stay behind!"

As the cadets dispersed with miserable expressions to write their combat reports, Wright gave Smoker and Rosinante a look to tell them he would find them later, then walked toward Zephyr and Gumir.

"Teacher! Instructor!"

Zephyr and Gumir nodded. They were clearly very satisfied with the support Wright had displayed. "Just as I thought, your presence directly changed the training model for this practical combat exercise."

"?"

Wright blinked in confusion. Practical combat exercises had been conducted for many years. Had this not been the original format?

Seeing Wright's confusion, Gumir smiled and explained, "For the original practical combat exercises, we accounted for situations like today's—the cadets are stronger than ordinary pirates, but their willpower is generally their weakness. Therefore, for the first battle, we would usually select obscure pirates who had only recently entered the Grand Line for them to practice against—generally pirate crews with bounties of ten to twenty million."

As expected, Wright's eyes widened. Zephyr smiled. "Do you think today's target was far too different from the usual ones? A pirate crew with a bounty of 58 million is already a veteran powerhouse in Paradise. In the past, we would only choose such a target after three to five battles, once the cadets' willpower had gradually strengthened."

"But your presence gave me a new idea—begin with a high-difficulty battle, directly exposing the brutality of real combat and the cadets' shortcomings, giving them a tremendous shock and rapidly improving their willpower—"

"And if they cannot withstand that blow and become dispirited, it only means they never had the potential to grow stronger in the first place—there will be plenty more moments of despair after this!"

"..."

Wasn't this just like a party without a healer grinding low-level mobs, while a party with a healer went straight into dungeons to farm elites?

Not bad, Teacher Zephyr!

How about we grind to max level before going back to solo the dungeon? No charge, you know?

"The facts have proven my plan successful. Because of your ability, not only did the battle end without injuries, but judging from the lecture just now, the cadets have all recognized their own problems. No one became dispirited because of it—insights gained at the brink of life and death are incomparably precious, yet they obtained them without paying much of a price."

"Then... Teacher Zephyr," Wright asked, "based on what you just said, if I do not intervene during the next battle, will the designated target need to be lowered in difficulty?"

"That's right." Zephyr nodded. "Gumir will contact Shuzo, who is remaining at Headquarters, and use Headquarters' surveillance of pirate activity to select a pirate crew with a bounty between twenty and forty million as the next practical combat target."

"And Wright, just as I said, you may only heal them after the battle is over. I will handle any unexpected situations, as I did before."

"Yes, Teacher."

Hehehe, classmates, the battlefield healer dad has switched careers to professional robot vacuum, you know? If you aren't more careful in the next battle... you really will die!

After all, this great me still doesn't know a resurrection spell!