Orientation: running is not cowardice.

They were all gathered and seated in a large room that held only the new intakes, there were a few cadets standing at the edges of the hall as though to maintain order and to make things convenient for themselves. There was an instructor who had introduced himself as Chadley up the podium addressing the new cadets and introducing the facilities and its uses to them.

They were told about things like the gravity rooms, the essence concentration rooms, the battle colosseum, the library, the simulation pods, and a few other things.

"Try to utilize every crutch that has been handed to you, it is of importance that you take advantage of them all now that you still have this large umbrella over your head-- "

While he was speaking and had entered the advice stage of his speech showing he was about rounding up, he was interrupted by something that made him look to the tactical rune watch on his wrist.

"Hmm, it seems like the headmaster is going to take over from here."

While he was speaking someone appeared at his back as though he had always been there, causing most of the cadets especially those from common backgrounds to be startled and then came the excitement that could not be hidden. It was clear that they all knew his legendary feats.

Chris observed the middle-aged looking man that appeared out of nowhere, who was speaking in a hushed voice to the instructor who had introduced himself as Chadley and seeing how deferential his posture was showed how much respect he held for the small statured headmaster.

"He seems popular." Chris said towards Naliaki, looking around some more

"Extremely so. Legend has it that he is one of, if not the oldest living human on Havenridge island city" Naliaki said in extreme awe.

"Wow, a true living fossil." Chris whispered back to Naliaki, but was very startled when he felt an heavy gaze on him and traced it back to the headmaster who had briefly glanced towards him.

'Must be a coincidence, please be a misconception' he crossed his fingers and prayed internally.

Naliaki who was beside him looked at Chris with a self-pitying expression "It has been said that the headmaster is very sensitive to the word fossil, and at his level everything within the vicinity is under his control"

He looked at Chris fidgeting on his seat and continued "In essence, he holds grudges."

"Great, just great. As usual, my luck is impeccable."

The instructor Chadley stepped down from the podium after receiving brief instructions from the headmaster.

"Hello kids" he said with a chuckle eyeing a few in the crowd who cringed at being referred to as kids and shaking his head, he seemed to have been taken back memory lane and no one would have been able to guess what it was he was reminiscing about cause the rumors surrounding his existence entails his considerable experience.

"It's good to be children you know, at least within the walls of this institution you could be kids with no repercussion so if I were you I'd cherish this period." He looked at them all with sadness creeping into his eyes.

"But outside of this walls, being a child could get you killed, so I hope you could all be kids in your first year, grow up knowing that whatever happens we are here to hold your skies up. The moment you step out of this walls you are no longer kids, but warriors equipped with knowledge and skills of survival and… death!"

He took a pause and watched them react to his words as though waiting for the weight of his words to sink in.

"A few of you may be wondering why the world is the way it is, why there's suffering and strife, why everything is painted red with blood and why death has become a companion to us all." 

Looking at their somber looks and the many clenched fists of those who know loss intimately

"You will come to know sooner or later, but what I can tell you is simple, strength is everything. When you have strength then you can speak and be heard, you can enact change and most of all… you can live."

'But for now, be kids while you still can.' That's what he wanted to say, but the cruel world would only turn that into a joke.

"What is survival?" he asked rhetorically.

"hmgh… the etymology of the word survival can be traced to two languages at its core, garulish and grontu tongue. In garulish it means flight from danger, or barring danger." He looked at the common born and saw the confusion in their eyes and in the eyes of most of the noble children, garulish was rune language and not a lot of people could use it. It was more common amongst array formation masters, archeologists, historians, etc. in general, it was an important language to learn.

"And in grontu tongue it means fight to live, then it was later translated to pidilish as fight or flight." Letting his words sink in, he continued.

"So the word survival simply means to fight or take flight when you combine them in common tongue. So what you would mostly be learning here at Riversky is survival. How to fight what and what to run from when to run from it and why, simply put how to stay alive."

"Don't think of it as cowardice to run, not every battle can be fought even those Mysterys fabled at the realm of sainthood have been said to run from a few entities and phenomenon, who are you as mere martial Mysterys to feel that running is cowardice?" the headmaster trampled on their pride when he saw a few noble scions scrunch up their faces in disgust at the thought of fleeing. 'The fools!! this would save their lives countless times in the future.'

"Pride, is good… but baseless pride would get you killed. Learn when to attack and when to retreat, how to use the best of what you have and your situation and you would be undefeated in a thousand battles.

Jumping in to a fight you're are not prepared for willing isn't bravery, that's foolishness and a sure way to get yourself killed."

The headmaster spoke a lot of words while looking at them and taking note of the people in the crowd his words could impact positively, it was a game he liked to play that was one of his reasons for always giving this speech. He used them to test his judgment making sure he remained sharp.