After walking around the garden with Ember for a while, they both talked about how their past years had gone.
Both Atticus and Ember were incredibly reclusive, so there really wasn’t much to talk about.
But after a few moments, they both eventually separated under the excuse of going to train.
Ember was just as much a training freak as Atticus; many would even say she was more intense.
Just like Atticus, spending more than 5 hours doing nothing but listening to boring lectures was nothing other than torture for Ember.
Not having training for that long, they were both feeling… uncomfortable. It was a very weird feeling.
The kind of feeling that one gets when they were used to bathing multiple times a day and then suddenly went a whole week without bathing, very uncomfortable.
They had to go train.
After separating, Atticus started making his way back towards the first year building, intending on heading back towards his division.
As he got to the entrance, he suddenly remembered something, ‘Shit, how the hell did I forget to ask,’ Atticus thought.
He just instinctively went back to the first year building. Atticus still had no idea how to go back to the expanse.
He clicked on his artifact and swiftly navigated to the oracle section and inquired, “How do I go back to my division?”
A display materialized in front of him displaying his answer,
“You can return back to your division by entering the room you were teleported here to. The room is on the highest floor, with the door tag L1- 0002.”
Atticus tapped on his artifact, clearing the display once he had gotten the answer he was looking for.
He walked through the entrance of the first year building and started making his way through the hall to the elevator on the first floor.
Unlike the last time when he had been on the first floor with Kael, the hall was completely empty with not a student in sight.
‘Some might have returned to their division and the others would have entered the garden,’ Atticus surmised.
He got to the elevator after a few seconds and took it to the highest floor.
Getting out of the elevator, he started making his way through the hallway searching for the room he came from.
During his walk, Atticus’s thoughts shifted towards the Enigmalnk youth he had met earlier.
Many would wonder, just why had Atticus treated him so terribly and made an unknown enemy without any consideration of the consequences?
Atticus could have approached that matter delicately and in another way, but he wouldn’t be true to himself if he had.
Apart from the fact that Atticus had no tolerance for bullshit, any time Atticus was meeting someone for the first time, the way said person would be treated depended entirely on the body language and all the signs Atticus was able to discern from the individual.
Atticus had hardly even spoken to Dezazeus, but from the very little he had seen, it had been very easy and straightforward to come to the conclusion that Dezazeus was going to be an enemy, and he was 100% sure of this.
Even before he had approached them, it was very obvious to discern that he had been interested in Ember.
Normally, Atticus wouldn’t interfere in such a matter. After all, Ember was a girl, a very pretty one at that. It was very natural that boys would try to go after her.
But from what he had seen, Dezazeus shouldn’t even be amongst them. He knew his type well, and this was further enhanced by the subtle changes in Dezazeus that he had noticed.
Despite how subtle Dezazeus thought he had been, Atticus had seen everything clearly.
The cold aura that emanated from him when Atticus had first called out to Ember. His surprised and dangerously narrowed eyes when he saw Ember smile.
The cold glint in his eyes, and the killing intent that briefly erupted when he saw both of them hug.
Before Atticus had released Ember from the hug, he had already come to a conclusion about how he would treat Dezazeus.
Atticus hated pretense. It was very unnecessary.
While he recognized that there were some situations where he would have to keep a low profile and rein in himself, he hadn’t seen any reason to do that with Dezazeus.
Why should he pretend to be nice to someone who clearly wanted to do him harm? It was simply unnecessary and a major waste of time.
Just like the Raven camp, when Atticus had checked the rules, he saw that the lower years could initiate a fight with the higher years.
One could even say the Raven camp copied this concept from the academy.
But unlike at the camp, any damages done on academic properties would have to be paid for by the responsible parties.
He had wanted to end everything right there and then, which was exactly why he had thrown out that taunt.
But as soon as he saw that the smile on Dezazeus’s face never once wavered, Atticus had instantly killed what he wanted to do in his head.
Although he truly hated bullshit, Atticus wasn’t the type of person who would suddenly beat up a person because of the subtle clues only he had picked up.
And this was why he had always tried to taunt, try to make the situation escalate so he could shut the person down once and for all.
But with the brief interaction he had with Dezazeus, Atticus knew that he wasn’t one to fall for such taunts.
And this was exactly why he had abruptly ended the whole thing and walked away.
Anymore would simply be a waste of time.
After a few seconds of searching, Atticus finally found the door he was searching for.
As he approached, the door soundlessly slid open, his words echoing behind as he entered,
“I guess I’ll learn my place at the leader’s summit then.”
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
