Atticus ran at a fast speed towards the camp, making sure to avoid everyone from seeing him. Although he wouldn't admit it, he loved his handsome looks.
But right now, he was far away from handsome.
He got to the camp after a few seconds and headed straight to his room. He quickly entered the bathroom to have his bath.
After a full 20 minutes, Atticus stepped out of the bathroom feeling profoundly refreshed and clean.
"Ah, that felt good," he muttered to himself with a smile.
After wiping himself off with a towel, Atticus brought out a clean robe from his space storage and put it on.
Before he left the estate, Anastasia had made sure to pack lots of clothes and other necessities for him.
Just as he finished putting on the clothes, Atticus suddenly heard a DING sound followed by an AI robot sound,
[Aurora Ravenstein is at your door.]
"Open," Atticus instructed immediately and the door slid open to reveal Aurora who walked into the room with a tray of food in her hands.
She immediately spotted Atticus's refreshed figure. "Well, at least you look like a human being now," Aurora remarked with a slight chuckle.
Atticus responded with a sneer, "Even my ugly, worn-out look is way better than you'll ever be," Atticus quipped, his words making Aurora freeze in her tracks.
Atticus had always had a way of making witty comments that got under her skin. Never once had she won in their bantering before, and this was always because of a single reason, "Take that back, or you don't get any food."
Aurora's form started emitting steam as her hands got scalding hot. The tray struggled to withstand the temperature as it began melting;
Aurora was always quick to get triggered.
Atticus struggled hard to hold back his laughter, looking at Aurora's form emitting steam once again.
His gaze turned to his food; he knew if he didn't do anything, it was about to be burnt to ashes. "Okay, Okay, I was wrong; you're the prettiest lady in all of Eldoralth," Atticus relented, his hands raised as a sign of defeat.
Hearing this, Aurora calmed down a bit, her temperature returning to normal.
She released an audible, "Hmph," before setting down the tray on the table by the side and sitting down on the bed.
Atticus chuckled, seeing her still furious.
"Thank you for the food," Atticus expressed his gratitude and then sat down on the chair to start eating.
He couldn't help but notice Aurora stealing glances at him. It was obvious she wanted to ask something, but she was still pretending to be angry, so she didn't want to.
After a while, she couldn't hold it in anymore, finally breaking the silence, "Are you finally done?" Aurora asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
Atticus smiled warmly, hearing her question. Over the past three weeks, while Atticus had been engrossed in engraving runes inside his room, Aurora had consistently been the one bringing him food.
And due to that, she was always seeing him in his demotivated state.
Observing him like that every time, she couldn't help but worry. Despite their banter and frequent arguments, it was undeniable that Aurora cared deeply for Atticus.
"Almost," Atticus responded. He still had the grade 2 runes to do for each unit.
Aurora remained silent, allowing Atticus to focus on his meal.
After a few minutes, Atticus finished eating and asked, "So, anything worthwhile happened in the past 3 weeks?"
Although he had been getting information about the training of the youths and anything else important from Lucas, Atticus still thought it best to hear from another's perspective.
"Nothing much, really. The training has been going smoothly, and there have been a few scuffles here and there, but nothing we couldn't handle. I guess it's a good thing they're all so weak," Aurora explained.
To be honest, Atticus wasn't too surprised by this, even when he first learned about it from Lucas.
With more than a thousand teenagers gathered in one place, it wasn't surprising that conflicts would arise.
Atticus couldn't help but agree with Aurora's words; such issues could have been a severe problem if everyone possessed the same level of strength.
"Ha!" Aurora suddenly exclaimed, "There was this incident where one ugly fool was trying to rape a girl," she revealed.
"That sick bastard," Aurora clenched her fist in anger, "I made sure to teach him a lesson he would never forget," she added.
Hearing Aurora's stern words, Atticus couldn't help but gulp. He had no doubt that Aurora wasn't exaggerating when she spoke those words.
His thoughts shifted toward the situation. Would the academy really allow such things to happen? Would they not intervene in cases of assault and harassment?
He had been too focused on a lot of things that he hadn't even stopped to think about things like this.
'Looks like I'll need to set up some ground rules,' Atticus decided.
"What about the horde? No sign of them yet?" Atticus inquired.
"Those puppies? Nah, we haven't seen any signs of them yet," Aurora responded.
"Hmm," Atticus muttered, "It's a little odd," he added.
"What is?" Aurora asked, her eyebrows raised.
"It's just, our mission is to survive and protect the camp from outside forces for one month, but apart from the first day the horde attacked, we've never been attacked again,"
It truly was an unusual situation. Atticus was certain that the academy wouldn't assign them an objective that easy; there had to be something more to it.
'It's already past the third week; when do they plan on attacking again?'
Atticus's mind raced as he considered various possibilities. In less than a second, he arrived at two likely reasons.
"Either they want us to let our guard down and surprise us suddenly with an attack, or they plan to strike at the end of this one month, giving us less time to prepare for the event afterward," Atticus shared his conclusions with Aurora, who nodded in agreement.
Atticus believed that both scenarios were plausible; some might assume that the attack wasn't coming, thereby lowering their guard.
If the horde attacked close to the end of the one month period, Atticus had no doubt that the intensity of the assault this time would be much greater than the first.
After that attack, they wouldn't have much time to prepare for the subsequent event at the end of the month. 'Looks like I need to explore that forest,' Atticus decided.
