Nate walked towards the entrance of the advanced training room just beside the mansion.
A scanner jutted out and scanned him as he reached the door. Atticus always locked the door of the advanced training room anytime he wanted to train.
If it was important and they had to see him, he simply asked the AI to inform him of any visitors.
After a few seconds of waiting, the training room door parted open, and Nate immediately walked inside, his expression completely determined.
This was something Nate had been putting off for a while, mostly because he had no idea of how Atticus would react to it.
But tonight he had mustered everything he had, and he was going to talk to Atticus.
As soon as Nate entered the room, he immediately felt the scorching heat emanating throughout the training room.
It was so hot that Nate immediately began sweating as he entered. 'Damn, what's this heat?' Nate whined inwardly while wiping the drops of sweat that had formed on his forehead.
Nate's eyes turned upwards, noting the searing sun high up. Then his gaze swept across the room, seeing the devastation that was strewn about.
His eyes landed on a figure in the middle, dressed in a simple black robe.
Despite how hot the room was, there was not a single drop of sweat on him.'To think this pretty boy is the cause of all this ruckus around the academy,' Nate thought with a slight shake of his head.
It was baffling to think that Nate would be thinking of something so trivial out of the blue like this in this situation.
But it was exactly because of the situation they were in that the thought popped up. Despite the destruction around him, even Nate couldn't help but admit it: Atticus was flawless.
"Are you just going to keep staring?" The sound of Atticus talking snapped Nate out of his daydreaming. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and his face turned serious as he approached Atticus in the middle of the training room.
Atticus raised an eyebrow as he saw Nate's serious look."I need to talk to you," Nate said as he got close enough to Atticus.
"Oh? Why so serious?" Atticus asked with a smile.
Although he wasn't completely close with Nate and Lucas, it wasn't as bad as them not being able to talk to him.
Nate took in a deep breath, steeling himself as he spoke, "Atticus, you're doing too much for us. I understand you're probably trying to keep us all safe, but it's too much. We hardly fight, we hardly experience any hardship. We just train and train and train without any real life battles."
Nate took a step closer to Atticus, locking his determined gaze with him. He continued, "We can't grow like this, Atticus. I'm sure the others feel the same way but are afraid of the way you'd react if they say anything. We don't want to end up useless, please."
Atticus's eyes widened slightly. He had never thought of it from this angle before.
To be honest, he was just doing what he thought was right and hadn't considered the impact on the people around him. That was selfish, incredibly selfish, now that Nate had pointed it out.
They all weren't just mindless extras; they were people with dreams, Ravensteins, his cousins.
It wasn't only him trying hard to gain power; they were all doing their best, and him blocking them like this was completely unacceptable.
What was worse was that he knew firsthand just how important real world experience was.
"I see," Atticus muttered, looking at Nate with a smile on his face.
After a few minutes, the advanced training room door parted open, and Nate walked out with a contented smile on his face.
"How did it go?" a voice rang out from the side, and Nate turned to see Lucas resting his back against the building.
Nate grinned. "He accepted!" he exclaimed excitedly, clenching his fist in the air.
Lucas chuckled at Nate's exaggerated reaction.
"I told you he would. Now stop jumping up like a little kid and let's go tell the rest," Lucas said.
"Ahh, Lucas, you have no idea how happy this makes me! Now, the academy will know the legend of Nate Ravenstein, the Whitehawk Earthguard!" Nate exclaimed.
Lucas's expression immediately morphed into disbelief. "Did you just give yourself a nickname? Who fucking does that!?"
Nate chuckled sheepishly, shaking his head.
Lucas sighed. "You're a real piece of work, you know that, right?"
Nate placed his arm around Lucas's shoulders.
"But you can't do without your big brother, huh?" he teased before bursting into laughter.
Lucas turned his gaze downward and with a nostalgic smile, and responded in a barely audible tone, "Yeah, family, huh."
"Huh? What was that?" Nate asked.
Lucas instantly turned his gaze upwards, flashing Nate a smile. "It was nothing."
"Oh, okay. Let's quickly go tell the others!" Nate happily exclaimed as they both made their way to the mansion.
After that day, the subsequent days passed quickly.
The academy students still continued staying away from any white haired youth they saw, and even more so from the man himself, Atticus.
Even as time passed, the name Atticus Ravenstein was still being talked about everywhere around the academy. The video of his actions was still being watched, with many having turned it into a movie.
Days passed, and each of the White Raven Division members who had unfortunately been enslaved by Dell had eventually been freed and allowed to return to camp after signing the same contract the others did with Atticus.
Their attack had easily been stopped by Atticus since he had heard everything about their plans.
Unfortunately, once the higher years Alverians saw their young master, neither of them came to the academy apart from their first years.
Lila hadn't told anyone what happened because she didn't see a need to.
She didn't know they were involved too. So unknowingly, they had all gone to the academy campus.
