Isla, Moon, and Luna were the most shocked out of all of them. Although it wasn't as intense as Atticus's, they each stayed clear of Aurora too.
Apart from the fact that she was the second strongest amongst them, Aurora made it quite clear that she had no intention of getting close to any of them.
Moon was the first to regain her composure. She had always been the cheerful one of the bunch. She smiled, excitedly grabbing Aurora's hand and responding, "It's our pleasure."
Aurora's cheeks turned a bit red as she became a little flustered, not expecting the cheerful response.
"Yeah," she muttered absentmindedly, causing Moon's smile to widen.
Atticus fixed his gaze on Aurora, who was talking with the trio. 'She's changed,' he noted. He had already noticed something was different about her when she came out of her room. 'I hope it's a good change,' Atticus thought.
As the time for the terminal to activate drew near, their small talks and chatters also came to a stop. They each turned their gazes towards the terminal.
Atticus had already briefed Aurora about everything they talked about yesterday during their breakfast together, so she was well aware of their next course of action.
The rest of the division members gathered behind them as they waited for the time to arrive.
And after a few minutes, the long-awaited time arrived, and as soon as the terminal lit up in a golden glow, each of the Ravenstein youths, Atticus included, walked into the light, their gazes icy.
...
Atticus found himself in the usual pristine white room and without wasting any time, he headed out of the room.
As the door opened, Atticus's gaze landed on Zoey, who was standing in front of his door with a small smile on her face.
"Hey," Zoey greeted softly.
"Hey," Atticus also flashed her a smile as he greeted her back.
During his venting in the forest, Atticus had been feeling guilty about going on a date with Zoey while Aurora was being attacked.
He had almost made the very stupid mistake of blaming everything on Zoey. 'I'm glad I caught myself,' Atticus thought, relieved.
This matter was far from being Zoey's fault; it was his. He had failed to keep his enemies in order.
"I have something to tell you," Atticus suddenly spoke up after a few seconds of silence, prompting Zoey to raise her eyebrows in curiosity.
Atticus had thought about it for a while and eventually decided to tell Zoey what was happening.
He wasn't one to let people know what was happening to him, but Atticus thought it would be best to let her know in advance considering what was about to happen.
Plus, he was very curious about what she would think.
"You see…" Atticus explained everything that had been happening, even going as far as when they had targeted 100 members of his division.
Zoey furrowed her eyebrows, listening to everything Atticus explained, and at the end of his explanation, she only had one thing to say,
"You're soft,"
Atticus couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as he heard her. Him, soft?
She had literally watched the video of him torturing and burning the third years that had come to assault him, and she actually still called him soft?
Atticus was so baffled that he unknowingly muttered, "Soft?"
Zoey nodded her head multiple times before responding, "Yes, soft."
"How?"
"Someone targeted you out of the blue, and you decided to wait until they fall for your trap? If I were you, I would have attacked and enslaved every single suspect on my list," Zoey coldly stated.
"Didn't your family teach you these things?" Zoey suddenly asked in bafflement, causing Atticus to scratch his head awkwardly.
If he had to be honest, despite his high intelligence, politics and strategies like this weren't his strong points.
Atticus had never been a people person; he couldn't 100% anticipate the move of someone he had no idea about their identity would make.
His high intelligence would shine best when it came to direct battle. Being able to think fast means nothing when you have no knowledge about what you're thinking of.
One could only draw scenarios, and that had been exactly what he had done, thought of multiple possible scenarios.
But unfortunately, he hadn't counted on the Nebulon family being involved. In fact, the Nebulon family hadn't even been in his list of suspects.
"So what do you plan on doing?" Zoey's question suddenly brought Atticus out from his reverie as their gazes met.
Atticus let out a short exhale; what happened had already happened. What should only be in his mind was the way forward.
Atticus suddenly smiled and responded, "You'll see," he said, turned, and started walking away.
Zoey released a deep sigh and shook her head slightly, "Let's just hope you're not going to have tea with your enemies, softie," Zoey suddenly teased as she caught up with Atticus, causing the latter to clear his throat in embarrassment.
They each walked to class while making small talk and laughing. Kael had long since left for class when he saw the both of them together. Clearly, he understood the bro code well.
After a few moments, the duo got to the classroom, and as soon as they entered, in a usual turn of events which was getting tiring, all eyes turned towards the duo.
But unlike the other times where the duo walked together to their seats, Atticus's form suddenly diverted away from their usual direction, his cold gaze fixed upon the form of a youth, causing the latter to narrow his iridescent eyes.
While the front row seat of the class was filled with the tier one youths, only the ones with appropriate standing in their families sat down there, in essence, the important heirs.
The tier one with a less substantial standing sat down in the second row, mixed with some tier twos.
Each of the students watched as Atticus fixed his gaze on the Nebulon family youth, walking slowly towards him.
And as they all counted the seconds that he would take to reach the youth, each of them couldn't help but be shocked as Atticus's form suddenly blurred and the Nebulon youth found himself high up in the air.