"I had a lot of fun today! Sorry for taking up your time," Julian said with a friendly smile.
"No problem, you helped me a lot!" Nick said with a grin.
After Nick had told Julian about his issues, Julian talked with Nick for a couple of hours about what to do.
Julian told Nick that he was trying to atone for something that couldn't be atoned for.
Nick was still young, and he hadn't been ready for such a big responsibility.
Julian said that Nick had to live his own life and that Horua's fate was because Wyntor hadn't properly informed Nick about everything.
After all, if Wyntor had told Nick about what would happen if Horua refused to become an Extractor after seeing the Dreamer, Nick wouldn't have made Horua sign the contract, right?
Therefore, Nick wasn't the one at fault.
It was Wyntor.
So, why was Nick trying to atone for something that wasn't his fault?
Additionally, Nick had always only lived for himself since the people of the Dregs always shunned him.
Julian said that it seemed like Nick was just trying to help all these people because he wanted to belong to a community.
Nick was desperately trying to be a part of a community, which was why he was willing to sacrifice everything he had to help people who only despised him.
The things that Julian said made a lot of sense, but Nick just couldn't accept them emotionally.
Sure, maybe he was actually trying to help people who didn't deserve it, but his emotions were telling him that a human should help other humans.
The instinct to help others was inherent to every human.
So, wasn't helping others just being human?
Was it wrong to be human?
Julian told Nick that he was free to do whatever he wanted but that he should always consider all sides.
After such a long talk, Julian had also confessed something to Nick.
He wasn't actually Nick's trainer.
He was someone higher up in Kugelblitz who simply wanted to meet Nick and talk to him.
The actual trainer would come tomorrow.
However, Nick wasn't angry at Julian.
After all, Nick felt a bit better after talking to Julian.
Maybe Julian was right about some things.
For example, Julian had also said that Nick's imagination of what Horua wanted sounded too idealistic.
Would a boy truly want to save the place that would have thrown him out of his house as a last wish?
It sounded more realistic that the boy would want these people to pay for all the things they had done.
Nick didn't like that thought, but it actually sounded possible.
Of course, they had talked about more things, but for some reason, a huge part of his talk with Julian had become blurry.
'We have talked about so many different things that I can't even tell how much we have talked about and for how long. I feel like I already forgot half of what we talked about,' Nick thought as he rubbed his head.
After a minute, Nick managed to focus again, and he looked up.
Julian was gone.
'He probably already went home,' Nick thought as he walked out of the gym.
As Nick walked down the streets, he just kept rubbing his head.
It was like all his memories and thoughts were jumbled up.
In the end, he decided to ignore it and got some food.
During his sleep, Nick dreamt of many gigantic mouths surrounding him and talking to him.
The voices were so loud and droning, and he felt like what they were saying was something that he couldn't possibly do.
He tried to run from the mouths, but new ones just kept appearing around him.
For an eternity, Nick just kept running.
While he was running, Nick became angrier and angrier.
It was like all the people around Nick were telling him that they hated him and that they wanted him to die.
The mouths hurt Nick.
They represented all the people of the Dregs who had ridiculed him when he was younger.
Eventually, Nick woke up and went to work.
"Hey, Nick. How was training?" Wyntor asked from his office.
"He didn't tell you?" Nick asked.
"No?" Wyntor answered in confusion.
"Julian isn't my trainer," Nick said. "He acted like he was my trainer so that he could talk to me alone."
"Oh, that's understandable," Wyntor said with a dismissive wave. "Julian is a busy man, but he's very trustworthy."
"I know," Nick said. "By the way, where did you meet Julian?"
"I don't know," Wyntor said casually. "Maybe he led me around Kugelblitz or something like that."
"Oh, that could be it," Nick said, accepting the answer. "Who is my actual teacher, by the way?"
"It's someone called Reynold," Wyntor answered. "He was supposed to come yesterday, but Julian said that he had told Reynold that he would do your training."
"But since he won't do it now, I should probably call Reynold again. I'll get back to him and tell him that he's your teacher again."
Nick nodded. "Great. By the way, do you know how I can reach Julian?"
"No idea," Wyntor said.
"You don't know where he lives?"
"No."
"Can't you just contact him via Kugelblitz?"
"Julian doesn't work for Kugelblitz," Wyntor said.
"Oh," Nick said. "So, I can't reach him?"
"I don't know where he is," Wyntor said, "but when we need him, I'm sure he will pop up."
"Probably," Nick said with a nod. "Anyway, I'm going to work now."
"Good luck," Wyntor said, returning to writing on a piece of paper.
Nick entered the Dreamer's Containment Unit, and two minutes later, he was asleep.
As soon as Nick started to dream, all the mouths returned, and they kept telling Nick that he should kill everyone.
But just a couple of moments later, all the mouths vanished, and two dead eyes from an owl appeared in the sky of Nick's dream world.
For just a moment, the dead eyes focused on the vanishing mouths.
And then, Nick was transported into a torture room where he was forced to torture Horua.