12 The Soccer Team's Dilemma

Nathen POV:

I had to leave when Emilin's teacher came back for the second period 20 minutes later. I was able to tell that many of the students had questions hanging in their mouths, maybe about how we were able to delay class time. Well, it was as simple as asking the principal for permission.

Well, I guess it wouldn't be too easy for others. The school was quite a prominent one in this city, but in reality, when compared to other schools in this nation, it was incomparable. Much less this continent.

15 years ago, we had to pack our bags and move here. Our father got a job offer that he simply wasn't able to refuse, for various reasons.

His company was revealed to be a subsidiary of a larger one. The higher-ups specifically asked him to take charge of the branch in this country, which was very suspicious.

How would they even know father? It was just too strange and so we all kept our guards up.

Even after 15 years here, nothing out of the ordinary had happened, but we still couldn't afford to let our guards down.

Dad had thought of rejecting, but the company made it very clear that he had to come which just made the situation even more dubious. The power we had in hand wasn't even worth noting when compared to whoever wanted us on this continent, which rendered fighting useless in all aspects.

I heard most of this when mom and dad were talking about it when I was younger, but there were still details I had missed through the door.

We were able to enter the continent that most people weren't even able to visit after years of applying for a visa. This was something that not even mom or dad would be able to imagine reaching for in their lifetimes, at least that is what they said.

I would have believed them when I was younger, but knowing the younger siblings I had, I knew we would have gotten here sooner or later.

Some might be jealous of their sibling if they were to be born with a naturally higher talent for everything. Sour that they, who were younger, were in fact smarter.

And at some point, in my life, I was too. But I was also sensible enough to know that they were my siblings that I had to protect. Somethings couldn't be changed, and after coming to peace with myself, all I can say is that I wouldn't want it any other way.

Of course, I wish I could do more for them, but that won't stop me from appreciating everything they do for me. They were two separate matters that just shouldn't be entangled together.

I do wish that we could spend more time together, but we were all busy with different things. I had gone to a top university in the nation, but that didn't mean that it was easy. Even though it wasn't top of the world, it could still secure a top 10 internationally. When necessary, I would still have to rely on Emilin and Theodore's help.

8 of the top 10 universities in the world were in this continent, which is also how most people would get a visa into one of the four countries that made up the Hé Continent.

The city that our family lived in was a top second-rate city a couple of hours away from the capital, where my university was. There was, however, a good university that was located nearby. That was the one that I was going to play against in the afternoon.

Ever since mom had moved here, she was more motivated. I don't know the exact reason for the sudden change, but it was a good thing.

As Emilin got older, there was less and less for mom to do, and you could tell that she would get listless if she didn't get a hobby.

To this point, she still won't tell me what project she was starting, but I had an inkling.

I wanted to go home first, but then a call came in, so I had to change my destination.

After reaching a café near the school district, I went in scanning the room a little before my eyes landed on a group of around 17 people, one being around his late thirties, with the rest in their early twenties.

***

"Hey over here!" One of the ones with a buzz cut waved energetically.

"You shouldn't be so noisy, I'm sure he already saw us, Captain," The person next to him said calmly, he was clearly already accustomed to his captain's personality as the vice-captain. That didn't stop the captain from continuously swaying his arm, telling Nathen to come until he was just around a meter away from the tables they were sitting at. Most were sitting on the round couch around a round table while the rest had pulled up some chairs.

Nathen sat down on the vacant seat that had been left for him next to the coach and one of the starting members of the team, which could be seen from the uniform he was wearing. The starting member's numbers were written in red on the white uniform while the others were in blue.

"What's up? I thought the game was at 5 PM. It's only 12 right now." Nathen asked.

"Well, it's like this. The people from the other university said that they wanted to invite us to play another game with the people from Ye University because the Ace from their team wasn't able to make it and the soccer team from Ye University was going to play them this morning." The captain, Jason, said.

"They expect us to believe them?" Nathen questioned.

"I don't think they care. They just want to see our prowess's against another top university so as to better prepare for the tournament in the fall." The vice-captain, Yu, explained his thoughts.

"If I play, then they will defiantly get an inaccurate scope of your abilities. They might go all out against you in the tournament, or maybe they will fear going against you. But they also know I'm not on the team anymore. If I carry and make them believe that the only reason you win is that I am there, then they might let their guards down. So, in the end, it depends on what you want them to believe. What do you say?" Nathen asked.

All the team members pondered for a bit. They didn't think what Nathen said was cocky at all, instead, he seemed considerate. Even though soccer was a team sport, once everyone had a certain level of skills, what mattered more was leadership, cooperation, and strategies.

Nathen excelled in both leadership and stratagems, understanding both his own team and his opponents, his charisma along with his other traits led others to willingly listen to him, improving their cooperation with his every planned move and action.

Psychology was one of the first things that Emilin imparted to Nathen, followed by the art of war. Though Emilin wasn't able to employ much of her knowledge about psychology on herself, it was still the topic, as well as medicine as a whole, that she knew the most about.

The members were speaking between themselves, debating how they should utilize a resource as useful as Nathen, while Nathen would set up psychological cues that would make these people think more favorably of him and feel both admiration and the need to repay him for his troubles.

"I think we've come to a consensus then," Yu said.