Avatar: Mage of All Elements

King Bumi made this decision personally, and he ordered that you be taught well and on your conscience. The expectation was that you would be grateful to the land empire and defend it.

And as you know, it paid off in spades. You were assigned to the squad of talented guys who, with a reliable shield in the form of you, fully realized their potential and became the most effective squad in the history of the war.

You managed to completely paralyze the Fire Army on the entire front and provided crucial information. To those who knew you, your unit became a legend. But we realized that you were unlikely to want to be in the army, especially you.

So those who knew of you gathered and decided that we needed you to pass on your experience to your successors. They selected the most promising mages they could find, and after agreeing on a few details, they assigned you all the missions for your training. But the trouble started with you.

Too many aristocrats wanted to get their hands on you and plant their candidates under your side. You should have known what happened at that meeting.

But still, the combined efforts of several wealthy and influential families managed to keep you out of it, resulting in well-trained fighters. But there was a leak somewhere, and the Fire Nation found out not only about you, but that you were all taking disciples.

We had to urgently take precautions and, by accident or otherwise, put everyone in hiding. But those were only half-measures, and we needed to know where the leak was coming from.

At that point, we had hastily picked up all of your team members, and we didn't know where you were, which didn't help anyone's mood. We could only hope that you were well and had survived. And as I see it, our hopes have been fulfilled, and once again you have brought back some very important information.»

That was unexpected. Very unexpected. Still, it's not a pleasant thing to find out that something you've always taken for granted as luck or coincidence was actually someone else's well-thought-out plan.

It felt like I'd been screwed, in every way, and without my consent. I didn't know what to feel. I had to think. I had to think very hard and then I had to make a decision. But there was one question in my mind and I decided to ask it.

«Why?»

«Why what?» He seemed to know what I was going to ask, but decided to elaborate.

«Why did you tell me all this, because you could have kept quiet about all this. So why?»

«It's simple. The most common fear. I was afraid that if you learned all this in a negative light, the Empire of Earth might be threatened, given your power and abilities.»

«And so I saw it all in the right light for you.»

«Not for me, but as it really was. If I keep silent now, I can't predict the consequences. I love my family and I don't want to jeopardize it with you.»

«I have to think about it.»

«I won't bother you. The servants will show you where to spend the night», and he strode leisurely into the house.

Damn.