The Clarke mansion

Abel stared at her. Dumbfounded by her words, he couldn't mutter out any word. He was stuck in place. "What happened?..",Jazzlyn began to speak but before she could finish, She had already been pulled into a tight but harmless hug.

"Thank you very much!", Abel proclaimed.

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It has been 72 hours since that meeting. Abel had planned to meet Jazzlyn when school closed. The details of the meeting was that he was to be trained by a butler whiles Jazzlyn will be trained by her brothers. I guess they really cared about their sister's wellbeing. The Clarke family was a family everyone knew about. This was because of their contribution to the rebellion.

Five families had contributed to the Blaze faction during the rebellion. Each of these factions were provide the faction with resources to help it achieve its goal. Their sacrifices didn't go unnoticed. When the faction had seized power, they decided to add these families to the family branches underneath the superior faction's. Due to this, no one dared to challenge them. They were revered by all who were present in the faction's territory and even around the world.

I wonder what would have happened if the rebellion was a failure. Would the entirety of these families be slaughtered on account for treason? Would the whole story be any different from now? Only time could tell.

Since the death of the progenitor, the family's reputation in terms of strength had deteriorated considerably. Other families made fun of them because of that. Maybe that was the reason why Jazzlyn didn't speak much about her family in school. The disgrace was too much for her to shoulder.

The hope and heiress of the family throne had also ran out of the city with her boyfriend. Although it was good that she had left the city, since most of her actions would have ruined the family one way or the other. She had sold the family's gold in return for a fortune which she had squandered in a casino with her boyfriend.

All that was left was Jazzlyn and his twin elder brothers. They were the future of the family since Jazzlyn couldn't absorb the energy of the crystals. She had had a brute series of countless martial arts training from his late father but in a world where one doesn't belong, martial arts wasn't the answer to a harmonious lifestyle. She needed something more than that in order to survive this accursed world.

The boys on the other side had no choice but to speed up their growth or else their family's integrity would go down the drain. They have indeed done their best and graduated Lysander academy with the best grades of their year. They were adored by the leaders of the faction because of their prowess. After their years of struggling in Lysander academy and other tertiary advancement organisations, they had finally claimed their seat as the leaders of the family. Things have started off on a right foot since everything was going on as expected.

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School had finally closed and Abel was already outside the classroom; waiting patiently for Jazzlyn. The time had finally come for the training regime to begin. Abel knew there could be surprises and had a stock pile of stat points at his disposal. He didn't want to take chances. What more could one expect from a butler?

Creak!

The classroom door opened and Jazzlyn walked out of the room. She had her usual aloof look on her face. She had been this way since she first stepped her feet into the classroom. Her cold expressions and introvert nature were the things that made people despise her. They thought she was being proud and avoided her the least second she came into sight. Her presence was termed to be unnatural for them.

"Hey, lead the way and let's go ", Abel suggested with enthusiasm. He had heard many things about the Clarke family's mansion and he was excited that he was going to enter such a place before he dies.

Such a silly ideology though but that was the right thing to do at the moment.

The cold expression still lingered even though she had heard Abel's voice. She was in a state of coldness and nothing except exiting the school gates would stop her. "Okay but don't delay just because you are at the back. I will leave you here if you think of doing that ", she voiced out in a creepy way.

Beads of sweat were evident on Abel's face. "What is wrong with her? How did her whole demeanour change like that, was it because of what happened the other time", he mumbled to himself in search of a suitable answer. His thoughts had consumed him in an instant and he was now following her like a puppy.

The school gates stood at the four entrances of the school and students were allowed to exit out of the one closet to their home's direction. This time Jazzlyn was headed towards the east gate which led to an empty street. Most of the students did not use this route because of how empty the streets of that area were. They were afraid of being kidnapped or killed or robbed by the inhabitants of the area.

When Jazzlyn and Abel had reached the empty street, Jazzlyn had stopped. She seemed to be waiting for someone. She removed her cellphone from her backpack and made a quick call. The call was just like I have said, quick.

Within some few minutes, a limousine had pulled up in front of where they stood. An old man walked out of it and opened the door ushering them to enter. Jazzlyn didn't hesitate and entered the car immediately dragging Abel alongside her. "What were you waiting for? We've got no time to waste ", she said with urgency.

Abel sat tight with a worried look on his face. Who won't feel scared when being pulled into a stranger's car. It took some brief conversation between the two parties before the tension could subside. It turns out that the driver was the butler Jazzlyn had spoken off. He was the one going to teach him how to fight. Looking at the old man from the rear mirror one would think that he was too thin to be a fighter. Since Jazzlyn was the one who had spoken about him, Abel wasn't going to underestimate the man.

The journey continued for some minutes before the sound of gates opening was heard coming from the front. They had finally reached the Clarke family mansion. The place which was the talk of the city because of its elegance. The car came to a halt not long after the gates had opened. Doors of the car were widely opened as the old man stuck his head inside of it. "We have arrived home, young mistress", he said with a smile on his face.

"Thank you, Mr. Robert", Jazzlyn said while stepping out of the car while dragging Abel alongside her. "Can you stop this, you are making me look like some kid", he said in disdain. He couldn't take it anymore, was it because of the hug he had given to her during their time at the park? Was there another reason for this?

Jazzlyn looked him in the eye and shook her head in annoyance. "Sorry about that, I thought we were still in school", she answered with a smile on her face while scratching the back of her head. "What the hell? How can she say that? Is there a luxurious limousine in the school?", he asked himself in disbelief.

The mansion was indeed huge as they have described it to be." Who would have thought that Jazzlyn was living in a beautiful mansion like this?".

They proceeded into the mansion where they were greeted by the serenity of the interior of the mansion. After taking a few steps, they had already reached an elevator. The elevator reached a certain height and both Robert and Abel had gotten off it. Jazzlyn was to meet her brothers for her lessons.

Abel and Robert proceeded through the gloomy hallway which stretched out to a certain point. There were many doors on both sides of the walls of the hallway. Robert proceeded towards the second door where he had inputed some information into a small screen at the side of the metallic door.

It opened soon after the door had accepted the information. Robert stepped into the room. He tapped on a ring he was wearing and two clothes fell onto the ground. Upon closer inspection, they were two yukatas. One was black and the other was red in colour.

"Take this one", Robert said while tossing the black yukata to him at a unimaginable speed.

The cloth had hit him right in the chest. The force exerted by the cloth had pushed him back a bit.

With just this sudden movements Abel could sense goosebumps all over his body. Was his body screaming because of this man? How strong could he be? Thoughts were running wild in his head.

"Wear the yukata", Robert ordered in a cold tone. Abel complied with his words and had already taken off his clothes. He swooped the yukata on in one go. They were inside a battle arena.

Moving to the middle of the place, they each took their stance and started to seize each other up. "Give me your all", Robert said while signalling Abel to inch forward. Abel who wasn't sure of what could happen, stood still while contemplating about what to do.

"I have no combat experience, how do you expect me to fight?", he asked trying chicken out of the fight. "This is just a simple spar to gauge your strength. So I can teach you some thing you can control", he replied and continued to signal him to inch forward. This time Abel had no reason to be afraid.Dashing towards Robert, Abel readied his fist for a simple front jab.

Swish!

The punch was delivered with accuracy and persistence. It teared through the air as it traveled towards the face of Robert.

[Apathy is at 10%]

Abel stared at the screen in annoyance since he couldn't understand why a simple punch had cost him that much stamina loss.

Boom!

The fist had landed at where it was suppose to land. Abel opened his eyes to look at where his fist has landed when he had heard the sound. The fist had indeed struck Robert's face but it was for some few seconds. Robert grabbed his wrist at an incredible speed which almost sprained his wrist. He yanked him towards himself. The whole thing happened so fast that Abel wasn't able to keep up with it.

Bang!

The sound resonated throughout the whole place. Abel dropped his eye view to the the metallic floors of the arena only to see a huge fist implanted in his gut. He fell to the floor while grunting and holding his stomach in pain.

Boom!

Before he could regain his composure he had being kicked in the jaw by Robert. The force behind the attack had caused him to roll several feet from his original position. Abel had his hands curled up in a fist while panting uncontrollably. He was all battered up and didn't seem to be in a good condition. Beads of sweat were gliding down his face like snakes. He used the tip of the sleeve of the black yukata he was wearing to clean the sweat of his face. He tightened his fists and readied his body for an attack.

On the other side of the room was an old man. He was clad in a red yukata which made him a bit imposing. Even though Abel had most of his body covered in bruises, this man stood with his arms folded while looking unscathed by the fight he was involved in. His calmness was evident since he hadn't taken any rash decision.

(This is end of Abel's memory recollection and an explanation of what led to the spar with the old man.)