Training...
"Haha, what can these little diseases do to the great ME! I'm still strong enough to live for a few more decades." Alexander said, laughing heartily.
"Don't laugh so much, dear! You might get a heart attack." Mrs. Hawthorne said, worried about her husband.
"Don't worry, my heart is strong enough." Alexander said, as he curled up his right hand, showing his plain body that's full of veins, mostly due to age.
"Sigh" Mrs. Hawthorne Sigh as she took a sip of her tea as Alexander laughing seeing her sigh.
###
[At the Same Time]
[Swimming Pool, Rooftop]
[Ivan's Pov]
"I just need to keep my Focus on keeping my hips up. Using my legs to push down and make my body float." I muttered as I land onto the water while grabbing the support bar.
But as I stop grabbing the bar and actually try to do what commander told me, I felt my body being drowning into the water.
"Ugh" I let out a growl as I move my hips at the same time i move my legs, hands.
But it didn't do any good as I drown down even more, feeling hopelessness and having a hard time breathing, I stopped breathing as I try everything to move back to the support bar.
It took me more than 10 second to reach there while trying to flail underwater while I hold my breathe and only after that was I able to grab the support the bar and bring my head out of the water, breathing heavily.
"It's actually more difficult than it looks like." I muttered as I take my time to stabilise my breathing.
...
[5 minutes later...]
After five minutes of rest, I stopped gripping the support bar and focusing on keeping my hips high, determination shone through me. My legs kicked and my arms flailed, but this time, i felt something different. My body began to stay afloat.
"I-i finally learned how to swim!!" I muttered with happiness as I did what I was keep doing and swim around, my legs kicking while my arm flailing.
"Congrats, SOLDIER!!" Suddenly, a voice came from behind Ivan as Alex came inside, his hands inside his pocket as he shouted with enthusiasm.
'Damn, he learnt how to swim in just 15 or 20 minutes? He has already broken the world limit to learning the swimming.' Alex thought, his shocked expression hidden by the serious persona and expression that he hardly kept in.
"Thank you! Commander! It's all thanks to your guidance!" I said, my tone enthusiastic.
"Alright now, since you've learnt to swim, practice for a bit better you start to compete to reach the end and come back here as soon as possible."
"It will be hard for your body at first but the benefits outweighs the downsides, so do it now, soldier! I shall watch over you " Alex said, crossing his arms as he watched over me.
Hearing that, I nod my head as I start to swim toward the end... at first, my speed was shit but as I got used to swimming little by little, I could do it a lot better than previously, reaching the end and coming back to the starter line in 3 minutes.
"Ha..Ha...Ha " just breathe out heavily, trying to stabilise my breathing as I land on the hard ground, laying on it to recover my stamina.
"Now do it again, again and again! At least 15 times. It'll be the only lession that you'll learn today " Alex said, his tone serious and loud, his voice clear.
"Yes, Commander!!" I shouted, my breathing heavy as I was still exhausted.
###
Just like that, the first month passed. In the whole month, what commander taught me and I did was increase my stamina while getting used to heavy workouts.
And in this month, I could see insane gain as my stamina and my body undergo a huge change.
And right now, in 4AM, 1986/4/1, I was in front of the commander Alex, inside the gym.
"Alright soldier, since you've got into shape and had increase your stamina by a lot, we'll start the combat learning now." Commander Alex said, his tone serious, loud with a hint of satisfaction.
'To think the kid who I thought would give up in a week to show such determination and last this long... not to mention the monstrous talent this kid has..'
'Since you gain my approval and you got the talent, I'll train you like never before... I'll create a perfect soldier out of you!!' Commander Alex thought, a grin surging up to his face, indicating how serious he is about training Ivan.
"For starter, warm up for a minute before starting to do 40 normal push ups, 20 diamond push ups, 20 15 archer push ups, 80 squats, 50 dumbell row, 20 minutes of treadmill running. Complete it within 45 minutes " Commander Alex said, his tone loud and serious as ivan nod his head.
"YES! COMMANDER!" He shouted, starting to warm up his whole body.
'Finally, he's taking me seriously... it was a pain in the ass to make him go hard on training me but i guess I got his approval now.' Ivan thought while warming up.
'Just you wait, loanshakers! Your end is coming near!!' Ivan thought, murderous glint appearing in his eyes for a seconds before it disappear into thin air and he started his workout with the normal push up.
###
[Living Room.]
"I guess Ivan proved my thoughts wrong..." Alexander muttered, a small smile surging up to his face as he took a sip of his tea.
"What thoughts, dear?" Mrs. Hawthorne said as she came with a trolley with some breakfasts with tea.
"Nothing, just some passing thoughts that came up to me some weeks ago. Anyway, how do you feel about our new son, Ivan?" Alexander said, channeling the topic.
"Ivan? I like him already! He's quite diligent and is ways helping me in the kitchen " Mrs. Hawthorne said, clapping her hands, a small smile appearing on her face.
"Haha,i knew you'd like him. He really is a good kid... with a monstrous talent.." Alexander said the last word in such small and barely auditable voice.
"He really is... i hope those thugs who killed his real parents suffer. How could they make such good kid orphan... if not for us, he would have suffered so much..." Mrs. Hawthorne said, cussing the thugs that killed ivans parents.
"Indeed! Well, I looked into the incident but it turned out to be more deep than I thought..." Alexander said, making Mrs. Hawthorne have a change of expression.
"What did you found out? Dear?" Mrs. Hawthorne said, eager to know.
"It seems that these weren't your regular thugs but a loansharkers... and it seems that his previous father took a huge amount of loan from them and wasn't able to pay them back even after 4 years, resulting in them being killed while Ivan having his left eye useless with a vertically lined scar..." Alexander said, his face cold as he remembered his new son's left eyes scar.
He always knew that something was up when he saw the scars but he kept it to himself because he didn't want to pry too much Into it but curiosity got the better of him.
"How dare them... and that useless if a father of him.." Mrs. Hawthorne muttered, gritting her teeth, imaging the pain that Ivan must have felt.
"And not just that, his previous father was also an alcoholic abusive bastard..." Alexander said, his tone cold as his grip on the glass of tea hardened.
"Khhh these bastard's..."
"If they can't even take care of their child, why the hell would they even decide to have a child!!!"
"I really detest these criminal of a disgusting fathers.!!" Mrs. Hawthorne said, anger visible in her face.
"But don't worry too much, I'll look into them and see if I can return the favour they did to his previous family... just a bit if return "favour"... " Alexander said, his smiling cold face looking demonic as he said that.
"You have to bring in justice for Ivan..." Mrs. Hawthorne said, supporting her husband.
"Though why would Ivan lie to the police and to us about it?" Mrs. Hawthorne wondered.
"He mustn't know about these loans and police and even us didn't bother to ask him about his situation back on his real home, did we?" Alexander said, glancing at Mrs. Hawthorne
"Yeah... now I feel bad for not asking it early..." Mrs. Hawthorne said, feeling bad.
"Don't feel that way... it isn't your fault... we didn't look too deep into it so, it's kinda our fault too." Alexander said, consoling her from feeling bad any more.
With this, Alexander decided that he'll take matter into his own hands and bring justice for his previous son Ivan.