A Rose With Thorns

Reece expected this question, his son was a very intelligent person. So of course he would want to ask about the background of the Aniston Family after hearing so much about it. Reece took a seat across from Aily and Reed and looked at them with a serious look. Aily was about to get out of her seat and leave the room since she felt like she didn't belong there. But before she got up from her seat, Reed grabbed her hand.

"We're family, you have the right to listen to what dad is gonna say." Aily felt warm in her heart and sat back down. Reinforcing Reed's statement, Reece then spoke,

"Your brother is correct, we're family. The moment we took you in, you became my daughter. And even though you aren't blood related to us, it doesn't matter. In my eyes, family are those that you truly love and want to protect and you are certainly one of those people I want to protect."

Aily smiled, her life in Aniston was one of thing she treasured the most. Without them, she would most like be dead or barely living on the streets of Nova City. " Thank you," Aily said to Reece and Reed causing them to smile. Even though it were just two words, those two had a lot of meaning.

"Now then let's back to the matter at hand," now that his dad was finally gonna to talk about the Aniston Family's background. He had all of his attention on his dad, ready to absorb everything he's about to say.

"You guys are still too young to learn about the majority of things that the Aniston Family does, so I'll tell you the things I believe that you guys should learn at your age." Reece then cleared his throat and started explaining, "At the time the Aneis Federation was established as a nation, there were five noble families. One being the Aniston Family and one other being the Atkins Family. There are three other families, but you guys don't have to know about them at this time, as there is no point in knowing about the other three families.

" The reason why we're called as noble families is due to out great responsibility, that responsibility is to protect the nation from any foreign threats. This is something the Aniston Family has been doing for generations and will so for the next generation and the next. So this means that you guys in the future, Reed, Aily, will work alongside many others to defend the nation from any invaders in the future. You guys will one day be the ones who keep the people of our nation keep a smile on their face knowing that there is no sort of danger around them."

" Now that you guys know that you are part of the Noble Families. But don't let this get to your head, with power comes with responsibilities. I don't want you guys to think that your superior among your peers."

Reece knew how his son was, so he knew his son wouldn't even flaunt his status even if he knew he had a superior status among the majority of the people around. He did it just in case. Reed nodded, agreeing for both him and Aily not to flaunt their power, "You don't have to worry about us taking advantage of our status as you taught us to never do so."

Reece couldn't help but show a pleasant smile, " I knew I taught my kids well." Reed wanted to ask a few question but after a second of thinking, he chose not to say anything. The amount of information Reed just obtained from Reece was a lot. Before asking any questions, Reed wanted to process everything. Seeing that no one had any questions, Reece got up from his seat and said as walked towards the kitchen, "Your mom is gonna be home in a few minutes for dinner so go get yourselves cleaned for dinner."

After Feena got home and the family had dinner, Reed then went to Reece's study room and knocked on the door before entering. Reece who was inside the room heard the knock, "Come in."

Reece looked at the door to see Reed come in, " What do you need Reed?"

Reed didn't want to waste anytime and immediately replied, " I want some money to buy land and build a research and development facility"

"What would you need a research and development facility for?" Reece asked with a confused and questioning face. Reece couldn't think of a single reason why his son would need a research and development

"I've recently created my own weapon blueprints, so I want to build a prototype of them and I want research on specific weapon parts. " Reed didn't say anything about wanting to research on making a bomb purposely as it would cause unnecessary trouble and misunderstandings. After hearing what Reed just said, Reece couldn't help but be more confused.

"Then why won't you use my R&D facilities? Won't it be a waste of money to build something you already have?" Reece couldn't understand why Reed wanted to build a R&D facility when they already have there own.

"The reason why I want to build my own R&D facility is so that I could research and develop things without garnering much attention," explained Reed.

"Elaborate for me," Reece still needed more information to fully understand Reed.

" Well the Aniston's R&D facility have been releasing high-end variants of the Reaper AR every year. Each variant being better compared to the last and so due to that, as you gained 100's of millions of dollars by selling the most advanced weapon on the market, more and more people are paying closer attention. If they were to suddenly gain information about other weapons being developed, it's a good chance they would send people to steal the data. Something I don't want to happen and deal with."

Reece nodded, now understanding why Reed wanted to build a new one. " I understand, I'll give you a credit card with more than enough money to do whatever you need to do tomorrow."

After talking with his dad on minor subjects, Reed then walked out of the room. Reece who watched Reed as he left the room thought, " Just how many surprises will this kid give me. Sigh, he'll grow into an unfathomable being one day, I'm sure of it."

-----

The day quickly passed and Reed was now back in school. Right now Reed was a huge gymnasium filled with 160 1st year students, which were almost all the 1st years. Reed was part of the 160 and so was Aily and Daniel. The reason for the majority of the 1st years being gathered in the gym was for the martial arts competition. Though technology ruled this time and age, martial arts was never forgotten as it can enhance ones body.

This was one of the main reasons people still cultivate, and anyone can cultivate as from the start of elementary school, the students would get a free copy of a low level cultivation book. So students who didn't have a cultivation manual would have their own to train themselves with.

There are even rumors has it that if someone were to cultivate to a certain level, they would gain special abilities. Though they were rumors, many people say that you do gain abilities. This was another one of the main reasons alongside why people cultivate in martial arts till this day.

In the middle of the gymnasium were to male students trying to best each other in combat. Since this was happening on school grounds, there were ground rules to prevent both party from dealing any permanent damage to each other.

One of the people fighting was George Benel, he was the one who sent his lackeys and Conor to kidnap Aily. George was a Silver 2 while the other guy was a a peak bronze 5. As George fought his opponent, he couldn't help but feel disgust. He didn't like that fact of him actually pretending to have a good fight. He wanted to squash the insignificant in front of him immediately, but he knew if he did such a thing. The audience would immediately look down him and see him as a bully. That was something he didn't want to see.

After pretending to dodge and and block every hit his opponent was sending at him as if he was having a hard time for a good three minutes, George immediately punched his opponent the moment he saw an opening and threw him down on the floor.

" The winner is, George Benel!" Announced the teacher who was overseeing the match. The audience immediately applauded for George's victory.

"That was a good fight George," the person who George just defeated said to George as he had his hand out in front from.

' If we weren't in school I would've beaten the living shit out of you in seconds,' those were the words George thought but kept it inside and instead replied back and shook the hand of his former opponent, " That was indeed a good fight, I hope to fight you again in the future."

"Next up, Aily Fields vs Adam Felps!"

When Aily and Adam got to the middle of the gymnasium, they greeted each other before taking their stances.

When Adam first saw Aily, he couldn't help but be stunned for a second due to Aily's beauty. It's not surprising for Adam to react like this since any other normal person would have the same reaction as well. After snapping out of his daze, Adam carefully looked at Aily. What he saw was just a beautiful flower.

To be specific, what he saw was a rose, something could be used to make the scenery more likable. He felt no fear and thought he had an easy victory. But there was one important thing Adam forgot, it was that every rose have their own thorns.

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