Chapter 26

After her little lecture ended, she decided to start with the easiest thing. I once again went towards the sports inventory, doing different exercises. And as time went by, it was already evening.

I was looking at the familiar white ceiling.

"You did well today." I heard a voice from the side. Jessie was probably cleaning after us.

I must be the one to do it, but I've got close to zero strength right now. I couldn't move my body as I lay spread legged on the mats. It was hardcore training. Jessie said it was focusing on cardio.

After my breathing stabilized, I was able to ask her a question that was tormenting me from the middle of this training.

"Will every training session be like that?"

"Of course not." I heard something heavy being moved around. "We would combine all different kinds of training. The cardio, the strength-based, striking, grappling, mixing all elements into one."

I saw a smiling face obstructing my view.

"Now get up. It's time for us to go."

I made an unintelligible sound and went to the changing room\shower. After getting back into my casual clothes, I saw that Jessie was ready as well.

"Shall we go?"

"Yeah, let's go." she nodded.

The long tunnel-like corridors were all illuminated by the lamps hanging down from the ceiling. The sun going down didn't affect the visibility at all; instead, it made this building look bigger and richer. They didn't care about energy consumption, nor did they care about using every ounce of the space efficiently.

"By the way, what kind of person is Patrice?" as we were walking down the stairs, I remembered the thing I should've asked her.

"He is a nice guy." her answer came almost immediately. "What are you nervous about before seeing him?" she turned her head around and raised the corner of her lips.

"You can say it like this."

"Don't worry, you will get along." She slapped me on the shoulder.

"I hope."

After slowly walking for a few minutes and talking about the future training, we reached the front gates.

And I saw the familiar car of the Arndt family. And a second later, the owner of this car, Paul, came out as well. He waved his hand at us.

"I will give you a ride."

I didn't want to take their kindness for granted, but I was too tired to walk back home on foot. In the end, after refusing the offer of this amiable man once, I ended up succumbing to the desire of sitting down on something comfortable.

As we all buckled up, our car started moving in the direction of my home.

"So, how were the training kids?" I caught Paul looking at us through the rear-view mirror.

"Not bad, I think." I squeezed a smile out of myself.

"You don't need to worry, dad. Erlig performed really well." Jessie chimed in.

"I'm not worried about him. I'm worried if you did well."

"What?!"

"Ahahaha."

The rest of this small ride was accompanied by the bickering of father and daughter. As I looked into the window, I saw countless lights coming from the buildings, advertisement signs, or from the road.

The city was bustling even at such an hour. As most of the office clerks were coming back home from their jobs, the streets were crowded. This brought back memories of my childhood. When I was young, I used to ride in the car with my dad to get my mother from her work. It was always during or after the sunset, so the streets were always illuminated heavily. The things I saw right now were painfully similar to the things I saw back then.

"We're almost there."

Paul's phrase interrupted my rumination. I looked around, and it was indeed my neighborhood.

"By the way, Erlig, I heard your college's guidance counselor took a sick leave."

My eyebrows went up after hearing this.

"Do you know anything about this?" as the car stopped, Paul turned around to look at me.

"N-no." I shook my head.

He smiled. "I thought so, well, relax for the rest of the day, and be sure to come to the training tomorrow in the top form.

Saying my goodbyes to the family, I went back home. Greg has already returned, and so I talked with him and Annie about the training. Then I did the same routine of eating dinner, taking supplements, and then taking a cold bath.

It was soon time for me to go to sleep, but there was something that occupied my mind.

"Violetta took a sick leave." when I heard it, I freaked out. What if she went and told everyone that I raped her? She probably had all the means to do so. I've left plenty of biological traces.

Sure she did make my life harder, but I can't just go and become a vigilante.

I heard a squeaking sound. My bed was probably too old already. I looked around the room I was in again. And I've come to one thought. My family was poor, thus I was poor. What did it mean? That I couldn't do shit against those who had money.

I didn't know how it was done in this world, but back on my own, the one who had a bigger money bag won in court.

I cupped my head. Through the gaps of my fingers, I saw how the light in my room flickered a few times.

"Violetta probably has lots of money, enough to sue me to death." my gaze landed on an old pc, then on a small bookshelf. "And what can I do?"

Sure I tried to frighten her, but what would happen when it stops working? Should I be the first to strike? But then, I would need to fight against those who ordered her as well. Ask for help from Mara?

"Sounds like shit." my mouth scrunched up, and I laid down on the bed, invoking more squeaking sounds.

"Who can help me?" I looked at a shabby ceiling. "Heh, I guess Reid can help me." I made a wry smile.

Hilarious, the only one I can ask is the one who goes after me. I guess he relies heavily on his parents. But even without them, I'm sure he learned something about forcing girls into submission. But when I thought of girls and submission, one more guy came into my mind.

A second later, I was already calling him on my phone.

"What's up, big guy?"

"Jet, good morning."

"Wha? It's evening already."

"I know, it was a joke." Unlike what I said, I wasn't laughing because I had something more serious to talk about. "I've got one thing that I wanted to ask you."

"Sure, I'm always up to talk to you. What is it?" His voice sounded motivated.

"I've read this one book lately." I started with a lie that was already proven to be effective.

"Uh-huh, how did you even get time for this? Shouldn't you be training all day long?"

"It's because I'm this good."

"Hah, whatever, so what's about this book?"

"Yeah, and I read this book, where the story centers around a guy who blackmailed a woman into a relationship with him and basically stole her from someone else."

"…"

"And it depicts what he does to stay out of the reach of the law. How he hides everything, and so on."

"…" I heard how rough Jet's breathing got. Don't worry buddy, you helped me once, and I don't plan to confront you over the woman.

"And so I've come to think. What can I do if I want the same results? What should I do if I want a woman to submit?"

After a long silence, I finally heard a hoarse voice. "And why are you calling me?" he sounded horrified.

"Well, I can't possibly talk about this with my father, yeah?"

"Yes." and a loud gulping sound.

"And then I came to understand that you are my only male friend. Won't you help me?"

"Ugh."

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, uh, nothing, I think I ate something weird." yeah, of course, you ate your conscience.

"So, do you have any kind of advice? Let's say I blackmail a woman, just hypothetically. What should I do to prevent her from dragging down both of us?"

There was a long silence, but in the end, Jet opened his mouth. "Why are you even asking this?"

"You know me, I'm interested in all kinds of stuff. Especially the one that is somehow connected to psychology."

"I guess you are." he made a long, heavy sigh. "Well, I think you should basically make her fall in love with you, and all your problems would fly away. You know, how they say, there is a thin line between love and hate."

I hummed and nodded. Yeah, if you are smart enough, you can try and subvert the strong feeling of hate into love. But I don't know if I'm smart enough, and I don't need this. Because the reverse thing can also happen. Love will turn into hate.

"And what if I don't want to?"

"It's pretty obvious then. You should make it look like love." Jet answered pretty fast. Was he ready for my question?

"Hm, you are probably right."

But how should I make it look like love? I rubbed my nose bridge.

"For example, you can make it known for certain people that you are in a relationship."

Yeah, I certainly can, like hell I would say it. I tapped my phone, and suddenly I came to a realization. Can't I just film us? Invite her to a normal-looking environment and film us having sex? Won't it count as making it look like love? I don't know, but it was a plausible idea. If I make it look like she is the one who took initiative.

A plan was forming in my head when I heard Jet interrupting my train of thoughts. "What do you think?"

"I think it's the best thing we can think of."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, we aren't authors of some kind of novel?"

He went silent for a second before answering. "Well, yeah, we aren't."

"Thank you for giving your advice. By the way, I remember you had an action camera?"

"What do you need it for?" Nothing supernatural that he sounded suspicious. After this talk, I would think that I'm not normal as well. But I've already had my excuse.

"I need it for my training. I remembered it after talking to you. It would be great if I could film my moves, compare them with the moves of professionals."

"Oh, that," He nodded, "Yeah, you probably should. I've had it lying somewhere. Should I give it to you on one of these days?"

"I will come to the classroom tomorrow, and I will take it from you if it doesn't bother you."

"Yeah, no problem here."

"Then it's decided. I think I should go to sleep now."

"Same here."

After we finished talking, I saw how my hands were trembling slightly. If I will be lucky, I would be able to be invincible for Violetta.

Thinking like that, I fell into dreamland.

The next day started with a usual routine. Breakfast, short conversation, packing the bag, leaving for Birchland High. As I entered the campus, I should've come to the gym, but I instead went to my classroom. There I saw Jet and took the camera.

Saying my thanks, I went toward the gym looking at a small cube. It was a good idea to ask for an action camera from him. The quality would probably be bad, but it works for me.

Soon I reached the gym and went in without feeling as nervous as I was in all my previous times.

I was met by Jessie in almost the same outfit as before. However, as I turned my head, I saw another person. A black guy was leaning against the cage door.

I think I remember seeing him when I was passing the trial. As he saw me, he waved his hand. He was dressed in simple shorts that were loose and a t-shirt without any print. He was tall, taller than me by half a head and his hands were disproportionately long. But he was less brawny than me. I remember he had a sort of spiky haircut when we first met, but right now they were cut down a little bit, with a beautiful pattern trimmed on the sides of his head. His body was rather intimidating, unlike his face. He wore a kind smile, and his eyes were radiating friendliness.

"What took you so long?" Jessie asked me, but I only shook my head.

I wanted to end this quickly, so I came closer to the guy. He will be my coach, huh?

I extended my hand for a handshake. "Nice to meet you, I'm Erlig Grimes, and I will be in your care." I slightly lowered my head.

I heard a laugh coming from the guy. "Hahaha, no need to be so official." he had a very pleasant mellow voice as well as a very light accent. "Nice to meet you Erlig, but we are already acquainted."

"But the situation changed. Now we are a teacher and a student if I didn't take it wrong." I looked at Jessie, and she nodded slightly to my words.

"You're right, then I'm going to introduce myself once again. I'm Patrice Vidal, head-trainer that teaches striking in the team "Brave and Bold" nice to meet you."