Ian went along with the man to his house. It was big, bigger than the house he had lived in before. He looked around like a curious puppy, taking in the new environment. The house had a warm atmosphere making him feel at home instantly. Ian saw the pictures of the boy who had died and along with his parents on the wall and it made him a little depressed. However, when he saw a lot of dishes on the dining table, his eyes lit up again.
The man pulled a chair for him to sit. "You must be hungry. Let's eat something." The duo ate in silence. Ian noticed that the man was not a big talker or it was maybe they had just met, he was being silent. But it was not awkward. Ian ate a lot of food, more than he had eaten when he was in the orphanage and the man's smiled seeing this. 'At least the kid was returning to normal.'
After eating, the man took him to a room. "This was my son's room. From now on, this will be yours."
Ian was surprised. He had not expected the man to take him to his house, let alone give him his son's room. 'This place must be dear to him and it would not be good if I took it.' Ian thought.
"Sir, but this is your son's room.." Ian trailed.
"Yes, and now it will be yours." The man declared and Ian could do nothing but to accept it. The man had given him one look which had made him agree to his words without delay.
"Good. Get some rest and we will go shopping later. I do not have any clothing in your size."
Now Ian could not deny his words. He truly did not have any clothes with him. All that he had been wearing for the past two months belonged to the kids in the orphanage and while coming his mentor had asked him not to bring anything with him.
After four hours, Ian had a full wardrobe of shirts and pants as well as four pairs of shoes. The boy was more than astonished by the amount of money that was spent on him. Every time his mentor had picked up a shirt or a pant, Ian had tried to deny it only to get a glare in return. Ian had accepted it and had come to terms that nothing he said or did could stop the man from buying him what he wanted. So, he allowed him to do as he wished.
"Now that you have all that you require, let's go and find yourself a school. We do not want you wasting your seven months sitting idle."
"But sir..."
"What? You don't want to go to school?" The man narrowed his eyes again and all of Ian's courage vanished like a poof.
"Nothing."
"Good. I wanted you to go to the school that Noah and Joshua study in. But they do not allow mid-term admissions. I can only send you to the next best school."
Ian wondered who Noah and Joshua were. 'Were they related to the man? Are they his sons? Will I be meeting them?'
"Don't worry. I'll introduce them to you someday." The man replied as though sensing the questions in Ian's mind.
The next day, Ian was finally admitted to a school. It was the same school where Ivy and Aria were studying. He liked it at once. This one was way better than the school he previously studied in. It was huge and had a big playground. He found everything in there interesting. Looking at Ian's twinkling eyes, the man was satisfied.
"Your classes will start from tomorrow. So, you have a day. Do you want to do something?"
Ian looked at him blankly. He did not know anything here. Everything looked different from where he had come. Everything was new and his mentor had already done a lot for him. He was not ready to burden him more.
Looking at the boy's hesitance, the man guessed what was going on in the boy's mind. He sighed. He realized that the boy needed more time to get adjusted to him. "It's okay. Let's go home for now."
That night, Ian was so excited that he could not sleep properly. He was anticipating for the next day to come so that he could go to his new school. When the time actually came, he was as nervous as ever. Ian was in front of the school gate, his feet stuck to the spot. His mentor tried all he could to lessen his anxiousness, but to no avail.
Finally, after a lot of coaxing, Ian entered the school and went to his class. He had expected his classmates to be arrogant and to not accept him. However, to his surprise, he had made quite a number of good friends. On the way home, he narrated all that happened at school to his mentor and the man listened as intently as possible. The man noticed that the kid looked a livelier than before.
This went on for a few days and Ian had opened up to the man. They would joke around at the dining table and Ian would tell him all that he had done during the day. One day, his mentor brought Ian to someplace.
"Ian, now that you are all settled, I want you to train."
"Train?" The boy looked at him confused.
"Yes. You need to learn self-defense. If something like that happens to you again the future, at least you must be able to protect yourself." The man had kept his son away from all of these as he felt that with him present, his son would not be in any sort of danger. However, he had been wrong. If only he had trained his son, maybe he would be alive and happy.
"You will be there for me right?" Ian looked at him hopefully. It was not that he did not want to train, but he was scared.
"Ian, don't worry. If you are not ready, I won't force you." The man assured him. "But listen to me. The world is not as good as you think it to be. You need to be physically and mentally strong to protect yourself or people will take advantage of you. Now it's up to you to decide if you want to go ahead or not."
Ian thought for a while. He had experienced first hand that not all men were good and what his mentor had said was true. He had to train himself to become strong and powerful. Nobody but him will responsible for his own life and when the time comes, it would be his abilities that would help him avoid danger.
Ian turned to face his mentor with determination in his eyes. "I am ready."
"Good, let's go. The boys must be waiting for us."
The man took Ian inside and they walked along the long hallway. They finally entered a room that looked like a training room. Ian saw that there were two boys around his age who were in the midst of training. His mentor left his side and went to give them instructions.
"Attack him towards his left, it's his weak point. And Jo, you have given him a loose spot to attack, tighten your stance." The man barked a series of instructions and Ian watched the two boys fight. It took seven minutes for the match to end and nobody had been defeated. Both the boys were panting with sweat trickling down their faces.
Noah, Joshua, come with me. I am going to introduce someone to you. "This is Ian. He will be training with you now on."
The boys took a look at Ian and dropped their towels. Without waiting for another moment, one of them punched him right in the face. Ian looked at him in horror. This was the first time, he was meeting him and he had done nothing to them.
"Noah, what are you doing? Get back here right now." His mentor ordered which went on deaf ears.
"Relax, mentor. We need to see if he is capable of training with us." Joshua said, taking a sip from his bottle.
As soon as Ian stabilized himself, Noah punched him again and this time he fell to the ground. His face was bleeding. Before the boy could attack him again, Ian kicked him in his stomach hard and the boy staggered back. Ian got up, ready to defend himself, when the boy instead of attacking held out his hand. "Sorry. I was just testing you to see if you are a weakling or not and you are not. I am Noah."
"And I am Joshua." The other boy chirped and that was how Ian had met his friends.
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