After the successful raid on the biggest underground event, almost every major betting party was caught, and the audience also faced severe punishments, Greg was arrested as well, due to Chase's request and him being a former lieutenant, but he didn't face extreme punishment but was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with him being 68 at the time, it might as well be life in prison.
Chase patted himself on the back for not allowing Alice to be there at his final fight. However, the whole adoption business was pretty hard to explain to her, she was grateful to Lucas for saving Chase's life if it wasn't for him being there Chase would've definitely been sentenced to death. Within a day, Lucas paid off all the remaining installments and even though he didn't want to show it, it was apparent that he felt a sense of joy in helping the orphans. As per his promise to Chase, he would fund the facility every month with enough money so that education and food are never compromised.
"With everything that you've done for me and the children, I should feel happy, yet I can't overcome this layer of sadness inside of me. With you being adopted, I'll never see you again, I wish you'd never grow up this fast," she said, as both of them looked at the kids cling to Lucas in the play area.
"I just want you to know that whenever you feel lost, you have a place to return to. This will always be your home Chase and you will always be my kid," she said, gulping down her sorrow, and holding back her tears.
"Fuck, I promised myself that I wouldn't cry, I don't want this to be a sad send-off, I want you to leave this place on a happy note."
"Is Alice crying?" asked one of the kids in the play area, as all of them ran towards Chase and clung to him.
"In these past few days, I have realized that there aren't any happy endings, endings are the saddest part of a story. All I wanted was a happy start and a happy middle, and I got that here. In all the years I spent here, I was never once sad, destroying my body on almost a daily basis was painful but never sad, without having you as my mother I never would've had a dream. As much as it hurts me to say this, this is goodbye Alice." he said as he left towards the orphanage doors.
"I'll be back soon… mom," he said turning back and giving her a sad smile with tears rolling down his eyes.
After 4 days of travel, they finally reached the Vulcan family manor.
"There are no happy endings," said Lucas
"Damn it would you stop with that, you've said that the entire way here," replied Chase with an annoyed tone.
"You're 14 for gods sake, try acting your age for once."
"Well sorry for trying to look cool and mature in front of my mother," he said.
The guards immediately recognized Lucas and welcomed him in, although they didn't know Chase, seeing him bicker with Lucas was proof enough that he was someone that Lucas knew.
Everyone in the manor was pretty shocked at Lucas' return, but what captured Chase's eye was the huge palace in front of him, the biggest house he'd ever seen was Greg's, but that didn't even come close to this. Beautiful gardens, two big fountains, a place where the knights and the family members would train, marvelous interior design, the place screamed "Rich", and he was about to live here, all of it seemed too good to be real.
"Like the place?" asked Lucas.
"Are you kidding me? The nobles are out here living in palaces with beautiful gardens while the rest of the population rots away."
"That's exactly how the world works kid. You know it better than anyone and to add to your surprise, this is just the manor of the branch families, it can't even compare to the manor of the main family," he replied.
"Elder Claudia! Lord Lucas is here, come fast or he might leave again without greeting you." shouted one of the maids.
"Hey! There's no need to call her here, I plan to visit her this time, I have important news for her-"
Before he could finish, an old woman came out of the palace running towards him.
"Lucas you impolite bastard is this your attitude towards the woman who birthed you?! Leaving without telling me and now you return, after 6 months!" the woman yelled.
"Calm down mother, I'm here to stay, I was just about to visit you, I need to talk to you about someth-"
"This time you will not leave the manor without choosing a bride, I am getting old, I want to see my grandchildren before I die. Guards! Capture him and do not let him go unless I say so." she ordered.
"No! Stand down! Mother, like I said I need to tell you something."
Caught between the crossfire of Lucas and his mother, the guards didn't know whose orders to follow.
"Not another word from you boy, if the guards don't restrain you then I'll have to do it myself."
"No no no, wait! What I want to tell you is, that this is your grandson!" he yelled as he pointed toward Chase who was still in a daze after witnessing the paradise in front of him.
"Grand…son…" she muttered before losing consciousness due to shock.
"You have a pretty weird relationship with your mother as well," said Chase, poking fun at Lucas.
Inside the palace, Elder Claudia's room,
It took her a while but Claudia finally regained her consciousness, she still couldn't process the fact that she now had a grandson. Lucas explained the entire situation to her but all of that didn't matter, all she cared about was that she'd witness Lucas be a father before she died. It didn't matter that the boy wasn't her own blood let alone a noble, she had never seen Lucas so happy before, she always knew of his dream to defeat the main family, the dream was finally coming to light, and the source behind his happiness was the boy, the only black-haired Vulcan.
Everyone in the Vulcan family had red hair but only the members of the main family had red eyes, the children of the branched families were born with black eyes, Lucas was no different, a red-haired black-eyed man about 190cm tall with a lean body. According to Lucas, the family began as a family of blacksmiths, the Vulcans discovered that their family was blessed with the bloodline skill of enchantment. However, it could only be passed on to one member in a generation, so only the strongest at the time got to inherit the ability of enchantment, establishing their family as the main family and the rest of them were known as the branched families, with a rule making it so that only a heir of the main family could inherit the shakti of enchantment. It wasn't just the Vulcan house that had this, many other noble families had this as well. As the power of enchantment grew stronger and stronger as each generation passed, so did the hold of the main family over the branched ones. Lucas wanted to end it, his plan was to send Chase to the Royal Capital Cerphis and enroll Chase in the Royal Academy of Listerna, the greatest academy in the country run by the the royal family themselves, everyone was welcome there as long as you had skill. Every year both the branched and the main families enrolled children with potential in the academy and luckily for Lucas, one of the main competitors for the position of the patriarch was enrolling in the academy the next year at age 15.
Meaning, he had a year to whip Chase into fighting form strong enough to pass the academy test and beat her in the first-year rankings.
After having the greatest meal of his life and sleeping on the comfiest bed ever, what met Chase was a brutal morning practice, the method mentioned by Lucas that Chase would use to unlock his full potential was, mastery over weapons. The only way to not destroy his body with pure Urja was to channel it in a weapon, way easier said than done as Chase didn't know jack shit about handling a weapon, as weapons were banned in the fights, Chase hunted animals bare-handed.
So, before teaching him how to wield a sword, he was about to learn how to handle a knife.