By the time the police arrived, the terrorists had already escaped. They had kidnapped five children, all connected to various rich families. One of them had apparently been Clara's close friend, Maddie. They had wrapped Clara into a blanket and gave her fresh clothes. She had been shaken up quite a bit by the ordeal. Last I saw her, her eyes had been vacant. I hoped that she would recover from this ordeal and not be mentally scared. As for me, I was mostly fine. When my parents arrived they were worried of course. My mom asked, "Oh my gods, are you alright? Did they hurt you in any way?"
To which I responded, "I'm fine, fine really."
My dad had been equally worried saying, "If you need anything, anything at all, please let us know. Don't keep anything inside. We're there for you, you understand?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, thanks," I said. We were surrounded on all sides by police cars, with their blinking lights. An ambulance was there as well taking care of the unconscious terrorist I had knocked out. I hadn't killed him, instead, I had given him a good concussion and a broken rib, which was life-endangering but was not yet deemed deadly. The cops had understandably been quite flustered when they learned that an eight-year-old child had beaten three terrorists by himself. As soon as the news was out, reporters naturally flocked to the scene. One came up to me. She introduced herself as Clare Simmons from CBC, which stands for Clestia Broadcasting Corporation. She had long free-flowing black hair and eyes with epicanthal folds. She dressed formally in a black reporter suit like one would expect and had light makeup on. She had an aura that was made for the camera, beaming with natural charisma.
My father at first was angry that our family's privacy was intruded upon, but I quickly pulled on his shirt to let him know that it was fine. Becoming famous was one of my goals in this life, and there was no better opportunity for fame than speaking to journalists. She asked me a variety of questions. "Are you actually eight?"
"Well yeah, you can check my birth certificate yourself," I responded.
"And you took down three terrorists by yourself? That's beyond mind-blowing," She commented.
"Ya know what they say, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is an eight-year-old with a gun."
"IIIII don't... think I've heard anyone say that?"
"Twas but a joke," I said with a wave of my hand.
"Ahhh," She nodded. "I see you are quite cheery despite the whole..." She waved her hands around. "Ordeal."
"Yeah, you know, it's so surreal. I don't think it has quite set in yet..." I gestured at my head. "In the brain. Like I can logically understand it all, but I don't think my emotions have quite caught up yet. Or maybe they have and I'm just not that affected by what happened, who knows," I shrugged.
"Yes, that sounds plausible," She nodded. "Well, I wish you and your family a pleasant evening. Thanks for responding to my questions." She patted my head, "What you did was very brave. Not many could do something like that. You're a hero."
I nodded awkwardly at that and touched my hair, "Thanks." Being called a hero by a hot woman has got to be one of the best feelings ever. With that, the reporter said her goodbyes and left. In the days that followed, I became more of a celebrity than ever before. My name was mentioned in every news outlet alongside the attack that happened. I was invited to speak at various gatherings. Even Blake Yllaris had invited me. He wanted to thank me personally for saving his daughter. My family couldn't say no to the invitation, since Clara Yllaris was my classmate and she had also written a letter to me, thanking me and inviting me. Declining it would have been awkward, but we declined most of the other invites.
So we went to his penthouse, which was located right smack dab in the center of New Norstoen. You could see the TeleComm tower, the Parliament building, an old Temple, various parks, and of course a forest of skyscrapers from up there. The penthouse was so over-the-top luxurious that it made me want to vomit. It was decorated with very modern sleek furniture, the floor was made of gleaming hardwood with plenty of carpets to add variety. It had a giant balcony that wrapped around two corners of the building with a giant green sanctuary on one side filled with all kinds of plants and in the middle a swimming pool that looked like it was going over the edge.
Blake's personal secretary, a woman by the name of Lydia Keys had let us in. She had short brown hair cut in a bob and wore a simple shirt and skirt combo.
When we had finally met Blake he had greeted us all with a firm handshake and bright smile, "So glad you all came," he said. Blake was an elf with sharp eyes and not just due to his epicanthal folds, and a very leisurely smile. He had a dark grey business suit on.
"Thanks for having us," My father had responded.
"This is my wife, Rebecca." Next to Blake was a model of female beauty. She was the sort of beautiful woman one would expect an extremely wealthy businessman to have as a wife. Chinese novels would describe her as a jade beauty. She was elven as evidenced by her long ears. Her hair was tied back into a bun with a strain of hair hanging loose. She wore a simple light blue blouse with a dark skirt.
"It is a pleasure to meet all of you," She said with a smile that felt weirdly unnatural to me.
Clara was the last to introduce herself, "Hi, I'm Clara. Pleasure. Hey Sam." She had been behind her parents acting unusually shy. She wore a simple purple sun dress.
As soon as we were all let into the penthouse my sister had let slip, "Damn this place is massive." Blake had chuckled and they had soon given us a tour of the place. The assessment that the place was massive could be considered a bit of an understatement. The place had three stories to itself, with one room being a private cinema. I had expected a lot, but honestly, I was taken by surprise by the amount of opulence. I guess this is how the richest man in Clestia lives.
When looking at it all, I was constantly reminded of how the other people lived in this city. How much poverty there was. I was reminded of my friend Drossel. I couldn't quite stomach the useless display of wealth that was everywhere. How many people were exploited for all of it? How many went hungry while something like this existed? How many had no shelter? I hated it.
My father seemed to feel similar, having nearly a frown that he tried to constantly hide. My mother on the other hand was always naturally bubbly and went along with the flow well. Her true mood was unreadable. My sister was amazed and giddy. To a child, this place was a castle.
After our tour, we settled in the living room, which had plenty of food and snacks to offer. "I can't express enough gratitude for what your son has done," Blake said. He had a large martini in his hand and was walking in front of the large windows that showed the city. "As a father, I'm sure you understand how precious our children are. I'm eternally in your son's debt and I don't say such words lightly. Right, darling." He kissed his wife who nodded in response.
"Yes, we are truly grateful," Rebecca said.
"If there is anything, that I can do for all of you?" He asked.
I thought of a couple of things, he could stop union busting, or stop investing large sums in propaganda, or start implementing proper workplace safety measures, but I knew better than to say those things.
My father waved his hand, "We are just glad that your daughter is safe. What do you think Sam?"
"Yeah, helping someone in need is only natural," I said. Besides I didn't even do it purely for Clara. What I did was mostly just self-defence, Clara only happened to benefit from that.
Blake smiled softly, "You all are very gracious, indeed. Please take this as a sign of my gratitude." He took out a cheque which he signed and handed it over to us. On the paper was a sum that equalled a quarter million. I looked over my father's shoulder as he was holding up the cheque. A quarter mill was of course always a little enticing. I whistled. I bet we could get a better place with this where both us and the Drossels could live. For someone like Blake that sum was merely pocket change, barely worth contemplation.
My father gave me the cheque, "This is yours if you want. We can invest it in your future."
"Or we could invest it now and get a slightly bigger place for us. Maybe get an actual Condo," I said.
"Not a bad idea," Blake said. "Renting means throwing money down the drain."
"Sure," Father said. "I used to move about a lot in my youth, but perhaps finally settling down somewhere isn't a bad idea."
I nodded at that, "Yes, let's do that."
My family discussed it for a bit and decided that it would be a good move.
We stayed with the Yllaris family till night. Clara wanted to show me her room, which was an extremely neat room filled with all kinds of awards she had gotten and various girl toys.
"You know, I know we've started off on the wrong foot," She nervously fidgeted with her hands. "Thank you for saving me." She handed me a cool-looking picture of myself. "I drew it yesterday and I want you to have it."
"Thanks," I said.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure," I said.
She dropped to her knees, "Can I be your disciple?"
"What?"
"Like the way you're training Alex? I also want to become better. Can you teach me pleeeease?"
I was momentarily puzzled. I took a while to consider the pros and cons and then decided that having the daughter of the richest man in the country be someone who looks up to you is a good thing.
"Ok. Y'know, if you wanted to learn martial arts you could just take classes from one of those Grandmaster Valli martial arts schools, right? I'm not teaching Alex anything special."
"I don't want to learn just martial arts. I want to become better at everything." She said with fire in her eyes.
I shrugged, "Fine. I will teach you as much as I can. But it will be excruciatingly hard. If you don't do what I tell you, I'll stop teaching." I think Feynman said something to the effect that if you want to learn something, you have to simplify it down to the language that a child can understand. So teaching Clara could help me learn a lot.
She strongly nodded, "I will not disappoint."
"From now on, you'll learn to truly despise me, muh ha ha ha ha," I said rubbing my hands together.
She stared at me with deadpan eyes, "Please take this seriously. I'm literally on my knees."