The first time I invited Clara to train with Alex and me, it was not pleasant. She came with her new bodyguard, an Ork who looked like he was made of pure granite. He wore a black suit and had one of those see-through earpieces. The Half-Dwarf boy felt a bit miffed about her all of a sudden showing up by my side. What with him having suffered under her bullying for all those years, I couldn't blame him. We were in a large Gym. The building had various gym equipment and mats. I had brought a bag filled with sparring stuff with me as well which we could use outside on the grass.
"She switched my dad's delicious mouthwatering homemade cookies with salty ones, recorded us eating them and shared it with the whole class. That is who you want to train?"
"Ooooh did I make the little one cry?" Clara mocked unhelpfully.
"Little one, little one," Alex muttered angrily.
"Alex calm down," I tried to soothe him.
"I'm not little, we are the same age! I'm just shorter because I'm a Half-Dwarf. Do you know how offensive it is to call a Dwarf little?"
Clara shrugged, "I call Selena little all the time and she doesn't complain."
"Well, that's because, uhhh what was it again, oh yeah, that's because she has internalized racism." Alex nodded at getting the right words. "How would you like it if I called you knife ears, huh?"
"Oh no," I massaged the bridge of my nose.
Clara inhaled sharply, "What did you say? Do you have any idea how offensive that term is?"
"Clara calm down," I tried to soothe her.
"Yes, I know how offensive it is. That's why I said it, as a demonstration," the Half-Dwarf shouted.
"Whatever midget," the elf said while crossing her arms in contempt.
"Nope too far, way too far," I said as I watched Alex start to fume literally.
The Half-Dwarf was ready to charge and I had to put in my all to hold him back, "Let me go at her. Let me beat her rich pompous ass up. I will turn her into pulp and pulverize her bones into ash."
"Wait hold on," I said as I pulled on his shirt. "Her bodyguard is right there." The aforementioned bodyguard seemed to simply be amused by our antics.
"I don't care. You have to let me beat her up."
I gave the Half-Dwarf a powerful shove and shouted out, "Enough. Cut it out, both of you. Clara if you want to be... 'My disciple'," I made some air quotes with my fingers. "You have to get along with my friend here. Alex stop letting her get under your skin."
"Tch, fine. I'm sorry," Clara stretched out her hand. Alex hesitated a moment before accepting it.
"Why did you accept her as a disciple anyway?" Alex asked genuinely.
I shrugged, "Cause she's loaded." I got punched in the arm, "Ow, hey what was that for."
"You could've worded that nicer," She said.
"Hey, you're supposed to be my disciple here. What kinda disciple punches their master?"
"So what?" Clara said. "Can we get started or not."
"Unbelievable," I shook my head. I made sure she regretted that during our first session of training. Surprisingly she did put in her all. By the end of the day, we all went home exhausted. Over the next few days, we continued, until one day Blake got his daughter her own personal gym where we could train. Rich people were something else.
My weekly schedule mostly consisted of going to school, because it was mandatory, going to martial arts school three times a week, training with Alex and Clara, preventing Alex and Clara from killing each other, studying as much useful stuff as I could in my free time and finally teaching Clara. What do you have if you have a sponge that can absorb endless amounts of information? Apparently, you have Clara Yllaris. The girl learned crazy fast. She was excellent with her questions too, challenging my understanding of the concepts I was teaching. By teaching her my foundations of knowledge became far more concrete, which also helped me learn new things faster.
I was heavily invested in drones and AI. Many drones could be cheaply manufactured and could easily serve as weapons in war. The main problem was controlling a large number of them, which is where AI came in. If AI got better recognition software and could better target enemy combatants, swarming enemy lines with drones could become more feasible. This possibility was extremely terrifying, but my research into the topic could proof useful, with the way things were going.
The terrorists that escaped, had posted an outrageous ransom for the hostages. Demanding twenty-five million Clestian Marks for all of them. For conversion, one Clestian mark equalled about one US Dollar as it was valued in November 2024. The terrorists were part of an organization that called themselves 'The Black Eagles.' They called for all races except humans to be denied the right to vote and hold political office. The police presence in Greenfield had increased tremendously. I couldn't take the Metro there without seeing at least four or five cops. I wondered what all the CCTV cams were for if they couldn't locate a bunch of terrorists.
The Black Eagles weren't the only ones gaining national attention. In a city northwest of New Norstoen called New Lenzgen, a group that calls itself the Proud Underground staged an extremely large bank heist. They were considered a far-left organization, that had already previously successfully assassinated a rich industrialist. One major issue with both terrorist networks was that they were ostensibly linked to foreign powers. The Black Eagles to Eislath of course and the Proud Underground to Iomas. This increased tension dramatically again, as many in Clestia called for war against one of these countries to stop the terrorist networks from expanding inside the country. There just wasn't a whole lot of agreement on which country to attack.
The current government under the National Unity Party was losing support. They had bet a lot on increased stability through the use of police and military. The stability they were hoping for was not to be found. The People's Progress Party was using this fact against them. The PPP accused the NUP of creating divisions within the country by demonizing Orks and Dwarfs, which caused increasing polarization alongside the increasing inequality within the country.
Rallies were also becoming more frequent. The right and left were constantly clashing on the streets. There were some minor riots here and there. General Arnold Andras, who was the Federal Minister of Defence, had called for martial law, which was for now denied. However, there were various movements within the government. The PPP was growing increasingly vary.
A year passed by, and we finally had election season.