บท 22: Winter's Edge
The sun was beginning to set.
Within a large classroom filled with anatomy diagrams and pictures, three figures sat within. In the front was Carol, who sat on her office chair, while Tylem and Colt sat on two blue seats opposite to each other.
Colt had obvious fear in his gaze as he tried to avoid all eye contact with Tylem, while the latter did not spare the skeptical brown-haired boy even a single glance.
Tylem was on the phone without the slightest care that Carol and Colt were watching him. There were no rules that he couldn't be on his phone right now. Furthermore, she wouldn't stop him speaking to his mother, right?
"Honey, I've picked up Lynne, and I'm coming to your class right now." Emily giggled. "Sit tight!"
"I have detention though, Mother." Tylem did not want Emily to argue for him.
Tylem was unwilling to bring unnecessary stress for his family.
"It's fine." Emily assured him once again.
Soon enough, there were two firm knocks on the classroom's front door.
Naturally, Carol wasn't oblivious to Tylem's phone call. Therefore, when the knocking came, she wasn't surprised.
"Coming." Carol did not remain in her seat. In regards to the students who were able to attend Ivla, all of them had parents with great influence in the modern society; she couldn't afford to be disrespectful.
Opening the door, Carol was greeted with the beautiful face of a young woman who seemed to be around the same age as her, perhaps a bit older.
The beautiful woman's bright image astonished Carol for a second since she, herself, wasn't even married, much less having a seventh-grader as a child. In truth, Emily looked younger than her actual age.
"Hi, Madam." Carol offered her hand, smiling, "Can I assume you're here for Tylem?"
"Yep. Emily Xin, Tylem's mother." Shaking the teacher's hand, Emily replied.
"I'm Carol." Seeing that Emily seemed to possess a kind temperament, Carol was about to list all the wrongdoings that Tylem had done today.
However, before she could do that, Emily's voice suddenly turned cold. The atmosphere chilled.
"Tell me, Miss Carol. Who first instigated the incident?" Emily questioned, her confident almond eyes locking onto Carol's face. "Was it Tylem?"
"Well, that is…" Carol brushed her hair to the side. "No, Mrs. Xin."
"It was his classmate over there, Colt. He hurt Tylem's friend during a game of dodgeball, so your son returned the favor." Carol sighed, pointing at the tall brown-haired student.
In the heat of the moment, Carol left out important information.
... except that the pain which Tylem dished out was multiple times greater than Colt's throw.
When Colt heard this, his face darkened. In a hurry, he raised both hands, "It's true, ma'am. I caused this incident, and I'm willing to take all blame for what happened."
[I just want to get out of here, preferably as far as possible from Tylem.]
"Oh?" Emily raised her brow. That made things easier. With a big smile, she asked the female teacher monitoring the detention, "Since that's the case with even the perpetrator agreeing, what reason is there for Tylem to remain?"
Truth be told, Emily was prepared to tap into her connections if the discussion went south, but the harasser surprisingly owned up to his actions without trouble.
Unknown to her, Tylem's godlike strength had left an everlasting impression on Colt, especially those cold, calculative eyes of his.
"Mrs. Xin, I understand your concerns, but Tylem still ended up hurting another student today." Carol clenched her teeth, continuing, "It's just another hour."
"You're teaching my child that it isn't right to stand up for his friends?" Emily emitted a faint trace of killing intent, a feature she had picked up on the battlefield many years ago.
There was unmistakably more to this beautiful woman than meets the eye.
"Should he have just let everything go?" Emily continued, "Is that how the great Ivla teaches its students who are supposed to help lead our nation in the future?"
"To accept the harassment without retaliation?" Angrily, Emily slammed the desk. "If that's how our children are taught, wouldn't they be taken advantage of in the future?"
Emily was familiar with how the school's justice system worked, and she understood her demands were a bit unreasonable when following that system. Ivla was different in this regard due to the children's special status, but normal schools would punish the victims who stood up against their tormentors.
Carol was also getting carried along with Emily's fierce momentum, and she was unable to think of a suitable rebuttal under the pressure.
"I… agree with that." Slowly, Carol nodded.
"Great, then I'll be taking Tylem with me now back home." Emily's posture was straight as she held her hand out for Tylem to hold.
"Alright." Carol felt that something wasn't right, but she didn't know what else to do.
Like that, the mother-son pair left without looking back at all, leaving Carol in a disordered state. However, the other boy in the room was gleeful at this outcome; he even had the urge to host a party in celebration.
"That devil is finally gone. I can rest easy now." Colt grinned.
Carol's detention wasn't strict at all; she even allowed the students to speak. It could also be contributed to the fact that she was subconsciously afraid of offending them.
"Sigh." Carol wanted to slam her head against the wall in discomfort.
This was how Tylem's first frenzied day of school at Ivla came to an official end.
It was just one school day, but Tylem's mind felt worn out from everything that had happened. Starting from Onel, he had much to do.
The life of a student was, at times, even more stressful than that of a working adult.
* * *
When Tylem stepped out of the classroom with Emily, the first person he saw, besides them, was Lynne, who was clumsily looking at her shoes, which were black loafers.
In the corner of Lynne's eye, she saw Tylem's calm stare, and she quickly averted her gaze.
"Hm?" Emily noticed Tylem and Lynne's awkwardness. Weren't the two getting on considerably well together at home? However, she, herself, used to be left in quite the nasty mood after school as well.
Furthermore, she thought that being moody was rather normal for children in their adolescent age. Smiling, she tried to relax the stiff atmosphere, "How was your first day of school, Tylem?"
"It wasn't bad." Tylem continued chatting with Emily until the three of them arrived at the silver Toyota Corolla.
Emily hopped in the driver's seat, and both Tylem and Lynne sat at the back together. Now, it felt real awkward. The entire time, the two did not say a single word to each other.
The Toyota Corolla started up, and the engines revved.
It didn't take long for them to get on the main highway. Emily continued chatting to the both of them, asking them how their day went and if they needed anything, which made the situation less awkward.
"You know, you two can talk to me about anything." Emily smiled.
Lynne nodded in response, and Tylem secretly watched her calm reaction that behaved as if there was nothing wrong at all.
If he hadn't gone to school today, he, too, would have been fooled and left in the dark about the bullying.
The car was playing some loud pop music, racing down the highway. Emily happily sang along to the tunes, while Tylem and Lynne just listened to her soothing, pleasant voice.
"Hua~"
"Hua~"
Soon enough, Tylem arrived home. The modern, well-kept building was in a nice, secure district. It required one to have a certain amount of status in order to buy a house here in the Luli District. There was a lot of security as well.
Walking up the stairs, Lynne followed close behind him. Tylem watched Emily unlock the door. Supposedly, Weston would not be coming home today due to work-related issues.
Emily had used her annual leave so that she could make sure Tylem was accustomed to living here. When her colleagues had heard her request, all of them were surprised since she was a superhuman workaholic in their eyes.
Returning home, Emily first had Lynne and Tylem clean up. Having spent a long day outside, it was important to clean up properly while changing into a clean set of clothes.
In the shower, Tylem felt like all his worries were washing away. The hot water trickled down his toned abdomen. For a seventh-grader, his figure was excellent, but at the same time it wasn't unnatural. In one word, perfect.
If it weren't for the faint scars on his back, Tylem had the exact appearance of a privileged noble young master who was destined for success, an esteemed son of heaven.
Meanwhile, closing the door behind her, Emily stepped inside her bedroom. Pulling out a silver iPhone, she scrolled through her contacts until it arrived on a five-letter name.
Waiting for the man to pick up, Emily's peach-blossom eyes narrowed.
"Yes, Master?" In the darkness, a deep, authoritative voice resounded.
"Rehan, gather the disciples best-suited to investigate Ivla without tipping anyone off." Emily ordered. "However, most importantly, I want to know what's been going on with my daughter."
From what she had seen this afternoon of Tylem and Lynne's interaction, it likely extended beyond merely being moody as teenagers in puberty.
It was because of Tylem's gaze, which was full of concern and worry for Lynne, that made Emily suspicious. In the car ride, however, she had acted oblivious.
"I'm on it, Master." In his leather recliner, Rehan nodded on the other end. This mysterious disciple sat within the topmost floor of a high-rise building that looked over Beijing's top companies.
Ivla was a top school with state-of-the-art security filled with important figures, but that didn't matter to Rehan.
This grand room's layout and view were something solely able to be seen in top movies and dramas.
In their Winter's Edge, a legendary shadow group that had a near-monopoly over the dark side of Beijing, Emily was the current master and sole inner-force martial artist within their rankings.
The mysterious masked genius of Internal Martial Arts, manifesting inner force.
Chinese Internal Martial Arts was much different to true cultivation, but this practice had its own benefits, especially for the top geniuses who could obtain power much greater than that of the average human.
Tylem's mother, the top disciple of the Winter Edge's creator and previous master.
In Huaxia, there existed numerous underworld powers that held more influence than even high-ranking government officials, so it spoke volumes of Winter Edge's power for them to lord over Beijing's underworld.
In the current day, no one but those the master trusted and deemed worthy knew her true face and name. Rehan was one of these few trusted.
Under her command, Rehan began moving, and Emily gazed out the window with a complicated gaze.
"Have I failed as a Mother?" Emily trembled, her mind returning to the memories of her past... where everything had begun.
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Elude
Elude Heh, I've dropped lots of hints so far regarding Emily's unique background. I wonder if anyone had picked up on it? : ) The next few chapters will be Emily’s backstory, which will be told in her POV! I loved writing it, so please look forward to it!
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