Cold, but Calm.

Alex finally woke up. He had gotten over his issue and felt as fresh as ever.

Seeing that Lucius was seated on his chair, reading a book with his glasses on, he felt a bit embarrassed but more than that, he was grateful. He got up from his bed, a bit weak, but he still mustered up enough energy to bow down towards him.

Lucius, who noticed this was pleasantly surprised. This gesture needed a lot of courage, and he decided to respond appropriately.

"Stand up, Alex. You made a mistake, but that is how life works. You will make much bigger mistakes in the future, and apologizing for such a small one is unnecessary. Just remember to not let your emotions get the better of you next time."

Alex was still bowing down. He responded with,

"I know that this was a test. I failed miserably, but I am not bowing down just to apologize. I want to thank you for the guidance and the patience that you showed me. I was blind to not notice this earlier, but I guess it's better late than never. Thank you, Master."

Lucius smiled. he threw the book in his hand towards Alex, it was the book that contained the meditation techniques that were a secret of the Grey family. He then stood up from his chair and left the room without saying anything.

"I still can't trust his family, but I guess he isn't too bad."

Alex opened up the book and saw its title. Rather than a textbook, it was a notebook.

On the front page, along with its title, there was a message specifically left for him.

Pearl's hope.

-To the disciple who can't control his temper, from his hot-tempered master.

Alex chuckled and continued to read it. After reading it for some time he decided to practice this in his free time. He didn't need it as much as before, but it was still a really good technique.

----------------------------------------------

Alex decided to first attend Steven's lecture. He had already missed school today, so he decided to continue with the general routine.

Today, he was able to tackle complex problems regarding BASIC. His focus had returned and even when he made a mistake, he was quick to correct them. Seeing his renewed patience, Steven felt less exhausted. Today, he had been quick on the uptake, and he was able to finish his QBASIC course in one day. He had finished 2 week's worth of syllabus in a day, and this made Steven baffled. All of a sudden, Alex had become a genius in coding.

After finishing his lesson, he decided to go to the training ground. Lucius was already sitting there, meditating. Alex decided to warm up and got ready to go against Lucius, but Jane appeared in front of him, staring at him straight in his eyes.

Alex didn't hesitate to return the favor. He stared back at her, which made her a bit uncomfortable, but she didn't show it on her face.

"I was following you at that time. You were...not normal. What happened?"

Lucius had told her that he might have been frustrated with so many changes happening at once, and he was behaving that way because of it. She was not convinced, seeing that he was enjoying killing them, rather than being frustrated and lashing out. He was like an animal, enjoying his hunt.

Alex told her everything, except for the facts regarding his skill. He was pretty upfront about it. Hearing his side of the story, Jane finally calmed herself down.

"If I offended you in any way, I am sorry."

Alex said out of courtesy. He hadn't offended her before this, but he needed to be sincere to lower her suspicions.

"You didn't do anything. Just try to remain calm from now on, you were too scary for a ten-year-old in that state."

Jane patted his head. He didn't like it, but he refrained from complaining.

After taking her hand off of his head, she asked,

"Do you want to spar?"

Alex himself wanted to bring this up. Jane was way stronger than her sister, and it would be beneficial to exchange pointers with her.

"Sure. Just make sure to go easy on me."

Jane giggled. She took her position, and let her guard down a bit to go easy on him.

Alex was the first to attack, and he decided to attack with a kick towards the left side of her body, which was the stronger side, to make sure that she could counterattack only with her weak side.

Jane was ready for it. She dodged his kick and decided to punch him in his arm, but he was quicker than her, to her surprise. He parried her attack with his left hand and countered it with a hook on her waist, which she was unable to dodge. She decided to take the attack and hit him when he was open, but she underestimated the strength behind his punch.

She stumbled a few steps back, due to the clean hit. Seeing that Alex was going all out, she decided to reciprocate his actions without prejudice.

Without wasting time, she regained her balance and decided to kick him straight in his gut. Alex had been ready for it and decided to trap her legs in his arms to initiate a lock, but she used his hold to swing her other leg and hit him on his shoulder midair, freeing herself in the process.

They both had one hit each. Looking at each other with a smile, Alex decided to initiate the attack this time.

He used his right arm to do a feint, which didn't capture much of her attention, but in the midst of pulling his punch back, proceeded to reverse the process and once again hit her with the same arm, catching her off guard. He had been giving her false hints about his left leg simultaneously, so she thought that he was going to kick her after the feint, but he canceled the feint and punched her at her shoulder. Without much time to dodge, she decided to defend herself, but Alex stopped his pinch and at the exact moment she brought her block up and used his other arm to punch in the abdomen, completing his move.

Jane fell do, clutching her stomach. It was a strong punch, so for a second there was a stinging pain in the are, but it faded immediately. Turns out, it was Alex that had been holding back all this time. Jane might be the better assassin, but Alex was the superior fighter.

"A good fight. Looks like you finally understand what I have been teaching you these past few weeks."

Lucius, who had already finished his meditation, was impressed. Jane was a great fighter as well, but Alex had been training to make use of the enemy's perception to defeat them for the last two weeks. Getting beaten up time and time again, he was able to learn a bit from his methods. Today, however, his application had far exceeded his previous mastery over the field.

Alex approached Jane and helped her stand up. She was feeling awed by the applications of her father's methods and regretted questioning his methods in the past.

"Cold, but calm. That is how you are supposed to assassinate. Don't let your ambitions be tied to the way you assassinate. You can be a very compassionate person or an aggressive one, but don't let your methods show that. Don't give the enemy anything to exploit."

Alex nodded. He agreed with him wholeheartedly.

Jane, who was a bystander in this event, looked at the master and disciple duo and sighed.

Is it even fair for these two to train together?