Chapter 21: Disciple
Chapter 21: Disciple
Cristina Orland felt like she was being watched, but that was something that was often due to the old clothes she wore, so she didn’t think much about it. She kept walking, and the sadness only got stronger since she was never treated well at home.
In her family she had a sister who was two years older and a father, mother, grandmother, and grandfather. They all lived in a mansion in the Zing Clan, but Cristina had to live in the mansion’s basement since she had an obligation to keep the mansion clean. Her parents, grandparents, and sister always looked for reasons to attack her psychologically and even physically, although whenever she was beaten, they were in places that were hardly visible. And the people of the clan kept bullying her verbally, sometimes physically.
Cristina knew that she couldn’t go against them, since even if she went to the police, the situation only got worse because her family was rich with 20 million in assets. Only once at the age of 12 did she try to denounce the abuse she suffered and in the end, things only got worse for her. She still had nightmares about her father drowning her in the pool and putting a plastic bag over her head until she passed out.
After that, she stopped believing in human rights and tried to act as obedient as possible to avoid being tortured again. Sometimes, she thought of taking her own life and ending it all. When she was isolated and forced to stop going to school, she tried to kill herself, and since then, she has been able to go back to school.
Suddenly, when she arrived at a mostly deserted street, a male voice came from behind, making Cristina turn.
“Why are you so sad, girl?” Seeing the beautiful man with white hair and red eyes talking to her, Cristina was unresponsive for a few seconds.
Composing herself, Cristina did not answer, but asked, “Do I know you?”
“My name is Luan Dimas, and I’m interested in having you as my disciple.” Luan approached and asked her, “Would you be interested?”
Before Cristina could answer, from the roof of a house two men appeared in front of Cristina.
“Get away from her!” one of the men, dressed in black, said warningly.
“Boy, you must be daydreaming if you think you can take someone from the Zing Clan as a disciple. Even if this girl is useless, we cannot let her embarrass herself by accepting trash as a teacher,” the other man said dismissively. He looked at Luan as if he were looking only at an ant that he could squash at any time.
Seeing that Luan stood there looking indifferently at them infuriated the two men, and the first man who had spoken before, shouted as he slapped his palm towards Luan, “I told you to go away!”
Flames broke out from the man’s palm as he attacked. Cristina, who saw this, shouted, “Watch out!”
Luan remained indifferent and did not even try to dodge. Instead, he leaned his right arm back a little and launched forward with a stroke using the palm of his hand.
“Humph!” The man dressed in black scoffed when he saw that it was just a normal attack. But his incredulous expression changed when Luan’s attack came into contact with him. With the sound of bones cracking, the man was sent back as he spun in the air.
When he fell to the ground, the bones of the black-clad man’s arm were outside his skin, tearing it off his arm as blood dripped to the ground without stopping.
“Ahhhhh!”
The man screamed in pain, while the other who was looking before at Luan in an arrogant way, now gazed at him with fear.
‘Amazing!’ Cristina rubbed her eyes, not believing what she was seeing. She was not surprised that the man in black was able to manifest flames, since the Zing Clan had supernatural powers that could control fire, but she was shocked that Luan could make the man in black fly away with just one attack and break the arm of the man in such a hideous way.
“Let’s talk… It looks like we have a misunderstanding here,” said the other man, shaking his hands frantically, not wanting to confront Luan. He now realized that he was dealing with someone he could not provoke.
The other man, who was moaning in pain on the floor, pretended he was losing consciousness and called his clan. He knew that it would take more than just him and his partner to be able to deal with this man with white hair and red eyes. In addition, the two knew of the importance that Cristina held, so they could not allow Luan to take her.
Luan continued to stare at the man without saying a single word. Just because Luan was indifferent while examining him, the man trembled with fear. If he had the chance, he wanted to run.
Luan looked away from the man and looked at Cristina, “Cristina, right? As I said before, I want to take you as my disciple. If you accept, you can start living in my house and train to become someone strong enough to never be abused again.”
“H-How do you know that I’m being abused?” Cristina asked in surprise.
“I don’t need anyone to tell me to know. My senses are a little special and I can feel your sadness, but I also see a lot of potential in you, so I want to take you as my disciple,” Luan said and invited her to be his disciple again.
“You are mistaken,” she shook her head and said sadly, tears in her honey-colored eyes. “I’ve always been judged for not having talent; my whole family says I don’t do anything; I can’t believe it.”
Luan’s serious eyes made her want to believe him when he said, “Your family doesn’t see what I see. I’m going to give you one more chance. Do you want to become my disciple?”
Cristina was not moved by this. Although she wanted to believe, she already saw the bad side of people. She had trouble trusting someone, but at least she knew that if this handsome boy wanted to take her by force, he could do it very easily.
Cristina closed her eyes tight and thought, ‘I’m going to trust someone just this time…’
“I accept,” she said as soon as she opened her eyes.
Luan already seemed to know that she was going to accept, so he looked at the man who did not dare to say a single word and said indifferently, “Go back to your clan and say that Cristina will be in my care. Soon I will pay a visit and cut off all her connections with your clan.”
“Yes, I will do that!” The man in black did not dare to question Luan. He took a few steps back and went to the other man and helped him to his feet. He whispered, “Let’s go back quickly…”
“There are a lot of powerful people in the Zing Clan. Are you sure about this?” Cristina looked at Luan and seemed uneasy as she asked.
“I’m sure.” Luan gestured for her to follow him. “Let’s go to where I am staying at the moment, and then we can talk better.”
‘I hope I’m making the right choice.’ Cristina took a deep breath and started to follow Luan.
Luan, who intended to try to find rare stones and plants, ended up recruiting a disciple and had to change his plans. Of course, he didn’t regret it in the least. Cristina Orland was an incredible woman in his past life, one with many achievements.
When they arrived at the Dallas Hotel, Samantha, who was the receptionist on duty, was surprised to see Luan with a young girl of around 15 years. But she didn’t think he was going to commit a crime, and she knew he was someone she couldn’t provoke. But even so, she thought about paying extra attention and noticing if the girl was being forced to follow Luan; even if she put her life at risk, she would call the police if she noticed something strange.
When she arrived at the suite, Cristina couldn’t help but be amazed. The suite was very chic and very modern. Even the door was opened by a card instead of a key.
“You can leave your backpack on the table and sit on the couch,” Luan said as he returned from the kitchen with a bottle of juice and two glasses.
Filling the two glasses with the juice, he drank and said, “You can drink; it’s not poisoned.”
“Mm. Thanks.” Cristina was feeling uneasy, but she was really a little thirsty and ended up drinking some orange juice.
Luan now looked at her seriously, “Tell me, how much do you know about the supernatural?”
Cristina swallowed the juice in her mouth and said as she sat on the couch, “Not much. I just know that some special humans can get supernatural powers, just like the Zing Clan that controls fire.”
“Another question,” Luan asked, “Why do you think those two men who were able to control fire were watching you?”
“Ah?-” Cristina’s brain collapsed a little with this question, but she soon realized that this was very strange. After all, she was just a normal girl and was always excluded and despised by the Zing Clan. “I don’t know…”
“I thought if you are as useless as they made you appear to be, why would they put two people like that to watch over you?” Luan persisted in his questioning.
“They don’t want me to run off?” Cristina’s heart was beating very fast; she began to think there was something very wrong in this situation.
“Exactly! Why would they go so far?” Luan joined his hands while asking, “Or rather, why didn’t they just isolate you at home?”
“When they did that, I tried to kill myself and that was why my parents allowed me to go back to school. The strangest thing was my sister, who never showed affection for me, cried horribly at the thought that I had died and made me promise not to try again to take my life…” Cristina thought she was getting closer and closer to the truth. She felt scared and at the same time anxious to find out the real reason this all happened.
“Do you think she did it out of kindness? That she did it because she loves you?” Luan continued with his questions.
“Absolutely not! I could clearly see that she was terrified. It was as if I was something precious, but not as a person… something like an object, but I’m not sure. My mom and dad were the same; they didn’t seem concerned with me, but with something different, as if my life had some other purpose…” Cristina felt like she was having a revelation.
“Exactly that. Your life has a purpose for them and that is…”
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– Drop some power stone, please <3
{Edited by: Azurtha}