Under The Veil of Night

Ryukalin Clan

"Boss, is there anything you need?" Neo was startled upon seeing Kevin came to the training hall. This young man was quite busy with the matter of the clan lately that he shouldn’t have any time to train at all.

Kevin flicked a glance. "Where’s Mike?"

"He’s holed up in the training room," Neo pointed to the hall beside him.

Without saying anything else, Kevin strode into the room. Inside the large hall, several training equipments were scattered around. In the middle of the mess, a large young man was standing with a punching bag right in front of him. He was kicking and punching tirelessly.

Kevin glanced at Neo. "How long has he been in this state?"

"Ever since we return, Boss," Neo answered.

On the day of the incident, Mike was on an errand because of his father. As the result, he was not present at all. When he came, everything was already over with Kevin got slightly wounded and the two of them lost their fathers because Mike’s father was the one who drove the car.

Walking towards Mike, Kevin leisurely picked up two wooden swords on the ground. Upon getting near the boy, Kevin threw one of the swords straight towards the man.

By instinct, Mike turned around and caught the sword. The force Kevin used was not too big, but it nearly slipped off his hand.

"Boss?"

Kevin scanned the big teenager in front of him. "As a guard, you have to always stay on your guard. Didn’t your father teach you this?"

Hearing the rebuke from Kevin, Mike lowered his gaze. His eyes caught the sight of Kevin’s bandaged arm. It was wounded on the day and the doctor didn’t allow Kevin to use it for the time being.

Whenever he looked at the bandaged arm, he would remember his incompetence. It made him felt extremely guilty because he couldn’t do his job well even when he already vowed to protect Kevin.

"Fight me," Kevin ordered.

Mike’s pupil widened. He stared at the wooden sword in his hand before looking towards Kevin in bewilderment. "Boss, you’re wounded..."

"Only my left arm is wounded. My right arm in perfectly fine," Kevin raised his hand up. "Facing the current you, one arm is already more than enough."

"But Boss..."

"Raise your sword. This is a command!"

In the next moment, Kevin dashed towards Mike with a sword raised up above the head. Mike quickly put his guard up and blocked the attack. As someone who has been practicing since young, he was already gotten used with surprise attack, so his instinct worked on his own.

However, it was not easy to face Kevin with instinct alone. Right after the attack was blocked, he continued with another barrage of attack. Within minutes, the fight ended with Mike complete lost.

Neo shook his head as he stared at his best friend pitifully. "If you don’t want to fight, you shouldn’t have picked up a sword in the first place."

"I..." Mike stared at the sword on his hand. He once vowed to protect Kevin with everything that he got. It was what he needed to do, nothing else. He had failed to protect Kevin once, did he want to fail again?

"I’m... Boss’s sword, and I’ll follow all of his words," Mike answered slowly.

Kevin glanced at the sword on the ground. "Then pick it up and fight again. Do you think that the fight just now is satisfying?"

Taking the sword on the ground, Mike hardened his resolve. He stood up and charged towards Kevin again, this time he did it very seriously. Unfortunately, Kevin still beat him in the end. The only difference was this fight didn’t end up in one side like before anymore.

After the fight ended, Mike sprawled on the ground without any energy left. The fight had allowed him to think clearer again. Raising his hand above, he clenched it into a fist.

He would never ever fail again!

"Have fun watching, Neo?" Kevin asked nonchalantly as he walked out of the room.

Neo smiled slightly. "Boss, what are you talking about? I’m just accompanying you and help out a bit."

Kevin looked back at Neo as he examined the young man’s expression. Different with the training maniac Mike who vowed to protect him since young, Neo only came because of a challenge that the Old Man gave to the young boy. In the end, this young teenager also stuck with him for a long time.

The time they spent all these times allowed him to know more about the young man.

"You’re indeed hard to read, Neo. But you shouldn’t think about doing something dangerous even if it’s for the sake of revenge."

Neo stayed still in his place for a moment. He glanced at Kevin with a wry smile. How many times has it been since the first time Kevin managed to find out about his plan in mere minutes?

"Boss, I can never hide things from you, can I?"

Kevin didn’t answer and took his sword up again. "Are you up for some training? The Old Man complained to me about you skipping training again."

Neo’s face paled immediately. That father of his still has the time to complain about this matter again? He truly needed to tell the Old Man that the training they provided for him was insane. There was no way he could possibly finish them all.

He pointed to Mike. "Just ask Mike for a sparring partner. He’s far better than me."

"I know that," Kevin answered in a flat tone.

Neo grunted begrudgingly. Without any choice, he became the next victim for the inhuman training that Kevin had. It was extremely painful that he complained to his father.

"Old Man, can’t you do anything about the standard training in this place?" Neo complained when he saw his father got back.

The Old Man shook his head. "There are more important matters, Neo. You should just follow the training obediently. With your constitution, getting into the core member is nothing but a dream."

"What dream? I never want to have an amazing physique like Mike. As long as I have my gun on my hand, no one shall ever beat me," Neo gritted his teeth.

The Old Man sat down as he watched his son struggled to apply medicine. "Do you see anything that changes from Boss?"

Neo frowned. There was nothing that changed from that ice block. He was still extremely cold and unfeeling without any change in his expression. In the next second, he realized one strange phrase.

"He doesn’t show any expression for the past few days," Neo looked up. "He’s holding up all of his feeling inside, Old Man?"

"I suppose so," the Old Man nodded his head. Normal teenagers wouldn’t be able to do that for a long period of time, so he was not entirely sure. With Kevin was already using his poker face from a long time, no one thought that it was strange. However, he knew that Kevin still changed his expression from time to time around his closest family.

"Should I talk to him about that?" Neo inquired.

"He’s a proud man, I doubt that he’ll want to accept having you point it out so blatantly," the Old Man shook his head. "It’s not like anything will change with you telling him that he should loosen up. The rule of the clan will never allow him to do that at all."

Neo tilted his head a bit before a devious smile appeared on his lips. "I have a plan."

The next day, Kevin felt a headache because his two subordinates suddenly pestered him to have him smiling.

"Boss! Please smile!"

Kevin looked at the two of them coldly. "If you still have time to ask for this, how about another round of training?"

Neo’s face turned white. "Boss, come on. I already have enough of your training yesterday. Please let me off for the time being."

"If you don’t stop pestering me, it’s another training session."

"You’re a ruthless boss..."

Mike thought about another thing as an idea came across his mind. "Boss, since you’re not smiling. Let me smile on your behalf!"

"It’s up to you."

"Boss...!"

No matter what they said, Kevin didn’t smile at all. He just focused on his work and gave another trashing to them to shut them off. However, Mike still pestered him and said that he would smile on his behalf until Kevin could show a genuine smile himself.

The Old Man watched as the three of them argued and bantered with each other. It was a pleasant view for him because he knew very well that their life would be filled with danger.

"The Ryukalin Clan needs you, so you have to stay strong, Boss."