Underestimated Heiress

CHAPTER 23 - he is still the same

Guna and Tara went back to their camp to report everything that they saw to their master. Tara was happy with what she saw whereas Guna's expression looked sad. When they entered their masters chambers, the master read their expressions and said, "Guna dear, I get proved wrong everyday by my students and yet I feel proud, because it shows that I achieved the fruits of my labour."

Tara and Guna looked at each other trying to understand how their master knew what had happened.

"Come here children, sit down.", the master said to Tara and Guna pointing at the 2 carpets opposite to him.

He continued after the 2 sat down, "I will ask only one question and answer me honestly. I will not doubt your answers." After a pause he asked, "Do you think she is worthy of being your classmate?"

Both nodded their heads and said, "yes master."

The master smiled and thought, "Those 2 old brats did a good job raising their daughter even after such difficulties." He unknowingly nodded his head feeling proud while Tara and Guna looked at their master.

***

Jess was on a trek with her family. While everyone enjoyed the outing, Jess was vigilant, frequently checking if they were being followed. After confirming multiple times that they weren't, she finally relaxed and enjoyed the trek.

However, Jess's parents noticed her cautious behaviour. They decided to overlook it temporarily when Eric assured Emma he would investigate further.

Upon returning to the hotel, Eric kept his promise to Emma by discovering Jess's visit to the local market. He also learned about Guna and Tara, prompting him to make a call.

"Hello, old man.", Eric said.

"You brat, who are you calling old?.", the voice from the phone answered.

"Why did you have my daughter followed? Even if you want to keep an eye on her you should send your best people and not your young students." Eric took a pause and continued,"Anyway, ask them to do a better job next time. Their cover was blown and she easily ditched them.
She is my daughter and I have taught her to take care of herself, don't ever doubt that old man."

After listening to Eric lecture him and call him old man again, the master grunted and said in a hoarse voice,"I know that now. I thought you would raise her like a princess, but I was surprised to find out that she is a young warrior."

The master calmed down a bit and said,"Alright, alright, now you should excuse your old man's little mistakes. I am getting old and I asked you to take over so many times but neither you nor your good for nothing wife wants to take over from me. In that case the kids will be left with no option but this old man."

Eric smirked at how conveniently the man used Eric's harsh words to defend himself and insult his wife. He knew that his master was smart and intelligent and that's why he wanted to send Jess and Ethan to train under him.

Eric replied not wanting to stretch the argument, "Are you telling me that you will train Jess?"

"I might, after all if not you then someone similar to you should take my position in the future."

"Don't even dream about it, Jess will only be your student; she has to take my place and not yours."

"We will see!"

"And next time when you insult my wife, be ready for the consequences." Eric said before hanging up the phone.

On the other end of the phone, the master smiled and thought,"he is still the same."

All this while, Jenna was sitting next to Eric, she heard everything. She asked,"Why didn't you threaten him when he actually insulted me? Why did you wait for the end of the conversation?"

Eric replied, still thinking something,"because of two things, 1st, I wanted him to acknowledge that Jess is one of the best and make him realise that I will be doing him a favour by sending Jess to his institute. 2nd, I didn't want him to make any excuses to insult you again, so the threat was the last thing and not giving him enough time to reply means, he will not dare to insult you again."

Jenna smiled, she was already aware about Eric's personality but still he easily impressed her every time.

The family did many activities together for the next few days and they were almost ready to go back. When Jess was packing her stuff she saw a letter slid in through her hotel room door. She quickly picked it up and opened the door, but she didn't see anyone in the corridors. She quickly checked the stairs and the lift but she couldn't find anyone. She finally went back to her room and opened the letter. It was just like an invitation to a college, but it missed important details like, when, where and the courses all it had was a very weird address. She thought why would someone slide it in so mysteriously. While she was holding the letter and still thinking about it, going with her intuition, she took the telephone directory and started looking for the words. She found a description and wrote it down on a paper, she did the same for other words she found in the address. She thought she was just overthinking it and Ethan might be playing a prank on her, but when she finished writing the last word's description the whole thing together made sense.

It said,"We are delighted to invite you to a secret institution called "Meditating Monks". You won't be able to find us on Google, type below address to register or find more information about us. Please do not spread the word as it could be life threatening for you."

"Where is the web address?", she thought. She saw the letter again. The last line in the letter didn't make sense to her initially, it said, "try this with the name - at peace" but now she knew. The address was "meditatingmonksatpeace", she tried it and it worked.

It was a school that she had never heard about. There was no age restriction or grade or levels, they will not hand out any degrees at the end of the course. There was no time limit to finish the course and the most interesting part was it was free including boarding and food.

Jess wanted to find more about this before she makes a decision so she kept all the information to herself and finished packing.

Next morning the family returned back to Australia.