Chapter 159: taking the 2 sisters in

An hour after their escape, Clark finally woke up again to see himself still under the sea. After the long escape struggle, he was mentally exhausted so he had to rest a bit after guaranteeing their safety.

He stretched lazily while being careful not to disturb the 2 sleeping sisters before turning to peep at them a little.

He was surprised, as what greeted him were 2 pairs of large, round, glittering, weary, and timid eyes. Such a sight startled him, as he jumped a little on his chair before quickly averting his eyes.

Though he could not see them, he could still feel the pair of eyes watching his back.

“Ahh, I didn’t know that you guys were awake already. Were you both just there looking at me since? Why didn’t you wake me up?” He coughed before asking them questions to relieve the awkward atmosphere.

Emily finally closed her eyes on hearing this, as faint teardrops dripped down her face. She knew this strategy that Clark was using, she knew that he wanted to divert their attention to something else, but no.

She held her sister’s hands to gather confidence, before opening her eyes again. After clearing her throat, she finally spoke up.

“Clark, I’m sorry for putting you through so much trouble. Without you, my life would not be the same as it currently is. I and my sister, we are grateful for all your help”.

“Though my family is imprisoned, I’m satisfied with getting my sister back. I don’t know what I would’ve done if she remained behind without accompanying me”.

“What you did may seem insignificant, but it means a lot to me. Thank you”. After saying this, she steeled her heart before kneeling to express her gratitude.

Kate bit her lips on seeing this, before also making up her mind as she knelt also. Though this man was harsh with words on her initially, she was still extremely grateful for all the help he rendered to them.

Clark almost coughed blood on seeing this, as he jumped out of his chair immediately.

“What…? No…, no, Emily, please don’t embarrass me. You’re my friend, it's my duty to help you when you’re in need. That’s what friends are for, right?” He quickly reached her side and helped her up, before saying this to her.

She only nodded while trying hard to restrain her tears. She tried, but she was not a robot, her tears dropped faster as she buried her messed up face in his broad chest.

Kate remained on the floor, till her sister left the man’s hug. This was when she finally stood up also after Clark urged her.

She thanked him also with her own words. She was not petty. As a doctor, she recognized good when she saw one.

After this, the atmosphere slowly livened up as Clark spiced it up further by making dumb and lame jokes. Though he knew that his jokes were not really funny, he still felt good when they laughed.

…

After settling down, and calculating his loss secretly, Clark finally connected to the Spartan republic’s satellite again to see what was happening back home. As he did this, this was when Emily dropped the bomb question.

“Kate, I can’t wait again. Please describe to me in detail what exactly happened that our family fell so easily”.

Kate looked hesitantly at her elder sister on hearing this. But on seeing her determined and resolute expression, she left her misgivings and finally started describing what happened.

On seeing this, Clark wisely stood up, going to the mini-sub’s control panel as he made himself busy. Listening to others' family matters, was bad manners.

…

It was a Wednesday evening. In the boisterous and prosperous Bauer mansion, children ran around while laughing and chuckling, as the adults looked at them play with smiles on their faces.

As it was evening, almost all the important members of the family were already back from work, so the mansion was livelier.

“Yay!! Uncle Ark is back”. The playing children suddenly cheered, as they all ran out to meet the eldest son of their patriarch.

As the first direct descendant of the Bauer family, Ark Bauer was known by basically every member of the family. His huge renown was not due to his father’s position alone, a lot more people knew him because of his talent.

Just like the other large families, the Bauer family is involved in the practice of adopting abandoned children and orphans, to train them to become soldiers of the family.

It was a fair system. As long as you are exceptional, you’ll get promoted, so the adopted children always grow up to become loyal soldiers of the family.

For this generation, Ark was the leader and commander of the current battalion formed from these adopted children, who were now soldiers.

Being the main military force of the family, Ark being able to become its leader made him extremely famous and influential. Apart from his father and the elders of the family, he had the most authority within the family.

All this authority was due to his strength, which made the family members admire him more. If you randomly ask a group of soldiers who their mentor was, about 85% of them would say it is Ark. This was how admired and popular he was.

After giving all the children individual hugs, he greeted his elders that were around, before ordering his soldiers to go to their various residents in the mansion.

After doing all these, he finally climbed up the mansion to visit his father. On reaching his father’s office, he saw his brother, Manuel Bauer also there.

He greeted him with a smile, exchanged hugs before he finally turned to face his father, the patriarch. After speaking family matters a little, he officially started business talks as he narrated all his experiences throughout the day.

As they engaged in discussions, this was when the disaster finally came. They were startled, as gunshots and cannon shots started echoing around the mansion all of a sudden.

The attack was so sudden, fast, smooth, and well organized that it smelled suspicious. Though the attack from 2 families was overwhelming, they were in no way overwhelmed immediately that they could not retaliate.

The family immediately entered high alert mode, as they mobilized their soldiers immediately.

The suspicion finally started becoming more apparent, as their main defensive structures and equipment suddenly botched, rendering them weaker defensively. The enemy penetrated their ranks like they held them in the hollow of their palms.

After analyzing the situation, Ark decided to fish out the traitor first as he was really angered. Seeing some of the children that just greeted him moments ago dying from stray bullets, he exploded completely.

After a thorough and intensive sweep search of the mansion records, he finally found the traitor.

On knowing the truth, his anger was quenched immediately. Confusion replaced it before disbelief and doubt took over.

To his dismay, the traitor that he was looking for was actually his second in command. He was shocked, as he never believed that the traitor would be someone adopted, nurtured, and trained by his family. And someone so close to him.

This man was among the only two 3rd rank high-grade soldiers that were trained by his family, apart from him.

This betrayal threatened to leave him in doubt and disappointment, thereby making him vulnerable at such a crucial moment. But he proved all expectations wrong, as he channeled this disappointment to rage instead.

As rage took over him, he led his other second in command, as they both bulldozed into the joint forces of the 2 attacking families to find the traitor.

After a great battle, where almost all his soldiers died, and where his father already died, he finally killed the traitor.

But he was surprised as this did not give him the relief that he was looking for. Instead, it brought him more grief and guilt, as he left his father and soldiers to die just because he was pursuing a traitor.

This brought another mental breakdown to him. Since he was born, he had never experienced such consecutive mental breakdowns.

This downcast and unfavorable situation almost resulted in his death also, but his last, second in command sacrificed his life to save him.

On seeing the look on his second in command’s face as he died, he knew that all he wished for was for himself to survive. This was when it finally clicked to him, his Bauer family was no more.

He started fighting for his escape immediately. He tried to save his brother also, but he could not as the concentrated attacks were overwhelming. After putting in a lot of effort, he finally escaped.

His escape spelled the official end of the great Bauer family, as through Manuel Bauer’s lead, all the other soldiers and family members surrendered.

The victorious families happily took them away like they were their war trophies, before cheerfully imprisoning them.

In just one evening, the great Bauer family that had deep foundations since the great battle of supremacy became history, due to the sabotage work of a traitor.

…

After finishing her story, Kate finally heaved a sigh of relief like she just released a burden from her body. She relaxed on the chair, as she let her sister process the information that was just dumped at her.

Clark continued standing rigidly at the control panel of the mini-sub like he heard nothing, among all that was just said. His hands smashed different control buttons, to indicate that he was busy doing something.

What surprised him and Kate was that the Emily they thought would break down in tears again did none of that.

Only the scene of her biting her lips indicated that she listened to what was just said.

“Clark, you said that we can stay with you, for now, right?” She finally took her focus from what she just heard, before throwing this question at Clark.

Today, she already embarrassed herself before Clark enough. She didn’t want to again; she was fed up already.

“Umm, yeah. Don’t worry, I’m preparing to get a new house soon. You can stay there for the time being, or you can just stay at my ancestral home”.

Clark answered, after contemplating for a moment. He already knew that he would have to make this decision when he initially found out about what befell his friend’s family.

Using this opportunity to buy a new house was not bad though. He was no longer the insignificant cadet of yesterday, he was now Clark Pendragon, the 2nd rank high-grade soldier, the Magician. He was someone with a name now.

After using this opportunity to boost his ego a bit, he finally smiled as he entered the familiar waters of the Spartan republic.

“I’m back baby!!” He exclaimed inwardly, as he took a turn towards the familiar military border base.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. If you love this book, please leave your power stones behind to support it. Purchase privilege for The Conspiracy Of The Elites. Read a varying amount of chapters ahead of regular readers, while enjoying a 99% discount on unlocking new chapters.]