Adopted Soldier

While Alex was feeling the hopelessness and despair engulfing him, Richter finally received a piece of good news. The most important guest has finally arrived. Samuel had already brought her to the detention room near Alex's.

Richter excitedly headed towards the room, where he saw Samuel guarding the outside. In one look Richter could guess what kind of difficulty Samuel and the others had to go through in order to capture Rachel. The wounds were treated, and the ones that could be seen outside of the uniform were all covered up. It was obvious that his subordinates were hiding how disappointing they were.

Still Richter didn't bother to reprimand Samuel, he would do that later when all of them were here.

"You're dismissed... Samuel, in light of recent events I expect you to train harder than before." When Samuel heard what Richter said, his body started to tremble in fear as he saluted the old man and then retreated from his position. Once Samuel was gone from his sight, Richter opened the door to Rachel's room.

Upon entering the room Richter saw a girl laying on the floor asleep. It would seem that Samuel was forced to drug her. Richter slowly approached Rachel's body, but when he got close enough the lifeless body suddenly bounced awake and attacked Richter.

Rachel was in her basic RELEASE form as she attacked Richter, but even with that, Richter was able to easily catch Rachel's punch. She then saw the old man in front of her smiling at her.

"Oh, that's a pretty good punch. Your power is a bit lower than your father's, but with that one punch I can sense that you would surpass him eventually."

Rachel didn't bother talking to Richter, as she tried to pull her hand away from Richter's grasp, but couldn't. Rachel was shocked to learn even in her RELEASE state she couldn't overpower the old man in front of her. With what she has seen, Rachel had now a good guess on who she was facing at this moment.

"You're Alex's grandfather." Richter hearing what Rachel said smiled as she tossed the girl back.

"Very good, now little girl show me more of what you're capable of." Richter stretched his arms outward giving himself a lot of openings to exploit. When Rachel saw how Richter acted, she felt that the old man was mocking her. Still she didn't charged in, since now that she knew who she was facing, Rachel became a bit cautious. This person in front of her was able to easily defeat her father, Alex, and Niel. If that wasn't enough he was also a person who was able to escape the chasing Lyner.

When Richter saw that Rachel wasn't making a move, he frowned.

"Being cautious is good and all, but what happened to overflowing energy of youth... Little girl nothing will happen if you just stare at my face. Hmm I guess you aren't motivated enough. I wanted to see what kind of girl my grandson fell for, but if you keep on being silent like that, and don't start moving I won't see anything at all... Let's see how about I give you a prize, if you're able to beat me or kill me, you can have the master key hidden somewhere in my body. That master key is something that unlocks every room in this base. You can use it to escape with Alex who's just next door."

When Rachel heard that Alex was in the room next to her, Rachel's heart shook greatly. This was the closest she got to Alex after a whole year. Just a little bit more, and she could meet him again. Still that wasn't enough for her to simply attack Richter. It was obvious that he was agitating her into attacking.

Richter looked at Rachel and found it amusing that even with that kind of incentive she wasn't charging in. 'This girl has a lot more self control than her father.' Richter now understood that Rachel wasn't the hotblooded type like her father, so he decided to do something else. Richter took an earpiece from his pocket and communicated with a subordinate.

Rachel who was watching Richter closely, waited to see what he would do next. A few moments after talking in his earpiece, a tv screen came down from the ceiling. It then showed a room with a boy sitting down in a corner, his face was bleeding and so was his hands. The boy was crying as the clear look of despair was shown in his face. Rachel was able to quickly identify who that boy was, it was none other than Alexander Samarita.

Rachel couldn't believe her eyes, the boy whose expression remained always stoic, was now crying in a corner with a mix of despair and fear showing on his face. Rachel couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of horrors Alex must've endured to become like that.

"What have you done to Alex!" Rachel suddenly shouted at the old man in front of her.

"Nothing much, I was just training him." Richter nonchalantly replied.

"Training!? You called that training?! That's your own grandson, your own flesh and blood! How can you treat him like that!"

"Don't talk like you know anything little girl. What I'm doing is showering my grandson with my love and affection. I'm giving him the greatest gift that I could give. I'm giving him the chance to become the perfect Greyhound." Richter's tone suddenly got a bit colder as he answered Rachel.

"That's your way of showing love!? Making your grandson cry, and making him have that look of despair on his face, is your way of showing love? Your mind must be a messed up place if you think that way."

Hearing what Rachel said made Richter shrug his shoulders. "It doesn't matter if you don't understand how great my love is for my grandson. Also it's not my fault he's showing that look of despair. For that one, the fault lies in you."

After saying what he wanted to say, Richter had the tv screen returned from where it came from. At this point he was no longer interested in talking to Rachel. Richter showed Rachel his back as he was about to leave.

"What do you mean I'm the one at fault for Alex feeling despair?!" Seeing Richter getting ready to leave, Rachel shouted at him. Richter didn't bother to answer anymore and was really about to leave, but before he could do so, Rachel bursted forward blocking his path.

"Tell me!" Rachel looked at Richter angrily, but even then Richter didn't bother to look at Rachel as he continued onward without a care. Rachel then went into her full RELEASE state and attacked.

Richter seeing the incoming attack tried to block it, using the same move as before, but the moment he caught the punch, he felt his hands being pushed back. Richter then quickly tried to redirect the attack, but it was too late, his right hand got dislocated. He was surprised on how much power Rachel had, since he actually felt like his right hand would be blown away from his body.

The nanomachines inside Richter's body started to fix the dislocated right arm. While that was happening Rachel continued to attack Richter. Now that he knew how strong Rachel was, he didn't bother to block the incoming attacks anymore and instead started dodging the whole barrage of attacks.

Richter couldn't help but smile seeing Rachel's reaction. 'In the end she's still a kid.' Even now, it turns out the whole flow of events were within Richter's expectations.

'Now little girl show me if you are worthy to bear a child of a Greyhound.'