I ensured Annie that I won't do anything stupid and went a few floors upward. Taking my phone, I called Mara.

"Yes?"

"You told me everyone will be protected? What the fuck happened!?" I tried no to raise my voice too much.

"Excuse me?"

"Huuu…Returning from the training, I saw some thugs going after my mother? How the FUCK I SHOULD REACT TO THIS!?"

"Wait a second." A brief moment of silence later, she cut the call with these words.

Hearing the beeping sound of an end of the call, I looked at the screen. I clenched the phone and almost threw it to the ground but eventually stopped myself.

I was fuming with anger, and I needed to calm myself down. Just as I started to massage my throbbing temples, I heard someone calling me.

"What!?"

"I just asked around there was nothing out of place. Those whom I attached to your mother intercepted a few dubious-looking guys and were done with that. I don't know what you are talking about."

"Then what the hell happened? Do you think I've had hallucination?"

"Who knows…"

"Hallucinations don't bleed and harass women."

"Listen, I don't know what happened, okay…" She started flaring up in return, but I interrupted her.

"Two thugs were harassing my mother when she went after groceries. I was forced to make them sleep, and now I don't know what the police will do to them and me."

"Huh?"

"And because of this, my parents would inevitably have questions. How fucking low-key is this?" I hissed through my clenched teeth.

"Don't tell me there was no other way to resolve this problem?"

"Giving them my mother and letting them do whatever they want?" My slightly abated anger was coming back.

"She's your stepmother, though?"

"Tell this to me again! Even if I don't have the best of relationships with my parents, I have no intentions of getting them in harm's way! Not because of my own deeds, nor when I can prevent it. I vowed to protect them and be a good son to them, so don't you dare to spit this bullshit again!" I smashed the windowsill in the hallway.

"…Alright, I fucked up, okay? I'm sorry, so calm down. I will appoint someone more skilled to your parents. They won't make the same mistake."

"Fine!" I said with my voice turning guttural.

"I will send some people to the police, so don't worry. Is that all?"

"…" I shook my head twice and took a few deep breaths. "I'm sorry for being so aggressive. It must've been because of me fighting not so long ago. I know that you don't owe me a thing, and yet I take this for granted, it's just…" No matter how much I hated it, there was no way I can anger her. I needed to always talk with her carefully, choosing my words.

"You care for your parents more than I thought, huh? I'm sorry for misunderstanding this as well."

"Yes..."

A rather awkward silence ensured.

"I got his schedule."

"Uhm…You did? How?" She sounded genuinely surprised.

"I've got my ways."

"Huh, look at my cutie trying to have secrets." Hearing her voice turning slightly mocking, I finally relaxed.

"I mean, you will probably know whatever secrets I hold If you want. So, why should I tell this straight to you?"

"Hah."

"What about the fighting establishment? When will they gather?"

"Oh, right, I almost forgot about this. You know, when people suddenly get angry at me, I tend to forget things, hee-hee."

"Ugh, spare me from all of this, please."

"In a few days, I will send you the date tomorrow, so get ready."

"Great…" I wanted to cut the call as is, but I thought of something important. "By the way, are you free tomorrow evening?"

"Hum? Let me look at it for a bit." I heard the rustling of papers. "There is nothing planned for tomorrow. What's this all about?"

"Want to hang out?"

"You serious? Am I perhaps hearing things?" I heard a bunch of weird sounds as she likely moved her phone here and there. "Hey? You still there? You heard something weird around here?"

"Pfffthahha." I wanted to rant at her antics, but suddenly, I felt funny. At least she wasn't directly insulting me with this act. "Okay, I'm sorry for the trouble, and I'm sorry that I don't appreciate your help. Will you please hang out with me tomorrow?"

I should start looking into people rather than brushing them off. Why not start with Mara? Especially when I had lots of questions regarding her personality and rumors...

"Oh, turns out I wasn't hearing things. If you want to hang out, I guess I can reluctantly give you a chance."

"Being reluctant doesn't suit you, you know?"

"Hoh? And what does suit me?"

"Figure this out yourself, bye." Ending the call like that, I had a grin plastered on my face.

I knew it wasn't productive and petty, but I wanted to one-up her at least like that. Walking back home, I felt my phone vibrating and saw a string of angry emojis.

"Erlig!"

I almost jumped when I heard an angry woman's voice.

"Where have you been for so long?" Annie walked towards me. In her hands were a bunch of medicaments.

"I was talking with… a friend." I looked at the time. No more than ten minutes passed.

"How can you even think of something like this? Go wash your hands properly so I can look at your hands!"

"Uhm, I will."

Going back and forth, I was tended by Annie as she looked at my hands under great scrutiny. Not believing my words that everything was all right, she insisted on applying some medications and bandaging my hands. She wanted to look at all of my body for potential bruises and injuries, but I managed to pacify her.

The very next moment, we heard a knock on our door. A police officer came up straight to us. Seeing him, Annie turned nervous again, she stiffened, and her eyes rounded up. Looking back and forth at me and him, she carefully recalled everything that happened.

"And so, you are saying that after taking your son away, they initiated the fight, but he managed to beat them to the point of unconsciousness?" The police officer who looked tired was a middle-aged man.

"Ye-yes." seeing Annie so nervous, I decided to step up the scene. I was nervous myself, but I held two thoughts in my mind. If anything, I would say that it was self-defense and ask Mara for help.

"Sir, ehm, may I add a few things?"

A police officer turned his gaze to me. His eyes immediately went after my bandaged hands.

"Go ahead." He opened a small notebook and took out a pen.

"Actually, I'm an athlete."

"Hum." He hummed and made a few strokes with his pen.

"I'm an amateur fighter. I was getting back from the training when I saw my mother being harassed by the two."

The pen of the police officer didn't stop.

"When I managed to get my mother out of there, they took me to the side street and tried to attack me. I only defended against their violent antics." I spread my hands. "Now that I damaged my hands, I may even miss my next scheduled fight. There is no reason for me to do this as I will miss my paycheck." I finally ended talking and looked at the police officer.

He continued writing for some time, and when he finally let go of his pen, he took his hat and wiped his sweating forehead.

"So you are a fighter?"

"Yes."

"That's how you did this. And I was thinking... How did you manage to get an upper hand over those gangsters."

"Gangsters?"

"Sigh, strictly speaking, I shouldn't tell all of this to you, but those two are a part of the gang." He rubbed his forehead again.

"Ah!" Annie hid her mouth in fright while I furrowed my eyebrows.

"They don't do anything serious, but there are documented acts of the hooliganism, light assaults, and sexual harassments done by them. As they are used to getting violent, I was surprised that they got knocked out cold."

"Erm, so what will happen to me?"

"Nothing for the moment." I was surprised hearing this while he put his hat back on. "We will call you to the police department in a few days for the thorough inspecting. Now, if you will excuse me." With Annie helping him out, I was finally able to breathe out.

"I hope nothing will happen with you Erlig, it was all self-defense." Annie came back shaking her head in self-deprecation.

I went into the kitchen together with her and looked at the bags she brought.

"A pity that I wasn't able to help you carry the bags." I squeezed something resembling a smile.

"We should talk with your father. Maybe he will help." Her eyes were absent.

"Father? No, why bother him? He is tired as is." I didn't want to disturb an old man. He is coming back home late, working on Saturdays. Why bother him even more?

"And what if anything happens to you? And what about you getting in more fights? I'm glad that you moved to protect me, but what if you get some bad influence from all this?"

"What are you talking about? How can I get a bad influence protecting those who are precious to me?" I knew that telling Greg about this stuff would eventually lead to restrictions in my movement. And I couldn't afford to be shackled.

"You never resorted to fighting before Erlig." Annie looked me into the eyes. Her facial expression was rather dark.

What to do? My eyes were fleeting here and there, evading her gaze. When a memory popped out in my mind.

"What about seeing my training for yourself?" I made eye contact with Annie. "That way, you will see that everyone in our team is actually great people. And they are professionals." I nodded and patted my chest.

Annie's eyebrows moved here and there as her pupils flickered.

"You can visit the gym tomorrow with me, and I will let you meet everyone with me. And if something really happens, we will tell father about this little incident. How's that sound? I have a friend who will help me back at the police station if anything happens."

"Erlig! You can't do things like this!" She looked frightened.

"No-no, I'm talking about giving me positive characteristics. I was talking about my friend from the team, so what about it?"

Annie was deep in thought as she heard my proposal.

"We will do as you say." Finally, she succumbed to me, and I let my mouth form a smile. "But in return, if I deem that there is someone who affects you in a wrong way, you will stop all of this." She looked at me sternly.

A victorious smile froze on my face, and now I didn't even know what kind of face I made.

"Okay."

"Huff, good." Annie exhaled with her nose and turned back to the bags. "You can go now. Dinner will be ready in half an hour."

Absentmindedly, I left the kitchen, and as I stood behind the closed door, I heard a low woman's voice.

"That's right Annie! Mothers should know how to act tough when they need."

Hearing a single woman psyching herself, I didn't know what to do.

The very next day, I got up with the sound of my 'favorite' song. I went to wash up my face. It took me a few minutes to remember that my hands were bandaged, and it took me a minute more to get rid of them.

Shaving cleanly and getting my face washed up, I went to the kitchen, where Annie was going back and forth. At the same time it took for me to eat breakfast, she managed to boil the water for tea three times. Wash up already washed dishes and almost throwing away all the food that remained from the breakfast.

"Uhm, are you perhaps nervous?" I was finishing the tea as I looked at Annie, who didn't know where to place her hands.

"I'm perfectly fine." she downed her cup, but there was no tea there as she drank it long before.

Shaking my head, I tried to encourage her as we dressed up and went to the gym. She was still nervous, so I could only nudge her from time to time and distract her with conversations.

Making our way towards the gym of "Brave and Bold" I went to the person sitting at the front desk.

"Hey, um, I'm Erlig Grimes."

A man in his twenties looked at me with a disinterested expression.

"Can I have my mother watch my training? It isn't prohibited or anything like that?"

"It's fine, she can pass." He waved his hand and returned to whatever he was doing.

Returning back to Annie's side, I told her that everything is good and she can enter. Going in, she saw the insides of the building and was quite surprised by the size and the amount of training equipment.

Taking all the things she didn't need and her upper garment, I went to the changing room. Hastily changing my clothes, I took Annie and started looking for Tatiana. As far as I knew this, she was possibly the first one to get here.

We carefully navigated our way through the rare people and training equipment and came straight to the heavy stuff. And just like I thought, Tatiana was already here.

Facing us with her muscly back, she was lifting dumbbells that weighted probably over forty kilos. She wore a tank top of dark color, but it was already sticking to her back. Every time she moved her hands up and down, her muscles would form beautiful shapes.

And each time she exerted strength, her butt muscles would flex as well. As she wore spats this time, her large, trained legs were in full display.

Getting caught up for a moment, I looked sideways. Having Annie with me, I had no leisure to actually ogle anyone. But I was safe as Annie was absolutely stunned and rooted in place.

"Tatiana!" Calling her over, I went to her side.

"Erlig?" still holding her posture, she finally let go of dumbbells when I was on her side.

Glancing at her side chest, it was truly magnificent. It was so big and round that I…

"Brlgh!" I shook my head. "Tatiana, I have something to ask you today."

"You want to stop our training or something? Anyhow, go ahead." She went after her towel to wipe the sweat, her large braid flailing behind her. As she talked to me, I felt like she tried to make some distance.

"No. It's actually somewhat opposite to what you said."

"Hm?" She looked at me curiously as she stuffed the edge of her towel inside her humongous boobs.

"I want someone to watch our training today. Is it possible?"

"Why not." her reply was rather curt.

"Great."

Looking around, she took the towel from the inside of her breasts, and I swear, I saw steam going from it. "Who is it?" she proceeded with whatever she was doing.

"I've taken my mother to meet you."

"Cough-cough." She was drinking the water when she heard my reply and almost choked. "You brought whom?" her cheeks reddened as she looked at me with her eyes turning bloodshot.

"My mother." I blinked, not understanding what the hell just happened.