The Rise of Marquis 13 (Patreon)

The Rise of Marquis
Chapter 13

-VB-

When Samuel got the call from Annette so quickly after their last conversation, he thought that Shadow Stalker did something stupid. His infiltrator within PRT hadn’t mentioned anything overt on the part of the PRT, though, so it may not even be that.

Annette also didn’t say anything about Shadow Stalker, and was rather calm when she talked to him.

“Hello, Annette,” he greeted her.

“{Samuel.}”

Curt as always.

“What is it today?”

“{I need your help training my daughter.}”

Training? Daughter?

“Did something happen to Taylor?”

“She Triggered.”

Samuel’s mind ground to a halt for a moment before he grimaced and closed his eyes as he took off his glasses and set it down on the table on top of his paperwork.

“My condolences.”

“{Thank you. So can you train her?}”

“What exactly did you have in mind?”

“{Combat and tactics. Design and subtlety, if you have the time.}”

He picked up a pen wrote it down on a scratch paper. “Got it. Anything else you need from me?”

“{She’s trying to become a hero.}”

He paused. “And asking me to train her is …?”

“{Oh please, it’s not like you haven’t given advice and tips to heroes before.}”

“Well, just saying…” he hummed.

“{When should I bring her over?}”

Samuel pulled out his phone away from his face, pulled up the calendar app, and looked at his schedule. “I have time this weekend, both noons.”

“{Noon, then. Thank you as always, Sam.}”

“No problem, Ann. What are friends for?”

She hung up and he closed his phone.

“Okay. I actually don’t have time then,” he huffed. “Time to make time then.”

He opened his phone again and dialed a number. When the receiver picked up, Samuel smiled, though the other person couldn’t see it. “Christine¹, I need the meeting for weekend noon to be pulled forward.”

“...?”

“Yes, something important has come up, and I need that time period. Both days.”

“...”

“I know. It will make life hard for the both of us, but this is something I really need to do.”

“...”

“Thank you, Christine.”

Now, he wanted to know if Taylor went out to fight already. Time to contact his spies~.

-VB-

Samuel stood waiting with Amelia when Annette came over with her daughter.

Taylor Hebert, only child of Annette Hebert nee Rose and Daniel Hebert, walked behind her mother as the tall professor walked up to him and smiled in one of his warehouses on the outskirt of the city.

“Morning, Annette.”

“It’s noon, Samuel.”

“So?”

Amelia rolled her eyes and elbowed his side. “Dad, stop embarrassing me.”

“But that’s my privilege as a dad!” he faux-whined, which only earned him one more elbow strike to his side. “Well, say hi to Professor Annette. You’ve met her before.”

Amelia nodded before extending a hand, which Annette took and shook with a smile on her lips and eyes.

“Hi again, professor.”

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Amelia. How are you doing?”

“Well, I finally got what I wanted so…”

Annette glanced at Samuel with a mischievous grin before looking back to Amelia. “Well, I’m happy for you! I might even have advice for you if you want for, you know,” she grinned.

Samuel rolled his eyes before turning to Taylor.

“It’s been a while since I saw you, Taylor. How have you been?”

“Y-You saw me before?”

“Of course. You were a very cute baby.”

She fidgetted.

“U-Umm, so when mom brought me here…”

“It’s to train you, yes.”

“Who… are you?”

Her question caught Amelia and Annette offguard before Annette rolled her eyes. “Sorry, she can be a little dense sometimes.”

“Mom!”

Amelia rolled her eyes. “Parents, right?”

Taylor hesitated before smiling nervously.

“Let me show you.”

Bone crawled out from underneath his skin at his collar and formed a helmet.

Taylor’s jaws dropped.

“Y-You’re Marquis.” She turned to her mother. “You got Marquis to train me…?”

“Yes,” Annette said with a smile. “He is a good friend to me, so he was more than willing to make some time,” she said with a sly grin directed at him.

Ah, so she knew about it.

He shrugged. “Now, tell me about your power.”

Taylor hesitated. Obviously, she was trying to be a hero, and revealing details of her power to a villain was not a great move. Annette nudged her, and Taylor still hesitated.

“Hmm, how about this, then?” he asked her.

She paused and looked at him with suspicion.

“If you feel uncomfortable about revealing your power, which will come out anyway within a month of public activity, then we can get down to the more nitty gritty details of combat. Hand-to-Hand combat and tactical maneuvers. If you feel better about revealing your power later, then we can work on incorporating your power to what we learn to that point.”

“You… aren’t going to make me reveal my power?”

“Of course, I won’t. Ann is my friend, which makes you someone to be protected, even if you are not a member of the Marche,” he replied with a nod as he pulled the bone back into his body. He gave her his best disarming smile. “Besides, I already know you’re trying to become a hero, Miss-I-challenged-Lung-and-lived.”

She gawked in shock. “H-How-?!”

“You don’t run an organization like the Marche without having spies everywhere, and no, your mother didn’t tell me.” He paused and then leaned forward. “Knowing what you probably know about me, Marquis, how do you feel about this training? Are you still up for it?”

She hesitated.

But after a full minute, she slowly slid into a combat stance.

Horrible. Good thing Annette brought her to him.

“Well, I can already tell we have a lot of work before us.”

-VB-

¹Refer to Chapter 3. She is the secretary.