It was unknown how much time had passed before Ivan finally woke up. His eyelids trembled before slowly opening and a familiar ceiling entered his view, he blinked and sat up. Looking around him, he realised that he was in his brother's room.
"They must have brought me here after I passed out," Ivan mumbled to himself, he still remembered what happened and why he was brought here; his room was most likely a mess and under renovation at the moment.
He noticed that he had also been cleaned up and his clothes had been changed.
He proceeded to stand up from the bed. His feet slowly landed on the cold marble floor. He performed some basic body stretches after getting up, his body felt great after waking up.
His mana core had also recovered fully and he felt refreshed. His movements attracted the guards who were standing outside the door and they pushed it open.
"Young master Ivan, you're awake!" One of the guards exclaimed with a relieved tone after seeing Ivan standing in the middle of the room.
"Please wait a moment, we'll go inform the lord right away."
"Wait," Ivan called out before they could leave. The two guards paused and looked at him with curious looks.
"Is there something that the young master needs?" One of them asked.
"How long have I been unconscious?" Ivan asked.
"Two days, you've been unconscious for two days, young master." One of them replied.
Ivan was stunned to learn that he had been unconscious for 2 days. His body needed some serious training.
"I see, thank you," Ivan said and allowed the guards to leave.
Now left alone, Ivan went to sit beside the window in his brother's room. He gazed at the view outside while his mind drifted into thought.
He could guess why someone had come to kill him. The Castellan family was huge and being a part of the main lineage as a Paladin must have upset a lot of people, they must have wanted to get rid of him just for this.
But what troubled Ivan the most was that he had almost died at the hands of a level 2 warrior. People of such rank weren't worth his attention in his past life.
He now had more reasons to grow stronger. Since they dared to come for him inside the Castellan family mansion, it was possible that they wouldn't stop trying to get him once he entered the academy.
His family won't be there to protect him if something like this happens again.
"Now I have to prepare for the invasion and also avoid getting assassinated, how bothersome." Ivan sighed.
At this moment, the doors of the room were pushed open and the sounds of footsteps entered. Ivan woke up from his thoughts and looked towards the door, three people had entered the room.
They were his brother, father, and mother.
"Ivan!" Elena exclaimed happily after seeing Ivan and rushed toward him, Ethan and Christopher followed behind her.
"Good morning, Mum." Ivan smiled brightly at his mother.
Elena paused in front of him and gently touched his head before feeling his face.
"You need to eat," she said strongly.
Ivan "..."
He was speechless and didn't know what to say.
"Let him rest, he'll eat when he wants to." Christopher's voice sounded from behind Elena.
The woman turned around and glared at her husband.
"And how do you know that he doesn't want to eat right now?" She spat.
Christopher flinched and didn't say anything to retort, he focused his gaze on Ivan instead.
"Ahem, how are you feeling, son?" He asked in a gentle tone. He looked nothing like his cold self back in the meeting room.
"I'm fine, what about you?' Ivan said and asked back, his eyes focusing on the new scar on his father's right cheek; he was sure that scar wasn't there before.
Christopher noticed Ivan's gaze and touched the scar.
"This? Don't worry about it, these things happen." He said with a playful grin.
Ivan nodded and then looked at his big brother, Ethan, who was smiling at him.
"Thanks for lending me your room." He voiced out.
"Don't mention, you used to prefer this room when you were little after all," Ethan said with a warm smile, recalling times when the young Ivan would throw a tantrum when he wasn't allowed into Ethan's room.
Ivan let out an embarrassed chuckle, he remembered those times too and honestly didn't know why he loved coming to his brother's room so much. Maybe because he didn't have to worry about fixing the place after messing it up.
"Mother told us what happened with the assassin, I didn't know you could fight so well." Ethan's voice pulled Ivan's back from his imagination.
"Fight? It was more of surviving, that wasn't a fight at all." Ivan said with a shy laugh.
"Still, holding your own against a level 2 warrior for so long. Not even I could do that when I was at your level." Ethan said with all honesty.
"Hmm, your brother is right. Looks like you're a combat genius, being a weapon user might not be so bad after all." Christopher joined at this point.
Ivan smiled and didn't say anything. He couldn't tell them that he actually wasn't a combat genius and had simply used his knowledge as a General from his past life.
The room fell silent for a while after that until Christopher spoke up again.
"You must be curious as to why this happened," he said, staring at Ivan with an apologetic gaze.
Ivan didn't say anything and just stared back, waiting for his father's explanation.
"Forgive me for making you suffer so much for something beyond your control. Just know that this won't happen again, everything has been properly taken care of." Christopher said seriously.
'That wasn't much of an explanation, but it doesn't change what I plan to do.' Ivan thought inwardly before replying to his father.
"I understand," he said softly.
Christopher stared at his second son. He felt guilty that Ivan had to go through all of that and wanted to take the blame yet it seemed like he wasn't even angry about it, the man honestly didn't know what to say anymore.
Luckily, Ethan came in at this point.
"Ah, that reminds me. While you were unconscious, we prepared a surprise for you." Ethan announced with a grin.
Ivan lifted an eyebrow and asked what it was.
"Since the academy will only start lectures officially next week, we hired a private teacher for you. He's a weapon user and will teach you the basics before you go to the academy." Ethan explained.
Ivan "..."
Who hires a private teacher for an unconscious person?
Besides, he doubted that anyone on Earth currently had anything new to teach him regarding combat.
"Umm, do I really need a private teacher?" Ivan asked with a sigh, clearly uninterested.
"Don't be like that. Every genius needs a little push to grow properly, this will help you be a step ahead of others once you enter the academy!
Also, we prepared a present for you!" Ethan stated.
"A present?" Ivan tilted his head to the side.
Christopher smiled and waved his hand, letting a small ring float towards Ivan.
Ivan caught the ring and instantly knew what it was. A storage ring used to store items that one doesn't want to carry around in the open.
"Check inside," Elena said with an excited look as if she couldn't wait for Ivan to find out what was inside the storage ring.