Immaculate Spirit c1-242

by Newbiel

  "We won't if you tell us what we want to know. For the last time, where are they?"

  Hee-Joon lamented in his heart. 'I'm sorry my friend, I delayed them as long as I could but I can't let anything happen to my sweet Sun-Hi. She is innocent and does not deserve to be hurt. I hope you will forgive me in the afterlife.'

  "They are in America." He said in defeat.

  "Where? I want the name of the city!"

  "New-York. They are in New York."

  "Good, if you lied to us we will kill your cute girlfriend and everyone you ever consider friends in this life."

  "I know. I know who you are and who employed you. You will go to hell for this." He cursed.

  "That's why you are a dead man." The man said.

  The next second in a fluid and well practiced manner, he unsheathed his saber and thrust it into the heart of Hee-Joon who died instantly, the light leaving his eyes. In a second movement, he retracted the saber and cut off his head. The next instant, three other persons wearing similar attire came out of the shadows. Wiping his bloody saber on the clothes of their dead prisoner, the man in charge looks at one of his brothers.

  "You are going to stay here and clean everything, after that get his girlfriend and find out everything she knows and then kill her. We can't leave loose ends. You two, you are coming with me, we will go to New York and we are going to get them back in Korea. Our employer insists on killing them himself."

  They nodded, acknowledging his order and back out into the darkness. Second later, the candles were cut down and the obscurity filled the room. The infamous house became silent again, not a living soul could be found inside or outside but the people living near here shiver in their sleep, feeling an inexplicable coldness in the air.

  *****

  At the same time, New York.

  Nathaniel was sitting behind his piano in their penthouse apartment busy looking at his musical score. The college would start in two weeks and he needed to get his album ready before that because he would likely not have the time after the school started.

  True to their word, his grandparents left him the piano and they decided to keep it in the living room. He wanted to move it into his room at first to not bother his mothers but they firmly disagreed. They loved watching him play and sing. They were still surprised and a little resentful to hear that he had an amazing voice like that, knowing that he never sang when he was younger because his voice was not ���good enough' for him. Mary could not help but to bitterly shake her head about it. If his voice was not good enough, she would have to fire almost 60% of her singer.

  "When the movie is scheduled to be in the theater by the way Maggie?" Nathaniel asks.

  Maggie came earlier today since she had documents to sign and they wanted to have a meeting to talk about everything that was happening. She was sitting on the couch not that far from the piano, a cup of tea on the coffee table, and a stack of documents beside it.

  "December 12th. The premier would be the ninth."

  "What about the tv apparition to advertise the movie?"

  "They accepted your demand. You would do only the one in NY and only if they don't interfere with mandatory class."

  "Good. Thanks Maggie." He knew very well they accepted only because of Maggie.

  "Don't worry about it. I still received a request from a show in LA. Ellen wants you back, she said they would adapt their schedule to accomodate you, she knows that you were accepted in Columbia and don't want to burden you. I hear that your first interview was a success in terms of audience viewership and the commentary on Youtube are really good."

  "Ok, we will organize that when I have my class schedule but for Ellen we will go." Nathaniel said.

  He was not surprised that Ellen knew about Columbia as she was following him on twitter. He had configured twitter to receive alerts only if the person following him had 1 million followers or more. After missing the follow on a couple of important people, he had realized that his idea to block all alerts was not ideal. He did not want to appear arrogant or impolite to fellow singers and celebrities.

  "I knew that you would say that." She smiles, noting down something on her agenda.

  "When do I have to post my new single?"

  "October 24th. The trailer would be released at that time."

  "Good, I would program it tonight. Anything else?"

  "One thing, I receive a few requests for you to pass an audition in LA. Small production."

  "Not interested. I don't have the time at the moment so don't bring the topic again please. We will talk about it next year, okay?" Nathaniel said truthfully. He had still some subject where he needed to get back his retard and in addition finishing his album, his days were booked until the college start.

  "Alright, I would get the word out." Maggie nodded. She was glad that he did not pick the offer. One of the dangers of this job was burnout and Nathaniel was still sixteen. Even if he did accept, she would not have agreed. She was testing him and she was happy that he passed.

  "Thanks Maggie." Nathaniel smiles with gratitude.

  Life was good at the moment, he was going to enter the college he always dreamed of going into. His album was coming along nicely and he would soon be up to pair for College in the academic side of his study. Even if it was tiring, he was doing what he wanted and was happy about it.

  but still, he was feeling unrest inside of him. Like if a storm was coming.

  Looking at the cloudy sky outside of the window he hoped he was wrong.

  Chapter 49: :

  New York, Columbia University. 18/09/2012. 08:10.

  "And that's the end of our tour. I hope you like it and you will have an amazing year with us." A smart looking college sophomore said to the group that she led.

  They were a group of around thirty people, twenty Freshman who will enter this year in Columbia and the rest were their parents or close relatives. Some had come with their two parents and some came alone. Nathaniel on the other hand was with his mom Karine. Mary was working and needed to go on trip in Seattle to solve the problem there and could sadly not come.

  Today was orientation day and they had passed the last hour walking around campus, seeing the different teaching buildings and the fraternity home. Outside of what he knows from the movie, that was the first time Nathaniel was confronted to the greek system. Honestly, he was not that interested in it. He fought in the frontline with his brothers. Backing theirs six, stopping the blood flowing from their bullets wound with his bare hands, comforting them on their last breath. That was true brotherhood. What they were talking about seemed an insult to that very concept.

  But looking at the other students beside him, it looks like he was the only one who had these thoughts. They were all looking at these buildings with excited eyes, even the most geeky looking ones. The most puzzling thing that he saw was his own mother, looking at these buildings with a nostalgic expression on her face.

  He was going to ask his mother about it when a person walked up to them.

  "Nathaniel Lyndon?"

  Hearing that name, every freshman on the orientation group turned to look at Nathaniel with a newfound interest. The newsletters presenting the LSAT test of Nathaniel as a textbook example had quickly turned into the educational forum and he had become quite famous. Even if his appearance was not well known yet, his name was.

  Looking at the muscular man in front of him, Nathaniel quickly tagged him as a musculation addict. The way that he worked his muscle was not that of a fighter, With that much muscle mass he would hit hard but would be extremely slow and not agile at all. He could use that to pick up girls but in a fight he would be totally useless. Nathaniel picks that up in a fraction of a second and with only a quick look up.

  "Yes, it is me. Who are you?"

  "I'm Joshua Manning, I work for the administration."

  "I recall, you are the one in charge of admission." Nathaniel remembered the name at the bottom of his acceptance letter.

  "Exactly,
good memory." He complimented, he then looked at Karine." Madam Lyndon, I presume? It is always a pleasure to see graduates here in Columbia."

  "Thanks, it's good to come back here. I have a lot of good memories here in Columbia." Karine says.

  "Glad to hear it. Sorry to disturb you but the dean would like to have a word with your son. You are welcome to come of course." He said gallantly.

  "We will gladly meet the dean." Nathaniel answered with respect.

  "Great, follow me." He said before he started to walk away.

  Exchanging a look, Nathaniel and his mother quickly follow him. They didn't know what the dean wanted to say but they were both curious. Nathaniel had an assumption that he was because of the LSAT but he wasn't sure. Nonetheless, Joshua proved to be a good guide as he was showing things to them that the earlier visit did not while they were walking. They did not take long to arrive at his office as the visit tour ended not far from it.

  Joshua made them pass in front of the secretary, knock once and then open the door without waiting for permission to enter. That shows immediately how highly Joshua was trusted by the dean. Once inside the room, Nathaniel saw that although it was richly furnished, it was not over the top. The information was encouraging to say the least. The last thing that he wanted was to make an enemy of the dean before even his first class.

  Seeing them enter, the dean got to his feet and approached them. He looked them over for a second before thrusting his hand and smiling a little.

  "Mister Lyndon, Madam Lyndon, nice to meet you. I'm Richard Curtis, the dean of Columbia." The dean presented himself.

  Listening to his tone, Nathaniel felt relieved. His tone of voice was confident but not overbearing or arrogant. He could work with that.

  "Glad to meet you too, sir. I wanted to say that I studied your case, Matterson against the state in 1998. Your use of the treaty of 1942 on free trade on specified material was really imaginative, I was impressed." Nathaniel compliment.

  Hearing that, both the dean and Joshua froze. They remember that case well as they were working both on it. Matterson was the client of their firm at that time who was trying to export goods from Africa until they were stopped by the government for illegal importation. They had worked for sixteen hours straight until they had found that the treaty issued on WW2 to help American industry increased their production of armament and was never amended. Using it, they managed to obtain a surprising win in court.

  It was not the first time that a student was trying to impress them or bootlicked them on a previous affair. Over the years they managed to mark their way into corporate law, getting published a couple of times in the process. Usually these students would pick these cases up to flatter their ego in the hope to get them on their sides. It was a smart move the first time but the twentieth time it started getting boring so they started rebuking these students.

  The thing was that the case that Nathaniel was quoting did not belong to that list of cases who got published. It was one who never got any attention even if they felt it deserved it.

  "Of course, it was lucky for you that the government lawyer was young and did not find the jurisprudence of 1836 who protected Africa against depleting their natural resources on coal and steel. It could have turned this case around completely. Although it was not specifically naming the silicium that your client was importing, I believe that could have made things interesting in court." Nathaniel added before they could answer.

  When they heard him talk about that case, they were a little surprised but this time they were astonished. Their mouths dropped open as they were looking at the child in front of them. If that jurisprudence really existed and they did not doubt it at this instant, he was right. That could have turned this whole case around. Jurisprudence was taken extremely seriously in court and no judge would bypass them without a very good reason.

  Looking at the men who had their mouths open in shock, Karine smiled behind her hand. She thought in her mind with mirth. 'Welcome in my personal hell.'

  "But how? That case was not even known to the public!" Joshua said, closing his mouth.

  "Internet. I was impressed by your imaginative way of using that old treaty so I wanted to know if the government lawyer could have found a counter to that and if there was one. It turns out there was one."

  "But that lawsuit was at least three thousand pages thick!" Richard said indignantly.

  "3128 pages if I recall correctly. If I was afraid of that, I would not be here sir." Nathaniel said politely.

  This time, Richard let out a smile while Karine and Joshua laughed a little.

  "Please take a seat, we need to talk."

  The dean made a gesture, pointing to the two chairs in front of his desk. They accepted gladly, the dean taking place on his chair and Joshua taking position by the door, still standing.

  " First I would like to thank you for choosing Columbia, I know that Harvard and Yale make you a lot of propositions. I appreciate that."

  "It was nothing, I dream to be at Columbia since I'm little. Harvard or Yale never been an interest of mine."

  "Can I ask why? They are objectively the best law school in the country, you would gain a lot to go there."

  "I could tell you that I love this city and I would hate to leave it for a few years but it would not be 100% true. To be brutally honest, I would say there are too many assholes in those two schools ."

  The dean who was in the process of drinking his coffee almost choked on it hearing the answer of Nathaniel while by the door someone sniggered uncontrollably.

  "Nathaniel! Your language! Excuse yourself now!" Karine said, horrified. She did not want her son to talk like that in front of the dean of one of the best law schools in the country.

  "No it's okay, I can handle the brutal honesty." Richard said once he got his breathing under control. "You know that we have a lot of students from prestigious backgrounds here too right?"

  "I know sir but the quantity is much less than Harvard or Yale."

  "This is true but let's go back on topic. I wanted you here to talk about something important." He said ominously.

  Chapter 50: :

  "I'm listening." Nathaniel said simply.

  "Alright. Even if your LSAT was impressive and it gives you a nice amount of notoriety, we still have huge reservations about you. You are obviously extremely gifted in law but it's your general knowledge that worried us. Hell, your last class was 7th grade! You missed a total of 5 grades and you didn't even graduate from high school. In the history of this university, we have never encountered that situation before."

  "I understand sir." Nathaniel answered. He knew that it was going to be a problem at some point.

  "That's why we have arranged a series of tests for you. It regroups basically all of what you learn normally in each grade and each domain. You will have ten hours to complete all of these tests starting when your feets leave my office. I urge you to take those tests seriously as I would ask that at the end of semester you can complete them all with a good score. If not you will be expelled."

  "Mister Curtis, can you…" Start Karine before being interrupted.

  "Reconsider? I'm sorry but no. This is Colombia here, we have a reputation to uphold. I can't have a genius in law who didn't even know when the french revolution happened!" He exclaimed inflexibly.

  "But…"

  "No mom, it's ok. He is right, even if I perform okay on LSAT, he can't have someone wandering around with no high school knowledge." He smiled lightly, his eyes twinkling.

  Karine knew her son very well and she recognized the expression that he used when he was about to pull a prank on someone. Hiding her smile the best that she could, she turned her head to the side.

  "I will take the test right now, sir. I presume Joshua would be in charge of monitoring me?"

  "Indeed I am. Since I was the one who advocated to accept you, this is my responsibility."

  "Thanks Joshua, I hope I will convince you that you made the right c
hoice. Sir, can I advocate for an amendment?" Nathaniel asks.

  "An amendment? Speak sophomore." Richard said curiously.

  "Can the chrono start when I have the first test on my hands? It seems more fair that way."

  "Hummm… I will allow it. Joshua, I trust you to take good care of your charge." The dean said dismissively.

  "Of course, let's go Nathaniel."

  Once the two had left the room, the dean focused on the mother of Nathaniel.

  "I'm sorry about that but I need to be inflexible on that matter. He is obviously smart and even if he doesn't succeed this time, he would succeed the next. If not, I trust that you or he have the means to hire a private tutor to bring him up to speed." Although he was apologizing, he did show no sign that he was really sorry and Karine did not expect him to be.

  "You know when Nathaniel was twelve, a week prior to the accident, we made a bet together. If he could learn french in two weeks, I would pay him violin class as he wanted. He succeeded in one week. He learned one of the hardest languages on the planet in one week and his accent is almost flawless." Karine explained softly.

  "This is indeed impressive. I did four years of French in college but I can't barely speak it today. Wait, he is fluent in french? That was not in his application."

  "Yes, almost no one know about it besides his family, he doesn't like to boast. What I wanted to say is that he likes to be challenged. And you just did. Mark my word, he's going to ace those tests." Karine said proudly.

  "Of course you would say that, he's your son so it's normal for you to expect great things from him but I think he will fail this time and it will motivate him to work harder on the future."

  "Want to bet?" Karine asks with a catshire smile, fishing two bills from her purse. "I would hate to take too much money from you, how about two hundred dollars?"

  "You are on." He said smiling. They both put the bills on the desk, not touching them again.

  "How did your son become so knowledgeable about law?"

  "Since he was eight he was looking through my case file. He always loved books and could be immersed in them for days. You learn about the Droski case?" She asked.