Chapter 208: A Points Sink
As an extrovert, Benton had always liked people, and he’d had a variety of relationships of all types throughout his life on Earth. He’d been married, raised children, spoiled grandchildren, been taught and taught others in turn, mentored proteges, and so on. All in all, he felt he had a pretty good handle on human nature.
Sometimes, though, someone managed to truly surprise him.
When he’d first met Pan Jiang, Benton had pegged him pretty quickly as a standard arrogant young master, and every memory he’d gained from Su agreed with that assessment. By not taking the kid’s sword and gifting him a technique, Benton had hoped, at best, to keep the boy from becoming a potential enemy.
It wasn’t like Benton had held any real animosity toward the kid. Take a young man, raise him in an environment where everyone literally bowed down to him, give him everything he could ever possibly want, and oh yeah, grant him superpowers. Benton himself would have probably turned out pretty darn arrogant under those circumstances.
Benton’s kind gestures had done a lot more than he’d expected. The scion had actually turned into someone who was actually a rather decent kid. His actions during the beast tide had proved him to be both capable and dependable. He’d not shirked a single duty, been brave in the face of danger, and listened to those placed in authority over him.
Benton couldn’t have asked for a better ally.
Thus, he had no qualms about putting Li’er’s sword training in the boy’s capable hands. Benton had, however, grown a bit curious about how that would go. After all, questions abounded. Would Li’er, not the most patient of kids, remember her manners? She’d been instructed over and over again prior to the session about how important being polite to her trainer was, but well, it was Li’er.
The other side of the trainer/trainee relationship was in doubt as well. Pan Jiang had picked up the sword technique quite well, but aptitude in doing something didn’t always equate to the ability to teach others that thing. And the boy did have a reputation for being prickly. While Benton didn’t think for a second that Pan Jiang would hurt the child, the whole session devolving into a shouting match remained a real possibility.
Benton couldn’t help but do a bit of eavesdropping when the two of them met.
Things had gone well. Really well. Pan Jiang was a demanding but fair instructor, exactly what the little girl needed. Benton couldn’t have been more pleased.
At least, that was what he thought until he heard Pan Jiang, of all people, the former arrogant young master, espousing the virtues of empathy to the cool, no-nonsense Jin LiJuan.
The whole situation blew Benton’s mind, and his first thought was that it was a good effort on the boy’s part even though it wasn’t likely to produce any results at all. Except that it did.