"So, what exactly is your plan? I a.s.sume you will want to visit museums and so on?", his grandmother asked him, and Ace nodded."Yeah, that is the idea, I have an itinerary planned, which will be inside that folder I handed to you. I understand that you want to keep a tight security, and I agree, anything could potentially happen. Some undercover guards should be ok.", Ace said, going over his plan inside his mind as he spoke.
"Ok, from what I have been told, security on the actual hotel you will all be staying at will be extremely good, nothing should happen there. Therefore, it should only be once you actually leave the hotel. They will follow you - without being noticeable of course. I will also warn you, they will have guns, but will only shoot them if it becomes a necessity, it is always a ha.s.sle to get involved with the police in Europe.", Ace nodded at this, he understood where she was coming from, and considering his skillset and enhanced senses, he should be able to remain relatively unharmed if anything was to happen.
"Very good.", Ace said.
"Yes. Next on the list, you will be winning this right?", she asked, already knowing the answer.
"Is that even a question?", he responded, and gave her a smile.
"Good, I look forward to hearing from my friends, and being able to boast about you.", she said, giving him a cheeky smile.
"I am sure you do. Have you checked the plane?", Ace asked, wondering how prepared she was.
"Of course, you will be flying with your teacher in the school jet. All the papers are in correct format, and you should have no troubles at arriving within a good timeframe. You should arrive the day before at about midday. That should give you enough time to finish anything you have to or with to do.", she took a sip of her drink, and observed his reaction.
He gave her nothing, and just nodded, "That"s good, I should be able to unpack and even tour around the city for a while. That should be fine right?", he asked.
"Yes. The security personnel should be ready the moment you land, which means that you should be more than ready to go.", she answered, appeasing any worries.
"Good, I will ensure to book anything that I want to go to."
"Good. Now, do you want to eat? A new place opened up, and I hear it is quite good.", she said, and he nodded, he truly was pretty hungry.
***
"Well, this should be an interesting trip.", the teacher began, "Have you ever played chess?", he asked, and Ace smiled.
"I have played some, but I a.s.sume you wish to play?.", he said.
"You a.s.sume correctly. You may find that some of the contestants will ask you to play, and you may even think it to be an entertaining pa.s.stime. In this trip I should be able to get you up to scratch.", he said, and then took out a board from a previously prepared compartment.
They set up the game, and then began playing. Ace had played some, and was not exactly a beginner, but he had never actually learnt any theory. Once he was taught some however, due to his enhanced brain, he was thinking more than a few moves ahead, and improved extremely fast. His teacher, Edward as he had been told to call him was definitely impressed.
They played for about 6 hours, and then Edward decided to take a nap, and Ace read some more theory for a while, practising a few different tactics, and seeing what he could come up with.
The trip was comfortable, the air hostess served them nicely, and Ace was even able to sleep a few hours before landing, which allowed him to recharge his batteries more than a normal person would be able to.
As of now, he would be able to not sleep tonight, and still be perfectly fine the next day. This meant that if he wished, he could be out the whole night - not that he would anyways, his grandmother slash security guards would never allow it.
***
"Hey, we"re here.", Ace shook Edward awake, and he stretched, yawned, and rolled his ankles a while before he finally got up from his seat and went to the tarmac.
"Well that was a nice trip.", Edward said, "Was it a fruitful one for you?", he asked Ace, who just shrugged.
"Well.", and he clapped his hands, "Hopefully we can get to the hotel soon, and I can get some rest, I am pretty tired from the trip."
Ace just laughed, shaking his head, he had been sleeping for over half of the trip, and now, he wanted to sleep even more, some people were just...