Chapter 27. Come

“Come.” Cobble motioned with his finger. Shelly looked at the man a distance before her and looked at the array of weapons on the ground. She walked over and picked up a small blade.

The 8 years before she met Samuel Galafray taught her so many things about the cruelty of being alive. The hardship and peril she faced as she overcome each one of them one by one to finally find a helping hand. A person who was willing to disobey command and treat her as his own child.

Shelly completely remembered all of it, the look of disgust in their eyes as they stared down on her, the hatred they bore when they chased her, the people they’ve killed just to get rid of her.

Her body relaxed as she closed her eyes, a powerful formless energy swirled around her as if it was completely under her control. The moment her eyes opened the once calm look on her face became increasingly cold.

A chill crawled up everyone’s spine as they looked at the little girl before them, no one dared to look upon the girl’s face at this moment. “I’m coming.” She said as she walked over with the knife.

Cobble’s face was serious as he looked at the girl before him. An equally powerful energy exuded from him as he matched the output of the girl’s formless power.

There was no rush to Shelly’s step as each one was precise and even. Walking right in front of Cobble she held out the knife in her hand as Cobble paid the closest of attention to what she was going to do.

Shelly circled around Cobble causing him to follow. Standing with his back away from the group Cobble completely focused on Shelly and her knife.

Her arm reacted as she lifted up the knife. The refraction from the sunlight and the knife blinded Cobble causing him to react and form a defensive posture expelling even more energy than before.

However, there was no attack.

Cobble regained his vision and saw the girl standing before him. There was no difference the knife was still held in place with one hand with now the sunlight now bearing down on his chest.

“You could’ve attacked there; it would’ve been the perfect opportunity when you blinded me with the knife.” Cobble stated.

“Oh, I didn’t notice.” Shelly’s comment made Cobble relax as he realized a kid was still just a kid. However, the next situation made him regret relaxing.

The moment his guard was down Shelly went for the blind trick once again, however he ducked his head to prevent being blinded while also keeping an eye on her.

Whish

Shelly’s other hand exploded into action the moment Cobble ducked tossing the dirt she picked up the first time he was blinded.

Splat

The dirt and dust covered Cobble’s face completely causing him to immediately wipe away the dirt from his eyes. The moment his vision cleared he saw the little girl still standing before him.

Strange she could’ve attacked there. Cobble thought to himself regretting that he relaxed himself when she missed her first chance. However, Shelly only pointed at the hole in his shirt Julie had made earlier.

Cobble wasn’t sure if Shelly had another trick, so he didn’t dare relax himself when she did so. It wasn’t until Shelly tossed the knife down, walked away and sat on the ground; did he look down at it.

A small cut to the flesh leaving only a deep enough wound to be considered a papercut was seen. Cobble was completely shocked, it wasn’t that Shelly didn’t attack with the knife, it was that she only made a small enough wound to pass.

Sigh

“You passed.” Cobble said dejectedly prompting Arthur in the audience to cheer. Everyone didn’t see what Shelly did as Cobble’s entire body block their view. However, with his response they rushed up and congratulated Shelly while surrounding her.

They then ran over to Cobble who showed them the little papercut of a wound. Arthur immediately went “Tsk, is that it?” However, he was extremely happy for Shelly inwardly.

Shelly’s calm demeanor returned as she conversed with the group.

“Ahem” Cobble’s voice caught their attention as they all turned their eyes towards him. “While you may have passed, I’ll still be teaching you for the next month before you go.”

“What! Didn’t you say if we hurt you, we don’t need to train with you?” Arthur quickly recalled the fight between Cobble and Julie.

“I’m not hurt, this is just a papercut.” Cobble’s blunt reply left Arthur speechless. So, he means we’d have to make him feel enough pain to not train? How long would that take?

Shelly who was sitting on the ground looked up and nodded her head. She agreed what she had done wasn’t enough to get out of training. Her attitude made Cobble happy as he looked at the other three.

“Round two let’s go!” His voice boomed as everyone looked at him in astonishment. They weren’t done?

Round after round after round, each person pulled out different trick and tactics. However, an hour before noon no one else besides Shelly had passed. She joined in for the remaining rounds and ultimately failed her other attempts.

By the end of the physical training session everyone laid on the ground panting without an ounce of energy left to move.

“Not bad.” Cobble stated as he looked at the group. “You guys did very well for your first time.” His praise caused them to weakly smile.

“Tomorrow it’ll be Pebble’s turn to train you, you should prepare beforehand.” Cobble’s response fell onto deaf ears as everyone was too tired to even listen any longer. “Come back in the evening for your meditation.” Cobble walked back inside the house leaving them to catch their breath on the ground.

Boss looked at the weak group of people lying before him. “Damn, glad I don’t have to do this for a month. I’ll be bored to death!” His voice irritated them, but they were too tired to even make a sound.

Boss continued “Back in my day there was no such people like Cobble to train me, you should be grateful.” The four who laid on the ground didn’t have a rebuttal. “Anyways, I’m going back to the Inn to get some lunch, who wants to come with?” He was just teasing them; he knew none of them could even voice their own opinion.

“Fine, fine. Let’s go.” Boss raised his finger pulling them all up off the ground. Boss walked in the front followed by a line of puppet-like tired people walking in synchronicity from behind.

The march back tired them out even further because Boss would continue to release his hold of them causing them collapse on the ground. By the time they made it back everyone was able to stand up with difficulty because Boss loved to release his hold of them in front of the villagers.

Their pride and their unwillingness of being put into positions of embarrassment by Boss was the only thing that kept them from collapsing on the floor after the first attempt.

“Well, look at that you guys did it! Yay!” Boss childishly raised his hands to a cheer expressing his excitement. “I’m going to get cleaned up, you guys should too, it looks like you need it.” Boss skipped away leaving everyone standing there.

The moment Boss left everyone sat down panting heavily. They only had 6 hours to get cleaned up, eat, and recover as much as possible before their meditation session.

An hour passed by with them still in the same position. Boss all this time after freshening up circled around them with various food and snacks as he ate. Sometimes he’d put the food near them and walk away other times he’ll hover it in front of their face.

They couldn’t do anything about it. Boss ate everything and left them sitting there.

“We… we… we got to… get up” Michael struggled to speak; he was irritated by Boss’ behavior. Everyone nodded their head and struggled to their feet. They leaned on each other for support as they walked before the staircase to their room.

A long perilous journey awaits them as they took their first step.

Ten minutes passed by before they managed to make it to the front of their room, this entire time Boss was nowhere to be seen. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief knowing all they had to do was walk in and get cleaned up.

Michael reached for the knob and twisted it. The door opened slightly before it bumped into something

“What the hell!” Michael shouted in exasperation, there was something blocking the door. The girls behind them saw that Michael couldn’t get in. A sense of foreboding as Julie quickly tried to do the same.

It only opened up revealing a centimeter gap before something blocked their room.

“Boss!” Everyone shouted in anger, this was clearly his doing. “Hehehe you can’t catch me.” Boss’ voice could be heard behind both rooms. “Come in if you can, hehehe.” His childish voice completely angered them.

Michael shoved with all his might at the door in an attempt to get through, however there was no budge. “Hehehe it’s just a nightstand, you can’t even push away a nightstand?”

Everyone completely ignored Boss as they walked over to Michael’s door. “Julie and I will push from above. You two will push from below, four of us should be able to move it.

“3, 2, 1, Push!” The four pushed at the door with all their strength, their faces turning red from the struggle. The door budged a little bit before everyone collapsed from exhaustion.

30 minutes passed by and not a single employee could be seen during this entire time. Boss had informed them that there would be training involved and for them to help out during this time.

“3, 2, 1, Push!”

The door finally budged enough for all of them to squeeze through.

The moment everyone made it through they expected another challenge to stop them from resting, however none of that happened. The room was the same except for the nightstand blocking the door.

Boss was nowhere to be seen as they entered. “I think he’s done messing with us we don’t have that much time to take a bath.” Michael continued “You girls can go first, we’ll go next.” The girls nodded their head and went to get cleaned up.

Luckily for them, Boss did not intervene or caused any trouble as they cleaned themselves. Refreshed and feeling much better they were feeling hopeful that Boss was done with his antics.

After squeezing back through the door and out of the room, they looked around warily hoping there was no obstacles. A sigh of relief could be heard as they continued towards the staircase.

“We’ve done it! There’s nothing here!” Arthur shouted in excitement as he looked down below and towards the direction of the cafeteria. There was no obstacle to be seen.

Arthur immediately rushed to the stair and began walking down. However, once he made it midway an invisible force repelled him and teleported him back up top.

“What!” Arthur shouted as he looked at the people staring at him. “What was that!?” Arthur was annoyed he thought Boss was done with his antics.

“Last test, make it to the cafeteria without bumping into the invisible walls I made!” Boss’ voice could be heard echoing in their ears. His voice continued “Touch it and you’ll be back where you started.”

“Boss!”

“Hurry, hurry, you only have 3 hours before you have to be at the Gran’s place.” His voice finished after saying that. No matter what verbal abuse they threw at him there was no more response.

“Let me try.” Michael stated as he walked towards where Arthur once was, he avoided the wall in front and walked off to the side and stepped forward.

“Success!” He took another step forward and sighed as there was no obstacle there. Another step. “No!”

The three looked at Michael who was back with them. “Let’s all go at the same time and take different steps, the one who makes it through will just wait and we’ll continue from there.” Shelly suggested.

Indeed, her plan was a great one as after less than thirty minutes they made it all the way to the cafeteria after constantly being teleported back to the beginning.

The smell of freshly cooked food wafted into their nose as rows of food can be seen on the rectangular table they sat at the day before. Boss opened through the kitchen door and walked out with a silver platter in hand. He smiled brightly at them as he placed the silver platter down at the center of the table.

“Eat up you guys!” Boss sat on the table and patted at the spot beside him.

No one budge as they stared at him warily.

Was this another trap?