Chapter 42. The Night

The night felt short as time flew by, the two women spent the whole night chatting and gossiping about their husband, sons, and anything else related to their life all within that time span.

Elizabeth got a somewhat clearer understanding about the situation back in Rouge and learned more about her grandson. The new friends he’s made were… quite unique if she had to say so herself based on Angel’s descriptions. She felt as if she needed to meet the kids her grandson has made friends with; there’s no way Angel’s words were anything but an exaggerated story.

Elizabeth wanted to ask more that night about his friends but couldn’t help but notice the worried look on Angel’s face whenever she talked about Arthur even though there was a smile on the surface. Elizabeth subtlety reassured Angel that nothing would happen to Arthur by mentioning that her husband (Angel’s father-in-law, Samuel’s father) was in Zeldova. All she had to do was send him a letter about the situation.

By the time the sun had arrived a knock on the signified that it was time for them to part ways. Elizabeth gave Angel a warm hug and told her to come back again soon. Angel assured her she’ll bring Arthur with her next time. Elizabeth smiled at Angel’s response and told Angel to take care of Samuel before leaving the room, Winston gave her a nod and followed suit.

Samuel woke up minutes later and snuck his way over to Angel’s room. Angel opened the door to his worried face, Samuel thought perhaps his mother came to bully to her last night after stomping away from the kitchen.

Surprisingly, Angel was fine and seemed happier than normal. Samuel thought that Angel was just trying to put on a happy face for him and got even more worried. He kept trying to assure her that everything will be fine and that his mother is a great person. His worrying and assurance got to the point where Angel couldn’t take it anymore and kicked him out of the room.

Benjamin walked by and saw Samuel’s plight and continued to walk away completely ignoring his lord who had just been tossed away by his wife. It seemed the journey back home today will be an interesting one, he thought.

It wasn’t until noon that Angel exited the room after taking a nap. Winston and Elizabeth stood at the front entrance of the mansion to see Angel, Samuel, and Benjamin already returning back to Rouge after an overnight stay. Samuel gave his mom some last few words and promised her he’ll start sending letters more often. He wanted to send her letters on how great Angel has been to him so that next time his mother would go easier on Angel.

Samuel waved his finger in the air and three shadows appeared directly before them. With one last bow to his mother and Winston the shadows completely covered the three as their physical bodies disappeared without a trace. If Elizabeth hadn’t known about Samuel’s powers, she would not have notice three shadows flat on the ground camouflaging into the environment as it vanished off into the distance.

Elizabeth sighed at how fast her son had grown up over these past years and felt grateful that even though he was still a grown man he still came to her for help. She also felt a little worried about this too, Samuel has done everything on his own for the second half of his life, for him to come to her again really shows that he was desperate.

“Winston, go see if they were being tracked, if any person seemed suspicious get rid of them.” Elizabeth’s voice was cold as she directed her orders to Winston.

“Right away.” Winston tightened the white gloves on his hands and walked out of the mansion wearing a top hat and a monocle. Elizabeth sighed and rested herself on her seat. She quickly adjusted the wig on her head and closed her eyes. The sound of a drawer could be heard opening beside her.

Less than two hours later Winston returned and tossed away his bloody white gloves into a trash container nearby.

He walked calmly into Elizabeth’s study and saw her reading a book. The title was “How to Not Spoil Your Grandkids.” Elizabeth looked up from her reading only to notice that Winston’s pairs of gloves were gone. She pulled out a drawer and tossed him a pair of new ones.

Putting on his new pair of white gloves Winston calmly stated, “It is done.” Elizabeth nodded her head and placed the book down. “Let’s go out for dinner tonight.”

Winston bowed and left the room. Elizabeth walked over to the window and sighed, it would have been better if the King hadn’t sent people to keep track of them. Most likely they weren’t even here to track Samuel and Angel, just to keep an eye on everyone who moved in and out of Towns within this country after his decree.

Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed, “Oh well, he knows I don’t like people snooping around my Town. Serves him right.” She quickly threw the matter to the back of her head. It wasn’t the first time she had people killed for snooping in her Town, and it wouldn’t’ be the last. King Baroque nearly spat out blood when his people sent reports back a few days later that, yet another person he sent out died in Tryn.

However, both parties were relentlessly stubborn in what they wanted, in the future Tryn would be known as the resting place for spies and anyone who the King ordered to keep an eye on Tryn would beg for their lives to the point that he eventually relented and allowed for them to only monitor on the outskirts of it.

Her thoughts were correct, Angel and Samuel weren’t being followed, it was just spies sent by the King to keep an eye on and gather information on every major Towns. Villages and tribes were too small and close knit that strangers were too easily spotted and information they gathered was abysmal and useless.

The three who rushed northward to Tryn felt immense relief and spent twice as long coming back home. They made sure to keep a disguise and interact with people as little as possible on their way back after surfacing from the shadows.

It was already almost two weeks after Arthur had left by the time Angel and Samuel returned home. During the trip back home Benjamin was truly enjoying his Lord’s suffering as Angel complained about Elizabeth and his uselessness in front of his mother.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Angel asked her husband after they returned to their manor, Benjamin had already excused himself and went back to doing work. “I’m sure they’ll be fine; Gran is training them.” Samuel assured. He pulled out a fresh letter from Boulderville. “They’re going to throw a festival welcoming their kids home next week, should we go?”

Angel couldn’t resist the urge to see the kids, “Maybe just a peek, we’ll go and see that they’re doing okay then we’ll leave immediately.” Angel still regretted she couldn’t escort them to Naturelle herself but keeping an eye on them while they’re still here should still be okay.

Samuel raised an eyebrow to his wife’s response; he was sure she would reject the decision because there was always a chance they would get caught. “Really?” He asked.

“We’ve already decided to send him to Naturelle, as long as we don’t get caught being together with him it should be okay.” Angel’s conversation with Elizabeth that night and how much Elizabeth assured her that everything was going to be okay prompted her to be a little more daring in disobeying the King.

“Should we use a better disguise?” Samuel asked. Angel rolled her eyes at her husband. “Just use your shadows and cover us, no one would notice two shadows on the ground in a massive crowd.”

Samuel was hesitant to agree he didn’t like to use his shadows in this way. The amount of energy it took to conceal them, while it wasn’t astronomical, still drained him if he used it for a prolong amount of time. As a war veteran he preferred to use his power for combat and a regular disguise to keep hidden. A well-worn disguise didn’t consume any energy meaning he’ll be at his peak during battle.

However, this wasn’t war, Samuel realized this and agreed moments later. He continued to say “We can leave the day before and arrive when the festival starts.” Angel was overjoyed at his response and agreed.

Meanwhile, during this time the child of theirs is has finished another round with Cobble, Pebble, and Gran. It was day 9 of their 30-day training. Unsurprisingly there was still no progress in unlocking their internal energy for Arthur.

Seth on the other hand made the most improvements of the three and managed to find his inner energy. He didn’t know what happened, he just felt better every passing day until eventually he felt internal energy for the first time—he screamed like a girl. Legitimately squealed in excitement during meditation.

His squeal disrupted everyone’s concentration resulting in Gran smacking him on the face leaving a more prominent mark. This didn’t stop him to have a stupid smile on his face as everyone congratulated him.

However, things weren’t all bad for the other two guys, both Arthur and Michael while didn’t improve in unlocking their internal energy. They have improved physically through Boss’ training after the first 3 days of maze ways.

From day 4 onwards they still had mazes to do which was led by both Shelly and Julie, with the three guys following behind. However, Boss increased the gravity within the maze ways causing everyone physically incapable of standing upright on their walk back to the Inn. It felt like they were walking through a swamp.

During this time Arthur, Seth, and Michael showed the most improvements under pressure and managed to stand upright as their physical capabilities improved. Julie and Shelly had already unlocked their internal energy, so they were able to offset some of the pressure Boss had placed within them.

“Today’s meditation is over.” Gran continued to maintain is expressionless façade and left the room before everyone recovered. He didn’t train anyone as hard as these kids before him, the girls showed immense potential and three out of six of them were Exotics.

Every day was blistering smacks to the arm and legs along with a few body shots. It wasn’t just the kids who was affected by Julie’s prophecy, Gran really wanted to do his best so that these kids before him would be able to change their fate.

The two girls opened their eyes with a calm expression on their face. They’ve made marked improvements in terms of internal energy manipulation. They are able to extend and condense the energy all around their body and instantly react to incoming attacks from Gran.

Julie rubbed her arms and smiled at Shelly beside her “Damn, I thought I would go for two in a row. Teacher Gran is really making it hard for us to get a perfect score.” Shelly returned the smile and rubbed her shoulder. “Yeah.”

Both of these girls managed to maintain their near perfect record when it comes to meditation. Julie on average would get hit 55/60 times with Shelly going in and out of 59 and 60 each day.

“I don’t wanna move~” Arthur laid on cool cold floor rubbing his burning arms and legs on it to cool off the stinging pain. “Teacher Gran is too mean; he’s making it too difficult for me to even concentrate!”

“Young master, that’s the point.”

“But Shelly~ can’t we get Boss to give us the pills he gave to those guys? They’ve also found their inner energy!” Arthur recalled meeting Seth’s friend a few days back. Each one had their own personality, Gerald seemed pretty smart, Sampson was awkward, Mason was always smiling, and Riley was cool. This is what Arthur thought of them.

“Young master, he’s said no for the past three days, I don’t think he’ll do it.” Shelly replied.

“Damn right, I won’t.” The door opened up and a kid with a kitten in his arm and a puppy on his head walked in. “You can stop begging for it, it was just some marbles I found near a dead body. You don’t want dead body marbles do ya?”

Arthur rolled his eyes at Boss’ response, the first day Arthur asked Boss said he found those marbles in the dirt. The second day he said that some guy was sucking on it and spat it out. Today it was a dead body? He knew they were all lies; Boss just didn’t want to give it to him.

“Hurry, hurry let’s go back to the Inn, I want to eat.” Boss quickly escorted all of them out of the room. “Come on, or I’ll smack you guys again.” Boss’ words were true, yesterday he walked in and tried to rush them out. However, the boys were in too much pain and didn’t want to move, Boss immediately took the stick from Gran and smacked them repeatedly until they got up.

Cobble and Pebble waved goodbye to the kids who had left and went upstairs. Halfway upstairs Cobble paused in place and stared directly at Roselyn’s room. Without warning he ran into the room and slammed it open.

Within the room Gran, Dr. Galil and Orchid was standing there, Gran had an extremely frustrated look whereas Dr. Galil repeatedly told both of them not to do it.

“It won’t be good, Roselyn is very feeble right now, if you take her back home, I’m afraid she could die.”

“At least she’ll have a chance if we make it back, what you two are doing is slowly killing her by leaving her here.” Orchid harshly criticized.

Dr. Galil turned his direction over to Gran. “As a doctor, I believe it is better to leave Roselyn here—.”

“I'm taking her home.” Orchid instantly interrupted.

Gran sighed and saw the angry look on both the doctor and Orchid, they had been arguing for the past 10 minutes.

“Can I have one more day to think about it?” Gran could only helplessly request.

“No.”

Gran sighed and knelt before his wife. He held her hands in his, the once cold hands he felt days before were a lot warmer, yet she hadn’t even shown any signs of waking up.

“My wife, your sister is trying to separate us, she wants to eat me. If you love me, please wake up and stop her.”

“Wha— No I’m not sis, he’s lying! Well, not completely but not in that way! Well, not yet!” Orchid covered her blushing face when she heard what Gran had said. Cobble and Pebble facepalmed and shook their head.

That was Gran’s last resort, he thought maybe he could wake Roselyn up if he mentioned it, it was a desperate gambit. Seeing that even Roselyn had no reactions to that Gran had decided.

He looked longingly at his wife for what he believes may be the last time he’ll ever get the chance to. He sighed, stood up, and turned around only to see the bright red face of Orchid.

“Fine, you win. I’ll help you bring Roselyn back to her home.”

Everyone in the room let out an audible gasp as their eyes grew wide. Gran shook his head when he saw their expressions. “I’m sorry, Dr. Galil I think Orchid is right. I’m sorry my sons, please come here and say goodbye to your mother. Orchid, I’ll go get the carriages ready.”

Everyone’s face continued to be shocked with their mouth opened big enough to fit an entire apple. Seeing the shocked face of Dr. Galil and his sons Gran knew his choice was beyond their imagination. However, once he saw the shocked look of Orchid, he became confused.

He stared at Orchid’s eyes who weren’t even on him and saw that it was slowly moving towards his direction.

“Gran, this is my home.” A sweet and melodious voice that he’s heard everyday in his life for as long as he could remember sent chills crawl up his spine. Did my wife die and sent her dying message to me from the beyond?

“Gran?”

Gran felt cold, completely flabbergasted as he could hear his wife’s words directly in his ears.

“Why don’t you look at me? Turn around.”

Gran was completely scared; he was mortified to turn around and see his dead wife.

Pebble saw the stupid look on his father’s face and slowly walked in front of him. Gran’s frozen body stared at the son who walked before him. Pebble reached out and twisted Gran’s body around.

“R-Roselyn!? Eek! Ghost!” Gran’s eyes rolled up completely.

He fainted on the spot.