Chapter 48. Wha?

“Wha?” Samuel was unable to comprehend the situation of Boss reappearing before him only after half a month of departing.

Boss slammed his tiny hands down on the table and leaned forward. “Meat damn, you I want lots of meat. Are ya going to give it to me or not?” Boss leaned onto the table; his right arm extended outwards struggling to hit the man across from it on the face.

Samuel’s pulled his head away from the outstretched arm of Boss and replied, “Eh? Why do you need meat? What kind of meat?” He was perplexed, why was Boss acting to strange? Why did the kid even want to smack him on the face? Should he let him?

Boss seeing that he couldn’t slap Samuel with his tiny arms clicked his tongue and sat back down across from Samuel. “I have a situation here, and I’m going to need your finest cuts of meat, no questions asked.”

Samuel raised an eyebrow, Boss’ weird behavior was just too unnatural.

“I can give you the meat, but why’re you here and where’s Shelly and Arthur?” Samuel asked.

“Now, listen here bub…”

The door to the study opened again with Angel walking in with Benjamin trailing from behind. She saw the perplexed look on her husband’s face and the weird attitude Boss was giving him and walked over beside her husband. Boss’ once weird attitude immediately crumbled as Angel stared down at him sitting across from the table.

Benjamin closed the door leaving the three inside to converse. He quickly made his escape expecting Angel to do something violent again.

“Why’re you back here? And where is Shelly and Arthur?” Angel asked. Benjamin ran and immediately informed her that Boss returned without Arthur or Shelly. Angel was annoyed that the supposed bodyguard was doing anything but bodyguarding.

“I uh, I’m here for meat.”

“Where is Arthur?”

“He’s asleep.”

“Why?”

“Because… it’s dark…?”

Angel sighed and tried to calm herself down, Boss’ lies were so stupid, it was not even sunset yet and he said it was dark. “Boss, I’m going to ask you again, this time you’ll answer me clearly and coherently what I want to hear. Alright? If you don’t, you’ll be impaled on that door behind you.”

Boss nodded his head furiously, he was only hoping to play around with Samuel, he wasn’t expecting Benjamin to go inform Angel so fast.

“Where’s Arthur? Where’s Shelly?” Angel asked again. An icicle was silently floating behind her ready to strike Boss if he said something she didn’t like.

“Arthur and Shelly are back at Boulderville Inn resting up and getting ready for tomorrow’s training.” Boss replied. His eyes kept darting over to the icicle hoping she wouldn’t hit him; he didn’t want to have to throw away another shirt of Arthur’s.

“Is that true?”

“One-hundred percent, you can even send a letter to Gran if you’re worried.” Boss replied.

Angel dispelled the icicles that was floating around the room and sat on the armrest of Samuel’s chair “Alright, now why’re you here?”

“I’m here for meat.”

“Why?”

“Gran is throwing a feast back in Boulderville and his meat isn’t coming until tomorrow, however he needed it now so he asked if I can go get some.” Boss answered.

“Why didn’t you just go to where Gran’s meat was and bring that back?” Angel asked.

“I uh… I didn’t think of that.” Boss scratched his head, he continued to say the other reason why he was here. “I’m also curious about what you’re hiding from the boy. Why you changed your mind and allowed for him to head to Cheshire and study at the Naturelle’s Institute of eyes.” Boss stated.

Angel and Samuel shared glances and decided to tell Boss. Starting from what happened during the war and the results of it. Samuel was the one mainly telling the events and going straight to the point as to why he decided it was best to send Arthur to the enemy country.

“Did you ever thought that Tyran would do the same as Baroque?” Boss asked.

“It wouldn’t work, it’s only possible for King Baroque because he and the current Headmaster of Lumiere are best of friends, however the Headmaster of Naturelle has always remained neutral and independent alongside the Sovereign of Church of Safe Haven. The King, Headmaster, and Sovereign are the three of the most powerful men in that continent. It’d be unwise for King Tyran to even try to do what King Baroque did.”

“Oh, didn’t you say the Royals such as Baroque and Tyran are the strongest and scariest? Now you’re telling me there’s a Sovereign and a Headmaster who have that much power?” Boss asked.

Samuel nodded his head, “It’s true the Royals are still the scariest and most powerful of the three, especially with the current Kings who we believe have both made it to Tier 7. He paused and continued “However, the Sovereign, Headmasters, and the Pope, have always been chosen because they were the most powerful and influential person that had come out of their own organization.”

“The Kings have the royal family and are the strongest in terms of raw power and wealth, but that doesn’t mean holy organizations and institutes don’t have their own group of people who can make them bleed if they were to fight.”

“Since the foundation of the two Megachurches and Institutes for the hair and eyes, no matter which Royal family it was that ruled the country, they would have never been able to succeed doing what Baroque did.”

“Usually, the three powers would keep the other in check through an equal distribution of power, with each party remaining independent from the other. However, I’m afraid with the King and the Headmaster of Lumiere coming together, our Pope will need to make a choice.”

“Oh?” Boss thought about the Pope who lived in the enormous Church at the center of the forest. “I don’t think the old man I met would ever choose to join either of them.”

Samuel agreed, “That’s the problem though, if he doesn’t then they’ll most likely force him to step down and put someone who’ll agree with him in the next line of succession.”

“You don’t mean to say they’ll try to kill him?”

“It’s definitely an option for them if they choose to go that route. Do you see why I decided it’ll be better for Arthur to go to an enemy country?”

Boss leaned back on the chair he sat and looked up at the sky-high ceiling of the study. “Hm, well ain’t this going to be fun?”

A cool wind whirled in the room and a large icicle appeared behind Angel.

Boss quickly waved his hands in front of his face hoping to placate Angel “I mean, you two don’t have to worry about Arthur and Shelly, I’ll make sure they receive the best education in Naturelle, they’ll have the most fun with me around.”

Angel’s eyes squinted as she contemplates about Boss words and dispelled her icicles for a second time. Boss released a sigh in relief and smiled. “Is there anything I should know about Shelly when I’m over there?”

Sigh

“Just let Shelly do what she wants.” Samuel stated after thinking about it for some time.

“Is that all?”

Samuel shook his head “If at all possible, try to not let Arthur go to the Tillowisk Empire with Michael and Julie.”

“Aye aye captain.” Boss hopped off his seat and turned around, “I’m going to chat with the Pope for a bit, I’ll be back for the meat before sundown.”

Samuel nodded his head and waved the little boy off. He leaned back on the seat and looked at Angel who was sitting on the armrest of his chair. “Aye aye captain?”

“He’s always been weird since the day we’ve met him.” Angel answered.

“That is true, what do you think? Should we still go?” Samuel replied.

“The festival?” Angel thought for a bit. “He says Arthur and Shelly are fine, do we believe him?”

“I don’t know, should we?”

“Let’s think about this some more, did we get a reply from Jacob and Dylan?”

“Oh yeah.” Samuel tore open the letter left on his desk.

“No worries. – Jacob.” Samuel and Angel smiled at the short response from Jacob. “We’ve got Jacob. Now, what about Dylan?”

Knock knock

Benjamin walked in after knocking twice with a stuffed envelope containing a response from Dylan. Angel rolled her eyes when she saw the big large pile of words transcribed onto over 10 pages of paper.

The husband and wife took the first 9 pages and place them off to the side and looked at the last sentence on the 10th page. “You called Jacob too? Well if he’s going then I’m going too. I can’t let him become Arthur’s favorite Uncle. Sincerely, Dylan (Arthur’s favorite Uncle, but don’t tell him I said this, in fact, do yourself a favor and never mention it to him, I’ll—”

Angel picked up the 10th page and tossed it into the fire pit. She then took the remaining 9 pages and did the same. Samuel all this time did not even bother stopping her from doing so.

Dylan always wrote absurdly long never-ending letters with no end in sight only answering what they wanted to hear on the last paragraph. His first nine pages has always been the same thing, how his day was, what he ate, what happened between him and the wife, etc… Unnecessary information that Samuel and Angel have read through every single time they’ve sent letters to Dylan.

It got to the point that all Angel and Samuel needs to see is how the first page was like for them to know exactly what the remaining 8 pages in between was going to be before they had their answer.

Bang!

“Woops, your door was locked again~” Boss closed the enormous metal door and scanned his surroundings. He began to walk towards the spiraling staircase at the center of the church and ascended upwards.

At the topmost level a person could be seen resting on his seat high above the ground. The Pope opened his white eyes as Boss walked closer.

“Child, you’ve come back so soon?” The Pope’s soothing voice echoed throughout the empty church as he asked the kid before him.

“Just here for some questions, Michael and Julie are at Boulderville waiting to depart for the Tillowisk Empire, did you know the situation between Lumiere and Baroque?”

“Yes.”

“What’re you going to do about it?”

“If they want me gone, I can get up and leave.”

“You mean, you’re going to move this entire megachurch to another continent?”

“That’s right.”

“The Tillowisk Empire?”

The Pope shook his head. His eyes stared off into the distance. “I’ll go to the third continent, Ere.”

“The wasteland of the three continents? Why there?” Boss asked. There were three enormous continents in this world, separated by bodies of water. Zel, Tillo, and Ere.

The Kingdom of Zeldova is the capital of the continent and home to the world’s strongest military. While there are other Kingdoms in Zel, Zeldova was the one that has the most influence.

The Tillowisk Empire consists of five other kingdoms within the continent all allied under King Tyran. What they lack in quality is made up in the quantity of people.

Ere, the wasteland of the three continent and the continent of death. Those who are born there live in small bands and colonies. Scattering and traversing the harsh landscapes all year long in search of food, water and shelter. It is believed those who came from Ere were always strange powerful figures of their own.

The Pope stared at the child before him and stood up. He patted the kid’s hair as he walked by making his way towards the murals circling the walls of the uppermost floor of the Church.

“Child, do you know anything about what is depicted upon these walls? Why we’re called the Church of Future Heaven?”

“No.”

“Do you see the those on your left with various colors of red, green, blue, magenta, cyan and yellows upon their hair and eyes?

“Mhm”

They are the ancestors to all the powers that have existed on this planet. The Orthodox powers. The Original species of power.”

“Do you see those on our right? The ones who do not follow the scheme of colorations?”

“Exotics?”

“Yes.”

“They too, are our ancestors. We are not certain whether Exotics existed at the same time as the Originals or came later.” The Pope paused and smacked the cane onto the ground causing the murals to separate and change. What was depicted was the same as when Boss had seen all these murals the first time.

People of various hair and eyes engaged in battle, however just like before there was so many holes and gaps in the murals making it impossible to tell who their allies were and who were their enemies.

“I saw this the first time I was here. Who are they fighting against?” Boss muttered.

“Yes. Child, as you can see just like you, we are not certain of who our enemies or allies were from what is seen upon what remained of this mural. However, do you know what both the past Sovereigns and Popes have agreed on?”

“What?”

“This was a war that spanned an entire millennium. A war that was fought in the third continent of this world. Ere.”