“What?! You managed to eat a lot of delicious food and you didn’t bring any for us?” Nellie’s shouted as she slammed her hands on the table, looking straight at me with pain in her eyes, “That’s too cruel Feliza! You should’ve tried to get some for us!”
“Miss Lisette said that she couldn’t let me bring any over…” I said back with utter calm, while taking a bite of the usual boring chicken stew. “I did try my best, but I failed in the end.”
“Even with your amazingly hypnotic cute puppy dog eyes? How can this be? No one has been able to prove strong enough to resist those!” She exclaimed as she proceeded to grab my head with both hands and looked right at my eyes, “Do it again! I want to see if you did it right or not! Come o-”
Anything else she was going to say was immediately stopped by a quick chop to the head by Terry, which caused her to let go of me and reel back. Of course, with any comedy sketch, she began to rub her head with both her hands, obviously not looking happy about the injury.
“Ow! Brother Terry, please! I was just joking around!” She said as she put up a defensive pose in front of him, guarding herself from any remaining attacks, “Don’t continue destroying my skull with your stone-breaking blows! My weak body can’t withstand any more!”
“This is coming from the girl who beat up William and Marcus when she was four…” He muttered.
She gasped as she grasped her chest and reeled back, acting as if she was genuinely hurt by his comment.
“Hey, they weren’t fully adults yet! They were… like, fix, six, less than eight! Just a few years from being a total adult! Besides, it’s not like I did it all by myself! I had help from Marcus! He helped me-”
“I actually came late. You were the one that took them down by yourself.” Marcus intervened, while just sitting there and picking at the stew, clearly not interested in eating any more of that muck, “I was the one that had to separate you from those two, or did you forget?”
“Wha- bu- I-” Nellie stuttered, looking around for any assistance, before turning to Alise and grabbing her shoulders with a frantic look. “Alise, you were there too, right? They were bullying you, and you saw me get help from someone else, right?!”
“Actually, Big Sis Nellie… you beat them all by yourself.” Alise said after a short pause, looking a little uncomfortable by how she was acting at the moment.
“Looks like the truth’s revealed. You’re no innocent maiden Nellie, you’re far more like a brutal warrior without any class.” Terry joked, looking highly amused by her reaction.
Nellie, to her credit, was looking around, mouth open and red cheeks, trying to find a way to counter those accusations, but she obviously couldn’t find any words to say. After a while of this, she just sighed and looked at the ground in defeat, clearly dismayed by the answers.
“And to think, I still had a shot of potentially looking like a beautiful noble lady that could dominate men with a single wave of her hands…” She muttered, with a tint of sadness to her tone.
“To be fair, you could probably physically take down men with a single wave of your hands,” Marcus pointed out as he simply shove the bowl away from him, clearly disgusted, “Besides, your delusions of becoming a beautiful noble lady got beaten right out of existence as soon as you fought those two idiots and won. It doesn’t really help the fact that you help us with the farm work, which is more of a man’s job.”
“Well, that one I can’t argue with.” She said, quickly changing her mood from depressed to casual as she grabbed Marcus’ bowl, “But there is a good reason for that last bit. After all, we really need all the help we can get with the harvesting. We spend a lot of time collecting all the produce, after all, and I can carry more than you guys combined.”
“Still isn’t helping your case Nellie.” Terry pointed out as he took out a stalk of wheat and put it between his teeth, “You’ve got a pretty scary reputation. Isn’t that why the guard captain’s trying to get you on board with training? Because you’re one of the only competent ‘fighters’ we’ve got in this village?”
“Ugh, don’t remind me of that.” She said as she waved her hands with clear annoyance, “That guy gets on my nerves every darn day.”
“Wait, the guard captain’s been trying to recruit Nellie? I haven’t even seen him anywhere the house, when has he been able to talk to her?” Alise asked, her curiosity now growing with this recent update.
My other three siblings groaned and reacted much differently than I expected. Terry just put his head in his hands and leaned forward, Marcus facepalmed and leaned back, and Nellie simply just banged her head against the table lightly.
“He talks to me whenever we’re out at the fields.” She whined as she just shook her head into the wooden surface, “Every darn day, he comes by and asks if I want to try out working with the other guards. Every time, Marcus, Terry, and Papa have to come by and get him to get out of the area so we can finish the work. He’s doing this so much that I’m starting to wonder if he’s wants something from me other than guard training...”
“At this point, I can’t help but agree.” Marcus growled while glaring at the ceiling, “Are we sure he’s just not some crazy guy that has a thing for Nellie?”
“No, it’s because of her monstrous strength.” Terry remarked as he laced his hands on the table, “If you hadn’t beaten up those two boys and then did feat after feat to show off how strong you are, then this wouldn’t be happening.”
The elder trio then sighed as they just thought about the situation, while Alise seemed to be processing the information given to her. As she tapped her chin, pondering on the given facts, she suddenly froze and turned pale. She slowly turned her head to the three, her face having the clear definition of absolute fear written all over it.
The three of them turned towards her in confusion, probably wondering why she had changed her attitude so quickly. I was curious too, what kind of idea did she come up that made her so terrified?
“Wait… if Nellie was being scouted for being strong, then doesn’t that mean he’ll go after Feliza?!” She exclaimed, clearly distraught by that single thought.
The others looked at her with a strange look and opened their mouths to refute her point… only to stop and close their mouths as they thought about the situation. Then, they took on the same expression she had at the moment, blanching and slowly panicking.
Honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is at all. I’d be able to get taken in as an apprentice to do some combat training, which will be a huge boost to my plans in the future and an additional head start to getting stronger.
“What’s the problem? He just wants her to try out and become a guard, right? Wouldn’t it be best if we just visited and tried it out first before making our decision?” I asked them. After all, they seemed to be getting hung up over the fact that the guy was being annoying and trying to just get Nellie to join.
I know those types, but they always stop once you just do that one thing they request once and show that the activity was not for them. That’s happened several times in high school clubs with other classmates that just ditched those activities constantly, so the same logic should be applied here as well.
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, as all of them stared at me with genuine concern written all over their face.
“Feliza, no… if Nellie showed any kind of interest right now, then that darn bastard would constantly hound her continuously after, especially if he witnesses just how strong she is.” Terry stated, looking at me with soft, worried eyes.
“Yeah, and if the jerk’s as persistent as our older siblings are saying, then there’s no way we can really stop him from continually coming around and trying to get her to join!” Alise piped in, her expression becoming a bit more concerned over the state of things as she kept talking.
I nodded as I listened to their complaints, understanding what their point was. True, there was the possibility that her strength would be so amazing that the guy would continue coming after her, but the percentages of that occurring should be low after the initial test.
If they were really worried about all that, I know a perfect solution to solve all their problems.
“Can’t she just beat up the captain and get him to stop annoying her? If she engraves the fear of her strength into him, then he should leave her alone right?” I asked earnestly, looking around to see what their reactions would be.
They all stopped and started to think about that proposal. Then, after a moment or so, Alise and Nellie looked at each other with a grin, while Marcus and Terry didn’t look exactly all too convinced.
“That sounds like a genius idea. Let’s do that!” Nellie shouted as she slammed a fist into her open palm, nodding in agreement, “If I put the feeling of pain into that jerkwad, then he’ll never want to come near me again!”
“Best of all, with her crazy strength, there’s no way that the guard captain could win, right? After all, she is the person that beat down a whole bunch of adults on her own!” Alise shouted while raising her arms up in victory.
The other two boys, clearly not convinced, merely shook their heads.
“I doubt that the event would be that easy. After all, the man’s a guard captain for a reason, right? Skill can sometimes overcome raw power, so maybe he’s just some crazy master who’s great at his weapon.” Terry said with a hint of worry in his voice.
“If he’s such a great warrior, why can’t he even teach Johansen and William the basics of combat? Those guys get their butts whooped all the time by Nellie and Marcus all the time!” Alise shot back, in an attempt to convince the two guys of their thoughts.
“Just because the guy sucks at teaching doesn’t mean he can’t be a good fighter,” Marcus cut in, before sighing. “You know what? I don’t see a reason why she can’t do this. After all, if she wins, then we get that guy to stop coming around. She loses, then maybe she’ll be seen as more of a woman by the village. So, it’s a bit of a win - win, I guess…”
“Exactly on point Older Brother Marcus!” Nellie shouted as she slammed her hands onto the table, and this time, some minor cracks popped up as a result from the sheer force, “I’ll just whoop that old man into the next year, and then I’ll be free of his annoyances!”
Well, now both Marcus and Terry seemed to be pretty much convinced of her assured victory, seeing as how she nearly just broke the table without realizing her actions. Now, time to see if I could sneak my way into possibly getting some actual combat experience, like I’ve been trying to do for a while.
“Hey, is it possible if I can go too to watch? That sounds fun!” I asked in the most innocent and cutest voice I could muster up.
“Sure, of course you can Feliza!” Nellie shouted, right before anyone even had a chance to butt into the conversation, “After all, I would just need to ask mom and dad first, then we could head out to have the day off officially!”
“That sounds great to me!” I replied back in a chipper tone, in an attempt to match the joviality that she was extruding at the moment. After all, I couldn’t let them catch on to the fact that I wasn’t keen on getting permission from my surrogate parents, especially since the time span between my injury and now has only been two weeks.
However, I don’t think there’s going to be a problem at all. After all, Nellie was going to be the one to convince them, not me. I’m quite confident she could get me in with some sweet and honeyed words, considering the fact that she is one of the older siblings out of the bunch.
Of course, with age comes responsibility, and she has proven to be a hard-working person. Even if they weren’t convinced, she could always just brute-force the problem away and probably find a way to take me along, just because I asked nicely.
There wasn’t going to be any problems this time around, so I could just relax for now.