Dylan smiled ominously. It was his usual smiled but somehow Sherry felt shivers run down her spine. Dylan beckoned Sherry over and whispered into her ears even though he knew the children couldn't understand him.
"You, are you serious?" Sherry was so shocked that she spoke in English. Dylan nodded with a smile. It was a foxy smile. Sherry froze, she'd seen that before. Back then, when Dylan smiled like that he…Sherry shook her head with a pale face. Begone, memories, begone. She muttered to herself under her breath.
"K-kids." Sherry hesitantly called out to the exhausted kids. They were sitting on the ground huffing and puffing, trying to calm their breaths. The children looked at Sherry, nervous at what she was going to say.
Sherry felt her heart being pricked by her guilty conscious. "Dylan said we're going to play gang-up tiggy. If by sun set, you can tag him then he will give you something really delicious. But if you don't, you'll have to do the horse stance for an hour straight."
"Really? You'll give us something to eat?" The little piggy Diana latched onto the phrase. She jumped up in excited. The other children were skeptical. When they were running earlier, he kept the same pace with them but he didn't even break a sweat.
"What's a horse stance?" Yasmin asked.
"Uh, it when you stand like this and do this." Sherry spread her legs and bent her knees until they were level with each other. It was a little difficult to do because she was wearing jeans but she managed. Sherry held her hands into a fist and strongly held into where her hip was. Her stance was stable and strong.
The children stood up and tried to copy her. They couldn't bend their knees as much as she did and their legs shook as time went by. In the end, they couldn't even last one minute before they fell on their behinds.
"It's, it's so hard." Fiona complained.
"Doing this for an hour is impossible!" Diana exclaimed.
"Mm, you're going to give up? That quickly?" Dylan asked with his foxy smile. His face looked like it was enshrouded in shadows somehow and looked threatening.
"He asked if you were going to give up." Sherry felt her heart skipped a beat. T-this was the glorious and sunny Golden Fenrir's other side. Every soldier under his command feared it and called him the demon instructor behind his back. It was really truly terrifying how he could seem so different from his usual self when he's teaching.
The children felt their pride being tickled. They saw Dylan's smile and felt that he was looking down on them. They collectively felt irked and fired up.
"I'm going to do it." George said with a determined voice. The other children also voiced their consent.
"Excellent." Dylan said in English. Fiona glimpsed at Dylan and dashed forward. She reached out her hand and tried to touch him. An excited smile surfaced on her face as she saw her hand almost touch Dylan's. Dylan smirked. He twisted his body to the side and didn't even move his feet. Even so, Fiona brushed passed him and stumbled over his feet.
Fiona glared at him and tried again. Each time she tried to tag him, Dylan dodged with minimal movements and she would find herself touching the air. "You look like a prince but you're meaner than a wolf!" She angrily cried out.
"T-then let's start now." Sherry worriedly said from the side. She knew that it was no use stopping them so she decided to just support them from the side and make sure they don't get injured.
The children nodded with resolve. They jumped up and began to chase after Dylan. The knight merely jumped back with a leisurely smile whenever they approached and avoided them with ease.
The five children felt anger building up within them. They glanced at each other and gave a knowing nod. The next thing he knew, Dylan found himself surrounded by children on all sides. They slowly crept forward, cautious that he might escape.
Dylan grinned. He ran in Frank's direction. He was the one that was the most careless and therefore the easiest to bypass. Frank put his guard up and prepared to tag the approaching Dylan. The handsome man got closer and closer and when he was close enough to touch, he suddenly felt a weight on his head and saw Diana's shocked face instead of Dylan.
Dylan landed lightly behind Frank and turned to look at them with a smile. He held out his hand and beckoned at them in provocation.
Suddenly, all thoughts of food or the horse stance flew out of the children's minds. The only thought they had was, I'm going to make him regret this!
Watching from the bench, Sherry sighed. He was too childish. The children totally have a grudge against him now. Sherry also felt an inkling of schadenfreude when she saw how desperate the children were. She once behaved in the same way and were in the exact same situation as them. But above all else, she felt sorry for them, that they had to deal with Dylan as he was now. This Dylan, the demon instructor, was really good at provoking people. When it came to her, he threatened to take away her breakfast and she had to go without it for weeks until she finally managed to tag him.
Dylan chuckled at the sight of the children chasing after him. A leisurely smile remained on his face and he wasn't even out of breath or sweating while the children were panting and sweating buckets.
"How is he not sweating!" Diana exclaimed.
"I think we should get one person to chase him at a time. The others can rest in the meantime. We're slower than him so we'll never be able to catch him but if we make him tired, it might just work." Yasmin proposed.
"That's a good idea. Let's do it." Frank agreed. The others also nodded.
"Then I'll keep chasing him." George volunteered. He was more tired than the others but his eyes were full of determination.
"Are you sure? You ran the hardest of us all." Yasmin asked.
George nodded. "I asked him to train us so I have to take responsibility."
Yasmin paused before nodding back at him. "Then we'll switch in five minutes."
George nodded and ran off. The other children took the opportunity to take a break and catch their breath. They sat on the bench with Sherry and drank some water.
"He's toying with him." Yasmin commented while she watched George try to tag Dylan. It was similar to the scene earlier when Fiona was trying to do the same.
Sherry gave out a forced laugh. "He's just doing that to make sure you don't give up. I mean if he didn't, you wouldn't have tried so hard."
Yasmin pursed her lips. "…True."
"Besides. I haven't seen Dylan so relaxed in a long time. He's been quite tense since he arrived. It's nice to see him having fun."
"Is that so?"
"Yep, so thank you for putting up with him." Sherry smiled and thanked sincerely. "I hope you don't suffer too much. He'll be like this until you manage to tag him. It might go on for months."
Yasmin, Frank, Diana and Fiona froze. It was as if the world was burning down and they couldn't do anything to stop it.
Diana was shaking. "We have to catch him!" She stood up and yelled at George. "We're switching!"
But in the end, their efforts were futile. As the royal knight in a world full of monsters, how could Dylan allow himself to be caught by little kids? Even at sun down when they combined efforts to catch Dylan, they weren't able to touch even a single hair on his head.
Dylan laughed and said something. Sherry hesitantly translated it for the children. "He said, I won so you have to do the horse stance now."
The children were irked. They were tired and annoyed and wanted nothing more than to kill the handsome man that still smelled of sunshine after running all day. It was just not fair! They were all feeling sticky and exhausted but he was energetic as if nothing ever happened.
"Grrr." Diana growled and shakingly went into position. The others did the same but they couldn't hold the position for very long due to exhaustion and not being used to it.
Dylan watched with concern. At this rate, it was going to get too late and the children were going to be too tired. "Hmm, you can do it tomorrow."
Sherry translated it for him. The children sighed with relief and left. But on the way home, they suddenly realised something.
Tomorrow?! They have to do it tomorrow too?!