Chereads / Rise of the Blacksmith / Chapter 29 - Antagonizing Woman

Chapter 29 - Antagonizing Woman

Following along, he was led out to the room with a wall plack with the letter "D.". He kept trying to move his body and try to escape. She chuckled, finding his struggle amusing, it seemed. 

She opened the door, and the room looked dirty. Dust covered the room; it had been a while since it had been opened. Despite the dust, the room was still well-maintained. It was a polarising thing.

"Here is your classroom; as you can see, it hasn't seen a lot of action. Every day before any teaching takes place, the room shall be cleaned; your teacher will avoid teaching you till it's done." 

She said with a smile, as an idea seemed to pop into her head. She let go of her control over him and clapped her hands. 

"How about you clean it up for today? The tour can wait."

It didn't sound like a request but more like a command, so he just shook his head and put his gauntlet and armor on the floor.

"You're a very mean woman; I hope you aren't gonna be my teacher." 

He rolled up his sleeves, looking around for supplies to clean with. Looking into the room didn't entail anything, so he looked back at her.

"Where are the supplies?"

"In the other classrooms, I would help you get it. But a mean woman such as me can't do that." 

She had taken his words to heart, it seems; he didn't mind as he walked to the door with a "C" on the wall plack. 

He assumed this was to try and shame him, but when he opened the doors, the students inside were also cleaning their classroom.

A few looked at him before focusing on their task. Reese was sitting in front of them with his eyes closed; it seemed he was their teacher.

"Hello, I came here to get something to clean our classroom with?" 

Most of the students stayed quiet and didn't turn to look at him; one of them tapped his hand. They had long brown hair that covered their eyes. He didn't open his mouth but held out a reasonably clean rag.

"Thank you. I'll make do with this, I guess." 

He was about to leave, but they kept holding his hand and stopping him. Despite how fragile they looked, they were strong. They looked taller than him, but he couldn't tell with him sitting down. He had bony hands, and seeing his wrist, it looked like he was more skeleton than man. He scots away on his knees and grabs a bucket with water; the water doesn't look that clean. But when his hands touch it, the water turns clear.

"Cool...wish I could do that." 

He hands it to Charlotte, who smiles in turn. It was nice having at least one person treat him like he existed and wasn't calling him strange names. He also seemed strangely nice.

"Thank you again; I gotta go clean my classroom. I hope we can meet and maybe get your name, too."

They nod a few times; the excitement was visible; Charlotte smiles and returns to his classroom. The teacher was sitting on the floor, smiling as he passed by to enter the room. 

He set the bucket nearby, dipped the rag into the water, and cleaned the room. He usually cleaned up often when doing blacksmithing work, so this wasn't as tedious as she had hoped. She kept peeking inside to see how he was doing, but he never complained or said anything. He liked doing trivial work like this sometimes; it helped his mind wander and think through while his body moved on autopilot. 

Once he finished, he would sigh with relief and put the rag into the bucket. The bucket in the water was disgusting as he walked out and placed it beside the woman.

"So what do I do with this?"

He gestured to the bucket as she opened her eyes and yawned.

"Did you finish?" 

He nodded, and she got up and began walking away; she gestured for him to follow. This time, at least, his body wasn't being controlled. He picked up the gauntlets and armor; he wanted to leave the bucket behind. He decided against it and, despite how silly he looked, took it with him, careful not to drop it.

"Why are you bringing that with you? You could have just left it." 

"I gotta clean it and dump the water out somewhere else. Another student gave me this, so I can't just leave it there." 

She hummed in response and gave a nod. He didn't know what she meant by it, but she kept walking as they stepped outside. She led him out behind the tree as a stream of water seemed to slip under the ground to the tree's roots. The stream seemed to be coming from quite far away, and the path the water came from looked man-made.

"Go ahead and clean It here, then just leave the bucket here. Whoever gave you the bucket will pass through here anyway."

He was hesitant to trust such a mean woman, but he looked around where to dump the water. She rolled her eyes and controlled him to make him drop the water in the stream before giving him control of his body.

"...Why do you do this?" 

She rolled her eyes and gestured for him to hurry up; Charlotte would pout as he sat down and used the water to clean the rag and bucket. She was looking at him so intently it felt like he would drill a hole through his head. 

"What is it..."

He said nervously. He hesitated to look back, upset about her controlling him. But it wasn't like he could fight her.

"You are a strange thing. I saw your fight against Ms Iza. During that fight, you struck me as someone who liked battle and had a wild personality. Seeing you now acting like this, I can see I was wrong." 

She sighed and looked at the tree; he finished cleaning and set the bucket and rag beside him. The two were as clean as possible, but the rag looked like a mess.

"Is that bad?"

"No, just dull. I have been trying to antagonize you and see you explode. To my surprise, all I got were normal reactions." 

He frowned; getting called dull upset him, and he contemplated lashing out.

"Well, screw you."

She scoffed and laughed as she got up.

"Being dull isn't bad; you won't get far. That heart of yours will probably at least secure you a nice woman."

He stuck his tongue out at her, and she controlled him for a few seconds, making him bite his tongue. It didn't hurt his tongue, but it did feel like he just bit into jerky. His whole body was probably close to being as tough as metal.

"Come along, my dull student." 

She began walking away. She led him back to the dojo entrance, and the two began heading to the houses from before. Just before, though, she led him to the right and started walking towards the mansion.

"Since I can't motivate you by tormenting you, I must try something new."