Chapter 16: Eat Now.

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"A hungry man can’t see right or wrong. He just sees food." — Pearl S. Buck

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"I’ll also help you to resist with my trusty baton," she said as she swung her baton left to right, showing them how flexible her wrist was.

Then she said, "Start eating."

This time, Robert didn’t hesitate. He and Barnabas lunged into the food without hesitation, leaving Alex in the dust.

Alex had learned his lesson and reclined, resisting so he wouldn’t fall into the food. With no one able to win their struggle, his body remained immobile.

Inwardly, he was saying to the worm, ’We will eat. But I have to decide when we eat and when we stop.’

’Eat now!’ the worm said, urging him.

It wasn’t listening to Alex at all. Anything that wasn’t putting food into its mouth was a distraction it didn’t care for.

To get rid of Alex’s resistance, it was pumping the pain of hunger into Alex’s mind. It was also trying to force his body to lean forward.

Alex wanted to keep things like this and force the worm to agree with him, but he saw Tessa raise her baton and say, "Eat now!"

It was the same thing the worm had just said. But Alex didn’t dare to disobey her. He could only allow the worm to bring his mouth to the table. Then he became lost in reverie.

A few seconds later, she said, "Stop!"

As usual, no one listened to her. So she swung her baton several times. With a flourish of her wrist, she bonked them in the head three times in a row.

It was as if this were a concert and she was the conductor, with the way she swung her baton. She had a baton; the people she hit with it cried, making sounds that were music to her ears, and she had an audience looking on in appreciation of her performance, so thus might as well be a concert.

Again and again, she hit their skulls, cracking them open. In no time, the wound would heal, and they would forget about the pain. Then they would repeat the ordeal.

This continued until they ate the carcass clean. They left not even the bones behind. They chewed, broke down, and swallowed everything.

This was also when the training got unruly. The three of them began fighting each other when food became scarce.

At first, it was to stop the others from taking more food. But it quickly devolved into them trying to kill and eat each other.

Fortunately, Tessa was there to save the day. She used her baton to dissuade them from fighting gently.

When one conversation with the baton didn’t work, she tried two. If two didn’t work, she tried four.

She kept doubling the gentle taps with her baton until they realized that fighting just wasn’t worth it. By the time she was done, their bodies were bruised and bleeding all over.

After the last morsel was eaten, she said, "We’ll call it a day here."

She pointed at Robert and Barnabas and said, "I’ll give you both 1/100."

Then she said to Alex, "As for you, I’ll give you 10/100."

"You did well not joining them in fighting. But you need to learn to control yourself when you eat."

Upon hearing her judgment, the red-skinned Big Boss said in distress, "Damn it! I lost."

"Can’t you change your mind, Tessa?" the green-skinned one said, urging her.

"It was this big buffon’s fault," she said, pointing at Barnabas.

"He always started the fight. My little guy over there was only fighting back."

Before Tessa could reply, the red-skinned Big Boss interjected, saying with a smirk, "That’s cheating. The result is final. We both lost."

"Besides, the big fool only wanted to stop him from eating. He was the one who tried to kill the big fool. That’s not fighting back at all. That’s escalating the situation."

"He is too violent and rash, always escalating a little disturbance into a death-match. So he deserved to lose."

The green-skinned Big Boss didn’t think he was right and began arguing with him. So the two of them went back and forth arguing about whether Robert deserved to lose.

As for the Robert they were arguing about, he raised his hand to Tessa to signal that he had a question. But Tessa ignored him.

Instead of addressing him, she said, "You will be taken back to your place to rest. We will continue the training tomorrow."

Then she said to Roy and the other Squires, "Take them away."

Seeing as he was about to lose his chance, Robert spoke up, saying, "Please, can I send a message to my sister that I’m fine?"

"Thwack!" came the sound as Tessa swung her Baton.

Alex wasn’t the one the baton struck, but he still winced, and his body ached all over with phantom pain. Barnabas’s reaction was even worse.

Because the big fool had initiated a lot of fights, he had taken a lot more beatings from Tessa. So when he saw the baton flash in her hand, he stepped back instinctively to avoid her.

As for the one who was struck, Robert recoiled and held his fractured arm while his face was contorted with pain. Despite the pain, he didn’t look like he had given up. His eyes were still fierce, and he looked ready to fall to his knees begging for a letter.

Tessa, being the compassionate person that she was, couldn’t bear to see him like this. So she sighed and said, "Fine. You can write a letter. It will be delivered to her."

Hearing the commotion and seeing what happened, the green-skinned Big Boss said, "At least he didn’t ask to see his sister. So he isn’t stupid."

This made the red-skinned Big Boss chuckle and say, "In his current situation, he would likely eat his sister. That would be tragic."