Chapter 38: Ultimate Supreme Elder Witch 1

Training of Henchmen was carried out in the bell tower, a dark open-air cloister built on the Evil tower.

To reach it, you had to climb a staircase of thirty sections, so narrow that the students had to go in single file.

— How disgusting! — Dot said, panting like a heated camel.

— If she vomits near me, I'll throw her off the tower—Hester grumbled.

Sophie walked in front of the 3 witches with Adam in her arms, causing Dot to look between astonished and envious.

— How can you with the child and climb all these stairs? — complained Dot.

— I exercise—he replied simply.

Aric walked behind Hester, followed by Anadil and finally Japeth.

This was done because the boys had fallen behind in trying to pull Hort away from Sophie once again.

Hort was behind Japeth trying to pass him to get to Sophie, but the boy always elbowed him.

Despite having been on several occasions about to fall down the ladder, and that Japeth did not seem to feel the slightest guilt about it, (he was hoping that there were no witnesses to be able to throw him) he kept trying.

Sophie recalled that, according to the story, when Rafal died, Hort would be her "happily ever after", but that would be later for now the boy still had to grow.

Since it was precisely Sophie's rejection that made him grow in the original book.

The worst thing this Sophie could do would be to pay attention to him and just make him more obsessive and conformist.

They reached the end of the staircase and found Castor waiting for them.

— I HAD TO TOUCH THE READER!

Her assistant, Beezle, was the red-skinned dwarf from whom Sophie took the booklet with the school rules.

Whether they win or lose their battles depends on the competence and loyalty of their minions! Castor explained. Of course, some of you will end up being minions, and your lives will depend on the strength of your leader. So, pay attention if you want to stay alive!

Sofia listened to the idle class wondering if the scene in the book could be repeated in which case she would have an instant pass, but it would be advisable to be the last in The Line, so she stayed behind her classmates.

Equal to ducklings with mother goose, Adam, Aric and Japeth followed.

Hort stayed with them, of course.

I didn't understand how, but somehow I had gained 3 more ducklings.

The 3 witches joined the group also in the back.

— Why not go ahead? — asked Anadil curiously.

— because I'm sure we hear Castor much better from here—Sophie blurted out as a quick excuse.

No one could argue with that logic.

Everyone was left thinking for a second, before nodding approvingly.

It was no secret that the evil half of the Cerberus used a rather "high" tone of voice.

—And now, your first challenge. How to train… —Castor stepped aside— a goose from the golden eggs.

Everyone was stunned to see an elegant golden-feathered bird sleeping serenely in its nest behind Beaver.

— But the geese of the golden eggs hate villains—replied Anadil.

— That means, if you can train one, it will be very easy to tame a mountain troll—Castor explained.

The goose opened her pearly blue eyes, watched the villain audience, and smiled.

— Why are you smiling? — Dot wanted to know.

— Because he knows we're wasting our time—replied Hester. The geese of the golden eggs only listen to the Evers.

— They're just excuses—Castor said, yawning. — They must get that pathetic creature to lay one of its valuable eggs. The larger the egg, the higher its rating.

Castor wrote on the wall of the bell tower the five strategies for training minions:

1. Order.

2. Harass.

3. Deceive.

4. Bribing.

5. Intimidate.

— Now, don't bully the damn bird before you've tried the other four strategies—Castor warned. — There is nothing stopping a henchman from turning against him.

Sophie made sure to be the last in line, and saw that the first five students were out of luck, including Vex, who went to the extreme of shaking the bird by the neck, but the goose of the golden eggs responded with a smile.

As if by a miracle, Hort was the first to triumph.

He tried ordering her to "Lay an egg", calling her an and tempting her with worms, until he gave up and kicked the nest.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Suddenly, the goose took him from his robe and with it covered his head; Hort started screaming and, unable to see, crashed into the walls.

Sophie could only feel sorry for the poor boy

But the goose looked delighted.

He flapped his wings, screamed and squawked so shrill that he lost control and excreted a coin-sized golden egg.

Hort held her aloft, triumphant.

— I won!

— Of course, because in the heat of battle you will have time to run around naked and make the goose lay an egg—Castor grumbled.

Even so, the dog had said that whoever drew the bigger egg won, so the other Evers imitated Hort's tactic.

Dot grimaced at him, Ravan made shadow puppets, Anadil tickled him with a feather, and Brone, the pale, bald boy, sat on Beezle, to the bird's joy ("Stinky witch!" the dwarf howled).

Hester, thoughtfully, walked over and kicked the goose in the stomach, after which an egg the size of a fist.

— They're all amateurs—he said in a contemptuous tone.

It was Aric's turn and after approaching and whispering a couple of words in the creature's ear it went from being a white goose to a cherry red and laid an egg the size of a football.

Japeth approached, putting himself in the same position as Aric, without any need to whisper anything, just winked at the goose and got the same result.

Adam repeated the "feat", simply walked over and stroked the animal gently while saying "beautiful bird" tenderly.

The animal without being able to resist it simply pleased the little one and gave him an egg the size of the previous ones he had made for the two cute boys.

The nevers could only look at this with grievance as they complained to Castor that this was because they, to begin with, seemed Evers.

— Only the best evil dresses in good—Castor had replied.

It was Sophie's turn.