Reaper

1

The next morning, the girl was uncuffed from her bed along with the other girls, but she wasn't sure what to do. Madam B noticed her uncertainty. She discovered early on that while this child could not speak, she was still very expressive and easy to read. That honesty was unsuitable for their line of work and had to be tempered out of her. She couldn't help but frown at the girl, knowing this would only make Dreykov more unsatisfied with her.

"Do what the other girls do for now. Watch them and follow them. The General will come by later to determine your training regiment and intensity," Madam B instructed. She noticed the other girls glance in her direction, "Let that be a warning to the rest of you. Don't be sloppy today." She said before leaving the room.

After their morning warm-ups, they were allowed to eat a small breakfast as the sun rose before beginning their language classes for the morning. Madam B didn't typically sit in on every part of the girls' day, but today was a unique situation, and she wasn't sure when Dreykov would show up, so she decided to oversee the entire day with the girls.

Dreykov showed up toward the end of the class and saw the girl earnestly listening to the class. He sneered at the sight. They were wasting their resources on this mistake. He agreed with the father that her defect and existence were unacceptable.

He approached Madam B at the back of the class, "How is she doing?" he asked in Russian.

"Surprisingly well," Madam B answered in Russian. She knew Dreykov preferred to communicate in their native tongue.

His sneer returned, "How can you be sure? She could be faking it for all we know." He frowned.

"I have had the instructor have her perform several commands in different languages. She has performed every one. She is behind in reading, writing, and math, which is understandable for her age if she hadn't gone to school," Madam B explained.

"If she hasn't been schooled and her father didn't care for her, how could she know multiple languages?" Dreykov asked suspiciously.

"This, I do not know. But she has been able to follow every language we tried. I continued to test her outside the classroom to avoid disrupting the others. She also performed every command I ordered," Madam B shrugged.

Dreykov frowned; even if the girl was going off social cues from the girls surrounding her, who may have helped subconsciously, she couldn't do that alone in the hall. He didn't believe she was going off Madam B's facial cues. The woman could always keep her cool mask in place, even in the most arduous situations.

He signaled to take her to combat training. He watched the girl be beaten and immediately get up after being knocked down. She never cried or even flinched from the impending impacts. But she didn't do anything but stand there. Dreykov was immediately annoyed, "Will you just stand there? Are you a little idiot?" he screamed. He pushed the little girl who was fighting her out of the way and stood in front of the little girl, "What Reaper? You little idiot are only good for being thrown to the floor! We don't need dummies anymore. We have a walking dummy already! We should call you Ragdoll!" The girl only looked at him innocently as he screamed in her face. Soon, Dreykov's annoyance turned into fury as he backhanded the young girl hard enough to knock her flat to the ground. Her lip split open, and she bled, but the girl still stood back up and stood in front of him.