"It's been a while."
Nathaniel greeted Adrian with a smile planted on his face.
"It has."
Well, it had been a month since they last met.
"Ahem!"
A clearing throat was heard and the boys veered around to the voice.
There stood a tall, muscular old man with a heavy stubble beard.
He had brown hair and eyes that shared the same color.
"I'm sorry to ditch the pleasure, but the training will begin shortly."
It was rude, but again, once you entered the training ground, Imperial titles did not apply here.
There were only the Instructor and the trainee.
"Yes, Sir!"
The man turned to Adrian.
"I'm so sorry for what happened to you."
"Thank you."
His eyes narrowed sharply as he eyed him.
"But do not expect me to go easy on you."
Well, that was exactly what Adrian hoped for.
Because he realized that just running and exercising alone would not help much.
His body needed real training.
"Yes, Sir!"
Soon, he gave them 10 minutes to stretch.
Fredinand provide him with some information about the Instructor.
His name was Sir Walter, a retired military man; a former Commander.
Walter was assigned by the Emperor to train both of his sons.
In the middle of his warm-up, a whisper pricked Adrian's ears.
"Pst, Ian."
He glanced over and when his eyes met with a pair of golden eyes, Nathaniel grinned.
"Hehe."
Adrian raised one of his eyebrows in question.
He didn't know why the boy next to him was in a strange mood.
"You know, when I sneaked into the plaza last week, I found a delicious food stand–"
"No talking!"
Nathaniel shut his mouth and they both immediately returned their sight to the front.
"Yes, Sir!"
–Piii.
The whistle blew, marking the end of the stretch.
"Alright, kids. Run for 30 minutes."
Nathaniel spun to his brother and spoke.
"If you feel tired just stop running, okay? Don't push yourself too hard. You're still recovering."
The fact that Adrian stood here meant that he had recovered, then how come he was still recovering?
However, a thought crossed his mind and he asked.
"How often have I stopped when I was tired in the past?"
"You did it all the time, so it doesn't matter."
Adrian was flabbergasted.
"I did?"
"Yep."
"I see."
Now he understood why there was no improvement in his Physical Stats even though this body had trained for more than 3 years.
Turned out the original Adrian never pushed himself to the limit and only depended on his Magical.
He didn't blame Adrian, though, it was his choice if he wanted to be an Elementalist.
But now this body was his, solely relying on one power was a red flag for him.
Not that he was greedy for power but, learning from the accident back then, he needed another option.
Mana could only be used for Magical purposes and couldn't be used to enhance Physical Power.
In other words, if one wanted to be physically strong then one had to train physically.
And that was what he intended.
–Piii.
Adrian decided to jog instead of run–it would be best if he could last as long as possible.
He didn't want to faint in the middle of practice because the lessons were too valuable to pass up.
But somehow, the memories of when his foster father trained him flew back in.
What was different was that there were a lot of trainees and he didn't have an effing-shit physique like this.
"Ian, aren't you tired?"
He spun his head only to find Nathaniel jogging next to him.
His forehead creased for a split second and Adrian gazed at the boy intently.
Receiving such long stares made Nathaniel take aback.
"Uh, is there something wrong?"
"May I know what you are doing?"
"Huh?"
Confusion painted his face.
"I'm running, of course?"
Adrian shut his mouth tightly.
Alright, it was his fault; he asked the wrong question.
"You can go ahead and leave me, it's alright. I'm not tired yet."
With his own strength, Adrian knew that Nathaniel could run as fast as he could without breaking a sweat.
30 minutes was a piece of cake for him, so there was no need to match his pace with him.
Yet, the black-haired boy shook his head.
"Nah, I like company."
What kind of answer was that?
Regardless, Adrian shrugged.
"Do as you please."
Just when he thought their conversation ended, reality proved him wrong.
"By the way, let's go to the plaza! I've listed many delicious food stands!"
"I don't think my mother will allow me."
And Adrian realized that he owed Aerilyn an apology because he just sold her name.
'Sorry, mom.'
In the end, Nathaniel could only sigh in disappointment.
"Haa… You're right."
.
.
.
Several minutes passed, Adrian was short of breath and he was sweating.
"Haa… Haa…"
His heart and stomach were okay, so Adrian thought that he should be fine for a couple of more minutes.
Thanks to his secret exercise, he was able to run up to 30 to 40 minutes.
However, his head felt dizzy.
No.
It was not that he was tired of running, but something else.
"Ian, are you okay? Aren't you tired? You look awful. You should stop."
Yes, it was his very big brother who gave him a headache.
It felt like the thousandth time Nathaniel asked the same question over and over again.
Even his ears were ringing by now.
Just–how come the snarky protagonist turned into such a chatty and caring brother like this?
He had no idea, whatsoever.
"I'm not… haa… tired yet."
"Are you… sure?"
Glimpsing Adrian panting and drenched in sweat made Nathaniel anxious.
He was afraid that Adrian would faint in the next second.
"Haa… I am."
Walter watched the boys jogging from afar.
As usual, Nathaniel kept pace with Adrian; he was ready to give his little brother a piggy ride if he got tired.
What was different today was the Second Prince.
Normally, Adrian always ran with all his might at the whistle, and moments later the boy would look like he was dying.
But this time, he did it more casually and also used a breathing technique.
The old man continued to observe more until the sound of a whistle echoed and his brows furrowed in astonishment.
–Piii.
Walter turned to a Knight blowing a whistle behind him.
"It's been 30 minutes?"
"It has, Sir!"
Soon, Adrian arrived in front of him with his haggard breath.
Nathaniel caught up and immediately patted Adrian's head with a proud face.
"Looks like I owe you a treat!"
Adrian shook his head.
"You don't have to."
Now that Walter thought about it, their interaction was kinda awkward.
Nathaniel tried so hard to engage Adrian in conversation, but the white-haired boy didn't seem the least bit interested–very contrasted to their past.
However, something was off.
Walter had been training Adrian for more than three years.
In those years, that brat could only run for 10 to 15 minutes.
But now, he was capable of running for 30 minutes and looked fine.
The weirdness didn't stop, it was reported that Adrian killed 9 out of 10 assassins who chased him.
He thought it was ridiculous, it didn't make sense.
As his Instructor, Walter knew Adrian's capabilities and there was no way that the brat could win against them.
Yet, he survived.
Looking at Adrian's pre-post memory loss, there was a significant inexplicable increase in his power that Walter didn't know about.
The old man chuckled wryly as he landed his view on Adrian.
'That little brat, he hid his power.'
Now that he had forgotten the reason for hiding his strength, he ran like a normal person.
Still, it was just a hunch but there was a way to prove it.
–Clap –Clap –Clap
Walter clapped his hand and once he gained the boys' attention, he spoke.
"We're going to have a sparring session."
One of Nathaniel's brows lifted in wonder.
"All of a sudden?"
Walter shrugged and fixed his sight on the white-haired boy.
"I will be your opponent."
"You can't do that, Adrian is tired and–"
"So what if he's tired?"
Walter cut in and before Nathaniel could open his mouth, he continued.
"Are you expecting the enemy to say, 'I see, you are tired, then we'll come back later.' huh?!"
"No–you don't understand!"
The black-haired boy didn't give up and Walter snapped back at him.
"Which part did I not understand?!"
Adrian watched them argue in disbelief and sighed tiredly.
"Both of you, please, stop it."
He turned to his brother.
"What the Instructor said is true."
"But–"
Adrian shook his head.
"Thank you for your concern, but don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Tsk."
Nathaniel clucked his tongue in annoyance and threw his face away.
"Fine."
Adrian switched to the old man in front of him.
"I'll accept it."
"Good."
Soon the two of them stood in the middle of the training ground with wooden swords in their hands.
'Let's see what you've been hiding all along.'
=====
A/N:
Sorry, I just returned from a family gathering.
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