Chapter 42: Chapter 42 - The First Day Of Training
The next morning I woke up in the most comfort of my life.
Laying in the arms of the man I loved.
My head was resting on Daniel’s chest.
His arms draped around me, keeping me tucked against his side, as if he was afraid of me leaving.
A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips as I traced circles on his chest with my fingers.
Daniel had never been in bad shape.
But the previous weeks’ training had only improved upon what was already there.
His chest and shoulders had become more defined.
His abs were now clearly showing.
His already broad shoulders had broadened even more.
And his arms had become even more defined.
Honestly the man now looked like a well trained soldier.
He even fought like one.
And still he thought of himself as a simple businessman.
The smile on my face widened as I thought about how he kept referring to himself as a simple businessman, even though he had more magic and combat talent than any person I had ever seen.
The rate of improvement he showed in combat training, spell training, and the sheer physical improvements he made in a short span of time, simply kept astounding me.
I had been so lost in these thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed him looking down at me with a soft smile on his lips.
"Good morning." He whispered, leaning down to plant a soft kiss on my lips.
"Good morning," I said, feeling my heart flutter at the warmth he showed me.
In my entire life I had never felt loved like that.
We heard the soft shuffling of footsteps outside our tent as the men started to awaken.
Soft morning light started to filter through the leaves above.
"We should probably get going," Daniel said, gently extricating himself from my embrace.
After a few moments of preparing ourselves, we finally left the tent.
Outside the men were already rolling up their sleeping bags and storing their supplies in their packs.
For a moment Daniel and I just stood there admiring the efficiency and quiet organisation they showed even with basic tasks.
Every moment I spent with these men I could see why Daniel would want to recruit them into his ranks.
"Do we need to help you pack up your things?" Erick asked as he walked over to us, gesturing at the massive amount of supplies we had placed around our tent.
For a moment Erick paused when he saw it all.
He spent a moment looking at the bed and desk that had become visible through the open tent flap.
"How the hell did you even carry all of that?" He asked.
I just wanted to tell them that they didn’t need to worry about it, that we would handle everything.
Maybe distract them so Daniel could store everything.
We could’ve always told them that we had simply left everything behind for our journey back.
Some secrets are better if they stay secrets after all.
"Don’t worry about it." Daniel said, immediately casting his storage spell, a portal appeared beneath everything around us, sucking the items in.
I had almost wanted to palm my face.
The man had absolutely no sense of secrecy about some things.
Because of that action of his, all of the men stood around us with their mouths agape.
For a moment absolute silence reigned over our small clearing.
Then the whispers started.
Words like ’storage magic’, ’other-worlder’, and ’null magic’ were floating around.
Maybe it was my fault for not telling him that very few people in our world had an affinity for null magic.
And by very few, I mean almost no one.
It had become so rare in fact, that most people had associated it with other-worlders automatically.
"Daniel are you an—"
"We should get going, I want to reach Stellor city by tonight." I interrupted Erick’s question.
That did the trick.
"Tonight?" All six men asked almost simultaneously.
I could understand their surprise.
At a pretty brisk pace Stellor was still at least two days away.
A grin spread over my face.
"You can see this as your first day of training." I answered, my grin widening at the signs of fear I could see on some of their faces.
"You’re training us?" Erick asked with surprise.
"I forgot to tell you about that actually, Julia will be in charge of the training and recruitment of the mercenary company." Daniel answered for me, his words causing the grin on my face to widen even more.
Finally I could be in charge of something that would help Daniel.
At least something that he actually knew about.
"Now let’s get going." I said. "And don’t even think about asking Daniel to store your packs, that would lessen the effects of your training after all."
Without giving any of them the chance to process my words, or for the surprise to even set in completely, I was off.
I kept a pretty lax pace.
It was just a bit faster than the one Daniel and I had been travelling at in the last part of our journey the previous day.
I hadn’t even reached the edge of the clearing when I heard Daniel’s footsteps land next to me.
With a grin as wide as they can come, he was keeping pace with me, his footsteps landing almost in sync with mine.
"It’s kind of fun to watch you make someone else suffer for a change." He said, as we glanced over our shoulders at the six men stumbling along behind us.
Each of their shoulders loaded with their packs.
We travelled at that pace for a few hours, before stopping to have lunch.
The moment Daniel and I called a halt in another clearing, most of the men immediately fell on their backs.
Trying to catch their breaths.
Only Erick and one other man kept standing.
Compared to the other men, their breathing had been quite controlled, and even.
Which honestly, kind of impressed me.
We had a quick lunch, which Daniel pulled out of his storage again.
Gave the men a couple of minutes to recover.
Which I only did because Daniel asked me to.
And then we were off again.
For hours we kept a steady pace.
Eventually the sun started to dip lower and lower in the sky.
But this time we continued to push on.
Until finally we burst through the last trees of Booksfield.
And there it stood.
The high walls of Stellor.
Behind which lay the largest border city of the human territories.
And also my sister.
Which held a whole other sort of challenge.
