‘Your basic fitness level is too low. Junior, you should do physical training, not holding a sword.’
Adriana let out a deep sigh when she said that.
‘Why do I even care about this kid?’
‘Wake up 2 hours earlier than the standard wake-up time and wait in the main lobby.”
Whether she was concerned or just plain annoyed, Adriana didn’t seem like she could leave me alone.
Anyway, I did feel grateful for her help.
I wondered why she was helping a rowdy junior who was about to duel with her classmate.
The next day.
I was in the lobby at 6 o’clock, well before the standard wake-up time, wearing a track suit. As it was 6 o’clock it was still dark out, but there were still some people here.
This was because the students who wanted to train their physical strength in the morning gradually came out.
Ludwig and Ellen were also there.
“Reinhardt? What’s going on? So you want to exercise?”
“Yeah, well.”
“That’s good! So you want to do it together then?”
It was good that he was so energetic, but I didn’t think I could keep up with him.
“No, I think my heart would burst if I were to try to follow you.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure it is. Go alone.”
Running beside him would mean committing suicide. Even Ellen couldn’t keep up with that. That’s what it meant to have Rank stamina.
“Ellen! Do you want to run with me today?”
“No.”
Ellen answered curtly and went out of the dormitory lobby. Ludwig looked at Ellen who gave him the cold shoulder like always and smiled at me.
“Does Ellen hate me?”
“I don’t think so.”
She just doesn’t care about any of us.
After sending him off for his morning workout, Adriana, with her shoulder-length bob tied in a ponytail, came down from the second floor, after a while.
This senior of mine was very calm and had a modern style beauty to her. She looked like a modern high school girl.
I bowed my head slightly and Adriana nodded her head towards me to answer my greeting. Adriana was probably the most polite person I had dealt with up until now.
“Wouldn’t this make you look bad in front of your classmates?”
“What?”
“Helping me with physical training.”
“Well, you need to be a little more physically fit if you want to have a duel… Ung.”
She started warming up by stretching.
“That way, rumors about Art bullying a weak freshmen kid because of his own stubbornness won’t circulate.”
So, to protect Art’s honor was enough justification to help me out. That was what she meant. Anyway, I was pretty sure I would lose, but I was grateful anyway.
She seemed to be good at swordsmanship and aimed to become a paladin, and seeing her waking up at this time, she really was sincere and calm.
What the hell. Was she the perfect human being? Was she really a high schooler? It made me feel even shabbier for swearing at younger kids.
“Let’s go, junior.”
“Yes.”
Adriana ran ahead and I followed behind her.
“This is serious.”
“Haah…. Haah…. Huff….”
I ran to the point that I had a sweet taste in my mouth, but Adriana wasn’t tired at all.
She restored my strength by injecting divine power into me. My wildly beating heart gradually calmed down and my breathing stabilized.
What’s this?
I felt like I was running while taking a doping potion. My mind was exhausted but my body felt fine. This was a really strange feeling.
“Run faster. I’m also training myself, so it’s hard for me to also look after you, junior.”
“Ah, okay.”
My body and mind were driven to the extreme, but due to Adriana’s divine power, my body would always be restored to its original state. Rather, this almost drove me mad. My mind was worn out, but my body continued to be active.
This was the first time in my life that I ever felt that way. I could continue to run, but my mind was in an even more extreme state.
“I, I feel really strange!”
“I mean, technically this is against the rules, but it would actually be stranger to not feel strange you know?”
I shouted while running and Adriana answered me. Normally, I shouldn’t be able to run anymore, but I kept running, so it was natural for me to feel strange.
“Huff…. Huff…. If Paladin candidates were to, huff, run a marathon… Huff… I’m sure they’ll all win… Huff….”
“If this method was actually allowed, then yes! And you’ll run out of breath if you keep talking while running.”
Adriana ran easily, even finding the time to rebuke me. There were quite a few people in Temple who trained themselves in the morning.
“The first year junior called Ludwig . He was the one sprinting around Temple, right?”
“Tha, that’s…. How he was originally….”
“There’s no such thing, junior. He can do it, because he worked hard. Don’t just work hard today, keep doing this in the future. The Orbis Class kids do this every morning as a group. Our Royal Class’ lazy kids could learn a thing or two from them.”
Adriana was talking about one of Temple’s two pillars, the Orbis Class. It seemed like they would get up early in the morning and train together as a group. Regardless of major.
Were they part of the army?
“Hey, you told me not to talk…. Huff… Why do you keep talking to me….”
“Yes. Sorry.”
I ran, ran, ran, ran, ran, ran, ran and ran. I almost lost my mind every time she healed me. It wasn’t just running I had to do. Adriana headed to the gym and let me do strength training.
At that moment, I could truly feel how demonic her divine power was. When my muscles started to ache, she would heal them with her divine power, then send me to do more training and when the pain grew worse again, she’d heal me.
However, if she went on like that my muscle growth would be no joke. What would one call these kinds of steroids? Divine steroids?
“I’m doing this because you just lack too much strength. You should do some strength training on your own, but don’t overdo it or you could ruin your body.”
Adriana told me that I should think about carefully growing my strength and kept on checking on me even though she had her own training to do.
“If you exercise while forcibly recovering using divine powers, there’s one thing you have to do no matter what.”
“What?”
“Eat a lot.”
I was more or less forced to maintain my physical abilities even after I completely exhausted my energy. That was why Adriana advised me to eat a lot more and more often than usual because I would suffer serious nutritional losses. Especial protein.
“That’s the only thing I’m confident of doing today….”
“Hah, I suppose so.”
Adriana smirked as if I said something funny.
I had never seen her smile before.
Even while completing her strength training she poured divine power into me and went back to it. She didn’t use it on herself. Somehow, this seriously felt like I had a heal-pack stuck next to me, when she started her work out.
If she were to travel to modern times, I was sure she would have great success as a personal trainer. People who would sell their souls for muscle growth would absolutely love her.
Though my body was fine, my mind was completely exhausted when I returned to the dormitory. I took a shower, changed my clothes and headed straight to the dining room. It wasn’t meal time yet, but I was so hungry that the world felt like it was spinning around me.
No, I didn’t think I really had that big of an appetite because the workout was just too intense, but I felt this strong compulsion to eat something, a feeling much stronger than just feeling hungry.
When it was time, the chefs would bring the food they prepared into the hall, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a kitchen here. It didn’t only include simple meals, but also late-night snacks that could be eaten at any time one wanted, as well as a kitchen equipped with all kinds of ingredients.
One could call upon the chefs to prepare some food for you, and sometimes the students even cooked themselves.
But how many of them would even be able to make their own meal? They had to try and maybe grill an egg.
And there was this setup I didn’t know about.
Ellen, who had already finished with her physical training, was carrying a bunch of beef jerky.
She went out every morning to exercise, so she wanted to have something to eat before having breakfast. That’s understandable.
But I remembered that she also ate a lot more at breakfast than others. What kind of metabolism did she have?
When I looked into the storage that held the snacks, I saw that it was empty. When I turned around, I saw Ellen eating the beef jerky little by little.
“Is that all there is?”
“Yes.”
“Was there only beef jerky in there?”
“No. Originally, there was bread and some other things.”
Originally, they had prepared a lot of things, but it seemed like they didn’t replenish it often as there weren’t many people who ate those snacks. So it seemed like after eating this and that every morning, the only thing left was beef jerky.
“Is it good?”
“Not really.”
Ellen shook her head. It seemed like she ate it only because it was available, not because she liked it particularly.
No, how hungry was she?
I didn’t want to steal her food, so I ended up going into the kitchen. Fortunately, there were quite a few ingredients in the storage, so I didn’t have to eat raw meat as is.
I had no intentions of making anything amazing. I was about to die from mental exhaustion after all.
I just took some eggs and bacon and fried them in a frying pan. The fragrant smell of bacon spread throughout the kitchen. Then I just threw some asparagus in there to fry. Since I was told to eat a lot, I used a lot of bacon and five eggs.
I also wanted to eat some carbs, but I didn’t feel like cooking noodles or rice. That was just too much work.
After I was done, I placed the mountain of eggs and bacon, accompanied by asparagus on a large plate and brought it to a table in the dining room.
Ellen was still chewing on her beef jerky. However, she could apparently not help herself twitching her nose when she saw me coming.
“Hey.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t eat that shabby food. Eat this instead.”
I had a bad temper, but I wasn’t a heartless person, you know?
When I handed her the fork, Ellen accepted it and sat across from me. I sighed when I saw Ellen eat some of the fried eggs.
“Hey, the storage is full of meat and eggs, why don’t you fry some instead of eating that tasteless stuff? Is it that hard?”
“I’ve never done that.”
“Why haven’t you done this before though? Isn’t that essential?”
Ellen stared at me smirking suddenly. I didn’t know why, but she looked somewhat sullen, like : “Why are you talking to me? Are we in the same situation?”
“If you don’t know how to, you should learn it. Kids these days…. Anyway, eat up.”
“Yes.”
What am I doing when one doesn’t even touch a dog when it eats? I was going to eat too.
-Nom, nom, nom
No, why was she eating so fast?
“Hey, don’t cross the line. Eat at a human pace. Huh?”
“Yes.”
It didn’t seem like words would get through to her, so I picked up my fork as well. But that punk ate half of it already, even though it was me who made it.
“Are you kidding me? You eat more than a beggar who hasn’t eaten for days.”
“…I’m hungry.”
After she said that, Ellen curiously avoided my gaze.
She ate more than half of what I made in a single bite? This had crossed the line, honestly.
“You know that you have classes with me today, right?”
“Yes.”
Today was Tuesday, I was taking the two consecutive swordsmanship lessons with Ellen. To my words, she nodded. She was quite insensitive, although she wasn’t stupid.
“Be prepared for lunch then.”
We were going for 2 rounds of cheonggukjang.
