I looked into her eyes and replied "Yes"
"If you want, I can train you. "
"Uh? Th… Thanks Elsie"
Elsie suddenly stood up and looked down at me.
"Call me big sister!"
"Ah.. yes, sorry big sister Elsie"
"Good. Now big sister will start your training!"
She pulled me to the middle of the room and said "Remember what I did before? It's called squats. Let's start from that. Can you do 10 squats for me?"
I moved to her side and placed my right arms under her legs and left arm under her back. With a grunt, I picked her up in my arms. She was surprisingly heavy. I could barely hold her up!
Elsie suddenly started laughing.
"I meant by yourself! It's too early to do squats while holding me in your arms."
I put Elsie back down on her feet and stood back up. Elsie is really heavy for her size! She was half a foot taller than me but she was not bulky at all. If anything, she would be counted among slim people. My back was hurting after just that much. How is Elsie able to carry me so easily?
I got in position again and started doing squats. To my surprise, it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I could do 20 squats without any difficulty. It was around 30 squats that I started to get tired. I thought I had done enough and stopped. But suddenly I was hit on my head!
"Did I tell you to stop?" Elsie glared at me angrily.
"Eh… but I am..."
"KEEP GOING!" Elsie suddenly shouted at me. She was actually quite scary at this moment and I started squatting as if my life was in danger!
I kept doing more squats but it was getting harder and harder to stand back up. Finally around the 50th squat, I finally could not get back up and fell down on my butt.
"Get up!"
"But… I can't do any more…"
"I said get up!" Elsie grabbed my arms and yanked me up.
"Continue" Elsie had a grim face. Somehow she was even scarier than before.
I gritted my teeth and started once more. But I fell down right away. I really couldn't do it anymore. I braced myself to be yelled at or hit but to my surprise, none of these things happened. I looked up Elsie and saw her smiling at me.
She got down on her knees and patted my head.
"I am really sorry about shouting at you Ren. I need to see your limit so that I can train you properly. You did 51 squats which is really good! Why did you think you are not strong?"
"Umm.. but I could barely pick you up" I said while my face got a little red.
Elsie giggled and said "Alright, how about we take a little break"
So we sat there for 2 minutes when Elsie said "Ok. Time to continue with our test"
She got on all four and extended her legs behind her and held herself up on her arms.
"Get into this position"
I wordlessly imitated Elsie and held myself up on my arms. To my surprise it was much more difficult compared to squats. Do I have to hold myself up like this as long as I can? I didn't think I could do it for a long time. As it turns out I was wrong. It was worse
"Now push down like this…. And come back up"
Just like squats, Elsie pushed herself up and down almost 10 times as I watched.
"What are you waiting for?"
Elsie continued to push up and down while telling me to get started.
I started to push down and up just like Elsie but it was much harder than what Elsie made it look! I could barely do 10 before I couldn't hold myself up anymore. Finally, I couldn't continue after 15 and dropped down on the ground.
Elsie continued her pushing up and down without any strain. Just how strong is she?
Elsie stopped after doing a few more after I stopped.
She looked at me and said "I think I have some understanding of your strength. 15 is not bad for push ups but we need to work on improving it."
She got up and pulled me up as well. I was feeling sore all over my body and needed some rest.
"You can lie down on the bed. I will get some food from the kitchen."
"I… I am not that hungry."
"What are you talking about? It's dinner time!"