The next day, Red appeared in combat attire. She looked like a sassy warrior wearing olive green trousers and a blouse paired with black combat boots. Her calves and forearms were covered with rubber armors, and her head was accentuated with a black sweat-absorbent band covering her forehead, and hair tied high in a ponytail.
She rose high before the sun woke up from its slumber in the east.
Sir Karyk crossed his arms at his chest. The corner of his mouth turned infinitesimally up when she emerged from her tent all prepped up. She was not late, and she showed up like a professional – dressed properly with a suitable attitude towards training. He seemed impressed but he did not put it into words.
"Morning, Princess! Let's begin!"
All morning, Sir Karyk made Red do drills that stretched her body. He said it was to warm her body up. However, Red was getting a little bit bored. She's not too good at handling repetitive chores. She already got the point the first time she was taught, and Sir Karyk was impressed again.
Due to her body being stronger since her mana flow had been awakened, she did not get tired too easily.
"Sir Karyk, when are we going to start the real training? These are just drills." She did not want to complain, but she felt that they were just wasting their precious time. Didn't Sir Karyk mention that they were tight on lead time?
Every single day for five days, they gathered at dawn before the sun even woke up from the east only to do drills. When the sun was raging high above them, they took a break and eat their lunch. In the afternoon, they did more drills except that this time Red was given a wooden stick that should resemble a sword. Again, she felt bored after doing some swinging drills, then docking drills, then jabbing drills.
"Swing to the left. Dock! Jab! Good." It was what Sir Karyk's usual line, and it was on loop.
Red thought to herself, 'He should just recorded himself rather than tire his vocal chords like that.' But then, perhaps in this realm, there still no technology to do that.
"Left foot forward! Side step! Swing your sword!"
She rolled her eyes as she obediently did what he instructed. She smugly thought that she could do the drills with her eyes closed, even when she's sleeping.
It went on and on. As it dragged, Red slowly lost interest. She had not said any words of complaint because she knew that Sir Karyk would not listen anyway, so she endured in silence, but her performance dwindled significantly.
*WHACK*
"Ouch! Sir Karyk! What was that for?! Did you just hit me? I'm a princess!" She exclaimed thoughtlessly. She did not mean to use her title to get advantages or to power-play anyone. It just came out naturally because she was hurt. When it came out of her mouth she felt terrible that she wanted to take it back but couldn't because she had already started this tug-of-war with Sir Karyk. She feigned arrogance and acted haughtily by lifting her chin higher up in a condescending manner.
Yet, Sir Karyk was unmoved. If it had any effect on him, he appeared quite amused. "And I am your trainer. It is my duty to stick to the plan. Bear with me, Princess. Just be patient. Once we've attained the level of proficiency that we are aiming for, we will move on to much more challenging topics. In no time, we will even tackle the Healing Magic that you are most interested in."
At the mention of Healing Magic, Red's ears perked up. She gasped with the renewed promise. Just like that, she did her best in all the drills even if the repetitiveness wore her down, and bore her to the bones. All she could think of was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, her prize, and her one and only interest: learning the Healing Magic.
Sir Karyk emphasized that the whole point of the drills was to teach her body the movements so that her body could react by reflex in the middle of a sparring without giving much thought about what to do next.
After the fifth day, Sir Karyk allowed Red to accompany the servant girls to go to the market at Torrine Town.
"Really, Sir Karyk? I can join my girls to go to the market in the afternoon?" She asked several times during training in the morning. It costed her several whacks on her head for not focusing.
Yet, it made the extremely bored princess jump in pure joy inelegantly – very unladylike – when Sir Karyk gave out the approval. Her sudden candid movement brought a rare smile to Sir Karyk's face.
"Yes, but I will accompany you as your personal knight."
"Weeee!!!! Yippeee!!! It's a field trip!" Red asked her Nana to come, and her happiness doubled – no tripled – when her Nana agreed.
That afternoon, Matilda, Laarni, Red, Nana, Sir Karyk, and Mr. Barry all went to Torrine Town's marketplace. Mr. Barry drove the carriage ridden by the ladies inside. Sir Karyk sat beside Mr. Barry at the front of the carriage.
The night before, Matilda and Laarni asked Red if she wanted anything in particular since the other servant girls Lily and Naomi were scheduled to go on a trip to the market on the morrow to replenish their stock of fresh produce.
A lightbulb flickered inside Red's head. "I want to go to the market."
Matilda and Laarni exchanged troubled looks, "But Princess! It might be dangerous!"
"Dangerous? How?" She gave them a confident, reassuring smile. "I have been training lately, am I not? First, let me discuss the matter with Sir Karyk."
She consulted the matter with Sir Karyk who was initially disagreed, but stubborn Red would not leave the topic aside.
"I want to see how the people live! Isn't that what a princess should do? I'm a foreigner to my own land, yet I am not allowed to know this land's people? What is the logic behind that, Sir Karyk?" She protested and acted like she's throwing a fir with a pout. Red crossed her arms on her chest.