The first rays of sunlight breached our window, landing directly in my face.
Ugh, my head is killing me… I can't remember half of what happened last night.
Living in Valhalla for so long I got quite used to alcohol, so why am I having a hangover right now? Right… it's because of those shrooms Veritas gave me!
I'm not eating those ever again!
There was a slight movement behind me as soft hands embraced me from behind, I turned my head and gave a small peck on Astrid's lips.
She simply smiled before standing up and getting dressed.
"Where are you going? Don't you want to enjoy the day together?"
"Hm I would like to but I'm still training those kids." She leaned over the bed to kiss me. "And don't you have work to do hubby?"
"Haha no. Now that I have given the councilors a big project that will take a lot of time to accomplish, I finally get some time for myself, or more time for us, if you stay."
She gave a soft chuckle and blushed but I saw in her eyes that she hadn't changed her mind.
"Alright then, go play with those kids. You know what? I'll come along too, I'm curious at what you have achieved with your little elite students."
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The first thing I saw as we walked into the training grounds were a bunch of kids of different ages neatly aligned in front of us, without the need for any orders, as they saw us approach, all of them bumped their hands onto their chest in a Valhallan military salute.
Not a single one of them spoke, staring at Astrid and I with a look of fear and reverence respectively.
This sight reminds me of something very bad…
Did Astrid… did she take inspiration from German youth camps to make child soldiers!?
Was there even such a record from the precursors?
"Uhm… my love… what exactly did you do to them?"
"They're perfect right? I made a lot of different challenges just for them, they had to constantly risk their life and stay strong when I gave them 'physical tests'.
I took examples on a lot of records, oh! I especially like the quote 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger'! It's perfect for them! And I also told them about how great you are!"
Right… So she tortured those poor kids and indoctrinated them to our cause… I had a feeling she had been acting very cute recently, so this is where she let out all of her craziness…
Gosh, she's looking at me with those puppy eyes expecting to be praised.
I know she did all of this for me… but I don't know if I should compliment her after this.
No, let's think it that way, the kids have become stronger like what they wanted when they signed up, Astrid found a place to vent her emotions and I got a new militia, although I still need to test their allegiance and strength.
"Good work. Although this wasn't what I expected when you were talking about giving them some training I must say, you went above and beyond for me."
"Hihihi… Glad you like them, do you want me to show what they can do?"
"Sure…" I looked at the kids and their fearful look towards Astrid, "... But I want to see what they can do without you. I'm sorry to say this but please give me a little bit of time to test them by myself."
"Nh, alright. I'll go hunt in the forest during this time."
She winked at me and ran into the forest at terrifying speed, I pity the animals that find themselves on her way.
Looking back at the rows of child soldiers I noticed that their way of looking at me had slightly changed, a mix of reverence, respect and a hint of fear, probably because I ordered Astrid to leave so easily.
"Alright, Astrid told me quite a bit about you guys so I have high expectations of you! I will conduct a few tests to ascertain your loyalty to Valhalla, your individual strength and your teamwork! Understood!?"
""YES YOUR HIGHNESS!!!""
"Then kneel."
They all did so in a single motion, without resisting my orders.
Let's probe their inner thoughts now.
"Who do you trust and who do you believe in?"
Haa, as expected most of them looked up to be completely dumbfounded, after all my question is very subjective.
One of them stood up to answer but I forcefully made him kneel again by using my cloaked tentacles that I had just deployed.
"Did I tell you to stand up?"
"N-No sir."
"Then don't. Someone else answers the question now."
They all looked spooked, after all they just saw their friend get pushed onto the ground by an invisible force so it was understandable.
"U-Uhm your highness?"
Someone in the back spoke up, at first I had trouble identifying that person because of their short hair and lack of feminine characteristics but I was sure she was a young girl.
"You can speak."
"I-is it… you?"
"Hmm, not quite." No one else seemed to speak up so I told them the answer. "You should always trust your comrade next to you and forever believe in your duty as the protector of Valhalla. But your answer isn't completely wrong young lady, for I am Valhalla."
""Oohhh~""
They seemed enlightened by my words, looking at me with even more fanatism than before, I must say, such a cheesy line would only work on people like them, and I'm happy to get trustworthy people that will do anything I tell them to.
Yeah I'm really turning into a dictator aren't I ?
"Next up, I want all of you to come attack me as a group. You won't have any weapons but I won't fight back, all you need to do is hit me once. This will let me determine your individual and group's strength at the same time."
"And this is an order, if none of you come forward, I WILL extinguish your lifes."
One by one all of them stood up, hesitantly approaching me.
"And do this seriously, this is your time to prove yourselves. If you aren't up to my expectations I will ask Astrid to punish you before disbanding this program."
This did make them more energetic, some ran up to me throwing punches with great precision and speed, allas I dodged and deflected them all without moving far from my initial position.
All the kids now had a serious look on their faces as they moved around in a quick and methodical manner, surrounding me in multiple layers.
"Haha now that's more like it! Now come at me!"
Four of them darted forward followed closely by another four, I need to get serious now, I don't want to make a fool out of myself.
I jumped over a low kick stepping onto the arm of someone that threw a punch while guiding the two others to crash into each other with my tentacles.
One kid of the second group opened his mouth to shout out the loudest war cry I have ever heard. It almost made me forget about the one behind me, making me almost miss my dodge to the side as he tried hitting me from behind.
Ah yes! That's the feeling I've been searching for! All this time working behind a desk almost made me forget the thrill of fighting! More! I want more adrenaline!
I dashed forward as if wanting to escape their encirclement making all the kids gather in that direction but instead of actually doing so I jumped onto one's shoulder and pushed myself and him away. He fell heavily on the ground while I flew through the air onto a branch on the edge of the field.
All the kids glared at me making me snicker, what? I'm not a fighter you know, I'm just a very smart coward.
I gestured them to come at me with a hand gesture and they ran towards me, having completely forgotten that I was their chief and discarded the notion of taking it easy along with it.
"Haha this is fun!"
I jumped off the tree, landing directly onto a head and stepping forward on another.
They tried grabbing and punching my ankles but being a slippery predator was my signature, this whole fight was basically me dancing on top of a sea of heads.
"We need enhancements to accomplish the mission, Ecko your call!"
"Do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission. Use of enhancements authorized."
The girl from before cried out and a boy that looked quite older answered her in a very professional tone.
I dashed away as I understood that they wanted to use their mutations and saw twenty or so kids turning parts of their bodies into that of an animal as they ran after me.
Talons, claws, giant hands and tails rained down on me, I was quite surprised to see how well coordinated they were even after activating partial mutation, they left me almost no breathing room.
"Alright this is enough."
As a final show of power I sent my tentacles to surround them and activated the latest mutation I unlocked, suction cups from the giant octopus genes.
This little fight actually took place for three reasons, one I obviously wanted to see how capable those kids are, and I must say they are real killers, if the fight were to go on I wouldn't be able to keep on dodging without making a mistake at some point.
The second reason was to have some fun because I haven't been able to vent my fatigue, and the last reason was to test out this new ability of mine.
Normal suction cups have teeth inside to add an extra anchor but I decided not to use them in this situation to not hurt them, nonetheless it did a pretty good job without it as multiple suction cups that none of them could see due to my cloaking attached themselves onto them and lifted the whole group into the air.
Oh fuck they are heavy! Yeah I shouldn't forget that all their weight will end up on my back.
Luckily Astrid chose to come back at this moment, letting me drop them again.
"Sorry I couldn't find any wild predators nearby, so I just brought some fresh herbs. Are the kids' performances satisfying hubby?"
The group who was still dispersed on the ground looked up at me expectantly.
"Yeah they were pretty good, I see that you taught them good discipline, teamwork and strategy. They do lack experience but that is to be expected considering their age." The kids were smiling from ear to ear, sadly for them, I wasn't finished. "They are bad at adapting to strange situations, none of them show diverse skills even though they all have different characteristics and most of all, they don't use their mutations effectively, only using them to punch faster or harder."
'Ah yes, now they are looking at me like I'm a villain aswell… Well who cares, they should perfectly know that I'm not the one that's going to put them through extreme training for every problem I pointed out, aren't I right Astrid?'
'Yes thank you hubby, I will make sure to train them well.'
'You are godsent my love.'
'I know.'
This little romantic exchange was very different from an outsider's perspective, the students only saw two devils kissing each other with a sadistic glint in their eyes, a very, very bad sign for them and the future training they would have to go through.
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