Eldric was, right about now, regretting his decision to chase away his personal maid. He opened his wardrobe.
A myriad of clothes greeted his sight.
All sorts of fancy suits and uniforms; even matched his proportions. It seems that even if he fell ill, new clothes were still delivered to his room.
No matter how long he scoured the wardrobe, he could find no semblance of wear that would let him comfortably move his body around.
He had to call Epine back in, no matter how embarrassing that might be. He got up and opened the door.
Just like she said, Epine was still there standing at attention waiting for Eldric to finish.
"Come in," said Eldric trying to sound as casual as he could.
The maid was confused seeing her lord wearing the same outfit, the neat stack of clothes —still untouched on his bed.
"*cough* I need other clothes." he paused, gesturing at his provided one. "I want to move my body around today."
A faint smirk was on the lips of Epine, and Eldric knew where this was heading.
"I get it, it's my bad, okay." he chose to just admit it outright to save himself even more embarrassment.
"Just get me proper training attire," he commanded.
The amused light in Epine's eyes vanished completely; Eldric was taken aback by that brisk change.
"How would you like to train, young master Eldric?" asked Epine.
Eldric put a hand on his chin and hummed," I want to start with the sword for now."
The sword from the day before was still fresh in little Eldric's mind. He couldn't get it out of his mind for some reason.
"How about I train you, young master?" seriously, said Epine. She looked right into Eldric's eyes.
Eldric snickered at that. "You. Don't joke around," he jested.
Epine's mouth corners visibly twitched; she otherwise kept her composure.
"Young master. I may not look like it, but I was once a renowned fighter," pridefully answered Epine. She hoped to appeal to her young master.
"Yeah, right. Sure you were," answered Eldric non-committedly; a hint of sarcasm made its way to his tone.
He had to grab at least some sort of petty victory to recover from the embarrassment.
'Man, it's so easy to get away with stuff like this as a kid.' chortled Eldric.
One look at the face his personal maid was making—made him think otherwise.
That calm smile somehow looked evil to him.
He grimaced, 'No way she would be petty enough, to actually hurt a child in the name of training just because of something he said, right?' He paused. 'That's not what adults do.' he added.
Eldric looked up again to his maid, the same look on her, and shook his head. 'She's totally going to do it, isn't she?'
—---
It turns out Epine was indeed vindicative enough to take it out on a small child.
Eldric was laying on the ground, and the beads of sweat on his forehead glistened against the sun. He drew out long breaths to counter his quickly heaving back and forth chest.
That was all he could do, no muscle seemed ready to welcome a change.
He lay there unmoving, his eyes carried great regret in them.
'Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that?' he prodded in his mind.
Epine had worked him like a slave driver.
She, at first, started it out slow and steady. Only telling little Eldric to start running around the large Armsworth training yard.
The yard was a large natural open-air space, the size of a football pitch, with cleared dirt as the flooring.
Multiple weapon and armour stands were stationed all over the area.
All sorts of weapons were held on them: Swords, axes, maces, spears, and even Halberds. There were even wooden variants of them on standby.
The armour stands were much simpler, only having light leather armour of different sizes.
Eldric naturally struggled to run around the large yard. He was in great pain even after just finishing one lap; the burning sensation on his throat and legs was excruciating.
His legs slowly gave out, and he dropped to the floor.
Epine was about to intervene, but Eldric caught himself in the middle of the supposed fall and landed on one knee.
It took every single ounce of his willpower to rise back up, his legs were as shaky as a newborn, barely able to stand straight without falling back.
A battle of body vs spirit was underway.
To anyone looking, it might have looked like a demon was possessing the small child. His neck veins bulged as much as they could, and his eye blood vessels were fully visible.
Droplets of drool escaped his lips.
However, the most disturbing aspect was his smile. The wide grin never left his face; no matter how much pain he was in.
Eldric put his hands in front of him and continued running as if his life depended on it; a despondent look on his face.
His pace was as slow as a snail, his form was terrible, but he never stopped.
He received no mocking looks or snickers from Epine, the only other person present in the large yard.
Instead, she looked pensive and worried; mostly worried.
But If one looked closely, an equally matching disturbing grin decorated her face.
Multiple thoughts raced through her mind, as she carefully monitored the child that was running around; if you could even call it that.
*Swoosh*
A small shockwave was heard; gusts of wind tore through the air after the soundwave cut through it.
A cloud of fine dust was the only physical indicator of the phenomenon.
Epine managed to catch Eldric's shoulders, otherwise, he would have surely fallen face down.
No amount, of willpower, was enough for Eldric to persist after the second lap.
Epine carefully picked his unconscious body up and tenderly gazed at him.
'Young master. I don't know why you're so desperate for strength, but I will surely do my best to help you.' she resolutely promised.
Epine administered some sort of red glowing potion to Eldric's mouth. She had to properly position his neck, so the liquid would pour right down his throat.
As Eldric's airway was briskly cut, he started coughing and flailing around. And that was when Epine stopped.
Eldric woke up thinking he would be in a bed, but what greeted him back were two black eyes gazing at him.
'How come they're always the first thing I see when I wake up.' he insisted.
"Young master. Are you alright?" inquired Epine.
Eldric nodded, but was confused." I, can't remember much, but I must have collapsed… Why are we still here?"
Epine informed him." You seemed motivated, so I assumed you would like to continue training." She gestured to the empty potion vial in her hand, and it disappeared into the darkness.
Eldric squeezed his muscles, they were slowly recovering from the shock.
They still ached, but he could make do.
'Isn't this basically just like using steroids?' weirdly thought Eldric.
The expression he had on gave off the wrong impression to Epine; she said," I apologise if my actions were unnecessary."
Eldric laughed" Not at all, give me your best shot! You said you would train me, right?"
That was the wrong thing for little Eldric to say.
At that time, he was not aware of the world of pain that awaited him when he said such a thing.