On the day of Rolf's 3rd birthday his parents wanted to test him for his magic potential even if it meant harming it in the long run.
As a once prestigious household, they had a good bloodline even if they made poor choices that affected said bloodline. Their household has birthed genius after genius, whether it be in magic, swordsmanship or even both! Although magic and swordsmanship alone can get you far in life, the benefits of being a magic swordsman could easily outweigh the years of training you would have to go through to become one. Assuming that their blood was still strong they thought that even if Rolf's potential was harmed a little bit, he would still be set for the future of improving their household.
Hundreds of years ago after the progenitors of magic had died long ago, the newest revelation had occurred. A couple magicians had discovered a way to determine magic potential and the next step to it came more testing. After destroying labs that experimented on all types of children the notes were discovered and made public and ensured that children no earlier than 2.5 years old could be tested and those that did, nearly all died.
Now in the current day, the quality of evaluations were divided into low, medium, and high. Starting from low quality, these evaluations can easily determine the magic potential without harm from ages 10 and older. At medium quality, tests can safely measure 5 years and older at around triple the price. Lastly, the high quality evaluations can cost ten times the price of a medium evaluation, and measures from past 2.5 years old to around 3 years and older. Now, you may be asking well if it's only 2.5 years why is it 10 times the price? Desperation. The more greedy a family is, the more they are willing to pay for the betterment of their child and provide them with the utmost care they can receive in the early stages of their life.
Unfortunately, Rolf's parents weren't those kinds of people. They were scum, parasites, just itching to latch onto their next prey with a potential to knock others down. Rolf's parents only bought the medium quality magic evaluation, and of course you are thinking, 'Wait? Isn't he only 3?', and indeed you are correct. His family bought one meant for 5 years and older, and used it on their 3 year old son.
Rolf had just turned 3 when his parents decided to test his value in the Einherjar family. After testing for his magic potential his parents decided to also test his affinity with the sword, that way even if he were to flop out in the magic aspect they could at least rely on him once he mastered the sword and began his path towards true sword mastery.
Starting from the day of his 3rd birthday they allowed their most skilled knight to train him with the sword as well as teach him as if he was an already fully developed teen. The Einherjar's Family motto was: "Only under true pressure would a diamond in stone reveal itself". Obviously they didn't note that in terms of stones Rolf would just be a pebble. Going along with his parent's will, Rolf decided to persevere and endure the training as he hoped to be strong just like the Heroes he's heard of and learned to read about.
On the first day with what little time left, Rolf went through some harsh physical conditioning exercises, 20 pushups, 20 sit ups, 20 squats, and to finish it, a 2km run all before the sun sets (4-5 hours). Although to a grown up this may seem easy, for a 3 year old this might as well be equivalent to 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats, and then the cherry on top, a 10km run. (A/N: see what I did there)
Starting with what would seem the easiest, push ups, after the first 5 Rolf felt that it was easy, until
*WACK*
"Ow!" Rolf squirmed and shouted after feeling something hit his back. Looking up he saw it was his instructor for this month.
"That's not proper form" Grant, the instructor said deadpan. Although he said it nonchalantly, Rolf had no idea what the proper form was. Seeing the confusion in Rolf's eyes, Grant sighed and said,
"Watch closely, I'm only going to do this once", Rolf just nodded and watched attentively.
Watching with full curiosity Rolf noticed that Grant's arms always formed a 90 degree angle and his back was straight, not only that but his posture looked more compact?, compared to his own. Rolf didn't know the words to describe it but compared to his flared out arms he decided that he must bring them closer to himself.
"Your turn, and make it quick, you still have 3 more steps after this", Grant said with slight haste in his voice.
Not bothering to respond, Rolf went quickly into it with confidence. Planting his arms in the right place, keeping his back straight, well at least trying to since he honestly couldn't tell; and lastly going down to form a nice straight 90. Pushing back up he immediately noticed how much harder it was to do push ups with proper form. Going back down he feels something lifting up his stomach.
"Your back looks like a rope bridge, lift your core more" Grant ordered as he lifted Rolf's stomach with his stick.
Nodding, Rolf felt the burn happening on his core, but he knew that this would be his foundation towards swordsmanship so he persevered. After completing all 20 push ups with no comment from Grant he then decided that sit ups were his next destination.
Before Rolf could sit down, Grant tapped him on the shoulder and got down alongside Rolf.
"Just like before, watch" Grant said, and then began showing what "perfect form" should look like for sit ups.
Just as Rolf assumed his legs should look like Grant's too were in that position, next he saw that Grant started with his back slightly above the ground as it would allow his muscles to stay tense during reps. Putting his hands behind his head parallel to the ground to allow only his core to be worked. Quickly coming up and nearly touching his thighs, he then slowly comes back down to allow full use of the planet's gravity to temper his body.
Grant continued to do that 4 more times until it was finally Rolf's turn.
"Make sure you don't move your arms, otherwise I'll make you start over and over again" Grant said with full seriousness.
Nodding, Rolf began setting his start position as well chanting in his head to not move his arms.
Losing track of how many Rolf did and the time it took for him to complete it, he was interrupted by Grant,
"How many are you planning on doing? Move onto the next exercise", Rolf felt embarrassed that he lost count, however, he knew he was in a time crunch and began moving onto the next exercise.
Assuming that squats were something similar to push ups, and sit ups, Rolf knew his first course of action was to keep his back straight, yet he had no idea what to do with his hands. So of course seeing the confusion Rolf had, Grant offered a better solution.
"How about this, I'll let you off 10 squats in exchange you do 10 with 20lbs on your back", although Rolf was confused he thought that perhaps there was a reason Grant offered it so Rolf agreed.
Grant then took him to a different training area within the manor's courtyard and showed him a piece of equipment that his soldiers would regularly use. It was quite the minimal design but it would work. It was a metal bar being held by poles in the ground. Attached to the 2 sides of the poles were bags labeled 100lbs.
"Watch carefully and after I switch these weights I'll just hold the bar and slowly put it down on your shoulders since you're way too small for the actual sized squat rack" Grant said and swiftly began showing how to do perfect form on the squat rack. Afterwards, Grant easily switched the weighted bags leaving Rolf speechless from how quick and easy Grant made it seem lifting over 100lbs. Without responding Grant just smirked.
"Your turn", Seeing the fire within Rolf's eyes, Grant got him into starting position and began to watch Rolf.
Rolf was able to easily get through the first 2 squats but the effects of the 2 previous exercises and the weight on his back started to show and breathing quickly became labored. Getting to 5 Grant began calling Rolf out for not going all the way down, forcing Rolf's legs to start shivering. Reaching 8 Rolf's legs were quaking. Finally, as Rolf got to the last one, his breath in the cold made him look like a heavy smoker and his legs were violently shaking like a spasming animal. Once Rolf got to 10, he dropped to the ground and Grant was forced to catch the bar.
"Good, I'll give you around 10 minutes of rest and then it's time to move onto the 2km run" Grant then walked away and began switching weights.
Rolf felt heavy, his muscles and the fatigue was slowly catching up to him, yet he still had one last exercise to do. At first he thought this was for his own good, he couldn't help but wonder why his parents weren't even here or why he wasn't learning from his father like his estranged older brother did. His older brother is now a Royal Knight and is always busy guarding the royal palace or going out on suppression or hunting missions, so he has yet to even know what he looks like.
Soon the 10 minutes passed and Grant looked at Rolf as he got up and nodded that he was ready for the last exercise for the day. The plan Grant told Rolf was that they would run partially around the manor and come back, as the circumference of the Einherjar's territory was much larger than 2km.
Not too long after that Rolf began running to where Grant told him. For the first 500m it was quite easy and Rolf's muscles were aching but that's how it was since he finished the squats. Reaching the 1km mark, Rolf was quite winded but Grant forced him to always keep moving and by the time Rolf returned to the start, his training for the day was finally over and he accomplished it with 15 minutes to spare.
After thanking Grant, Rolf went straight to the bathroom to wash himself and prepare for bed, as he was too tired to look for his parents, and he had to do this for an entire month.
Late into the night while Rolf was asleep, clear-ish gray smoke began to fill his room and began seeping into his body like a plant being watered for the first time in weeks.
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The Next Morning
Rolf awoke refreshed and felt even a little better than he did yesterday. Feeling better and stronger Rolf excitedly got up, resolved himself for this upcoming day and began getting dressed. Unbeknownst to him the training trousers that fit him yesterday seemed to look smaller on his legs…