In an isolated backyard located behind a rundown hut, a young child could be seen doing pull ups, while having a black cat sitting on it's back, from outsiders perspective this may look like a child playing around with his cat, but the two individual's who are actually involved in here would say otherwise.
"68,69,70" Ian kept counting the number of the number of pull ups Karn completed, while sitting on his back.
~Thud~
"I think I reached my limit, let me take a breather." Karn huffed heavily, as he kept laying on the ground.
"We haven't even started training yet, and you are already in this state." Ian whollowed while shaking his head with a sorrowful expression on his face.
"Fine, Fine, I'll do it alright." Karn responded before helplessly continuing to do his pull ups, he was given the task of completing a set of one hundred pull ups by Ian.
By messing with the pride of such immature adolescent children, is the best way to make them do something they don't want to.
Since being a son of a serf, he was constantly exposed to hardwork, so he didn't really complaint much about the training Ian was putting him through, Unlike people usually of his age.
"Take a ten minute breather, and after that start running and complete one round around this entire town.
"The entire town !", That would take about half an hour " Karn complained.
"Oh I forgot to mention, you can't stop in the middle, or else you'll have to start all over again." Ian mentioned while completely ignoring those pleading eyes on Karn's face.
"Are you sure you're not a demon, who enjoys putting human's in misery." Karn added with tired look on his face.
"I see, so all those haughty talks about protecting your family and all is just you giving air" Ian replied while putting his paws near his face, while making an exaggerated look of him holding back his laughter.
"Stop doing that, do you seriously think I can't see through your schemes" Karn responded furiously, as he noticed Ian keeps messing with his pride, whenever he complaints about the training.
"What are you talking about ?" Ian asked while tilting his little black head a bit, as if he has no clue what Karn was going on about.
"Forget it, I'll just go and complete my run." Karn knew there was no point in arguing with this sly cat, he can only be more careful from now on before making any kind of wierd promises to this demon cat of his.
After completing his run, Karn appeared infront of Ian with, while making a a deep huffing sound as it seems like he has completely ran of out breath from all those arduous training he just went through.
"Alright,that's enough for the day, we will come back again tomorrow morning." Ian responded while walking back towards their house.
"Wait, that's it ,but it has been just a little over two hours since we arrived, and what about this wooden stick that you told me to bring." Karn questioned. he knew well enough just by doing some squats , pull ups and a few meters of run won't make his much stronger, or else their would've been masters roaming around every streets and corner.
"Just keep that stick around you all the time,tie it around your waist if you want to, as for the training, we will take one step at a time" Ian replied while glancing at karn, who seemed completely out of breath just from three sets of regular warmup exercise.
"First of all we will work on your physic and Stamina, before starting any extensive training" Ian explained, as there's no point in training, if his body is incapable of handling it, on the contrary it might bring severe negative effects, so Ian decided to start from scratch, by laying a robust and strong foundation for Karn, while completely utilising the benefits of his young age.
"So which Marital Arts are you planning to teach me. Is it something like 'Heavenly Destruction Fist' of the Marial Monarch of the Crude Empire or something like 'Descent of the Thunder God' like the Emperor of the 'Great Xia Empire'." Karn probed as a sense of excitement seemed quite evident on his face.
'Well no matter how mature he acts, he is still just an 11 year old brat' Ian thought inwardly. Well he can't really blame him, since the people he just mentioned were amongst the most powerful people currently living in this continent.
"I am not planning on teaching you martial arts, to be honest even I don't know much about that."
Ian answered honestly.
Among all the classes in existence in his continent, Martial Artist was something he had the least amount of expertise in. Although he does know all the basics, but as things start getting more advanced, he has no confidence in imparting his knowledge and teaching others.
"Well you can't be planning on making me a Magician, after telling me to work on my physic."
Karn refuted.
Ian slight shook his head before saying "You don't have a talent to be a Magician."
Karn felt at loss after listening to Ian's blunt response, before he finally mustered up his courage and asked "Then what exactly are you planning to teach me."
"Swordsmanship" Ian replied unhesitatingly, the thing that he was most confident at, Since it was something that he learned personally from Sword King Krugel.
Karn responded with a nod, as he still had lots of questions to ask but seeing Ian's confident look on his face he decided to put his trust on this pet of his.
As both of them returned home, they were greeted by keisha and garud, who also seemed to have just gotten back from their work.
"Where were you gone this early in the morning." Keisha asked with a questioning tone.
"I just went for a walk with Ian." karn replied.
"Wasn't it just yesterday, you were crying about him being a demon or whatnot." Keisha questioned while slightly squinting her eyes.
"I..I..that" Honestly karn was still quite ashamed of what happened just a night ago, it would probably be one of the most shameful dark incident of his life, as he couldn't help but blame this darn cat that was leisurely walking next to him as if it has nothing to do with him.
'No matter how much I think about it, it wasn't his fault, who wouldn't get freaked out if their pet suddenly started talking to them.' Karn thought inwardly.
"Forget it, just get in, the breakfast is ready."
As the family of three and a black cat sat near the circular dining table waiting for the food to be served.
While the food was served,Garud glanced towards Ian who was sitting in circular dining table waiting for his food just like everyone else.
"This cat is kind of strange, don't you feel like it's behaviour is more like a human rather than some ordinary feline cat." Garud murmured while munching on the bland soup with a few spoonful of rice he was just served.
Just as Garud was about to say something further someone smacked him right behind his head.
"Ouch" Garud let a voice out in pain.
"Do you think everyone in this world is a dumb witted lazy idiot like you, our Ian is a pretty smart cat, isn't that right." Keisha said while looking at Ian with a playful look on her eyes.
"Meow"
Ian let a voice out, while slightly nodding his head, just like what any well mannered indignant cat would do.
"Did you see that he just nodded his head, as if he completely understood what you were saying." Garud exclaimed loudly, letting his voice out for the entire neighbourhood to hear.
"Do you want me to give you another smack in the head, and keep your voice down will you, I don't want our neighbours to think that their's a crazy person in this who thinks his cat understands human speech." Keisha growled.
Seeing his wife's angry expression, garud backed off deciding not to talk about this topic any longer.
While all this incident was on it's play, karn was sweating profusely from his back, as he felt how close this lazy father of his was from reaching the truth.
While he gave a meaningful glance towards the main character of this topic, who seem to be completely lost on thoughts of his own.
Ian was deeply contemplating on how to solve this grave issue in front of him.
'I will have to do something about this food' Ian thought will giving a glance at that soggy rice and a pitiful amount of milk placed in front of him.
As for the matters of Garud he didn't give much thought about it, as only a crazy person will conclude that a their's a talking cat around them, unless they saw and heard it with their own eyes and ears.
'Karn has just started his training, and it will only get more and more intense and demanding as time passes by, he will need proper amount of proteins and nutrients. I'll have to think of a way to solve this issue" Ian thought before finishing his portion of the food and returned to his usually place to rest.