After having breakfast, Hiraeth headed for the nearest river from his house. The river was used frequently by the local community for daily needs. There were also some children who were swimming, and also some women who were washing their clothes.
There were quite a lot of activities in the river, and it was already a common sight.
Hiraeth took a little away from the group of children who were swimming. It was not because he didn't want to take a bath along with them, it was just that Hiraeth wanted to find a deeper spot to make him easier for practicing.
It was his first time beginning to improve his physique. The most important thing to improve it is to control respiration. That was the basic skill he learnt in the past. It was simple. He had to run if he wanted to practice muscle strength, so he needed to control the respiration so that he could last a long time and not get tired easily. Besides, breathing techniques were needed in distributing mana throughout the body.
The most basic way to practice breathing is to dive in the water. When diving, he must hold his breath as best as possible so that he could last a long time in the water. The more he survived the better control of breathing he had.
Hiraeth was determined, today he would focus on training. He had brought food for himself and Owen, he also recorded all exercises he would do while waiting for his mother.
It was certain that since earlier Hiraeth felt someone was watching him from a distance, but he had no idea of where they were. He used his instinct to know it. Perhaps in the past he would instantly be aware of the existence of the stalker by releasing mana from his body then spreading it within a certain range. Anyone who got in or touched the mana, he would be instantly known. The ability was called 'Mana Zone' which was usually owned by witches who were in the fourth-level or above, and he was one of the best users of mana zone in the kingdom.
Yes, again, that only happened in the past and he could not do it at the moment, or maybe it was not the time yet?
Hiraeth took out an hourglass from his bag, the hourglass showing about two minutes. "Pull this rope, if the sand runs out." Hiraeth pointed the hourglass at Owen.
Hiraeth really hoped that Owen could help him as the exercise of breathing control can't be done in a hurry and gradually. That was why he brought an hourglass with a count of two minutes, three minutes, and five minutes.
The hourglass was made by Hiraeth himself; they did not have it at home. They only had a wall clock that seemed to be very old, but still worked well. Previously, Hiraeth made an hourglass to measure how long he could run a marathon every morning, sometimes in the afternoon.
Over time, he could last longer, so Hiraeth made an hourglass with a time of three minutes, five minutes, ten minutes, and half an hour. At the moment he could do a marathon in 15 minutes. Hiraeth hoped that this exercise would help to improve breathing control.
"I'm ready." Hiraeth said with the yelp of Owen in return as if he got the point of what Hiraeth said.
In the next second Hiraeth dived while holding onto one side of the rope. The opposite side was on the surface, or rather was in Owen's beak at the moment.
Ah... this kid... he has an extremely ill body, I just dived for a few seconds, but it felt so tight-, Hiraeth spoke for himself. He cursed the situation when his chest started to hurt even though he had just dived.
Come on, just hold on... it's not enough-,
Hiraeth forced himself to stay in the water even though his chest was about to burst. The air he had collected in the mouth also began to run out, while he still had to hold out for a while longer.
One ... two... three-
Hiraeth felt a movement in the rope he held, as if someone was pulling it. Hiraeth was happy as Owen caught the instruction he gave.
"You're so smart!" Hiraeth praised Owen, rubbing his head, then he gave Owen a piece of snake meat as a reward for the success of the bird giving a signal that time had run out.
"I will rest for five minutes. After that we do as before. Still with the same duration."
Owen screamed while flapping his wings. He looked happy because every time he managed to give a signal to Hiraeth, then he would get meat. The activities kept going on like swimming, then back to diving practice, floating practice in the water, and so on until he finally finished his activities.
"We have to end this. My mother will be home soon," he said.
Hiraeth immediately put on dry clothes, then brought Owen back. He did not want Irish to wait for him too long, he was also worried that she thought about him going to the forest. Although Hiraeth's original intent was so. Luckily he was able to realize the stalker early.
At first Hiraeth could ignore them, but in the end Hiraeth was annoyed. Since morning, the first time Hiraeth came to the river, the stalker had already followed him, and it still went on until noon, they were still peering. Were they actually perverts? But Hiraeth was a man!
Hiraeth walked leisurely through the path, he met some people, and they also greeted each other. Although some of them like to avoid coming face to face with Hiraeth.
Was he discouraged? Yeah. Or perhaps he felt more concerned about the original Hiraeth. Last night, he had a dream about Hiraeth's real life, before his arrival.
In addition to his weak body there was a fact that he also often received ill-treatment from the community. He often got spanked by his peers, and got disgusted looks from adults, as if Hiraeth was shit. Although he did not understand the reason they did this, he could feel the pain felt by his body at this time before he occupied it.
Hiraeth raised his eyebrows when he saw a long white-haired woman sitting in front of his house. She was his mother.
"Where Have you been?"