Ew, cringe.
"Alright, I'm up." I immediately spring my body up to stand and then stretch, saving me from that cringeworthy realization.
My brothers follow as we walk to the training grounds.
"We'll slowly get your body ready again, okay?" Noel taps my head and I nod in reply.
This is nice, I miss training with them.
Especially Noel.
He was always with us from the start, but ever since he became a knight at the age of 16, he rarely stayed around the house. As of now, he's 24 but he is already appointed as the Captain of the Second Division of Knights, the ones responsible for guarding the royal family which is why he is almost always in the castle.
I'm surprised Noah is up this time too and is willing to train with us on a weekend. He's usually lazy and would train in the afternoon instead of in the morning. And by train, I mean spending the whole afternoon with his beloved bow.
As I think of these, I subconsciously start to smile again.
"Oh look, this idiot is raring to go." Noah points at me. I glance at him and slap his back.
"Hey! That actually hurt!"
"Your fault you didn't dodge."
"Huh?!"
"Alright, alright. Let's stop." Noel pushes our backs and we start to train.
First, light sparring between Noel and Noah, then me to each of them.
It has been our original routine since we were kids.
After that, we exchange information with each other about our faults in the spar.
"Nera, you're too stiff from ignoring training for a year. You better get your body ready again," Noel speaks sternly. "Noah, again, you're not taking this seriously. Do you think your enemies will be threatened with that weak swing?"
Ah, there goes the strict side of him. Whenever it involved fighting, he'd be serious that you won't see his idiot side anymore. But no matter how harsh it is, I nod to his words nonetheless.
"Ah, it's fine. I'm better with the bow anyways." Noah waves his hand in defeat, to which Noel sighs at.
"That doesn't mean you won't need your sword. Again!" Noel abruptly swings his wooden sword towards Noah as he covers himself with an aura.
"Woah! What the--" Noah blocks it with his wooden sword, an aura around it, and they continue sparring again.
I watched them for a while, but then my body starts twitching.
Telling me that it wants to move. I haven't done so much in a year, I guess that's the case.
I walk to the side of the training grounds and start to do warm-up stretches, then push-ups, curl-ups, and squats.
After a while, I notice two pair of eyes watching me intensely.
"...What do you want?"
"What are you doing?" Noel tilts his head.
"Exercising, if it wasn't obvious."
"You aren't swinging your sword," Noah wipes his sweat with his towel. "And you're doing that weird thing."
Weird thing?
I look up at them from below and then dart my eyes to my body, which was lying down and doing curl-ups.
Curl-ups...
Oh.
That's right. This was my routine as Jessica, in my magicless world.
But right here, magic exists, where mana is used everywhere and in everything.
Mana is the spiritual life force energy in a living organism. It varies in each species.
For example, plants use mana for their food, beasts use it for protection and survival, and humans use it for, well, anything they want.
Humans, specifically, mages created the term magic while using natural mana and as time passed by, more and more formulas were made and magic became the foundation of everything in the world of humans.
Back in the Earth I lived on, mana was often mentioned in video games and stories, and here it's real. It is used and is called magic. Even I can use it, in the form of aura.
Mana usage, or just magic, is normal among people, especially nobles. Everyone has mana and magic devices are all around this world.
People here have categorized mana since people tended to have some kind of affinity with the four natural elements, fire, water, earth, and air.
They are called Elementalists.
They can train to get their affinities to higher levels of those elements, lightning, ice, metal, and, flight, consecutively.
There are also those who aren't aligned with the four elements and they are called Specialists, people with the power to manifest and control light, darkness, and nature, mainly. Specialists aren't rare, they just don't have alignment with the natural elements.
Just like Elementalists, Specialists can also train themselves to make their abilities stronger and have unique additional skills if they try hard enough.
Mana is from living organisms but they are also affected by environmental conditions.
People that are Darkness Specialists, such as myself, are more powerful when it's night, especially a new moon, just like how people with the water affinity are more powerful when there's a full moon.
Since mana greatly assisted the body and muscles, there was no need to train it as much as how humans did in my previous world. Specifically for knights like how we Ponterises are trained to be, it can be used to cover the body and the weapon to enhance it. We call it Aura.
We still do train and exercise here, but it's more to memorize aura techniques and improve muscle memory, technically, improving instincts and sensitivity.
"Uhm, it's a new type of exercise," I sit up. "To make me stronger."
"What? Did you read this in the library?" Noah asks, always the skeptic.
"...Yeah."
I lie, unable to tell him I learned it from my previous father who was a gym trainer, or in school where it's basically taught to everyone.
"Oooh, can you teach me?" Noel claps his hands and grins at me.
"Hmm, I'm curious. Me too then." Noah adds.
"Sure..."
I guide them to how I would exercise as Jessica.
As Nera, I only did stretches randomly. No care for the time and focused muscles. It was so that it could loosen my body before sparring.
I'm surprised my body isn't broken yet, since I always headed into extraneous work instead of stretching properly first. But obviously, it's because of the aura that my body isn't breaking down. If I did this in my previous world, I would have always been in a world of hurt; or broken bones.
I taught them how to stretch properly and mentioned that it's the first thing to do before any type of work on the body.
"Wow, my body feels relaxed," Noah comments.
"Yeah, what is this book you read exactly?" Noel asks.
"I forgot." I immediately reply.
"Figures," Noah chuckles. "But you remember the content well."
I slowly nod. Well, duh, I did this routine every day, how can I not remember?
Eventually, I teach them the rest of what I knew. I am quite confident and knowledgeable when it comes to the body, which is why I'm not hesitating in teaching it to them. Not because I remember it through reading, but through rigorous repetitions.
"There are four important types of exercise: aerobic, strength, stretching, and balance exercises."
"You're using big words. Calm down before your brain suddenly shuts down."
I kick Noah's foot and continue explaining.
"AH--!"
"Aerobic exercises increase the body's endurance. Strength training builds muscles. Stretches improve and maintain flexibility. Balance exercises improve... body coordination."
I slow down at the end, noticing the two of them focused on me. Noel starts to grin.
"Let's try all of them!"
"You've already tried the stretches so now, let's do some of it from easiest to hardest."
The way I do it is through stretches, balance, aerobics, then strength exercises. Only a few of those exercises in these types for now, since we wouldn't have enough time for everything.
Fortunately, our bodies here are naturally enhanced with mana, it was easier for them to follow through the menu I used to do, despite it being rigorous.
"The most important thing is food intake and rest, but you already know that." I end my discussion for now.
"I didn't know you could enhance your body like this. It doesn't involve mana usage at all!" Noel laughs. "This will be amazing for people who aren't good with their aura yet!"
I smile at my eldest brother's enthusiasm. There he goes thinking for other people again, a heart of a leader.
"It's quite interesting how there are specific times on how long you should do them. That book you read is interesting." Noah points out.
Tsk. He's lazy but when he's curious, he doesn't let that opportunity go away. That's just how smart people I know are. I hope he doesn't try to find that non-existent book...
"Is it okay if I teach this to the knights?" Noel asks me and I nod in reply.
"I don't own these exercises, you don't have to ask permission." I shrug while smiling.
"Okay! Let's wrap up and eat lunch!" Noel grabs me and Noah by the shoulder.
Huh, it's already noon. Time flies so fast. There goes the usual but eventful weekend morning for us Ponterise siblings.