"Yeah... why am I complaining? Aren't I the one who decided to eradicate my mother's killer's whole bloodline? Am I supposed to do that with my weak self? Kukhh, I'm too soft on myself. Just because I have a new family that is good, it doesn't mean that I should forget the one who birthed me, my mother, who was killed. How can I face her later in the afterlife if I couldn't even avenge her?"
"I'll be strong... I'll be so strong no matter what! Throw whatever you have, trainer! I won't back off!" Ivan thought, gritting his teeth as he continued without complaint for the next 20 minutes
...
'Oh, he was able to complete it? I never thought he'll complete... I thought he'll give up right away... I guess I underestimated him too much.' Alex thought, raising his eyebrow as ivan hot off from the treadmill and drank a glass of water and walked toward Alex.
"Alright, since you completed your punishment, it's about time i put discipline into that small brain of yours." Alex said, his serious expression matching ivan's serious expression.
"Yes, Sir!!" Alex said in a loud tone.
"First of all, since we're going to be teacher and student for a long time, I'll tell you what to call me from now on."
"From now on, until the day I teach you everything that I know and have you master everything to perfection, youll call me commander and you'll be a soldier, you feel me?" Alex said, his tone loud and clear even though there wasn't wasn't much of a distance between them and that, they were the only one there.
"Yes, Commander!" Ivan said, his tone a bit loud but not to the level it could be called shout.
"LOUDER!!"Alex said, shouting.
"YES! COMMANDER!!" Ivan shouted this time, his tone really loud.
"Good, from today, we'll be doing basic exercises for the first month."
"And since your body isn't developed that much, don't put too much pressure onto yourself. Just focus on getting your body into shape that could be used to learn combat." Alex said, his tone finally down this time.
"Yes COMMANDER!" Ivan said, his energy not even a bit down as he shouted.
"First of all, do 10 push ups." Alex said as ivan got into push up position and started to do push ups.
'Thankfully, i had access to Internet and saw how to do push ups properly.' Ivan thought, grateful for the fact that his new parents gave him a computer.
'Oh, unexpectedly, he did it in a proper form in his first go? Haha, guess I'll see how much longer this energy of his will last.' Alex thought.
"COMMANDER! I finished it!!" Ivan said, standing up.
'He's fast for a 6 year old kid.' Alex thought, smirking.
"Now then, do 12 squats." Alex said and as soon as ivan heard him, he widen his stance to that of his hips level and then start to do squats.
'He even know how to do squats? I guess I was wrong to judge and think that he hadn't done exercise his whole life.' Alex thought as he look over ivan doing squats in a good form.
'Since he's already in shape, I think I should reduce that month's time to that of 2 week. I'll build his endurance during that time.' Alex thought, creating a schedule for him to do.
And without even 2 minutes passing, Ivan already completed his squats and was sitting on the ground while huffing.
"Ha..ha...Haa" He breathe in and out, trying to recover the lost stamina.
"Rest for 5 minutes and well go to your summing pool. Today, ill have you learn how to swim as every soldier should learn to be on water." Alex said, his tone serious.
"Yes commander..ha..ha" he said while breathing heavily.
###
[Five minutes later...]
[Summing Pool]
On the top floor of the mansion, there was a large swimming pool that wad enough to do a swimming race with 3 or 4 people at once and right now, in front of the swimming pool was 2 people, Alex and Ivan, both wearing swim suits.
"Have you ever swim or learned to swim, soldier?" Alex said, his tone really serious.
"No commander! I haven't!!" Ivan said in a high pitched tone.
"Then get into the pool and grab that for support." Alex said, pointing to the support bar on the corners of the swimming pool.
"Yes commander!!" Alex said before getting into the pool while grabbing the support bar on the pool.
"Now, flail your legs! Do it with a controlled flow." Alex said as I nodded his head before bringing his leg up and down, continously.
"Yeah, that's the spirit soldier! Do it for the next five minutes!!" Alex said before setting a timer for the next five minutes.
After that, he continued to watch Alex move his legs like a fish for the next five minutes, ensuring that he did it in a correct form.
Though ivan only did some mistakes in his form once or twice and that's it, after that, he did it like he did it for years.
'Damn, what a monster! People take weeks to learn how to swim and he's already got the hang of it and it's not even a half an hour since we started it.' Alex thought, shocked that ivan was really talented, when he teach something to him, he squeeze all that knowledge and manage to turn that theory into practical use in minutes.
"Now, stop grabbing that bar for support and start to use your both hand to do the same: all at the same time. Also, also use your whole body for that, use your body for support and weave here and there while staying in the same position." Alex taught ivan what to do as ivan nodded his head up and down before starting to do that and guess what? He failed.
He failed in doing that as he drown into the swimming pool and seeing that, Alex didn't wait even a second as he jumped into the pool and dive down, before catching ivan and then brining him back to the ground.
"Rest for a while before doing that once again... After you learn to swim, make 5 round of going to the end and coming back. Do it faster and minimise the time it'll take you to complete a round."
"You can only take 5 minute break after doing that 5 round and after that, do it again and again, I'll come back to check on your progress." Alex said, before going back inside.
"Yes! Commander!!" Ivan shouted as Alex got out of his sight.
As soon as Alex left, ivan got into the pool and started to do what Alex said to learn to swim.
###
[Living Room]
"So, how's ivan doing?" Mrs. Hawthorne said in a worried tone, concern about her son.
"Haha, he's a monstrous talent." Alex said with a little laugh, making Mrs. Hawthorne let out a sigh of relief.
"He had learnt to swim in just 10 or 20 minutes when even the talented one that I've seen my whole life took half a day to learn."
"I've never saw such talent. If he's this talent in other things too then i won't let him give up! No matter what, Ill nurture him into a fine soldier who's perfect!" Alex said, obsession to create the perfect soldier evident in his eyes.
"Sigh, please just go easy on him! He's just a 6 year old right now... I won't mind much when he's at least 10 or 12 years old.." Mrs. Hawthorne said, worry evident in her face and tone.
"Haha, don't worry darling, Alex know his way. Even though he's a obsessed with creating a perfect soldier, he know his way too... otherwise how could he be a commander who was known as the all rounder commander King back in the day!" Mr. Hawthrone said as Alex scratched the back of his head, embarrassed hearing his own praises in front of him.
"Haha, that's just a title! Im not that great." Alex said, denying.
"Haha you don't have to be shy. I've seen you fight myself." Mr. Hawthorne said with a heartily laugh.
"Still, be easy on him. I've heard from soldiers under you years ago that you were a monster when it come to teaching." Mr.hawthorne.
"Don't worry, I won't go too hard on him" Alex said, respectful to Mr. Hawthorne.
"So, how's your health now, Alexander?" Alex said to Alexander hawthorne.
"Haha, what can these little diseases do to the great ME! I'm still strong enough to live for a few more decades." Alexander said, laughing heartily.
"Don't laugh so much, dear! You might get a heart attack." Mrs. Hawthorne said, worried about her husband.
"Don't worry, my heart is strong enough." Alexander said, as he curled up his right hand, showing his plain body that's full of veins, mostly due to age.
"Sigh" Mrs. Hawthorne Sigh as she took a sip of her tea as Alexander laughing seeing her sigh.