Dima stared at the ceiling, he was forced out of his sleep by hysterical cries of local roosters, which would have woken up a dead man with their cacophony. Reluctantly, Dima got up from the bed and stretched himself, he wanted to sleep terribly, but he didn't dare to lie down any longer.
Numerous voices and other sounds of woken life were coming from the street. 'Waaah, what's so early, what time do the roosters get up at five in the morning, or even earlier... never mind.' Stretching himself, the guy decided to stretch a bit and did a little exercise, squats push-ups and such. It wasn't that he had been actively exercising before, more often he ran for a batch of life-giving beer in the morning, but he tried not to leave his exercise for long. So, after stretching, he nodded to himself in satisfaction and headed for the door.
The corridor was empty, and the guy, defying common sense, decided to try his luck at orienteering again. And who knows where the messenger's feet would have led him, if the guy had not been called from the other side of the corridor.
"Dima stop!" A thin female voice was heard, the guy turned round, Lia with a tray in her hands was looking at him with a smile, the girl quickly ran up to the guy.
"I brought you your breakfast, where are you going?"
"Thank you for breakfast, and where are the washbasins?" Dima asked, throwing his gaze over Lia, which was not unnoticed by her. Lia blushed slightly and answered with embarrassment in her voice.
"It's not far, you go down the corridor, turn right, and enter the dead-end door of the corridor." Dima nodded with a smile and took the tray and went to his chambers.
"Wait!" I heard from behind, the guy turned round and lowered his head down and saw Lia again.
"I forgot to tell you, in an hour they will come for you, be ready." Dima's eyebrow twitched at her words; in his understanding, being picked up could have many connotations, including not the most positive ones, up to incompatible with life. Dima was ready to go into his own thoughts, but Lia pulled him out of his thoughts in time.
"Dima, do you understand?" The boy nodded and said goodbye and went to his chambers.
"What we have here today," the boy looked at his meal with interest, and with every second he was getting disappointed. It was again rice with seaweed and strange-looking mushrooms, without meat or at least fish, like last time.
'We should tell them they can eat animals and they make good steaks, wait, maybe they're all vegetarians.'
"Well, shit, I'm not, I want to eat meat." Dima quickly finished his breakfast and headed for the washbasins. To his surprise he found the way quite quickly, even considering that they were separated by some thirty metres, it was a real feat for the guy.
Dima opened the doors, and no he wasn't horrified, it was pretty good, a stone floor, a big barrel with water and a couple of buckets, and what else is needed for happiness.
'Hmm... no soap, I wonder if they've invented it yet, too bad, we'll have to get on that sometime.' The water turned out to be not just cold, but icy, not without inconvenience, and cursing everything in the world Dima quickly doused himself and went back to the room refreshed.
Lying on the bed, the guy smoked, and staring at the ceiling began to think. 'I wonder what else Hin has prepared for me there, last time we stopped at the most interesting place.' In general, from everything previously seen Dima had quite a complete picture of the local world and the kingdom of Haro in particular.
'Here reigns a dark medieval age, without any hints on the rudiments of civilisation, which cannot be said about other continents, okay with the lizards everything was clear that nothing was clear, but Migard judging by the only picture was very similar to our old Europe, and judging by the same picture with a soldier they have now at least 19th century.
'The associations with China and opium wars arose by themselves, because the weak always devours the strong, that is the law of nature, but in our world there were no variables in the face of other races and magic, but how it will affect the overall balance of power is unknown. Dima thought a little more about what is cooler than a cannon or a fireball, not coming to a definite conclusion he calmed down and just rested.
...
"Wake up, it's time to go out!" Min's familiar voice was heard, accompanied by loud banging on the door.
"I'm already going out." Dima answered and quickly opened the door, and the first thing he met was the displeased face of Min.
"Next time don't hammer like that, or you'll get tired, God forbid, who will drive me." Dima had already got used to his wayward attendant, and could not refrain from a passing caustic jab at him.
"Dream on, dream on, I'm not such a wimp as you, by the way, we'll fix it now." Min said with pride and arrogance in his face, with a smirk on his face.
"What do you mean?"
"Directly retarded," Min handed the guy a bag and added, "Get changed and we'll start training."
There was nothing to do, Dima did not dare to refuse, and he did not want to, after all, he would always be in the thick of things and good physical condition was one of the guarantees of his survival. The sack contained a baggy monk's kimono and wooden sandals with thick socks.
Changing clothes took much more time than expected, Dima as a European found it difficult to understand the Asian clothes, but cursing the local couturier and spending a good fifteen minutes the guy finished changing.
"You look like an arsehole, - commented Dima's new bow, Min with a poorly concealed smile." Come on, let's go.
The guys went down to the basement, walking quickly and silently, Dima preferred to keep silent, because they were alone here, and if Min wanted to kill or maim him, no one would help him.
Soon the duo entered a rather large room, all the space of which were strewn with presumably sports equipment of unclear purpose, from all that Dima recognised only a tourniquet and that's all. Min caught Dima's eye on the tourniquet and stopped near it and suggested.
"Let's make a bet, who will pull up more?"
"And what will we bet on?"
"On kicks, of course, there's nothing more to take from you... don't worry, a kick on the fifth point is not so painful." Dima hesitated for a while, he didn't want to get kicked, of course, but the desire not to make a mess in front of this neurotic took over. The guys shook hands and Min gestured Dima forward.
The rested and energised Dima, driven by the desire to win the bet, exceeded all his expectations. He did fourteen pull-ups, satisfied with his result, he looked at Min, kneading his stiff arms.
He nodded silently and took his place at the bar, and then Dima's jaw dropped lower and lower, and on the twentieth pull-up the floor was broken, and Min didn't even think to stop. Having finished on thirty Min jumped off the projectile and smiling all over his face, gave Dima a sizzling look.
"Now it's payback time," the blow was strong enough to send Dima flying. Holding on to his aching heel, the boy looked at Min. He caught his gaze and added.
"You're not so bad for a pampered city boy, I admit I expected worse."
"Well, thanks for that, but you should work on your compliments," Dima replied, rubbing his aching bun.
"I will, and now let's move on." During the next three hours Min tortured his mentee as much as he could, Dima did pull-ups, push-ups, ran in circles, swung a heavy metal stick, pushed clay balls half his height. Between exercises Min poured ice water on him, and at the end of the training all the guy's muscles were begging for mercy, but Dima refused to give up and agree to additional breaks.
At the end of three hours Min finished his torture session and having poured ice water on Dima for the last time announced the end of the training.
"It will be enough for the first time, I admit you surprised me the second time, I even respected you a little bit, stranger." Dima stood on shaky legs and barely kept his balance.
"That makes me happy, so let me borrow some of your respect and help me to my room. - Fatigue chased away Dima's pride with a dirty broom." Better to ask for help now than to fall somewhere halfway down a flight of stairs,' thought Dima.
"Permission granted, let's go, stranger," this time without mockery, favourably said Min and taking the interlocutor under his shoulder went upstairs with him.
On reaching the room Dima collapsed on the bed, it seemed to him that the muscles were about to jump out of the body and with the words, 'Stop the organism we will go out!' run away in an unknown direction. He passed out instantly, dreamless.
...
Min walked to the abbot's office, following his instructions, the guy was a little worried, it is not every day that an ordinary monk has to have a conversation with the southern abbot, whose figure Min regarded with due awe and reverence.
The lad entered the room, Hin was sitting wrapped up in papers as usual, Min always wondered where the abbot got so much paperwork from. Gathering himself, the lad stepped closer and bowing addressed the abbot.
"I have arrived, in your way," the abbot instructed.
"How are the results of our stranger?" Hin asked without taking his eyes off the paper.
"Much better than I expected, Dima surpassed all my expectations, but he is still far from a trained monk." Min reported and waited patiently for an answer. Thoughtfully tapping his pen on the inkwell Hin continued.
"Good, now you will be engaged in his training daily, as well as you will accompany him on all my errands on the territory of the monastery, from other duties I release you, your patron has already been notified. Any questions?"
"Y...yes, answer prior, who is he and why are you bothering with him like this." The monk's attitude towards the foreigner had improved slightly over the past training, but even so he was still a foreigner, and Min was still suspicious of them. Hin looked up and looking straight into the young monk's eyes coldly said.
"You have a great future Min, you are bright, clever and skilful, there is always a place for such people in leadership positions, but in order to achieve them sometimes you have to quiet your curiosity and just follow the instructions of your elders, is the hint clear?"
"Yes Prior, permission to go?"
"Yes, bring him to me tonight." Min bowed silently and walked out. 'Dima who are you?'