The Northern Noble is a Grinder (Chapter 4)

The Northern Noble is a Grinder (Chapter 4)

…

Lord Trelawney met us before breakfast in a strange room within the castle. It was filled with metal scaffolding and benches, as well as long rods of steel upon which were discs of iron.

He met with us in simple training clothes, just trousers and a tunic, and gave us both a pair of gloves. Without the uniform of a young lad, his pallor and gauntness were even more apparent. If I spotted a child who looked as he did on the street of a town, I would have him taken to the nearest church.

“My sisters used them. They keep callouses from forming and your grip strong.” The inner surface of the gloves seemed to be made of a light layer of rubber with small ridges, and it adhered well to sections of the palm. Their fitting was also adjustable with a band around the waist that mimicked a belt. “We’ll be finding your limits on an empty stomach today.”

I had read this portion of the curriculum in the papers he sent.

“I had thought you’d be measuring our magic, not our physical ability.” I asked him, while following him the first machine. He gestured for us to watch him, as he demonstrated the movement he wanted to replicate. With two hands on the bar, held up by hooks on the scaffold, he lifted the steel and the iron discs attached to the end. He allowed it to touch his chest, then raised it back up to the hooks on the scaffold that allowed it to rest. “With what time we have, would it not be prudent to improve my magic?”

“Your magic can only enhance what you have, while you’re here, we’re going to put some muscle on your bones to make the magic more effective. You read your diet plan and the supplements?” I nodded at his words. Much like a knight in training to get used to heavy armor, I was to eat a large amount of meat and vegetables, as well as recover more quickly with the help of potions. “Every day, before breakfast, you’ll be doing thirty movements that are two-thirds of the maximum you have at the start of the week. Every start of the week, you’ll find your new limit. You’ll do this for all seven machines in the circuit. Simple, but effective.”

He got off the long bench and cleansed the surface with magic, before gesturing for me to take his place and mimic his movement.

When I tried and the metal barely budged through my efforts, I realized that this morning routine was going to be more harrowing than I thought.

…

I consumed the breakfast of roasted chicken voraciously, as the consumption of meat stimulated the potion in my stomach, and rid me of the pain and ache born from finding my limits. My father’s support, in providing the supplies and the potions, was much appreciated by Alice as well. She’d endured by my side and we both found our limits together, while Lord Trelawney recorded them.

He had a clear soup, sausage, and a loaf of dark bread for his meal, and ate while finishing his analysis of our results.

“You’re both well trained and stronger than the average militia recruit. Whoever put you both through your paces did a fantastic job: you won’t die immediately heading out into a forest filled with monsters. Congrats.” Lord Trelawney’s praise attracted the attention of passing servants. Such a thing must have been rarer than I expected. “The two of you will go every morning for four days, rest for two, and then we’ll find your limits again. Train together, go through the movements properly, and you’ll grow strong.”

“You won’t be joining us in the morning, Lord Trelawney?” I inquired, and he shook his head.

“I can’t. We can’t spare the resources for the food and the potions. If I did the same as you, I’ll destroy my body.” His words were simple and succinct. There was no ill will for the meal that I ate and the potion I imbibed courtesy of my father. Only the simple statement of fact. “Not everyone has gold coming out of every orifice, princess. I had to make do with scavenging all the heirlooms left behind by my family for my armor.”

I didn’t manage to hold back my sigh as his glibness and irreverence returned, but I managed to turn my gaze at his looming suit of armor waiting for him to enter it.

At his back, it was a faceless and intimidating knight clad in armor.

The prior evening, though, it had been more like a monster.

I summoned the courage to ask him about the matter after a moment.

“The prior evening, I saw the armor shift according to your will into something else. Something terrifying.”

“Thanks, that was the idea. Since I can’t kill them all, I want to leave them all terrified. Traumatized for life, if possible.” I suspected that was his plan, but I was still put off by it coming from a child that didn’t reach my waist line. Now that I thought about it, despite his age, he looked smaller than he should. It was likely because of their poor situation. Not even any of the soldiers were my height. “Did you like the molten metal face? It shoots out molten fire up to a league away.”

“…I must admit that I don’t know what to say to that. All I’ve known in my life is that armor should inspire or awe the common soldier.” A knight is present on the battlefield to be both be a stalwart warrior and anchor for the officers to rely upon, as well as a pillar of strength for the professional soldier or conscripted man to look to. None would see Lord Trelawney’s form as inspiring or reliable. “Do you not intend to lead armies across the country to fulfill your desires?”

Again, his answer was immediate.

“No. Infantry is the best we can muster, and infantry is best for holding ground. The soldiers are going to be holding the castle and our territory, while I fulfill my duties.” Were those words said by anyone else, I would’ve thought them boasts. However, I had witnessed him attack monsters on the open seas, and saw how many monsters he killed and brought to the city. Such a powerful individual, unconstrained by the limits of armies, would be a terrifying force indeed. “Looks like you’ve got it figured out. Yeah. Shame is for people who can afford better.”

The tactic was seen as cowardly, as a way of war that lacked honor, as it would leverage the Steps of Divinity to brutal warfare.

No better than using the strength meant to ascend as a sharpened rock.

There are many in history who used this same tactic, but they are all reviled.

But the docks were empty and little aid was coming.

The young lord looked gaunt and could not eat the same as his guests.

Finally, all the servants were either children with hard eyes or elderly doing their utmost to appear dignified.

Indeed.

I found nothing disgraceful here.

“I do not think of you lesser for it, Lord Trelawney. If I ever show such emotion, I bid you to have me apologize.” My words seemed to surprise him, his narrow gaze widening every-so-slightly, before a small smirk formed on his lips. He opened his mouth to speak, probably some brutish and unkempt comment, but he closed it after a moment. I accepted the silence with a nod of my head. “I am finished with my meal. I believe that the next course of action is to venture out to slay monsters? May I be excused to prepare my equipment?”

For a moment, I believed I saw a flash of respect in his dark gaze, before he suddenly raised his eyebrow.

“You might be done eating, princess, but your servant’s not.”

Alice promptly began eating at a breakneck pace, while I felt my face flush all the way to my ears, as he snickered.

I moved to stop her, my face burning, as he continued to chuckle.

Still, though, while the laughter was at my expense, I accepted it.

It made the dark and empty halls seem just a bit brighter.

…

I puked onto the floor, between my hands, as my vision blurred, my ears rang, and my lungs burned.

Then, I was picked up into the air by a massive hand and everything became dull as wind whipped around me in a dizzying movement.

I puked again as I came to a stop, then I was dropped into freezing cold water.

Instinct drove me to clarity, and I pushed myself up from the puddle before I drowned, and then my vision began to swim once again as I felt a deep fatigue settle on my person.

But the sweetness of sleep was torn from me, as a familiar movement tilted up my mouth and forced a potion of invigoration down my throat into my empty stomach.

“Eighty kills that time. You’re making good time. If thirty weeks and not fifteen.”

Tears welled in my eyes, but I gritted my teeth, and forced them back.

As for the new rush of bile, I couldn’t.

“Yeesh, you’d be wasting them if they weren’t so high-quality.” I was raised up to my feet, then waves of magic ran over me. Sweat, dirt, grime, and bile all washed away. It did nothing for the ache in my bones, the buzzing behind my eyes, and the dreadful ache in my bones. “C’mon. Strength is right there. You just need to keep taking it.”

My sword broke an hour ago. The armor I learned to maintain and wore with bride became too heavy to wear two hours ago. Magic became impossible to chant and cast three hours ago. My hair was undone and matted to my face like irritating threads. My fingers ached and I wasn’t sure if I could unclench them from fists.

And, before me, was a forest that was filled with amorphous elementals that Lord Trelawney referred to as frost slimes.

They were pests. Creatures that piled up from ambient magic. Peasants kicked them aside or used them to dispose of waste. A child with a knife can kill one with ease. The most that they can do is project balls of whatever solid they came up with, or latch onto something and weight them down. Even the largest of the creatures could be felled with a sharpened stick and a decent arm.

That was what I thought, until I was thrown into a hive by Lord Trelawney with Alice.

I fought and fought them, being pelted by snowballs and rocks with barely any force, while they grasped and aimed to smother me with sheer numbers. Spells only seemed to disappear into their mass. Even as I took their power and imbibed it, the sensation of their grief and hunger muted by my own fear, it was not enough.

I was wearing only trousers and a tunic. I felt unseemly and ugly, but that hardly mattered in the face of the daunting odds I now faced.

The enemy was truly endless.

I swung my blade until it grew dull, but they still came.

I used pure magic like a brute, blasting them apart with force alone, but they still came.

I empowered my body, swung my fists, and crushed them underfoot, but they still came.

They didn’t stop, not even as fatigue set in, and as my body emptied everything for the sake of battle alone.

I would’ve died of shame, if not for my fear of my grave reading ‘died to pests.’

“Whoops, need to get your buddy, princess.” Lord Trelawney sped away with speeds that caused snow around us to turn into a fine cloud, but he returned before it settled. I watched as Alice was treated to the same hospitality as myself, and when our gazes met, we both glanced at Lord Trelawney together with the same thought. Then, suddenly, a chime went off from the timepiece he brought along for our journey. “Time for some lunch and rest, it looks like.”

Fatigue suddenly seemed like a thing of the past, as strength flooded me to reach for the basket filled with food at the base of the tea trunk where the timepiece was.

My salvation was plucked from me, as I was picked up by the back of my shirt and moved towards a barrel.

“Here, drink up first.” He sat us both down, bands of metal keeping us both from our meals, which he went to and began to set. He pointed at the barrel and bands of metal came off from his armor, and pulled off the lid. A sweet and sour scent came from the barrel, that attracted my attention. “It’s wine, honey, salt, dried fruits, and water. A lot of water. That’ll help more than meat.”

Two bowls were given to us, and when I drank it, it felt like a fire within my body began to be quenched. Acidity, sweetness, and salt combined in highly chilled waters. The dried fruits were diced finely and was easily drunk. If not for the bowl, I would’ve gulped it down and spilled it upon myself, because it was almost like divine nectar to my needy body.

The bowls kept arriving, I kept drinking, and before I knew it a low table was set before us by Lord Trelawney along with meet and clear broth that were both heated.

I managed to have some decorum, as I began to eat with my bare hands.

I remembered to at least cleanse myself of filth before I began to eat.

For a few moments, as I ate, I expected Lord Trelawney to speak to us… but when he noticed my gaze, he waved my attention away.

“I’m a taskmaster, not a sadist. You’ve got two hours to eat and rest, then we’re back to the grind.”

With that said, Alice and I exchanged glanced before eating at a bit faster pace.

Eating was fine, but rest seemed irresistible.

“You’ll be making up for lost time after this rest, so make the most of it.”

I ate a bit faster at those words, and the food tasted a bit saltier than usual.