Progress

The very next morning William enthusiastically woke up and prepared himself to plunge into his morning routine.

"I can't believe I am saying this, but I almost missed the grueling physical training that I chose to suffer under Oswin!!!" William commented in amusement as he got out of his bed and went to freshen up.

When he made his way to the dining area, there was not just his father but Marek as well.

"Good morning," William said with a smile.

Lord Ulric returned the greeting as usual, while his elder brother simply gave him a nod.

"You look very energized today son, something good happened?" The marquis asked.

Indeed, William was feeling very energetic for two reasons, first because he had a good night's sleep and the second was because today he was going to check on Edmund's progress so far.

" What's not to feel energetic for, the campaign was mostly a success, trade will now flow freely in the territory and I got a good night's sleep on my bed."

William explained as he sat down at the table. He waited for the servants to finish placing the food before he dug in.

"Since you have been training your body regularly for the last month or so, you should have made quite the progress, I feel like I should join you and Oswin today to see just how far you have come," Marek said.

William looked at his brother with a suspicious look as he responded, "Let's not kid ourselves here, you just want to see me struggle, I am the weak link after all, pick on someone your own size."

" That's not the way to address your older sibling brother, I just want to give you a morale boost that's all, I know how it is like to be under Oswin iron fist, I was once in your position after all" Marek replied with a very fake tone of concern, the slight smirk refusing to leave his face.

"Dude, you are very bad at this whole faking your emotions thing, a fast-food joint employee could display better fake interest when taking my order." William thought to himself.

"Yeah, yeah right, whatever you say." he ended up saying.

"Just end this squabble you two, the day is still young and there is no need to start it this way." Lords Ulric interjected at this moment, he had gotten used to his children's little clashes.

It wasn't anything too serious from his point of view, Marek always considered William weak and almost useless, looking at him with slight contempt displayed in his eyes.

The marquess was not concerned precisely because he knew that Marek was bad at hiding his emotion and therefore it was very easy to read him, almost like an open book.

William, on the other hand, was simply not compatible with his elder brother's militaristic headings, he cared for neither training, fighting, military battles or conquest at least not real-life ones.

This lead to the two brothers never really feeling close to each other and while William always tried his hardest to avoid any confrontation, Marek tried to use any opportunity to slightly bully his brother.

After breakfast, Marek made good on his "suggestion" and indeed followed William to the training grounds to take part in his daily morning routine.

After they reached the training area, Oswin the punctual man he is was as usual already present and waiting for him. Upon seeing Marek as well he simply asked.

"Would you be joining the training this moring young lord?"

" Indeed, I want to train a bit with my brother here" Marek responded as he tapped William on the shoulder.

Upon hearing this, Oswin frowned before saying. " Young lord, you are much more capable physically than your younger sibling who has just started training not long ago. Come with me, I will design a personalized training regiment just for you to see how far you have come since the days you used to train with me."

Upon hearing this Marek expression become solemn as well as slightly pale, he suddenly had a flashback to his younger traumatizing days with Osiwn as his "personal" trainer.

William on the other hand had a wholly different response as he struggled to hold his laughter in, yet failed as a big smile escaped his control. Upon noticing this Oswin looked at William with his piercing eyes as he said.

" I almost forgot to inform you young lord William, I think it is time to move on to the next stage in your training regiment."

Upon hearing this William's smug smile was immediately wiped away from his face as he thought.

" I swear to god, this guy enjoys it, he fucking enjoys making us suffer. WHY ME WHYYY..."

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that afternoon at around 2 PM.

William was making his way towards the docking area with his disguised guards.

He looked exhausted, Oswin had put them through hell, that upgrade in training he talked about was just MORE, more of everything whether be it running, jumping, or lifting weights, even horse riding which was not that bad until now had somehow become a big challenge.

He even had to take a two-hour nap just to recover enough strength to go out in the afternoon, Marek had pretty much suffered the same fate and William was sure he probably had some sort of PTSD from his childhood training with Oswin.

Eventually, they made their way to the small warehouse that Edmund had rented for their potentially lucrative business.

The first thing William observed, was that there was a guard at the entrance of the warehouse, wearing some leather armor and a short sword that was strapped on his waist.

William again instructed his guards to stay behind but be ready to intervene should something happen and walked to the guard; upon doing this the guard asked.

"Halt, what is your buisnees here?"

"Just coming to see a friend of mine, is Edmund inside?" William asked, this was a good sign so far, the security wile made up of only one man so far could at least deter any curious eyes from seeing what was happening inside.

Hearing Edmun's name being mentioned, the guard carefully observed William for a few moments before he responded.

"He is, wait a moment while I inform him, what is your name?"

"Just tell him that William is here to see him."

The guard nodded and went inside for a while, William made a mental note to increase the number of the guards to at least two so as to always have someone manning the door in situations like these.

Soon the door was opened and beyond it Edmund made his appearance, Upon seeing William he went on to greet him.

" William!! You are finally back, come in I have much to show you."

William greeted Edmund as well, giving a nod to the guard who had once more manned his post before going inside.

What greeted William was not the empty and dead warehouse that he had left behind, but one that was full of life and activity, with workers going about their work from one station to another as they manned the facilities around, grouped in small numbers and separated by barriers.