43 She is Spartan!

And the males learned how strict she is the next few days…

"She said she was strict… I did not know that she is a Spartan!" Conrad muttered. The mage scrubbed the floor clumsily.

"I am a royalty yet I have to do such domestic tasks." Blaze grumbled while wringing the rag he was using to clean the windows.

"Quit complaining Conrad, you too, your majesty." Aria reprimanded as she removed the cobwebs from the ceiling. "You have only been cleaning for over an hour. I've been doing these mundane tasks for more than ten years."

"Not only that… see Aliester?" she pointed out. "He is supposed to be a duke, but he chops wood."

From where they were, they could see Aliester swinging an axe to split some wood.

Although, the original Aliester grew up as a noble, Aris who had been a Hausen, was quite used to the tasks given to him.

Unfortunately, since he became a shut in, he had neglected some of his assigned task. Thus, when Anika told him to chop wood, he had split the wood unevenly at first.

"Do this properly." Anika had snapped at him after inspecting his work. "You have to chop the wood equally."

"Split it into equal halves like this." She demonstrated how to chop wood and let her brother do his tasks.

After some time, his body moved as if he was trained like a lumberjack. It seemed like his muscles remembered the training his predecessor had undergone using a battle axe, which was similar movement with an ordinary axe.

Done with chopping the first batch, Aliester put the woods into a fireplace like structure and light it.

"Make the fire bigger." Anika commanded.

The poor boy blew on the logs to make the flames bigger. But in the process, he inhaled smoke which made him cough.

Little did Aliester know that the fire he was making was used to heat the bath where Anika was relaxing. Aria had an idea on what was happening but she did not bother to tell the guys.

She realized that Aliester seemed to have forgotten the routine that he had when they were training.

He seemed to have no clue that some of the regimen had changed after he shut himself in.

"At least for today you were not tasked to carry water." She told the king, who was still upset of the task given to him. "Daxton seemed to be having a hard time."

At the mention of the knight, they turned and observed Daxton as he carried two buckets of water which were held together by a bamboo pole. He had to climb a set of stairs while making sure not to spill water.

"I never thought that just simple house chores could be this hard." Daxton panted as he took shaky steps up the stairs.

"Daxton, I could hear your footsteps even from here." Anika pointed out as she scrubbed her arms.

Though she was few meters away, she could still sense what was going on in the place.

"the water is spilling." She voiced out even further.

"How in the world could she tell it was me?" Grumbling, Daxton tried to do his tasks. He tiptoed to keep his footsteps from being heard.

The feat was proven to be very difficult, especially since he needed to keep the water inside the buckets.

"This is worse than my training as knight." He said under his breath. "At least in knight training I only had to learn how to handle weapons not carry water up the stairs."

Having enough of their complaints, Aria admonished. "You guys, stop complaining. I had pretty much undergone this type of training ever since I've learned how to walk and I am still doing them until now."

"Though on school days, I only have to do mundane tasks in the morning, the rest of the day is spent in school." She ranted. "Be thankful that she hadn't given you the wrist band and ankle band weights yet."

"Wrist band and ankle band weights?" Conrad asked.

Aria lifted her wrists and showed the wrist band which looked like 3 inched silver cuffs. She also showed him her ankle band which was about 4 inches thick silver anklet.

The girl removed her wrist bands and placed them on Conrad's palm.

"These are heavy!" he exclaimed as he tested the weights.

"You train and do tasks with these?" the king exclaimed when it was his turn to test the weights.

"Of course! It is part of the training." The girl said while taking back her bands. She then continued cleaning her assigned area.

"By the way, Aria, what will be the sleeping arrangements." The mage asked wearily after the day was done.

The boys were exhausted and craved for a good night's rest. However, their new master had other plans in mind. They were relocated to the guest room in the annex.

"Where are the beds?" Blaze inquired while eyeing the tatami mats.

"I need a soft bed for my aching body." Daxton voiced out his sentiment.

"There won't be a bed for you." Anika dropped the bomb. "you need to sleep on the floor. We have futon but that will be the only thing that can be provided."

"but-" Being the eldest among the other-worlders and an advocate for their rights, the mage began to protest.

"no buts." Anika cut in. "This is part of your training. We will be honing your senses with this training."

"These are surprisingly soft and comfortable." The red head king said as he laid on one of the futons.

"he's right!" Daxton affirmed as he rolled on the futon he had chosen for himself.

Four guys were sleeping soundly on their futon, oblivious of the shadows that had been creeping towards them.

The shadows took out a weapon and began assaulting the sleeping forms who seemed to have not noticed the added presence.

Suddenly, light flooded in the room. Aria splashed cold water on the four.

"What in the world?"

"Why are we being splashed with water?"

The boys muttered profanities from being woken from their slumber.

"If this was a real mission, you would have been dead." Anika began. "you did not even notice that someone sneaked inside your room and doodled on your faces. You only woke up when water was thrown at you."

"If I had been tasked to assassinate you…" Aria added. "you should be dead by now."

"The reason why I had made you sleep on the floor was for you to sharpen your senses." Anika explained the logic behind their task.

"Excuses such you are exhausted from the tasks earlier are not even valid." She cut off the protests that would come from any of the boys.

"There is a lot of room for development." Aria finished before turning towards her twin. "Bro, you have gotten rusty. We will have to retrain you.

The guys groaned.