Experiment and Exercise

"What are we doing here, Your Highness?" Anna asked once Roland led her outside to the remote place where no one was around, well, except for Carter who couldn't leave Roland alone with the witch.

"Well..I want you to take a break from making the cement and also I want to perform a few experiments to help you understand your powers more. We already know that your flames are hotter than human-made flames. Carter, this is also your chance to broaden your mind, we, regular humans without "power of the devil" can also control fire to some extent. After all, we are using it to cook food, we are using it to light the way for us. Anna isn't that much different, she has powers to control flames however what she is controlling is still part of nature and this world."

"...But Your Highness..." Carter muttered while keeping his distance from Anna but it was visible that he was already much calmer than before at the prison.

Roland shook his head while looking at Carter before turning to Anna just to discover her slightly frightened expression.

'Maybe the word "experiment" wasn't the right choice'

"Don't worry Anna, I won't do anything against your will but I would appreciate your cooperation since it will still require your full focus." Roland smiled, holding his hands behind his back, trying his best to look like "royalty".

Anna quickly calmed down and eagerly nodded her head.

"Alright, first, I want to know what you are using to summon those flames." 'Is it mana or...?'

"What I am using...?" Anna muttered with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Of course, only the god of fairytales is capable of creating life out of nothing. There is an unspoken rule in this world, to get something, you must give something in return. Take for example trading, you will never receive anything for free and even if you do, emotions like pity or kindness will be involved. To get meat, you must kill an animal. To cast your flames, you must sacrifice something residing inside your body that doesn't reside in regular people." Roland said while pointing his index finger at Anna's heart.

"Your Highness, I understand the concept but...how do I discover where it is stored or what is it?" Anna asked.

'Well, to be completely honest, I am curious if witches don't have an additional organ for that or something like that, however, I shouldn't say something like that.'

"That part will come later. For now...we need to do a labor for our exercise!" Roland said with a sly smile while extending his hand.

"Eh?" Anna tilted her head to the side, looking like a confused puppy who was given a command it doesn't recognize.

"I need you to deplete your stamina, I need you to become physically tired for the next test to take place. Come, we will do a labor together!" Roland said and before Anna could respond, he took her hand and started running which completely shocked Carter.

"Y-Your Highness?!! Wait for me!" Carter immediately darted after them despite wearing heavy armor while carrying some shovels.

Anna whose legs were moving subconsciously looked at Roland who was slowly letting go of her hand. When she saw his encouraging smile, she smiled warmly back at him, running right behind him.

...

*Cough* *gasp* 'This body's stamina is shitty, if it wasn't for almost losing to a little girl, I would have stopped running much earlier. As if I would let a little girl win, Carter on the other hand looks completely fine despite wearing that armor. If it was my old body, I would be capable of doing that too. Still, it looks like I was able to perform 1 experiment of my own before performing Anna's experiment'

[For overcoming your limits in natural training you gain (+1 STA)]

'My stamina is at 5 points, and I already feel slightly better. Looks like I will also need to do a bit of yoga for my agility.'

"*huff* What was the point of this shovels, Your Highness? And more importantly, if its a labor why would you take part in it?" Carter asked as Anna was still recovering her breath.

"You will know shortly enough. Well... for your second question, some people say that labor is the best exercise." Roland replied mysteriously but in truth, he just didn't want to explain everything.

"*huff* Anna, can you bring me that shovel." Roland said as he looked at Anna's condition and he estimated that in case her magic would use her stamina, she wouldn't be able to maintain it for longer than few seconds.

"Y-Yes!" Anna immedietly responded and brought the shovels that Carter drop on the ground, when this happened, Roland looked to the side at Carter with a strange gaze who was now standing behind him.

"Ah! W-Why are you looking to me like that, Your Highness?!." Carter asked Roland.

"Because if you weren't wearing that armor you would not have been much more tired than you already are, you're losing to a little girl you know, you should drop that armor here and be on your casual wear." Roland said while giving Carter a strange look.

"It's not like that, Your Highness! You never know when those flames might be directed at you, it is my duty to protect you and incase I have to use my body to block the flames." Carter quickly shouted in his defense.

"Hmph..." Anna who has heard their conversation was now pouting, most likely due to Roland's last comment about a little girl.

"Seriously...both of you are such kids" Roland muttered while rolling his eyes but a faint smile was present on his face.

"Your Highness, What will we do with these shovels?" Anna asked while giving it the other shovel to Roland in one of her hand. Roland immediately took the shovel from her hand.

"Well first we are going to dig here" Roland said.