Life is Tiring

He hands me a weird tool. It has a medium length wooden pole with a horizontal pointy piece of metal at the end.

"What's this?"

"It's called a pickaxe. It's a very primitive tool used centuries ago to manually mine and break rocks"

"So, what you want me to do with this?"

"Go mine and break some rock of course" he says with a casual tone.

Well, how hard can it be?

"Oh, you'll be doing this for the rest of the day by the way. You need to build up that body. I'll let you off at 8:00pm"

"What?! That's friggin four hours from now! You want me to do this for four hours straight?! How about dinner?"

"Don't worry, you'll be in time for dinner. Just make sure you don't faint. I won't be waking you up. Oh, and just in case you try to leave, say goodbye to breakfast. I'll let them know you won't be having any"

"What?! You can't do that!"

"Oh yes, I can. You already signed a deal with the devil once you agreed to do this the hard way" he says devilishly.

"Oh goddammit!"

"Haha, have fun!" he says as he leaves.

I head over to a wall. This can't be that hard, can it? I hold the pickaxe with one hand and swing it as hard as I could onto the rocky wall. The pickaxe flew away from my hands as it made impact. My hands are red and aching as if I slapped it onto a hard surface.

"Damn, that stings!" I exclaim.

This might be harder than I thought. I picked up the pickaxe and decided to try one more time.

_____

Hah... I wonder how Erik's doing. Sparring practice is over and I'm just lying around. I thought he would also be lying around but there's no signs of him anywhere. Maybe I'll just try looking one more time. I look at the clock. It's 6:47pm. There's still time before dinner.

I went out of our room and started walking around. I walked all around the dorm, the many buildings in the facility, in the dorm park, near the mess hall, and finally at the classes. No signs of Erik anywhere. I tried looking one more time near the dorm park.

Once I arrived, I saw Marie sitting on a bench with someone, talking to them. Then, she saw me and called me over. I went over to them. Once I got closer, I realized Marie was sitting with Chantria.

"Hey, Jeremy. What're you doing walking around here?"

"Nah, nothing much. I was just looking around for Erik but there's no sign of him anywhere"

"Really? Wait, you must be close to Erik right?" Chantria suddenly looks over to me and speaks up.

"Um, yeah, I think so? We've been together since childhood. Why?"

"Oh, sorry. Nothing much. Just curious. I'm a little worried though considering what he's been through" she says a she blushes.

What's up with her?

"Well, if you're worried about that, then don't. I mean it in a good way. Erik's been through a lot in his life. I'm sure he can continue facing more hardships down the road"

"Oh, is that true? Well, I'm glad. I was worried for nothing then" Chantria says, satisfied as she lets out a sigh of relief.

Oh... Now I see... Seems Erik is messing around somewhere. I refuse to believe he managed to charm such a beauty as Chantria. Well, let's be honest here. That same Erik we all know and love, am I right? Man. Times have changed. All the girls I know and even the ones I read about in novels are more sensible than her. Maybe she's just crazy. Crazy people do tend to attract more of their kind.

We continued chatting for a while. Chantria was really curious about Erik. Everything from his past, what's his personality like now, his thoughts on people with high statuses as her, and whatnot. I honestly got tired just from answering her barrage of questions.

I got up and decided to leave after bidding my farewell. I look at the time. It's already 8.30pm. I think I'll maybe head to dinner. Once I arrived, I took my food, sat down and ate in peace. As I was eating, Ayaka, my other classmate came up to me.

"Hey, boy. Erik late. Don't wait" she said with a solemn expression and left.

What did she mean by that? And how does he know Erik will be late or whatever? Something smells fishy here.

Well, I just ignored it and finished eating. I was heading back to my room when I saw Erik. I went up to him.

"What's up? Were where you all evening? And why are you drenched in sweat?" I asked.

He looks as if he were about to collapse at any moment.

"Wha? Nah, nothing much. Just hungry. Lemme eat first. We'll talk later" he says while gasping for air.

Why is he so flustered? Don't tell me he's been doing 'that'? No, no. It can't be... This is Erik you know? But how did Ayaka know he would be late? Nah... I'm overthinking this...

_____

Man, I'm beat. After eating I went straight back to my room and just melted in the covers. I wonder how long I'm going to be doing this. Well, I do agree that I have to work as hard as possible starting from now. I can't keep whining forever. I have to face reality. Yes. I must do my best. But I'll just sleep first...

_

"Erik wake up!!"

"What is it Jeremy.. just let me sleep..." I said groggily.

"Wake up!! The house is on fire!!" "I sit up only to feel the heat from a fire.

I instantly lost all my drowsiness and got up immediately. Jeremy's parents were there waiting for us at the doorway. We hurriedly made our way out together. We could see there were a lot of houses on fire. The huge mechs were here again, destroying the houses around. We were all shocked at the scene unfolding before our eyes. Now what?

Jeremy was holding on to his mother's hand tightly while softly crying. His mom had the same expression. His dad put on a strong face though his true emotions were somewhat peeking through.

The farm had experienced the same fate as the houses in the street. Why... Why?! I'm just glad that Jeremy's family is okay but this is too much. A person in strange clothing stood on one of the mech's shoulders. He yelled for everyone's attention.

"Hahaha!! I love this scene before my eyes, don't you agree? Such beauty!!"

"Why are you doing this?!" a man yelled.

"I don't think any of us missed on our rent?!"

"Hahahaha! Of course none of you didn't. Until now at least. A new landlord has been appointed and he declared a raise in rent by 200%! Just think of all this as advance payment" he says as he hysterically laughs.

Then, all the mechs went back to the city. Leaving all our homes in ruin.

_

Bzzt!! The eyePhone's alarm vibrates in my head violently, forcing me awake. It's 5:30am. Seems like Jeremy left without me. I quickly head out. After running for a while, I found Jeremy and caught up to him. We both continued running together.

Jeremy seemed a bit down for some weird reason but he seemed okay when talking to him. After running for quite some time Jeremy said he was done. I think I'll do a bit more. Need to build up stamina. I tell Jeremy to go on without me while I continue.

After doing another 10km I felt like fainting. I went back to my room and collapse on my bed. Jeremy was doing some other exercises.

"That took a while"

"Yeah, I did another 10km"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I really need the stamina"

"For?"

"For what? For my physical ability, duh".

What's with that question, honestly? And here I thought he was the smart one. After resting for a bit, I decided to do some other exercises. Can't really skimp out on them either way. Who knows what kind of punishments they'll dish out.

Man, I'm beat. And it's still morning. I invite Jeremy and we go to the mess hall together. Breakfast was as normal today. After we both finished eating, we head to class. Usually, I would hang around in my room but the extra exercises took quite some time.

We arrived just in time because as we sat down for a few minutes the teacher came in. Class was also just like always. Boring. Well, so far today has been super boring. I'm so bored.

After classes, I headed to lunch by myself. Ayaka came to bug me briefly telling me that she'll be waiting at the entrance. Apparently she doesn't have the time to look after me or something. Well, after eating lunch by my lonesome, I finally went back to my room and laid down. I feel like taking a short nap.

Man, I'm so tired of this repetitive lifestyle. To be honest, I did choose it but man, I never knew it would be this boring. Man, I thought training to be an assassin would be much more exciting and full of thrills. Hah... I let out a deep sigh.

~

I wake up and look at the time. Jeremy probably already went to sparring practice. 20 minutes to get to the old man. I make my way there as slow as ever. Well, not like there's much to do anyways. Besides, I need to save my energy to break the rocks later.

I arrive, seeing Ayaka waiting there for me. She opens up the mechanism and we both enter.

"Hey, aren't you ever going to teach me how to activate that?"

"No, you no trustworthy"

"Oh, come on. We're fellow disciples aren't we? Just tell me. I promise I won't tell anyone"

"...".

Ughh.

We both greet the old man. He then tells me to head on over to the mine and continue breaking more rocks down there. He said that in the meantime he was going to teach Ayaka some cool moves. He said that if I ever want to learn cool moves then I'll have to work hard down there.

Well, it wasn't really the best motivation but I really wanted to do something not boring. I head down, enter the mine, and started slaving away. Man, doing this is hard. How did people use to do these things with such primitive tools? Not to mention these rocks are so hard my pickaxe might even break.

Heck, even my hands might break at this point. Although I've only been at this for two days, my hands hurt like hell already. Not to mention the blisters I'll have after this. Man, life sure is tiring these past few days.

After I was done for the whole four hours, I went out, seeing Ayaka and the old dude relaxing, drinking some tea.

"Must, be nice, huh, Meanwhile, I'm down there slaving away for no reason"

"Haha, impatient are we? Now, now. Rest is for the strong you know? The weak have no choice but to work harder than ever"

"Those sure are some encouraging words, master"

"Being sarcastic with me now eh? What happened to all the young kids who would respect their elders... How the times have changed"

"Ughh. Whatever. I just want to leave already".

The old man and Ayaka finishes their tea and Ayaka leads me outside.

We both part ways as I headed to the mess hall while who knows where Ayaka is off to. I reach the mess hall in an exhausted state. I took my food and sat where Jeremy was. It looked like he was almost done eating. I usually don't have an appetite after doing such manual labor but I was so tired I might as well eat a whole ranch. Jeremy was kinda surprised looking at me eat.

"Slow down man. It's not like the food's going anywhere"

"Shut up, I'm tired"

"Okay, cool. Whatever. Do your thing I guess" he shrugs.

I continue eating like a hog while Jeremy leaves. I finished up by myself. Again. I returned to my room an immediately slept. Man, this kind of life sure is tiring.