CHAPTER 28 – Training?

'You are so dead tonight.'

Alex, walking down the hallway warned Sophie about the consequences of the prank she had played on him.

[W-What? I-It was entirely your fault... how could I know that your body on the outside was getting horny because of what we did on the inside...?]

Sophie, without a second's delay, tried to defend herself even though she knew that it was no use.

'Swear to me that you didn't know this would happen and didn't know a way to prevent it from happening?'

Alex, however, paused in his tracks, asking her another question, making Sophie go silent. She couldn't lie to him. She had never been able to. But well, she really did think of it as a prank, she didn't think Alex would get this serious.

But once she thought about how embarrassing it must've been to realize that he came in his pants while sleeping without even being sexually involved with someone, she could tell that it was not something he could just look away from.

All he did was have a wet dream, yet he came from that.

If she had told him about it before, then this wouldn't have happened, but it happened because he wasn't aware that his teenage body on the outside was this weak to pleasure.

No one could actually blame him for that, though; he had yet to turn into an adult on the outside, and other than being verbally stimulated, nothing had actually happened with his body.

[I-I am sorry...]

In the end, she just sighed, stuffing her head between the pillows on the bed Alex had created in the dream space, really regretting her actions.

'You should be.'

Alex, on the other hand, shook his head, seemingly still dissatisfied, but in reality, he wasn't. He wasn't really angry at her for what she did. She wanted to pull a little prank on him and that was fine. He did the same from time to time.

What bothered him was the fact that there was a chance that someone else had seen him. What if James was there and he saw all that? That would've been a big hit to his image, so he wanted to prevent a situation like this from happening again.

So, as he walked through the hallway, moving toward the training ground of this mansion, he kept track of Sophie's emotions. He wanted her not to do things like this often. His image was one thing, but he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he made her cry just for that.

[System Point: 39.]

His eyes then moved to the system points, lingering them for a while before shifting to the empty hallway ahead of him as he reached the stairs for the ground floor.

These system points were something he received when he killed those monsters in the dungeon. The smaller goblins gave him points ranging from 1 to 6 while the hobgoblin gave him a solid ten.

Those smaller goblins were around star formation one star low, the weakest one could be with mana awakened in their bodies, that was probably why they gave so few coins, and the hobgoblin was the peak of one star, making its worth increase to 10 points.

In total, he had 39 coins, something that could give him some food to eat at most. Even some cheap potions cost around 100 in the system shop.

*Click**Thump*

His attention, however, was soon pulled to the sound of the wooden doll in the training hall being hit by someone, and from the sound, it wasn't the sound of a weapon but bare hands, making him raise a brow.

'Who could it be?'

He wondered, increasing his speed, but his steps, which were making taping noise for a while turned silent as he didn't want to disturb the one who was training.

He had woken up quite early today, around 3:30 am, and the training of the few knights who stayed in this mansion started around 5:30, so whoever was training out there, probably didn't want to be seen.

*Thwak**Click**Hut*

The sound was now clear to his ear as he stepped closer to the door leading to the training ground, peeking into the ground only to have his expression freeze as he saw who it was.

The area was a bit foggy since it was still winter, and the weather was freezing, but Alex could clearly see that the one who was training in this chilling temperature was none other than James, his shadow.

His fists kept hammering the wooden mannequin made for swords to hit, and the guy, clearly in pain kept enduring, his eyes blazing with determination as every next hit of his was stronger than the one before.

James had awakened as well, and he had probably awakened some strong ability because even if he was just a supporting character, James was still one of the characters who helped the main character of this novel once.

James had the potential to be someone way stronger than any of the knights guarding this mansion, and one must know that the ones who were guarding this castle were the best of the best out there—people who had graduated from one of the best knights' academies out there.

Why knight, though? Why was Alex comparing James with the knights and not the mages?

The answer was simple: James was striving to be an assassin, who, in a way, followed the path of knights, which strengthens their bodies, they just focus more on their speed and stamina than defenses and attack.

Alex, however, knew very well why James was pushing his body like that. He was probably trying to overcome his grief with an intense workout, hoping that this rigorous training would at least make him forget the pain in his heart by making him feel the pain in his body.

But Alex could see James failing—the guy was failing miserably.

There were traces of tears in those determined eyes of James, but as Alex was staring at James, his eyes caught sight of the bushes some distance away shaking, making him squint his eyes, and soon, a helpless smile formed on his face.

Inside a bush was someone who had loved James even after she knew that James's heart already belonged to someone, and now, when he was broken like this, she was probably suffering equally.

She was one of the few children left alive due to them being underage. They weren't included in the list of children going through the awakening.

"Hah..."

Alex just sighed audibly, coming out from hiding, moving toward the weapon holder, which had various types of weapons, and Alex, after a bit of contemplation, picked up a wooden sword and a wooden dagger and walked toward James.

He wasn't suppressing his footsteps anymore, but James, still engrossed in maintaining the intensity of the punches, didn't notice him.

"Hey, James. Be quick."

It was only when he heard Alex's voice that his eyes snapped toward him, and his body tensed as he quickly took a fighting stance.

*Whack*

Only to be hit by the dagger that Alex had thrown at him, making the guy wince in pain, finally realizing what was happening.

"Y-Your Highness..."

His eyes widened in panic as if he was caught doing something he shouldn't have. His pupils kept going round and round, trying to come up with an excuse, but before he could do that...

*Woosh*

*Step**Step*...

Alex had already rushed at him.

"You have the weapon, James. If you keep standing like that, you will lose this fight."

Alex, with his sword raised high, ready to cleave downward, making it clear where he was going to strike, spoke with a grin, not even caring to greet the guy.

It was the training ground, people greeted each other with their weapons.

"I-I wasn't training, your highness—"

James, on the other hand, tried to wave his hand, showing that he didn't want to fight, but looking at the sword that was descending on him with no intention of stopping, he could only grit his teeth, hurriedly rolling away from the spot, avoiding the sword by an inch.

*Baam*

Sand flew as Alex's sword crashed on the ground, making Alex's grinning face turn toward James, who was now standing a bit far away, the wooden dagger already in his hand, held in a defensive position.

"...are you seriously trying to kill me, your highness?"

With his gaze trembling in nervousness and his heart pounding against his ribs, James questioned.

"What does it look like to you?"

*Woosh*

Alex, however, just rushed at James with the same grin plastered on his face. This time, his sword was held to the side, making it hard for James to predict where it was going to land, but looking at the devilish smile on Alex's face, James knew one thing...

'I'm fucked...'

What none of them knew was that other than the girl who was staring at all of this with worry in her eyes, there was one more person who was observing all of this.

Her icy blue eyes stared down from the top of the mansion as she sat over the mansion's top, not wanting to be perceived by her oh-so-sharp son.