Intensified Training

The next morning William woke up early once more, quickly freshened up, ate his breakfast, this time alone as his father hasn't woken up yet and went to meet Oswin for his horse riding training.

When he reached the stables, once again he found Oswin there waiting for him.

"And here I thought that I made short work of breakfast. Damn how can this guy be here so quickly, does he even sleep or eat?" William grumbled to himself.

This time Oswin said nothing about William being on time, he simply nodded and pointed him to the stables to go fetch his horse.

" Before we start training today, I think we should change it first and push horse riding until later in the morning" William said.

"What do you have in mind?" answered Oswin with a hint of curiosity apparent on his expression.

"I think that I am severely lacking when it comes to physical fitness, especially endurance. I was thinking we start with that first as a priority and then move on to horse riding after." William explained.

Oswin was certainly a bit more surprised than he was before at William's suggestion as he thought.

"Is this the same old William? The one that barely came out of the castle and shown any significant talent? Yesterday he went out of the castle to the business district to explore and now he wants to train his body. Maybe that fall really did change something in him, maybe for the better.

Oswin thought a bit more before he answered William.

"Good; very good. Physical exercise can only do you good. Fine, from today onwards you will start your day with physical exercise and then move on to the horse riding lessons."

Oswin started taking off his leather armor that he wore off when he was inside the castle or not on official duty instead of his heavier metallic one.

William was a bit perplexed by this behavior and couldn't help but ask.

"Why are you taking your leather armor off?"

"I am a soldier as well as the captain of the castle guards; I am expected to give an example to others and therefore must keep my body in top condition. I usually train in the early morning but because I have to train you, I had to push it to after I am done with you. Since you have to train as well, why not take this opportunity and get my training done as well, hitting two birds with one stone." Oswin replied with a slight smile on his face.

"Did this guy just smile, my eyes are not playing tricks on me right? I never knew he COULD smile, by Hercules shredded biceps I think this guy might be a workout addict." William thought in amazement.

"Alright, let us get some warm-up done, I think five laps around the castle should be adequate enough considering you are just starting out, try to keep up" Oswin took off running at a relatively slow pace as soon as he finished.

William was left speechless by this trainer of his he could not help but wonder. "Five laps as a warm-up, what kind of insanity is this? Does he even know how big the castle is? No, he definitely knows he's just trying to kill me. What the hell have I gotten myself into?" Immediately after he took off running after Oswin.

A few hours later.

William was lying on the floor panting heavily, he could barely lift his legs, or hands or move anything really, he felt completely, totally, utterly exhausted.

"Alright this is it for today's physical and horse riding training; see you tomorrow at the same time." Oswin said to William as he turned around and left looking like he only did some light training, nothing more nothing less.

"What have I done? What monster have I unleashed? If he was not a loyal knight of our house, I would have definitely thought that he was trying to kill me." William exclaimed.

It took him a great amount of effort to return back to his room and only with the help of Laura was William able to take a shower and change his clothes.

Laura felt really bad when she saw William in his current state and couldn't help but advise him. "My lord maybe training this much is a bit too much so soon after your accident; it may be wise to wait for some time to allow your body to recover a bit more."

"Don't worry Laura, I may be completely exhausted but I am not injured in any way shape or form. As for the accident, other than a few foggy memories no side effects remains, I am absolutely fine." William replied trying to reassure her.

He knew, that though he was a member of a wealthy family and could mostly rely on guards to protect him from harm, it would never be an absolute assurance; he needed to be able to take care of himself, to at least be able to run from danger if he ever encountered it.

Therefore being at least reasonably fit is the least he could do, as for learning how to fight, that would have to come later on as it takes a very long time to be able to reasonably manipulate any type of weapon in a proficient way, to make it a reliable means of defense rather than a way to hurt himself.

Soon it was lunchtime and he reluctantly made his way to the dining room, he contemplated asking Laura to bring him his launch to his bed, after some hesitation though he decided against it as he started liking the conversations he would have with lord Uric while they ate.

As usual, William greeted his father, sat down and as soon as the food was placed on the table by the servants he dug in without delay.

"I see that you have developed quite the appetite today William, I guess that training was especially tough this morning." The marquess commented with a smile as he looked at William, heartily eating his food.

"Tough? I thought I was going to die a few times, I had the feeling that my heart was about to stop a couple of times, I swear sometimes I had the feeling that Oswin was having fun seeing me struggle so much." William replied, never stopping his hands as they delivered the food to his mouth.

Lord Ulric laughed out loud for a few moments at William who looked a bit aggrieved that his father found his situation to be funny.

"Don't misunderstand me, William, it's just that Marek had the exact same expression when he started training with Oswin, though he was a lot younger than you when he began. How can you be so different from each other, yet so similar when you faced the same situation?"

Lord Ulric smiled as he looked at William; the look was exactly the same as the one a simple father would give when they looked at their child. Gone was the lord, the warrior, the politician or anything in between, gone was the sharp look or the dignified presence.

All that was left was a loving father and nothing more.

"I wish your mother had the opportunity to see the both of you grow up." Lord Ulric said in a soft voice almost involuntarily, more so speaking to himself than anyone else.

As he said so, deep sadness and grief overwhelmed the expression on his face that he could usually so casually control with proficiency.

But it only lasted for a moment before he regained control and returned to his usual self.

"Anyways I have something I wanted to talk to you about William, especially considering this newfound interest in exploring the outside world you have recently acquired."