Why are the letters dancing?
One of the great benefits of just taking over memories, was that I didn't have to worry about learning a new language. Yet, the letters were dancing around the page. My eyes couldn't focus and there was this gnawing pain in my stomach. At first, I thought it was because I'd cast the spell. But no, I'd already recovered the mana, but the pain never went away. Just a dull bad feeling.
A very familiar one. It was so simple that I felt stupid for not thinking about this. Half groaning, I motioned for the maid, Molly, in the corner.
"Yes sir?"
"Carry me."
"A-are you sure?"
David never liked being carried. I wanted to keep up some of those shenanigans but right now I couldn't even keep my eyes open. I could pass out any moment now. "Yes. Hungry."
Rosy cheeks, kind of soft…"Oh, right sir!" She picked me up like a child and quickly took me to the kitchen.
A round bellied man was sleeping on the table. He haphazardly awoke, fixed his white hat before standing firmly in front of me. "What snack would you like sir?"
My options were pastry, cake, and muffins. I wanted cake but made up my mind about muffins. If I ate cake right now, I wouldn't be able to eat anything for dinner. No, that was the old you. This body can handle it! Eat cake! Eat cake! CAKE!
I almost drooled at the thoughts but still held myself back. "Muffins."
He'd already made some so he just gave them to the maid who fed me the stuff one at a time. If I recalled correctly, she was the same maid from yesterday.
"Your name is Molly Flounders, yes?" I asked.
She, a little flustered said- "Yes sir…" I'd probably treated her unfairly in the past but she showed absolutely no sign of disobedience or even contempt. A pro.
"Well, Molly you can have one for carrying me," I said, getting off her. "Now scram," I said, trying to keep my spoiled tone. Why the fuck do I feel bad?
She kind of smiled. "Thank you."
The hell are you thanking me for, I just- I didn't bother.
My head was still spinning but I felt much better. There was some light left in the western sky. So, I decided to tour the outside of our mansion. Nothing beat a walk after a light meal in the afternoon!
Green soft grass tickled at my feet, almost making me squeal. The sweet scent of the flowers was nice at first but then slowly made me nauseated. Too strong. I quickly moved past the fragrant flowers, and stared at the not so fragrant ones. Mostly white and somewhat similar to the stuff I'd seen back on earth. I didn't recognize any particular one but some of the shapes were similar to Rose and Pansies. One looked like Marigold but blue. The leaves were purple. Not bad, not bad at all.
"Something the matter, sir?" A butler said.
"Keep walking."
"Yes, sir."
This place also came with two fountains. The first had a woman pouring through her vase; tiny squiggly stuff was floating in the water. Fish? No… mosquitoes. The second one had a dragon, breathing fire. The water sprayed just like a fire would, all wavy. How're they even doing this? Just engineering? I tried peeking inside when the head butler grabbed me and moved me aside. The sun had set and it was starting to get a tad chilly. "I apologize sir but it is almost time for dinner."
***
"Rise and shine!"
Groaning, I awoke up from the depths of eternal slumber. If permitted, I could probably sleep for thousands of years! The fuck am I even doing….
Drama aside, a man stood by my bed. His twirly long and thick mustache reminded me of that German philosopher. Wavy red hair. He wore military style clothes, or was it armor? I couldn't tell. My eyes were so hazy and glued together, I just wanted to crawl back inside the blanket and sleep.
He bent down, hovering just over my face. "It's time."
Sigh… his breath stank so much. How many infected teeth did the dude even have?
Time? For what? I stared quizzically at his face for about ten minutes before realizing, he was my drill instructor.
I'd nearly forgotten I even had one. No, perhaps I just didn't want to think about the bad memories, all the drama, and all the pain.
Before I could muster up a reply, the guy grabbed my arm, swung me up and above, and carried me out like a potato sack. Ah, the spinning world….
No one stopped him. Everyone just stared around. And kind of quizzically too. Are they expecting me to thrash around? Even the guy was looking at me, almost expecting.
"LET ME DOWN!" I screamed, and everyone went back to what they were doing. The guy of course didn't let me down and just kept walking.
Eventually we arrived outside.
"Let's see, you seem fine. How do you feel?" Deep voice. His face was that of a bear as was his body. I'd seen musclemen before but this guy was a cut above the rest, almost like he was a wrestler or something. Retired but definitely a wrestler build.
"Not fine."
"But your father said you were fine," he wondered. "You there, didn't Sir Dominic already confirm-"
"Yes," the butler said… it was a butler named Alberto, apparently one of the senior butlers.
Crap… the Mustache-man smirked proudly. His staches moved rhythmically as he made me put on a vest.
A heavy vest, weighing three or maybe four kilograms.
"Alright then, please proceed as instructed."
He did not give me any instructions.
"I forgot."
His brows knit closer. "You forgot?"
"Yes. Can you teach me again?"
"Oh, uh, okay…" He scratched his head "For now run four laps around the mansion. Feel free to keep running if you feel upto it. You have been keeping up with your running these last four weeks, yes?"
Had he? I tried to look back but no relevant memory came up. Probably not. So I flashed a big smile and slowly started my jog.
I was doing fine in the beginning but by the second lap I was already panting. This vest sure wasn't making my life any easier. Legs were fine, lungs too. Yet my heart kept thumping hard and loud and I felt like passing out. The track wasn't even that long. About two hundred-ish meters? I nearly fell over by the third lap and was forced take a break.
"Not bad," the guy clapped. "Now to move on to the nex-"
"Shurrup," I managed, lying flat on the grass. My lungs were on fire, heart thumped like it was about to burst, and my legs were jelly. I was dying! Yeah, probably not. But David should have at least tried to keep running every day. Running this little and getting this tired… damn. No wait, the damn vest….
Yet I felt alive. I was alive. The green tinted sky, the clouds, the birds above… they were all real.
When was the last time I felt like this?
"Come on," he shrugged. "You can do better. You have talent!"
"No, I don't," I mumbled in a matter-of-fact manner.
He seemed a bit stumped but shook it off. "Okay, okay, take some deep breaths up to your stomach and slowly breath out through your mouth. Do it."
I breathed in deep and breathed out. My body calmed down a bit but my legs were still tired. Heck, I was tired.
"Now, move your body like this," he showed me some stretching techniques and afterwards handed me a heavy-ish branch. "One hundred swings; start practicing. We will move onto thrust later." I had a feeling he didn't take my 'I forgot' seriously and was just playing along, eager to make me work regardless… oh well. The 'practice sword' looked to be carved out of a larger branch rather than just something random. It was well carved and the weight distribution was solid. "Practice swings."
"I don't want to become a swordsman," I said.
If anything, I was more interested in axes. One swing to rule them all! Muah ha ha ha!
"Practice swings."
He was not listening, no.