“I don’t know...” John’s face was filled with reluctance at his wife’s question.

“Don’t worry! I can protect myself now!” Lydia flexed her non-existent muscles.

“I’m not worried about them trying to do something to you, but I don’t think they’ll listen to a woman even if you’re my wife.” John clarified.

“Then we’ll kick those people out. I didn’t spend so much time learning that book on how to be a great leader, just not to use it.” Lydia firmly stated.

“Are you sure you don’t want to be our doctor instead?” John offered instead.

“I can be both! The strategist and the doctor!” Lydia claimed.

“Alright. I guess leave the fighting to me then.” John surrendered to his wife’s insistence.

Leo brought the guys over the next day after the talk with Pete. The number of people that came was much more than John and Lydia expected. Their courtyard near the entrance was filled with people of the worst-looking sort. John and Lydia stood before the group of men, youngsters, and older fellows. John spoke loudly and clearly, dressed in regular commoner clothing.

“I will not be the one leading you all. My wife, Lydia, will be the one to lead you. She will be the one to ask questions to and follow orders from.” John was met with heavy confusion by the men in front of him. “I know what you all are thinking, but my wife’s illness has been cured. And if that isn’t the part you were worried about but that she is a woman, I’m sorry to tell you, but my wife isn’t just any ordinary woman. Any commands, requests, or orders she gives you will be no different from if I was the one speaking to you. If this isn’t acceptable to you, leave now. You will be following the orders of a woman as long as you are a part of my squad. This will not ever change.” John finished his speech and calmly watched as more than half the men left their manor.

“I didn’t come here to listen to John’s wife.”

“I came here to learn how to get as strong as John...”

“Tch, what kind of man leaves his job to his woman?”

More curses and mutters escaped the lips of the bandits and entered John’s ears. His focus changed to his wife’s face, and he was surprised to see that she was actually smiling. Joy filled her eyes as she looked at the remaining men. He, too, took a closer look at them. Half a dozen of them were left out of the several dozen that came. They were all very young. Most were looking at him with strange looks on their faces, but John didn’t think it was a bad look.

“It’s a better result than I thought...” Leo honestly shared. “You’re lucky those guys look up to you so much, or they’d probably leave just like everyone else.”

“They admire me? Why?” John asked.

“I wish I could be that ignorant about my own popularity.” Leo sighed as he flicked his hair back.

“The guys are constantly spreading stories about you in the taverns. Like how you have the strength of 100 men. How you killed a skilled military captain all on your own with your bare fists. The most popular stories being passed around now are about how you robbed a wealthy physician all on your own despite being surrounded by armored soldiers and getting away with it without a single injury.” Leo retold the tales of John shared at the tavern.

“...” John didn’t know how to respond.

“Yep. Amazing, isn’t it? I can’t wait to get stories of my own like that.” Leo sighed as he imagined the guys at the tavern raving about him.

“Hello everyone...” Lydia seemed beside herself with joy. “My name is Lydia, but you all will refer to me as Boss! I will turn you all into men even greater than what Pete expects out of you. If he expects you to survive against soldiers, I'll have you capable of defeating groups of soldiers! Every single one of you will be able to stand against the military in your own special way after I'm done with you. Do you understand?” Lydia asked.

“Yes, Boss!” Only one really young boy shouted with all his heart.

“I said, do you understand?” Lydia repeated herself.

“Yes, Boss!” Various responses of varying intensity responded back.

“Good.” Lydia clapped her hands loudly.

Several servants who took care of the chores and upkeep of the manor appeared at her clap. They arrived struggling to push a cart filled with strange metal objects. None of which looked familiar to any of the bandits, including Leo and John. A suspicious smile was on Lydia’s face when the servants finally pulled the carriage to the courtyard.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Okay, I want all of you to latch those bracelets around your wrists and ankles. Then we’ll get started on today’s training.” Lydia informed.

John took the lead and grabbed the four with his name etched into them. Lydia taught him what his name looked like. He grunted in surprise when he could actually feel the weight restricting his strength. His shocked eyes met Lydia’s proud face, and soon he smiled. Exerting half of his strength was probably the best he could do with these bracelets on. When the others followed suit, only Leo was able to keep his posture straight. Some of the bandits were nearly dragged to the ground from the weight of the metal bracelets.

“Your only task today is to run around this courtyard twenty times. If you can’t finish, don’t worry! We have a section of the manor for anyone who passes out during training. You can start over and try again tomorrow.” Lydia was more than happy to explain.

Just like before, John led the pack to start them off. His pace was moderate and controlled. Leo followed far behind him at a much slower pace. Even an elderly woman walking would be able to keep up with him. However, Leo’s performance was the best out of all the others. They were slower than a crawling baby.

“Keep up the good work, boys. As long as you follow my instructions, becoming as strong as my husband won’t be a dream but a realistic goal!” Lydia encouraged.

“Yes, Boss!” John shouted with the others, soon repeating his words with less vigor.

----------------------------------------

“Don’t be afraid of them. Sure, they got scary faces and harsh mouths, but they won’t do anything they’d regret.” Lydia confidently told the concerned servants. “Now toss them in after you undress them.” She pointed at the large wooden barrels.

The bandits didn’t know, but the water was filled with medical ingredients Lydia bought with their money. Despite the near boiling-hot water, their only solace was that they were allowed to take off the weighed bracelets while in the tub. Of course, as a woman and a married woman, in fact, she would not look at the naked bodies of other men. Lydia already told the servants when the men were allowed to get out.

“I apologize. The Madam said no one is allowed to get out until they’ve stayed in for more than 10 minutes. Might as well wash your bodies after that training.” The male servant advised.

“So, what’s this stuff supposed to do, John?” Leo asked, arms hanging over the barrel.

“From the ingredients I'm seeing, it promotes the body’s natural healing?” John wasn’t completely sure. His wife kept a tight hold over the medical book and the leader book.

John memorized the leader book, but he only had the chance to take quick glances at the medicine one. Ever since Lydia’s illness was cured, it’s like she’s become an entirely different person. She’s become more active, assertive, and confident. As a simple farmer turned bandit, John wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to say that he was falling in love all over again with her. But that was how he felt regarding his wife’s changes. Not to mention how often she’s been initiating their nightly lovemaking. It was rare for John if he managed to sleep at all without being driven to near exhaustion by Lydia. He was embarrassed to withstand the female servants' teasing in the morning because his wife especially loved to use her newfound voice to scream and yell.

“So, we’ll be able to get back to training faster?” Leo didn’t understand.

“In a way, but the real point of it is to help your body recover faster after being brought to its limit. Doing that makes you stronger in less time than you would need to if you tried to train without the medicinal bath.” John explained to everyone.

“How did your wife learn all this, John?” One of the youngest asked.

“She studied books on medicine.”

“Ah! From the Physician!” Another excitedly shouted.

John nodded. The boy wasn’t wrong. They then started going on about his exploits again. It didn’t take long for John to realize that these boys looked up to him as a hero of sorts. To John, this was pretty funny. He was a bandit, not some hero to look up to. The things he’s done are not things to be praised and idolized. Although John felt this way, he also felt a little proud to have people look up to him.

As a farmer, who would ever look up to him? Maybe his son or daughter, but from what he could remember about his childhood. Children were more interested in looking up to the soldiers than their own hard-working fathers. He was the same. What kind of cool stories could be told about a farmer compared to bandits who resemble soldiers in the type of interesting tales that could be told about their adventures?

By the end of the bathing, the servants escorted the bandits out and were told to return early tomorrow morning. Lydia said that no one was coming to get them if they didn’t wake up in the morning. If they missed training, it was on them and no one else. One of the guys asked if they could come even if they were late.

“I have no problem with that, but you’ll have to do more training than the others as punishment for being unable to make it on time,” Lydia responded.

“See you tomorrow, Boss...” One youngster hobbled his way out.

Lydia nodded as the bandits left. She then tackled him into a hug as she looked into his eyes. John already knew what she was looking for by looking at him with her eyes sparkling like that. He rubbed the back of her head as he nodded.

“You did better than what I would’ve done.” John didn’t think it was necessary to say that it was only because he didn’t know as much about medicine as his wife did.

It wasn’t a competition, and he could tell that training them made his wife happy. John doubted he would be anywhere near as happy by training them compared to his wife. It was better to leave stuff in the hands of those who wished to do them especially if they were motivated to do it with everything they had.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Lydia excitedly bounced in his arms, nearly taking him up and down with her. “Oh! That reminds me, I need to check on the beggars to see what information they have for me. I’m not paying them for nothing after all.”

“Beggars?” This was news to John.

“Since you all are going to be busy training for the military on their way, someone needs to keep an eye on Captain Frank, don’t you think?” Lydia reasoned. “Who would be better than people with nothing but time on their hands and are willing to do anything for money? And we got a lot of money thanks to Lord Feedback.”

“That makes sense.” John didn’t disagree.

“I’m glad you think so! Now I'll be off.” Lydia gave John a kiss on the cheek before she left.