"All right. Let's start with ten laps around the castle as a warmup."

This is all the time I get to think before the Captain barks her orders.

And she says castle but means the entire lake.

Thank God she doesn't start with mock combat or something difficult.

As cute as these girls look, they can mop the floor with me.

This simple run should let me keep my dignity.

I'm good at running from bullies so I look forward to proving myself. But ten laps?

Each must be a mile, and the girls don't even flinch.

Half of them wear full-plate armor, but they're fast.

"Hmpf. I could have done this back home too." The pink-skinned stranger rolls her eyes.

She's another tsundere, so she's important, but her name didn't appear in the last episode.

I can't keep up the pace with her regardless. When the Knights take us over the second time, I realize the real difference. Even in full armor, they aren't jogging. They're sprinting.

"Are you kidding?" Did I overestimate my capabilities?

This is a manga after all.

Even the weakest Knight is beyond my reach, so no wonder Aratsuki said I'll be stuck here forever.

No real human can measure up to their speed or strength, and the Princess Knight is still above them. It must be the anime logic because no amount of workout should make them this fast.

"Keep going, you're not even halfway there." Their mockery doesn't help.

They all say something when they pass me and it's like salt into injury. Or is it only me?

"You can do it."

They might mean it as encouragement but it's too humiliating.

The armor they carry is an extra thirty pounds on their lithe bodies.

I can't comprehend how they are this fast.

And speed isn't the only issue. By the end of my second lap, my lungs are on fire.

Saying that I'm out of shape is an understatement. And Nekotoro pretends she doesn't see it.

"Pick up the pace, this is only the warm-up. I have much more planned before the lectures start. Don't piss me off." The Captain shouts at the girls, urging them to run faster. She's nuts.

They're already way faster than me, but she won't use the same tone when I pass her.

I'm trying my best, but I could be swimming too, I'm sweating so much already.

PE classes were simpler. Well, of course, because nobody cared.

We usually played some games or hid behind the building, cheating the entire thing.

In my case, it was the latter, since the jocks and football players didn't let anyone join them.

I watched them with envy, but now I wish I could hide behind the castle.

The morning cold is the only thing that keeps me alive, but I'm already thinking about jumping into the lake. My skin feels so hot, it would sizzle in the cold water.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Come on, Odysseus, don't let me down." This is the first time the Captain yells at me. She has this crazy glint in her eyes when she looks at her Knights, but now I only see disappointment.

"I told everyone how promising you are. Show me what you're made of." She has more time to talk to me than with the girls since I'm that much slower. What I'm made of?

I'm a real human made of flesh, not by a few pen strokes.

Real physics applies to this body, but there's no air to talk back and complain.

I clench my jaw and try my best to avoid passing out.

At least until I'm out of her sight.

Fuck. I'm a brain-over-brawn guy and even held it back so bullies wouldn't find me.

These anime waifus are more overpowered than usual.

"Go, go. Get up to speed." My plan goes out the window when Nekotoro decides to escort and cheer me on. Without the armor, she's almost faster than light. It's ridiculous.

She runs in a zigzag pattern, back and forth as if that could encourage me.

My air supply isn't enough to yell at her, I can't even whisper now, and each step is hell. I'm pathetic.

In my fifth lap, even the pink-skinned girl overtakes me.

Her face looks red from the strain but she has a smug grin.

Well, it's still better than saying something humiliating like 'You can do it'.

On the sixth, my lungs burn, and I'm about to collapse, but Aratsuki joins in too.

She didn't run with us from the start. She was busy talking with the Captain, and I can guess what it was about.

"Get yourself together, Max. Make up for the embarrassment you put me through earlier."

Her eyes have a deadly glint, and my survival instinct carries me for another lap.

The others are already finished, and the best I can do is not throw up when I collapse.

My heart is in my throat, my brain melts, and my eyelids are too heavy.

They yell something but I can't hear it through the drums in my ears. Am I this pathetic?

And I lied that I must get stronger than Aratsuki to clear the trigger. I'm an idiot. It's impossible.

But what are the odds, that she would fall for a weakling like me?

Living in this fantasy world seemed like fun, but reality slaps me in the face.

What was I thinking?

Even regular people bullied me in the real world.

I was at the bottom of the food chain, a nobody, an orphan no one wanted.

Here, I must be weaker than a rabbit or a mouse.

Their voices are closer, but I can't open my eyes anymore.

Everything is getting duller, quieter, and darker. The most I can do is turn my head so I don't lick the dust, trying to breathe.

Let's hope they realize I'm not up for this training, and let me hide in a corner until the end of my days. But their last words tell me a different story.