Leonidas’ eyes flashed open. Even though hints of fatigue still fogged his mind, he didn’t hesitate for a moment before he pushed himself off from his lower bunk bed.
After the nonsense he went through with Alfan, Leonidas had swapped the sheets on the bottom and top beds and now always woke up an hour before he had to.
Since Leonidas had come here, it had already been two weeks. By now, his routine was set in stone and he didn’t deviate from it even the slightest bit.
The first thing Leonidas did after waking up was head to the Clergymen’s training room. It was a large indoor facility with a 400 meter track.
Though it had size to it, the facilities themselves were quite shabby. The track was nothing more than a dirt road and the only weights were the various sized stones and boulders that took up its center. However, Leonidas didn’t complain.
When he first started, he could only walk around the track until it was time for him to shower and head to the stables.
For Leonidas, just this act was hard enough. He tried to push the pace as fast as he could, but as one might expect, his stamina wasn’t the best. But, as Leonidas ate more and more food over the days, his bodily fitness was becoming better.
Thanks to Yves’ Blessing giving him a small benefit as a member of the Half-Beasts, Leonidas' recovery was faster than it should be, allowing his body to progress quicker than he would anywhere else.
After just two weeks, Leonidas managed to work his way up to a light jog.
Plumes of dirt kicked up as his heavy steps crashed into the ground. By the end of his second lap, he was already too tired to keep holding his tail up, so though he hated to do so, he let it drag along the ground, slowing him further.
Several minutes later, Leonidas collapsed into the central space within the track, his heart threatening to rip out from his chest. He always completed these workouts with nothing but a small cloth around his lower half, so one could quite literally see his heart thrumming at an alarming rate.
Leonidas couldn’t hold on anymore and directly passed out.
By now, he was used to this. He always pushed himself too far. It was just five or so laps around the track, yet he had smashed against a wall he couldn’t push past.
Leonidas eventually awoke to a face full of dirt. But, he pushed himself up as though nothing at all had happened.
He walked steadily to the stones. Wrapping his tail around one that weighed about 100 kilograms, he clenched his fists, lifting it up for as high and as long as he could. As he did so, he tried to walk around normally, trying to acclimate his body to greater weight.
Leonidas had learned very valuable things in the library.
The first thing he learned that completely changed his mindset was that muscles had to be torn to grow stronger. He had always thought that pain was his body saying ‘no more’. As such, he had always tried his best not to push himself too much.
Little did he know that this was his ignorance at play. If he ever wanted his flesh to have a chance to at least allow him to walk without wheezing, ‘taking it easy’ wasn’t the right approach.
In fact, for Leonidas, there was no better place to push his body past its limits. Thanks to Yves’ Blessing, he could go even further than most could.
The second valuable thing Leonidas learned was the value of recovery and food.
As important as it was to bring his body past its limits, if he never let it rest, he would see no results. Due to this, Leonidas realized the value of sleep and eating his full. The latter was always something he would do as long as he had the opportunity. However, the former was definitely something he had neglected.
According to Leonidas’ testing, thanks to Yves Blessing, he only needed four hours of sleep a night to reach his body’s optimal range. As such, he refused to get any less than this.
In addition, Leonidas made sure to never miss his three meals a day, even if it meant leaving the stables for a moment to return later. Since no one had reprimanded him for doing this, he had no intention of stopping.
The third piece of valuable information Leonidas learned was the value of stretching and his body’s alignment.
After years of walking around with a slouched back due to no fault of his own, it was safe to say that Leonidas’ spinal alignment was in terrible shape. This would make his overall performance suffer, not to mention lead to terrible pain the older he got.
Though Leonidas knew this, he couldn’t just magically start walking with a straight back now. Even trying to lessen his slouch a bit caused his back muscles to scream after just a few minutes. But, he did his best, making slow progress day after day.
After another half an hour of exercise, Leonidas began his daily stretches. He had read that it was better to do his stretches after a workout of heavy lifting as opposed to before. Making the muscles too limber before undergoing large movement could lead to injury.
So, Leonidas did dynamic stretches before beginning his run and saved the more intensive static stretches for the very end.
Once he was done, he thoroughly cleaned himself as he always did, gouged himself on breakfast before anyone else reached the dining area, and finally headed to the stables as he always did.
However, what was unlike Leonidas’ usual experience was that the stable wasn’t empty today. No, it was more accurate to say that there was a person here other than the usual caretakers and squires Leonidas was used to running into.
A woman who was approaching her middle ages stood petting the neck of a sturdy, black steed.
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Sensing the appearance of someone, she looked over, raising an eyebrow when she noticed Leonidas’ tail.
“Are you a new caretaker?”
Though the question the woman asked was benign and Leonidas didn’t feel that she had any ill intent, his heart still skipped a beat. It wasn’t because of her beauty, though she did look quite good given her age. Rather, it was because of her strength.
After Father Barat, this was the second person Leonidas had met that made his spine tingle with their presence alone.
Leonidas didn’t know if it was from his mother’s or father’s side, but he definitely had a keen feeling for power. It might have been because beasts, and even Half-Beasts, were especially sensitive to hierarchy. Leonidas knew this clearly, but maybe he just didn’t want to admit that the reason he picked up on these things was just another reminder of his inferiority.
The middle aged woman had short-cut blond hair and wore tight fitting cargo pants along with leather armor that clung to her torso. Her chest wasn’t large and could even be said to be quite flat, but her legs were long and toned, hiding a deep strength within and her hips were exceptionally wide given her proportions, making one wonder just what the back view was like.
Still, even though her greeting was without separation of hierarchy, this seemed to make one realize how much lesser you were than her. She had an inborn superiority that couldn’t be hidden with just a modicum of modesty.
“Sorry, no. I am a Clergyman who has been tasked with cleaning the stables. The caretakers should be here in an hour or two.” Leonidas explained.
As everyone was, the middle-aged woman displayed a hint of surprise upon hearing Leonidas' deep voice, but thought nothing of it beyond this.
“I see. It seems that I’ve come too early, then.” The middle-aged woman nodded.
The middle aged woman seemed to be fairly undisturbed by all of this as though whether things worked out or not was all meaningless to her.
Leonidas opened his mouth to ask a question. But in the end, he sighed and shook his head. No matter how amiable a person seemed, it was best not to push his luck.
Even if a household treated their slaves with respect, that didn’t mean they’d allow said slaves to eat dinner at the same table as them. Satisfying his curiosity wasn’t worth the risk of offending someone he shouldn’t when he still had to worry about Gauteron finding him every day. Accepting niceties when it was given without overstepping your bounds was something every person of low standing had to learn, lest they shorten their own life spans.
Without a word, Leonidas got to work, starting from the back-most stalls and working his way up. He found that as the days passed and his body became sturdier, he managed to finish his task faster and faster. So, he was eager to see if he could break his record today.
Over a week ago, he remembered overhearing that the stables was a terrible chore not just because of the piles of shit, but also because the horses were quite vicious. After all, they were creatures of war.
However, Leonidas never had a horse lash out at him. It might have been because he was Half-Beast, making them docile. Or, maybe there was another reason he didn’t know. There was only one exception to this, and that happened to be the very horse the middle-aged lady still stood before.
Though that horse had never harmed Leonidas, it did have some odd cues that made it seem like it might lash out at any moment. So, Leonidas was already very cautious around it.
Several minutes later, while Leonidas was beginning to work on his third stall, a second unexpected visitor came by.
“Auntie! Did you find out what was wrong with Drizzle?”
A young man jogged into the stables, wearing a similar military uniform to his aunt. Though he was obviously much younger and still in his teenage years, he was already a head taller than his aunt and had the same short cut hair.
The middle-aged woman smiled lightly. “Not yet, the caretakers have yet to arrive.”
The young man frowned. Looking around, he spotted Leonidas. But, seeing that he was diligently clearing away horse shit, he concluded that Leonidas must be a Clergyman. Reaching that point, he didn’t give the rest much thought.
“What are we paying those caretakers for if they can’t even arrive in a timely fashion when they’re needed? It shouldn’t have even been us who realized there was a problem first.”
The young man was peeved. Though it was quite early in the morning and not yet time for the caretakers to come in, he was right about the fact that they should have spotted the problem long ago. The true owners of these steeds were rarely here to begin with. It was the job of the caretakers to ensure that the horses remained in top condition.
This, of course, had nothing to do with Leonidas. At most, he would help the caretakers fill the horse feed sometimes, but that was as far as his direct relationship with these horses went.
“Hold on, Auntie. You shouldn’t have to wait here. I’ll drag them out of bed if I have to!”
After saying these words, the young man stormed off. His aunt seemed to want to say something to stop him. But, in the end, her nephew had moved too quickly. She could only chuckle and shake her head.
Not more than ten minutes later, as Leonidas started on his seventh stall, the young man came back wearing an unhappy expression. To his back, a half-dressed, partially balding man who was clearly two sizes too big for the outfit he was trying to put on stumbled after him.
The slightly overweight caretaker stumbled in, wiping at his sweat with a handkerchief.
“Lady Eve, Sir Manfroi, this lowly caretaker greets you both. What seems to be the problem?”
Manfroi didn’t seem to be impressed by the caretaker’s politeness. He was already annoyed that he had to run around like this with his status, he obviously wasn’t going to be impressed by someone treating him with the respect he deserved.
“My aunt’s horse has been acting out of character for several days now. Why is it that she had to be the one to report this? And why hasn’t the issue been addressed yet? Are you even doing your job?!”
As much as the fat caretaker was sweating before, when he heard these words, his body practically needed its own bucket.
“This… I…”
“This? I? That’s your response?!”
The caretaker was at a loss. Looking at the stall the middle-aged woman was standing before, he felt like passing out.
All the horses in this place were important, but there were certain marked stalls that had horses that needed to be given extra care and attention to. Lady Eve’s horse was definitely one of them.
Unlike the others here, Lady Eve’s family could definitely afford to have a stable of its own just like Gauteron could. The issue was that Lady Eve wasn’t the head of the family, her brother was. Due to some strain in their relationship, Lady Eve preferred to keep her treasured horse here.
Lady Eve had always had just a single horse, but her previous one was put down due to old age and she recently transferred to this one. Since she was still bonding with this horse, she visited once every few weeks to ensure that their relationship solidified. Of course, she only left the horse here after spending several weeks with it first.
For something to happen to this horse of all nearly 200 there were here, how bad was his luck? And of all the caretakers, this brat actually had to find him first? Where was the justice?!
The caretaker’s eyes spun, not knowing what to do.
Tell them what was wrong with the horse? What a joke, he hadn’t even known there was something wrong with it to begin with!
It was only when he was searching for a last straw to grasp at that the caretaker noticed that there was a fourth person here. It was just that unlike others who liked to watch drama unfold, Leonidas kept his head down from start to finish, making it even more difficult for the caretaker to notice him.
Still, Leonidas was eventually found. The moment the caretaker saw Leonidas, as though a person who found a lifesaving grace, his eyes lit up!
“BOY!”
Leonidas, who had shut himself in his own world, didn’t even notice that he was this ‘boy’ that was being called.
When he looked up, he found the ‘enraged’ glare of the caretaker having locked onto him, making him furrow his brows in confusion.
“You’re the one who handled the feed for this mare! Didn’t I tell you to be careful?! What did I say no less than three times? Wash that horse shit off of yourself before you handle the feed! Don’t you know how bad it would be for a high-class steed to ingest its own feces?!”