Author's note: I'll probably post an extra chapter today (in a couple of hours) as well.
The next day Quin felt that his leg has already improved quite a bit. Though it still hurt when he shifted his weight on it, he could mostly walk normally. Thus his friends did not notice it, making him happy that he did not have to tell them about his accident, because he still felt a bit embarrassed about it.
Soon they arrived to the school and prepared for the training class. Although Quin has been told to rest his foot, he thought that doing the morning exercises leisurely would not hurt that much, so he joined the other students as well.
When they were about to start, suddenly the Instructor’s loud voice rang out.
“Hey! What are you doing there?” he yelled at the crowd and the children were looking, who was the Instructor speaking to. “You’re off of the morning training for this entire week!”
“M-Me?” Seeing that he is probably talking to him, Quin was entirely shocked and a bit scared as well.
“Who else do you think I’m looking at? Go and sit down there!” he answered and told Quin to sit down on a nearby bench.
While he was walking toward the bench, the kids began to mumble about what happened.
“What? Why is he getting a week off? I’m always in front him at the end!” Several of them felt jealous about Quin’s exemption and started complaining.
“Heh? So what? Who do you think I am that I need to explain my decisions?!” The Instructor seemed fairly angry now and his shout became even louder than before. “So do you think I’m showing favor? Let me reassure you idiots it’s not like that! He’s got his damn leg injured, I saw him yesterday that he was only able to walk with his friends’ help. And what did he do today? Did he ask me to allow him skip the training class, or did he whine about it? No, he got in line and would’ve started it with you. You know kids, though it’s utter stupidity, he at least got the determination in contrast with you!
“You’re saying that your current results are better, huh? So what? You’re at most seven years old, even if you were lucky to born with strength, what good does it have if you slack off? Do you think just that, or the regular training classes will be enough? Let me give you the short answer: no! After a couple of years, someone with even just average strength, but with great dedication can easily overcome you. Instead of complaining, you should take example of him. Everyday, after school I see him staying here, and doing extra training for couple of hours. Essentially he’s doing twice the amount of training you do and without whining and complaining like you! At least he’s somebody who have realized the magnitude of the threat we are against, and then decided to do what he can!” the Instructor basically yelled his whole speak without even stopping or taking a breath. It was indeed a strange and somewhat terrifying sight, a few kids even wet themselves.
“You kids, can really piss me off sometimes.“ He sighed and then told them to start the class.
Quin felt a mixture of emotions at this. Naturally hearing someone praising him, especially it being his strict instructor, made him rather happy and proud. Then again, it was quite a bit awkward, and he was slightly afraid that several of his classmates will blame him for the Instructor’s rage.
The whole day he felt that all eyes were on him, but nothing noteworthy happened in the end. In truth though the other kids felt jealousy and anger towards him at first, the Instructor’s speech was quite effective on the majority of them. It made them realize that instead of complaining they should rather take example of him.
Naturally though, his friends being worried about him, asked what had actually happened to him, so he told them the story, while obviously leaving some details out.
After school ended, he stayed in for a bit to look for Leyn, to thank her again as his leg felt significantly better. He even thought this was some kind of miracle medicine, due to it healing his injury so fast.
They talked for a bit, but not wanting to waste the girl’s training time and also having his own things to do, Quin left after a while.
After leaving his school bag and other unimportant things at his house, he left for the local library.
Being at the library and surrounded by books he felt great, like he was able to access any kind of knowledge in an instant by taking a book out of its shelf and reading it. He skimmed the contents of quite a few books, however unfortunately he did not find what he was looking for. Most of them were for adults and teenagers, who had already established their core.
Not seeing any other options, he went to the counter where a middle aged man was standing.
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“Excuse me, could you help me?” Quin asked. “I have been searching for some books but I was not able to find any.”
“And what could those books be you’re searching for? I hope you know that our collections of children’s tale books is meager?” the man said, his face barely showing any kinds of expressions.
“Uhm, no, I am not talking about those,” Quin answered a bit confused. “What I have been searching for is books about training, but for children at my age.”
“Oh, interesting. Let me see... “ he scratched his goatee. ”You should be around seven years old, right?”
“Yes, I will be seven, in about a month,” Quin replied.
“That’s a tough question, honestly I don’t really think there’s much of a chance to find a book like that,” he explained. “Give me a moment though, I’ll check it,” he said. His eyes started to shine with a strange golden light and his head became barely visible, only blurring movements could be seen.
“Well, it’s a shame, but we don’t seem to have any training books for your age,” he said. “There are only for children at the age of twelve and above. Although I suggest that you speak with one of your teachers, especially with your training class instructor, as they should be pretty knowledgeable about the topic. Furthermore, I do think that they will also have a greater insight on it, than you could get from books,” he explained plainly.
“Yes, thank you for your help!” Although he was not successful this time either, at least he got a good suggestion from the librarian, so he was not that disappointed. Actually he himself did not even know, why he has not tried asking somebody like his instructor for advice yet. It was so obvious to do that, but somehow it eluded his mind.
Finishing in the library, he went home and decided that today would still be a day for resting, leaving out even minor exercises. He also thought about what he should do tomorrow and how he should ask his instructor. Though his instructor was a rather scary man, after hearing him praising him, Quin guessed that there will be not many problems with it.
The next day when the others begin to run on the track, Quin gathered his courage and walked to his teacher.
“Excuse me sir,” Quin asked a bit timidly.
“Hmm, what is it?” the Instructor answered.
“T-Two days ago, they told me that I hurt my leg because it seems I overexerted myself, and I was doing my whole extra training bad... So what I wanted to ask is:” Quin took a deep breath. “That if you could please help me making a new, proper training plan, as I couldn’t come up with any.”
“Haha, yeah I know,” he replied. “I saw you on the track each day and was always sighing to myself, how ineffective you are.” He laughed for several seconds before he started speaking again, “You don’t have to get that confused.” Seeing Quin’s puzzled expression he said, ”I knew that you wouldn’t get any serious injuries, but I found that learning from one’s own experience is more profitable than just doing it because you’ve been told so. You know, I had told people what to do and how to avoid mistakes so many times, just to have it fall on empty ears. In contrast, after they’ve experienced it personally, only the dumbest ones couldn’t recognize it.” He gave a small sigh finishing it.
“Alright, we’ll have to check your strength, stamina and overall performance to determine what kinds of, and what amount of exercises will have the best results for you. Although I can gauge these mostly, but I don’t like to do things half-assedly, so we have to use different machines for getting exact results. Let’s see... Obviously this week is out, so how about Tuesday next week? After school go to the training facility, and wait for me. I should be there not much after that.”
“Yes, thank you sir!” Quin was grateful for his help and happy that he would finally have the proper plans for his training.
In the following couple of days he still rested, but at home he also did some minor exercises like sit ups, which did not burden his leg. Obviously he did not do much of them, as he was not focused on getting great results but on trying to stay in shape at the least.
He also accompanied his trio of friends when walking home after the school, and also had some time to play with them.
His remaining time was spent mainly in the library. Last time he went there, although he could not find what he was looking for, he did find numerous books which piqued his interest.
Having been spending most of his free time on extra training in the last couple of weeks, he could truly enjoy this small break. Nonetheless the thing which even surprised himself, was that his urge to go back to the daily training increased day by day.