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“Wonderful! Happy to have you on board!” I exclaimed with a grin, offering my hand.

She looked at it dubiously.

“Handshake! Just take my hand and shake it. I heard they do when doing contracts or oaths,” I told her.

She leaned over from the bed and grasped my hand.

“Good! From now on you’ll be my disciple,” I told her. “I have no idea what they do with teachers and students outside, since I only ever trained with a lanista; and to be honest, I don’t care. What I do care about is that you follow my instructions for things relating to your training. For the rest, just do what you want and treat me normally. Got that?”

She nodded.

"During training, you’ll have to answer with a ‘Yes!’. Though it would be nice if you be more outspoken even outside of it," I informed her.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t have cared to make it a rule, but I wanted her to start talking more. It would do her good, I believed.

“Yes,” she said, a bit too quietly.

Mm, we’ll get there with time.

“Well then, for now, let’s keep touring the city. We also have clothes to buy… those are a gift, by the way,” I told her with a grin, standing up. We could start counting after that.

She nodded, standing up to follow me.

We then spent the day touring around the city and bought a set of clothes for both of us.

I also bought her a comb. All girls I met until now had always fussed about their hair and while she didn’t seem to put much importance to it, I didn’t know if it was because she truly wasn’t interested, or she never had the leisure to take care of it. Knowing her, she also wouldn’t ask for anything until prompted.

Mm, I should ask a woman about what to buy. Maybe she’ll gradually get into it now that she’s out of slavery, I thought as we made our way back to the inn.

That evening, we also told Zeph about Freya’s decision. He didn’t say anything, despite our disagreements. He suggested, though, that I write an informal contract, so we could be clear on our roles and avoid any misunderstanding if we misremember things years later. Not only that, but he also suggested we keep track of the money separately.

I hadn’t thought about it before, but since what he said made some sense, I told him I’d give it a thought. Right now, we were still traveling with him, and he paid for most things. Freya training would also not need much money in the beginning, so we could postpone it for later. While we agreed that she would pay me for everything I spent on her, I didn’t want to spend money recklessly.

I also planned to tell her exactly when and why I spent money on her and maybe, following Zeph’s advice, make her write down the expenses too. From what I heard, it was common for relationships to sour because of money, so I wanted to keep everything clear between us.

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The following morning I got up early, as usual, and also woke Freya.

Despite having rested for just a day, I decided to start her training right away. I would let her rest some a few more days before we started traveling again; now it was better to use the time we had as well as we could.

I just planned something light at first anyway. She just had to run and do some basic exercises to build some stamina, strength, and flexibility.

I could also start doing heavy training from the beginning without care for the damage to her body and then bring her to a Healer, but other than being too costly, it was also harmful to her mind. Training was also an exercise of the mind other than the body, and going too hard too soon would only break her will.

The more her willpower lasted, the less I had to… force her. I didn’t mind using the method with which they taught me in the beginning, since it was effective, but if she could go on by herself it would be better.

In the following days, I varied the intensity and duration, alternating a day with light exercise with a heavy one.

While she was in the inn resting, in the meantime I searched the city for places equipped for heavier training. I soon found out that only big guilds had them. Old man Markus told me that the Explorer Guild had a training area behind the guild free to use for members. It went inside the hill, but he told me it was spacious and well-illuminated with all the equipment I would need. It seems I could use it too, though I had to pay for access.

I chose to wait and see if I could find a cheaper place. In the meantime, I kept training with my mana and having longer sessions of meditation. I always dedicated some time to it after every training session, since in my opinion it was an extremely important practice — I never forgot it was during meditation that I felt mana for the first time. There wasn't any obvious effect in these few months, but I kept at it anyway.

I also planned to teach it to Freya after she got a bit used to the training.

Time flowed in tranquility after we entered the city. It was maybe the first time of true relaxation I ever had in my life since I was sold to slavery.

One evening, nearly a week later, I was drinking with Zeph in the restaurant of the inn while letting my thoughts wander. Freya was already resting in the room.

I kept waking her up before dawn and, on the days with heavy training, like today, I also had an afternoon session, so it was normal for her to feel like a rag in the evening.

It will also take time for her to adapt to the high intensity of the exercises.

Despite the short time, these few days of training gave me a good feeling though; she had never complained once and always worked hard. While she had always been like that even while we traveled, it was nice to see her willpower was good enough to keep at it even during training.

She should be more confident in herself, I thought while I looked around the room.

There was a Bard singing at the back, just loud enough to be heard over the noise of the other guest chatter. It wasn’t a good song in my opinion, so I just let it fade in the background.

Zeph and I weren’t talking. We never talked too much unless we were discussing something about our voyage. We chatted a bit during the dinner about what happened during the day and how we found the city, but other than that not much was said. There wasn’t anything interesting about my past, so unless he wanted a detailed recounting of my training and fights, I had nothing else to share.

Zeph kept his mouth shut too, probably thinking it was better just in case he let something slip accidentally; or maybe it was just his character. It was hard to get to know someone when he hid so much. He was also seemingly busy thinking about the travel and his problems.

That was why we often just passed the time in silence.

When we were like that, and I wasn’t lost in thought, I sometimes listened to the conversations at nearby tables. It was good to know what people talked about in everyday life.

Interaction between normal people was often different from how things were at the gladiator school; while I knew theoretically how people reacted to some topics, knowing and experiencing were different things. I believed I could read people’s emotions well, but I often found it hard to pinpoint exactly what caused them — I still needed time to adapt.

Time trickled away as we drank, and people started leaving.

It was about time we left too when Zeph spoke. “Silvester.”

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