By the time night rolled around, Ron could have sworn his body had never before felt so damn tired. His respect for Alice had grown to immense levels just from knowing that she had been training like this since she was but a toddler.

Still, it was a bit embarrassing to know that this new body, one that was only 9 years old and female, was leagues superior to his old body.

As he laid there, pathetically complaining in his own head about all sorts of irrelevant things, he didn't notice as Mr. Unger delivered a cold meal to her before once again sitting at the head of the carriage, whipping the horses to make them start marching.

Ron eventually did notice the food, and when he did, it took very little time for his stomach to remind him just how hungry it was. It doesn't need to be said that the food vanished quite quickly.

Satisfied, albeit still filled with cramps all over his body, Ron threw himself onto the bed with a sigh escaping from his childish lips.

He didn't know why or how he got here, but as each moment passed, it became clearer and clearer that he probably wouldn't find the answers to those questions so easily. Hence, with no other choices left, Ron resigned himself to this new and hopefully better life of his.

"Princess, don't forget to practice your breathing technique before going to sleep!" A shout came from in front of the carriage, and Ron immediately perked up.

"Yes, Mr. Unger! I won't forget!" She promised, and indeed, she immediately and eagerly began to try out this 'breathing technique'.

From the memories he'd inherited from Alice, she'd once seen her father easily smash a large boulder to pieces with a single strike. Then, he'd explained to her about how certain techniques could make her as strong as this, and she'd been fascinated with it ever since.

It also helped that Alice had a natural flair for 'knight techniques' as her father had called them. However, that was in the past.

Ron carefully seated himself cross-legged, only blushing slightly at the feeling of having a new type of genitalia. Forcefully blocking off any and all thoughts related to that can of worms, he instead focused on properly utilizing the breathing technique.

One breath in, two short breaths out. Soon enough, Ron found himself getting more and more comfortable with the technique, actually finding it quite easy. It involved a lot of concentration with his abdominal and hip muscles, as well as proper positioning, however, between it's 'easiness' and Alice's memories, he soon found himself quickly powering through the exercise.

An hour later, he let out the last breath, finally opening his eyes. He'd already been tired beforehand, but now, his entire body just felt numb. It wasn't necessarily a bad feeling, but it was definitely a strange one.

Then, his body decided that since Ron was being an idiot and not properly getting the proper amount of sleep, it more or less shut down on Ron, causing him to fall forward on the pillow, eyes closing and sleep coming to him within mere moments.

The following days were all more or less the same. Wake up, eat, get assigned a certain amount of exercise by Mr. Unger, and then do said exercises. On certain days, they would never even get off the carriage, traveling the entire day. 

A week later, Mr. Unger observed as Ron went through his exercises, his young and undeveloped body glistening with sweat.

When he was finally finished with the last complex sword exercise, which was done with a short wooden training sword, Ron eagerly looked at Mr. Unger, eyes shining in hope.

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The man smiled kindly and gave a few words of praise. "You've improved tremendously in such a short amount of time, princess. Your father would be extremely proud of you."

Seeing the young girl's smile shine even brighter as she ate up all the praise he gave as though it was the sweetest nectar before running off to the carriage, Unger couldn't bring himself to say his true feelings.

Not that they were negative. Far from that, in fact. The girl had always been hailed as somewhat of a genius by her father and all those close to her. However... This wasn't just being a genius. This was actually monstrous.

He had no idea when the change happened, but the princess had gone from a reluctant genius who only trained when she absolutely needed to, to one that trained every moment she could. 

Her inner life force had actually shown signs of awakening today, proving that she was at the cusp of becoming a true knight. While that in itself wouldn't be a huge deal, her age, however, made it a terrifying prospect.

Had he not been absolutely loyal to the Duke, he might have had thoughts of killing her here and there to prevent her from advancing. However, he'd specifically been sent out alone with her exactly because of his loyalty, hence, such thoughts didn't even cross his mind.

Instead, what did make him scratch his head in confusion was that the young princess, who had always been a bit bratty, had suddenly become so obedient and taciturn. Still, this change could only be a welcome one, so all he did about it was shrug his shoulders and carry on his duty as a martial instructor and carriage driver.

Meanwhile, Ron was once again sitting down cross-legged on his bed, peacefully training in his breathing technique. After a long while, he let out the last breath of the technique, wrinkling his little nose at the smell of his body.

Creaking his neck, he enjoyed the feeling of strength within this body. For a man who had always been rather weak and nerdy, this feeling was nothing but ecstatic for him.

Within the first few days in this strange new world, Ron had quickly discovered that he was an absolute training maniac. Perhaps it was Alice's influence on him that made him so, or perhaps the rush akin to that of taking drugs whenever he felt his power increase was responsible. Nevertheless, Ron didn't mind it too much.

He wasn't naive. He knew this world was far crueler than the previous one he was in. It was bound to be, with power being so unevenly distributed. His previous world had already been extremely unfair, but in a world where certain people could crush millions with a flick of their finger? Yeah, it was a complete law of the jungle hellhole.

Still, he wasn't discouraged. He wasn't happy about it either, but at least he was luckier than 99.99% of the population, getting the chance to train in such strange yet powerful techniques, and being delivered over to some even stranger and more powerful people.

Thinking so, he couldn't help but silently clutch the necklace on his neck. Alice's father had ordered her... him... to keep it on at all times and to never, ever, lose it. Alice hadn't disobeyed, and neither would Ron.

The next morning, Unger stopped the carriage at the side of the road and allowed Ron to step outside. They ate together in relatively peaceful silence before it was broken by Unger's sudden words.

"We will arrive within the month. However, we are still two months early compared to when we need to be there." He gave a pointed look at the attentive and obedient princess who was seated cross-legged in front of him.

"It won't be long before you awaken your inner energy and become an official knight. However, even when you do, you must never slack off! Those lords to whom we're going are not like us mortals. Even your father, a grand knight, can only tremble before them." He explained, his voice slow and smooth.

Ron nodded along, already aware of this information. Alice's father hadn't just trained her in the martial arts, but also in culture, history, and everything else useful to nobles, which included information about magi.

"You must learn properly there, and become someone who can truly call herself strong. What you're doing now is peanuts compared to what you will be doing there... not that I can tell you the specifics. I'm just as ignorant as you are on this." At this, the man revealed a bitter smile, and yet, his eyes never lost their shine.

Ron bit his lips at yet another female pronoun coming from Unger but didn't say anything. He wasn't willing to risk making himself seem suspicious at such a crucial moment for something as measly as gender pronouns.

"I will try my best..." Ron murmured, his high-pitched voice that was a mixture of girly and childish sending cold shivers running down his spine.

Unger nodded with a small smile before his harsh expression returned once more. "Good. That is all I ask... Not! Go do your daily repetitions, and don't you dare slack off!"

"Y-yes!" Ron bobbed his head up and down, eyes wide at the sudden change of tone. Without a moment of delay, he bravely ran away (but not too far) and started doing squats and push-ups.

Unger snorted silently, shaking his head. "Kids these days, I swear." He mumbled with a pleased smile on his lips.