"I'd say, that's the last thing you should feel bad about, you lost against a god after all, what did you expect?" Alex omitted the part about him almost losing.

'But hey, I wouldn't lose now!' Alex made up excuses to justify his loss.

"By the way, what's the competition?" Alex wished to know how many candidates the prince was up against.

"We're about 2000 legitimate children...."

"!!!!!!"

"How does that even happen?!" Alex exclaimed.

"Well, all the Brahmin families rushed to marry their daughters to Father when he attained godhood, and with 150 years of rule, you can imagine how many that meant." Aadityapal nonchalantly answered.

'Da*mn'

Alex averted his eyes and an awkward silence filled the courtyard.

There was nothing much Alex could say, and words wouldn't help his situation anyways.

However, Alex perceived something strange.

When he looked at the prince's sword on the grass, his observation skills from Hephaestus passively came into play.

'That structure is strange....' Alex grabbed the sword and examined it up close.

The way the metal was folded upon itself made the sword sturdy and sharp, and it was a miraculous feat of metalworking.

"Hephaestus never used this technique..." Alex spoke out loud.

"Aadityapal, are there any expert forgers around?" He asked this question out of the blue.

He was extremely curious about this marvelous and unknown technique and wished to learn more and augment his forging skills.

Aadityapal seemed confused but he nodded and replied, "There should be some master blacksmiths in the palace itself, why do you ask?"

Alex didn't reply but instead kept a passionate stare upon the sword.

"I need to learn from them."

Aadityapal stayed silent for a dozen seconds or so and then proposed, "How about....you train me and I introduce you to the best forgers? I am friends with many of them."

'Shameless.' Alex instantly remarked.

"Deal." He immediately agreed, as his curiosity and passion for learning more overwhelmed his self-control.

He had to thank both Athena and Hephaestus for that...

Aadityapal suddenly burst into happy laughter and a few tears streamed down his face.

Unknowingly to Alex, one of his abilities, 'Empathy', activated itself passively and he began to feel the emotions of the prince distinctly.

'Frustration....a lot of it.....sadness....depression...shame and....relief?' Alex strongly felt those respective emotions and started understanding the prince's predicament.

If earlier, he only agreed to help the prince to further his own skills, now, he would have agreed even without remuneration.

"Hermes said to not cause any trouble, this isn't trouble, right?" Alex murmured under this breath.

Meanwhile, Aadityapal was sobbing endlessly.

This continued for a short while after which, he wiped his tears and recovered his composure.

"Well, do you wish to train now?" Alex asked the tearful prince.

Aadityapal strongly nodded and stood up.

He then clenched his fists and Alex even saw a stream of blood coming down from his palm.

'He clenched his fist so hard his nails dug into his skin....' Alex gulped.

___________________________

"Now, come at me, no swords, nothing, just your limbs, and skills." Alex ordered his 'disciple'.

Accordingly, Aadityapal charged at him with the highest speed he could muster.

Unfortunately, that speed was akin to a snail's pace in Alex's eyes, and he simply slapped the latter's chest.

*BAM*

The prince was thrown onto the walls surrounding the courtyard, and Alex placed a hand upon his mouth.

'Did I hit him too hard? I should have controlled my strength more....'

Fortunately, Aadityapal was not dead, and his body slid down the wall and fell onto the shallow pond.

Alex thought the prince fainted but to his surprise, Aadityapal stood, drenched from top to toe and with an insane level of determination in his eyes.

He then charged at Alex and was similarly incapacitated.

The prince then stood up again and continued this one-sided massacre.

'Such a main character....' Alex remarked every time the prince stood back up.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't learn anything from being beaten up, hence Alex changed his approach.

"Your posture is wrong and restricts your range of motion, and your legs, which are the center point of your stability, are placed in such a way that it is very easy to throw you off balance." Alex listed out all of the flaws he saw in the prince's movement.

Aadityapal nodded, and surprisingly, without any guidance from Alex, began testing out different postures on his own.

After a while of this self-teaching, he charged at Alex again.

Unfortunately, the difference in strength was too great, and the prince immediately lost.

However, Alex noted that the latter's body didn't fly like a ragdoll as it usually did, and instead, he kept his balance and got back on his feet as soon as he landed.

"Great work!"

"Now, fix the way you move your arms, which will not allow you to express your full strength." This time, Alex gave him solid advice and actually instructed him.

It was now nighttime.

After a few rounds of fighting and guidance, the prince seemed exhausted.

He was going to leave the courtyard, but Alex halted his passage.

"After an intense round of exercise, you need to stretch to reap the full benefits." Alex was now going to steal from his own world's advancements in exercise and science.

Aadityapal scoffed but he didn't object to it.

Following that, Alex subjected the prince to a series of core-strengthening exercises and stretches that will massively increase his range of motion.

'Is this what Athena feels like while training me?' Alex realized how annoying he probably was to Athena, who must have looked to him like a total beginner who made stupid mistakes.

"I wonder how Athena is doing...?" Alex spoke out loud in a monologue manner.

"Master, can I go to eat now?" Aadityapal started referring to him as 'Master'.

"Yeah, of course, eat well and sleep well, without those two, you will never improve."

Aadityapal nodded fervently and left the courtyard after bowing deeply to him.

It was at that moment, that Alex realized...

"Where should I go now?!"

Suddenly, the sound of laughter could be heard in the courtyard.

Alex turned around.

There was a mustached man who was illuminated by the moonlight. It was Ashoka.

He stated, "I didn't realize you were the man Bodhisattva Padmapani always spoke to me about."

"Thanks for training Aadityapal, he's a good son."