“Okay, to know how to fight and be good at it, you first need to know what you are good at. Try some of these training weapons and pick whatever feels good to you. You should have one main weapon and a backup weapon. We can test your aptitude for magic later at the mages’ tower.” Lined up on several racks are weighted wooden mock-ups of various weapons ranging from daggers and shields to clubs and flails.

After our meal in the kitchens, I make quick work of cleaning up the dishes and took Nathan, Serina, and Riley back to the training grounds. Edith decided to tag along despite being full red in the face and is sitting next to me on a bench. I sincerely hope that a bug isn’t being passed around the castle. It’d be horrible if everybody got sick. I should be fine though, Bill said something about idiots and an inability to get sick. They’ll be fine. Oh, and Hotdog is sitting under a bench in the shade to watch.

“Hey, Bob.” Nathan calls out to me.

“Yeah?”

“I’m a bit weak so what would you recommend?”

“Well, you’re also fairly fast, right? You should make use of that so I’d say daggers or a short sword would be good for you. You can just dodge attacks while closing distance to counter. If you happen to have good magical abilities, maybe you could mix that into your attacks.”

“Thanks Bob. I think I’ll pick the short sword as my main weapon and have the daggers on standby.” Picking up the wooden counterparts, he turns to his companions and asks, “Are you two ready?”

““Yes,”” the two chorused.

Serina chose a bow and rapier for her two weapons; it compliments her grace and confidence well. Next to her, Riley is holding a hand axe and flail… I think it’s scary how the calmer one chose weapons the most opposite of what I was expecting. Well, it’s not like I’m in a position to say no. We’ll just see how they perform with it for now and make adjustments as we go along.

“Now that you all have your weapons, I want you to get accustomed to their weight and feel. Here, have a couple swings at these earthen dummies.” With a wave of my hand, I erect three rock hard figures spaced far enough that my trainees wouldn’t be able to hurt each other on accident.

“Wha~? How’d you do that?”

“What do you mean, ‘How’d you do that?’? It’s magic, nothing that great. Even Edith here can use magic, wind and water magic to be exact. Enough of that for now. You’ll have plenty of time to play with magic at the mage’s tower.” Honestly, I’d thought that Nathan would have gotten used to this world by now. He’s got a good head on his shoulders but it’s full of fluff it seems.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Try hitting the earthen dummies.” The first to start is Serina with her rapier, followed by Riley who alternates swings with her flail and axe, and lastly by Nathan with his short sword.

Hmm… they’ve got the gist of things. Serina has already figured out how to stab properly, Riley has gotten a good tempo down with her swings, and Nathan is squaring up his stance and swing, all without me even needing to say anything. This hero-sitting job might be easier than I thought. It’s too bad that I don’t have as much time to perfect my fried lasagna and casserole fritters any more.

…

Okay, I think they’ve gotten enough training for now.

“ATTEN-SHUN!” The three snap to surprisingly fast, maybe I should do this once in awhile during other activities so see how they’d react. “That’s enough training for now. Let’s take a quick break, then go to the mages’ tower for your introduction to magic. There’ll be plenty of time for your doom training later anyway.”

Everybody’s giving me this look now. Even the princess and Hotdog. Did I say that last bit out loud? Oops. Well, if I can’t spend my time cooking, I’ve got to find something fun to do, right? It’s like killing two stoners with one bird… or was it killing two birds with one stoner? Hmm… I’ll ask Bill about that one later.

A/N - I tend to get a little long winded sometimes...Spoiler : Thanks to the anon and donkeymonsterz for the ratings/review. Just a note on the reviews, but advanced reviews get a front page mention of the RRL site, further increasing viewership. If you’re making a review, I’d prefer an advanced one as to see what I could improve upon for my story and the added exposure helps, too.

Last chapter’s poll standings as of 2/20/15 -

19 readers @ the person who said he/she/it hates me in last chapters poll, don’t worry, I love you regardless of your stance. You little tsundere, you. Do you need a hug? =3

About the past Valentine’s event, I’d planned a possible side chapter, but my head’s blanking. If any scraps of that idea come to fruitrition, I’ll post a double chapter up for you guys. One regular and one side chapter.

To any who have read Not Quite an Author (Yet), I’ll be trying to start that one up again or be adapting the idea in my TTC in the coming weeks. It’ll be riffing off of our lovingly insane brother of starch, potato_of_darkness, and his stories for the next stretch. There will be more info for you when I actually produce something for it.

tldr; Thanks for the reviews, poll takers and there may be work on NQaA eventually. Sorry it’s taking me so long to write, but I just do this for fun. I’ll see if I can get the other half of training out by Monday. I just wanted to get this out there of any who were wondering whether or not I was still alive.

As always, thanks for reading.