“What a day,” Aleister said, rubbing his belly as he walked back to his new room at the manor. He just barely missed the earlier parade, but there was always next year.

Syn hovered around him. “At the rate you’re progressing at now, becoming a Weaver isn’t going to happen.”

“I can’t control other people's actions, but I needed to know about Osetia’s general layout anyway,” Aleister said.

Syn shook her head. “You can control your actions, and those include sticking to your diet.”

“I haven’t even started your diet yet,” he complained. “Besides, the last time I ate actual food that wasn’t garbage was months ago! And technically, I did a lot of walking today so it cancels out, really.”

“At least you can’t complain about food anymore,” Syn said. “However, starting tomorrow, you really need to start. No more breaks.”

“I know, I know. What’s your plan for me?”

“Tomorrow, you’re going to jog for half the day,” she said.

“And the other half?” he asked.

“Sleep, eat, read, whatever you want really,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as its resting.”

“Sounds too good to be true,” he said.

“You’re underestimating how long half a day will feel like when you first get started.”

“Most certainly, but that’s for the tomorrow me to deal with.” Aleister let out a yawn as he opened the door to his room. “For now, I sleep.”

Syn nodded “Have a good rest, because now you actually need it.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Aleister said, but as he turned his head, she disappeared. Shrugging his shoulders, he dropped his bag on the floor. However, as he arrived in front of his bed, he found that there was a small problem. Someone else had already occupied its space and slept on it.

He crouched down and noticed that she appeared to be a maid belonging to this manner, as she wore the standard black and white attire. Something that struck out to him, though, was the fact that the maid on his bed had white hair. A very atypical and rare color, that was probably just as rare as him having red eyes. However, his eyes were like this because of his bloodline, but it wouldn’t make sense for a maid to have white hair because of her bloodline, because, well, she wouldn’t be a maid in the first place.

Hair color, eye color, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that she’s sleeping in my bed. That’s where I’m supposed to be!

Aleister sighed as he paced back and forth, racking his brain to come up with a way to get her out of his bed without disturbing her sleep. Because the obvious solution was to just wake her up, but he felt that it would be quite rude ruining this opportunity for her, one that she probably didn’t get very often. He contacted Syn, but she said that she was there to teach and guide him, not to solve problems for him. It didn’t even make sense in this context, but it didn’t matter what he said. She simply stopped responding. A couple of minutes passed by, and he decided to stop wasting time and just wake her up.

He tapped her on the arm before shaking her shoulders. At first, she showed no signs of life besides breathing, but eventually she moved and shifted her body—to face the other way from him.

Aleister rubbed his temples and let out a deep breath as it left him with no other choice...that he could think of. He grabbed a waterskin from his bag and spritzed some water across her face. It appeared to have some affect as she appeared to open her eyes a slight amount.

But they quickly shut as she mumbled, “Five more minutes.”

Aleister punched the air and sat down on his desk chair, eyes closed. Consider yourself lucky that I’m such a pleasant person that I’m willing to sacrifice my own sleeping conditions in order to not disturb you. He let out a sigh. At least this chair is padded. Besides, it's far from the worst place I’ve slept in. Sacrificing one day...whatever, it doesn’t matter. He mused over other such thoughts for what felt like a couple of minutes before he heard Syn’s voice.

“Get up,” she said.

“Oh, so now you want to help me,” Aleister said, in a raspy voice. He cleared his throat before continuing. “Well, its too late. I’m already going to sleep like this.”

“I’m telling you to get up because its time for your morning run,” Syn said.

Aleister groaned as he sat up. He forced his left eye open first, and sure enough saw the reflection of the sun across the mahogany desk. “Looks like it was just one of those nights, huh?” He scooted his chair a back and stood up with both eyes open. After he dressed into a proper running attire, he walked over to his bed, and glanced at the maid still sleeping on his bed. He clicked his tongue and said, “How long am I running for today?”

“Three hours this morning, then you get an hour break, another three hours, another break, and then your last three hours. After that you can do whatever, which hopefully includes taking a bath,” she explained.

“Damn, that actually sounds exhausting,” Aleister said.

“You need to make up for lost time,” Syn explained. “And, you won’t be running every day, just every other day.”

“Oh, what am I doing tomorrow?”

“Herblore and botany,” Syn said.

“This is in preparation for alchemy, I presume?”

“For the most part.”

Aleister squinted his eyes. “That sounds fishy.”

“Well, you don’t even have enough money to buy the proper equipment for alchemy in the first place,” Syn said. “We need a way for you to make money. Don’t focus on it right now since I will fill you in more tomorrow.”

“Alright, I’ve had enough,” Aleister said as he dumped his entire waterskin on her face.