By Zephyria 
I watched Aska eat a sandwich filled with vegetables and ham in a long, large bread and asked, “So, did you decide on a name?”I’m thinking Pipi or Pipi.””
“Cute. Because of the sound it makes?”
Aska nodded, his mouth full of sandwich.
The monster bird of unknown origin ended up being raised by Aska. I was against it at first because it seemed dangerous, but it seemed to listen well to Aska, so I decided to keep an eye on it for now.
And finally, today was Aska’s first day of training.
“Don’t eat too much.”
“Why?”
He might throw up if he runs around too much during training… But when I thought about it, it didn’t seem like it would be that intense, so I just left him alone.
“Aren’t you training with me?”
“Do you want me to train with you?”
If it was just physical training, it wouldn’t be bad to participate together. But for some reason, Aska shook his head.
“No, I’ll just do it alone.”
I tilted my head at the unexpected words, and Aska handed me a jujube with a sulky expression.
“I can do it alone.”
I couldn’t help but smile because he seemed so reliable. I was about to eat an apple after eating the jujube when Aska grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t just eat that, eat bread too.”
“I am eating it.”
“This is crispy bread. It’s delicious because it has mashed potatoes, salty sausage, and vegetables chopped up small inside. Do you remember what potatoes taste like?”
I was taken aback by his enthusiastic explanation and took a bite of the bread.
“Wasn’t it a savory taste? Fluffy.”
“This one is a little sweet. But the sausage is salty, so it’s a perfect match.”
I couldn’t really taste it, but since he said it was a good match, it somehow became palatable. He kept telling me to eat meat too, so I ended up overeating more than usual.
“I have to give this to Pipi.”
Aska put the leftover fruit pieces, bread, and meat on a plate.
“Is it omnivorous?”
“It eats everything I give it? It even drinks my blood.”
“What?”
It drinks blood? It seems like it’s definitely a monster after all.
“How much blood did it drink?”
“Just a few drops?”
“Why did you give it that? Were you hurt?”
“No, I just tried giving it once.”
Aska must have known from the beginning that it wasn’t an ordinary bird. I thought for a moment and asked.
“Are you going to keep giving it blood?”
“Blood? No, I only gave it once at the beginning.”
“Should I try giving it mine then?”
I was curious about how it drinks blood. Does it just drink it like water? I also wanted to see if there would be a different reaction if it drank blood, like Aska did.
But Aska frowned in disgust.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why? You fed it yours.”
“I don’t want to. If you secretly give it blood, I’ll never forgive you.”
I didn’t even say I would secretly give it blood, but Aska said with a stern face as if warning me.
“Say quickly that you won’t give it blood.”
Not only that, but he even made me repeat the words so he could hear it directly from my mouth. It was clear that he would keep nagging if I left him alone, so I just did as he wanted.
“I will absolutely not give Pipi blood without Aska’s knowledge.”
As I said, raising my hand as if taking an oath, Aska’s expression finally relaxed as if satisfied.
“I’m going to the Greenhouse now, are you coming with me?”
“To feed Pipi? I’m going to wash up, so go alone. Come straight back because you have to go to the Training arena, don’t get sidetracked.”
“…….”
As I said that and got up from my seat, Aska didn’t move for some reason. When I turned my head, he had a sulky expression as if something else didn’t please him.
I stared at him for a moment, then reached out and poked his cheek.
“Why?”
“Why don’t you come these days?”
“Where? The Greenhouse? I went a few days ago.”
Now that I promised to tell him wherever I go, Aska always tells me before going to the Greenhouse in the morning. So there was no need to go looking for him, and he came back when it was mealtime, so I didn’t have much reason to go to the Greenhouse.
In the meantime, I had secretly gone to the tower or spent time in the library to read the Forbidden book several times, so it was even more so.
“Why? Should we go together?”
I didn’t intentionally avoid going, so I asked that, but Aska turned away.
“It’s okay. Just wash up. I’ll be back.”
“I’m going to wash up slowly, so you don’t have to rush back.”
“Okay.”
Aska answered in a curt voice and left without looking back.
I tilted my head and called the Servant to wash up.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
Before starting the training, the first thing we did was check Aska’s condition. We measured things like the number of push-ups he could do and his record when running around the Training arena at full speed.
I already knew this would happen, but Aska was physically very outstanding in every way.
“…….”
How outstanding? To the point where you couldn’t even call him human. Of course, he wasn’t human, but… Parha was just as surprised, and he had a speechless expression.
That’s because Aska’s 100m dash record was only about 5 seconds. At this point, it was no different from teleportation. The problem was that he couldn’t control his speed himself, so he couldn’t stop properly.
When he jumped in place, he soared up like a spring, so we couldn’t measure his record, and when we told him to run ten laps around the Training arena to measure his stamina, he didn’t even sweat a drop.
I was going to see how far he would run, but when he ran about thirty laps, Parha finally stopped Aska first. He said it was okay to stop running…
What was even more absurd was that it didn’t seem like Aska was doing this seriously.
“Your stamina is really outstanding.”
He praised Aska, hiding his flustered expression.
Aska, who was wary of Parha at first, quickly adapted when he was told that he didn’t have to hide his identity.
I applauded Aska, who was looking at me with sparkling eyes without showing any signs of exhaustion despite undergoing numerous tests.
“Good job. You did great.”
At my praise, Aska made an awkward expression and swung a wooden sword in the air. I was about to tell him not to do it because it was dangerous when Parha suddenly called me quietly.
“Your Highness.”
He chose his words several times, swallowed, and finally opened his mouth with difficulty.
“What should I teach him…?”
I thought he would just be strong, but I didn’t know he would be so athletic. When I think about it, Aska carried me on his shoulders and climbed trees…
First, I called Aska, who was swinging a wooden sword by himself.
“Aska, think of this as a real person and hit it just enough to knock it unconscious. You must never kill it, and you can’t not knock it unconscious either.”
“Just enough to knock it unconscious?”
Aska looked at the wooden training dummy I was pointing at. Parha was watching our appearance from a few steps away.
“With a wooden sword?”
“You can use a wooden sword, or you can use your hands.At my words, Aska seemed to be in thought, then he put strength into the hand holding the wooden sword. Then he slowly went to the wooden dummy, raised the wooden sword up, and struck down.
Thwack!
“That’s not enough to knock it unconscious.”
He struck down quite strongly, but it wasn’t enough to knock a person unconscious. It was just enough to leave a bruise. At my words, Aska took a stance again and swung his arm a little harder this time.
Whack-!
With a loud noise, the wooden dummy was smashed, and the wooden sword that Aska was holding was torn and burst in all directions.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….Aska stared at the wooden sword, which only had the handle left, then opened his palm. His palm was all torn because he had gripped it so tightly and struck down.
“You’ll kill someone if you hit them like that.”
“I just hit it lightly.”
“And don’t ever touch my body again.”
“No.”
It was amazing that I hadn’t broken a single bone yet, even though Aska had hit and struck me like that.
“Give me your hand.”
At my words, Aska held out his torn palm. His skin was clearly torn, but no blood came out.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It hurts.”
“Then why don’t you heal it?”
“To show you.”
What’s the point of showing me this…? I looked at Aska with a dumbfounded expression and gestured for Parha to come over.
“Teach him to control his strength appropriately and use it only for self-defense purposes so he can subdue or escape. The most important thing is that he must be able to control his mind. So that he doesn’t panic in any situation.”
“Why the mind? I’m good at controlling my mind.”
Aska cut in with a frown. Just looking at this, mental training was a necessary subject for Aska.
But Parha still didn’t seem to get it. Parha, who was hesitating with an expression as if he had received a difficult assignment, bowed his head.
“I will do my best.”
At those words, I nodded and examined Aska’s palm, which had been injured a little while ago. It had healed completely in the meantime. Just in case, I rubbed the soft palm with my fingertips and muttered to myself, belatedly thinking.
“If he holds a sword, he’ll get calluses on his palm, right?”
Today might be the last day for his soft and smooth hands.
“…….”
Aska asked, frowning suddenly because I felt regretful.
“Why? Isn’t it good to have calluses?”
“What’s good about it?”
“Your palms are hard too. And if I train, I’ll grow taller faster, and I’ll get a lot of muscles.”
“…….”
He had an expression full of expectations, so I couldn’t say anything more. I tried to imagine Aska becoming muscular with a sullen expression, but it was impossible.
“If I get bigger than you, you know?”
Aska nudged me with his elbow and smiled. Could he be talking about that pleasant thing I mentioned last time? The fact that he still remembers that is really a total disaster…
But if I think about it differently, he’s not getting professional training, he’s just learning it for self-defense, so he won’t be doing it for very long.
Maybe it will end before he even gets calluses on his palms.
But my expectation was completely wrong. Aska went to the Training arena every day for over two years without resting a single day, as if he found it fun to train his body.
Aska, who will be 16 years old soon because his birthday is coming up, has calluses on his palms and has grown over 20cm taller. He has already caught up to my height when he first came here.
He was still pretty, but now he was a boy, not a girl, no matter how you looked at him.