Capítulo 7: Goals
In a small wooden room, one with brown and bare walls lighted by an oil lamp hanging on the wall, sporting only a bed, desk, and chair.
Stashed to one side of the room was a small stack of books resting on the floor due to the lack of a shelf and sitting on the edge of the moderate size bed was Kruxe, a glass of yellow juice by his side.
Kruxe currently had his hands freely resting to the side while he let out occasional groans, sighs of relief leaving his mouth from time to time.
"How much longer I really need to get some sleep." Kruxe softly complained.
"Just a few more minutes, I have to make sure I get all your muscles or you'll wake up terribly sore tomorrow," Rita who was on the bed and kneeling behind Kruxe said.
Don't get Kruxe wrong, he absolutely loved Rita's company, but at the moment, the stress of the day was finally setting in.
After shooting arrows for almost half of the day, Kruxe's body was exhausted, and, he could feel the dark hand of sleep already pulling him into the abyss.
"Okay, thank you," Kruxe said.
"Don't thank me, it's my job" Rita said lightly pinching Kruxe's left shoulder.
"Keep you back up." She reminded.
"Urghh" Kruxe groaned as he did as she said, and then kept quiet letting Rita work on both his arms and shoulders.
While Rita worked, Kruxe's mind couldn't help but descend to how uncool his seafaring adventure was turning out to be.
~~~~~
Despite being born as the son of a coastal noble, Kruxe had never actually voyaged on a sea in his life.
As the son of a noble and an inland princess, Kruxe was a political tool that strengthened the already political marriage between his father and mother.
With enemies all around, he had been kept in his father's territory, staying in his castle and never being allowed to wander around too far out
With his mother falling ill and losing his father's favor when he was 11 years old, Kruxe saw his hopes of one day convincing his father to let him sail crumble.
The man kept both he and his mother stashed away in a corner of his castle, most likely embarrassed at the ugly and deadly being Amelia had now become.
Kruxe sometimes feared that was his mother not a princess, the man would have had her excecuted.
Like that Kruxe had been kept isolated from the world, but not from its books and the stories from the people who were around him.
Over the years he learned a lot and unfortunately got to witness his father's maltreatment of his mother, these experiences building up his resentment for the man and his determination to cure his mother.
Kruxe had feared he would only get to sail when he was 30 and going to the WFA academy, but then one day his father his father gave out an order.
Rather than his usual method of sending in some questionable doctors to check on his mother, this time he ordered her to sail to a doctor he had found.
At first, Kruxe's father had strictly forbidden him to not go, but after he went into a fit of madness, storming and raging all about, wanting to sail the sea and most importantly not wanting to leave his mother's side, the man gave the order and Kruxe had found himself boarding a barquentine filled with a crew that was mostly from Dahara.
It had been a week since Kruxe had been allowed to go to sea, and they had been at sea for 5 days yet it was only yesterday that Kruxe had become fit enough to train.
Why fit enough one might ask, well it was because Kruxe had spent the past days being seasick, throwing up regularly, and being a glorious sight of pity for the crew on board.
Though It was just yesterday that Kruxe began agreeing with the sea, his mind already making grand plans for his training only for him to be welcomed to a world of disappointment today.
~~~
"That should be enough," a voice said, a voice that belonged to neither Kruxe nor Rita.
This voice kicked Kruxe out of his memory lane and had him join Rita to look back.
"When, how did you get in," Kruxe asked but was ignored as the eye-catching red-haired woman walked close to the duo her piercing gaze landing on Rita
"You've done enough, he's not a baby that will scream from the slightest pain, a little bit of soreness in his arms are good for his stubborn mind."
"Okay," Rita said quickly pushing herself off the bed.
"Good night, "Rita said giving Kruxe a small bow and then she hurriedly left the room.
"Why do always have to bully her" Kruxe complained with a bit of frustration.
"If you're so angry about it, why don't you become king, then you can make me do whatever you want"
"Yeah right" Kruxe sneered.
Why would he want to be some inland king when he had a chance to join the navy and be an officer.
"What do you want" he grumbled.
"Hope your mother's praise hasn't gotten to your head."
Immediately after Cletina said these words, Kruxe's unhappy expression faded away and a plain expression graced his face as he stood up and faced Cletina.
"No, I plan on studying some more books about the weather, especially on wind changes to see if I can gleam any information."
"Tch, it was all fun and games for you hit the bullseye almost every time, but that as on land, the bow and arrow have no place at sea, and from today's near-zero results you should now be enlightened to this.
"I'll figure something out" Kruxe quietly said.
"Urggh, you say you want to kill your enemies before they ever reach you, then why not use guns, you could become an expert gunslinger."
"Guns have a rather limited range, and most importantly they take too long to reload Kruxe pointed out.
"If I can accurately read the wind, I'll become unstoppable with my bow," Kruxe said, his voice filled with passion this time.
"Wait till you get into a real battle" Cletina muttered to Kruxe's hearing but he only smiled at her.
"I didn't throw up throughout today, so what are we doing tomorrow."
Any time one saw Cletina, Amelia would always be somewhere around, but the one time these pair could not be seen together was when Cletina was putting Kruxe through hell in the name of training.
Master and student this was Kruxe and Cletina's relationship, and though she intentionally got on his nerves and put him through different tortures, Kruxe would never exchange her for anyone.
Though he groaned and complained about her harsh training he was never late for it, and sometimes even asked for more.
It wasn't that Kruxe was a masochist but that he had a goal.
Though he had been offered admission into the WFA academy, Kruxe couldn't be admitted till he unlocked his genkai, something that was estimated to happen when he became 30, a rather impressive feat on average.
If Kruxe wanted to enter the academy earlier, then he had to unlock his genkai earlier, and what better way to do this than to receive training from a rank E seeker.
As a rank E seeker, Cletina was a valued and very powerful person, someone even his father showed respect to and on more than one occasion had tried to get her to serve him.
Kruxe's goal was to learn as much as he could From Cletina and hopefully be able to break through by 27, perhaps if luck were on his side he might even do it at 26.
"You'll find out tomorrow, now go to bed, training begins at 10 in the morning."
"10, that's too late" Kruxe complained.
"You overexerted yourself today, and need more rest," Cletina said.
"No I don't, I'm fine, we'll begin training at 5 in the morning " Kruxe insisted.
"Sorry but that isn't for you to decide my prince," Cletina said, and though her face remained stoic, Kruxe could very well recognize that familiar glint in her eyes, the same glint he had seen just before she pulled out those pictures of different women during dinner.
Kruxe immediately went alert, his mind slowly going through all the tricks she could have pulled and then it hit him, his mind was moving slowly.
"Sleeping pill"
This wasn't the first or second time it had happened so Kruxe was able to quickly figure out what had happened, but now the problem was how she had done it.
Without a doubt, Kruxe knew Cletina wouldn't dare mess with his mother's food so that only left" the juice".
It was the only thing he had consumed since dinner and therefore the only way he could have been drugged.
"If you don't want to fall asleep on the ground and wake up with cramps tomorrow, I'll advise you to get on your bed pretty quick" Cletina said already heading towards the door.
Just before she went out, she turned around and threw Kruxe a mocking grin sashaying out and leaving Kruxe to his grievances.
Regalos
-- Regalo
recibido Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder