The Goddess Made A Mistake Again

"Hahh Hahh"

"Hahh Hahh"

I was taking deep breathes while being spiraled on the floor.

"Why… Hahh"

"did I… hahh"

"ever think… hahh… that this…"

"was a… hahh… good… idea?"

I asked myself while gazing at the empty blue sky in haziness. My eyes blurred from the previous experiment and body full of sweat. My large stomach going up and down as I took in breaths before feeling the exhaustion gnawing at me.

"You said that it would be good for your body." I didn't expect to get an answer to the question. But here she was, in her usual innocent and beautiful self as she kneeled down in front of me and wiped away my sweats.

Yes, you are correct. I was training… or at least I tried to.

Thinking that it would be best if I trained as fast as possible to get strong, I asked Anna to come and help me count. She was here to see how far I could run and how long I could last.

As you can see this was the end result of that experiment.

It wasn't good.

"How… Hahhhhh… how far… did I go?"

"Ahhh," Anna panicked as she looked back at the start point to here, "Somewhere close to… 15 meters."

"15!!" My eyes shot up at her words.

"It felt like I ran for miles… Holy mother of goddess!" Was I really at such bad condition.

"Young master, why don't take some rest? Your body… can't handle such pressure." She said while trying to be as soft as possible.

"Rest? Only after 15 meters?..." I gave a dead look. "You gotta be kidding me?"

"Hee" Anna had a complicated smile before a question filled her head.

"Young Master?"

"Yeah"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Training?"

"Yes"

"I want to be strong."

"… okay, but why?"

"Why?" This time it was me who was confused, "Why wouldn't I want to be strong?"

In a world, where kingdoms fought other kingdoms, armies went on to slaughter any one that was in their path and evil things lurking beyond thick fogs, why wouldn't anyone want to become strong?

It was an invaluable question.

"No, I get why you want to be strong but… why now?" Anna asked blankly, "You never had thoughts of being strong before and you were happy too."

"Why now huh." I copied her words and thought of an answer.

"Oh! I'm sorry." As if realizing something, "I shouldn't have asked so many questions."

"It's okay," I smiled, "If it's you then any question is not problematic enough for me."

Anna smiled hearing those words. I didn't see it but there were some pink hue at the corner of her cheeks.

Pulling myself, I sat up.

"Why now, you ask."

"Right now, because I don't have anyone I can rely upon."

"Hmm?"

"The problems that are coming for me are large… it's not here yet, but when it will come, it will bring a large storm for me and when that storm comes… I need to be ready for it."

I looked at her with newfound conviction as energy suddenly beamed inside me.

"I need to protect everyone who is around me. Myself, Old Redwick, the townspeople who are now my responsibility and most of all you."

"O- Oh! Young master!" Anna said as she touched her face with both hands and blushed hard.

Unfortunately, I was looking ahead so I didn't see that.

"But to protect you all from that, I need to be strong and to get that, I must do this. No matter how hard it gets, no matter how many times I fall and think that it's going to be my last moment… I would get up again."

...

"You can do it."

I looked up and saw Anna giving a smile with filled with brilliant hope and truthfulness.

"I believe you can do it, young master. The power you are reaching for, you will find it and I believe that it won't be hard for you after this."

"Really?"

"OF COURSE! YOU CAN. IF YOU CAN'T DO IT THEN NOBODY ELSE CAN." She said with a triumphant voice that shook even the birds that had nested up on a nearby tree.

Realizing what she just did, she blushed again.

"Your beautiful."

"Wh- what??!!"

"Nothing… just said that I should get up." I said feigning ignorance.

"Ooo… is that so?" Anna said and thought that she might have heard wrong.

I get up and look up at the row of stairs before me and prepare myself.

"Oh! Stairs… my immortal enemy, I shall conquer you today."

...…

Far away from the town of Hyfelia

There was a small camp at a grassy land. The camp was filled with men who wore traditional armor with the Religias family insignia drawn on the chest while there were other men too but they wore different armor.

The ones with the insignia were the army of the Religias family and the other were mercenaries that were hired. These men had gathered here on the occasion of invading a land far away from their main land and help their young mistress break her marriage.

They stayed at the tents and readied themselves for battle. It wasn't far away any more, maybe a weeks walk and the only reason they were walking was because they knew it was going to be an easy one.

Hyfelia was a small town and its forces were only some guards that weren't even trained hard enough.

At the center of the camp, there was a small tent and within that small tent was a beautiful woman who was polishing her sword as she thought about something deep.

"Request for entry, commander."

"Granted!"

The girl said as a man of old age walked in and presented her with a letter.

"What is it?"

"It's the letter from your… fiancé, commander!"

The girl stopped her actions and put down the sword. She looked back and took the letter and quickly tore it apart before reading it.

Her brow went up before she gave a sigh and put the sword down.

"Tell the men to pick up the pace."

"We are to reach Hyfelia within 5 days."