"Wait here young master," said Alfred. He walked towards an old oak tree and stood in front of it, he then took out a sharp object from his black overcoat and started to carve out a circular shape on the bark of the tree. Once he finished carving out the near-perfect diameter of the circle, he once again carved another one inside of it and then another one thus forming a round target. Afterward, he walked back to the young boy.

"Splendid carving skills Alfred," remarked Apollo, "Care to showcase your archery skills?".

"An easy request sire," said the humble man as he positioned the bow in front of him, taking an iron-tipped arrow from the quiver and drawing it. He extended his arms and aimed at the 'target' before releasing the string, Whoosh, Thud!

Apollo witnessed the arrow fly towards the tree in a straight line, embedding itself bang on the middle of the circular target, 'Very accurate' he thought.

Whoosh,

Thud.

Whoosh,

Thud.

A burst of two rapid shots hit the target right beside the location of the first arrow. Apollo looked back at his 'butler', completely shocked. Alfred had a 'What do you think of my skills?' expression plastered on his face. 'I can hold my own, my ass! You might as well call yourself Robin Hood' cursed Apollo mentally.

"Wow!, an amazing display of your skills Alfred" applauded the young boy sarcastically. 'Crazy bastard' he thought.

Alfred simply smiled and handed the bow and quiver to his young master.

Apollo received the quiver of arrows and equipped it on his back, strapped on by the leather string, It was quite heavy he thought, for there were 27 arrows laying in the bag minus the 3 already embedded on the oak tree. He glanced at the shortbow in the hands of Alfred for a minute before taking it into his own hands.

'Its smooth and surprisingly light', I thought, I felt the hardwood that smelled of coconuts, it was quite subtle in fact. The bow had a curved structure to it and its length was about 70 centimeters and had a width of roughly 6 centimeters. I examined the thin bowstrings and noticed that it had a distinct smell to it almost like dried plants and the string had a soft lustrous feel to it. I lightly pull on it and release it ever so slightly, Whiing, the sound of vibrating strings was produced.

Alfred noticed the boy's weird expression as he 'caressed' the bow and couldn't help but clarify, "Those are hemp strings sire and the wood is yew".

"Interesting," said the young boy, "It feels like it was made for me, almost like it resonates with my small stature, a very good bow!".

{Yew Shortbow (Common): Attack: 20-32 (Phys) ~ A simple bow made of yew fitting for rapid draws. Has good quality hemp strings.}

"That would be the work of Drebin, he has an eye for the suitability of weapons," Alfred remarked, he was very familiar with the discerning man. "Wear this young master," the man handed the boy a leather piece that resembled a glove but had the pinky and thumb parts missing.

"What is this?" asked Apollo as he examined the weird-looking glove, he remembered the item that the armorer handed to Alfred, he did not get a chance to look at it until now.

Alfred chuckled at the clueless boy, "That is called a 'finger tab', its for your finger's protection when releasing the bowstrings at full draw" he deliberated, visually playing out the action of releasing the bow,

"Try it out".

Apollo did as he was told and wore the glove over his ring, middle, and index fingers as he fastened the straps to his wrists as shown by Alfred. This was a piece of essential equipment used by medieval archers to eliminate the stress being put on the three fingers whilst releasing arrows. Without it, the fingers may become heavily damaged.

The boy continuously clenched his right hand feeling the leather 'glove' and it felt oddly comfortable in his opinion despite the awkward pinky and thumb that were left uncovered.

"Alright, time to test this bad boy out"

Apollo aligned himself with the marked tree roughly 5 meters away from him and he took a wide stance, then he positioned the bow in front of him which was gripped by his left hand, and finally, he took out an arrow from the quiver using his right hand. At that point, he drew the bow with his utmost strength and aimed at the tree, he found it hard to do so since his arms were visibly shaking from the stress. He did his best to aim at the target before releasing the bow, Wheng.

Thuck.

The arrow landed close to the tree, puncturing the nearby soil,

"Well shit...".

"........."

"A worthy try, young master," clapped Alfred breaking the silence in the air.

"Gee..thanks Alfred", said the embarrassed boy, he had overestimated himself.

Alfred noticed that the boy tried his hardest to pull the bowstrings which was detrimental to his aim, "I suggest going closer to the tree and only pulling the string to a point where your hands don't shake, stability is important,"

Apollo was not one to shy away from advice thus he closed the distance towards the tree and stood roughly 2.5 meters away from it, halving his previous distance. He took a deep breath and exhaled to clear the embarrassing thoughts going through his head. He followed Alfred's advice and only drew the bow to a comfortable setting and released it, Thud. The pleasant sound of wood being struck.

Apollo examined where his arrow landed and was surprised to see that he hit the outer circle, a nice change of pace. Alfred saw this and smiled to himself, he was proud that his young master managed to follow up on his advice.

The boy was overcome with joy and so he tried again and again, unloading multiple arrows into the target, getting closer and closer to the innermost circle until he finally hit it on his 24th arrow, he screamed at the top of his lungs,

"I did it!", he turned around and gave Alfred a thumbs up showing his appreciation, 'Who's robbing the hood now?' he thought smiling.

"A grand achievement sire" voiced the man.

 

Apollo walked towards the tree and began pulling off the arrows as he placed them back in the quiver. "Allow me, young master," said a voice behind him. "It's unnecessary Alfred, I can do it myself", the young boy shouted. Alfred stopped in his tracks, he did not feel comfortable seeing his young master do the things he was assigned to do, he was programmed to help out in any tasks and yet sometimes his own master preferred to do things himself which irked him in the slightest of ways.

Although Apollo was living his life comfortably as a noble, he still thought of himself as Mateo Reiner, the same man that struggled his way through life, therefore, if there was anything that he felt he could do himself then he would do so without the help of others. He appreciated Alfred but he knew for a fact that being independent was a necessary way of living, he could not and will not depend on another person. The only person he could depend on was himself.

After retrieving every arrow that he fired, Apollo went back to his previous spot and took a step back, increasing the distance from the tree. He wanted to test himself as he believed he could succeed in this world through hard work alone, he lived a pretty unfulfilled lifestyle previously so he vowed to take life more seriously in this brand new world in order to prevent his previous mistakes. Being helped by another person time and time again always infringed on this oath thus he made sure to limit Alfred's assistance whenever he could.

Apollo once again spent his time unloading arrows into the tree, retrieving them, and pushing himself forwards by taking a step back, he repeated this cycle for two hours before deciding to take a rest. He knew of the limits his body could sustain and he took it upon himself to regularly take breaks as not to force his body into total collapse. Even if he had the recovery stat, Apollo knew better not to overwork his body, he only had a single body and he planned to take care of it.

"That's enough archery for today," exhaled the boy as he stretched out his aching arms, "Let's go back".

"As you wish"

The two walked back to the manor until Apollo saw his aunt May sitting in the manor yard with her son Marco, he greeted them. "Come, Apollo, let us have a chat", she ushered whilst patting the empty seat beside her. Out of respect, Apollo took her offer and sat on the chair. Meanwhile, Alfred disappeared into the manor as if to get something.

"I see you've been practicing some archery" the lady mentioned looking at the quiver and bow held by Apollo.

"Yes aunt, it was very fun, I had Alfred teach me" replied the boy, trying his hardest to put on a childish behavior. Apollo only ever tried to do this with a handful of people in the Heimarch estate and May Heimarch was one of them, he was pretty lax with Alfred and his tutor as he thought they were sincere and 'trustable' but for the others, he made sure to act like an irrational child.

"That's good, practice makes perfect"

'Oh boy, small talk, what is it exactly that you want to tell me?' is what Apollo wanted to say but he could only observe the pitiful woman, he felt bad knowing what happened to her husband. He heard a rumor going around from the servants that her husband was handicapped after the war ten years ago and was practically bedridden for the last years of his life. He sometimes wondered how Marco came about if that was the case, he even began to speculate if the child was blood-related to him at all.

"Listen, Apollo" she whispered, "In the future, you would protect little macro here right?".

Apollo felt something amiss when he listened to her in a soft voice, 'to protect? Why would she tell a child that', He wondered what would happen in the future that made his aunt worry so much. the young boy felt like he was about to be manipulated into doing something he didn't want to do but he could only play along, for now, he didn't have the evidence to prove his gut feeling.

"Of course aunty, Marco, and I are blood-related after all!" he whispered back, smiling. He carefully observed her facial expressions but surprisingly there was no obvious change in reaction, 'Hmm, maybe the little shit is legitimate after all', he said internally. He glanced at the 'lost-looking boy opposite him staring into thin air.

His aunt was about to say something else before she closed her mouth seeing Alfred walking towards them with three plates at hand.

"Apple pie?" offered the man,

"Yes please", shouted both boys in unison, Apollo grabbed the plate and dug into it immediately, he was pretty hungry after the practice. After devouring the slice, Apollo excused himself, he did not wish to linger around his suspicious aunt.

 

He was about to enter his room when a servant asked him to visit his mother, 'Geez can a man not take a break?' he thought but he could only comply. He made his way towards the room and knocked on the door to his mother's study, "Mother, you called for me".

"Come Apollo" invited the voice inside thus he entered the room and saw a woman sitting down and writing on a journal. This was a recurrent scene that occurred whenever he visited her, Helaine was always at work signing documents and overseeing large groups of caravans that visited the estate for orders, she was a very busy woman. She placed everything down and invited Apollo to sit opposite her.

"Exciting day today child?" she chuckled looking at the distraught boy still equipped with a bow and quiver.

Apollo sat down on the leather chair before answering her, "Very much so mother but it was fun". He wasn't even bothered coming up with an excuse as to why he had a bow and arrow but surprisingly he wasn't even asked, he thought that this was weird. 'Unless she already knew', he felt that this was the case.

"I know you're not happy about your father's decision but I think it will do you no harm. I know that it seems unfair but I promise that you will be safe there," she deliberated with a look of worry. "I hope that you will use this opportunity to prepare yourself for-", she stopped herself "to become just like your father", the woman rephrased herself.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back, Apollo believed that something was indeed wrong, everyone seemed to be keeping a secret from him.

"It's fine mother, I think I can make some good friends there anyways, I don't like that Roland kid", said Apollo.

Helaine laughed aloud, "Roland is not that bad," she said feeling relieved that her child wasn't being depressed about the military. Roland was the arrogant child she introduced to Apollo before.

"Nonsense, mother, he called Alfred a 'lowly servant", he didn't like the way he said that.

"I suppose you're right my dear boy, Roland is indeed a bad boy, now that I think about it" she chuckled. "Alright well, I just wanted to check on you. You may go" she smiled.

Apollo took this chance and joyfully ran out of the room without saying anything back, Helaine could only shake her head at his immediate exit. Eventually, the young boy returned to his room this time without any interruptions. He closed the door behind him and took off the quiver before placing it on his bedside table, he examined the shortbow one last time before leaning it against the table, he also took off the finger tab.

Afterward, the young boy dropped to the ground and performed his daily exercises, he was adamant about building up his body so he decided to exercise and meditate every single day. Roughly, 3 hours later, the boy opened his eyes from his 2-hour meditation session.

'Overview'