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It has been a couple of weeks since the conversation about the demons and the declaration of my new resolve to my parents and Aquarina’s family. Well, all in all, approximately a month has passed.

Aquarina stayed with me for over a week, not really wanting to let go of me. But this last week, she finally went back home with her parents, and things had been mostly calm ever since then.

I had resumed my training with my parents as magic and swordplay had become an everyday routine yet again. It took some time for me to get over the pain of my body when I moved, but now that I had finally recovered as a whole, I felt rather fine and well. I had mostly gotten used to the cramps I sometimes got, but aside from that, everything’s good.

I had been training my body every day to regain my form, well, as much as a four-year-old body could remain healthy and strong, I guess. That day when my body was destroyed, with my mother quickly recovering it, I felt like all of the progress I made on my muscles had gone down the drain.

I hadn’t lost the power of the dragon meat and blood I had consumed and bathed in, but it had weakened. Perhaps it was because this essence went away when I died. Nevertheless, with magic and my training with father, my physical strength had been raising slowly and steadily.

However, it’s still really hard. Even as a talented hero with blessings, I’m still a four-year-old! I can’t be as amazing as I was in my previous life. My body was small and slender back then, but I was really good at moving around and so on… in here, I feel like even with all my efforts, I’ll probably just fall on my face if I try to do any of the techniques from my previous life.

Also, because I’m a half-elf, I’m not developing as quickly as I should. In short, I’m still a midget, meaning my legs have yet to grow slenderer! Ugh. But even then, I still do all I can, and I still spar with father. He had become more aggressive with his approach. It seems I’ve ignited the spark in him as he’s putting more pressure on my training. From the looks of it, he’s doing it so I can grow to be as strong as he wants me to be. Now he’s doing some “hellish training” to me, which made my mother argue with him a lot.

This training was what his father had done to him when he was around 3 years of age. He had to do 1000 swings with his sword every day, every morning, and he couldn’t stop until he finished. He couldn’t eat as well, nor go to the bathroom, anything that distracted him basically.

It was very stressful training to him, but it forged his will and his character into the man he was now. Although he told me that he’s like that, with me and mom, he’s always a softie. Maybe he has a weak spot for us that we can abuse, hehe.

Anyways, my father wanted to do this training to me as he saw I was very talented with the blade. After all, my movements were precise, strong, and fast to his eyes. However, mother was opposed to the idea and called the training barbaric and that it wasn’t something a child should do.

Unfortunately for her, I actually wanted to do it. With that, I insisted to mother that it was the best way to forge my strength. As a child, I was still growing up so any damage to my muscles would heal quickly, even more so if I abuse my magic to enhance my body through Metabolism Acceleration and then Verdant Light to heal my pained muscles.

This way I can actually realistically do it, as well as do it way better and more easily than my father’s first years. Since my mother realized it was impossible to dissuade me when I’m adamant on doing something, she gave up and let me do this training.

My father had offered me a “soft version”, which was only 100 swings a day instead. In fact, he still felt that perhaps lowering it down a bit more would be better. He’s really underestimating a girl! Does he think that because I’m a girl, I won’t be able to go through his same training?

Naturally, I showed him how wrong I was. After all, I had already been doing 1000 swings every morning for a whole week now. The first time, it took me around three hours to finish, and even with magic to help, my muscles ached, specifically my shoulders and my back. I had to get into a very rigid posture after all…

Though, as the days passed, my body got used to it incredibly quickly. It was to the point my father suggested me to increase the number of swings if it became too easy for me now… well, it’s an interesting training. He said that until he was 20, he had reached 20k swings per morning. He did them so fast he usually finished in half an hour… what the hell?! Even at a swing per second, that doesn’t make any sense! Half an hour was 1800 seconds, so… he did 11 to 12 swings per second?! What?! He’s so fast!

My father is too strong! I can’t possibly do that… I still take like two hours to finish 1100 swings… father really is a powerful warrior.

Slash!

Swinging my bronze sword for the last time, I took a rest on the grass while using a towel to clean the sweat on my forehead and neck.

“Phew… That should be 1200. New record,” I muttered as I sighed in relief.

“You’re really a monster for a four-year-old!” said Ignatius, the egg, as he floated around me.

Hearing that, I continued to rest over the grass. It was currently 8 AM. I had woken up early this morning as I walked near Yggdra, my good Eden Apple Tree. After that, I swung my bronze blade, a small sword fit for my size, 1200 times.

It took me almost 2 hours this time around, but I had done it. I felt proud with myself! In exchange, my body hurt… it was really a pain. Ugh. Even with Verdant Light, my healing spell, and Pain Mitigation, a Life-attribute spell, it was still not possible to take away all the exhaustion and muscle pain I felt.

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