“That’s the hero right?”

“One of them yes.”

“I’ve never seen hair like that.”

“I heard he beat Princess Alea in a duel.”

“Now she’s his training partner.”

“Really?”

Whispers seemed to follow me wherever I went. Just walking across the bailey, I could hear the whispers. Be it guards or servants. It made me self-conscious. After all I wasn’t really a hero and I don’t think I really defeated Alea.

Today’s training consisted of weapon training. Alea and I spent our time running through our sword drills. While doing so I attempted to circulate my mana through my muscles. It was a bit more difficult than circulating it through the affinity training stances, but Alea told me physical magic affinity could be trained through any physical exertion so that was what I decided to try.

I even attempted to run mana through the dulled training sword in the hopes of training a bit of my tool magic affinity. While it glowed slightly, there appeared to be severe resistance to my mana in the sword compared to the magic orb I used with Perceval. Perhaps that was the difference between a magical item and a regular one.

“Alright, that’s enough with the sword,” Adekin called to Alea and I. “I think it is best we round out your skills a bit. Elliot, I know you didn’t have any experience with a sword so I presume archery is also…”

To my humiliation I had to admit a lack of skill in archery as well. It felt like all of the knights would be judging me for my lack of combat knowledge, but it wasn’t my fault. Our worlds were simply too different.

“The bow is an important tool for any soldier,” Adekin explained. “Although without a physical magic affinity you will be limited in the draw weight you are able to handle…Still it is an important skill to possess.”

That made me feel even worse.

Adekin called for Edgar to guide Alea and I to the storage shed to find an appropriately weighted bow for me to begin with.

I was surprised to find Alea choose an extremely large bow right off the bat. It was basically as tall as her. And looked as if it would be incredibly difficult to draw. Although I suppose with a physical magic affinity she could increase her strength substantially. And as I understood bows your draw strength related directly to your range and the effectiveness of the bow.

“Why don’t you start with a long bow?” Alea suggested handing me a bow only slightly smaller than her own. “Try drawing the bowstring.”

Holding the bow in my left hand and pulling the string with three fingers of my right hand I found I was able to pull the string less than a quarter of the way back. How much draw weight was on this thing? How much was on Alea’s?

“I see,” Edgar said with a clearly disappointed tone. “Then perhaps…”

He went through the various bows until finding another bow of slightly smaller proportions.

“This bow is designed for beginner archers without physical affinity mana,” he explained. “Try drawing this.”

So this world had different designs to their weapons depending on the magic affinities the user possessed? And strength of magic could be directly related to physical strength as well. Interesting. Then if I continued to train with my magical affinities I might eventually be able to wield stronger and stronger weapons.

Incidentally this bow was far easier to draw. With a fair amount of effort I was able to fully draw the weapon.

“Alright let’s move to the range,” Alea said excitedly. “You are going to love archery!”

Adekin was there to meet us.

The range was located beside a far portion of the castle rampart. Away from anything vital. The range had a large wooden pergola-like frame surrounding it. Likely to catch any stray arrows.

Adekin began by describing the correct form for archery. He described three different stances which might be used for archery. The square stance, open stance and closed stance. He described the benefits and demerits of each stance. Having me quickly take each stance to get an idea of the correct posture involved.

“I think we will start with the square stance,” Adekin decided. “It is a good stance for novices and should suit you fairly well.”

That definitely sounded like it was meant as an insult…although I suppose I was a novice.

Nearly all of the morning was spent on form and posture. Apparently incorrect posture can be quite detrimental to one’s health so I listened very carefully to Adekin’s instructions and watched Alea’s movements very carefully. I noted that she circulated mana throughout her arms and back muscles every time she drew the weapon. Perhaps I would try that once I gain a greater degree of physical magic affinity.

Finally it was my turn to try nocking an arrow. I found myself surprised with the diameter of the arrow itself. I had always assumed arrows were much thinner than this. The shaft was nearly a half inch across.

I set my feet a bit more than shoulder width apart and parallel with the shooting line. Made sure not to lock my knees. Aligned my back into the posture Adekin described and Alea demonstrated. Butt tucked slightly in, back straight, shoulders down.

We stood roughly a hundred yards from the target. It shouldn’t be that difficult to hit right? I drew back the bowstring stretching my muscles. I lined up the arrow so I would be shooting high, figuring gravity would pull the arrow down as it flew.

I exhaled releasing the bowstring. The speed of the arrow’s release surprised me. I had seen it leaving Alea’s bow. I knew it was quick, but to have it whiz from my hand was an incredible feeling. The sheer power of the bow was staggering. In an instant I realized just how much I had underestimated the bow and arrow.

The result…I missed. Unsurprisingly. But at least the arrow landed in the general vicinity of the wooden target so…that’s a plus. I half expected my arrow to end up on one of the protective beams or worse outside of them.

“Not bad,” Adekin praised. “Although your posture shifted just before you released the arrow.”

Did it?

“Try again,” Alea encouraged.

I repeated my stance, nocked the arrow and pulled back. This time paying closer attention to my posture’s consistency. My muscles strained to hold the position, but I was determined to get this right.

This time I nicked the target. An improvement!

We repeated until I was able to consistently hit the target. Then Adekin had us move back to two hundred yards. This was much more difficult, but we continued until I consistently hit the target again.

By this point my arms and back were getting sore. Actually they had been sore for some time, but I was firmly resolved to hit that target.

By the time I made my way to lunch I was absolutely exhausted. Who knew archery was so muscle intensive?

I would absolutely need to build some muscles to get this archery down.

Luckily, Adekin lent me the bow. “Practice your stance and drawing the bowstring in your spare time,” he told me. As if I had any spare time.