Mars woke up and after being confused for a second he remembered where he was"that dream... it was properly my past life"
Mars spent a few minutes making sure he burnt the contents of the dream into his mind before he gently pushed Victoria that was lying on top of him off and got up and stretched before he put on his clothes and went over to the window and opened it to let in some of the morning air while he woke up a little more he watched to sunrise
"well then, let"s get on with it"
Mars grabbed his sword and left behind the still sleeping Victoria and went out of his room and after navigating the halls like a sailor lost at sea for some time he finally found a exit and went outside and walked over to the empty training yard and sat down before he closed his eyes with his sword in lap ready for use and began to meditate while he listened to the mansion but also the town of Malrton wake up from its slumber. After a while Mars picked up some light footsteps that stopped in front of him
"umm... Mars?"
Mars heard the voice of a young lady, of Hanna and gave a slight smile but still kept his eyes closed
"sit down Hanna we will start when the others get here"
"okay..."
Hanna sat down and waited along with Mars for some time until the 4 knights Annabel, Gill, Jeff and Oliver also arrived and greeted Hanna with respect and happiness in their voices
"well then..."
Mars open his eyes and stood up and looked at Hanna and the 4 knights that all was clad in some tightly fitting training clothes
"first off I would like to say a few words is that okay?"
Mars asked and revived nods form all around, even Gill that had spoken down to him when they first met seemed to have changed his ways and was obedient
"good.... there is 3 things in this world people truly respect money, status and personal strength, if your lucky you can earn enough money to live your life in luxury, if you lucky you can earn status to stand above the crowd..."
Mars looked at the 5 people in front of him one more time before he continued
"if you work hard enough you can become strong! personal strength have nothing to do with luck or birth, it has to do with hard training! and that is what I"m here for, not to train you but to help you get personal strength, to help you get ahead in life"
the eyes of the 5 people sparkled, especially Hanna"s eyes seemed to light up
"but while I train weak people I don"t train weak willed people..."
Mars raised is sword and pointed it at the 5 before he continued
"know that the only way to surpa.s.s your limits is to surpa.s.s them, the only way to break down you mental walls is to run through them!"
Mars put his sword up on his shoulder and continued
"if you choose to accept my training know that I will push you beyond your limits and injure you badly... well as long as you don"t die instantly I can heal you so it fine"
Mars waved his hand with a casual att.i.tude and continued
"so if anyone of chose to leave do it now or I will hunt you down and drag your a.s.s back to training"
Mars looked at the 5 and saw firm resolution in their eyes and gave a smile as he sat down again
"good then as a test run along the edge of the training field"
the 4 knights gave a nod and began running only Hanna remained behind and asked Mars a question
"umm... how long are we supposed to run?"
Mars gave a smile
"until you collapse and/or puke"
the color drained slightly form Hanna"s face before she clenched her fists and began running after the 4 knights
"good resolve"
Mars silently praised Hanna and closed his eyes again to meditate and for the next few hours all that entered Mars"s ears was the sound of running, at first fast but late slower and slower until he heard a "thump" and opened his eyes
"well it makes sense that Hanna is the first one to go"
Mars stood up and walked over to where Hanna was lying on the ground covered in sweat panting but still barely conscious and keeled down next to her and asked
"does it hurt?"
"yes... it.... does"
Mars gave a slight smile and asked
"does it hurt more than what they did to you?"
Hanna grit her teeth as a cold glint flashed in her eyes
"no...."
"then what do you prefer?"
Hanna clenched her fist and began struggling to slowly get up again
"that"s good, you can do this"
Mars encouraged her form the side and sure enough after a few attempts she managed to get up right where she slowly began running again
"good, very good!"
Mars charged his [Energy: healing] skill with 5 units of energy and jogged up besides her and gave her a clap on the shoulder healing her torn muscles slightly and giving her new energy before he went back to his spot and sat down again and looked up at the sun
"let"s give it another hour"
Mars closed his eyes again and went back to meditating, a few minutes later Victoria showed up and took her usual spot on his lap and an hour later Mars finely opened his eyes and lightly said
"that"s enough for today"
as soon as he said "today" 5 people fell down and laid on the ground
"good work"
Mars went around and gave them all 5 units of [Energy: healing] to help recover before he walked off out into the town with Victoria
"where... are... we going?"
"hmm... let"s go down to the guild, but first let me get my coin pouch"
Mars quickly went back and brought his coin pouch form his room and after checking the contents he counted 18 copper coins and 26 small silver coins
"so a.s.suming 1 silver coin is 100 cel and 1 copper coin is 1 cel, I have 2618 cel..."
Mars still didn"t have any idea if 2618 cel was a lot but judging from the tax for entering town was only 5 cel it sure seemed like a lot of money
"well there"s only one way to find out... but that can wait"
Mars walked out into town with Victoria along the way to the guild he received some looks but most of them was focused on Victoria which seemed to ignore the looks she was getting until her horns flashed
"why... are they... looking... at me?"
"well, maybe they are admiring your smooth fur?"
Mars gave stopped and gave a glance around which made the curious looks fade a bit before he walked onward towards the guild where they arrived a couple of minutes later
"sure is busy..."
Mars looked around the busy guild and saw most people was gathering around the request board and the receptions desks
"let"s try the requests first..."
Mars decided to line up to the request board and soon he could see out some off the request which was mostly bandit subjugation and guard request for merchant caravans going to various cities and towns, but it was another kind of request that caught Mars"s attention mostly because they had his name on them and took a closer look
"what have we here?"
---Training request---
place: the guild training yard
time/duration: not set
subject: I humbly ask for guidance in swordsmans.h.i.+p form the master named Mars
reward: 500 cel
requester: Jack
"well would you look at that..."
Mars gave a slight smile as he felt his dragon like pride being rubbed the right way for once by being called "master" and walked away form the request board and scanned the the guild for Jack and soon found him sitting with his back to him in the cafeteria with some other iron ranks and walked over, on the way he could pick up some of their conversation
"I tell you Jim, it"s true just ask anyone there was here yesterday"
"I don"t know Jack..."
"come on man, when have I ever lied to you?"
"that"s right Jim, Jack is as honest as they get these days"
"not you too Lina... fine if this so called sword master shows up we can ask him, but i"m not paying 500 cel just for some training"
"heh... that"s your loss then Jim"
Mars got the gist of what they were talking about and walked up and gave Jack a clap on the shoulder with a smile on his face
"hey Jack"
"oh there you are Mars, we were just talking about you! this is Jim and Lina"
Jim was a human man while Lina was a demon woman, both greeted Mars with some awe and doubt in their eyes
"nice to meet you... by the way Jack?"
"y-yes?"
Mars put some force into the grip he had on Jack"s shoulder
"when did I tell you it was okay to plaster my name all over the guild request board?"
"...sorry"