I'll Show You, the Completely Changed Me (1)
Patrick, discovered by the children, lay bedridden for three full days after that. After nearly ten days of suffering, he reached one conclusion.
“At this rate, I really won’t die of old age.”
Right. He had to accept what needed accepting. This body was F-rank, defective, a lemon—any bad descriptor fit it perfectly.
‘Back at the tower, it might’ve been fine…’
By nature, mages weren’t bound by physical stamina. They only overworked their minds; what reason did they have to strain their bodies? Their virtue lay in shutting themselves in the lab, never seeing sunlight, buried in research and meditation. Physical labor? Please. That was for knights.
“But the situation has changed.”
Unlike the old days when labeling potion bottles was enough, his circumstances were different now. Look at what had already happened. The roof nearly collapsed after just two days of rain, and three months of crops almost washed away. Thankfully, nothing else went wrong after he drained the field, so even while groaning with a cold, he got through it. But what if something else had happened?
‘What if the shed collapsed, or a window broke, or the chicken coop fell apart?’
With a fever burning so hot he could barely walk three steps, he wouldn’t have had the strength to fix anything. He would’ve watched his property vanish in chunks, shedding bloody tears.
‘I went through all that trouble to save those things!’
So what he needed to do was simple. Build up his stamina before something like that happened again!
“First, I need a plan.”
He thought he’d left behind the days of exercising just to survive in his previous life, yet here he was again. Grumbling endlessly about his fate, his hands kept moving. He was making a plan.
The goal wasn’t to become some intimidating muscle-bound brute. He wanted solid, practical muscle—compact and functional, not flashy.
“Still, I can’t suddenly increase the workload. My body won’t handle it.”
One wrong move and he might exercise for a day only to spend the next week bedridden. Excessive training right now was just labor, not progress.
“They say half of fitness is diet…”
He needed to increase protein in his meals, but that was where the problem started.
‘Where am I supposed to get plenty of protein? Eggs are about all I can manage.’
Thanks to the generous villagers, he got the occasional taste of meat, but it was never enough for three solid meals a day. He’d have to catch as many fish as possible.
‘Can’t help what I don’t have, so I’ll just do my best with what I do.’
From today on, he’d need to check the traps regularly again.
“Why does the work never end?”
Once the meal plan was roughly settled, he started on the exercise schedule.
‘Equipment’s pointless in my current state anyway.’
He didn’t have the money to buy expensive iron and commission a blacksmith, so it was just as well. It would take time to adapt to bodyweight exercises anyway, so at least for the foreseeable future, he wouldn’t need to spend anything.
“For now, I should start with some light running.”
Objectively, what Patrick lacked most was cardiovascular endurance. He got tired too quickly and gave up because his heart and lungs were weak. Luckily, running required nothing but willpower. It was the perfect exercise for someone with almost nothing.
“I’ll rest today and start tomorrow…”
That didn’t mean he was starting today. Exercise was always “starting tomorrow,” wasn’t it?
Kokki-o—! Kok-kok-kok! Kwak-kwak-kwak-kwak-kwak!
The chickens and ducks provided a fantastic alarm.
“Agh! Those damn featherbrains!”
His mood was the worst, but the birds’ alarm worked perfectly. They stayed outside, moved too fast for a mage to catch, and had lungs like foghorns. There was no way to stay asleep. If they hadn’t crowed, he could’ve made the excuse, “Oh dear, I overslept. Guess I’ll have to start exercising tomorrow!” So of course it annoyed him.
“……Guess I have to go. I’m going, I’m going.”
After briefly considering pretending he hadn’t heard them, Patrick steeled himself and crawled out of bed. Laziness might’ve been his middle name, but the fear of dying young was stronger.
“If I start running all of a sudden, my body will freak out. Hup, hup.”
He swung his arms, rolled his neck, rotated his wrists and ankles. He spun his waist and hips in circles. Even for a twenty-year-old body, his joints protested loudly, so he needed a proper stretch before jogging.
“Hoo— Let’s go! Hup-two, hup-two!”
After one deep breath, he started walking toward the faint light of dawn. Summer was beginning, but the morning air was still cool. A pleasant breeze brushed his face.
‘I’ll reach the village in no time at this pace.’
The village was a twenty-to-thirty-minute walk away. At this speed, maybe he could get there in under ten minutes?
‘Should I make an hourglass and time myself?’
People who loved exercise apparently kept going just for the fun of beating their records.
‘Worth thinking about.’
Stepping forward with bright, hopeful determination, he soon found himself gasping.
“Huff, huff, huff……!”
After the downhill slope leveled out, he’d barely covered a few dozen meters before his breathing turned ragged. He knew he should breathe through his nose, but it wasn’t a matter of knowing—it was that he physically couldn’t.
“……Urgh! ……Huff! Wheeze, wheeze, huff, huff…… Urgh!”
Even Patrick was surprised. He’d known his stamina was poor, but this bad?
‘Still, I’ve been working the fields and everything, haven’t I?’
He’d spent hours under the blazing sun every day, so why did running just a few minutes make his heart feel like it was about to leap out of his mouth? He desperately wanted to sit down and rest. Yet, strangely, his legs kept moving.
‘I may not have stamina, but…… I’ve got pride……!’
The words the children had once said echoed in his mind.
— Aren’t you guys tired, coming here every day?
— Huh? Tired of what?
— It’s pretty far from the village to my house.
— Nah, if we all run together it’s quick!
— ……You run? From the village all the way here?
— Yeah! Running around the mountains and fields is just part of our day.
Of course kids who ran everywhere had good endurance, but somehow it had become an unspoken standard he couldn’t ignore as their teacher.
‘I’m getting to the village even if I have to crawl……!’
He couldn’t give up on the very first day. He might not finish running, but quitting wasn’t an option.
— Bleeeeurgh!
“What in the world is that sound?”
Halmae, tending the flowerbed while listening to her sons prepare breakfast, frowned at the noise coming from beyond the gate.
“Who’s that?”
Anyone retching against someone else’s wall at this hour had clearly been drinking all night. Tossing the watering can aside, she grabbed a broom and stepped outside.
“Drinking all night and now you’re sick! Shante, it’s you, isn’t it?”
She called out the name of the village’s biggest drunkard, but the sight that greeted her was nothing like what she expected.
“S-sorry…… Bleeeeurgh!”
“The mage, sir?”
His face was flushed red as he dry-heaved. It didn’t look like he’d been drinking.
“……Are you sick?”
Why did he look half-dead?
‘I made it!’
More precisely, he’d reached the village! Even though he’d only run less than a third of the way, he hadn’t given up despite his trembling legs. If there’d been a system window, it probably would’ve given him a reward. Well, if the world didn’t hand out free rewards, he’d just make his own.
Finally catching his breath, Patrick looked up at Halmae, who was staring down at him with concern.
“Um…… Could I have some breakfast……?”
“Eggg, I told you to eat slower. Nobody’s gonna steal it from you!”
“It’s just so good!”
It had been a long time since someone else cooked for him. The table was piled with fresh, warm, delicious food, and Patrick’s eyes were practically spinning.
“So, what was all that earlier? Do you have some kind of chronic illness?”
“Ah, no, I was just doing some exercise.”
“Exercise?”
“Training, I mean.”
“……Didn’t you say you were a mage?”
Halmae looked at him like she couldn’t understand, thanks to her preconceptions about mages.
“I am. But I think I need to improve my stamina. As you know, I’m pretty weak.”
“Aah—so doing that training makes your stamina go up. I thought you were trying to become a soldier or something at this point.”
The idea that ordinary people exercised regularly just to improve their health wasn’t as old as one might think. That was why Halmae’s reaction was so lukewarm.
‘I don’t get why anyone would move around like that on purpose. All it does is make you hungrier.’
Still, she figured a highly educated mage must have some deeper reason. Watching him vomit hadn’t exactly inspired confidence, but he was the type who was clumsy at everything anyway.
“So, you’re saying you’ll be running again tomorrow?”
“Yes. I’m planning to do it at least five times over the next seven days.”
Then Halmae’s second son chimed in.
“I used to work as a soldier. We did a lot of running drills back then.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Now, this might sound a little rude, sir, but……”
The second son spoke carefully, worried he might offend the mage who had already become an important figure in the village.
“New recruits don’t do running drills that often. If you suddenly use muscles you haven’t used in a while, you’ll be sore all over the next day……”
“That’s why I’m going to do calisthenics.”
“Calisthenics?”
“Yes. Would you like me to show you later?”
He knew how important stretching after exercise was. ‘I’ve got it all figured out.’ He might’ve forgotten a few moves, but there was one perfect routine for this situation. Since he’d finished eating, and he knew he needed to stretch if he wanted to crawl out of bed tomorrow, Patrick dragged the younger son outside to demonstrate.
‘It’ll be less boring if someone’s doing it with me.’
Stepping into the yard, Patrick shouted loudly.
“Dosu Chejo—starting with leg exercises—!”