A Workout and a Date
Catherine and Lily returned to their estates around the end of summer.
Before leaving, they told me they’d send me a letter and asked me to reply. They also added that if I got bored in Eristirol, I should come visit.
They were quite greedy for talent in many ways.
“By the way, Young Master, what on earth is this…?”
“I thought we could do some exercise together for once. Sophia, you’ve never really done any exercise before, have you? I figured we could build up your stamina together.”
Kyle had suddenly dragged me to the training hall, and I was a little taken aback.
Since he’d grown older, we hadn’t had time to exercise together.
“So what kind of exercise are you planning?”
There were many kinds of exercise. Sports, bodyweight training, yoga, Pilates—there were endless options.
But which one was he thinking of?
Was he trying to build stamina with some aerobic exercise?
“Let’s start with some stretching first.”
“Yes…”
I was a servant receiving training from my master. It felt strange, but since Kyle had suggested it first, I had no choice but to follow.
Anyway, I began stretching according to Kyle’s instructions.
At first it was ordinary stretching, but gradually the stretches grew more difficult.
“Ugh… haaah…”
Like this, turning around to each other and stretching our waists while holding each other’s arms…
“Young Master… this is…?”
*Crunch… crack…*
“Hyaah…”
It was difficult, but it definitely worked well.
Every time I stretched, there were a lot of those cracking sounds.
But the problem was that it felt like I was using up all my stamina on the stretching.
Did my stamina really become this weak?
It was truly terrible.
“Sophia, turn around.”
“Yes…”
And in the next move, following Kyle’s words, I turned my body in the opposite direction.
Kyle suddenly lifted me up!
“Eh… Young Master?”
I didn’t understand why he was suddenly lifting me.
If he wanted to lift something heavy, wouldn’t it be better for me to lift a dumbbell instead of me?
“Why are you suddenly lifting me?”
“Hmm…”
“Young Master…?” Kyle held me up without saying a word.
It felt like some kind of couple’s exercise.
Was this how couple exercises were done?
“Eh… how long do I have to keep this up?”
Two minutes? Three?
Anyway, I stayed still while being held by Kyle.
He wasn’t trying to do anything harmful to me; he was just holding me up, so there was no reason to resist.
“Young Master, please put me down.”
It was a little scary because my feet weren’t touching the ground yet.
I wished he’d put me down sooner.
“…I just wanted to try lifting you once. Sorry.”
“…?”
Anyway, Kyle lowered me back down.
He wanted to try lifting me once? What did that mean?
Did I look heavy?
Or had I gained some weight?
“Eh… did I gain weight? Is that why you lifted me?”
“No. I just wanted to try lifting you once. Let’s continue with the exercise.”
“Yes…”
I still didn’t quite understand, but we started the exercise anyway.
The exercise Kyle and I did was ordinary.
Ordinary bodyweight exercise.
Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, burpees, planks—nothing fancy.
It was so plain that it was almost boring.
“Haaah… huuuh… Young Master, how long do we have to keep this up…?”
I kept the squat position.
There was a time when Kyle had made me exercise before. Had he felt this way back then?
It was truly exhausting.
Truly exhausting!
“Young… Master… huuuh…”
“…Let’s do just one more set.”
One set?!
Here?
More?
My legs were already shaking.
If I did more here, my legs would surely give out.
Absolutely.
“Young… Master… could you let me rest just once…?”
“No. Your stamina has dropped too much lately.”
“Huuuh… Young Master…”
“Just fifteen more seconds and you can rest.”
“Huuuuh…”
It was truly filthy hard.
If I had known, I would have made Kyle go easy on me when he was young.
If I had known I’d be punished for it, I wouldn’t have done that…
“Hah… haaah… uwaah…”
“From now on, when you have time on weekdays, it seems we should set aside time for exercise like this, Sophia.”
“Young Master… how about once every two weeks…?”
“Three times a week.”
“That sounds like it really won’t work…”
“Then how about a date together?”
“Eh?”
“A date. A date.”
Why a date all of a sudden?
Did Kyle need to go on a date with me?
Why?
“I just wanted to spend time with a good woman.”
“Eh…”
He wanted to spend time with a good woman, but I didn’t understand why he was bringing me up.
If it was a good woman, wouldn’t Elin be better?
“There must be other good women around.”
“The only close person around is you, Sophia.”
That was true.
I wasn’t as close to Elin or Louise as I was to myself.
If I had to pick a close woman, it would be me.
“Well, it doesn’t matter.”
If it meant I could avoid today’s hellish exercise, I would do anything.
It was that hard.
After all, I had gone out with Kyle a few times and toured the village, so it wasn’t a problem.
“Then let’s do a date starting next week.”
“Yes…”
More than that, I was feeling so tired right now.
I didn’t know when it had been the last time I’d properly exercised since my twenties.
At the very least, it had been two or three years.
“Young Master, it’s getting hard… could you at least give me some water…?”
“Ah, here. I’ll feed you.”
“Eh… thank you…?”
Kyle brought the water bottle to my mouth and I drank it as it was.
Because I was so exhausted, my body lacked strength, so it was actually more comfortable to sit and drink.
Baby birds always open their mouths to be fed by their parents.
It was truly comfortable.
“Glug… glug… glug… hah… haaah… thank you…”
“…Time has passed a lot. I have to go to class. Sophia, are you going to the bath?”
“Yes. I’ve sweated so much, after all.”
“Then shall we walk to the bath together? After all, we’ll overlap until the middle.”
That was true.
After passing the bath, there was the classroom where Louise and Kyle had class.
I stood up and walked down the corridor with Kyle until we parted at the bath.
We had said we’d do exercise together, but in the end it felt like I had done it alone.
“Haa… it’s so filthy hard…”
Inside the bath, trying to take off my clothes was also difficult.
Tomorrow I was sure to have muscle soreness.
Truly.
“Uwaah!!”
The sweaty shirt was so damp when I tried to take it off.
If it was this damp, Kyle’s nose must have smelled it.
It was a little embarrassing…
No matter what, even if I had been a man in my previous life, it was unavoidable.
After all, if a man’s sweat smell was noticed by those around him, it was a bit much, wasn’t it?
It couldn’t be helped.
“Well, it happened because Kyle made me exercise.”
It didn’t seem to be my fault.
I hadn’t asked to exercise.
Kyle had suddenly suggested it, so I had done it.
“By the way, a date…”
I was someone who hadn’t experienced a date until now.
It turned out my first date was with Kyle.
When he said he just wanted to spend time with a good woman, it seemed like he just didn’t want to be alone.
“Has Kyle never gone on a date before?”
What I had done with him so far wasn’t really a date.
It was just the servant and I touring the village.
So when Kyle suggested it, it wasn’t really a date?
In the end, I was going with the servant?
“Um…”
If I just said we were going out to play, he would have gone.
Did he have to put on a show with the word “date”?
“Well, Kyle is old enough now and wanted to put on a show.”
But he couldn’t just ask any woman out on a date.
That was really tail-chasing.
Since I understood the situation, there was no problem, but if he had said that to other young ladies, they would have been overjoyed.
“Ah.”
He was probably trying to do a pre-practice date with me before trying with other young ladies.
That was why he had brought up the word “date” this time.
As expected of me.
Amazing deductive power.
“This is exactly the top of the academy.”
By the way, in a few months Kyle would truly become an adult.
It was strangely fascinating that the child I had raised halfway would become an adult.
Was this the feeling of a parent?
The age difference was basically older sister and younger brother, though.
“Hmmm…”
Anyway, I had gotten my first date.
Turning twenty-four and only now having my first date was a little sad, but on the other hand, I was happy.
After all, it was a date.
It wasn’t a date that made my heart race because the other person was Kyle, but the act of dating itself seemed fun.
“I can’t borrow clothes… there’s no one whose size fits…”
I was truly angry.
How was I supposed to live with this lump of fabric?
Because I lived in formal wear, I was uncomfortable every day, and I had to order underwear every time.
The shop had no sizes, they said.
“Ugh…”
What could I do?
I had no choice but to order from another region.
By letter, too!
Thanks to that, it took an incredibly long time for the underwear to arrive!
If the size was a little small, I would just have to wear it.
It took an incredibly long time to send it back and wait for the new one to arrive…
So the underwear I was wearing now was actually about half a size too small.
“Before going out with Kyle, I should buy some clothes.”
It might be nice to go shopping with Louise or Elin.
After all, the women in the castle were closest to those two.