The next morning, Aster swiftly stepped out of the castle gates with a look of excitement glinting in his eyes.

He could barely get a good sleep last night due to his bubbling excitement, so he had woken up a lot earlier than usual this morning.

Stepping out of the castle gates, a cool but soothing breeze brushed against his face as he stepped into the royal carriage with Hallie acting as his Coachman.

A few minutes later, they finally arrived at their destination and Aster stepped down from the carriage before strolling along the cobblestone pathway with Hallie trailing behind him.

'I'll finally be having my first-ever intense training as a warrior in this world.' Aster uttered in his thoughts.

'Of course, all my other training up to this point hadn't been easy, but I feel like this one will be a lot more intense compared to the other ones. After all, I'll be training with knights so I expect a Knight's training to be just as intense as the ones I've seen and watched in movies back home.'

'But come to think of it.'

'I'm really about to train as a knight.'

'I mean, I'm really, REALLY about to train, like a real knight.'

'This isn't a movie kind of training but a real training as a knight.'

'Ohh, this is so amazing. I can't wait to get started!!'

'Wait a minute, since we're in a demon continent, and the knights are spirits who are familiars of the dragon queen, does this mean that the training will be a lot different from what I've seen in movies?'

'Hmm, I wonder if it will be more or less intense than the movies I've watched.'

'Nah, it's definitely going to be intense.'

'Oh well, that doesn't matter right now because I can't wait to see how my first day of training is going to turn out.'

Aster hastened his pace and the soft click of Hallie's heels echoed softly behind him.

Within seconds, Aster could finally see a massive structure looming ahead.

The fort had towering grey walls with reinforced gates and the beautiful banners of House Gremory.

Aster could also hear the sounds of men yelling as they echoed loudly from within the Garrison, even though he had arrived here very early in the morning.

He hadn't expected the knights to arrive so early in the morning but he was really pleased to see how hardworking his mother's knights were.

As he stepped through the gates of the Garrison, a wave of heat washed over him and he could see knights everywhere in the courtyard.

Some were training.

Others were sparring.

While the remaining knights were sweating due to the tough exercises they were doing.

The atmosphere looked like these knights were preparing for war and Aster could feel the tension in the air.

He blinked three successive times in awe because to his left, Aster noticed a squad of heavily muscled pumpkin-headed knights lifting gigantic stone boulders twice their size.

His jaw almost dropped to the ground when he noticed their veins bulging on their humanoid arms and many of them looked like they were in pain, but none of them seemed to be bothered by it because they all continued to chant one particular word as though they were singing a chorus.

"Muscle! Muscle! Muscle! MUSCLE!!"

'Don't tell me that they expect me to do something like that as well.' Beads of sweat began gathering at the top of his head as he watched the knights continue to lift the boulders. Then he cocked his head to his right to see a separate group of knights sprinting across a track.

Each of their footsteps shook the ground, but looking further ahead, Aster noticed some knights were practicing battle formations while rotating shields and spears with perfect, synchronized movements.

From the look of things, these knights were in perfect sync with each other and Aster couldn't help but be impressed by what he was seeing.

Noting the excited look on Aster's face, Hallie whispered with a knowing smile. "This place is amazing isn't it, Your Highness?"

Aster swiftly turned toward her with a nod, but before he could say anything, he suddenly heard a loud commanding voice come from the center of the training area.

"OI! YOU LOT! STOP POSING AND PUT YOUR BACKS INTO IT!! NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY!!"

"SIR!! YES SIR!!" The knights replied and Aster turned around to take a look at the source of the noise.

His eyes widened in surprise when he noticed a towering figure standing on top of a raised platform.

His body was thick and muscular, and he was dressed in a black training uniform that was stretched tight across his chest and around his arms.

He made a stomp to the ground and the ground shook, causing the men in front of him to feel terrified as they listened to the towering knight's orders.

"MOVE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! IF I SEE ANYONE SLOWER THAN A SLUG, I PROMISE TO MAKE SURE YOU RUN LAPS UNTIL YOUR LEGS FALL OFF!! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!!"

"YES!! CAPTAIN RIPPER SIR!!"

The knights replied in unison, and every single one of them moved faster than they had initially.

Hearing what the knights had called the towering knight, Aster instantly swallowed a gulp of saliva as he realized that he would be training under such a terrifying Captain.

Ripper turned around and his carved mouth widened into what seemed like a smile, the moment his gaze landed on Aster.

The Captain of the Jack-o'-lantern knights legion hopped down from the platform with surprising lightness for someone of his size.

Then he marched forward to meet Aster.

"Prince Astaroth, Welcome to the Garrison." Ripper bowed his head respectfully.

"Thank you."

"I'm the Captain of Her Majesty's Legion, and I heard you would like to train with us. Is that correct?" Ripper asked and everyone in the courtyard paused what they were doing to listen to what Aster and their captain were talking about.

"Yes, I am."

Ripper's grin widened even more. "That's good to hear because Her Majesty also told me that you would like to compete in the Tournament coming up two moons from now and she told me to, hmm, how did she put it? Ah yes…"

Ripper jabbed a thumb toward his chest as he continued. "She wants me to whip you into shape."

Right after he said this, three pumpkin knights suddenly appeared behind Ripper to flex their impressive muscles. "YEAH!!"

Seeing this, Aster wasn't sure if he should laugh or remain serious, but he certainly found it funny that three of the knights had suddenly appeared to flex their muscles.

Hallie lightly cleared her throat before speaking. "Ahem. Captain Ripper will be responsible for Your Highness's physical enhancement training and weapon mastery. So please, Your Highness, do not hesitate to ask him anything you would like to know."

Hearing this, Ripper nodded his head in agreement before lowering his gaze to Aster. "I heard you awakened your aura veins recently, Your Highness, and that you tried to hunt a prey without proper control of your aura, leading to you eating grass. That must have been quite embarrassing."

"Hey, it was my first time using it." Aster tried to defend himself, but his face was red in embarrassment, and seeing this, Ripper couldn't help but cackle loudly.

"Relax, Your Highness! You're not the first young demon to trip over his feet after awakening his aura pathways. It's happened to almost everyone, so there's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's not like you're a failure for doing that, but you'll probably be regarded as a failure if you try not to improve after that embarrassing mistake."

"Yeah, and that's why I'm here."

"GOOD!" Ripper slammed his fist into his palm, releasing a small explosion of sparks that startled half the knights nearby. "Then from today onward, you belong to the Jack-o'-Lantern Regiment for physical training. You'll be one of our muscle brothers."

"Muscle brothers?" Aster asked with a puzzled look, but Ripper's men yelled out behind him.

"YEAH!!!"

"HIS HIGHNESS IS NOW ONE OF US!!"

"A MUSCLE BROTHER!!"

"WELCOME TO THE BROTHERHOOD, BROTHER!!"

"YEAH!!!"

"MUSCLE!! MUSCLE!!! MUSCLE!!! MUSCLE!!!" The knights sang in a chorus while slamming their chests with their fists, but Ripper raised a hand above his head, and everyone fell silent immediately.

"Your Highness," he called and Aster drifted his gaze to him. "For today, we'll start simple before we move to the advanced techniques. You'll be learning three things."

Ripper held up three fingers.

"The first will be how to improve your combat stamina."

"The second will be focused on your fundamental knowledge and skills on weapons, and the third will be about Aura compression."

"Aura compression?" Aster said, repeating after Ripper because he was certain that he had done something similar on the day of his core awakening, so Aster was certain he knew a thing or two about it.

"Yes," Ripper replied. "It is the foundation of all Enhancers and the secret to lasting through long battles. It strengthens your core by forcing your aura to become denser."

Then he tapped his own chest as he continued.

"With enough compression cycles, your core will store twice… or even three times the aura it normally would and that will make you unstoppable on the day of the tournament."

Aster blinked. "So, aura compression helps me to increase the capacity of what my core can hold?"

"Yes, but it won't be easy. It will be hard, intense, and extremely painful." Then Ripper huffed proudly. "But don't worry, Your Highness. We'll take good care of you."

Behind him, three pumpkin knights cracked their knuckles and whispered:

"Muscle… muscle… muscle…"

While everyone else yelled "YEAH!!!!!!"

Aster smiled warmly and he couldn't help but feel touched by how eager everyone was to help him grow stronger.

His smile widened even more as the knights began singing their usual chorus in louder voices, but Ripper clapped his hands loudly and everyone turned silent.

"That's enough everyone. The Queen has granted us the honor of training her son. Now let's do our best to make him the strongest demon this continent has ever seen!!!!"

"Yeah!!!!!"

"Muscle!!! MUSCLE!! MUSCLE!!! MUSCLE!!!" The chorus continued once again and Aster couldn't help but wonder what he had really gotten himself into.

And just like that, the first day of his physical training began.

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