"Survive? Nah, I won't teach you how to do that. You don't need to learn how to survive, from what I know about you and what you have told me. You were living in the forest alone for over 3 months, right?"
"Well, yes, but…"
"No buts. What you need to learn isn't how to survive; you know plenty of that. Instead, what you must learn… is to kill." Adam said cutting Kleos off.
"To kill?" asked Kleos, wide-eyed.
"Yes, but we'll talk about that tomorrow. After we sleep, for now I'm glad you have decided to stay with me."
I wanted to talk more with him.
Though Kleos didn't know that there was no reason to waste his energy on something like that, since the man was already snoring.
He really is a dad, isn't he?
***
"Kleos, wake up!" shouted Adam
"mm hmm mmm." Kleos murmured as he opened his eyes and began rubbing them.
"You want me to train you, don't you? Well, get up; let's eat breakfast."
"Oh yes, sir." Kleos said with a still sleepy voice.
The house was bringing Kleos some sort of fuzziness in his stomach, even though he had only slept there for 2 nights. It was still, for some reason, very cozy to him. Perhaps it was Adams's shown kindness or the atmosphere of the house, maybe even the childlike state of his mind, caused by him being in the body of a 3-year-old.
Getting up, he smelled something that made his mouth water; it was monster meat. The amount of monster meat Kleos had consumed was slightly frightening for a child.
And for some reason it always filled him with some happiness to consume the damn bull or one of the wolves. Perhaps some of the royal craziness had rubbed off on him.
I remember when we were camping in the woods during the war everything would taste better, especially anything I would hunt. But nothing has ever tasted as good as the damn monsters.
"That's monster bull meat, isn't it?" asked Kleos
"Y-yeah, how'd you know? … Don't tell me this is what you've been eating all this time? It's a yellow heart, and you were killing these for consumption?"
"Yeah, I was using traps and stuff. Well, towards the end I didn't have to use traps, but their meat was the tastiest."
"You're one strong brat, aren't you?"
"Am I?"
"Yeah, and that's good; I'll be able to train you even further if you have this much talent at only 3."
***
"Alright, the first thing you should start doing is developing your body. Now this doesn't mean that you should haul heavy weight or anything like that. But you need to go on a run every morning to develop better stamina. So let's go ahead and run for a little bit. I'll go slower than usual. Try to keep up."
Just like that, Adam began to jog, with Kleos following close behind him. He seemed to be going towards the town gate. They passed by stalls, houses, and yards.
Wait, wait, wait. What's this? THIS IS LIGHT JOGGING? I'M SPRINTING AND FEEL LIKE COLLAPSING.
I'll have to use mana to keep up.
As a purple aura began to emanate from Kleos's legs, he sped up and managed to catch up to the fleeting figure of Adam.
"Oh, you can do that? Then I think I should speed up." Said Adam
Then his figure was suddenly 100 meters in front.
"WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY?" Kleos screamed out loud by accident, making some heads turn his way.
"Isn't that the kid who was with Adam's family when they died?" Whispers such as this echoed throughout, forcing Kleos to speed up, as the more disgusted stares he got, the more exposed he felt. So, adding more mana to his legs, he bolted, finally catching up to Adam once again. Who thankfully didn't add more speed to himself this time.
But this didn't last long since, as soon as they reached the gate, Adam looked back and saw a kid tumbling and rolling across the ground. He didn't get to dodge, and this kid slammed into his knees, and there was a spray of blood.
"Ah crap, Kleos, are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, I'm... I'm fine. But I'm nearly out of mana, and my legs feel like they're going to explode."
"Maybe I overestimated you. It's ok; you are three after all."
"It's not ok; that damn cat needs to die."
"What cat? Oh never mind, I remember that cursed cat does need to die." Replied Adam but then continued, "Wait, you're bleeding, aren't you? You hit your head against my knees; let me take you to the doctor."
"No, it's okay, I don't bleed easily. It's too pedestrian."
"Pedestrian?" Adam asked while looking at the crazy kid. But when he knelt to check on the boy. There truly wasn't any blood on him. Or if there was, it had vanished, and the wound had healed.
Then he checked his knees to see if they had generated the blood. But obviously not; it had barely even hurt after all.
But the kid still couldn't move, and it was technically his fault, so he picked up Kleos and put him on his neck. Which made Kleos feel like he was a kid again, with his father.
Slowly they walked back towards the house, where he left Kleos. But before he could exit the house, Kleos asked.
"Where are you going, sir?"
"I'm going for a run, and I want to buy some stuff for your training."