"It's time to get up."

I pulled my blankets over my head and grumbled as I tried to go back to sleep. Suddenly, my blankets were yanked off me. That was new. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "What is it?" I mumbled as I looked toward my father. I blinked. Wait, this wasn't my room.

"It is time for training." Nash said.

I yawned and looked at the window. "It's still dark out." I noted.

"It is a perfect time for training." He said. "The air is cool so you do not overheat, and you get used to sub-par combat conditions."

"Oh, I take it Lacertians are warmblooded?" I asked.

"Pardon?" He asked.

"It means being able to maintain your internal body temperature without relying on outside sources of heat." I replied. "Nevermind, I just woke up and my brain is tired."

Nash stared at me for a few moments before he said, "Get dressed."

I got dressed, yawning all the while. "So, Nash, what's the world like outside of the city?" I asked. "Do dangerous creatures wander about, necessitating training in combat for survival?"

"Yes." He said. "Though most simply hire Adventurers to make travel safer."

"Huh." I sounded. "Do these Adventurers have some sort of gathering place, like a guild?"

"Yes." He replied. "Why ask when you clearly know so much?"

I finished getting dressed and said, "Because making assumptions without verifying them is dangerous." I crossed my arms. "If I made assumptions based on what I expected, but failed to take into consideration other factors, I would likely get myself killed, or worse."

He nodded approvingly. "You are not as foolish as I thought." He remarked.

"Oh, I'm plenty foolish." I said. "I just know I'm a fool."

He chuckled. "Then you are wiser than some." He stated. "Everyone is a fool."

"But even knowing I am a fool does not mean I am wise." I replied.

He gestured for me to follow him, and I did. He kept an eye on me. "You are... strangely unconcerned with finding yourself in such an unfamiliar place." He noted.

"On the inside, I'm freaking out." I said. "I just know that being outward about it is stupid. Besides, I'm familiar enough with the concept of this world that I can make some reasonable assumptions, it's just a matter of finding out how many of those assumptions are correct. Plus..." I looked to my left, "...compared to what my life was like before, this is a relief. I mean, sure, I could get by without really having to do anything, I lived in one of the wealthier nations and received welfare that at least allowed me to contribute toward buying food for the family, but... I always felt like something was missing, that my life was this unrealized mess of stupid situations." I paused and looked at Nash. "Uh, sorry for unloading on you like that."

"Were you in a bad home?" He asked.

"Not really." I said. "It's complicated, and I'd rather not get into it."

"I see..."

We stepped into an open courtyard, though it was surrounded on all sides by the rest of the building. The air was slightly chilly, but it wasn't bad. I noticed we weren't the only ones out here, I could see Cier watering some flowers.

"It's a bit early for tending the garden." I remarked.

Cier looked at us before walking over to us. He raised his left hand to his chest and bowed. "Nash asked that I be present this morning, sura." He said.

"Let me guess, you're some sort of battle butler who Nash wants me to fight so he can gauge my skills so he can figure out where I need improvement." I remarked.

"An apt summation." Cier said just before time seemed to freeze.

'What the hell..?' I raised my hand, and time seemed to resume. Cier punched me, hitting my raised arm and making me stumble backwards.

"He is sluggish, but with quick reflexes." Cier said as he pulled off his white gloves and put them in his pocket. Time froze again, and I realized that this must have been my special ability. I couldn't move without causing time to resume, but it seemed to be triggered by someone attacking me. Considering the distance between us, he was likely going to charge at me and punch. I decided to raise my arms in a block and move to the right. I managed to dodge Cier's punch, which got a startled reaction from him. I decided to take a swing at him, though it was like hitting a brick wall. I sucked my teeth and shook my hand.

"Opportunistic, but weak." Cier said as he stood to his full height. "That punch would lay out a lesser man, but one such at I..." Time froze again, and I paid attention to how he stood. His right arm was tense, it was likely he was going to take another swing at me, likely either from the side or from below. I leapt forward, toward his left arm and tackled him, taking advantage of his being off balance after the punch to make him stumble backward. Time froze again, but I couldn't see any obvious signs of how he would attack. I decided to raise my arms in a block and he punched me with his left fist. While it stung, it wasn't too terrible. It was then that I was blindsided by a kick to my right leg, at the knee, which caused me to fall.

"That is enough." Nash said. "What is your opinion, Cier?"

Cier started putting his gloves back on, as he did, he said, "The only thing that may help him survive in combat is his quick reflexes and his resistance toward harmful magic, but beyond that, he is weak, unskilled. He has lived a soft life, akin to that of a young lord who has spent his life hidden from the world. He is a target, and what little training you can offer in the short time he is likely to stay here will do little to help."

"He is resistant to harmful magic? Perhaps then he would actually survive the trials necessary to unlock his talent?" Nash asked.

"It is unlikely." Cier said. "The physical exhaustion alone would likely kill him." I stood up, winced at the pain in my knee, but I kept standing. Cier looked at me, his eyes narrowed. "Then again, he may be more resilient than I give him credit for." He faced me. "Might I ask how you're able to stand?"

I smirked. "I'm used to pain." I replied. I decided not to tell them about the time stop thing, even though I was a guest, it wasn't out of anything more than a weird curse being concerning enough that I had to be held here.

"If you can stand, then it means you can train." Nash said. "Your words are kept in mind, Cier, you are dismissed." Cier bowed to Nash before departing. Nash looked at me and said, "We will start with running around the courtyard. Show me how well you run."

I didn't bother with half-assing, but I didn't try to run full-sprint. I ran faster than I was comfortable with, but not too hard that I'd tire out too easily. We ran four times around the courtyard before I needed to stop and take a breath.

"Good." Nash said. "You are capable of pacing yourself, you may yet have what it takes to survive in this world." He held his hand out and water appeared as a sphere above it. I presumed he had condensed the water in the air into the sphere, which wobbled in the air above his hand. "Drink." He said.

I slurped up the water, which was more pure than what came out of the water filter back home.

I took long, deep breaths rather than quick, shallow ones as I rested, my knee ached, but when Nash told me to run again, I ignored it and pressed on. After a few more laps, I couldn't continue, I bent over, gasping for breath.

Nash laughed as he roughly clapped my back. "You did well, for a soft Human." He said. "I've met princelings who couldn't handle more than three laps around a courtyard this size."

"I may be out of shape..." I gasped. "...but I do know how to pace myself." I sat down and tried to calm my breathing. "I used to just full-on sprint, but I realized it only made things worse. I had a teacher for physical education, which was a specific class for this school I went to. I was usually one of the last to finish running laps, but after I learned to pace myself, I usually finished toward the middle." I took a deep breath and held it for a few moments, then exhaled. "Of course, you had the assholes who could run the full four without slowing down. They just did it to show off... But that's in the past, I don't have to deal with them anymore."

"That is true." Nash remarked. "There is no indication of whether or not you can return to your world."

We sat in silence for a few moments, then I said, "I don't know what to make of you, Nash."

"How do you mean?" He asked.

"One moment you seem like you hate my guts, the next you're being friendly." I paused. "Well, at least you seem to try to be friendly."

He nodded. "It is because, even though you are, essentially a prisoner here, you are still a guest. My hostility, while not false, is a reaction to your actions, to show what you will expect from others of similar status. Consider it training."

"Alright, so what is your opinion of me?" I looked at Nash. "What kind of impression have I made?"

Nash looked thoughtful, and then he said, "The impression I have gotten is that you are a terrified Human in an unfamiliar place. Your calm demeanor is a lie, I can tell by how eagerly you distract yourself, by how readily you apologize for the smallest reason. You are acting calm, because anything else would leave you a screaming husk."

I pulled my knees up to my chest and leaned forward on them. "I guess you won't have made it this far if you couldn't tell that much." I remarked.

"Remember that anyone else would have taken advantage of you. You spoke of how there are many Gods on your world, and yet you do not know if they truly exist. The Temples would take you in, and they would indebt you to them, so that you would never leave their service. An educated Human would fetch a high price in the slave markets, there are those who would gleefully watch as a beast tore your apart for the simple fact that you are what they could never be."

"I figured." I muttered. "Nothing is as it would be in legends and stories."

"Well, I have also figured out something regarding you." Nash stated. "You are afraid of aligning yourself to others. You avoid any actions that could be construed as you pledging loyalty or fealty to anyone. That is why you are so hesitant to refer to my Lady as such."

I smirked. "I'd be lying if I said you were wrong, but I wasn't lying either when I said the phrase does carry some negative connotations."

Nash stood and took a few steps away from me. "I do not know how it is done in your world, but merely referring to nobility as 'my Lord' or 'my Lady' does not convey such loyalty, nor would any noble believe you pledging yourself to them. Usually, it is a drawn out process that requires magical contracts be made." He looked at me. "A contract cannot be made through coercion, consent is absolute. I could not, say, abduct a man's wife and force him to choose between pledging a contract and letting his wife die, it would not be binding, nor could my Lady force you to pledge such while you are a guest- or prisoner therein- within her walls. She is bound by divine law, and so long as she observes sacred hospitality, you are safe so long as you are reasonably polite."

"I see..." I said.

"Enough chatter, the day is young and you are still soft. We are not stopping until your limbs are incapable of movement!" He laughed.

"I don't think crippling me will work too well." I remarked. "There's pushing my limits, and there's pushing me to the point where I only injure myself."

"There is healing magic." He pointed out. "My Lady is a skilled healer, healing you from such comparatively light training would only be a minor distraction at worst." He crossed his arms. "Now, we've exercised your legs, now for your arms!"

I'd done weight training in P.E. before, I never really improved much, especially since nobody had been willing to consistently spot for me when I did lift weights. I always consistently did as little work as possible so that I could get a passing grade without too much issue. Nash proved to be the best spotter, and I honestly needed someone as earnest as he was, but after living a mostly sedentary lifestyle post-graduation, it was all I could do to even attempt to keep up.

For all his talk of making my limbs cease to respond, he didn't actually push me to the point of immobility, and allowed me to rest so that I could catch my breath or eat some food. This wasn't some anime where I could go through training through hell and come out like Charles Atlas or Batman, I only pressed on with it for two reasons: Nash was not likely to let me just sit around and do nothing, and I knew that a fantasy world such as this could be extremely dangerous.

I remembered reading a story of how a DM had gotten tired of their players complaining about fighting giant rats, because it was boring. Their solution had been to have their players create NPC class characters, your typical blacksmith, the average town guard, the herbalist who could do some healing magic... He had them play an entire town's worth of NPCs, not at once, of course, and had them try to tackle the giant rats by themselves.

Needless to say, each group tried to kill the rats, and failed, until there were no more townspeople. It had ended with the players making a typical Adventurer party and stumbling upon a deserted town, only learning shortly after that the entire town had died to giant rats.

As I was now, I was little more than an NPC who happened to have the ability to freeze time in combat and use it to give myself time to react, that coupled with an apparent resistance to harmful magic, I could maybe survive if I was careful, but I couldn't afford to always be careful and look around every corner, lest a giant rat tear my insides out.

I needed to become just strong enough that I could handle myself, so that if I did end up fighting something, I could at least die putting up a halfway decent fight.

The bell rang thirteen times, which seemed to indicate lunch time. "Take a bath and meet me in the dining hall. Don't bother getting dressed up, my Lady is presently out and will not be back until dinner."

"What if she comes back early?" I asked.

"Then I will beg her pardon on your behalf." He said. "Now go, the baths are down the hall to the right, fifth door to the left."

I nodded and followed his directions to the baths. The room was large, with a huge pool for bathing. I'd always wanted to take a bath in a giant pool, so I got undressed and stepped in. The water was hot, but not too hot. I sat down and began to soak, enjoying the heat of the water...