Nina's Discipline

Within a Foreign Nation

Within a Foreign Nation

"The clothes are a bit loose, but at least they fit. The blood stains are a bit unfortunate." Erec frowned as he pulled at the borrowed tunic and trousers that he had pilfered from the dead soldier that Manon had left in the cargo hold. Most of the blood had stained his armor, which had been pushed overboard with the body after Erec had taken the nondescript clothing he had worn beneath. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than continuing to walk around half naked as he had been.

The prince frowned as he came up on deck from the cargo hold and spotted his sister. His eyes bounced up and down with her movements as she crouched low and came back up again repeatedly. There was sweat on her brow and pain on her face as her leg muscles shook with each dip. She was holding out her arms directly in front of her and they had formed into fists as she resisted the urge to let them drop.

"What are you doing?" He asked, frowning.

She came up slowly, panting. "Squats." She dropped down again.

"Okay. Why?"

"Because Nina told me to." Up. Down.

"Okay." Erec frowned over into the cabin where Nina was busy removing the patches and staining the red from the dead soldier's jacket so that Erec could wear it. Since Nina and Manon would be playing the roles of his sister, and Nina was 'married' to the husband they were traveling towards, he had to keep wearing his own jacket. Nina was wearing her 'husbands' and Manon was wearing their 'fathers', therefore Erec hadn't given his jacket to anyone.

Frowning, Erec walked towards the cabin and leaned against the doorway so he could watch her for a moment as she stained away all the red in the coat, turning it black. She was very focused on her task, but she still noticed his presence without looking up.

"Did you need something, your highness?"

"Why is Manon doing squats?"

"Well," she lifted up the jacket to begin inspecting it for any missed red, "as this ship is rather small, I'm limited on the exercises that I can set her to perform. Squats are excellent for building lower limb strength and having her hold her arms up like that will build her upper limb strength. It seemed to me a perfect solution for our restrictions."

"That makes sense," he nodded along. "Did not at all answer my question though. Why is Princess Manon doing squats on the deck?"

"Well, I don't mind where she does it. I think she likes the wind in her hair."

"Nina." He gave her a look until she turned over to catch his eye. "Stop not answering my questions."

She shrugged, getting to her feet. "Manon wanted to learn how to fight. I've agreed to teach her."

"Wait. What?" Erec shook his head in confusion. Nina pushed his jacket against his chest and he reached up to grab onto it reflexively. His mind was reeling though. "What do you mean she wanted to learn how to fight? We're talking about my sister, right?"

Nina looked past him out to where Manon was struggling to lift herself up again. This most recent squat was weighing too heavily for her and as they watched she collapsed down onto the deck. Her chest heaved greatly as her arms twitched in pain. Erec flinched in sympathy because he could remember going through the same when he first began training.

"She's rather dedicated. Who knew she had it in her?" Nina grinned, almost proud of her student. In an odd kind of way. It was nothing she ever expected to feel towards Manon, of all people.

"Uh-huh..." Erec continued blinking at his sister for a long moment before letting his eyes fall to the side and look at Nina while she was focused on something else.