Barbed Lives ☑️

37. Valazire

"You said you wanted all youngsters in your team."
I huffed doing crunches with our sweet bitch glaring at me from a corner of the gym while being a punching bag for Kelly.

"I still say that."
Neil defended himself strongly.

"Then what is Instructor Charles doing amongst us?"
I whispered not wanting the old man hearing me and pulling my name up on his hit list.
"He's here to monitor us. Young blood needs an older whip. There has to be someone to keep us all in check."
Neil said panting doing burpees.

"And you decided to appoint the most merciless man on earth for this job?"
My hands were on my chest while I continued with my crunches.
I wanted to punch him for this.

"Hardest men produce strongest warriors." He replied with a grunt.
"Yeah. Hardest. He's so hard to please we'll die waiting for the day he says Well done. "

"But the day he'll say that, you'll know that you've actually done well." He stopped and waited for me to finish my counts.

"Are you not scared of Charles? You tend to get on his nerves when we try to stay at a distance from him. Well you do that with everyone, but I thought you were smart enough to not mess with him in particular. Doesn't look like you're even a bit afraid of him."

"That's because I'm not."
He replied confidently and turned around. I had to confirm whether he was a human or a robot.

"Do you fear anyone here?"
"No."

"The Commander?"
"No."

Well ofcourse. If he had even a pinch of fear from Commander, he'd never gift him a lip cut. I should have seen that answer coming.

"Is there anyone on this earth that you're scared of?"
I asked him getting up and he stopped walking.
He turned back to me with a serious face.

"My Valazire."
His voice was a whisper.

"Lazy, what?"
I asked and Neil held his breath.

And then he laughed - loudest that I had ever heard from him.

"La... Laz..."
He couldn't complete the word without controlling his laughter and clutched his stomach tight.

After an eternity, he took a few deep breaths and then said "Anything, but lazy."
Then he got serious as if he didn't just have a heart wrenching laugh.

"Who's he?"
"My trainer, teacher, mentor, guardian.. anything you want to call him."

"I thought princes get to enjoy their parents' powers."
I asked pulling his leg.

"At other places - may be. But at my place - it's a cursed thing to be born as a prince."
He sighed.

"Is your kingdom that bad?"
I mean why would he call it cursed, leave his throne and join military?

"No! The kingdom is great! The people are pure hearted and loyal. The king and his men are committed towards the common folks."

"Then what's wrong with being a prince?"
"Preparation to become the next king."

"And this lazy guy taught you how to be the king.. What did you say... Valazy?"
"Valazire. Yes he did."

"And I have a feeling that he's not a very sweet person."
"Opposite. He has more power over the prince than king himself. He'll mould him, teach him every single thing a king should be doing, train him to become the strongest fighter in the entire kingdom, detach him from all personal feelings and drown him completely into committing his people, all the while keeping him in his place, but not letting the crown get into his head."
He said last part with closed eyes.