As the men began to form a square in the courtyard, not wanting to get punished by the marshal himself.
Justinian decided this was the best time to ask for another thing he had forgotten to mention.
"Oh... I forgot."
Justinian chuckled, raising his arm.
"What is it?" Lucan responded with irritation.
"You’ll be training me, too."
"What?"
Lucan tilted his head, shocked and offended at Justinian’s words; to him, this was an insult. For all he knew, Justinian was taking light of a soldier’s training; to him, a spoiled brat like him thinking he could handle his training was outrageous.
"Order declined, it’ll slow down the training, and most likely you won’t be able to catch up."
"I can handle it."
Justinian answers without hesitation, already tugging at his sleeves and removing his mantle, tossing it to one of the knights on standby.
And this wasn’t some fake act like his duke persona; this was real.
Because if you were a failing historian from another world, then you’d obviously pick up other jobs just to keep on living.
And those jobs? filled with a ton of heavy lifting and physical labour.
"This is an order."
Lucan sighed, gesturing Justinian to head to the courtyard with the other soldiers to begin their training.
"I won’t be going easy on you, my lord."
The knights, meanwhile, were ecstatic at the idea; the fact that Justinian, their soon-to-be commander in battle, was training with the others was a huge morale boost.
It meant their commander would know the struggles of war and be competent enough not to give suicidal orders.
"Sir Lucan."
"We’ll help with the training; no one else knows your training better than us."
One of the knights spoke, hand on his chest, the others following suit.
"Very well, I already expect you all to help anyway."
Justinian smiled at their response, leaving them and joining the soldiers in the courtyard. To them, he was just another soldier who was late and somehow got escorted by the marshal himself.
"Who is he?"
"Probably some nobody."
"He has odd hair, though."
The men began to murmur as Justinian took position beside them, by the front, in the utmost left, his unique and blessed physique surprising them.
"The duke himself will be training with you all, so I expect only the best."
Lucan shouted.
This caused the rest to look at each other in surprise.
"The duke himself?"
"Do you know his face?"
"They said he has red hair or something..."
"Like that one there?"
"Yeah, but he looks too competent to be the duke."
The simple remark made the entire formation laugh, after all, even Justinian’s army wasn’t immune to the negative rumours around him being a lazy, merciless ruler.
Lucan saw the reaction and smiled, taking it as an opportunity to make Justinian’s life hell and show the hardships of being a soldier.
And he did by not announcing who or where the duke is, to ensure Justinian doesn’t get special treatment or complacency.
"Alright!"
Lucan clapped.
"Thirty laps around the courtyard! and you sure as hell don’t want to be the last one."
"Hurrah!"
All the men yelled, beginning to disperse with the rightmost person moving first, then following in a domino effect as the first drill began.
"Let’s see if that lazy bastard can handle this."
Lucan smirked, crossing his arms as he observed Justinian being unbothered at the word ’Thirty’.
"Marshal, is it wise to risk our lord’s ire?"
Javier spoke beside him; he was also trained by Lucan after all, which meant he would also help in training.
"Oh, please, Javier, even if he hates me, he can’t even touch me."
Lucan gestured to his huge physique. "And even if he orders you all to detain me."
"I’m sure none of you will obey... other than probably you, Javier, naive brat."
Lucan laughed, looking back to the courtyard as everyone finally began their circles, first of many in his hellish routine.
"You all look terrible! sweating already!? What are you!? soldiers or bandits!?"
Justinian, meanwhile, was in the middle of the pact; his new body was fitter than his old one, and his mind was already filled with wisdom and experience of hardship.
This was nothing to him.
’Showing off here would only make things worse for me; I need to conserve stamina for the actual training.’
’Wasting energy on laps would only tire me out.’
Justinian thought to himself as he maintained a steady pace, ensuring efficiency in his movements so he wouldn’t burn himself out later.
He knew from experience how hellish showing off can be.
"He’s doing well, I can give him that."
Lucan smiled, seeing that ten laps had already been completed.
"I did not expect the duke to last seven."
One knight responded, leaning against his halberd.
"Well... he is full of surprises today."
Another one spoke, helmet resting by his waist and held by his hand as he observed.
"Hah! As long as the duke’s finally stepping up, it doesn’t matter why he’s so different."
Lucan laughed at the knight’s conversation before clapping his hands once more to signal to the moving men.
"We aren’t even halfway done, you whelps, get to it!"