>>6362422“Heh. Of course.” you reply, standing up and turning towards the boy. “You ready?”
“Yes sir!” the young prince replies, eyes wide with wonder.
“Good. Then follow me. Today, you're training in my home.” you tell him, the boy almost bouncing off the ground as he follows you from the king's office. You both head outside then take to the air, flying across the land over the forest to your home. “I'll start you off today the same way I started your father all those years ago. Tell me, how high of gravity have you trained in so far?”
“Right now? I'm up to five times our planet's gravity.” he answers as you fly over the clearing in the forest, crater visible through the trees before you'd even reached it. Passing over it, more than halfway back to your own ship.
“Five times? Not bad. We'll start out with the same workout I started your father with.” you say, and you can feel his excitement radiating off him as your city comes into sight. “1000 pushups, on each arm. Then, after than 1000 situps. Any questions?”
“Th-That's it?” he asks as you drop out of the air, catching yourself with your flight inches off the ground, then touch down whisper-soft right outside your ramp. The prince doesn't decelerate nearly as smoothly, kicking up a huge wave of sand as he lands beside you. “Just that?”
“That's where we'll start.” you tell him, leading him inside and to your gravity chamber. Which is empty, the door closing behind you both as you go to the controls. Cranking it down from where you'd last set it at, turning it to twenty times New Salda's gravity. The room turns red as the gravity shifts, and you see the prince try and brace himself. But he's clearly not ready, the weight of the chamber slowly pulling him down to the ground.
“Guh! W-What kind of-? Gravity! Did you set-! This to?” he asks between panting breaths, clearly struggling to stay upright.
“Just a few times more than you've been training at.” you reply to him, dropping down into the pushup position, only on your right arm and toes. “Don't tell me this little bit's too much for you, your highness. I can turn it down, if you can't-”
“DON'T-!” he shouts through clenched teeth, getting down into position as well. “I won't! Back down!”
“That's the spirit.” you reply with a grin, going down and up once, then again. “One. Two.”
Over the next half-hour, you push the young prince to his limits. Watching him closely as he struggles. But, despite how hard he's struggling, he doesn't quit. You see his father in the lines of his face, the set of his jaw as he fights. And, without stopping, he manages to complete the first part of your training. Finishing the final situp he collapses, gasping for air.
cont
