Have assembled the group in front of the tent, Ryu cleared up his throat as he initiated the talk, "I suppose Mizuha already told you guys about my agenda for today."

"See!? Could you say "you're joking" on my face again?" sneered Mizuha while stealing a glance toward the boys that standing next to each other.

"Sorry Mizuha, I didn't think brother really went for it."

"Yeah, we're sorry, I've underestimated this training demon."

With narrowed eyes, Ryu commented, "Hey, this is all for the greater good of you guys." Rubbing his chin, Ryu suddenly smirked, "Well, training demon has a nice ring to it though, you could call me that if you want."

"How could you took a liking to that kind of nickname." Sighing, Narukami added, "Pal, you keep getting weirder day by day."

"Was he?" inquired Ayano as she joined in the conversation.

"If you could bring his personality from a year ago to this very place, I bet you wouldn't have any difficulty in differentiating it."

"I see, I didn't know about him that much at that time, so it's hard for me to relate."

"That much, huh... Actually, when did you two start to get so close like this?" Narukami asked while looking back and forth between Ryu and Ayano.

"So it wasn't just me that felt like that." Mizuha chimed in.

Verdi then interjected, "But wasn't Ayano already betrothed to Inazuma?"

Sensed that Ayano was troubled by the abrupt interrogation, Ryu clasped his hand together, "Stop with that sort of chatter, we're simply a friend for now."

Ryu statement, not only it caused the trio to wear a bewildered expression on their face, it even made Ayano blinked her almond eyes for a few times, ''''For now!?''''

'Fuck! Another slip of a tongue!' Ryu thought as he quickly covered his mouth. Some seconds have passed, but there's still no sign for someone to break the awkward atmosphere between them. Before long, Ryu deliberately let a dry cough to escape from his throat, "We should start our training now, these are the tasks that y'all required to do for the rest of this week."

Distributed a piece of paper to each one of them, Ryu gave them the time to inspect its content.

"Ryu, no, Mr. Sadist, could you explain to me how this is considered a little tweak of the rule?" Mizuha grumbled as she slapped the note on her grip.

"First is Mr. Pervert now it's Mr. Sadist, are you a nickname generator or what?" Ryu sighed. "Look, all of those points would tremendously increase your battle prowess."

"Oh yeah? Isn't this basically would be a torture for Ayano and me?"

"Is it? Why you sounded so sure, you're not even trying it yet."

"It's obvious just by a glance, idiot! Don't you agree, Ayano?"

"Eh? Yeah..." Ayano seems still got taken aback by the previous talk.

Doesn't want the situation to land on the same spot again, Ryu hurriedly responded to Mizuha's protest, "Come on, just bear with it, you could kick Mr. Rogue ass easily later if you last for another week in here."

The debate continued for a while, but Mizuha still felt hard-headed about it. Didn't want to waste any more of his time, Ryu eventually forced to invoke his authority as the leader of the party.

At first, Mizuha still wanted to retort. However, that's changed when she saw the look on Ryu's face. She noticed that Ryu also hate it when he's made to resort to such things. Chose to give in, Mizuha took Ayano by hand and go with her into the place that being hand-drawn on the note.

"Before I go to oversee the sparring match between those two, did you guys have any questions? If not I'll immediately prepare the things for your training."

"No, only... Are you sure about this, brother? Our task was relatively normal compared to what I initially thought to be."

"Verdi, please don't be like that, this was good enough!"

"I had determined myself to be useful to the party, the difficulty of this exercise was definitely lacking compared to the girls you know."

Listening to their bickering, Ryu instead starts to tilt his head, "What makes you think like that, Verdi? In my opinion, yours was the toughest one."

"Pardon?" Verdi instantly shifted his focus towards his brother.

"Let me look at your note," Ryu asked as he stretched out his hand.

"Ah, here you go."

Opened the folded paper, Ryu double-checks his writing,

2 set of a zig-zag run to the summit of the other hill. (Approx Distance 25 mil.)

Scratched the back of his head, Ryu acknowledged, "Now I understand why you said so, I'm too focused on calculating the distance that I forgot to write the crucial thing."

Rewrote his writing on the green piece, Ryu then returned it to Verdi.

2 set of a zig-zag run to the summit of the other hill. (Approx Distance 25 mil.)

2 set of a zig-zag run while kicking a stone placed between the legs to the summit of the other hill. (Approx Distance 25 mil.)

"... Kicking a stone on a hill? Are you sure this is the essential thing you miss, brother?" There's a hint of confusion surfaced on Verdi's face, it might've said, "What would a mere stone do to this activity of his?"

"You will learn it yourself when you tried it."

Patted Verdi's shoulder, Ryu moved toward his buddy.

"How about you, Narukami? Was the instruction clear?"

"Yeah, go to hell, right?" Narukami replied, extending his hands.

"Who in the world would wish for that thing to their pal?" Ryu chuckled, and at the same time, installing an object on both of Narukami's wrists and ankles, each weighs for about 20kg.

"Dude, you're the perfect example for that, seriously. These are almost doubling my body weight. How am I supposed to go to the other side with this!?" Narukami complained as he needs to put an effort just by waving his hand.

"Relax, things are bound to be more interesting once you follow the route that's drawn on the note." Seeing the grin, Narukami gulped down the lump on his throat, "Hh... Not easy but interesting, huh..."