Exercising

 Despite Alex's ruse to make the guard, who was malicious before, look at him with good eyes; this did not change the fact that he had to work hard to exercise, since his sedentary body had no resistance at all.

 Then, after a few hours of physical training, Alex, who was completely sweaty and tired, was already in the bathroom where he could finally clean himself; understanding now why Adam had postponed his bath earlier.

 Relieved to be able to clean himself, Alex thought about his morning, while using an odorless soap and wetting his body with the water from a large wooden bucket: Soon after his exaggeratedly respectful presentation, Brody made him stretch and taught him some exercises that, unsurprisingly, led him to fatigue in no time, followed by a run around the grassy area.

  When Alex's legs faltered and made him fall on his knees on the grass, Brody, knowing that pressing more than that would only be harmful to the weak body of the polite slave, ended the training session and took him to the beautiful middle-aged maid who was waiting in a corner, maid who ignored the clumsy attempts of flirting from the guard and took Alex, supported by her side, to the bathroom in front of his room.

 Finishing washing himself, Alex left the bathroom and, under the maid's gaze, thanked her for the help and headed to his assigned room.

 "My body hurts so much." Murmured Alex, as he closed the door, not knowing that the next day would be even worse, due to the action of lactic acid.

 His pain, however, was mitigated by seeing the appetizing plate of food that rested on top of his table, going without ceremony to meet it. Finishing, Alex returned to his abusive study routine, which ended only when his mind entered complete exhaustion.

~~~

 Another two weeks passed and, unlike what Alex expected, his exercise routine was not daily, but alternated between one day and a rest. Although he was not interested in physical exercises in his old world, Alex remembered hearing that exercising the same muscles every day was not very good.

 Facing Brody, Alex, who was now sitting on the grass, while sweat dripped from his forehead, rested a little before starting to run around the grassy area.

 "You're doing well, kid. You've improved a lot since we started." Brody said as he looked at Alex, who had not changed at all in appearance, but could resist several times more than his first day.

"You praise me, sir Brody, my dream is to be strong like you." Alex said with a weak smile.

 "You can call this older brother just Brody, I've told you, kid." The guard said, finding the slave in front of him more and more pleasant.

"Sorry, Brody." Alex apologized, making a laugh come out of Brody's mouth.

 In these last weeks, Alex's strategy of licking Brody's boots worked beyond expectations, bringing them closer to the point that Brody not only shared some information about the general situation of the slave market, the city of Castle Gray and some things of his own personal life, but also convinced Adam to add another meal to the day.

 "Brody, I was wondering, what happened to the slaves who were with me when I arrived here?" Alex asked, trying to figure out what his fate might be.

 "Kid, these are not things you should know…" after a dramatic pause, Brody continues: "But since I like you, I'll tell you anyway: Those who came with you, like you, are high quality products. They have already gone through proper training and, since they arrived, they are on display for potential buyers to see." Brody said, while trying to remove something stuck in his tooth.

"Display?" Alex asked confused.

 "That's right, fuck! You finally got out of my tooth, you little shit!" Brody shouted, slightly startling Alex, as he managed to get rid of whatever was stuck in his tooth. 

 *Cough, Cough* "Sorry about that little brother, anyway, yes, on display, they will be sold at the next auction, the one I told you I'm in charge of security." Brody said as he recomposed himself. 

 "If everything goes as planned, it's almost certain that I'll finally get a basic Knight technique, being able to be the deputy chief of guards." Brody said looking up, as if he could see a portrait of himself, only full of dignity and class.

 Alex, caught off guard by the new information, asked: "What would a Knight technique be, older brother Brody?"

 Hearing the question from the young man in front of him, Brody widened his eyes and left his fantasy, realizing that his mouth had let slip an important piece of information. "N… It's nothing much, Alex, haha, just a combat technique… You shouldn't worry about that." Brody said awkwardly dodging the subject.

 Alex knew by Brody's reaction that this Knight technique was not so simple but, not wanting to damage his relationship with his physical education teacher, he pretended ignorance while smiling and changing the subject.

~~~

 In the meantime, in a luxurious baroque-style room, Henry and Adam were talking, one sitting and the other standing.

 "With that, everything is ready, sir Henry." Adam said, finishing the previous topic they were talking about.

 Nodding his head, Henry seemed to remember something and asked: "And how is Alex, Adam."

 "As reported earlier sir, everything is perfectly fine. Alex is incredibly fast in learning the language of the 7 kingdoms and, although there has not been much visible change in his body, his resistance has increased a lot; from what Brody told me, he does everything he tells him without complaining and has shown no rebellion." Adam said with his stoic face.

 "Nice.. very nice. I want to see him after the training." Henry said, nodding his head in approval to what Adam told him.

 "By training, you mean… wouldn't Alex be a good subor…" Adam tries to speak when Henry interrupts him.

 "Yes, Adam, training. I've thought about it and decided. He really has a good talent for learning languages and seems to be a smart young man who understood his situation completely and knows that being passive is the course of action that protects him most from future suffering or retaliation, but the smart ones are the most dangerous, Adam, he never showed any rebellion and, for a nobleman, that's very scary."

" ".

 Henry takes a sip of his tea and continues after seeing that his subordinate had not understood: "Let's remember what he confirmed about his past when you interrogated him: He said he was really a nobleman from a very distant country who fled for political reasons, confirming our suspicions, when they crossed the silver forest without knowing it and… ended up killed by…" Henry stops when he and Adam swallow hard.

 *Hem-Hem* Henry clears his throat, gathers courage and continues: "By the beast of Diablostag… Or at least it seems by the description he gave you." A few seconds of silence pass when Henry concludes: "Well, he runs away, meets us and the rest we already know. So, you know what they say about countries outside the 7 kingdoms… So even though Alex has what it takes to be a precious resource for his high intelligence, we have many reservations: from his likely betrayal to bigger problems that we can't handle because of his past."

 "Now I really understand, sir Henry, I lack vision. I saw him as a smart and obedient young man who could serve very well as a subordinate, not realizing that his actions could be calculated. Thank you for enlightening me, sir Henry." Adam says after hearing his master's explanation continuing: "I'll send Brody to start his training sir, he should have enough resistance for that."

*mm-hmm* "You can leave now, Adam, it's my time." As Henry said, two women and two men entered the room, completely naked.

 Adam understanding that it was time for his master's daily fun, after a bow, left the room hastily.

 Walking through the corridors of the large building while reflecting, Adam went in the direction where he knew he would find Brody.