"Wonderful job, all of you!" he praised, handing out more snacks and water.

  "You're really starting to get the hang of this. Now, I think it's time for a nice, long lunch break. How does that sound?" The children cheered enthusiastically, eager for a ce to rest and refuel.

  Marcus chuckled aured towards a shaded area, where a new piiket and basket had bee up.

  "Alright, the's go enjoy our lunch. I've got all your favourite foods waiting for us," he said.

  ‘This is way too easy; I ’t believe I am getting away with this. Now I just have to trick, Ahem, ence them to do this for aire year,’ Marcus thought.

  The children eagerly scurried over to the piic spot, sprawling out on the b and digging into the delieal that Chise had prepared.

  They chatted animatedly, sharing tricks for each game and ughing together as they savoured their food.

  Sadly for Draco, his training was to st lohan the rest.

  Marcus watched over them with a warm smile.

  He may have beeing on in years, but he soon realized that spending this time with his beloved grandchildren was the most rewarding thing he could imagine.

  Ohey had their fill, he gently called for their attention.

  "Alright, my little ones, I think it's time we our training for the day. How about o game before we head home?" he suggested.

  The children eagerly agreed, quickly finishing their meal.

  “Nii, here,” Vasileios walked up to Drad offered some food.

  Vasileios didn’t know why his big brother was made to do harder things.

  He noticed that Draco didn’t get to participate in lunch, so he saved bits and pieces of his own for him.

  “Is this for me?” Draco asked, touched that Vasileios thought to share.

  “Hmm,” Vasileios replied with a shy smile.

  “Thank you,” Draco replied, throwing the food in his mouth.

  “Hmm, it’s delicious,” Draco praised while patting Vasileios on the head.

  He made sure to rub behind his ears, a ot of Vasileios.

  The others saw this and gathered round for their turn; to them, it didn’t seem fair that only Vasileios got a head pat.

  Draco didn’t mind; he knew all their ots so satisfying them didn’t take long.

  “Ahem, kids,” Marcus called out to get their attention once more.

  ‘Tsk, damn brat. What he do that I ’t? Is it because they are of simir age?’ Marcus grumbled within.

  Marcus thehem through a series of cool-down stretches and introduced a final activity that involved teamwork and problem-solving.

  Draco had his lun between these exercises.

  As the sun began to set, the training session came to an end.

  The exhausted but eted children thaheir grandpa, eae giving Marcus a big hug before running home to take a bath.

  Marcus waved them off, his heart filled with joy and a sense of aplishment.

  He would be going home after ing up; he couldn't wait for their raining session together.

  “So why am I stu ing duty but the o home early?” Draco asked.

  Marcus had forced him to stay and up aloer the other kids left.

  “Ahem, it’s part of the training,” Marcus replied ically.

  “I am not stupid, you know,” Draco protested.

  “Sigh, this is what’s wrong with smart kids these days, do you know better than yrandpa?” Marcus tered.

  ‘Sounds like a trick question; sigh, I should just do it. Who knows what excuse he might e up with if I say yes,’ Draco thought.

  “No,” Draco replied.

  “I thought so,” Marcus said with a silly smirk, pushing at his buttons.

  ‘Sigh, who khat he was really like this. I feel as though I have lost the grandpa I knew for the past 4 years,’ Draco thought.

  Soon, he was done and packed the piic baskets, ready to head home.

  He saw his Grandpa Marcus resting by a tree, he has been waiting for him to finish.

  ………………………………………………………………………………..

  The year went by pretty fast; the children had fun training almost every day.

  Now the spring had e around once again; it was time for Anita and John to add their training curriculum into the mix.

  Marcus had made notes of all the children’s current abilities.

  This was dothen their core and begin making a foundation for the path they would follow.

  They weren’t ready for the hardcore stuff yet due to their limited physical capabilities.

  But the children werely ordinary, especially Drabsp;

  All the children except for Cir seemed to dispy strength greater than their age would suggest.

  Cir wasly ordinary; she was from the tiger people race, so she could dispy some of their abilities, but pared to the other kids, she was currently at the bottom.

  Chise specuted that it has something to do with the method used to ceive her children, but she wasn’t going to tell.

  The training was brutal, especially for Draco; Anita and John forced their bodies to the absolute limit daily.

  They didn’t show any mercy to anyone, everyone khat from that day on, the training was no lame and fun like with Grandpa Marcus.

  One particur m during the middle of spring, John called Draco out; he and Anita had decided to begin Draco’s personal training.

  “Before I begin, I would like to give you a warning. The training will be more brutal and merciless; I may or may not take things too far. Do you still wish to proceed?” Anita asked.

  “Yes,” Draco replied firmly. He had gotteo the earlier training, so it didn’t affect him as mubsp;

  “Are you really, really sure? If you pin ter, I might just hit you with something,” Anita asked again, raising an eyebrow.

  “Uhm, maybe,” Draco replied, now a bit unsure if he wanted her to train him.

  “I need a straight answer,” Anita asked sternly.

  ‘Well, I do want to hold my own and go dungeon diving immediately when I get to Orario someday,’ Draco thought.

  “Yes,” he replied with vi.

  “I see, just don’t die on us,” Anita muttered while John nodded, something Draco didn’t fail to miss.

  From the m, his training would be separate, with Anita being the main teacher.

  …………………………………………………………………………….

  "Time to train, boy!" Anita barked. Draco quickly scrambled out of bed, knowier than to disobey.

  As he ran outside, Anita was already stretg and warming up.

  "Today we will seriously work on your reflexes; For now, I want to see just how fast it is," Anita said sternly.

  She slowly tossed a small rock at Draco, who easily dodged it in time.

  "Not bad, but what if I increase the speed and amount?" Anita yelled.

  She pelted Draco with a flurry of rocks while gradually increasing the speed, amount, and even redug the size.

  This forced Draco to be in stant motion, weaving and dug to avoid getting hit.

  After an hour of the gruelling reflex training, Draco was bruised and panting.

  "Now for strength training," Anita announced. She dragged a heavy log over to Drabsp;

  "Lift this 250 times. No breaks." Draco grimaced but knew better than to pin.

  She was holding what looked to be a rge hammer a bit over half as tall as her body.

  ‘Damn this woman, does she pn to hit me with that’ Draco thought before pig up the log.

  He strained and grunted as he slowly lifted the log, his tiny arms shaking with the effort.

  By midday, Draco was exhausted but Anita showed no signs of letting up.

  "Time for bat practice, let’s see where you stand" Anita said, tossing a wooden sword to him.

  “I will be using this” Draco said, brandishing his arm transformed into cws.

  "Attack me. Give it everything you've got." she said.

  Draco swung his cws with all his might, but Anita effortlessly blocked and parried each blow.

  "Pathetic," she scoffed.

  "Again!, use your feet and waist" she instructed.

  This went on for hours, with Anita repeatedly knog Draco to the ground.

  Nothing he did could phase her, not faints, not sneaky tail attacks or even his cute fabsp;

  She just pummeled him without mercy.

  As the sun began to set, Anita finally called ao the day's training.

  "Not bad, for a start," she said gruffly. "But you've got a long way to go, boy." She added.