I'm Just a Nameless Side Character in a Vampire Romance Novel

Chapter 29- A bet

Heinrick glared at me as I crossed the field meeting him for our morning training. "I hear you're not finishing your meals." I gave him an incredulous look.

"Do you honestly expect me to be able to eat that much after only two days?"

"Any one of my squires eats double what you do." We began jogging together. He set the pace at something more manageable than before.

"Of course I wouldn't eat as much as them." Normally, within seconds I would be panting. Now, it wasn't until a quarter of the way around that my breathing became laboured. "What did you put in my food anyways." There was no way I'd have improved this much after only exercising for three days.

"Feeling better already?" By the first lap, my legs didn't drop me, they were only threatening too. My lungs burned but it didn't feel like I was about to pass out either.

"Yeah. I'm not dying." I panted heavily between words. It looked like he smiled, but when I glanced at him his face was serious.

We started on the second lap and made slightly faster time around the course compared to my previous laps in the past. By the end of the three laps, I did die. My legs gave out just as we reached the end, and it took me twenty minutes to fully recover again. When we moved onto sets, it felt like I had more control of my body and the movements were easier to perform. My arms and legs were still like jelly at the end, and I could feel my heart pounding in my head, but it was better than before. If only slightly. "Is this the power of the food here? There's no way I should be improving this fast."

"You have the benefit of wealth your highness." Our training was over, so he reverted to our normal titles.

"Honestly, just call me Jasmine at this point. It's going to get confusing if we keep switching all the time." He smiled.

"Then do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" I shook my head. "How is it that you came to want to be an adventurer Jasmine." Heinrick didn't know that I wasn't from this world, nor did he know anything about my past. No one here did.

"I don't know how to answer that right now." He nodded but didn't press me further. "When can we move on to practical skills?"

He chuckled, "When I'm confident you can hold a weapon for ten minutes." I glared at him.

"I can hold a sword for more than ten minutes." A grin appeared on his face.

"Prove it." From his hip he pulled his weapon, a long black bladed sword with a slight curve in its center. It had an edge on both sides. Seeing it in Heinricks grasp it fit perfectly with his size, but it was huge compared to me. I didn't pay attention too it until now but Heinrick truly did tower over everyone in the palace. Even Eclis looked short in his presence.

"A small sword." His laugh belted across the field. "That sword is probably as long as I am tall, that isn't a fair test." My cheeks flushed and I finally rose from the ground to my feet. Looking up at him while talking about this was embarrassing enough. My knees shook slightly.

"Then why don't we get you a small sword to prove it lass." He looked far to amused with this.

"Tomorrow. I'm so beat." His grin looked sadistic.

"You're already beat? But we're not even finished yet Jasmine." The blood must have drained from my face because he belted his laugh out again. "This way." We walked towards my doom in silence. Since I had started my training, the knights had finally stopped trying to look at me. In fact, they completely avoided looking my way at all and I vaguely wondered what Heirnrick had done to them for them to pretend we didn't exist.