She Belongs To The Devil

It was already 2 in the afternoon. Adeline and Alan talked with each other for about an hour. Alan warned Adeline about Edwin and then left to do his own tasks that were assigned to him by the King.

There were still 3 hours left in her personal training session with General Osmond. She had not informed the General saying that she wouldn\'t be attending the training today, so even though an hour had already passed, she suspected that the General would still be waiting for her in the training ground.

So after Alan left, she rushed towards the training ground while feeling apologetic towards the General for having made him wait for her.

And as she had suspected, the General was patiently waiting for Adeline to come to the ground.

Adeline shouted from the gate itself while running towards her teacher, "I am so sorry teacher. I had some unplanned meeting with Prince Alan and I could not even inform you that I would be late. Sorry to have kept you waiting."

The General was not angry at all for making him wait. She was a Princess after all so, these kinds of unplanned meetings were expected to happen every once in a while. He smiled at the Princess who was standing in front of him by now and said, "You don\'t have to say sorry to me Princess. I can understand."

"Thank you, teacher. You are the best." Adeline grinned like a baby.

The General also smiled at the Princess. He couldn\'t help but look at the Princess like she was his own daughter. And when she would smile like that, he would sometimes miss his own daughter. He would wonder how his own daughter would have looked like if she was the age of the Princess. But he would never know that.

The General got out of his thoughts and asked the Princess, "Okay, are you ready for today\'s session then?"

"Yes, I\'m always ready for a session with you," Adeline replied enthusiastically.

General Osmond nodded his head and briefed what he would be teaching to the Princess today, "Good. I have always taught you to play offensive in any kind of fight because of your unmatchable strength. But today, I have decided to teach you how to be defensive in a duel."

He recalled all the incidents that Adeline had shared with him about how she had faced some dangerous beings of hell. "Recently, you have been telling me that you\'ve encountered mystical beings that have far greater strength than you."

And he also guessed what Adeline would be facing in the upcoming test from what she had shared with him a few days earlier. She had told him everything that the King had told her about the test. "And I have guessed that in the test of worthiness, you probably will be facing someone who might be far too powerful than you. So today, I will teach you how to deflect any kinds of attacks that I throw at you."

This was going to be a difficult training session for Adeline. She had been taught to go for the offensive for almost 15 years. Her mind and body had already been habituated to attacking first and taking out the opponent. But now, she was going to learn how not to attack. And not just that, she was going to learn how to win a duel by simply defending herself.

The two teacher-student duos went to the dueling platform and took their stance.

General Osmond reminded Adeline again, "For now, just try to avoid whatever attacks I throw at you. Restrain yourself from fighting back or attacking me first. Okay?"

"Avoid every attack. Okay, I can do that," Adeline repeated the words of her teacher, not because she was sure that she would be able to do it but because she wanted to remind it to herself what she was supposed to do.

"Here I come," the General gave a final warning and then charged at Adeline. He started by throwing a single fist at her.

But as soon as he threw a fist, Adeline instinctively blocked the fist and threw two punches at the General. And she realized that she was not supposed to throw any attacks so she quickly took a step back and apologized, "I\'m sorry. Can we try this again?"

"Sure." The General gestured Adeline to return back to her place and he took a few steps back so as to give Adeline some time to consciously think and stop the coming attack, just stop it or avoid it completely.

"Okay, here I come again. Just block or avoid." After warning Adeline again, this time the General threw a double punch at Adeline but needless to say, he was beaten up again.

Adeline did not even say sorry this time. She just puckered her lips and stood there quietly, disappointed at herself.

The General knew how easily Adeline would start to get demotivated. So he came with an idea. "I will be right back." The General left Adeline there on the platform and went to the mini armory that was inside the training ground.

He returned back after some time. He was carrying a rope in his hand. And he said to the Princess, "Let\'s try this again by tying your hands behind your back. Your hands have muscle memory, they\'ve already been trained to fight back so they move on their own even when you are thinking of not attacking me. With your hands tied, I think the problem will be solved."

Adeline hoped that it would work. She put her hands behind and let the General tie both of her hands. The General had brought the strongest rope so that it wouldn\'t break from the sheer strength of the Princess. And he also made sure that he had tied the knot strongly so that she wouldn\'t be able to break free even if she tried.

Osmond took his position again and asked, "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Adeline replied.

And this time, the General charged forward and threw a kick at Adeline\'s head.

Adeline managed to duck to the side just when the Kick was about to hit her on her face. And she got back to her position. But what she had not expected was to get kicked immediately after. The General quickly turned on his heel and threw another kick aiming for Adeline\'s arm, and he hit her very hard.

Adeline took a few steps forward as she was about to stumble from the force. By the time she managed to hold her ground, Osmond had already approached her with a series of punches. And she got hit on her stomach several times.

Osmond stopped attacking her and asked, "Do you need to take a break? You haven\'t been able to dodge my attacks."

"No, I am not hurt so we can keep on going. I will get used to this soon enough." Adeline replied with enthusiasm. 

"That\'s the spirit. Here I come then.." And General Osmond continued with his attacks.