Chapter Text
"Abel, no! Not like that! You parry like THIS, not THAT!"
"I'm parrying wrong? Didn't I tell you that my skills are somewhat rusty since leaving the knights?"
"No, your skills are more rusty than you think they are! I've been teaching the younger recruits for a while now, and with all the new knights I have to keep my game up!
Nobody would expect that I'M the one training the knights at this rate!"
"Thanks again, Cain, for reteaching battle skills so I can fight again. I told Est that I'd learn how to fight.."
Teaching Abel is going to be a wreck if he just doesn't want to learn. I told him that I would teach him in my free time, and here I am. Teaching Abel how to fight again so he can protect Est is going to be the worst. I don't have much time between teaching the recruits with Titania, asking Marth if I need to teach them anything else before dinner, eating lunch, training the recruits with Titania until dinner, and eating dinner. The only time I'm free is after dinner. Abel asked me, I couldn't refuse.
To be fair, Abel doesn't care how much sleep I need. He comes in whenever he wants. I should ask Marth if he could be signed up with the next set of new recruits.
I let out a sigh. Abel didn't seem to notice, as he was walking to his horse.
"Cain, I can clearly see that you're distracted by something. If you need to talk to me about it, you can. But if you think that I would train with you when you push me to exceed YOUR expectations, then you're wrong."
I turned around and sighed again. I went into the castle and saw Marth.
"Something wrong, Cain?"
"Abel. He's not putting that much effort into training. Ditched out and left early because he doesn't think that he would train with me so I could push him harder to exceed the expectations that I use for the recruits."
"The new batch of recruits starts tomorrow, right? I'll go let him know--"
"You know, I'm right here! I can hear whatever you're saying!" Abel retorted, walking into the throne room.
"Abel, we were just talking about you. I think that you should probably join the new batch of recruits starting tomorrow. Cain probably doesn't want to be wasting his limited free time on trying to catch you up with them. How does that sound?" Marth asked.
"What? Why? Is it because I don't like your expectations, Cain? Don't you use that same set of standards on the recruits anyways?" Abel asked.
"No. It's just I have such little free time, with training the new recruits. I think it would be easier for me to train you with the other recruits," I said.
"It's just not fair to have Cain be training you differently than all the other recruits. Teaching how to parry is hard, especially with the new expectations that have to be put in place for the recruits and Cain having to switch between using the expectations on the recruits and not using them on you. Seems like those expectations are going to stay the same," Marth said.
Abel looked between Marth and I nervously. He didn't want to leave Est by herself, running the shop. I was expecting that he wouldn't train with the new batch of recruits tomorrow. But what I heard from him was really surprising.
"Yeah. I'll train with the new recruits, since my skills are that rusty. What's the age group of them?"
"Around our age. Why don't you head home and come back tomorrow morning? Travel from your place to here on a daily basis?" Marth asked, "mind you, the other recruit trainer- Titania-
might be a little bit tougher than Cain is. Ike sometimes helps them too. Or he trains the ones who want to be foot soldiers after the first day, since Cain and Titania are working with the potential cavalier units which is a pretty small group."
Abel left. Marth turned to me, and looked me dead in the eye.
"I've noticed you've been stressed after training Abel recently. Is it because he's been a hard person to train?"
"Yeah, yeah. He has. He starts off doing everything wrong, and by the time it's over, we have to extend it to the next day. Unfortunately, today was the THIRD day of parrying attacks. Doesn't take one or two short sessions for him to learn to parry, but THREE. This has been usually happening with all of his skills. Takes about three evening sessions."
"Alright, Cain. Go do whatever you need to do. Get some rest. Shower. You look pretty sweat drenched. Get a fresh outfit for tomorrow out."
"Thanks."
I actually really appreciate that Marth came to my aid when I told him Abel was being a trouble trainee. Hopefully, he gets better when there are not one, but TWO of us hanging around and teaching recruits, eh? Abel would lose his mind the day after tomorrow. Bet he'll be scared that there's three of us talking tomorrow about the expectations for the knights in each sector.
I walked outside the next day to see Abel and Marth arguing. Abel was saying that he didn't want to be in the recruit team, because it clearly shows that he's weak. Marth was countering on the fact that Abel's skills are rustier than a rusty iron sword. Ike walked out with me and Titania.
"Is that a filty new recruit?" Ike asked me. They were both as confused as I was on the arguing.
"No, that's Abel. He just has rusty skills and needs to train up so he can protect Est. I don't know why he's arguing with Marth, though," I replied.
"Est said she wanted to train up, too! Her skills are better than mine, and she's been working with Minerva!"
"Abel, calm down. We're going to have to settle this like regular people. I don't think we need a pegasus unit here."
"Then I'm not going to train with the new recruits!"
"You intend to protect your wife with THAT bad of skills? You don't even know the basics of what you should know how to do! I clearly know what I'm talking about--"
"NO! I AM NOT GOING TO!" Abel yelled.
Est had clearly made her way over, as she had thought it had started. Ike told her that introductions and group choices didn't start for another hour. But... Abel hasn't been this mad before. Did he just want to get private lessons out of me so he could run the shop? Certainly Est is clearly capable of running the shop they set up herself, although they haven't had much business yet.