The Prey Shall Trust The Hunter

For the next two weeks, Edrick was perhaps the nicest and most benevolent person Fanqia had ever encountered, only family members could seem as nice without hidden intentions, and indeed, the lord of her town seemed wholly sympathetic for no clear rhyme or reason, and being that he also was the richest person she had ever encountered, he showered her in gifts.

Not too much that it was suspicious, but still above average that Fanqia was starting to feel like she held a more special position than initially believed, the girl had come here expecting to be manhandled and used like a toy after all, so being treated like a little princess was quite something.

She was eating her fill with every meal, got to taste things she never would have expected to ever even lay eyes upon, Edrick even began to show her the ropes to becoming fully literate and was allowing her to learn how to swing a sword, how to defend herself.

It was only recently when Anoteros decided to initiate physical contact, nothing extravagant, just grabbing her hand to show her how to write a particular letter, and when Fanqia did not react adversely to this touch, he slowly began to increase the frequency, at first, it was only under the guise of helping her adjust whilst he showed her a few technical movements with writing and sword handling.

But eventually, it became natural even outside such activities…

At first, it was just short contact on the hands and arms, then it was the shoulders, then the sides, the hips… Slowly but surely, Edrick had made Fanqia used to it, and perhaps, she had even begun to like the gentle touch.

Fanqia stopped trying to run away, it was useless anyways… Or so she told herself.

The girl was allowed to move around the residence as she saw fit, and even stepped outside, upon the soil of the high mountain, Anoteros's home was found, all that would be done with this newfound liberty was enjoy the sun, perfect reading and not-so subtly watch as Edrick trained his body.

He always did so shirtless, as though wanting to see the progress in real time, the beads of sweat following the now much more developed muscles of his body, truly, Zixuan would not have required to try that hard to get a pretty good physique, it had just been written on his bones that this was what he was meant to be.

However, the new owner of this anatomy was not content with anything but the best, as such, the intensity, length and weight kept on steadily increasing as he made sure to not leave a single muscle group behind the rest.

Fanqia could only watch in awe, the most musculature she had ever seen was dog crap compared to this, was that what the so-called warriors she often heard about like they were mythical figures, looked like? Somehow the girl doubted it.

Eventually, she decided to stop staring from far away and just went up to her lord.

"Hum… Lord Anoteros… Can I try as well?" she covered her mouth as from up-close, steam could be seen rising from Edrick after lifting a weight repeatedly.

Fidgeting around a bit as expecting to be denied, thinking that the town lord had picked her because of looks in the first place.

"Sure, we'll figure something out" but as per usual, Anoteros was disorientingly nice, it had already grown difficult for Fanqia to imagine him as the monster that he had clearly displayed to be before, she still tried to remember all the terrible things he had done, but it did nothing to change the perspective she had developed from interacting with him directly.

It felt like what she had heard was fiction despite the fact that if definitely wasn't…

The day after that, Edrick unveiled the simple, basic training regimen he had put together for her, nothing too difficult for now since Fanqia was just a rookie who had only been getting proper nutrition since recently.

First, it involved building some stamina by running, which he claimed would actually be simple since the air was thinner up here than it was down in the town, never had she even noticed that breathing was more difficult here, perhaps because it was so filthy down below that it didn't change a thing.

"Don't you worry, I'll accompany you" he said, and good thing Edrick was there, because Fanqia had never suspected that not only her stamina was poor, but that she also didn't actually know how to properly run.

It only hit her when it was time to go, but, what had been the times when she had ever had run? The answer was basically never since she hadn't even had friends to play with as a child, not to mention that the terrain up on the mountain was far from flat and covered in dreadful natural traps.

As patient as ever, her lord somehow managed to explain the mechanics of running in understandable terms, she had no idea where one could even learn things like that, things like running didn't actually have to be taught normally, one just knew what to do and would eventually refine themselves as they practised.

Still, knowing and doing were entirely different things, so she ended up with a cramp in one thigh and a side stitch very quickly, having to stop and lie down in grass.

"Don't just stand still, you need to stretch and massage for the pain to subside" remarked Edrick as he sat next to her "Let me show you…"

With the pretence of assisting her, he permitted himself to touch Fanqia where he had never touched her, and there was no complaint from the girl, neither voiced out or in the way that she reacted to his hands.

Bringing her arm in the right position to really stretch the side where the stitch had set in, and massaging the cramped thigh with his awfully nimble fingers.

Fanqia felt weird, but not in a bad way, which she did not quite get, it was an odd sensation that she did not really want to end, that of the lord taking control of body, the way he pressed her flesh…

So much so that when it stopped, there was disappointment.

"Still feel anything?"

She considered lying but eventually said that everything was fine now.

"Good, check this out" he pointed to the side, right near where Fanqia had collapsed like a sack filled with stone, there was a beautiful lake, its water crystal clear.

"Whoa, I've never seen so much water before… Is that where you go, when you finish training, My Lord?"

"Indeed, you seem quite interested, want to take a dip?"

The girl looked away.

"I don't know how to swim…"

Edrick just chuckled, running his fingers through her hair.

"I can teach you another time, if you want"

"I wouldn't want to take up too much of your time, Lord Anoteros, you are already wasting enough teaching me" she brought her arms up to her chest, muttering those last few words.

Edrick just smiled, his unsettling grin appearing oddly charming to Fanqia now.

"Oh, don't you worry, time spent with you is not wasted, and what sort of man would I be, if I can't even get to know my future wife?"

And as she blushed, Edrick knew that it was already in the bag.