The training grounds were filled with the dull thwack of wood hitting wood.
“You’ve improved a lot, Sir Reid!”
“That’s because you’re a good teacher, Rubens!”
My martial arts lessons consisted of one-on-one training with Rubens. I always warmed up with radio calisthenics and running. On that note, I’d learned that radio calisthenics didn’t exist in this world, so I’d shared the benefits of such exercises with Rubens, detailing how stretches before more intense exercise could prevent injuries.
Rubens had initially been skeptical of such benefits, but after doing the calisthenics with me several times, he had been convinced.
He’d asked, “Can I implement this in the knight’s order?”
“Erm, well, I don’t mind that, but don’t tell anyone that you learned it from me,” I’d replied. “Just say that you came up with it.”
Several days later, it had become a hot topic among the household staff that the knights were moving their bodies in strange ways during their training. This wasn’t much of a surprise to me, because the order boasted over one hundred members. With that many people performing radio calisthenics completely in sync, it had become quite a sight to see for those in the upper levels of the Valdia mansion.
When I’d first seen it for myself, it had reminded me of videos I had seen of the Japanese Self-Defense Force, and I renamed the exercises to “defense force calisthenics.” I’d also noticed that some of the knights who weren’t moving in time to the others were getting some harsh words of “encouragement” from their superiors.
That’s not the kind of radio calisthenics I remember, I’d thought to myself, turning pale at the sight of the intense treatment of knights.
“Radio calisthenics not only help to prevent injuries, but they work well as a method of training to get the entire order moving in the same way,” Rubens reported to me some time later. “The commander praised me for coming up with something so incredible!”
Rubens had a demeanor similar to that of a friendly dog, and the way he’d reported this information back to me sounded like he was begging me to praise him more. If he had a tail, he definitely would have been wagging it.
“Oh, you mean the defense force calisthenics? Yeah, it looked really impressive when you were all doing it.”
“What was that? The fentsforth calisthenics?”
Rubens tilted his head in confusion. I almost heard the confused whine of a dog as well.
“Defense force,” I repeated. “How should I explain this... The exercises aren’t really something you do on your own, but rather are something done by an organization to maintain order among the members, right? In that case, the exercises have gone past the realm of radio calisthenics, so I’ve just been calling them defense force calisthenics.”
“I’d like to take that!” Rubens exclaimed.
“Huh?”
Before I even had a chance to reply, Rubens took off. Some time after that, the members of the household staff began talking about how the knights’ strange exercises were something called “fentsforth calisthenics,” which helped to both prevent injuries and synchronize their movements.
“The knights look so cool when they’re doing their fentsforth calisthenics!” the maids would say to each other.
It appeared they had become fans of the knight’s order. Since then, I began hearing squeals of adoration in the halls from time to time.
Every time I came across the knights, I just thought to myself, Those aren’t the radio calisthenics I know.