Novel Bin Chapter 13 - Training Ground
Princess Adeline was now five years old. Hawisa and Osanna woke Adeline up when the sun was not even up yet. They helped her take a bath with warm water inside the bath house of her own quarter.
Hawisa wrapped the Princess in a large towel and then carried her to her room. In the meantime Osanna took out the new dress that had arrived just yesterday for the Princess.
"Your Highness, look what we have here… oh! It\'s a nice uniform. Don\'t you think so?" Osanna displayed the dress to Adeline.
Adeline nodded very energetically as she had been waiting so long to wear that kind of dress. "I love it! Dress me up quickly." And then she giggled happily.
They were going to dress her up in a combat dress which was similar to that of the soldiers. The only difference was the color. Prince and Princess\'s combat dresses were of dark grey in color. They were required to wear that uniform when they attended the training classes.
Adeline\'s personal maid Hawisa and Osanna were pardoned the day after the Princess was found. The King had concluded that they were also victimized by the kidnapper.
Also he had personally selected the two of them to take care of the Princess after carefully checking their personality and background. So they were returned back to their position when they swore an oath to never leave the Princess\'s side.
Today was the first day of Adeline\'s combat training class, and her personal maids were preparing her for the hard day ahead.
While Osanna dressed up the Princess, Hawisa worked on Adeline\'s silver hair. She braided the Princess\'s hair tightly so that it would not get in the way of her training.
Hawisa carefully moved her gaze over the Princess and then declared, "And… all done."
"Take me to the mirror." Adeline commanded to her maids. Hawisa carried her in front of a huge mirror which was at the corner of the room.
Adeline could not contain her excitement so she did a little dance by shaking her hips and said, "I look like a soldier. Arghhhhhh..." And she giggled again.
"Are you that happy?" Osanna laughed and asked the Princess to which she nodded her head with an unfaltering smile.
"Okay let\'s eat the breakfast and your tummy will also be happy." Hawisa carried the Princess again and led her to another room where a small table was set up with several delicious dishes.
Adeline was served a heavy breakfast so that she would not faint in the training ground. It was Princess\'s first day so the maids were also excited for the Princess.
After the Princess finished eating Hawisa and Osanna escorted her towards the combat class.
Every Prince and Princess was required to go through tough combat trainings and many other training to prepare them for the future. Adeline was the youngest one among the 24 children of the King. So she was the last one to enter the training. Others had already gained some level of expertise by now.
The training ground for the Princes and Princesses was located at the North-West part of the Palace, just behind of the Armory. The area was large so that it could easily accommodate the training of around 50 people.
The royal children were taught several kinds of skills like archery, horse riding, spear fighting, sword fighting, hand to hand combat, survival skill, etc. And the training ground had separate section where each kind of skills would be taught by experienced generals or lieutenant generals.
As the Kingdoms were not at war, soldiers spent most of their time in trainings. And generals and lieutenant generals would look after the trainings of soldiers that were under their command along with the training of royal children.
The Princes and Princesses those who were above the age of 14 were also required to take theoretical classes. They would be taught topics like leadership, devising battle plans, battle strategies, tactics, diplomacy, etc.
After around 20 minutes, Adeline reached to the training ground, escorted by her personal maids. Though Adeline had to wake up very early in the morning, she was also excited that she would finally get to see all of her half-brothers and half-sisters.
Adeline would rarely get to see her brothers and sisters because they would be busy with their trainings and classes. And even though they would have free time, it was not like they were allowed to see each other whenever they wanted to. There would have to be some special occasion like festivals or family gathering for them to meet each other.
The only brother who she was close to was Nigel. Nigel was now 12 years old and he was the only son of Queen Claricia.
Claricia was the Princess of Aberdeen Kingdom. And like most people from Aberdeen, she was also very kind-hearted. She would easily place trust in others and would care for people other than her.
In the past two years, Claricia had grown even fonder of Princess Adeline, ever since Adeline\'s life was in danger. She felt obliged to take care of the Princess even more after the kidnapping incident. She would frequently visit Adeline\'s quarter along with Prince Nigel. And Prince Nigel also loved Adeline like she was his own sibling.
And aside from Prince Nigel, Adeline had not interacted that much with other brothers and sisters. When she was told that all of her brothers and sisters would be there in the training, she had danced with excitement thinking she would now get to play with other brothers and sisters.
Almost all of the Princes and Princesses had already gathered in the training ground when Princess Adeline reached there. When Nigel saw that Adeline was there all dressed up in her battle uniform, he immediately rushed towards her and carried her in his arms.
The maids left the Princess on the ground and went near the gate of the ground from where they would be able to keep an eye on the Princess.
"Hi! Adeline, you look so tough in this dress." Nigel complimented his pampered sister while squeezing her baby cheeks.
Adeline\'s blue eyes were sparkling with delight. She giggled and then said to her brother, "I look just like you."
Nigel placed his sister on the ground and grinned, "Of course you look like me. You are my little sister after all." But the only attribute that was common between Nigel and Adeline was their sapphire blue eyes that they inherited from the King.
All the other Princes and Princesses also noticed that the youngest Princess was joining the training from today. However, before they could take a proper glance of Adeline or strike up a conversation with her, their teacher had appeared in front of the ground.
Princess Adeline immediately recognized who it was and she whispered to Nigel, "I know that man. He is that nice man I saw in my dream when I was small."
Nigel scrunched his brows in confusion and whispered back, "You saw him in your dream? How is that even possible without seeing him in real life?" Nigel then thought to himself, "Maybe she just saw him somewhere else."