~Aurora~

　　"Alright! Attention!" The commander growled, all of us fell in place. I gulped heavily and looked past the commander to see Prince Emeric on rounds by the grounds, leading to the east wing. His eyes landed on mine. After a significant narrowing of eyes, he continued his conversation with his subordinates. This shouldn't distract me. Perhaps, he has been eyeing the man behind me.

　　Ugh!

　　"First and foremost rule in battle, keep your core strength at peak. Now, everyone's got different kinds of core strengths, but do not be as weak as a lady." The crowd chuckled. My smile fell, however. Upon looking around, I realized I was the only one of the two female contestants for this special training program. I gulped, swallowing my anger down the throat. The other woman stood nonchalantly.

　　"150 push ups, fall diagonally to your right in your place!" The commander growled again as we all fell to our right diagonally, only our palms and toes touching the ground.

　　Okay, Aurora. You've got this.

　　Although your peak count was 78 push ups the other say. The number is exactly twice as much!

　　No, no.

　　I have to do this.

　　"Tch, what can a woman do?" The voice, yet again, was familiar. This time, the man who spoke was from the Raven pack of the south. My eye twitches every time he speaks with his high pitched voice. He's a short man, but has a build up like he's 6' 6" tall. When attitude doesn't match the body, you're obviously going to have to let out a snicker.

　　And so I did.

　　"Did she just laugh at me?" He asked while effortlessly reaching twenty push ups already. I was stuck at 15.

　　"What the hell, Fangborn—"

　　"Excuse me, sir!" I yelled in a military voice.

　　"No one to complain to, cadet. You deal with these issues by yourself. I've heard it." Without even glancing towards me, the commander replied from a meter away.

　　I grumbled against my breath. I had to bite my tongue for the rest of the push ups.

　　Sweat drops trickled down my chin, yet I just kept looking at the gravel beneath my palm. It pierced into my skin at this point. I was at 66 push ups. My legs were quaking, my abdomen hurt like hell.

　　Not yet, Aurora...not yet.

　　"Good core strength for a girl," Said someone, exasperated. Curiosity got the best of me as I turned to look at the man to my right,

　　"Thank you." I might as well take the compliment.

　　Since I was twisted and not aligned to the line of action of my body, I accidentally lost agility in my left elbow. Shit!

　　With a shriek, I was going to embrace failure and scrape my elbow to the gravel.

　　But the impact never came...

　　I whipped my head towards the surface I've landed onto. It was the commander's foot.

　　Oh man! That must've hurt with my bony elbow piercing on his toes through the shoe!

　　He kicked me back into place, I quickly gained my balance back. Given my position, I couldn't lift my head to thank him for saving me from embarrassment.

　　"My elbow must have—"

　　"Don't bother. You weigh like a feather." Saying, the commander resumed his invigilation.

　　Wait..how does he even keep count of how many each of us have done? We could be lying, too. But I guess that's the improved vision of a werewolf of such rank. He can overlook all fifteen of us without breaking a sweat about leaving out anyone. Oh lord, I wish to become this powerful...

　　"107..." I grumbled.

　　Yes...I kept going until my body breaks.

　　"Whoa..." when I looked around, silently keeping count of myself, I realized most of the men have gone down. The other woman and two other men were the only ones still keeping the count going.

　　"126..."

　　The other short king with a big ass attitude shook at 112 and passed out cold on the floor.

　　The sound of his thud was so satisfying~

　　"131..."

　　The woman by my left gave up at 128 as well.

　　"147..."

　　The one man I was competing with gave up on 141. I was the only one left.

　　Because some could hear my count, the last three counts were out loud by all of them.

　　"148...149...150!" Claps and cheers followed quickly. A smile was over my face as I looked around while panting so hard.

　　"And she doesn't even have a wolf." The crowd of fourteen apart from me roared in cheers.

　　Well, the haters were silenced as well. I gave a look to the short king, and asked for his name.

　　"The name's...Ken."

　　That's right.

　　Mr. Ken Gyllenhaal of Rosered pack.

　　I got myself up, my whole body shook like a leaf whilst others had a little rest.

　　"Good. Today, we learn that the mind is everything we need to have to win. The girl, Aurora Fangborn was mocked twice. By me, and the man who thought he could win," We laughed at poor Ken, "But this is just the beginning."

　　The way our smiles dropped must be mentioned in the records.

　　"Oh, this girl is probably going to die if she does anything anymore."

　　"That's right. We might witness one more annoying creature leave earth and make it a much habitable place for us." Two men joked behind my back, they even high-fived each other.

　　My gaze went to look at commander. He was already staring into my direction.

　　Well, I guess it's time I prove these people wrong.

　　As a set of other exercises to improve our strength were enforced over us, I aced in all of them with just one thought in my head.

　　'I want to become like Prince Emeric. And that starts from physical growth and improvement.'

　　The poor woman passed out by the end of fifth round of exercises. She was carried away in a stretcher. The commander explained two more slots shall open tomorrow morning for the training.

　　And I prayed it should be none of the two brothers I loathe.