“Aaaaaargh!”
Exactly two days after the hellish lower body workout ended, I was once again letting out a desperate scream on the mat in the iron-scented underground gym beneath the imperial palace.
“One more! More! More!”
“Tta—heu—heu—heuk!”
“Tsk-tsk, that one wasn’t your chest, you pushed with your arms! I won’t count it! Push with your chest! Tear your pectoral muscles pushing! Feel the tear!”
Standing behind my bench press, the 2nd Prince, Artur, was ruthless today as always.
After lower body, today it was chest too. He began torturing me, squeezing out every last drop of my limits.
I had bought some personal training sessions in my previous life, but my trainer back then was a birdbrain more interested in her Instagram photos than the workout, so there wasn’t much effect.
I had never experienced Spartan training forced on me by a wild bear of a man like this.
“Kuaaaaah-!”
Along with a beastly, desperate scream, the last barbell finally collapsed onto the rack with a heavy clunk.
“Excellent! I can hear your pectorals screaming in joy as they tear through their limits! Good, very good!”
I didn’t even have the strength to answer, sprawled out on the bench, panting roughly.
My lungs felt like they were burning up, my chest was swollen taut, and both arms trembled uncontrollably like aspen leaves regardless of my will.
I’d tried to somehow rest by flapping my mouth in the middle, but cheap tricks didn’t work at all on this giant bear of a man.
He mercilessly counted reps until I was on the verge of being crushed to death by the barbell myself.
“Hahk, hahk, hahk…….”
As I barely turned my head while catching my breath, I saw the 2nd Prince who had stripped off his shirt, wiping sweat as he stood there.
He had lifted weights more than twice as heavy while helping with my workout, so it must have been quite tough for him too.
Perhaps because it was right after an incredible heavy-weight session, his pectoral muscles, already huge, were swollen up as if they would burst at any moment.
But atop those pumped-up chest muscles… two nipples with bizarrely distinct presences were visible.
‘……?’
No, was it just my imagination?
Every time the muscles twitched, those two dark, massive nipples seemed to flash like eyeballs, constantly trying to meet my gaze.
Especially, when his right pectoral muscle had twitched just now, I even had the bizarre illusion that his right nipple had suddenly winked at me.
It was an excessively violent visual assault.
Shivers ran down my spine as I hurriedly dragged my gaze upward.
Frankly, it was a hundred times more comforting to face head-on the savage, beastly violet eyes unique to the imperial family than to face those two eyes on that burdensome chest—damn, what do I even call them, tit-eyes? Anyway, facing those was a hundred times more comforting.
“Your Highness. Hahk, hahk… is it over now?”
“Hmm, let’s stop here for today. You endured very well for your first chest training. Your mental strength is excellent for such a weak body.”
“Th-th-thank you.”
“Though I must say, your resorting to tricks here and there when pushed beyond your strength is slightly displeasing…”
“……!”
I barely raised my trembling body and racked my brains.
If I didn’t secure this crazy gym-rat prince’s favor, I’d be dragged here every other day and end up dying from exercise that was truly too much to handle.
While quickly racking my brain to earn some goodwill, I decided to push one idea that had suddenly flashed through my mind.
“But Your Highness… hahk… are you truly going to just glance at such perfectly pumped muscles once in the mirror and call it a day?”
“Hmm? Of course that’s the end. Isn’t it over when you lift heavy things and work your muscles?”
The 2nd Prince’s thick eyebrows twitched.
It was only natural, as he was a man who would spring up from sleep at the mere mention of muscles.
I put power into my voice with the mindset of a half-con artist.
This world was inside a romance fantasy novel written by my ex-girlfriend.
Even if things women knew came out one after another, there was no way things only men knew—such as the posing culture that could be called the essence of modern bodybuilding—would exist.
“Have you heard of the technique of contracting trained muscles in the most perfect and beautiful way possible to display them to others?”
“…I do not know. Is there such a thing?”
“Yes, there is. In Sterling, we call it posing. Please, step before the mirror.”
I guided the 2nd Prince to the full-length mirror covering one wall of the gym.
“Now, first spread your legs shoulder-width apart and establish the stability of your lower body.”
Fumbling through faint memories of personal training from my previous life, I began mobilizing all my meager fitness knowledge.
“And raise both arms, bending them out to the sides. Clench your fists tightly and squeeze your biceps and triceps hard enough to sting! Lift your ribcage fully, spread your lats wide to the sides…!”
“Krrrrgh-!”
The 2nd Prince took a deep breath following my instructions and raised both arms high.
At that moment, an unbelievable change occurred in his body reflected in the mirror.
Muscles that were imposing even when he was just standing now, as he took the stance and maximally contracted them, writhed like a living, breathing monster, revealing bizarrely distinct definition.
“Ooh…!”
The 2nd Prince’s violet eyes widened tremendously in wonder as he checked his perfectly controlled muscles in the mirror.
“Wh-what in the world is this! I merely exerted strength and changed my posture, yet the definition and mass of my muscles are displayed threefold! From the quadriceps to the peaks of the biceps, they appear perfectly separated!”
He exhaled roughly as if truly moved.
The gym-rat prince, who had known nothing his whole life but lifting heavy chunks of iron, now learned for the first time how to artistically show off his beautiful (by his own claim) body, his eyes flashing as he cheered.
“Truly an amazing technique! Prince of Sterling, what in the world is the name of this great and overwhelming pose!”
At his eyes sparkling with such seriousness, I nearly burst out laughing.
But I held it in and forced on a solemn expression.
“This pose… its majesty and destructive power are said to be like those of a legendary demon dragon, thus—”
“Thus?”
“It is called the Black Dragon Pose.”
I don’t know if anyone would know, but it was the historic and traditional Heukdragun pose.
The pose taken by a gym-rat regent in a web novel I’d enjoyed reading long ago—was it called Heukryongse there? Something like that.
Honestly, I didn’t really know how to do it and had thrown it out as a joke.
But to the ears of the 2nd Prince, enthralled by muscles, that name apparently sounded more sacred and cool than any imperial title.
“Black… Dragon…!”
The 2nd Prince’s lips trembled.
He glared at the mirror as if to devour it, and with a strained grunt, squeezed his strength until the veins all over his body seemed ready to burst.
“Kuaaaaah! Behold, the roar of the Black Dragon awakening within my body! This is the true Imperial Black Dragon!”
In the figure of a great bear enraptured while holding both arms high and posing before the mirror, for an instant, a true Black Dragon seemed visible.
At that absurd, majestic, sweaty, muscular spectacle, I slowly backed away from the bench press and clasped my hands behind my back.
“Hoo! Hah! Heh!”
“……”
“Kekekeke…! Beautiful, beautiful!”
After admiring his muscles for a long while, the 2nd Prince soon caught his rough breath and whipped his head around to look at me.
“Ian of Sterling. You truly possess excellent knowledge.”
“You overpraise me, Your Highness.”
“Lifting heavy things was not everything. That I could flaunt muscles carved through blood and sweat so perfectly…! You have broadened my narrow horizons.”
The 2nd Prince approached and thumped my shoulder heavily with his massive hand.
My shoulder blade felt like it would shatter, but I forced myself to maintain a smile.
“I like this Black Dragon Pose very much. Tomorrow, I shall assemble the Imperial Royal Guard at the training grounds at once and teach this great posing to them as a group!”
“…Are there those among the Imperial Royal Guard who enjoy muscle training?”
“Why wouldn’t there be! Not demon bastards obsessed with swordsmanship like my sister, but those who fight purely for muscles like me. I intend to inform them!”
“Haha, they are splendid people…”
Doubting the mental faculties of some nameless imperial knights inwardly, I bowed my head deeply.
“In any case, thank you! I shall take my leave!”
“…Understood.”
Just as he was running out the gym door, the 2nd Prince quickly came back, shoved his face in, and shouted.
“See you in two days! It’s arm day then!”
“……”