Veronique felt her head hurt just trying to imagine what kind of architectural nightmare those Circles must have been.

  ‘10 Kilometers of stairs…what in the bloody hell’

  “I understand it can be hard to visualize, perhaps at the end of our lessons I can persuade the Duke for a trip to go see it in person” Miss Hawkings proposed “Still it was in the past and as the Duke has said this morning skills used to be stronger so it probably was way easier on them then to us right now in the present”

  “I don’t like doing the stairs” Rhea innocently said, probably not grasping just how ridiculously big those stairs would be

  “Don’t worry Lady Rhea, we would only watch from the top” the older woman reassured the child before slowly turning while looking straight at Veronique “only a lunatic would think of doing those stairs without a vigorous training”

  ‘Why is she looking at me? I may see dead people but I am not that insane’ she felt offended, a vein slighting pulsing on forehead

  “Anyway lets resume our regular lessons now” the redhead internally groaned, it was just day two and she already couldn’t wait to be done with this.

  Inner Garden

  Veronique doesn’t know which deity she should thank for not completely losing her head during the lesson, even if she was sure she was going to have nightmares about Miss Hawkings correcting her with that annoying wangling finger.

  Kain, Lucia and the dogs were waiting for her like yesterday, Mos and Bos were on a leash but thankfully didn’t look as hyperactive as yesterday.

  They still looked quite happy to see her and were pulling on the leash to get to her, crying out as they couldn’t, Veronique hurried her pace to get within their reach

  “Did they like the Outer Garden?” she asked as she knelt down to pet the dogs, who immediately tried to lick her face and rubbed themselves on her

  “Y-yes they ran around a l-lot” Lucia would answer

  “Good they seem wiped out enough to start their first training section, did you bring the treats?” Veronique observed

  “O-of course Lady Veronique” the maid presented a pouch full of what looked like beef jerky

  “Prefect! Thank you Lucia” she approved with a hum then rose up “Now lets find a quiet spot” staying right there could annoy people just passing through and distract her pups.

  This time Veronique was more cautions when she took the leashes and Lucia stayed close hovering just in case something went wrong like yesterday.

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  However Lucia wasn’t the only one, Clashing eyes and Hanging Jaw were basically flagging her, their skeletal but still fleshy hands raised as if to catch her at any moment

  ‘You two can’t touch me’ she pointed out in her head, immediately after Clashing eyes walked a few feet away to hug his knees and start sulking giving its back to her, Hanging Jaw followed suit giving a one armed hug to the fellow Dead ‘I am just stating the truth’ Veronique let out a sigh and proceeded to ignore them, refocusing on the task ahead

  ‘Probably the smartest thing to do was to let Lucia keep the leash, but Mos and Bos wouldn’t learn to listen to me if I don’t show them I am in the one in charge’ the redhead reasoned as Kain lead them to a suitable place

  “Thank you Kain, this is perfect” Veronique said at which the Undead merely nodded then she noticed a problem, how was she going to train both dogs if they distracted each other? From what she read the book said nothing about group training and was mostly about individual one ‘I could tell Lucia to keep one of them away while I train the other but that might distress them too much after just reuniting with me and they have never been separated before’ after unleashing the dogs she took a couple of treats from Lucia ‘I will try with them both first, hopefully it will work out anyway’ there she ran into a immediate issue.

  Mos and Bos started playing.

  “Damn they must have associated the leash being off with playtime” Veronique was quick to understand what had happened but didn’t give up

  “Deimos! Phobos!” she called them over with their full name making them rush over her, holding one treat in each hand she simultaneously let the duo smell it and tricked them in a sitting position by moving her hand upwards so they would look up and end up sitting.

  “Sit!” Veronique yelled out as soon as their cute butts touched the ground and repeated the entire process for the next ten minutes, only giving the treat when dogs ended up sitting and repeating the command.

  It should get a few sessions like this before they internalized the command and she couldn’t insist on it for to longer then fifteen minutes.

  This time it was working out with both of them at the same time, but on other exercises she was going to need to hold the leash as well so she had to think of an alternative way.

  She should probably start by doing short sessions of separating the two, so they don’t get too anxious about it when it happened.

  ‘It could help if Kain could walk one of them while Lucia walks the other’ she started thinking, but she could see the dogs were still wary of the guard even if they got more comfortable with its presence ‘Is it normal that they warmed up to him so fast?’ she wondered, not that she preferred her dogs to still be terrified by him ‘must be because they had to be close to Kain for so long, this means I just got to wait it out and focus on exercises where I don’t have to use the leash’

  “Lucia think you can find a way to have the treat bag hang from my waist?” Veronique asked as they headed back, Mos and Bos had the leash back on

  “W-wouldn’t the d-dogs be able to s-steal it from y-you if it was?” Lucia pointed out, since the bag would be way closer to them due to the redhead small stature

  “You are right, never mind” she abandoned the idea “so did you prepare that water and rag?”

  “It’s right by the e-entrance” the maid said

  “Good” Veronique gave her approval then something else popped out in her mind “Could you ask the kitchen to send something to calm my nerves, like a tea or something of the sort, dealing with Alexander is enraging” she refrained from outright asking for chamomile tea because she didn’t know if it was a thing there, honestly she didn’t even know if it would help even if it was, but it was worth a shot to try.

  “O-of course Lady Veronique” Lucia would respond as the redhead wondered how her cute little dogs were going to take to the new washing routine

  Mos didn’t seem to mind, if anything he seemed very happy about it but Bos…Bos absolutely hated it and cried loudly about it as if Veronique was torturing him and not merely washing his paws.

  Hanging Jaw - the Dead with the jaw just barely attached

  Little Drag - the Dead with just the top half that keeps dragging itself around Veronique in circles

  Handstand - another Dead with just the top half, but instead of dragging its body it walks on its hands.

  Clashing eyes - the Dead with the eyes danging from its orbits.

  The Decapitated Friends - two Dead that seem to be talking while holding on their own heads

  Disarmed - Dead who uses its own severed arm as a club, another of the same appeared.They started a mock sword battle using their own arms.