13 Disguise Plan

As Ardelt said, Exia did not find anything special when examining the sword. He impulsively wanted to swing it, but halted upon realizing surrounding him was a lot of things. If he somehow broke some Ardelt's stuff, it was impossible to afford them back.

Just as he placed the sword back into the basket, his eyes fell on the brown door on the most corner left side of the room. Driven by curiosity, Exia asked, "Into where did that door lead to?"

"Backyard of this place."

"Backyard? What stuff is there?" Exia inquired in interest.

"Nothing much, just land full of grass with few dummies I used for training purpose." Ardelt replied before asking, "What? Do you want to go there?"

Seeing Exia nodded his head as the response, Ardelt said as he took a stride toward the backyard's door, "Come,"

As soon as Exia set his foot upon the backyard, he saw the court was full of wild grass with three dummies stood erect in the centre of the grass. They stood in a row with a bit of distance separating them. Besides that, a mountain full of various things was also visible on the corner of his left-side.

"You have done taking a look? If so, let's return. We should finish your lesson first."

Understanding there's nothing that attracts his interest, Exia hummed in response and returned to his desk.

"Let's do some spelling training now." Ardelt took the initiative this time, which surprised Exia, "Have you took your job as a teacher seriously now?"

"You don't want to be taught by me anymore, huh?"

"I was just joking, teacher!"

...

An hour simply flew by while they were immersed in their activity. During that time, Exia also learned some of this world's history. Instead of Earth, humans named this world Xinar. As far as Ardelt studied, he only knows there are only humans and some other creature inhabited Xinar. Though, It does not rule out the possibility of another race exists on a different part of the continent.

And as Ardelt explained before, the current continent humans populated were divided into four different factions. But for Exia, it's more like four different nations were competing against each other, considering each faction had its own speciality.

The Sorcerer's Faction, for instance, all its members might control the flow of elements in the planet and control them according to their will. Such as creating a flame, water, earth, wind, lightning from nothingness. The Royal faction, filled with powerful knights with unique abilities differing according to their will and understanding of the bitter training they endured. Some might gets bestowed the power to create an invisible barrier, raising their body heights, etc. For the remaining two factions, Ardelt had little comprehension regarding them.

He also told Exia the reason Lite City wasn't safe anymore due to the territory war of Sorcerer's Faction against Assasin's Faction. Sooner or later, if Sorcerer's Faction didn't send their member to Lite City, this city would definitely be snatched by Assasin's Faction, and all the things that have been going around normally would be changed, following Assasins's Faction regulation.

While he digested all the information Ardelt gave him. He heard Ardelt spoke from his side.

"Time's up. It's almost 9 o'clock now." Ardelt said after glancing at the clock.

Heaved a sigh, Exia said weakly, "Yes, my brain also seems exhausted already."

After learning how to spell for around an hour, Exia feels dizziness slowly taking over his head. Fortunately, the result wasn't disappointing as he could read some simple words now. He only needs a bit more polishing and the next days would be easy for him to read notes, etc.

"It's a pity that you lived in this poor city. With your cleverness, I think you can do pretty well on either Claudia or Vellhave." Ardelt praised.

"Haha, it's because I'm good at memorizing something, teacher. By the way, can I stay a bit longer here?" Exia asked with hopeful eyes.

"I guess you can as long you didn't bother me much," Ardelt answered after pondering for a moment.

Since he practically had no home to stay upon, Exia could only rely on this place to slack off and take a rest for an upcoming tournament later. During the lesson time, he realizes another fact that he couldn't refresh his mind by utilizing the orb's ability. It seems the orb wasn't omnipotent as he imagined and had some flaws. But still, having unlimited stamina on your palm couldn't be underestimated either.

'I hope I could solve this mystery orb soon,' Exia silently wished as he lazily leaned his head against the desk.

He didn't know when he fell asleep, but when he woke up, he realizes the time had passed for three hours. Rubbing his eyes sleepily, Exia saunter groggily toward Ardelt's desk, where a kettle and a cup were placed in order. Pouring himself a cup of water, Exia begins to drink it a few times to relieve his thirstiness.

While doing so, he heard a sound of a hammer being pounded repeatedly on an anvil outside the room, 'It seems teacher Ardelt is doing his work now.'

Then an idea struck his mind, 'Wouldn't becoming a blacksmith wasn't a bad idea?'

He never considered that idea since Ardelt was always acted indifferently toward him before. But after taught by him for a day. Exia realized that Ardelt wasn't that scary and was only awkward being around a kid, which none other is him.

With that thought, he left a mental note to himself that he would ask about that matter to Ardelt when he's available.

...

After consulting his idea of becoming a blacksmith to Ardelt, he was given a neutral response without a refusal or agreement. Ardelt just told him that he shouldn't place too much hope as he still in his prime and could run the shop on his own.

Slightly disappointed by his answer, Exia changed the topic and requested something, much to his embarrassment.

"You want unused clothes and a piece of cloth?" Ardelt asked with doubtful eyes.

"Yes, if Teacher doesn't mind," Exia shyly replied. Since the competition was held in Hart-District, pretty close to his dwelling in Tyre District. Exia was afraid if he stumbled across Mister Braun or Luke and his group there. Hence, he decides to execute some disguises technique to avoid being recognized by them. However, being a poor guy like him, Exia was reluctant to waste his savings on a piece of clothes. If there are unused clothes, he'll gladly accept them as long it can still be put on use.

"Well, if I'm not wrong, I got them in my backyard. I could be wrong too. I suggest you should check it by yourself."

Nodding his head, Exia headed for the backyard. Arrived there, he immediately goes to the left-corner where a stack of different stuff, but mostly armor plates place recklessly. Rummaging through it, what he found was mostly broken parts of medieval-armor. Feeling somewhat pessimistic that there would be cloth, Exia almost surrendered when his hands felt fabric texture. Instantly, his eyes shone in joy. With a quick tug, he pulled out the thing he caught to see it clearly.

Surprisingly, it was a dark-colored robe with an attached hoodie. The robe also had a lion insignia painted on its back, making it look imposing.

"Wow, this is so great," Exia exclaimed in amazement as he clad his body with the robe.

"I wonder why teacher Ardelt considers this as trash," Exia mumbled and proceeded to search for another cloth to cover his face.

This time, Exia didn't take a long time to felt something softer and smaller than the robe he drew before. As he jerked the thing off the clump of stuff, his eyes expanded at the sight of a slightly dusty greyish-pattern handkerchief.

"This should be worked," Exia muttered in satisfaction and began to blow off air to the handkerchief to make it cleaner. As the dust gradually cleared up, a handwritten slowly revealed into Exia's view atop the corner of right.

Because he only just learned to read today. Exia took a bit of time to register those words into his brain before spelling it stiffly, "Present for my hero ♡ Liya."

"What does it mean?" Exia fell into deep thought before shook his head, "Forget it. It wasn't my business, anyway."

Afterward, he arranged the pile of items a little before he returned to insides again.

"You've found what you wanted?" Ardelt asked without lifting his head as he was in the middle of writing something.

"Yeah, I got a robe and handkerchief," Exia answered in a happy tone.

Hearing Exia's answer, Ardelt paused at his writing and lifting his head with an unreadable expression, "Robe and handkerchief?"

"Yeah, this lion's robe and greyish-pattern handkerchief," Exia show his discovery.

"Oh..." Ardelt uttered a word blankly before adding, "Please take care of those two items carefully. Those two were once my precious items."

Exia was struck dumb hearing his words. If he considers these as precious things, why would he let these two items lying on the same page as junk?

Sensing Exia's puzzlement, Ardelt added, "That was in the past."

Not noticing the weirdness within Ardelt's tone, Exia replied with a reassuring smile, "Believe me, teacher. I wouldn't let a single scratch appears on both items."

"it's a relief then."