After the conversation with Kaz, my mind wandered back to the memories itself and we walked into town in almost absolute silence and just exchanging trivia when Kaz spoke, I imagine he tried to make us look as normal as possible. Hard work.
When we entered the city, we wasted no time and looked for an inn that could offer us separate rooms, when we found it, we separated at the same time and each one went to their own room.
Inside my room, I close the door behind me and throw myself on the made bed, no more, and stretch out almost like a cat, a soft bed is a rarity in a fugitive's life so I take it whenever I get the chance.
Still enjoying the comfort of the bed it occurred to me that it's been a while since my last shower, now that I think about it I feel dirty, damn it. The rooms we took have bathtubs and as well as the bed, something I should use when I can.
Without wasting time I go to the bathtub and, without hot water, but I just want to take a shower, at first the cold water seems to shock me, I must be looking like a scared cat, but soon I manage to overcome the cold and go inside in the bathtub.
Ten minutes later, I have to enjoy it when I can, I finally feel clean and calm, unfortunately. Normally being calm would be ideal but right now being calm means thinking clearly and thinking clearly, at least for me, equates to remembering clearly.
Remember when I was selected as the heir to my bloodline, remember my family my father from whom I inherited my red hair, my mother from whom I inherited my green eyes, Yanan who was lenient with my antics. So the escape, the betrayal of the Su leader, and the Braigthe bastards who allied themselves with them, as they sold information that endangered the other three clans, spread rumors that basically put targets on our backs and watched our destruction.
And finally remember how I came to be here, Kaz, Yanan bet on it as my chance to fight back the traitors, but so far I only see a grumpy old man in a middle-aged man when I interact with him.
But the power he has is very real, considering what I remember from his conversation with Yanan, I imagine the chance of counterattack refers to one of two things: making Kaz an ally who would fight alongside the Order, seems impossible... or learning from him and becoming strong enough to lead the counterattack myself, remains difficult and unpleasant, but it is possible.
After sorting out my thoughts as much as possible, I know what I need to do: convince the gallon drinker to train me, seriously.
There's only one problem on the way, I have no idea how to convince him.
Should I just talk until we reach an agreement? No, with his personality he'll probably give me a condition that will turn out to be psychological torture.
Impress him?? What the hell would impress this freak?
Wait, I think I can get a decent deal actually.
In the midst of the daydreams of how to improve my situation an idea occurred to me, my lips curve up in a mischievous smile. Wait, Kaz everything you know will be used to make me stronger soon. But now I will succumb to another luxury, the comfort of a good night's sleep.
Yawn, with a yawn that disregards elegance, who is elegant once they wake up? Not me, would you? yea.
I'm getting ready at idle, hair, clothes hiding the dying look, mental note: sleeping too much is as bad as sleeping too little.
Finally ready, I leave the room, and I go downstairs there is Kaz having an improvised breakfast with bread, juice and some round fruit that I don't know, he gestures for me to come closer.
The smell of the food makes my stomach growl, although Kaz doesn't show any reaction my cheeks still turn red, then I sit opposite him and start eating without making eye contact.
"As soon as noon arrives, we start the trip to the next city, understood?" he asks as soon as I finish my meal.
"Understood." I answer, still avoiding looking at his face, this time to try to suppress the anxiety of what I'm about to do, please work.
"Kaz, the deal was just to be your assistant right?" I ask without avoiding looking at him, which makes me realize that he must have slept very badly or not at all that night.
"Yes, why?" He responds, his voice makes him look like he's always bored, his tired eyes also contribute to this impression, of course.
"This deal is for the Order's three techniques and Yanan's one, so I imagine it's possible to trade for specific lessons if I can provide something of interest to you, right?" I ask, still worried that in some inconceivable way I might be shooting myself in the foot.
"I don't see any reason to refuse this change in the agreement, do you already have something of interest to me?" As he spoke, the tired look gave way to a provocative and arrogant one, and that's what I'm going to use to get an advantage out of this deal.
"Not yet, but I have an idea how to accomplish this feat." I say with a confident smile, needless to say the confident part is pure acting, right?
Now I have his agreement, I can work out the details of that deal.
Since each subsequent transaction puts me at a disadvantage, I am the one who wants the product but the provider does not need to sell to make a profit in this case.
The general of my idea is to use something of low value for me in the initial transactions, since he didn't ask for equivalent exchanges, I'll take what I think is most necessary.
"Well, if you're done with your little quiz, let's take a look at the city."
"Why?" I asked a little surprised by the sudden change of subject.
"To kill time, see if we can get information on anything resembling an ally for us, or on our enemies to precisely avoid them" he spoke in a lower and lower voice until it became a whisper "and lastly it's most important to us mix the crowd like normal tourists."
"Okay, but I doubt this town has any decent tourist attractions." I express my little doubt with our plan.
"Probably not, but there is always some charlatan trying to make easy money from an unsuspecting traveller" So are we going to spend the rest of the morning pretending to be naive travelers?
With the brute of our escape plan decided Kaz goes to the counter to pay something, as I stayed at the table I can't hear what he's asking, probably one of his ways to gather information.
After not returning to the table he gestures for me to follow him, and we leave the inn, walking aimlessly through the city until we find a street artist.
He was a dark-skinned man with shaved hair, and just above his left eyebrow a tribal tattoo ran around the back of his head until it ended in a stylized circle on his right eye.
He juggled a strange assortment of objects, pegs, balls, hammers, knives, fruit, and coins.
I seem to be seeing a lot of coins lately, despite the increasingly limited use they have for a Synchroner.
I think that's the part of me that still lives in the core, where no one cared about bargaining chips from ordinary people.
Then he stopped juggling, not picking up the objects but throwing most of them into the air, calmly placing the ones that were still in his hand on the floor, putting the money in his pocket and continuing that way until all the equipment was stored.
"He has a talent." Kaz spoke suddenly.
"How so?" I ask in surprise.
"Talent might not be the right word, but he has a skill set that every Synchroner gradually improves on: timing and rhythm. They're the basics of every Synchroner, and he has both to spare."
He continues the compliments, which makes a childish part of me feel annoyed that I've never heard a compliment, and the rational part also knows that I haven't had a chance to show my skills, and to argue with him about it. it would be silly. But...
"Is it enough for you to consider accepting him as a disciple?" I couldn't stand the curiosity, childishly wanting to know what the level of this supposed talent is and how I compare myself to it.
Kaz puts his fingers to his chin thoughtfully and responds dryly.
"No."
"Why?" I ask, my curiosity on a steady rise.
"This skill set is useful and an advantage against Synchroners at the same level but knowing how to use it in battle is another story" He responds slowly with a pause here and there to align his thoughts with the explanation I imagine "And above all it's a advantage that becomes so difficult to use when you and your opponent reach a high level that it's almost redundant."
"Because these two skills grow along with the Synchroner, this is the same for everyone, and the more refined these skills the lower the increase, so over time the difference between them and others without this talent becomes negligible, correct boss?" I reason, with a little sarcasm at the end.
"That's true for most people, but Mingten I've lived long enough to know that there's always someone whose growth is an outlier, these people have strength out of proportion to their level or ways to reverse results. that were once taken for granted back to uncertainty."
He pauses, seeming to think about some topic far removed from our current situation, and his eyes show something akin to concern.
"And they're also the most dangerous opponents I've ever faced, many of them were the times I came closest to death even though we were on the same level, and others were able to face me even being a level below me, if they had a Good strategy."
Hearing him talk about these people, existences that break common sense, made me think of the members of the Order of Breakers.
We are not traditionally strong, but our weapons are unique in that they can nullify most techniques that rely on Synchro there are some rules for that of course, but that alone makes me wonder if an Order member would become a higher caliber Synchroner and still use the best of our weapons, wouldn't he qualify as one of those common-sense destroyers?
It seems the conversations with Kaz have been kindling sparks in my mind, as I have an idea, I've had many today, and this one has to do with the juggler, Kaz looks like I'm going to buy his first lesson faster than I expected.
When the crowd was dispersing, I started to walk towards the juggler, Kaz clearly unhappy with my sudden escape followed me calmly, when I arrive in front of the juggler I stop dramatically and say pointing to him:
"Let's make a bet!"