'I wasn't ready.'
That was what Nem wanted to say after standing back up and exchanging a bow with an inexpressive Lana. He knew he would at least be able to put up a fight if he fought again.
For a moment, he felt like he was coming back to his high school days, when he took every failure seriously and enjoyed every win. But then he remembered where he was.
'Maybe I should just act like I'm just a normal kid. Ay, now I feel like a bad anime protagonist. It would really be embarrassing if I start to talk about 'releasing my true power' or things like that.'
Nem almost rejected the idea out of pure embarrassment but finally kept it. At least for a while, he would act like a normal child, if not a bit more intelligent and talented than others. It would be bad if an orphan started showing martial arts that didn't even exist in this world. Nem didn't want to be treated as a spy of the Grey Angels or some other organization he didn't even know.
Fortunately, the instructor seemed satisfied with this amount of public humiliation and just had him observe the rest of the lesson. There were different rules depending on the levels of the fighters, sometimes simple, sometimes more dangerous.
Lana fought again, with a weapon this time. She used a wooden staff, just like her opponent, a 14-year-old boy, but their styles were very different. The boy used his like a spear, mainly using the tip, while she kept overextending her attacks and pulling the staff back or simply using a part closer to the middle to hit. Nevertheless, her mastery over the weapon clearly outstripped the boy's and she kept pressuring him from all sides.
After only a few seconds, Lana's wooden staff span and she hit her opponent's stomach with its other end. She then rotated on the tip of her toes, bringing the staff towards the boy's neck in her usual fashion.
The boy could only watch as the weapon stopped near his neck, vibrating slightly.
'Looks like I was right, she is the best fighter. However, what kind of weapon is this staff acting as ? A real staff ? No, she wouldn't pull it back like this if that was the case... A scythe ? Maybe, it seems possible if it's big enough. Is this an actual weapon in this world thought ? Could be an axe as well...'
As Nem was asking himself random questions, he conveniently ignored the fact that he would definitely lose if he fought the boy with his staff, not even mentioning the girl.
Having technically skipped a meal because he slept so much, Nem was starting to get hungry. Lost in thought, he faintly heard the instructor say that they'll see each other again this afternoon and perked up after the other children headed back in the monastery.
Although not having a phone to check the time felt a bit awkward, he still could tell that it was time to eat !
The meal today was similar to the previous day's, rich and varied, but the atmosphere was completely different. No matter if you forbid them from talking, restricted their liberty and trained them daily, children were still children. They would find a way to enjoy life and socialize, even if it was hard. Besides, they were all orphans, which meant a real sense of belonging to the monastery.
This is why, even if nobody was talking, the atmosphere was very lively at the canteen. Nem watched from an outsider's point of view, wondering how these little boys and girls would end up. He didn't even know how much time this orphanage system existed, and the only person he knew and suspected of coming from it was brother Ivan.
'And all I know about him is that he is tasked with brainwashing 10-year-olds and is a religious fanatic. Their future looks rather bleak.'
As he was thinking about this particular monk, Nem remembered his power and his words and conjectured.
'It seems big Ivan is a Blessed with the power belonging to the Church of Peace, considering that he is a real monk here. Also, maybe acquiring those power has something to do with one's faith in a particular god ? If that's the case, I'm pretty much screwed...'
It was not that he didn't believe these deities existed but that he could never have 'faith' in a thing he couldn't even fandom. It was like believing an asteroid wouldn't hit your planet because some random jerk told you the universe was a good guy. No part of this reasoning made sense.
'I don't know actually, maybe it's because I'm too used to religion in my original world...'
His train of thought was cut short by the movement around him.
They headed to the combat area again, meeting Sunny once more. This time was more of a systematic training session. They first had to sprint to the river, where everyone splashed themselves with fresh water. Then come back by taking a longer path. After that, the children did a bit of muscle training and went directly to practicing punches, kicks and dodges in the air.
Under the guidance of the instructor, Nem felt like this martial training really wasn't bad. At least for children.
'I can make progress like this, after all I may feel bad about those kids but the most important problem is my own survival. I don't know how the future will be made, but I know I'm not going to just be an accountant here, this world is too stimulating for that. Besides, even if it wasn't, a modern man like me would be too bored to pass on the adventure.'
The lesson lasted for a few hours and Nem finally got to take a shower in the monastery. The water was cold, a bit dirty and the pressure low, but he had soap and it felt quite good after sweating this long.
The next destination was a large room in the monastery, which appeared to be a classroom. It had a large slate with chalk on it acting as a blackboard, but no chairs. The instructor in charge was once again a man, middle-aged and with a bit of a beer belly.
"Hello everyone !" He smiled with enthusiasm before turning to Nem and continuing : " You can call me Mr. Haynes, I teach mathematics and a few other things here in the monastery. Can you read and write by any chance ?"
After Nem nodded, Mr. Haynes asked him to resolve a few problems by writing on the blackboard. They were so easy, Nem couldn't bring himself to purposely answer wrongly. After Nem did a simple multiplication, the teacher seemed like he had seen enough and told him to sit back down before starting the lesson.
Nem was reminded of a friend he had in high school, who would always proclaim after finishing a mathematics test that 'it wasn't even math but just counting'. He had the absolute worse grades all year thought. A bitter smile appeared on his lips as he stopped thinking about it. Dead men don't need to remember others.
Looking at the various age groups around him with his red eyes, Nem concluded that this was really not an efficient way of teaching. Thankfully, he had no interest in having people who barely invented the steam machine teach him mathematics anyway.
He listened impatiently at the lesson, feeling it was definitely too long and he should be the one doing the teaching instead.
Finally, the bell resonated in the classroom and Mr Haynes regrettably put his chalk down before declaring :
"Alright everyone, this is now the sharing hour, so my lesson is finished for today. Speak in accordance with the God of Peace's teaching." He turned to Nem. "It means no disputes and tolerance. Understood ?"
"Yes, sir." The crowd answered with the same sentence more or less at the same time and the chatter started.
The children didn't seem too excited about it. After all, they all spent the day doing the same things with each other and this happened every day at the same time. Because of the rules that they couldn't argue with each other, conversations were generally dull.
However, today was different. They had a newcomer in their tight and closed circle. So Nem quickly got surrounded and interrogated from all sides.
"Hey Nem my name's..."
"Where are you from ?"
"How come your eyes are so red ?"
The red-eyed boy in question wasn't very happy about the situation. He just wasn't used to social interactions anymore, and the recent conversation that could cost him his life before wasn't helping him trust people of this world more. Well I suppose my life wasn't really on the line actually... but it sure felt like it.
Fortunately, he had the memories of Tom's life to help him... 'Just kidding, the kid wasn't any more social than me.'
He sighed and just decided to focus on answering completely dishonestly. His distrust was different from paranoia, in the sense that he didn't believe everyone was out to get him not was he too worried about his safety. It could still be considered pathological, as it progressively deprived him of the possibility of forming any long-lasting relationships. Nem simply couldn't bring himself to believe that anyone would have good intentions towards him or anybody else than themselves for that matter.
These children were no exception, so he felt a lot better lying to them. Besides, it was not like he could just tell the truth. 'I hate lying, but I can't deny it feels quite good in this situation.' A bitter smile appeared on his face for an instant. An unpleasant memory was resurfacing again, in which he had asked a certain someone to stop lying. Of course, "ask" wasn't really the correct word...
Nem didn't like to think about this so he concentrated on memorizing things about the orphans. He learned that Lana was indeed the best fighter, and that she worshiped the Goddess of War and Disasters. That was the first time he heard of a female god other than Mother Earth, showing how little Tom knew about the subject before his death. Also, he heard that having to get beaten by her was only reserved for the older newcomers and that the younger kids found it really funny.
They imitated Nem falling down and his shocked expression while laughing. Far from being irritated, he laughed with them, feeling that this kind of behavior was really innocent and refreshing. Perhaps he wasn't that bad with children after all.
It was only when the sharing hour was over and he started eating dinner that Nem realized he was in a pretty good mood, similar to the one he had when he woke up.
'I wonder if I'll get socially rehabilitated in a strange monastery filled with children and religious fanatics ? Life really is strange...'