That day, Nem was heading with the other orphans to one of Mr. Haynes' lessons when he gestured he had to go to the bathroom.
All the children surrounding him suddenly reacted with a strange face. Nem could almost hear what they wanted to say; "how come you always find a way to get lost during faith lesson ?"
Nem made an awkward smile and made a helpless gesture. The reason Nem didn't know anything about the Church of Peace's religion wasn't that they didn't teach it. It was because he actually somehow got lost every single time this lesson was scheduled.
It originally didn't have anything to do with his exploration of the monastery. Nem genuinely got lost, trying to get back from a chore or after going to the bathroom. One time, he even got lost in thoughts and lost sight of the rest of the crowd. It took him the entire hour to find his way back.
At this point, there was not one orphan here who didn't know about this particular personality trait of his.
In the end, they still didn't do anything and just watched him leave in the wrong direction, laughing or looking worried.
The truth was that Nem still didn't make a map, not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't keep any paper or pen. These were heavily regulated items in the monastery and despite the fact that he often used them in class, Nem never succeeded in stealing any.
'So, long story short, I keep getting lost. Honestly, since my memory is better than before, I should be able to learn those paths quicker... but this damn monastery makes it impossible to know where I am. I swear, it's the kids that always know where to go that is weird, not me !'
After this brief thinking, Nem already had no idea where he was, or even where he came from. He nodded, satisfied, and glued his ear to the nearest door, checking if anyone was inside.
Nem had once spent two hours listening to the cheerful Jane Spencer speaking about the art of infiltration, and played a special game of hide and seek designed to imitate this situation. And he learned fast.
His steps were already very silent, especially since he was always barefoot, and he rarely got surprised anymore by peoples' hiding spots.
Satisfied, Nem pressed on the door handle. It was locked. Most of the rooms in the monastery were locked and Nem didn't remember seeing any keys, so he could only accept it. He only had roughly one hour until someone would come to find him, so Nem continued without wasting time.
After almost 20 minutes, a door emitted a satisfying creaking as it opened.
"Finally." He said out loud.
The room contained a wooden desk and a few old shelves. There wasn't anything on it. Nem sighed.
'As usual... Pretty much every open room are like this. But I found an old piece of paper that time, so maybe I can find another one.'
He hurriedly rummaged through the room, keeping the noise to a minimal. Not finding anything, he put his head outside the room and cautiously looked in both directions, then closed the door. Nem then wiped his hands on his shorts and started slowly moving the shelves.
'If someone forgot to clean it, it's gotta be here, right ? ...Why is it that I became more reckless AFTER I found out I was crazy ?'
Nem's expression gradually grew from puzzled to one of excitement. He had found something. This time again, it was a piece of paper, but this one was intact, unlike the previous one, which was just a torn piece with nothing on it.
Nem rolled it in his clothes and continued his search but came out empty, except for a small and dirty mirror, which was embedded into the wall. There was no way to get it, so he only observed his reflection for a while.
He looked at his now-familiar small and thin body. His exposed arms and shoulders were skinny but a bit athletic, his calves even more so. He was tall for his age, but his body didn't look elongated at all. Actually, as Nem looked at himself, he realized he could pass as a 12-year-old if he straightened his back and acted a bit more self-important.
Nem was about to make use of this opportunity to practice his smile when he heard someone clearing his throat behind him. The boy jumped in fright and turned back hurriedly. The face of Mr. James entered his eyes, and Nem relaxed slightly. The man looked less exhausted than usual, and he wore the satisfied smile of someone who just succeeded in his prank. He said :
"You shouldn't play with things you find abandoned in the monastery. For example, this mirror right here, it has the ability to make one more absorbed in their own thoughts. Also, it has the particularity of being very difficult to move or cover-up, which is why it's not locked away somewhere."
Mr. James looked at the mirror and seemed to lose track of the conversation for a second. Smiling helplessly, and added :
"This isn't very dangerous, but it still allowed me to sneak up on you so easily. I suppose what you need to learn from this experience is that no such objects need to be underestimated."
Nem had a strange expression on his face.
'This guy seriously just scared me like that to teach me a lesson ? And here I thought he was always serious... Also did he just say this is a magic item or something ? That's so cool !'
Mr. James didn't seem very satisfied with Nem's reactions and he spoke again with a more serious tone :
"I heard you often get lost in the corridors. It's fine if you just want to avoid Mr. Haynes' class, but one day if you're not careful, you might find yourself in the wrong room, do you understand ?"
His goal was clearly to scare Nem away, but at this moment, the only thought in Nem's mind was quite different.
'Did he seriously just try to act all responsible and tell me it was fine to skip class at the same time ? Also, why do I have this strange feeling of déjà-vu ? This mirror isn't even showing any dead parents or Quidditch trophy.'
Fortunately, this time Nem controlled and facial expression and acted like he understood and started instinctively following the teacher, who had no choice but to lead him back to the right place.
When they arrived, the lesson was already ending and the only remaining events were sharing hour and prayer. Right before coming into the classroom, Mr. James left and Nem heard Mr. Haynes talking.
"Tomorrow, the archery class will be held for most of the day by Miss Spencer. It only happens once every once in a while for two days, so make sure to pay attention and practice diligently." He coughed. " Incidentally, if someone could tell Nem the next time you see him..."
At this moment, Nem entered the room very naturally and quietly sat on the floor, his red eyes shining in honest interest.
It seemed the teacher didn't even know what to say, and he just scratched his head, said goodbye and left awkwardly.
That evening, even during prayer, laughs sometimes resonated in the monastery. The children had become more expressive and were in an overall better mood since Nem joined, amused by his antics, vocabulary and exaggerated facial expressions when he couldn't speak.
When Nem got back to his room, he quickly took out the paper and found out that something was written on one side. It seemed to come out of a printing press or perhaps a typewriter and had entire sentences covered in black, like in a redacted official document.
"On the subject of the 3 major heretics Cursed organization, which are the Sanctious Army, the Grey Angels and [redacted].
[redacted]
The organization are all in control of certain Curses, those known are respectively [redacted]
Concerning the actions [redacted] by the Church of Peace regarding these organizations
[redacted]
It is thus imperative that, concerning the Sanctious Army, our great Church shall follow the agreement of Serveil(4080) and adopt the corresponding attitude : total extermination.(See p.4;5)
[redacted]"
This was all Nem could read, as it didn't even have a proper beginning, and the entire end was blacked out. Still, this was already really interesting.
'It seems I was right, Sarth was indeed a Cursed, also, this Sanctious Army is apparently a well-known organization. I should probably run away if I even hear about them thought, the Church wouldn't adopt "total extermination" if there were harmless innocents. Actually, this dated agreement probably means they are really, really bad.'
'Also, they are in control of certain Curses ? So there are many different Curses, which probably means different powers, in addition to the ones belonging to the 12 churches... That's a lot, I wonder how they handle it. All I know now is that the blessed of the Church of Sight are able to detect powers and that information regarding them is strictly controlled.'
'The third organization is the most concerning thought... Even the name is redacted, this should mean something bad. Excluding the curses, only the way of handling Grey Angels was redacted because they are partners, which is probably a really big piece of information.'
All kinds of grandiose thoughts entered Nem's mind, but he quickly calmed down. He still needed to practice his daily meditation.