For Nem, leaving was only a question of time. He knew that he wouldn't exactly be treated badly if he stayed in the monastery and then entered the Church of Peace officially to become a priest, monk or something similar.
The problem was that Nem was aware of the fact this church was pretty much just an evil organization.
'Well, it's not like I have any evidence of something truly evil, but that only means they are very careful not to leak it. I'm convinced that the only reason they don't do it openly is that they're a Church and therefore are supposed to be the opposite of evil.'
Maybe it was Nem's pathological distrust towards people, but, somehow, he had absolutely no doubt. Besides, with his new status as a Cursed, he wasn't in a hurry to tell anyone, especially since he knew so little about it.
The big problem was that he knew a bit too much about their secrets, even without including the pieces of paper he found in the various rooms. Also, leaving the monastery on his own just like that wasn't an option.
No matter where he disappeared, the various instructors or monks always found him after an hour, and Nem didn't believe it would be different if he ran out outside. He was aware that the monastery contained a certain number of Blessed, and there was no way they would lose a kid running in the woods, no matter how good he was at hide and seek.
The worse of them was probably Mr. Clark, as he was clearly stronger than brother Ivan, and therefore probably a Tier 8 Blessed of the Church of Sight, or even higher. Father Okof might be even stronger, since he was the one giving orders that day.
So, Nem had come up with the plan of leaving the monastery on a mission, and use his true skills and Curse powers to escape the Church.
The only problem was that he couldn't bring the other orphans with him that way, but Nem didn't believe that was even a possibility anyways.
Even though he had grown quite attached to those cute and innocent children, that would be a stretch to say that he could trust them with running away. There were many reasons, their faith to the God of Peace, their innocent minds who couldn't imagine that their benefactors would be evil...
Those were just examples without even considering the difficulty of bringing them out in the first place. Besides, the truth was that they were much better here than outside. Most orphans didn't have the chance to live under a roof and eat all they wanted every day, while also being given some important education.
As for how exactly Nem would get the monks to send him away on a mission, he naturally had his own idea...
But before deciding anything, he had to meditate at least once.
Nem didn't have to wait too long. It was now a day after he became a Cursed and he took his usual position in his room. At this point, he didn't need the scroll at all, in fact it was even a hindrance as he had now his own technique.
As Nem progressively entered the meditative state, his mind calmed down completely, and he could feel his own self from an observer's perspective.
The boy could make two conclusions from this.
'First, it worked. My mental illness is definitely gone, with no signs of coming back, I actually succeed in this crazy gamble... But...'
'Secondly, I kind of miss it, I guess ? This state of being perpetually excited about everything, never feeling bored no matter what but still giving my all every time... I think this means even after recovering, they are un-erasable scars in my mind.'
'Hum, yeah, basically, I won't be able to handle being bored for something longer than 15 minutes, but other than that, I probably can handle the rest...'
'It's definitely a much better state than what I was in before. In fact, it should have a positive impact on my development without burning me out too much, I can finally rest and waste time as I wish, since it's not the same as being bored.'
Overall, Nem was extremely satisfied with the situation, as the meditative state he was in allowed him to evaluate it objectively. He decided to take more time with his plan to leave the monastery. It would be smoother that way, and also would allow Nem to familiarize himself with his new powers better.
'Let's see, a month should be enough...'
*** (Joe's POV)
Joe was an 11 years old orphan living in the monastery in the mountains of Sydai. He was very good at the art of the sword and archery, but had the flaw of often being absorbed in his own thoughts.
This had the effect of making him pretty bad at finding people in hide and seek and also made him particularly familiar with the boy known as Nem.
In the eyes of Joe, Nem was extremely annoying, and yet he found it impossible to really hate him. Joe sometimes had the impression that this boy had some kind of sixth sense to figure out when he was lost in thoughts. Every time, he would be surprised by a loud noise or a sudden silly-looking face arriving in his field of vision and would jump in fright.
This even happened during hide and seek or class, truly infuriating.
Joe was in the orphanage for almost as long as he could remember, even longer than some of the instructors and he was a devout believer of the God of Peace. Yet, he often found himself surprised and even amused at things regarding Nem.
Even though he was only here for a bit less than 2 months, the boy was one of the best at almost every class, but strangely, that wasn't what the other orphans were amazed at. This fact was almost completely missed by the children of the monastery and even the instructors, eclipsed by the "quirks" surrounding him.
People were saying that they knew something was wrong when they first saw him, and some called him the little demon. Joe knew that demons didn't exist anymore and that only people with shallow knowledge called Cursed this way, but still, this nickname wasn't exactly good.
The first quirk was that Nem didn't assist to any religion class since he came here. Joe could confirm it, Nem would inexplicably get lost every time, even when Mr. Haynes didn't announce it in advance, truly strange and mystical.
'Well, one time I did see Nem waiting for the class to end behind the door. When I asked what he was doing he answered that he didn't want to ruin his own achievement...'
The second quirk concerned Sunny, the martial instructor. It was 2 weeks ago, when the instructor organized a weapons allowed tournament. That day, Sunny had reprimanded Nem's fighting style heavily.
It had to be known that everyone used the different wooden weapons as they were real weapons. For example, a staff would often become a spear, a smaller stick would be a sword, an axe... Yet, Nem, who had chosen two small wooden sticks, used them as... well, small wooden sticks. The boy used them to beat people, hitting with speed and accuracy but without any elegance, totally missing the beauty of martial arts.
It was no wonder that the instructor, with his temper and constant search for more authority, was unhappy about that.
But that day, every time he opened his mouth during Nem's fights, dirt would get mysteriously ejected from the fighter's feet to the instructor's face. No matter where he positioned himself dirt would get somewhere on his body. The worst and funniest thing for Joe was that Sunny couldn't even blame Nem, since most of the dirt came from his opponent, no matter who it was.
In the end, Sunny couldn't take it anymore and wanted to beat some sense into Nem himself, but fell on the ground before he could reach him, tripping on a concealed hole formed from the previous fights and provoking an uncontrollable laugh among the children.
Since that time, the instructor acted as though Nem didn't exist.
The other quirks were more mysterious, Nem seemed to somehow have made close friends with Mr. James, who was often the one looking for him when he got lost in the monastery. Joe couldn't really understand how it happened and when he asked Nem, he answered something regarding strange items and skipping classes.
The most amazing legend was how he could always make Miss Spencer do whatever he wanted. This one, Joe really had no idea how Nem managed to do it. When he asked the only answer he got was :
"Listen, Joe, when you're as cute and innocent as me, you can easily make women who reached adulthood melt using their maternal instincts." He had said that without the slightest hint of a joke, with only seriousness in his eyes. Then, he proceeded to demonstrate.
Before Joe's eyes, Nem seemed to become smaller and his eyes became similar to a small animal. Nem then slightly blushed and tugged on Joe's arm shyly. Before Joe could recover from his shock and disgust, Nem had returned to his usual malicious state and concluded. "You understand now, right ? If you really want to go hard, you can call her mommy, this one works every time."
Joe was left speechless and concluded that the nickname of "demon" couldn't be more appropriate after all, even if he couldn't really understand most of what Nem said.
As Joe reached this point in his thoughts, he realized that he had been lost in thought and that it was now the beginning of sharing hour in the classroom belonging to Mr. Haynes. He even spotted Nem near the blackboard.
'How come he didn't surprise me this time ? He should have seen me...'
Somehow, Joe had a bad feeling.
*** (Mr. Haynes' POV)
A few minutes after, Mr. Haynes, who had left the classroom earlier, passed near it on his way to move a few papers. He heard a child's voice coming from the door :
"The happens once every month for a few days, unless..."
The kid speaking seemed very taken by his speech, like someone doing a presentation on his favorite book. The sound faded as the teacher walked away.
'Are they talking about the archery lessons ? Strange, it seemed a bit silent in there, like only one person was speaking...'
Still, Mr. Haynes didn't think much of it and continued to concentrate on what he was doing.
After a while, Mr. Haynes remembered it was almost the end of sharing hour, and that he had to come back to guide them to the prayer room. Normally, he should have stayed with them, but the kids were never problematic to the point where he would have to intervene anyway. Except one maybe...
Sighting, he put down his feather pen and stood up. He quite liked this monastery and its atmosphere, and even though he didn't know much about the implication of his job, he was a humble and devout believer of the God of Peace and felt honored.
'Still, I wouldn't say no to a slight reduction of my working hours...'
A bit sluggish, he arrived at the classroom, and saw that the door was opened. The first thing that entered his eyes was the children sitting in a similar way as when he gave them his lessons.
'Uh ? What are they doing ? Why do they look like that ?'
The orphans had a look of shock on their faces. Almost horror. Before Mr. Haynes could even be alarmed, he saw something else. A familiar child, slightly dark-skinned and dark-red eyes was standing before the blackboard, holding chalk. On the blackboard were drawn suggestive pictures, making Mr. Haynes wonder if he was hallucinating.
At this moment, Nem's voice in the silent classroom, seemingly satisfied and bringing a conclusion to his presentation.
"And that ladies and gentlemen, is how babies are made."
Mr. Haynes' face contorted in the same look of horror as the children.