After a playful banter with Skadi, Noah finally understood why Skadi was able to hear the conversation he had with Melissa in the first place, as summoning spirits to the mortal plane was a very high-level technique.
Unfortunately, Noah didn't discover any shortcut to reach that level, it was only because he was still unable to control Skadi's power.
Although his ice abilities could potentially fail or go haywire at any moment, he still had to rely on it as he didn't have any other useful skills yet. Besides, the longer his abilities remained unstable, the worse his condition would become.
As there were only two days left until the Elder visited, Noah had essentially had only one day to practice since he had to leave a day early.
With priests present all around the temple, there wasn't much Noah could practice with ice elemental magic.
After contemplating for a while Noah sought help from Reynard and the temple knights. By this time, Sir. Luke, who was assigned to investigate the orphanage, had returned.
Noah wasn't able to directly hear the report but from what he heard from Melissa after pestering her was that the poisoning case was closed as an unfortunate coincidence as Noah was the only one who was poisoned and there wasn't any valid reason for someone to spend time and effort to kill a 10-year-old orphan kid.
As Noah was the only one who knew of his real identity, the case had very low priority and was closed.
Noah knew that there was more to it than that as the quest clearly required him to subdue the assassin. He wasn't certain, but he could only guess the assailants that attacked him and his mom and the assassin were linked somehow.
Though Noah couldn't see or remember any of the attackers from the night where he got separated from his mother, that night still repeated in his mind each time he slept, only to wake up in the middle of the night with sweat. At such moments, Noah was glad to have the bracelet with him. Holding on to the bracelet for a few minutes was enough for him to calm down.
Noah had thought about confessing about his identity to the temple as that was the easiest way for him to go back but decided not to. It wasn't because he didn't trust the priests from the temple nor was it because of the doubts he had about the poisoning. Noah still felt undeserving for him to be a part of the family. As seven years had already gone by, he was also unsure if his presence was welcome.
Choosing to observe from far first, he decided to make the trip by himself. Although this exposed him to quite a few risks, Noah felt he'd rather face the risks than have an awkward or unwanted reunion.
With the help of the manual, Noah learnt basic swordsmanship, bowmanship and spearmanship. But practising without an aid would only be throwing suspicion towards him.
After talking with Reynard, he finally agreed to let Luke show and mentor him.
With each movement Luke showed on the basic swordsmanship, Noah imitated it almost flawlessly. With the help of his muscle memory from learning the manual, his swordsmanship grew at a frighteningly alarming pace from the perspective of Luke and the knights.
From the perspective of the knights, Noah's movements reflected a regular practitioner of the basic ice temple swordsmanship within just a few hours.
Watching Noah practising the movement, Luke spoke what most of the knights had in their minds.
"Reynard, think we can take him as one of our knights?"
"Hmm, it's not up to me. He has too much potential. As I see he'll probably be groomed to be an aid or butler for the ducal or royal families."
"Oh, you mean the twins?" Another knight cut into the conversation.
"Well, yes, the royal twins are the same age as Noah. Please follow Luke's example and speak respectfully about the Royal family."
"What about the Lynns and Wytes?" Another knight cut in.
As the small group of knights gathered Reynard, even Noah started to focus and listen in on the conversation while practising.
"An aid for the second daughter of the Wyte family seems too early, while the first daughter is older. There is a chance with the Lynn family -"
"Hey, what are you all talking about?" Melissa joined in seeing the crowd near the training area.
"Oh, we were just talking about how Noah would soon be sent to the Lynn family."
"Wait, I never said he would be sent to--", Reynard tried clarifying only to be interrupted again.
"You are sending him to the Lynn family?!!," Melissa said out loud gathering everyone's attention.
"We are not. At least, yet. So-"
"As a knight? Is that why he is practising?" Sigh. "I wish he didn't have to go to wars or battlefields. He looks so cute now."
"Well if he isn't going to be a knight then he can probably get a job as an actor later on." Another knight cut in.
"I heard the Lynn family's daughter likes movies. Maybe he can do both if he goes there?"
As the ideas got weirder and wilder, Noah decided to stop practice after meeting his daily goals. After getting an actual feel of the movement involved in basic swordsmanship, Noah left confident in facing his first monster.
After dinner, Noah started gathering food and cloth supplies and stored them into his inventory.
Before daybreak the next day, Noah quietly escaped from the temple when the guards changed shifts.