"Can I tell you a joke?"
He chuckled as he stared intently at each person. He was basically ogling at Mihel the entire time.
"Uh…sure…" Riche answered finally, trying to break the tension and get some hold on the situation. Even he noticed the weird looks this man was giving.
"ALRIGHT! So listen up. There was this old fool living in a dense city. Everyone called him crazy and he himself agreed that he was in fact crazy. One day he climbed up a tower and peeked through a window. And what does he see?" The man paused dramatically.
"A group of small children. So what does he do. He smashes open the window and declares-" He smiles wildly at Mihel. "I AM YOUR NEW MENTOR"
He stops and looks around. Then bursts out laughing. In between his outbursts he would stop and stare at Mihel then continue. This continued for a while before he got a hold of himself and walked up to Mihel who instinctively backed up a step, unsure of the man's intentions.
He grinned broadly before uttering, almost whispering, "You're special, lad. Hahaha. I know…"
Mihel turned pale.
'What? He knows? He's bluffing for sure. Nobody can know. No. False. But the conviction with which he said it. No. It can't be.' Mihel didn't realise he was trembling slightly until the new mentor grabbed his shoulders and stilled him.
The man turned away from him and walked up to the front of the room.
"Good afternoon children. Address me as Decurion Percius. Though I'll inform you that I gave up that position a long time ago. Hahaha!"
The group just stared at him in surprise, unable to make any sense of what was happening.
After slowly being used to the systematic and structured methods of Vidoria Kidt, Decurion Percius felt jarring to them.
Percius suddenly scratched his chin. He muttered things to himself before turning to them with his eyes shining brightly with excitement.
"Hehehe…I heard rumours Kidt will be unavailable for…"He pulled out his fingers and dramatically counted. "One…Two…Three…Yes! Three months." He went silent, intently looking at their reactions.
The group were shocked at the news. Three months was a lot. They were almost suspecting something serious had happened to their Decurion.
Mihel was the first to break the silence.
"Why is he gone for so long?"
Percius turned to him with a smile.
"I'll schedule that answer for tomorrow. Alright?" He burst out into his usual, bellowing laugh. And then almost instantly became serious.
"Alright so for now you're my team. It's my responsibility all of ya'll pass your examination. And that's in about five months yes? Okay. I'll make you a proper team which will overcome everything the examiners throw at you."
They nod in determination. They were trying to slowly adjust to the carefree nature of their teacher and weirdly found it entertaining.
'So our first examination is in five months. Vidoria didn't give us any heads up about what the challenge is, but Decurion Percius seems more open to us.' Mihel mused as he listened to Percius rant about how his teaching style would be through non-traditional methods, which is the only way to train Exousia children to decent soldiers.
"So I didn't want to teach today…so I'll let you all introduce yourselves. First up, you." He pointed to Midia.
Midia was startled by the sudden order and slowly stood up. "Hello Decurion Percius. My name is Midia Ferdian. I joined the Exousia to serve as a strategic advisor for the army. I am Scholar Destined."
Percius nodded slightly then gestured to Halise.
"I am Halise Gurion. See that fruit on the tree? I could shoot it down from here. Yes Mister Decurion, I'm the greatest archer from the village of Burth."
Percius barely raised an eyebrow and then gestured to Riche.
"Good afternoon Decurion. I am Riche Malant-" he began, but was cut off by Percius who jumped up and caught Riche's face in his palms, grinning wildly.
"Oh Oh Oh…So you're the famous Riche. I like your guts, kid. Killing two people on the trip here." He exclaimed as he rubbed his fingers against Riche's cheek.
Mihel noticed Riche wince at the mention of his killing incident in the desert. 'How insensitive…its not like Riche is proud of it…'
"Well no more about you, Riche. I've read about your tournament rank." Percius said as he let go of Riche's face and sat back down on his seat.
"And now, you." He said turning to Mihel. For some reason it seemed that Percius had lost all interest in others once he realised that the great Avra tournament champion was on his team. 'How narrow minded…How did he even achieve Decurion status?'
"My name is Mihel Westrow. I come from the village Wahum and uh-" He hesitated for a second, but Percius was already on him.
"What fortune! Both rank one and two on my team. Hahahaha." He shook Mihel with vigour. "I see some real potential in this team. Nice doing, lad." And then he silently turned to Vinelyn, watching with eager interest.
"Hello Decurion. I am Vinelyn Drean. And I'm a Magician Destined. I live to serve the True Magic and I joined the Exousia to give back my efforts to society."
Percius grinned wildly. "All noble dreams, son. I wish you the best of luck."
He scratched his chin for a couple of seconds, in absolute silence. The group was on edge on what unexpected statements would pour out from their new mentor.
"Well…I'll confess something hahaha…I didn't want to teach you today, because I thought ya'll were useless…" he said sheepishly.
Mihel's eyes bulged on hearing this. 'What kind of teacher is this…?'
Percius grinned once again. "But never mind that now. I have deemed all of you worthy of my dedicated care." He rubbed his hands together and smiled.
"First thing important for your examination is a deep awareness of your environment. I won't explain why its so significant now but I will teach you in detail of all the major biome types and how to survive long periods of time in them."
Vinelyn raised his hand and asked, "Well Niktha is surrounded by desert. How could the test take place in some other environment."
Percius gave no reply but merely smiled.
"Lets begin with our first domain. The desert."
The group spent the rest of the evening carefully listening to all the details about the desert, the various dangers, and the safety measures required to be taken to survive long days in it. They didn't understand the significance of all these survival knowledge but they trusted the conviction with which Percius said it was important.
Mihel found Percius' teaching very interesting and it was always exciting. The lecture was filled with moments where he would crack jokes, some inappropriate, tell stories about incidents and even his personal experiences. Mihel noticed that despite his crazed and disoriented look, Percius was in fact very thorough and passionate about teaching.
The group weren't surprised to find a sudden liking towards the new mentor. But that didn't mean they didn't miss the orderliness and structure of Vidoria Kidt.
The classes ended late as they just couldn't seem to escape the Decurion's funny ramblings. But by the end of the class each one of them were very thorough about every single detail about survival in the desert.
Percius informed that the next day would be about survival in extreme cold and that they should come prepared for a short quiz on the day's topic.
After saying their goodbyes, the group walked out of the Citadel in high spirits. They saw many people still milling around, having their dinners and enjoying the coolness in the air. The only discussion among them was about their new eccentric teacher.
"What an interesting guy!" Midia said, lightly skipping in between steps.
"Yeah, but he's also fun to be around. There's never a boring moment in his class. Remember the pincer incident?" Riche added, bursting out into laughter, with everyone joining in.
Vinelyn suddenly turned serious, no longer laughing.
"Something I noticed though, he mentioned something about Mihel being special. If we've earned your trust, I think it's time to spill, Mihel."