When Sardec finally arrived at the student dormitories he was starting to doubt whether it would actually be possible to improve the situation of the original Sardec. The pure disdain and disgust that was evident in most people’s actions when they interacted with him on the way over to his dormitory shocked Sardec to the core. Even the staff were no better, some of them were actually worse.

Feeling down after what he had just experienced, the confidence when he first left the main building was nowhere to be seen. Because as Sardec met more and more people his confidence took more and more hits until it was no longer there. And when Sardec finally had entered his room he realised just how tough things would actually be. But as Sardec stood there, there in his room, he was determined that he would change it all. He would change how he was treated by the instructors in the classes. He would change how his fellow peers would treat him. But most of all, one day he would change how his family would treat him. They would no longer pity him and favour his brother has they had in the past. And with this goal in mind, new found energy surged through Sardec’s body.

Then for the first time, he became aware of just how messy his room actually was. He decided that the very first thing he would have to do was to tidy up the room because it could actually be compared to a pigsty. Not that he ( or I the author) had anything against pigs.

During the time Sardec was tidying his room he came upon a book that was buried under piles of various other things. From his memories he could tell that this was the book he got from a random woman at the age of eight. He could remember a woman approaching him at that time in one of the central markets in the city Hark. She then proceeded to thrust the book straight into his hands.

"Some day when you are one of the greatest people in the world, you shall realise just how important this book was for that success." Were the exact words said by the woman just before she was swept up into the crowd.

Looking back on it now, Sardec actually wasn't sure why he never got rid of it since throughout the years, the book had taken up quite a lot of the small precious space he had for his very favourite things. Whether it was because of the tone of the woman's voice when she thrusted it into his hands or it was because of the intriguing design and words on the front cover. But whatever the reason was Sardec realised that he had never actually read the book. Now filled with a sense of curiosity Sardec began reading through the book. Page by page he read the book while he completely ignored the original reason he had found the book, cleaning up his room.

It was many hours later and night had fallen quite a while ago before Sardec closed the book. Sardec was stunned when he noticed how much time had actually passed but that was not at the front of his mind, instead his mind was occupied on the thought of what he had discovered in the book. Within the pages of the book was writing about a sword style that was probably better than the little bits Sardec was taught due to his noble birth. In the book there was many different diagrams detailing the different stances and forms of that sword art, but what Sardec noticed most was the unusual detail of how the figure in the diagrams had pointed ears. The diagram could have been depicting a wood elf except for the fact that it was extremely rare to see one of them wielding a sword. The figure was also much to skinny for a wood elf. This made the figure look like a hybrid between a man and a wood elf.

Eventually Sardec came to the conclusion that there was no extra meaning in how the figure was drawn and it was probably just the author doing his own thing. Then Sardec restarted his cleaning attempts but this time there seemed to be quite a lot of urgency in his actions and when Sardec had finally cleared a decently sized circle in the middle of the room he stopped the rest of his cleaning. Instead he got up and walked to the middle of the circle with the book. Upon reaching the middle of the circle Sardec began to perform the stance and some of the forms that had been depicted in the book with his sword that had never been used and had only been gathering dust since he was given it at five.

When the room that had been completely dark for the last couple of hours began to light up from the stream of sun light coming in through the window Sardec finally stopped. Immediately after that he took off his clothes and one could see that he was drenched with sweat. It was actually dripping off of his body but Sardec paid that no mind because when he was in the army as Liam he and sweated a lot more and was tired less easily. Sardec also was thinking about what if he was to start using all the different training methods that were developed in Liam's memories because in this world there was not really any types of actual training to improve one’s strength or endurance, instead it was mainly just focused on training one’s spirit energy. Because if Sardec could become stronger, faster and fitter he could master the swordsmanship that was displayed throughout the book. And if he mastered that then maybe even though he had no spirit energy that he could train he would be able to fight for himself against those who were at the lower ranks in spirit energy.

After Sardec was dressed again he headed off to his class for the day. Today he had knight class. This was a class where all the students would be taught everything they needed to be a knight and once they mastered it, as long as they were of the Sipphire three star rank they would became a knight attendant until they became a three star Pink Emarul. This would usually take between three to five years for most people unless they were extremely talented. The problem for Sardec was that he wasn't even a one star Sipphire the lowest rank in spirit energy there was. Because of this his instructors would not even let him pass the class phase despite him being better at it then most other people. He also had to attend the class because one of Twilight Academy's rules were that you had to attend every class you sign up for unless you have the academy head's permission or proof of being sick or injured from the infirmary. But no one there would even help Sardec and when he tried to see the academy head the guards wouldn't let him organise an appointment, they even went as far as threatening to beat him up. This meant not attending class would be breaking the rules and would get him expelled. He would also be banned from all other academies in Segard.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

But today none of that even mattered because rather than sitting at the back of the class and being bored out of his mind as Sardec usually did, he instead sat in the front row. During the class that day Sardec was not bored, rather it was quite the opposite it was actually one of the most fun classes he had ever attended. This was solely because Sardec spent the entire class just sitting there smiling at the teacher. This infuriated the teacher because rather than him being able to scare Sardec as he usually did during his classes no matter what he did that day Sardec would just be there smiling at him. He even started asking Sardec all the questions but that was even worse for him because Sardec could answer all of them. Even the ones his fellow classmates couldn't, so now instead of making Sardec look bad he had done much worse and made him look good.

When class had finally finished the teacher was the first out the door, even slamming on his way out as well. All this did was make Sardec's day and he realised that no matter what the teachers did they couldn't actually beat him up so as long as he put up with whatever they tried he would be the one winning in the ongoing spat. With this happy thought Sardec immediately raced home. And while to others it would not look any different to how Sardec went home every day it was vastly so. Rather than Sardec running because he was scared, he was running because he was excited to start practising the sword style that he had discovered yesterday in the book.

When Sardec reached the door of his room it looked like he wasn't even going to stop, instead he would just plough through it. But at the very last moment Sardec stopped, but he was in through the door in probably a new record time.  Not even resting for a moment Sardec began to practice. And he practiced all night long until finally the next day he went off to class again.

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The door at the back of an inn opened and from it emerged a man wearing an apron. The man paused for a moment when he came out of the inn because in the middle of the small courtyard that was attached to the inn a youth could be seen doing push ups.

"Sardec, stop do-in those strange exercises of yours and ave some food. You've been do-in them for a couple of weeks now. As well as wavin around that bloody sword of yours. If it wasn't for me you'd ave starved by now. And we both know the only reason I'm even botherin to feed you is because of ow you elped me with makin my dishes bet-er. Thanks to you we've been get-in more people every day. So ave this food for free." A man known as the Mercenary's Inn's chef shouted to Sardec.

The youth called Sardec stopped doing his push ups and walked over towards the chef.

 "Thanks for the food Branyol, I appreciate." Sardec said gratefully towards the chef as he took the plate of food and the mug of some sort of liquid from him.

"It's nothin. All because of you the Mercenary's Inn as become the most popular one in the district. Also when you're dune deliver them into Siobhan inside." Was the response from the man as he began walking back towards the door.

"Did Siobhan come back from her village today then?" Sardec hastily asked.

"Yep"

Then Sardec was alone in the courtyard again. Quickly looking at the pile of food on his plate Sardec realised that it would go cold very quickly so he ate it up as fast as he could. All the while he enjoyed the mug of the ilumberry juice he had been given because he didn't like the beer the inn offered. After finishing the food Sardec took up the sword that was on top of a book on one of the benches in the courtyard. Once he had the sword firmly grasped in his hands he slowly began to change between different stances. Soon he was going through different moves as well and if one was to see the cover of the book, they would recognise it as the one Sardec had found when tidying up his room a month ago.

Finally Sardec seemed to be slowing down until he performed one last move very quickly though once the move was done he put the sword down. After having put the sword down he bent over and picked up the plate and mug he had received earlier from Branyol, the chef. Then he went into the inn through the door Branyol had emerged from earlier. Half way through the door Sardec saw a woman just as she saw him.

"Sardec, I didn't realise you were out there. You must have been out there for more than an hour because I been cleaning mugs and plates here for an hour." The woman said to Sardec with a sigh.

"Hello Siobhan, I didn't realise you were back today I must have just missed you earlier. Anyways how went your visit to your home village? I never did know why you left to go there three weeks ago?" Sardec asked the twenty year old woman.

"It doesn't matter, everything ended up being fine in the end. But I also have a question for you. What were you doing out in the yard just there?" The woman said, curiosity evident in her voice.

"Oh, just some training. Nothing important." Sardec replied to the curious woman.

"Well I hope your training goes well. Oh and lastly I hear we have you to thank for improving Branyol's cooking." Siobhan said.

"It was nothing. All I wanted to do was spare all the customers from Branyol's dreadful cooking." Sardec replied once more though this time with mirth in his voice.

And with that last comment Sardec moved out of the room to leave the woman in peace so she could continue cleaning up stuff. After leaving the room Sardec was now in the main room of the in where the bar was located as well as the building’s main fire. Unlike the previous room with only one person, this room was packed with people everywhere and a boisterous atmosphere filled the room. Quickly Sardec approached the bar where he asked the man behind it for a mug of warm ilumberry juice. Upon receiving the mug of warm juice Sardec then retreated to a corner of the room where he could be seen nurturing his drink.

After having drunk another mug of warm juice Sardec decided it was time to leave the inn and sneak back into the academy so that he could nab two or three hours of sleep before class started. Having made up his mind Sardec got up and approached the bar. When he reached the bar Sardec gave some silver coins to Quin, the man behind the bar. These coins were to cover the cost of the two mugs of warm juice and a tip for Quin who served them. With this Sardec, was done with the inn and he promptly made his way out onto the dark street.

When Sardec was on his way back to the  academy from the inn and was probably only fifteen minutes away he was suddenly bumped into and knocked into one of the dark alleyways that connected to the street he had been walking on. Before he could even stand up he already being dragged further and further into the alley all the while somebody covered his mouth otherwise he would have shouted for help. Finally they released him and Sardec could now see he was in a room and surrounded by seven men all wearing dark cloaks. Suddenly one of the men holding a torch stepped forward.

"Well guys, what should we do with the most useless person in our precious academy?"