The Nine Lords Of Order - Chapter 54

“Weapons must have a balance between how stiff and how flexible they are. A weapon which is too flexible is better in dispersing kinetic energy when it clashes against another weapon, however its piercing power is low because it bends when touching hard surfaces. A weapon which is too stiff and tough will have a greater piercing power but due to its inability to bend, it might end up breaking.” Mars was currently remembering Jill’s words as he hammered a piece of metal. Soon a sword began to take shape.

“Jill said that most blacksmiths tend to ignore this balance since we can coat or infuse our weapons with energy to reinforce them. However this is wrong practice!” Mars reversed the spin of his forging ring and quickly the metal started to cool down.

Grabbing the end product Mars tried to bend the blade. “According to Jill the blade should bend, but not too much” After running a few tests on the sword and swinging it a few times Mars nodded in satisfaction. He had been progressing a lot in his forging and he even began to take a like to the art.

Soon Jill’s voice filled the area. “Now that most of you are done forging the sword we will move on.” As she said that she pulled out the hide of python and then continued, “Working with metal is not enough for a blacksmith. It’s also essential to learn how to work with fabrics like cotton, wool, silk and leather. Especially leather. For example, you should be aware that spacial bags are crafted by us blacksmiths.”

“Spacial bags are crafted using the hide of spacial attribute demon beasts, but most craftsmen use the hide of the River Swallowing Python. These snakes can swallow even entire rivers, that’s why they have that name. The hide of these snakes can be used to isolate a piece of space and that’s the reason they are popular when crafting spacial bags.” As she finished speaking she then proceeded to craft a spacial bag step by step. Once she finished she checked its quality and nodded. “Alright, now it’s your turn! As always, I will be checking your progress and offer pointers if you are having trouble.”

Mars who was sitting within the courtyard had a pondering expression as he looked at the materials before him. River Swallowing Python’s hide was quite expensive so he didn’t want to mess up and waste it. However he suddenly heard a person’s humming right beside him.

Looking to his left he frowned. Currently there was a youth with black long hair sitting a few meters beside him. He was casually humming a tune as he organized his materials. This was the first time Mars had seen this guy, so he guessed this was his first time assisting to Jill’s lessons.

As Mars first day in Jill’s lessons was rather difficult it would be normal for him to feel somewhat sympathetic towards this person, however this guy had been humming a tune for a long while now and he himself was starting to get annoyed. “Hey! Shut up!”

The young man just gave him a glance and then went back to do his stuff while he kept humming.

Displeased with this youth’s attitude Mars waved his sleeves and said, “I can tell this is your first time coming here so if you have any doubts you can ask me. However your humming is distracting, so shut up!”

Even though Mars switched spots several times, this guy would always end up sitting beside him. Scratching his head in confusion Mars decided to finally ask, “Hey, you! What’s your deal? Is there something you want to tell me?”

However the youth kept ignoring him. It was only when he began his crafting process that he finally stopped humming.

‘What’s wrong with this guy’ Frowning Mars quietly went back to his work.

After almost an hour of work Mars held a small bag within his hand. Checking the bag Mars could tell there was only less than a square meter of space inside, this was obviously a spacial bag of the lowest quality.

Just as he was planning to ponder on what went wrong and how he could do things better on his next attempt, the youth who was sitting beside him suddenly started speaking, “Do you know why a spacial bag is good for storing food?”

“Eh? Maybe because no air can get inside? But what does this have to do with–” Mars instinctively answered but before he could finish he was interrupted.

“No, that’s not it!” Shaking his head the youth looked back at him and said, “You see, time and space are parts of a whole. So when you isolate space, you also isolate time! That’s the reason spacial bags are good in preserving all kinds of stuff including food and… even corpses.” The youth smiled mysteriously and said.

Mars eyes squinted as he heard his last words. Because of the way he said it, Mars wasn’t sure if this was some kind of threat or provocation. Even so, he was interested by his words so he asked, “How do you know that? And what does time and space have to do with each other?”

“You see, the explanation includes several intricacies and thousands of calculations that go beyond your comprehension. So even if I explain it to you, you wouldn’t be able to understand!” The young man said as he gave him a glance.

“Beyond my comprehension?” Even as he got annoyed by those words, Mars suddenly felt they sounded familiar for some reason. He could also tell there was a hidden air of superiority hidden within this guy’s gaze. ‘Wait that gaze seems familiar as well Do I know this person?’

Even as he held his own suspicions Mars asked another question, “And you’re telling me this because?”

However this time the young ignored his question and went back to crafting his spacial bag.

‘Another crazy guy’ Shaking his head Mars went back to pondering about how to improve his crafting of the spacial bag.

After the lesson was over everyone went back to their own dormitories. Lessons often lasted around four or five hours, so when they were over, it was already night time.

Mars was thinking if he should return his dormitory or not. Truth was he didn’t like his roommate very much. After pondering for a second he walked around the island until he reached a place close to waterfall. He sat on a rock and was planning to get a wine bottle out of his spacial ring when he suddenly felt a presence close to him. Raising his head he noticed who it was and he squinted his eyes.

It was the annoying humming youth who sat beside during Jill’s lesson. He just appeared before him while wearing a casual smile.

Raising an eyebrow Mars asked, “Ludokai?”

“Haha! So you did figure out it was me!” Laughing the youth blinked a couple of times and his previous black eyes turned silver, then he placed his hand on his face and removed a mask. Below Ludokai’s handsome face was revealed. Chuckling he asked, “How did you know it was me?”

“My methods go beyond your comprehension! You wouldn’t be able to understand them even if I told you!” Mars said while snorting. Truth was that he wasn’t so sure about who the hell this guy was a second ago. However he did found that his speech, gaze and mannerisms were somewhat familiar. The other clue was the information he said regarding special bags. He just felt the statement regarding time was a little out of place. Most important of all He could barely see Ludokai’s pocket watch slightly poking out from his right pocket…

“Ah well, it doesn’t matter.” Ludokai chuckled and said. “What matters is what I am about to tell you. After all it’s related to our future!”

Snorting Mars pulled a piece of paper from his spacial ring and threw it back at Ludokai, “You think I’m stupid? I noticed that most of the events in the paper you gave were staged!” Laughing Mars said, “Some of the people you hired were indeed good actors but half of them were not!”

What surprised Mars however was that he directly admitted this statement, “Staged? Yes, some of them were staged… but not all of them. You see, once I gave you the piece the paper with my predictions, you would consciously or unconsciously try act differently to avoid what I predicted. If you do this, you’re obviously bound to avoid some encounters and events. However most events in a timeline are connected. If the first of the events I predicted doesn’t happen, then the second might not happen as well. Imagine a timeline which is made of ten domino pieces. Each domino represents an event. Once the first piece falls then it triggers a chain reaction causing each following pieces (or events) to fall as well. However, let’s say if we were to remove the second piece. What do you think will happen? Because there is no second piece, after the first piece falls, the third piece will not fall. Since the third piece isn’t falling, none of the other pieces that go beyond that piece will fall either!”

“For example, regarding the predictions for the first day you arrived. One of them was that a kind young man with curly hair would approach you while coughing behind your back and kindly tell you some basic information regarding the dormitories; then once you finished your registration you would be given a room for yourself but later you would get roomate.”

“And? I could tell you hired the curly haired guy name Charles!” Mars frowned and said.

“Yes, I did hired him. However even if I hadn’t given you my predictions and I hadn’t hired him, he would have approached you either way and offer you some help. But because you had received my predictions I knew you would try to ignore tor run away from him to avoid this event. Once you did that the guy would not bother with explaining the information regarding the dormitories to you! Since that was the case, I went to him beforehand and told him to offer you some help even if you didn’t want it.”

“And what does this prove?” Mars still didn’t understand.

“You were not the only person who ascended to Loftycloud island that day. If Charles had not explained you the workings of the dormitories, then the time you went to the registration centre would be different. If that were to happen then someone else might have been assigned the room you got. And then you would have never met your current roommate.” Smiling Ludokai calmly explained. When he saw Mars thoughtful expression he continued.

“Just like this chain of two events is connected, several others are connected as well! Since I knew you would try avoid some of them I had to force some of them to happen But I wasn’t involved in all of them! If I’m not mistaken it’s only because you don’t like your roommate very much that you ended spending most of your later days exploring the island! And this lead you to the encounter other events which I predicted!” Shaking his head Ludokai while raising his hands, “Since you were going to try avoid some events, I had to force them to happen so the timeline doesn’t get affected! However if I had not meddled and given you the list, then those event would all happen naturally!”

“That’s” Mars did not actually know what to say or think. Although he didn’t know much about how time worked, he also felt what Ludokai was saying made a lot of sense. Sighing he said, “You mentioned that you wanted to form an alliance with me in order for both of us to be able to avoid a future calamity. But I don’t understand? If you can really see through the future, then you can avoid any calamity! Since that’s the case, why do you need my help!?”

This time Ludokai remained silent for a while before seriously answering, “This is related to our identities.”

“Identities? Which identities?” Mars said.

“You don’t know who you are or where you come from, right? Well… I do!” Ludokai suddenly said as he stared straight into Mars eyes.