‘Just two more classes and I could call it a day,’ Magnus thought as he trudged along to the hearth where Taylan’s classes would be. Even with the reinvigoration that the meditation technique gave him when he used earlier, he was still exhausted. These training sessions and lessons were taking a toll on him even if it is great, and he was becoming stronger and more skilled. Though it came at the price of spilling his blood and sweat.

It made him weary of knowing, from now on, that will be how his days will carry on, training after training. It was clear from the training sessions that these men knew what they are doing, and they were not joking when they said that they were professional.

Thanks to that eye opener, Magnus was starting to have some doubts, why bring along a little kid like him. They did say that they wanted him to show them around the city, but they could have found somebody else, Magnus was pretty sure that there were real, actual guides out there that make a living showing people the sights of the city. So why pick him?

Magnus will not lie to himself; he is a kid, not in the literal sense since his mind is that of a young adult but in the metaphorical sense. Just like a kid, he is still growing, not only physically but mentally, he is now truly learning first hand about the hidden, dark side of life.

He would admit, his last life was a breeze compared to this one. Right now he is an orphan that has no prospects in life and might soon end up on the streets where he will most likely starve to death or die without a roof over his head.

It really put into perspective everything for him; from the loss of this license, to that feud with Micheal, and all those other issues- it looked so small and petty to what he was facing right now.

With his new outlook on life in hand, he knew what Bulut, Shui, Taylan, and Soykan were doing for him went beyond and above what anybody would do for an orphan like him, and it reeked of suspicion.

Magnus could not make heads or tails why they were training him and including him into their operations when from his training, it became clear that they were on a whole nother standard than him. He toyed with the idea that they were doing all this from the bottom of their hearts, but that would be foolish, and he knew that could not be true, it just can’t be.

If there were some natural laws that he knew with absolute certainty, then it would be that there is no free lunch out there, and people always have an angle. It is in everybody’s nature to try and get something out of every situation.

The only lead Magnus has so far is Soykan, he is the one who invited him even when the others kind of flat out refused. If Magnus wants to find out why he was allowed into this crew, then it would be through finding out Soykan reasons.

So until then, he might as well take advantage of the good stuff that is coming his way, which is top of the line training with real professional thieves. Magnus does not know when it will end, but he will use this training to better himself and save the orphanage.

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Magnus walked into the dining area as the hearth was lit up, warming up and lighting the area. Taylan sat on the bench, fiddling away with his instrument; it looked like a guitar but quite different.

“I see that Bulut finally let you out, mhh?” Taylan asked, not looking up from his instrument.

“Yes, sir!” Magnus said, consciously getting back into his soldier state.

At Magnus’s response, Taylan looked up with his eyebrows raised, and then he saw how rigidly Magnus stood and laughed. “I see that he also got you standing around like a soldier and yelling, yes sir, huh?”

Once Magnus saw Taylan’s reaction, he started to ease up, it looked like he ran things differently. But then his next few words confused Magnus, “Did I tell you to slacken off, boy?” Taylan asked in a menacing voice.

“No, sir!” Magnus shouted, immediately standing upright and tall. For a moment there, he thought the man had bipolar disorder. However, his following action made it clear that the man was not bipolar but a jester.

Taylan broke into fits of laughter as he held his stomach and wiped at his eyes, the man must have found Magnus’s stiff reaction funny. Though Magnus didn’t like it at all, nobody likes being made the clown, and Magnus felt like walking out on him then and there.

What held him back was the lessons that he was going to receive, namely how to be a real thief. Magnus knew what a thief is and what they do, he could even call himself one, but he isn’t truly one.

All Magnus knows how to do is put on an act and slicing coin purses, and for that, he would need a big distraction. He does not know how to pickpockets, or how to lockpick, and so many other skills that come with being a thief.

So what if this is going to be the man who he is going to learn from, he going to buckle his seat belt and seek to get through it.

Though that did not stop him from wishing that is was Bulut or Shui teaching him, they took their classes more seriously than Taylan.

Taylan must have noticed Magnus’s mood since he said, “Alright, I am sorry, there is no reason to be glum, but that response, hahaha!” Then he broke into another fit of laughter, and Magnus just had to ask, “When are we going to start are lessons?”

After a while, Taylan settled down and tried some semblance of formality, “Okay, enough of that, let's get started with our lessons.”

Magnus cracked his necks, as he thought, ‘finally, let’s get this show on the road.’

“As you know, I am going to teach you how to be a thief! The bad news is, it is going to take a lot of time and practice for you to get any good,” Taylan said.

At those words, Magnus felt a little bit crestfallen. He knew deep down it will take a whole lot of time for him to be good, but those childish fancies reared its ugly head up.

“However, the good news is that you got what it takes to become a great thief,” Taylan then added.

Magnus was happy at that news but did not understand what it meant, so he asked, ‘What do mean I have what it takes to become a good thief?”

“Well, there are really two things required for you to be a good thief; the first is quick thinking. Not that many people have that ability, or even have a brain for that matter. But getting back to the topic. Quick thinking is making a sensible decision very quickly in a dangerous or difficult situation. In this line of work, you will land yourself in a lot of sticky situations, and you got to think on your feet or else you are dead.”

Magnus nodded his head, he could agree with that position, it is an accurate and valid point, and he made sure to store that away inside his mind like the rest of his other lessons. Though what Magnus found a bit of black humor in, is that all of his instructors delivered their lessons with the grave warning of death if he does not follow their teachings.

“The other ability required to become a good thief is acting. Acting is just pretending, that simple and easy! If you do not have this ability, you will not be able to con somebody, and let me tell you something. It is not stealing that makes a good thief but the conning.”

“I have a question,” Magnus said, Taylan simply waved his hand for Magnus to go on.

“How do you know I have these abilities?” Magnus asked he was confused, how was Taylan so sure he got what it took to be a thief. They have known each other for a couple of days, and the man was going off like he knew him.

“Well,” Taylan said, “The alley run-in we had with you when we first meet, gave you away. You never expected that we would have a run-in with us, but you played it smooth and quick thought of something to get your ass out of that sticky situation. That right there showed that you could think quickly!

Then there was your acting which is superb, I will admit, for a moment, you had me fooled back there in the alley, not because of how believable your story was, no, that needs some work. However, it was how in character you were, my mind wanted to just fall into place, but a small part of me was saying no, no, no, this kid is spewing bullshit.”

At Taylan’s constant stream of praises, Magnus felt light-headed with pride and arrogance. Thoughts like, ‘maybe I got the wrong perspective of Taylan’ to ‘praise me MORE BITCHES!’ or ‘how’s your daddy, now?’ kept on running around inside his mind.

Codex, who saw all this felt worried, she knew Magnus the best, he did his best when he was level headed, now he was becoming pigheaded.

“Now moving on to what skills you need as a thief, like I said before, it will take years to master, but you will get there. However, to master these skills and truly learn them, you need to practice, so that is why during my lessons, we will go out into the city to practice. There I will teach you pickpocketing tp lockpicking, and you shall apply it.”

“But won’t the gangs and guards be looking out for me?” Magnus asked, he did not want to go out into the city to try out his skills. This prospect might have excited him, if there weren’t people out there looking for him.

“Don’t worry about that,” Taylan said as he waved away Magnus’s concerns with a shrug of his shoulders.

“The first skill I will be imparting to you is stealth. Before your stealing was obvious, if I remember correctly, you kids would gang up on somebody then rob him, which basically painted a target on your back. Now we will be stealing like real thieves unseen, unknown, and unheard!”

Magnus could see his point and asked himself how stupid he was? The way he robbed people or more accurately highwaymen was so abysmally piss poor. He did not know how he was not caught already. That just showed you what a poor job those guards are doing, letting kids go around highwaymen people.

He thanked his lucky stars that he meet these folk who are properly teaching him the correct way to steal. When Magnus thought of it like that, it made him wonder what the world was coming to. Instead of being in the outdoors playing around and being kids, right now they are out there begging for some change.

Once those saddening thoughts passed through Magnus’s mind, it sapped all the humor out of him.

“Okay, now go be on your way,” Taylan said as he shooed away Magnus with his hand.

“Aren’t we going to have lessons today?” Magnus asked, confused.

“Today is your first day, so I am only going to give you a general overview of what we will be doing from now on.”

Magnus looked at Taylan as tears welded in his eyes; he truly got the wrong impression of this guy. He is the only instructor to take it easy on him; those other two bastards just shoved him right from the get-go. Magnus could not believe he had wished that they were his instructor.

Taylan felt uncomfortable under Magnus’s teary gaze, and not wanting to know what was going inside the little brat’s mind, kicked him out before it became even more awkward.

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Magnus made his way to the planning room. Taylan told him that is where Soykan would be. Finally, it is going to be his last lesson of the day, though Magnus had to admit he was excited for this class the most.

The reason was simple, the mystery; for the other classes, he had a general idea of what he would be learning, even if he did not know how the instructors would deliver it. However, for the last class, all Magnus knew was that he was going to learn how to plan.

That was not enough to go off on, so Magnus was very curious about his last class.

Magnus walked into the planning room, there sat Soykan pouring over parchments, and as the door swung open, he turned to face Magnus.

“Good, you are here,” he said with a thin smile as he put aside his parchments and got up to fetch something.

Magnus watched him as he got out a board from another table and gather some small wooden figurine pieces.

“Come,” he said to Magnus with a wave as he started to set up the board he got.

Magnus made his way over and looked down at what Soykan was setting up. It was a fine wooden antique board that was nine by nine with 81 smaller squares. It reminded Magnus of a chess board, but there were many differences; like how there were twenty pieces instead of the usual sixteen.

The pieces also took up three rows instead of two, the first line had nine pieces that reminded him of a pawn, and they were very detailed looking men carrying spears and rectangular shields. Then in the middle, there were only two pieces: they were the same type and looked like catapults.

Finally, the last row was made up of another nine pieces. In the center was a piece the looked like a King, and on either side of it were two pieces that looked like men covering their mouths and whispering to the King’s ear.

Next to those two pieces was an elephant with rich carpeted back and large tusks. To the elephants were mounted men in armor, and the last two pieces were a citadel with four men who seemed to be manning the walls.

After weighing the board game, Magnus finally asked Soykan, “What is this?”

Soykan smiled once Magnus asked his question, “This is called square, I know it is a very dull name, and I believe that is the reason why it is not well known or will ever be popular. However, this is a brilliant game, whoever made it had no naming sense, but they were a genius.”

Magnus nodded his head if this was anything like chess than he could see where Soykan was coming from.

“That is why during my lesson, we will be only playing this game! It can teach you more than I ever could or anybody else for that manner. Also, from this game, you will be able to learn much like; pattern recognition, problem solving, abstract reasoning, strategic thinking, composure under pressure, and creative thinking.”

Magnus did not say anything as Soykan spoke, it was sort of a let down that they were going to be doing only this though it made perfect sense. Strategies and tactics can never really be taught word to word it is one of those subjects you have to learn on your own, and that is through experience.

Though at the same time it felt daunting, a small part of him thought what if he could not learn anything, and Magnus pushed those thoughts down ruthlessly with empirical facts. He had a good head on his shoulders, and it wasn’t through sheer luck that he got into the most prestigious University in the world with a full-ride scholarship, nor was it through stupidity that he ranked top in his classes that had other brilliant minds.

Even though Magnus never really got into chess or any other board game for that matter, he told himself he would do great and even kick the old man’s ass at the game.

“Today, I will be teaching you the rules then tomorrow we will jump right in,” Soykan said, and as a side note, he added. “No need to worry, I will make sure to go easy on you.”

Magnus simply grinned, now he will make it his goal to kick his ass at the game, then let’s see his cocky smile.

“Alright, so first off is the footmen,” Soykan said as he pointed to the nine men with spears and shields. “They can only move up one tile,” then he demonstrated by moving his dark brown footmen forward.

“Next we have the catapult, it can move…”

Then on and on Soykan went as he explained what each piece could do in a brief, simple manner. Magnus felt like there was more that Soykan left out, but he guessed the man did not want to confuse him with all the intricate details.

Anyways they will be playing this game every day so Magnus could learn as he goes.

Once Soykan finished up explaining everything he wanted, he released Magnus, but before he left he gave Magnus his own personal square set. It was the same wooden board just as intricate as the one Soykan and came with everything, whether it be the board or the pieces.

Magnus thanked him while a little greedy part thought about how much gold the game board was and made his way to the orphanage.