Code of Rainbow: Soaring Flame and the Dragon-transcending Magimal

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘I’m sorry sir,’ Rodka had to apologise. ‘Let me make sure everything is as I told you. Would you be interested in seeing Snower yourself?’

  ‘Emm… No, I’m sorry. Not interested,’ Romboton paused. ‘By the way Rodka, when do you plan to graduate?’

  ‘Err… Excuse me, sir?’ Rodka was unprepared for this sudden change of topic.

  ‘Well, to be honest, I don’t care about the cat or dog or whatever, I only want you to finish this trivial stuff and graduate as soon as possible. Plus, look at these; I don’t think I have time for a cat.’ Romboton lifted his glass and pointed to the bunch of documents on his table. ‘The best way for a wizard to become stronger is to keep practising magic. Even if you had a powerful magimal, that’s still not the intrinsic power of yourself; so I suggest you concentrate on magic, not magimals.’

  ‘But sir, aren’t magimals also a part of a wizard’s power?’ Rodka asked. ‘I remember when I first got here; I was told that magimals are important helpers to wizards…’

  ‘Yes and no,’ Romboton interrupted Rodka. ‘Very importantly, that’s for normal wizards, not you. You have a chance to become the most powerful wizard in the world! I don’t believe a kitten, however rare she may or may not be, is qualified to match you once you fully reach your potential. So save your time on this and keep improving yourself, leave the magimal thing alone.’

  ‘This magimal is not mine, it’s Soarame’s…’ Rodka tried to explain, but got cut off again by the Dean.

  ‘Even more reasons for you to leave it. This topic is finished. You are dismissed,’ Romboton was impatient. ‘Don’t go and bother Akex either; he’s busy too.’

  Romboton shook his head while sending Rodka away; the Dean was very unhappy and disappointed. He had told Rodka many times before that it was crucial for a wizard to be out there and experiencing the real world, rather than staying in school for longer than he should. Although this was the Institute of Libral, it was still a small corner of the entire world out there.

  A rare magimal? How rare could a Grade 2 student get? When a wizard becomes a Master, he could get as many rare magimals as he wanted. Romboton shook his head once more before he dived back into the paperwork.

  That evening, everyone was in Soarame’s dorm.

  ‘How come it’s not Sachastain? What can we do, then?’ After being updated on the progress, everyone was anxious. ‘And the Dean doesn’t believe us? Should we try another professor?’

  ‘Don’t bother,’ Halgon cut in. ‘They won’t believe us either. I think we should find out who put the biography into the library.’

  ‘I already asked about it, but the librarians refused to tell me,’ Rodka was very unhappy. ‘Or maybe they didn’t know and no one knows. So, we have no choice but to find out by ourselves.’

  ‘But how?’ The crew asked.

  ‘I don’t know if there’s a better way, but we can try this,’ Rodka pondered for a little while. ‘We take the book out.’

  ‘You already did,’ Soarame raised up the biography in hand. ‘It’s right here.’

  ‘No, I mean out of the campus,’ Rodka looked at Soarame. ‘There are some big magishops in Cylone City, much bigger than those on campus, and they have a lot more to offer. The shopkeepers are usually good at identifying magigears, and other items, and determining their origins. In this way, we don’t care who put the book into our library, but instead we find the author of the biography — our magishops on campus already came up short on that.’

  ‘That’s great! Let’s do it!’ Vivarin cheered.

  ‘But how do we take it off campus?’ Omifo asked. ‘I heard that anything belonging to the school would be detected once it passes the gate and the alarm would sound.’

  ‘Oh no!’ Vivarin wrinkled her nose unpleasantly, disappointed. Omifo was surprised to see a different side to this brash girl, with her naughtily cute wrinkled nose.

  ‘That’s why we need to work together to disarm it,’ Rodka lowered his voice. ‘Do you know why the alarm will sound?’

  ‘It’s because there’s a magic seal on everything that belongs to the school,’ Halgon answered, while the others were shaking their heads. ‘So you want to break the seal on this book?’

  ‘You got it!’ Rodka was delighted. ‘I can’t do it myself, we need to work together — to break a magic seal usually needs the mind power of a Grade 7, but I’m only capable of Grade 6, so we need to join forces.’

  ‘You are Grade 6 now?’ Dileys exclaimed. Rodka was supposed to be Grade 5, as everyone expected.

  ‘It’s a secret, and you guys are the first to know it — I didn’t go for the test so I still appear as a Grade 5, but I know I’m capable.’ Rodka nodded. ‘And I also know you guys are actually better than your grades, so we do have a shot.’

  ‘Great, let’s do it now!’ Kardiac jumped up. ‘How exactly, though?’

  ‘Hold on, the library still has my borrowing record on it.’ Rodka looked around. ‘Otherwise we can just ask Snower to do it — she can even break the seal of an Expert trial site!’

  ‘What borrowing record?’ Catheray asked.

  ‘Don’t you know the process of borrowing a book from the library? You’ve never actually borrowed a book?’ Rodka asked in reply. ‘When going in and out of the library, you need to inject your mind power into the crystal ball at the gate of the library, like giving your mind-print, so that the magic barrier on the gate lets you pass. Books have magic seals, so they can’t be taken out just like that. If you want to take a book out, you need to inject your mind power into the book while passing the barrier or else you will be blocked. The crystal ball records the combination of your mind power and book as you go through and keep the record until you return it.’

  ‘So if you return the biography, does the crystal ball still keep any memory about you?’ Halgon asked an important question.

  ‘That’s actually my worry,’ Rodka looked at Halgon. ‘But I can’t come up with a better idea; so unless you guys do, I’m afraid we will have to gamble on it.’

  ‘Okay, the good thing is that they probably won’t realise the book is gone,’ Halgon pondered for a while. ‘Even if they do and find your record, it will show that you already returned it. So no one can prove that you broke the seal and took the book out after returning it.’

  ‘Ha-ha, you already figured out the plan?’ Rodka laughed with happy surprise.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Jemario said. ‘You guys must be insane — we are going to steal the book?’

  ‘No, we are trying to protect Snower by hiding the biography away from the public.’ Dileys looked at Soarame and Rodka. ‘Is that right?’

  ‘Absolutely.’ Rodka was grateful to hear that. ‘So, does everyone agree on this plan? Any objections?’

  ‘Is there any other way to take a book out of campus?’ Omifo asked. ‘We should check it out before we gamble in the library; there are lots of people there.’

  ‘I already did; the only other way is the Dean’s permission,’ Rodka shook his head. ‘But Romboton already told me to leave it alone. So I can’t let him know about this.’

  ‘Okay, so we will have to risk it in the library then, but how exactly?’ Dileys asked. ‘And what if we fail and get caught?’

  ‘Good question, we need to have a plan,’ Rodka tried hard to suppress his excitement as he lowered his voice. ‘Maybe we could do this...’

  The next day at the library, the entire crew gathered to carry out the plan — full of excitement and nervousness. Today, they were going to break a magic seal that was of a much higher level than their power; no one actually knew what exactly the level was.

  It was by no means a perfect plan; however, the crew was young and brave enough to gamble on what they wanted. Everyone was nervous and sweating, but they tried hard to calm down and pretend to be chatting casually by the gate. According to the plan, all would contribute their mind power for the seal breaking, but Kardiac and Omifo would also act as lookouts for the team; they felt
that they didn’t do enough in the beetalbull battle and wanted to compensate. This was actually a good plan, especially as Kardiac’s thundering voice would succeed in attracting public attention; it could also cover the team’s retreat if need be.

  ‘Rodka, what does this symbol mean?’ Soarame held up a large book, Dictionary of Magic Arrays, while holding the biography under his elbow. Hearing Soarame’s code word, everyone instantly went into action and simultaneously injected their mind power into the biography. Kardiac was the first to exhaust his power, so he left the crew, walked to the bookshelves, and carried the books back and forth, making all kinds of noise. Noticing that the friends were getting attention from their surroundings, Kardiac started yelling right away. ‘Hey, could someone help me get that book on the top shelf, please? Anyone?’

  Omifo was the next one to exhaust his power, and went on to his next task too — he chatted up a pretty girl and deliberately led her up and down the corridor, engaging with some other students as well. A few minutes later, Omifo was able to get everyone gathered around and talking to each other.

  ‘Rodka, how far is it now?’ Soarame asked; he was sparing no efforts and was already on the verge of draining of his power.

  ‘I thought all seals are of Grade 7, but this may be a higher one; I still can’t tell how high it is!’ Rodka was also feeling anxious.

  ‘It’s a Grade 7, we are almost there!’ Halgon’s answer surprised Rodka, but he had no time to think how Halgon could know this. Rodka steeled his heart and allowed himself to trust Halgon blindly, gathered up all his mind power, and focused it on the seal of the biography.

  The four girls had drained their power too, so they followed Omifo’s suit and went to chat up some boys. This really worked out well, as most boys’ attention was captured by the girl scouts. Omifo also led his group to join the conversation, so that almost no one would care about the other three anymore.

  ‘Pop!’ with a soft sound, just like a soap bubble bursting, the seal finally broke. Everyone was exhausted, but they gazed at each other in wonderment — they’d done it!

  However, this happy moment was very brief — the crystal ball at the gate suddenly lit up with a glaring red light! Following that, all the walls in the reading room burst into a harsh buzzing — the alarm had been triggered!

  ‘Oh, my!’ Immediately following that, a scream sounded beside a shelf, ‘Roach! A big roach!’ The scream was from Kardiac; he hadn’t forgotten to carry out his mission.

  Soarame, Rodka and Halgon looked at each other, their eyes full of deep remorse. They had broken the seal, but something had gone wrong to trigger the alarm. Having no other choice, Soarame threw the biography onto the corner of a shelf casually and left hurriedly. They split up and made their way back to Soarame’s dorm; Omifo stayed to accompany Kardiac, according to the plan.

  ‘What’s wrong? Failed?’ As soon as they stepped into the dorm, the four girls were already waiting there eagerly.

  ‘I don’t know! The seal was broken, but the alarm was triggered,’ Rodka was quite upset.

  ‘It’s weird. If the seal was gone it shouldn’t trigger any alarm.’ Halgon was confused too.

  The group was silent. For now, they had to wait for Kardiac and Omifo to return. However, ten minutes passed and the two still hadn’t come back.

  Half an hour passed, but there was still no sign of them.

  ‘Give them some time; after all, the alarm was triggered; there must be some investigation and it takes time.’ Jemario tried to comfort the sweat-soaked boys; it wasn’t wise for them to return to the site right now.

  An hour passed, yet the boys still hadn’t shown up.

  ‘This isn’t right!’ Rodka couldn’t bear it anymore; he took the lead and rushed out. He was blaming himself for getting Kardiac and Omifo in trouble. All then rushed out after Rodka towards the library.

  ****

  An hour earlier, the librarian on duty was surveying the library due to the alarm.

  ‘What happened?’ Akex, the Vice Dean of Stanfaul College, happened to be around, so he walked over to the librarian.

  ‘I don't know, sir. Everything looks normal,’ the librarian answered. ‘I’ve shut the library so that nothing gets lost.’

  Akex frowned. The alarm had never been activated before, at least not during his residency here.

  ‘It’s ok, I will examine it,’ Akex walked over to the crystal ball. ‘Please keep the gate shut, it won’t take long.’

  Here it is. After just a few minutes, Akex figured out the reason for the alarm. The crystal ball showed an alert message that was sent from a biography. Taking the biography in hand from the corner of a shelf, Akex was confused — it seemed alright, nothing appeared to be unusual.

  Oh wait… the magic seal on the book is gone? Akex suddenly realized the strangeness of the situation. Someone tried to steal this book? Akex quickly browsed the biography and did not understand. Why not just borrow it? And why this specific book? It’s not even that valuable.

  This must be a trick from a troublemaker. Akex took the biography to the crystal ball and let them cross check each other; nothing showed up because of the broken seal. So, Akex had to check the previous borrowing record on the book —

  What? Rodka? Akex was surprised to see Rodka's face emerge from the crystal ball. No, it can’t be true. Rodka wouldn’t do this. But he seems to be the only recent borrower. Akex tried to suppress his surprise, but just could not. To break the seal, the person would have to be either a teacher or a really powerful student. Rodka… would he really?

  While Akex was checking the book, Omifo was busying himself in another book, pretending to read yet peeking towards Akex now and then. Omifo did not know how silly this action was — he was not aware that Akex could easily sense this, with the capacity of a high level wizard.

  This boy had something to do with it? Akex looked calm, but inside he was really confused. He’s only Grade 2, what the heck is going on here? With so many questions in mind, Akex walked toward Omifo to gauge his reaction. Omifo immediately realised there was something wrong and his breathing quickened.

  ‘Ouch!’ Just as Akex walked across the library, somebody knocked into him and made him reel a few paces to get his balance again. Akex looked down and found a little fellow on the ground, who busied himself in apologising, ‘I’m sorry sir, I slipped!’

  Akex made to leave, but he suddenly caught sight of this boy glimpsing at where Omifo was sitting! An accomplice? One distracts me so that the other can run away?

  ‘You, come here a moment,’ Akex asked a student nearby, pointing at Kardiac. ‘When the alarm was triggered, what was he doing?’

  ‘Him?’ The student glanced at Kardiac, confused. ‘If I remember correctly, he kept yelling about a roach on the shelf.’

  ‘Oh? Is that so?’ Akex looked at Kardiac and pointed at Omifo. ‘Bring your friend over there and follow me, we need to talk.’

  Holy crap! Hearing this, Omifo had to turn around to see Kardiac. Anxious and helpless, they had no choice but to follow Akex to his office.

  ‘Let’s run away!’ Kardiac whispered in Omifo’s ear as they were walking.

  Omifo rolled his eyes, ‘How?’

  ‘I don’t know, let’s just run!’ This was just Kardiac’s style, apparently.

  ‘It’s okay, you can speak even louder,’ Akex had overheard their whisper clearly. As a professor in magic, he was much more sensitive to everything than normal people, including but not limited to sound — he could even sense the boys’ heartbeats. Even if Kardiac and Omifo did not talk, he could still sense their rough intention through the fluctuation of their mind power.

  Reaching the office, Akex didn’t want to waste time. ‘Tell me your reasons please, gentlemen.’

  ‘Sorry sir, there’s no reason. I tried to test my power by playing tricks on the book,’ Omifo spoke up immediately.

  ‘God, please!’ Akex rolled his eyes. ‘You are only Grade 2!’

  ‘Sorry,
I was being stupid,’ Omifo looked directly at Akex, ignoring Kardiac’s anxiousness.

  ‘Stupid? If someone broke a level 7 seal as a Grade 2, I wouldn’t call him stupid,’ Akex teased Omifo.

  ‘The seal was broken?’ Omifo and Kardiac were both stunned.

  ‘A roach?’ Akex ignored Omifo and turned to Kardiac. Looking at the boy’s chubby appearance, Akex couldn’t help feeling amused for his comical face. ‘When the alarm was triggered, you claimed there was a roach on the shelf?’

  ‘Yes! A huge one!’ Kardiac yapped.

  ‘Gee, what a pair of lungs. No wonder they picked you to be the cover,’ Akex stroked his chin. ‘But why a roach? Wouldn't a snake be better?’

  ‘How is that possible? A snake wouldn’t appear in a library,’ Kardiac widened his ox-like eyes in earnest.

  ‘Of course, you are right. But you know why?’ Akex sat back into his chair. ‘Every building in the school is protected by a magic barrier to prevent insects and wild animals from getting inside. It’s supposed to be common sense, but obviously there’s one student that doesn’t know this; hopefully the only one on this campus.’

  ‘No way, everyone was scared about the roach!’ Kardiac protested, ‘I’m certainly not the only dumb one!’

  ‘Well, that would be a new low, but sadly you didn’t reach it,’ Akex laughed, ‘Everyone knows it, trust me. But for some reason, there is always someone claiming to see mysterious roaches or spiders showing up here and there, especially when boys and girls were sitting close to each other. I’ve roughly counted that the frequency is about… once a week?’

  ‘What?’ Kardiac refused to believe this. ‘No way!’

  ‘That only proves that you haven’t been working hard,’ Akex shook his head. ‘If you went to the library more often, you would have known about this. Alright, I didn’t mean to embarrass you.’ Akex waved his hand after a brief pause. ‘Now, let’s get back to the topic — who else was in this, and why?’