by Weiqi Wang
‘I’m sorry, sir.’ Rodka hurriedly said. ‘Let me make sure everything is as I told you. Would you be interested in seeing Snower yourself?’
‘No, I’m sorry. Not interested.’ Dean 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 a cat or a dog or whatever, I only want you to leave this trivial stuff alone and graduate as soon as possible. Plus, look at these; I don’t think I have time for a cat.’ Dean Romboton lifted his glass and pointed to the stacks 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.’ Dean 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.
‘Even more reasons for you to leave it. This topic is finished. You are dismissed.’ Dean Romboton was impatient. ‘Don’t go and bother Dean Akex either. He’s busy too.’
Watching Rodka leave, Dean Romboton shook his head. The Dean was very unhappy and disappointed. He had told Rodka 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. Dean 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 receiving the update, 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 frustrated. ‘Or maybe they didn’t know and no one knows. So, we have no choice but to find it 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 — the magic seal set by school must be of Expert level, but I’m only capable of Grade 6, so we need to join forces.’
‘You are a Grade-6 now?’ Dileys exclaimed. Rodka was supposed to be a Grade-5, as everyone expected.
‘Only for my Fire and Light, but not Wind. And I didn’t go to test any of them yet, so I still appear as a Grade-5.’ Rodka certainly felt proud. He had been keeping this to himself, so that he could grade up his three lineages altogether — that would definitely amaze everyone. ‘So, my mind power is of Grade 6, and that’s all that matters to break a magic seal.’
‘Great, let’s do it now!’ Kardiac jumped up. ‘Just inject our mind power altogether into the seal to attack it, right?’
‘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.’
‘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 things?’
‘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 he 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 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, and 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 to calm down and pretend to be chatting casually. According to the plan, all would contribute their mind power fo
r 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 people’s attention, and 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 gather around and talk to each other.
‘Rodka, how far are we?’ Soarame asked. He had been sparing no efforts and was already on the verge of draining of his power.
‘I don’t know. I was hoping this to be easier.’ Rodka was also feeling anxious.
‘Hang on, 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 method and went to chat up boys. This really worked out well; most boys’ attention was captured by the girl scouts. Omifo also led his group to join the conversation, so that the entire library was involved.
‘Pop!’ With a mild noise, just like a soap bubble bursting, the seal was finally broken. The three boys were all 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 after that, a scream sounded beside a shelf. ‘Roach! A big roach!’ It was from Kardiac; he hadn’t forgotten to carry out his mission.
Soarame, Rodka and Halgon looked at each other, 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 into the corner of a shelf and left hurriedly. They split up and made their way back to Soarame’s dorm, except that Omifo stayed to accompany Kardiac, according to the plan.
‘What’s wrong? Failed?’ As soon as they got back to the dorm, the girls asked 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 two boys still hadn’t shown up.
‘This isn’t right!’ Rodka couldn’t bear it anymore. He took the lead and rushed out, blaming himself for getting Kardiac and Omifo in trouble. Everyone 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?’ Dean Akex, the Vice Dean of Stanfaul College, happened to be around.
‘I don't know, sir. Everything looks normal.’ The librarian answered. ‘I’ve shut the library so that nothing gets lost.’
Dean Akex frowned. The alarm had never been triggered before, at least not during his residency here.
Here it is. Soon enough, Dean Akex figured out the reason for the alarm — the crystal ball showed an alert message that was sent from a biography. Grabbing the biography from the corner of a shelf, Dean Akex was confused. It seemed alright, nothing appeared to be unusual.
Oh wait… the magic seal on the book is gone? Dean Akex suddenly realized the strangeness of the situation. Someone tried to steal it? He quickly browsed the book but became even more confused. Why not just borrow it? And why this specific book? It’s not even that valuable!
This must be a trick from a troublemaker. Dean Akex took the biography to the crystal ball and let them cross check each other, but nothing showed up because of the broken seal. So he had to check the previous borrowing record on the book —
What? Rodka? Dean 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. The Vice Dean 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 Dean Akex was checking the book, Omifo was busying himself in another book, pretending to read yet peeking towards the Vice Dean now and then. Omifo didn’t know how silly this action was — he was not aware that Dean Akex could easily sense this, with the capacity of a high level wizard.
This boy had something to do with it? Dean Akex looked calm, but inside he couldn’t be more confused. He’s only a Novice, what the heck is going on here? With so many questions in mind, Dean Akex walked toward Omifo to gauge his reaction. Omifo immediately realised there was something wrong, and his breathing quickened.
‘Ouch!’ Just as Dean Akex walked across the library, somebody knocked into him and made him reel a few paces to get his balance again. Dean Akex looked down and found a little fellow on the ground, who busied himself in apologising. ‘I’m sorry sir, I slipped!’
Dean 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.’ Dean Akex summoned 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?’ Dean 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 Dean 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 right Kardiac’s style, apparently.
‘It’s okay, you can speak even louder.’ Dean 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 didn’t talk, he could still sense their rough intention through the fluctuation of their mind power.
Reaching the office, Dean 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!’ Dean Akex rolled his eyes. ‘You are only in Grade 2!’
‘Sorry, I was being stupid.’ Omifo looked directly at Dean Akex, ignoring Kardiac’s anxiousness.
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br /> ‘Stupid? If someone broke an Expert seal as a Grade-2, I wouldn’t call him stupid.’ Dean Akex teased Omifo.
‘The seal was broken?’ Omifo and Kardiac were both stunned.
‘A roach?’ Dean Akex ignored Omifo and turned to Kardiac. Looking at the boy’s chubby appearance, Dean 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.’ Dean 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?’ Dean Akex laid 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.’ Dean 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 a boy and a girl 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.’ Dean 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.’ Dean Akex waved his hand after a brief pause. ‘Now, let’s get back to the topic — who else was in this, and why?’