Episode 714
by Cristae“Here, why not take Wardanaz too—let him see how it’s done?”
“Huh?”
At the suggestion, Sevios frowned as if to say, ‘what nonsense.’
“You know I always go solo on these jobs.”
“Just this once. Please, just for now.”
“Yeah, anyone who robbed the principal’s villa has proven their skill. He won’t hold us back.”
For once, the club members didn’t back down. Their persistence showed Sevios how much they wanted Wardanaz to really join them.
Once he saw what it was like to score a big haul, he’d catch the club’s appeal for himself.
‘If someone wants in, whatever—but if not, he can leave,’ was Sevios’s approach. All the strong-arming from Einrogard’s clubs was, frankly, unseemly.
But remembering how his peers never hesitated to back him up in dangerous work, he couldn’t ignore their wishes.
“Fine. If you want to tag along, tag along.”
“Great!”
“Wardanaz, this is a real chance. You can learn a lot.”
‘Is “learn” the right word for this…?’
Lee Han listened to the seniors’ talk, thinking he’d suddenly gotten swept up—but he was definitely going.
“You know invisibility magic?”
“I do.”
“!”
As they set out into the evening gloom of Einrogard, Sevios looked a bit surprised.
For a second-year to already know invisibility…
No wonder he’d robbed the principal’s villa—this one was just built different.
“Let’s wait up here for a sec.”
He paused at the stairwell from the seventh to the sixth floor and sat atop a big, flat rock.
Lee Han was puzzled.
‘Weren’t we supposed to hit a secret storeroom?’
He’d followed to get intel, of course.
At Einrogard, the hierarchy is always: the lower your year, the more you’re prey for the seniors.
That was down to both magic and, especially, information.
Seniors knew all the secret spots and rules juniors hadn’t discovered yet.
Lee Han figured if he helped, he’d learn where the handy club storerooms were.
So why wait here?
“There’s more than one way from 7F to 6F?”
“Plenty. The seventh floor is huge—shortcut paths everywhere. One even leads to the principal’s office, they say.”
“Is that real?”
“How’d I know? Never seen it. …Wait. Here they come.”
He spotted a White Tiger Tower student approaching.
“Invisibility magic now.”
“Yes.”
Both quickly cast invisibility. Sevios noticed Lee Han used a spell both faster and different in structure than the standard -Lesser Invisibility-—he wondered where the junior had learned it.
‘Focus. No distractions.’
Even the easiest job could blow up if you ever let your guard down. For a thief, that’s deadly.
“Prepared illusion, manifest.”
Ripping open a scroll and murmuring, Sevios had an illusion spring to life down the steps.
Astoundingly, it looked just like a skeleton principal’s Death Knight.
-Halt, you thief!
“Uh, ack!”
Seeing the Death Knight, the approaching White Tiger Tower student freaked out, tumbled over, and tossed all his gear aside, snatching up just a sword.
“Tch. How did they know? Fine—if I go down, I won’t go quietly! Transform, sword, and stop my foe!”
The student’s blade undulated and transformed like liquid gold into a wave, lunging at the Death Knight.
Just then, the Death Knight illusion vanished. The White Tiger student looked around, wide-eyed.
“What… whose idea of a prank is this… Skeleton principal, you bastard—when I graduate, I’m coming back for you!”
Scowling, he tossed back all his gear before trudging off.
“!”
Dropping the invisibility, Lee Han saw Sevios already holding a book.
He was amazed. In that brief time, Sevios had slipped in and pinched the target right from the student’s stuff.
“Impressive!”
“That’s the basics. Fancy magic isn’t the point of teleportation—it’s about knowing what your mark will do.”
He knew White Tiger Tower students, when pressured, tended to toss their stuff aside, and if he made them think the principal’s minion was after them, it was easy to nab the book.
‘No wonder he’s a senior.’
Lee Han had always pegged him as greedy, out to double up gold by selling books through both clubs—but maybe…
“Let’s move. Still got a few more books to collect.”
‘Hrm. Maybe being a greedy money-cloner doesn’t mean you’re not impressive, too.’
Keeping pace, Lee Han asked,
“But Senior, didn’t you say the main thing is never getting caught?”
“That’s right.”
“But if books keep vanishing, won’t people notice?”
After all, if books keep disappearing from a person’s gear, even the dullest would start suspecting the Library Club.
Did they just rely on muscle to keep it hush? Lee Han recalled Ilreg, the bearfolk priest—the sort with enough power to make grudges pointless.
Even the skeleton principal stayed alive amid scorn, because nobody could do anything about him.
“They don’t notice.”
“Sorry?”
“They just don’t. These guys don’t care about books at all.”
Usually curt and indifferent, Sevios now showed genuine distaste.
“Kids who take books from the club come in two kinds: Some read them—fine. But some just use them as pillows or alchemy pot stands. Mostly White Tiger Tower brats…”
‘…Might have to keep Gainando away from the library club.’
“Those chumps don’t deserve books. So, I just take them back. Nobody ever notices. Even if they do, they just think they lost it somewhere.”
“!”
Lee Han looked at Sevios, surprised.
He’d always thought him just another gold-crazed upperclassman, but that was quite a rationale.
‘He takes books back from people who just sit on them. It’s weird, but… oddly convincing weirdness.’
It’s one thing to be nuts; it’s another to make a little sense. Lee Han found he preferred the latter.
“Why not make a rule? Require them to cherish and read the books?”
“You think they’d follow it?”
“What about cursing the books so they have to?”
“…”
Sevios stared in shock. Was his polite junior nuts?
Well, even if Lee Han’s manners were perfect, everyone in Einrogard wanted him. All the truly exceptional types had a bit of madness.
Sevios ramped up his guardedness.
“That would just start club warfare. And Ilreg would never allow it.”
Ilreg’s so gentle and forgiving that he’d excuse ruined books and forgive students who used them for firewood.
-The Einrogard library will restore and restock any lost or damaged books, no matter what.
-But senior, these brats said they used the books for fuel because they were cold?!
-Let’s just forgive them. They only did it because they don’t know the joy of books.
Still, Sevios never intended to forgive, even if Ilreg did.
“Next one’s… oh, this guy again.”
“Who?”
“Valpatan of the Moradi family. He’s checked out the same book three times and lost it three times. If he were a club member, he’d get the bookshelf punishment.”
Sevios ground his teeth at the name written down.
Valpatan, also second year, had always driven him nuts.
He was White Tiger Tower, too—not a mark in his favor—and now he’d lost -History of Imperial Swordsmanship- three times.
For his fourth request, only Ilreg’s intervention got the job accepted.
“……”
At the familiar senior’s name, Lee Han looked away, hiding his expression.
“Even so, fourth time—surely he’ll read it?”
“I just heard, he’s using it as a pillow. Let’s go.”
‘Hm. Might not be the seniors’ fault, after all.’
Sevios led him down to the sixth floor.
The seventh floor felt like a different world entirely, but the sixth was the main building as Lee Han remembered: endless halls, classroom doors, magical lamps on the ceilings…
‘Never let your guard down.’
The higher you went in Einrogard, the deadlier things got.
Lee Han steeled himself for monsters popping out at any step.
“This way.”
Sevios opened a window and jumped out. Lee Han was alarmed, but then saw stairs appear in midair.
‘Sixth-floor sky stairs.’
At another window, Sevios stopped, drew his wand, and cast a spell to open the locked glass.
“Reveal hidden secrets…”
But the door resisted.
“Trouble?”
“Looks like the White Tiger Tower worked on their security. I can’t…”
BAM!
“It’s open. Shall we?”
“…Okay.”
Sevios eyed Lee Han with shock, suspicion, and confusion—but, true to his pro attitude, didn’t ask questions. He could always wonder later.
Click!
“This is one of the White Tigers’ storerooms.”
Suits of armor, swords—all of them enchanted. Not the neatest of work—some pieces were clearly failures.
“Don’t touch anything else. Just the book.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lee Han admired his senior’s restraint—not even glancing at the other loot.
Sevios went straight for -History of Imperial Swordsmanship-. Sure enough, it was propping up a grindstone in the corner.
‘I’ll kill him…’
“Senior, who’s next?”
Sevios, for the first time, sounded almost less gruff.
No denying the help had made a difference.
“Professor Verdus.”
“Excuse me?”
“Verdus. If you’re scared, don’t come—you’ve done enough…”
“No, I insist.”
“…?”