274 Meanwhile Back At The Battle Line (2/2)

”We need to close that Rift.” George said at a meeting roughly half an hour after meeting Khar'al-dras formally. ”Any word from Ecclesia?”

”Not much.” Mindy grimaced. ”Our formal channels get very polite replies that basically mean nothing, while our old friends in the Academy have very little access to space magic. There's only one student in the whole group in a Club who specializes in that.”

”Who is it?” George asked.

”It's Gary. He's in Club Saturn. They have backing from Guild Astral and they seem to be concerned with astrology, sun, moon and star magic. He says they have a training camp coming up, and there'll be access to restricted magic in it. He's signed up for that camp.”

”We don't have a lot of time here. When does the camp take place?” George asked.

Mindy calculated, thinking back, and counting days.

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”Right now.”

***

Back at the Ecclesia Academy, Gary was half bored trying to learn magic.

”What?” Siti exclaimed. ”But it's so much fun! Look, if you only changed the third stroke of this Sigil to be a bit bigger, the result of your spell's trajectory…”

Gary yawned. He just couldn't help it. Studying little details like strokes and angles were just making him fall asleep.

Still, he toughed it out. He went to the very last place in the whole Academy that he really wanted to go to and did the very last thing he really wanted to do.

Frankly speaking, Gary was sitting in the library with a stack of books trying to study.

No, it wasn't because he was forced to. This was, in fact, his free time.

So why was he doing something he really didn't want to do during his free time?

Well, there was only one reason, really.

Siti was here. And if she was here, then he wanted to be here too. Even if it meant studying.

He'd come every day if he could, but today was actually the last time they were going to be able to study together like this for a while. Siti had an Intensive Study Camp coming up with Sacred Sigil. For the next few days, even if Gary came here to see her, she wouldn't be here.

As to why Gary was closer to Siti than all his other emancipated friends, well… suffice to say that since discovering her working in the library, he'd enjoyed more success plying his trade in that place than any other.

Okay, fine, so pickpocketing wasn't a trade. It was an art. It was a test of skill and observation, of timing and patience, and evaluating those who could be good marks.

See, Gary had been reading in libraries long before he entered the Academy. He especially liked to sit down and read next to bags carelessly placed on vacant seats beside sleeping patrons. Fairly often, those sleeping patrons would wake up later to find their entire bags missing… and nobody seemed to notice anyone stealing their bags. When Gary got up from those impromptu reading sessions, he'd simply picked up the bag in the seat next to him and walked out with it…

Unlike Loh, who had been found unsuitable for work and had a limb cut off to be sent to beg, Gary kept every limb and every digit. His previous owners found fit not only to keep him in good health, but in good shape, including feeding him and teaching him various exercises to keep him nimble. One of the reasons Siti didn't mind Gary prowling around her library was that he was very, very quiet. Most of the time, she wouldn't even hear his footsteps or his breathing. The other reason was that he never stole books and always put them in the sorting cart properly after he was done.

Then again, Siti didn't own the library or anything.

”There he is!” someone called. ”Hey, Gary!”

”Hi, Cooper.” Gary greeted the President of Guild Astral with a wave.

”Hey! Quiet in the library!” Siti called, almost automatically.

”Sorry! We were just leaving.” Cooper said. ”It's time. Let's get to Camp before we're late!”