Thief Mage

12

The dormitory was now completely silent. Kate, familiarly leading me along the stone wall surrounding the dormitory, walked me to a lower section. He was so familiar with it, I thought he was going to climb over there. And I was right. Kate stretched his muscles, then saw him stepping onto a raised area on the wall, grabbing the top with both hands and struggling to climb up, constantly asking me to support him from behind. Frustrated, I gave him a push. Finally, after a lot of effort, Kate clumsily climbed over. Through the small hole in the wall, I saw him on the other side, hands on knees, hunched over, panting, and wiping sweat from his forehead. Suddenly, his expression changed, as if realizing something, and he said regretfully, "Ah! I should have let you come over first. How stupid of me to have thought you had no experience in this area? Oh no! Now how are you going to get over here without help?"? ? Did he mean to climb the wall? I smiled at him, stepped back a few steps, spat, and rubbed my palms. Then, taking two steps forward, I pushed off a bump on the wall and launched myself upwards. Then, grabbing the wall again, I used my strength to soar over the wall. After reaching it, I rolled 54 degrees in the air, landing with my feet together in a stable, internationally recognized position.

"Oh~~~" Kate's eyes widened, his mouth agape.

"Wow, that's amazing!" he exclaimed, recovering from his shock.

This is nothing! Back then, I could scale the dozens-foot-long walls of Richburn with my bare hands. This is just a tiny wall...! If I can't even scale this tiny stone wall, what good is a thief like me?

After hearing Kate's words, I couldn't help but scratch my head, chuckling and lying, "Haha! I used to practice martial arts, so I'm just a bit better!"

"Oh my god! With your skills, it'd be a shame if you didn't become a thief!"

Becoming a thief! Sweat! I wiped the sweat from my brow and stammered, "Yeah, yeah, that sounds great!"

"Hey! I heard being a thief can be quite lucrative these days! You might want to consider it! There's a thieves club at school, and I'm a member! I could get you in!"

Wow! What a great idea! Without even a second thought, I immediately refused, "No, no, no."

"Really?"

"Bye" ("Bye" pronounced quickly sounds like "bye")

"Really, really, really?"

Impatiently, I decided to answer again, "Bye."

"Are you sure you don't want to?"

...

...

...

Continuing on, Kate expertly avoided the dorm administrator's gaze and sneaked me to the dorm. At the door, Kate punched in the code: three long, two short!

Immediately, I heard someone getting up. A moment later, the door opened, revealing a sleepy student rubbing his eyes.

"Oh! Kate, you're back!" His voice was filled with weariness, yet his tone held a familiar air. Suddenly, he seemed to notice me beside him. I smiled and nodded, and the sleepiness on his face immediately vanished, replaced by a look of confusion. Kate seemed to notice his confusion and introduced him to her comrade—me! After Kate's introduction, he smiled, welcoming me.

Entering the dormitory, it was dark. A faint moonlight filtered through the window opposite. I could vaguely see four wooden beds, two on each side, with bunk beds, for a total of eight. Including Kate, there were only six people living in the dormitory, so the two remaining empty beds were used to store luggage. The only furniture was the rectangular table in the center. It was so dark that I could only see its outline, not its color. This was the standard style of school dormitories. Kate's roommates all woke up. Kate briefly explained my purpose to them. I greeted them, and they seemed quite welcoming. It was clear that Kate had good interpersonal relationships; his roommates were quite welcoming to their friends.

After gaining their approval, Kate prepared a bunk bed for my luggage. Fortunately, it was still hot, so I didn't need any warmth. He found a spare mat in the dormitory and spread it over me. I had been struggling for so long, and now I saw the bed, my energy was at its limit, and I couldn't say anything more. I finally managed a thank you and fell asleep on it.

The next morning, sunlight streamed through the window.

This chapter is unfinished. Please turn to the next page to continue reading... A shimmering light shone in my ears, and I woke from a deep sleep. I drowsily opened my eyes. The bright light from the window made them feel slightly uncomfortable. I shook my head to dispel the heavy sleepiness, and suddenly I felt an extreme pang of hunger. It turned out that my stomach was empty. I hadn't eaten for ten days. The mental pain of those ten days had made me unable to care about hunger. After a night of rest, I felt a little better, so I suddenly felt hungry.

I swallowed and noticed them busy at work. They warmly invited me to get breakfast. It turned out that they had just returned from buying fried dough sticks and soy milk and bought me some. They were kind people. I hadn't lived in a group for a long time. The relationship between people seemed so far away. Here, I felt this kind of warmth and was moved.

So, I excitedly devoured "all" their breakfast. As they stared in amazement, I devoured it all in one gulp.

After I'd finished my meal, I ate a full stomach. The aroma of soy milk rose to my throat. Although it was just soy milk and fried dough sticks, after being hungry for dozens of days, anything tasted incredibly delicious. I blinked in savoring the taste and wiped the grease from my lips. Then, I realized they were staring at me in astonishment.

After finishing their breakfast, I felt awkward. I thought, "Let's treat them to a whole meal later as compensation!" Suddenly, I thought about money. In my years of wandering, I never carried much money with me, usually finding food in the wild. So, the concept of money had gradually faded. But I needed money to enroll in school. Now, I had nothing of value. Even the clothes I was wearing were the ones I'd changed into before my execution. They were the latest prison uniforms, made of fine fabric, but where would the money come from? I'd never really valued money, and it seemed like there was something wrong with it. In a state of depression, I reached out and scratched my head. My fingers seemed to have touched something. I touched it carefully and found that it was a small pincushion on my head.