Book 4 - Schemer of the Scalding Sands: Chapter 23; A Show of Benevolence

The screen turns on as the next chapter title plays "Chapter 23; A Show of Benevolence".

Azul had just arrived in the Scarabia dorm lounge, where Kalim was, seemingly having temporarily at least, lost Jamil. Kalim spotted Azul and called out to him "Oh, hey Azul! What brings you to our dorm?" Azul greets Kalim, bowing his head once, saying "Hello there. It's nice to see you, Kalim."

Azul then compliments the dorm "Goodness me! Scarabia never fails to impress every time I visit. It's a veritable winter wonderland outside, yet in here the sun's so hot that it might as well be midsummer."

Azul then adds with a certain glint in his eyes "You would have vacationers coming in droves if you opened up a resort here. It's an ideal location!" Kalim seems to beam at the compliments, telling Azul in return "You don't say? I don't really have the savvy for business stuff, but thanks for the kind words!"

Azul then gets straight into business as he tells Kalim "At any rate, I'm here today because I caught your magic carpet. I'd like to return it to you."

Kalim looks surprised at that and exclaims "Really?! It ran off again?!" He then seems genuinely upset as he apologizes to Azul "I'm sorry you had to deal with that…"

The carpet then floats over by Kalim, also seeming ashamed at having run away again due to how Kalim reacted to it leaving.

But Azul simply waved his hand and told Kalim "Oh, it's no bother at all."

He then pretends to only just then take notice of the many Scarabia students still in the dorm and asked Kalim "By the way, is Scarabia having holidays in the dorm this year?"

Kalim seems to perk up at this, answering "Yup! That's right!" Before asking Azul in return "Is Octavinelle doing the same?" Azul answers "Why, yes! Fancy that!"

Azul then asks Kalim, once again with his business man glint in his eyes, "In fact, what say we take this opportunity to improve relations between our dorms?"

Jamil had caught up to Azul, with the other non-Scarabia students, as Azul just finished his offer. Jamil partially shouts "Wha–?!"

But Kalim and Azul clearly hadn't realized he was there yet as Azul continued on "It seems there are many things to be learned from Scarbia's unique studying style that was apparently adopted this winter." Kalim pumps a fist in the air as he tells Azul "That's right! I would be positively honored to host Octavinelle's housewarden here in our dorm."

Jamil then walks up and puts a hand on Kalim's shoulder as he tells him "...Kalim, I recommend against this." Kalim seems to pout as he asks "Aw, why?"

Jamil answers with a straight face "The whole point of our current training regimen is to catch up to the other dorms. If we invite the housewarden of one of those other dorms to join us, we're showing the enemy our hand." As he glares at Azul and the Leech twins towards the end.

But Kalim mostly brushes it off and tells Jamil "Oh, please. He's hardly an enemy. Besides, didn't you invite the Ramshackle residents?" Jamil has a hard time defending against that before finally just admitting it "Well, er… Yes…"

But Jamil moves on and faces Azul, who now has the tweels behind him, and states "Look, Azul. I'm saying this for your own good." Azul crosses his arms and says "You're absolutely right, Jamil. Other dorms are always going to be, on some level, our rivals in the grade standings."

Azul then shakes his head rather sadly as he tells the tweels "I'm afraid we'd best take our leave, boys."

He then tells the Scarabia duo "Kalim, Jamil, best of luck with your training."

They then start to walk off, but Azul loudly sighs and says "Back to spending another holiday stuck indoors in the dead of winter, just the three of us. It's unavoidable, I suppose…" on purpose. Even Jade takes on a hurt look as he says "And after we worked so hard to capture that magic carpet and bring it back…" Floyd also looks saddened and pouty as he adds on "And it made a huge mess outta the Mostro Lounge in the process~…" They all then loudly sigh and say "Alas…" as they continue their slow walk out of Scarabia.

Grim and Yuu look shocked at their display as well, as Grim whispers-shouts "Layin' on the guilt trip a little thick there, don't ya think?!"

Kalim then points his finger towards the leaving Octavinelle trio and shouts "Not so fast!" Jamil face-palms and says "Here we go…"

Kalim then says "Azul is one of the top magicians in our whole school. I think Scarabia would benefit greatly from having him over!"

Kalim then waves one of his hands in a circle and adds on "Besides, turning away esteemed guests out of hand would bring shame upon the Asim family name."

Azul fakes absolute shock and happiness as he tells Kalim "Why, Kalim! What a kind and generous soul you are! Naturally I would be more than happy to share any insights I have with you!" Jade puts a hand over his chest as he adds "The two of us will be happy to assist with cooking and cleaning." Floyd nods and says "Yeah!~ We do it at the lounge anyway~ So we're pretty good at it!"

Kalim happily nods and says "That would be great! And it would ease Jamil's workload!" Jamil seems annoyed at this turn of events as he says "I don't NEED any help… Ugh, forget it. You're not listening to a word I say."

Kalim then shouts out to the other Scarabia dorm students "All right, let's get ourselves ready for some special training! It's your dorm versus ours! Put your things away and come to the courtyard!"

Azul nods, saying "Certainly." and then gets prepared to fight telling the other students "Do go easy on me, Scarabia gentlemen." Before chuckling.

They then start their training battle.

The screen fades to black as "To be continued" plays before it fully turns off.