"So you didn't believe it."

  "Honestly, it's quite unbelievable."

  "How many people do you know that can full on stop an elite?"

  The food was delicious. Almost as delicious as swapping his toga out for one of the ones with a cowl sewn in. True, it was petty, but the toga was bespoke. The least the man could do after rolling up ready to challenge him was to trade togas.

  "None, but… Do you think you could put the cowl down?"

  Mila sighed. "You're missing your mouth because you're covering the top of your face."

  Ludere had no intention of ever putting the cowl down. He might leave it up until class was done for the term, if he had a chance. It was such a nice thing to be able to fully obscure his eyes, but also be able to scowl.

  He wanted to scowl with the cowl. Considering the name, it had to be the reason they were called that.

  Ludere reluctantly removed the cowl. His classmates, to include the three idiots, were all sitting quietly.

  "Very well. Did someone send you? Are you supposed to tell us something, ask us something or did you just have a crush on my partner here?"

  The three boys—because of course it was boys—all glanced at Mila.

  "We didn't come for her."

  "Ah. So you wanted more information regarding my specific claim. I'm just saying that Mila here is quite smart."

  The three nodded. There was something rather peculiar about them. They were quite willing to break with procedure just to get a chance at the skills he had.

  "Don't play dumb with us. We know you have a connection."

  He technically was the connection. He wouldn't admit it here. Hell, if they wanted his skills they would have to pay. He was not going to be doing this thing for cheap. He would squeeze every single Dinarii out of this scenario, for as long as he could. It was the least he could do for his friends. After all, they had gotten him through so many loops, and now he couldn't even hang out with them for another five months. He had so many conversations with Gia and Erebus. If he went back to the start, he would spend more time with them.

  If he died in the academy he might not even want to go back to the start. His life would be so much easier if he could pick when to go back to. That was a conversation that was long overdue. He needed the cat to show up. It wasn't enough to just grind through school work. The loops had given him a foundation that he could build off.

  "You realize how strange this is going to look, if you guys get this in the middle of the session. It's going to look like you were holding back. Now if all three of you are willing to pay one week after the session is over, I can get all three of you what you want. It will take seven or eight days. Perhaps nine, depending on who, but it can be done, and it could be done one at a time."

  The range of emotions that the man across from him went through were many, varied and contradictory.

  "Can we… discuss this?" Bel said.

  Ludere nodded. He raised a hand to indicate that he and Mila would get up.

  Bel, their leader, mulled it over. He was the son of some minor military adjutant that hadn't been important enough to rank as one of Tyler's dossiers.

  "Ludere, did you want to get seconds?" Mila shifted her head towards the kitchen.

  The bread called to him, and he answered. It was always good to get something to fill your stomach when you had a lot of work to do, or you'd been ambushed, or you just wanted to eat. A few of those things affected him, so he let it happen. He drew himself closer to the sweet bread that the upper crust partook of. Surprisingly, it didn't taste like sandals.

  At least some things were good no matter what he did.

  "Do you think they're really going to try to cut a sweetheart deal? Actually? How are you going to even service these guys? Do you actually have a connection that gets you these skill gems?"

  "Not so much, but that's not important for them to know. What's important is that there's a way. We can do it."

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Mila cocked her head. "Who is this 'we'? Are we going to raid a military facility that is very highly guarded and secure? Are we going to steal those skill gems to secure a small payment? Because I don't think that's going to be a 'we' thing, and I think that's going to be a 'you' thing, and I am going to take my nose and completely remove it from the picture."

  There was no helping some people.

  "You don't have Will Magic, correct?"

  She nodded. It wasn't like he already knew. He knew. It was very simple to read her soul.

  "Here's what I want you to do. It's about to be the weekend. I'm going to spend all day studying, so I don't need my magic. You're going to write down the list of your skills, and you're going to pass that list to me after class. While we're walking to class, you can tell me about what you've got."

  They're running out of time to get to the next class. It was going to be one of those times where they either needed to move now or run later. He had done enough running.

  He went to the trio of ambushers that were still deep in conversation. They needed to move. Would he leave now and get there on time, or leave in a little bit and rush? He did not want to rush.

  If he had the choice between walking or running, he would walk, because while he walked, he could talk to Mila and she could give him the inside information on her skills. If he was going to give her Will Magic for free, train her past level two and pretend that she had it all along, then they were going to have to concoct a story.

  "What do you mean that my parents got it for me while I was on vacation? I don't think that the festival of the Fiddler is the kind of time when you get a gift like that. That's like a legacy item passed down from your grandparents."

  "Mila, are you not wearing brand new uniforms all the time?"

  She blushed.

  "That's different. That's for school… oh, here they come."

  They walked up next to Ludere.

  "We've been considering your offer and we want to take it up. We have one major condition."

  Ludere looked back. There were only so many ways to make a toga look disheveled, and they had nailed every single way. All in one go. His newly acquired toga was immaculate because he smoothed it out with his hands and Will. Theirs looked like they had been adrift. Which, based on the class he was dealing with, could potentially be true.

  The two lackeys behind Bel, Callie and Hector, both sported a mop of brown hair and were if not related, attached at the hip. It made sense to stick around somebody for basically the entire time that you were at the academy because you would quiz each other about things you were learning. Cire had talked about that as one of the things she didn't like, because everyone was there to be the best of the best.

  There was competition, of course, but it was friendly. That is, except for the top ten percent of the class, which each Dinarii decided he wasn't going to compete for. If he did this again as another loop for whatever reason, he might consider it. Then he would have to go back through all of this again, and he just felt raw thinking about having to go through all these convoluted plans to land at the academy, where he would have to go through and pretend he didn't know what was about to happen.

  He could guess what they were about to do. They were going to try to do a long con on him and figure out his loan game. They were not going to be able to figure it out. The Skill Swap that he had gotten was not something that he'd never heard of. And in his time looking through the library, none of the books had anything like that as well. This method was probably a unique Skill, and more importantly it meant that people were not looking out for the Skill specifically. They would not seek him out. That is, unless he got people to reveal his secret.

  For Ludere, the most important thing was to make sure the people did not just reveal a secret willy-nilly. They had to be tightly controlled, and maybe could do without them knowing his identity. That would be all the better, because people would pay a lot of money for this service. He had already done his value proposition during class about it, and several students had come to talk to him about this. In fact, these three were just the third pair or group that have approached him. The other two groups had done it during class.

  They made it seem more on the level, but he was invited to share it, as it were.

  If he made it through this, he'd be able to figure out how many he could help at once, and how fast he could help them. But first he had to convince Mila that this was a good use of her time.

  "So you're telling me you have a skill that lets you give people your skills?"

  Class was done and they were taking the long way to the library. She might have thought that he was interested in her, but he was certainly trying to keep it discreet.

  The only problem was that walking alone with a woman your age, when you were trying to be discreet, looked the same whether you were in a conspiracy or in a loving committed relationship. He just didn't want to give people the wrong idea.

  That's why she pretended to be his girlfriend. After all, the Oracle was not very territorial, but he was not interested in complicating his life any further than it was already.

  "That's what's going on. That's why I know that I can fulfill their requests."

  "That seems like an impossible skill to have. It must be one of those rare, unique skills that people have that you don't talk about."

  Ludere paused to take a large drink from his water skin. He looked out over the large campus. The marble walls were so high, but there didn't seem to be a reason. They were on an island. Who were they going to try to keep out?

  Mila shuffled around loudly.

  "I'm not against it but, why me?"

  If there was a way to make a toga look more secure and exotic, she had hit upon it.

  Ludere shrugged. "It takes time and trust? Trust is slow. I wanted to give my friends the skills, but they are not here. I think, maybe, Cire... I might do this for her as well, but you? I think we're good."

  "Cire. I don't know what you see in her."

  "I see a girl that is the daughter of my benefactor. If I can get her to give me important information? We'll be in a much better place after this."