Isil leaned back in her chair, spreading her cards out on the table, a smirk on her face. The other three players grimaced and laid their cards down as well. Isil laughed once, loudly, and scooped up the mountain of silver and copper coins that had grown greatly since the first match.

“Sorry fellas, guess you just couldn’t handle me.” Isil stated, picking up the few coins that had fallen from the pile.

“Oh come off it. You only won because you wouldn’t stop playing.” Damien angrily pointed at her.

“Hey, what can I say? It works.”

“But you were so terrible when we first started, how’d you get so good?!” Chris demanded, slamming his hand on the table.

“It’s all about sizing up your mark, lad.” Isil said, an undertone of playfulness in her voice.

“‘Lad’, really? And what do you mean by that?” Damien asked, scratching his head in frustration.

“Sorry, a friend told me that a long time ago about… something else, but I felt that it was appropriate for the situation. And by ‘sizing up your mark’, I mean that it’s about knowing your opponents. What are their tells? What do they like to say? Where are their eyes looking? Things like that. I’m not a great player, but you guys are really predictable.”

“We’re not predictable!” Sandal cried, pausing from shuffling the cards.

“Say that again after I don’t rob you of all your pocket money.”

Sandal grunted and resumed shuffling. Isil leaned back, pulling up her pack off the floor and moving to sweep the coins in. However, Chris grabbed her wrist and stopped her. She looked up, only to see a desperate smile on his face.

“One more game, what'd ya say?” He pleaded.

“… Oh sure, why not? I haven’t got anything else to do.” Isil sighed and put her pack back down.

There was a collective sigh of relief as the knights put their coins back on the table. The few other knights that had been idling turned their attention to the game. Isil could only assume it was because it was their last game, and they would be playing high-stakes.

“What are we betting?” Isil asked smugly.

“Everything we have,” Sandal instantly replied, eliciting shocked faces from everyone at the table. “All or nothing.”

“Oh? Everything? That can’t be much, not after I clean you all out.”

“Perhaps not, but this is a very important game. The bet should match that, yeah?”

“Wait, Sandal, hold up. We didn’t agree to this.” Damien interjected, Chris nodding in agreement.

“So we’re just going to let her take all of our money? We’re in the same squad, we’ll have a chance to do this again. After tomorrow, she’ll take our coin and leave! Do you want that?!” Sandal angrily spoke.

“… Fine! I’m in,” Chris gave in, dropping five silver coins on the table. “If we lose, it’s your ass! You got that?”

“I’ll give you both a quarter of my monthly salary for four months if we lose.”

“Fuck. I’m in.” Damien said, dropping a single gold coin on the table.

Sandal nodded, and added a gold and three silver coins to the pile. Isil sighed and shoved her winnings into the pile as well. She rolled her head to loosen the muscles in her neck and took a deep breath. She expelled her emotions and readied her mind for the game. Sandal dealt the cards, and Isil watched him closely for any shady tricks. He seemed to be playing fair.

“Let’s play,” Sandal said. “Dealer goes first...”

-_-_-

Isil slammed her head into the table as Chris took the pot. His face was awash with smiles, matching the other two knights at the table, who were already bursting out in cheers. Chris separated the pot into three smaller piles, and slid two of them to Damien and Sandal, their reward for helping to beat Isil. Their piles were the same size, but had less gold than Chris’s, his reward for actually beating Isil.

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“I hate you all.” Isil grumbled, not moving her head off the table.

“Sorry fella, I guess you just couldn’t handle us.” Chris repeated her victory statement from the previous game.

“Oh fuck you.” Isil turned her head to glare at Chris.

“Hey, what can I say? It works!” Damien hollered, laughing so hard his face was turning red.

“...” Isil didn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong? Wondering how we won? It’s all about sizing up your mark, lass!” Chris burst into laughter.

“That’s funny, you know what that quote was originally about?” Isil lifted her head from the table, holding back a smile.

“Now that you mention it… What was it about?” Sandal asked.

“Pick-pocketing. He was a master at it. He could lift anything from anyone. I remember once he stole a guard’s helmet right off his head, then took his sword off his belt.”

“A master pickpocket, eh?” Chris asked, still chuckling.

“Yeah, I learned a lot from him.” Isil gave a meaningful smile.

“… What do you mean by that?” Damien, suddenly serious, asked.

“I’m just saying,” Isil leaned back. “Watch your pockets.”

The cheers and laughter stopped, and the three knights immediately checked their pockets. They eyed Isil suspiciously, and quickly put away their winnings. Isil smiled sinisterly, hoping to add to the intimidation. She doubted she could pickpocket anyone, as she had never actually invested the time to learn the skills needed, but she enjoyed snatching their sense of victory.

“Well, looks like its time for food,” Isil remarked, standing up from her seat. “Guess I’ll get something to eat.”

Isil made to walk off, but when she started to move, she could hardly feel her own legs. She tried to cover it up by picking up her pack and taking food from there. She didn’t immediately eat it, but instead started stretching, hoping to knock some feeling into her legs before going off to the cafeteria.

“Oh yeah, Isil.” Lude called out to her.

“Hm?” Isil turned her attention to him.

“Lief doesn’t want you out of this room. No one here knows about how you barbecued most of the squadron, and they’d probably… make advances.”

“...” Isil stopped for a moment.

She almost wanted to cry. She knew she was a girl, but he was the predominant personality, and was used to being a male. He didn’t have to worry about being surrounded by military men. But now… this was the first time he had to worry about something like that. Of course, ‘worry’ was a bit of a strong word, considering how she would be able to defend any physical advances on her. However, it didn’t do her any good to start something, so she decided to listen.

“Fine, fine, I’ll stay. Is there a bed I can lay down on at least?” Isil threw up her hands and asked.

“The one next to me is free.” Lude motioned with his head.

“Cool.” Isil said, and threw herself onto the bed.

The bed was harder than she thought, and she bounced off it instead of sinking in. She bit her lip and held back a curse. It had felt just like belly flopping into a pool from a diving board, which she had done more than once in the past. She grunted and sat up, then started eating her beef jerky, hoping no one had noticed her embarrassing moment. If they did, no one commented on it.

While she ate, she pulled out her grimoire and opened it to the first page. The first page was a summary of the game, as well as notes Isil wrote about how they might have changed. She flipped to the next page, which was also a summary, and the other page was blank, meant to be the divide between the summary and the actual spells. Finally, she arrived at the page she wanted, the page detailing the Novice rank Mana Ball. Unlike the Inventory page, Mana Ball had no magic circle to go along with it.

This was because Novice spells were too weak to need a magic circle. No matter the capacity requirements, if it didn’t have a magic circle, it was a Novice spell. Only once a magic circle was added could a spell become higher ranked. This was why freelance Novice mages were overlooked, because they were not taught on magic circles, and would thus have a harder time adjusting to the higher level spells. Usually, instead of taking a Novice mage as an apprentice, higher-ranked mages would pick children from orphanages or off the streets, so as to teach them the ‘proper’ way of spellcasting.

Originally, this was meant to allow a great diversity of Novice spells to non-magic classes in Endless Conquest while also preventing them from doing the job of another class. Isil found it to be a rather intelligent design choice, but now had her doubts. Magic circles had been a way of making traps, but were supposed to be a focus of spellcasting. However, not once had she thought of a magic circle when casting anything above Novice rank, which was supposed to work only with a circle.

Isil couldn’t understand how she was casting spells while sidestepping universal law. Was she special? Was she doing it unconsciously? Was she using a different form of spellcasting entirely? She really didn’t want to think about it, but she knew how vital it was for her. Spellcasting was her life, and if she couldn’t do it, she was doomed. She was a mage, and had next to no physical skills that she could use well. Take away her magic, and she was average.

Oh for fucks sake, just think about literally anything else, Isil. Get your mind out the… gutter? No that makes it sound like I’m thinking something dirty, what’s a good word for thinking something depressing?

Isil’s eyes unfocused as she stopped paying attention to her sight, and turned her mind towards finding a good word to replace ‘gutter’. As she did so, she managed to finish her beef jerky, and laid down on the pillow, the rock-hardness of it wrenching her mind out of her contemplations. She rubbed the back of her head and glared at the outrageously hard pillow. She could discern no magical properties of the pillow, and a few cursory pokes determined that it was not, in fact, made of stone.

“What do you make your pillows of out? Crushed stone? Why are they so hard?” Isil asked no one in particular.

“Think they’re made of straw. Or reeds. Not sure which one.” Lude replied.

“Whatever it is, it’s hard enough to be stone.” Isil pushed the pillow, depressing it only a little.

“We don’t have any softer ones, so you’ll just have to stick with it. Unless you have your own.”

“Thankfully, I do.” Isil said, and dove her hand into her pack.

She pulled out her toothbrush first, and then pulled out her pillow. She put her pillow on top of the rock, and rested her head on it, testing the softness of it. She nodded to herself and sat back up. She once again went into her pack and pulled out a cylinder of fantasy toothpaste.

“Where’s the bathroom?” Isil asked Lude.

“Why would we have a bath in here?” Lude asked, raising an eyebrow.

Oh god damn it. “Outhouse, toilets, where you relieve yourself.”

“Oh, out the back door and to the left.”

“Thanks.”

Isil stood and walked towards the door. At the same time, she used magic to wet the toothbrush, and then added toothpaste. As she left the room, she started brushing her teeth. She went into the outhouse, briefly pausing to deal with the stink, but continuing on. She quickly did her business and washed up, leaving with clean teeth and feeling refreshed.

The sun was beginning to set, dying the clouds a beautiful purple. She took a moment to admire it, before returning to the barracks. She yawned as she walked over to her bed. There was a little bit of trouble getting comfortable in the bed, but it did not take long to finally fall asleep.