My sister and I were getting used to learning inside the library, so much even, that we started sleeping inside the hidden section of the library. I had already forgotten about the contents of the book I had prepared to trick Grum, and I wasn’t really sure where I had left it. There were so many interesting things in the magic and wizardry section that he didn’t actually want to sleep, but he knew it was necessary.

It was around then that Grum had defeated Elbian and left Konn under a tree and was returning to his main base, where Gabriel and Arabelle were enjoying an evening inside the library, reading and commenting with each other; having fun in general, while also learning in the process.

Suddenly, they felt a big presence, it was Grum’s mana, which he hadn’t controlled yet, because he believed that they didn’t know anything about mana yet and managing the mana that emanated of his body would be unnecessary and cumbersome.

Both of the siblings immediately stood up and started organizing the books inside the shelves to quickly leave this zone of the library and enter the normal one. During the adrenaline shock Gabriel tried to think of a plan to trick Grum, but he didn’t come with anything convincing. He’d have to improvise, as they were already leaving through the gap and they felt Grum’s oppressive presence getting closer and closer.

Just as they were going to sit on the table the door shot open and Grum called:

- Gabriel! Arabelle! I am baaa~ck! – Trying to appear as nice and friendly as possible, to which the family neutrally responded with simple greetings. – How have you been doing? Not too bored, I hope… This library is quite small, I should make it bigger soon… - Grum continued and gave Gabriel a quick idea for a story.

- Yes, Grumbonk – Gabriel started – I already read all of these books and explored the garden, I was waiting for you to come back and teach me more! – Gabriel sniffled - Finally you are back! – and ended his drama by getting closer to Grum and hugging him on the height of his stomach.

- Very well, I will give you more books to access to. But now I have to go; I’m tired and I want to regain my energy.

Grum then slowly pushed him away, nodded and left the room. Gabriel and Arabelle weren’t sure if they had tricked Grum or not, but they believed they did, so they were happy and hugged each other for a while.

Meanwhile Grum was walking on the corridor and made an annoyed face.

- Damn, they found the second section of that library already, I can’t believe that they were brave enough to lie to my face – Grum spat on the ground and continued walking towards an untitled room.

On the library the siblings stopped hugging and started planning.

- Now that we know magic, we can’t let him know. And we also can’t let him know that we are planning anything – Gabriel started the conversation

- What plans? – Arabelle responded, acting as if she didn’t understand, and chuckled a tiny bit, but quickly turned serious – we should create a method for secret communication

It was a good idea, that way they could hide information from Grum, but if the messages got found out then Grum wouldn’t know what the message was, but he’d still realize that they were doing something behind his back, which he wouldn’t like and would punish them.

Also, they easily ran the risk of getting caught and the messages understood, as Grum had a ton more experience than them and had most likely learned many forms of hiding information. Could they create a new method? Yes, but with the history books they had read they weren’t sure whether they had really created something, or it had already been created.

Could they meet at night, then? Maybe, but Grum would probably have a way to find them out. It wasn’t a problem that was easy to solve, that’s for sure. In the end they decided to do something while Grum would be most distracted and that was when he was teaching something he really liked. At times such as Chemistry class he’d talk and talk without turning around, so he wouldn’t see them… probably, but to be sure they decided to “write” in the air.

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That meant that while their pencils were taking normal notes, the side pointing upwards would be writing something else that the other one could read. They’d need to learn skills for that, but they believed that this would be quite a safe method. And it was, because although Grum would have easily caught on it had he looked at it, they communicated only in safe instances where he wouldn’t get such chances.

And so, during the next few months Gabriel and Arabelle were learning what Grum taught them, also opening a second library with more books on the same courses they had already been taught of, which was interesting, as they were learning more advanced stuff, but they didn’t learn what they considered the “important” stuff, like magic and wizardry.

Arabelle was absent during less and less classes, but one of the times she left she went to the new library and tried the same trick she had tried on the other library, which worked! But unbeknownst to her Grum was actually watching it while also teaching about the physics behind location, speed and acceleration.

- I knew you’d try the same thing…Luckily, I set a trap there for you. – Grum muttered for himself while clearing the board of what he had written already.

During the next few days Gabriel noticed that Arabelle was communicating with him slower, so he tried to tell her to meet him at his room, but she didn’t seem to understand, which hadn’t happened before. That’s why he secretly entered her room during the night and went to check on her.

Her head…was filled with mana! He hadn’t had the chance to check before but now that he did he saw that it was some weird kind of spell which Grum didn’t understand, but he knew that Grum was at fault. He decided he’d find a way to clear this and save his sister, if there even was a way. If there wasn’t, he’d take revenge tenfold! Or twofold… Or simply as much as he could manage to do…

Luckily for Gabriel Grum hadn’t realized that this happened and started preparing his own plans, he wanted to control the siblings, but Gabriel was a harder nut to crack in comparison to Arabelle. To progress on his plans he started to teach them separately, actually teaching useful things to Gabriel, while teaching stuff that’d interest Arabelle to her while also slowly inducing her into a trance with which she’d feel she’d have free will but would slowly follow more and more commands of Grum. After she was completely under his control he could focus on Gabriel, which with the help of the hypnotized Arabelle would be easier.

During these “classes” Gabriel used his time as best as he could to find a way to rescue his sister, also visiting her at times, but seeing how her situation got worse and worse he started feeling helpless, until he remembered about David. If someone that wasn’t Grum could help him, it was him.

Together with David Gabriel started building a plan, also using these instances where they met to learn more about his sister’s condition, but David couldn’t help him much, as he didn’t know a lot about magic while he was alive, he focused more on wizardry.

That’s also why Gabriel asked him about different wizardry spells to learn what to look out for, common mistakes and useful tips to improve the efficiency of mana or how to control something from far away, starting from things like a toy, but at some point, he could in theory manage to control building-sized puppets if he practiced enough and was lucky not only to have the dummy available, but also having enough mana to control it.

Gabriel felt more and more confident on his capabilities to escape and get out of this place, it seemed like he had a chance. And with his plans being built he also started to take notes about Grum’s daily activities, for example that he entered a strange room without a sign and doesn’t leave for a few hours, probably to sleep, although it was during the day.

Maybe this meant that during the night he didn’t sleep, instead talking with other people or watching over him and his sister, because Grumbonk was in a different room during the nights, one that had a sign, specifically “communications”.

Close before Gabriel put his plan into action with all the information, he had gathered he decided to give his final greetings to David, who gave him a surprise. He had replicated himself somehow and given Gabriel a smaller version of himself who had “only the most critical information”, because the memory of the plant-man was limited by its size.

It was soon going to be the time that Grum ended his class with Arabelle and entered the mysterious room on which he stayed for about three hours, Gabriel had measured it to have a more specific time interval on which he had to escape.

He had handcrafted a bag on which he put Mini-David, some food and water, some clothes for him and his sister, a tiny controllable toy with which he could actually see, so it served to scout the path he wanted to follow and also packed some basic handcrafted weapons to defend themselves in case they needed.

Finally, he saw Grum leave the classroom and Arabelle behind. Gabriel went to his room and took this bag, checked everything and mentally prepared himself.

It was time, he wouldn’t get another opportunity so he couldn’t blow this one.