Rita didn’t know what Maple Syrup meant by "cookies," but she didn’t really care.
Like Lightchaser always said, she didn’t care about justice or law. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑~𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖾~𝖓𝖊𝖙
So she accepted Maple Syrup’s invitation to team up without hesitation.
And Maple Syrup already had three teammates lined up—Pine Bloom, Mojie, and Pomango.
With Maple Syrup as the middleman, both sides confirmed they were satisfied with the lineup. Just like that, this year’s team slots were locked in.
[Rita]: Nobody minds I disappeared for three years?
[Maple Syrup]: Three years gone and still better than trash.
[Rita]: I like our team! Excellent taste all around!
She closed the chat window and announced the good news to her two teachers.
GodDraw77 handed her a fresh Moonlight Marsh uniform. "Hurry up and change."
Lightchaser tossed her a thin-bladed dagger. "This one has a storage space built in."
Rita caught it with delight, found the gem set in the hilt, and peeked inside.
Inside the storage space were a heap of snow the size of a person, hundreds of neatly stacked dry leaves, and a whole pile of pumpkins.
The leaves were sorted by size, the pumpkins by variety—dozens of kinds, many she recognized as Arisentna pumpkins, clearly from different regions.
Had Lightchaser really spent a year collecting all this while searching for her?
Rita lowered her head, slid the dagger into her belt, fidgeted a long while, then looked up with her eyes red. She said solemnly to Lightchaser, "I don’t know why you act so weird, like I’ll go looking for lots of teachers, but I promise you, I’ll never seek another. You’re the best."
Lightchaser’s eyes flickered and turned away. Beside her, GodDraw77 said evenly, "All of that was collected by me. Your teacher just kept gunning the throttle and telling me to hurry."
"...Forget what I just said," Rita muttered coldly, sniffing.
Lightchaser: "..." That was the fastest face-turn she’d ever seen.
Twilight Library lay deep in the desert, in a city known as Endless Sands.
True to its name, the school was a colossal library, built like a massive ship lodged at a slant in the sand. Ninety-nine floors tall, it spanned nearly a quarter of the entire city.
Half of its space housed every kind of animal in Arisentna, two to four of each species. A quarter stored books and cultural records. The last quarter was where apprentices and teachers lived and studied.
It was like a massive Noah’s Ark.
Their destination was the very top—the ship’s prow—where a great white canvas stretched, marking the Divine Game’s stage.
Above it, white fabric had stirred the desert into a massive spiral, like a sandstorm encircling the arena. Within the swirling wall stood countless rows of seats, the audience stands for this year’s Divine Game.
By the time they arrived, more than half the seats were filled, and students from different academies already waited in the preparation area.
The starry dragon landed beside the arena. Wail and GodDraw77 both turned to glare at Lightchaser.
Wail: "This dragon’s headed for the GodDraw77 spectators."
GodDraw77: "Yeah. Spectators go that way."
Lightchaser took a long breath, gathered her magic, then told her apprentice, "If you don’t win GodDraw77 this year, I’ll hang you from a chimney."
She leapt from the dragon, black cloak spilling behind her like a waterfall as she plummeted toward the stands.
Watching her leave, Rita finally asked the question she’d held in for almost a year. She turned to GodDraw77. "What price did you pay to find me?"
GodDraw77 patted her head gently. "All I lost was time. The one who paid the price was Lightchaser. She gave up her soulfire in exchange for that little boat that could travel the River of Time."
Rita’s eyes showed no surprise—she’d already suspected, ever since she’d traced her fingers over the crown’s dark sigils etched on the hull. Her voice came hoarse. "That boat... it can’t be taken away?"
GodDraw77 shook her head. "No. It will remain forever in the River of Time, like all the other abandoned boats you saw, part of the river’s scenery."
As Wail shooed her off the dragon, Rita asked quickly, "How much gold would it take for you to use Lucky Number on me once?"
Wail didn’t answer. She just patted Rita’s shoulder three times. Each pat dropped another Lucky Number into Rita’s cart.
Only then did the dwarf say, "If you don’t win GodDraw77 this year, I’ll hang you from a chimney."
Then she shoved Rita off the dragon.
GodDraw77 followed, slowing her fall as she brought Rita down into Moonlight Marsh’s section.
Mistblade, Fat Goose, and Motor had already spotted them from the moment the dragon appeared. They rushed over, Mistblade’s five tails whipping like banners as she pulled Rita into a fierce hug.
Fat Goose slapped her shoulder with excitement. "You really came back!"
Motor gleamed with upgrades—her frame now looked like a high-end modified motorcycle.
After a few quick greetings, Rita noticed two teammates behind them watching her warily. She took the initiative. "I already have a team."
Mistblade’s eyes narrowed. "Maple Syrup?"
Rita saw Maple Syrup standing with Pine Bloom. She wasn’t surprised by Mistblade’s sharpness. "Yes. Maple Syrup, Pine Bloom, Mojie, and Pomango."
Her answer made Mistblade and the others relax with visible relief.
Her return had put them in a tough spot—they couldn’t abandon teammates they’d trained with for two years.
Rita knew her presence made Mistblade’s two teammates nervous.
Just as she knew the murmurs from the audience were about her.
Three years gone, but she was still the only student in over forty years to successfully open the GodDraw77 game.
Students tensed at her return. The crowd buzzed with expectation.
She tilted her head up and grinned at GodDraw77, the message clear in her eyes.
See? I told you I’m qualified to choose my teammates.
GodDraw77 read her gaze and, like Lightchaser, couldn’t resist smacking the back of her head.
Before heading to her own section, she left Rita with one last line:
"All those supplies were mine. But the one driving was Lightchaser. Can you imagine her swerving the motorcycle to a pumpkin stand mid-ride, then telling me, ’The bike’s broken, I need to fix it’?"