Book 4 - Schemer of the Scalding Sands: Chapter 8; A Friendly Personality

The screen turns on as the chapter title plays "Chapter - 8; A Friendly Personality"

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The training fight had just finished as Kalim exclaimed "Okay, training is done! Now let's be off!" He then grabs Yuu's hand, while she was holding Grim and ran off with the two of them.

Jamil also shouts after them "Wait, you've got other work to–" but sighs once he sees the trio is too far away to be able to hear him.

It then cuts to the trio as Yuu and Grim look around even just a hallway in wonder.

There is a red carpet, although the edge has two purple stripes with a dark yellow in between, it goes all the way along while the base floor seems to be more of just waxed sandstone. The walls aren't full and seem to protrude or shrink in at random points except it seems to make it look more like a pattern or design then to be rundown or badly made. Especially as a lot of things seem to be either made out of gold or gold in color. There are multiple vases or potted plants that line along the doorways. The doors are rather spaced out and most likely lead to student rooms.

Grim compliments "Maaan, this place is FAN-CY! Nothin' at all like Ramshackle Dorm."

Kalim looks kinda confused as he stops and crosses his arms before asking "Is it really that impressive to you? I know that back when I enrolled, Dad said he donated a bit to the school to give the place a fresh coat of paint, but…"

This makes Grim shout out his questions with a ton of surprise "Geez, how rich are you?! Are you some kinda prince like Leona?!"

Kalim explains "The Asims aren't royalty, and I'm not a prince. I've got some relatives in the royal family, though."

Grim recollects his surprise as he says "Wait, Asim? I thought your name was Al-Asim."

Kalim then explains "'Al' means 'son' in the ancient language of the Land of the Scalding Sands. So we name families after the founders that start them… And all men of that line refer to themselves as the founder's son. In my case, Asim is our honored founder's name, and "Al" means son… So Kalim Al-Asim means Kalim, Son of House Asim."

Grim nods his head in some level of understanding as he says "Huh. I never thought much about where names come from. Fascinatin'."

Kalim puts his hands on his hips as he smiles and makes sure to tell them "I hope that wasn't too in-depth for you? Anyway, feel free to just call me Kalim."

Yuu nods and says "This all sounds fascinating." while also thinking 'The place really is a melting pot of students from all over.'

Kalim seems to jump on an opportunity as he tells them "You should pay the Land of the Scalding Sands a visit sometime! I'd be happy to have you as a guest!" while he fist pumps the air.

Grim puts his hands up to scale as he says "I bet you live in some kinda fancy mansion that's halfway to bein' a castle." Kalim waves his hand as he kinda defends "Oh, hardly. We only have around a hundred helpers."

Yuu and Grim are once again left in shock as Grim exclaims "'Only'?! In what world does that deserve "only"?! I've only got one hench-human, myself…" Yuu shots a glare at Grim for that last part before the duo turn their attention back to Kalim.

Kalim then shrugs as he only tells them "Well, we're a big family. We need at least that many people to look after them all." Grim then exclaims in shock and confusion "Sorry you have THAT many siblings?!"

Kalim seems pensive as he tells them "Yeah, so many I quit counting." He then happily exclaims "I do remember all of their names and faces, though." before laughing lightly.

Grim shakes his head as he says "You guys do everything on a whole other level…"

Kalim then also tells them "Jamil's mom and dad are among our servants. So Jamil's always been around and looked after me ever since he was a young boy. And he is seriously amazing, believe me! He's smart, thoughtful, and most of all, he's a great cook!"

Grim nods as he says "The proof of that last one's in the puddin', for sure." Kalim claps his hands once at that as he exclaims "You see? You should stay over for dinner tonight! Come on!" Grim nods and tells Kalim "Uh, sure…"

Kalim then starts to walk off, with the purpose of showing them around and following him.

But the duo stay behind for a couple of seconds as Grim side-eyes Kalim as he tells Yuu "Yeesh, talkin' with this guy throws me off." Yuu nods as she tells Grim "You don't find people this nice at our school every day. I'm honestly just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Kalim then looks back and sees that the duo are staying behind so he calls out to them "Hey, you two! What are you hanging back and whispering for? Come on, this way!"

The duo then follow him over to this one room. Inside it's pitch black at first until Kalim turns the light on.

Yuu shields her eyes with her arm from the sudden burst of bright light as Grim with his strong eyes sees right away and shouts "SWEET MOTHER OF LOOT! What IS this place?! It's got piles of treasure taller than I am!"

Yuu then puts her arm down and blinks her eyes open before they widen in surprise.

It's a huge circular room with only a couple of wooden pillars that look about ready to break from all of the gold and treasures pushing against them. Some piles go all the way to the high risen roof. Although most of the treasure is gold coins and just golden items in general there are also some swords, gems, vases, ceramic items, and most of all fabric whether that be a rug or just a random piece lying around it is probably the second most item after all the golden stuff. The floor can barely be seen, except for one pathway through all of the piles.

Kalim is calmly walking through it all as he tells them "This is all stuff Dad sent with me when I departed for school. I couldn't possibly fit it in my dorm room, so it's all kept here in the storeroom."

This makes Grim shout out "This ain't a storeroom! This's a whole treasury!"

Kalim nods as he compliments Grim "Ooh, you know some big words, Grim. Very impressive!" with such earnest that anyone could tell that it was a true remark and not one that was meant to make fun of Grim or be sarcastic.

Kalim then happily tells them as he leans down to look for something "My favorite out of all these treasures is, of course…"

But then seems to not find it as he squats down to better look around as he asks "Huh. Where'd it go?" Kalim then shakes his head as he continues looking and complains "Sometimes it moves around on its own." After not finding it for a minute or two he calls out "Hey, where are you?" as he continues searching for it.

Yuu's eyes are focused on Kalim while Grim's are on a pile of treasures.

Grim says "Wooow… Huge gemstones just scattered on the floor, shiny golden goblets… With this much stuff, surely no one would notice if one little thing went missing…" He then looks around to make sure no one's looking at him before he goes to pick up some of the treasures while chuckling quietly.

But what he doesn't notice is something coming up from behind him.

…

It's a carpet!

Using one of it's golden tassels it pokes Grim's shoulders twice.

Grim waves his paw back without looking as he says "Yuu, I'm kinda busy!"

But the carpet just pokes him twice again.

Grim is annoyed as he turns around and starts complaining "Yeesh, whaddaya want? I'm tryin-' to–"

But then drops all of the gold he was holding in surprise as he jumps back and screams "GYAAAH!!! The-the carpet's movin' all on its own! It's been possessed by a ghost!"

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