Science!!!!

... Whichever one somebody is least likely to steal from him?

Anything about how to make things? He's not bad at making things aside from his hands.

That would probably be in Technology.

"...all right, we can wait a bit for dorm rooms. It's nice to see the love of learning."

"I have never seen this many books in my whole life."

... "And we can just read them?"

"Not only can you read them, you can get a library card and then take them back to your dorm room, as long as you bring them back in three weeks."

... This is some kind of clever trick, isn't it. You can't fool him.

"Right," he says, not believing it AT ALL.

He's going to READ THE BOOKS and see if anything horrible happens.

"And how does getting a library card work?"

If it isn't too complicated Alida will go through the procedure. Then she can sneak books up to her room to read them. Books about how to make curses! And explosives!

"I should get a library card for all of you, I think," he says. 

Tetley will observe this process from a safe distance. Alida is scary.

What? He hasn't caught on to any of this happening. None of it is astrophysics. 

"So what you want to do is go up to this computer-- uh, do you know what a computer is."

"Let's say I don't, it's more true than not."

"--how do I explain what a computer is. Uh. I am not prepared for this part, sorry." He sounds quite sincere. "Anyway, you press the Start button, then press the button that says you're a student, then type in your name so it can find you in the system, then type in your ID number which you would know if we had done things in the proper order instead of skipping to the library." He has all of the villain kids' ID numbers on a piece of paper and types them in. "And then it will print a plastic card like this, and you can take it over here and scan it"-- he demonstrates scanning-- "and then scan this part of the book that has a bar code on it, this thing is called a bar code. And then the book is yours."

He hands Alida her library card. 

Alida views the library card with deep suspicion, then pockets it. She has no idea what scheme is taking place, here, or who supports which gang; her leading theory is that "King Ben" is a spoiled child indulged by his father in a petty favor, but anyone with his power is going to end up as a pawn if he isn't a player and so she suspects there's some gang behind this turning his whim into a power play, and she wishes she understood more of what was taking place, or just which side Prince Asher supported, but you play the hand you have, not the hand you want.

"Tetley?" 

She will attempt to phrase this in an I-am-inviting-you-to-get-a-shiny way rather than a threatening way.

Tetley will go get the shiny!

And Asher makes library cards for Wei Wuxian and Bern as well.

Do we think a person can read four books at once if they try really hard.

In a day? Yes.

At once? No.

(Bern is keeping an eye on Asher and Alida and Wei Wuxian at all times, so that if any one of them has any demands, he can meet them before he gets mugged - in particular, if Asher wants him to continue the tour instead of reading about architecture, he can do that.)

But they're all so GOOD he can't CONCENTRATE.

After half an hour or so Asher says, "you know you can check out the books and read them in your rooms?"

"How many?"