Cadmus and Candice tried to move swiftly through the forest, but since they had never done anything of this sort before, they kept tripping over bushes and slipping on mud. To make matters worse, Cadmus still hadn’t regained enough of his mobility and strength to move without help, so he was forced to lean on Candice, slowing them down even further. Despite all that, they kept moving, and as they did so, Cadmus said silently,

“Candice, I know what I said about killing, however, you don’t have the skill nor the knowledge of powerful spells to incapacitate your enemies.”

Candice flinched, and Cadmus could see her will visibly weakening. It was clear that she knew what he meant. And yet, she did not stop moving.

There was a small, somber silence before Alice asked,

“How are we going to find Professor Mackenzie anyway? Cadmus, do you somehow know the way?”

Cadmus shook his head. Professor Carmen had said to head South, but Cadmus had no skills in determining direction without technology. He knew that people usually looked at stars or something to navigate in the wilderness, but he didn’t really know which stars. And unfortunately, neither did Candice or Alice.

It seemed that celestial navigation wasn’t included in the ‘common knowledge’ that Cadmus had directed into Alice’s head from the imprints in the world’s mana.

“We’re going to be following signs of fire,” Cadmus explained, “Embers, ashes, burnt bodies—that kind of thing.”

Alice looked confused, “Why?”

“When our group first set out, Ardea Regis seemed to know which way we had to go,” Cadmus explained, “And considering her skills, I doubt that she’s been taken out. So, we’ll be following the signs of her battles—which we already know include copious amounts of fire.”

But seriously, Cadmus wondered, using fire spells in a forest? Ardea was lucky that Lorem forest wasn’t dry enough to easily catch on fire right now. Or had she perhaps taken this into account before using her fire spells…?

As they continued moving forward—slowly and unsteadily—an orange glow up ahead caught their eyes. They warily moved in closer, and as they did so, the sounds of conversation greeted their ears.

“…I still don’t get why we have to do this. Like, why is this our job? That crazy student was the one who set everything on fire.”

Candice and Cadmus knelt behind a tall set of bushes and took a look. A small clearing was set ablaze with bright orange flames. Thankfully though, the flames weren’t spreading. There were two people helping matters there. One was an old man, and the other was a young boy in his teens. Both looked like they were related to each other, with short, uneven brown hair and angular features. They were both using water spells to douse the flames.

They weren’t wearing the Academy staff uniform, so Cadmus assumed that these people were enemies.

“If we hadn’t attacked, she wouldn’t have needed to ‘set everything on fire’,” the old man said, “I understand how you feel, but if this forest burns down, the fault will indeed lie with us.”

The young boy scowled, “It’s not like the fire’s spreading anyway. Why do we have to be so careful?”

The old man asked sternly, “Jack, I hope you haven’t forgotten our organization’s motto.”

“‘For peace and prosperity,” Jack dutifully recited, “But what’s that got to do with us putting out fires, uncle Jon?”

Jon nodded, “Exactly; for peace and prosperity. Those aren’t just pretty words, Jack. They’re the words our organization lives by. They’re the words that separate us from common criminals. Letting Lorem forest burn down is the antithesis to our goal of bringing peace and prosperity.”

Jack didn’t look convinced, “I mean, we’ve already attacked a bunch of students of the Academy. I don’t think anyone will think of us as anything but evil terrorists.”

Jon gave Jack a severe look, “We have attacked these students because it is necessary for a more peaceful and prosperous future. Do not let the views of others taint your actions or intentions, Jack. If you do, you may find that you’ve become nothing but an evil man.”

Cadmus glanced at Candice and frowned. He doubted that her aim and coordination was good enough to hit two targets accurately in rapid succession. What now? Should they just go around…?

Before he could decide, two people arrived from both the left and right sides of the clearing. Both people went up to Jon. The person that had come from the left side spoke first, a grim look on his face, “Sir, we found some more bodies to the left. That Dragon Princess really did a number on us…”

The person that had come in from the right nodded, “We’ve found bodies on our side as well. Some of them have been burned so badly that we can’t even recognize them.”

Jon frowned, “And what are your units doing now?”

“We tried sending a few people after the Dragon Princess, but they didn’t stand a chance,” one of them said, gesturing behind the clearing, “So we’ve switched our efforts to recovering the bodies of the dead.”

The other person nodded, “It’s the same for us.”

Jon frown grew darker, “And how many of us have been killed?”

“We… still haven’t finished counting.”

A look of consideration crossed Jon’s face.

“Take me to the bodies,” He said after a while. Then he turned to Jack, “You stay here and put out this fire—and make sure to keep open a wary eye. We’ve already taken over most of the forest, and the Dragon Princess has already passed by here, so there shouldn’t be any danger in this area anymore, but we’re still in an active combat zone, so it wouldn’t be wise to let your guard down.”

Jack merely let out an annoyed sigh.

Jon ruffled his hair with a fond chuckle on his face,

“Stay safe.”

With that, he left the clearing with the two other people.

Cadmus took a moment to consider the information he had just learned. As expected, Ardea had been through here, and had continued on to the other side. However, there were enemies on both sides of the clearing, so there was no way for them to bypass hostile parties by going around. Well, he supposed that they could go around those hostile parties on the sides as well, but that would take far too long and only increase their chances of encountering more danger. No, the easiest method would be to break through from here. There was only one enemy here after all.

“Use [rock spike],” Cadmus said to Candice, “It’s not a flashy spell, and it doesn’t make too much noise when it flies through the air. It’s the best spell for stealth attacks in your repertoire.”

Candice looked horrified.

“C-Cadmus!” She whispered, “That man… I’m supposed to k-kill him!? But he has an uncle, and-and—I just can’t!”

Cadmus’ face softened, “I know. That man’s death will probably hurt his uncle deeply. However, right now we don’t have a choice. Any spells that I know to incapacitate people require more skill to use than you have, and I don’t have the time to teach you those complex magic circles right now. The only option that you have is to kill him.”

“Wh-what if I use my binding spell—?”

“That adhesive one, right?” Cadmus said, “I’ll admit, I’m impressed that you know a spell like that, however, it doesn’t function as a gag, so you won’t be able to stop him from yelling for help in time if you use that to incapacitate him.”

He raised his arm a little, but it was still swaying and shaking, rendering it useless for drawing any magic circles.

“I’m… sorry,” he said slowly, “I wish I could help, but, as you can see…”

He let his arm fall back to his side.

Candice closed her eyes, and took a deep, shuddering breath.

“Okay…” She whispered hoarsely, “I’ll do it…”

It took her three tries to draw the magic circle for [rock spike], and when she finally got it right, she aimed it at Jack.

There was no signal. No sound, or flash of light to indicate when Candice should have fired. One second, she was aiming her spell, the next, a [rock spike] flew through the air and punctured through Jack’s throat with terrifying ease.

Jack’s eyes widened, and he clawed wildly at his throat as he fell over. Tears of pain and panic brimmed in his eyes as he screamed silently, and to spare him that, Candice set Cadmus on the ground and ran to Jack, firing another [rock spike] that went right through his head this time.

Jack went limp, his panicked attempts at survival stopped forevermore.

Candice breathed heavily as she looked down at Jack.

“I… I’m sorry.”

Even though they were in a hurry, Cadmus let her have this moment. If he rushed her, he didn’t know how she would react.

She spent a few more seconds gazing solemnly down at Jack’s body before helping Cadmus up and walking around the clearing of flames. She was shivering, and it took Cadmus a second to realize that she was silently crying.

Alice looked shaken as well. Despite that though, she also looked worried for Candice.

“Are you… are you alright?”

Candice kept her gaze fixed at the moonlit forest ahead of her,

“No.”

And that was how they made their way forward. They searched for signs of fire, and followed those signs. Sometimes they ran into areas with more of the mysterious attackers, and they tried to sneak around them when they could.

However, when they couldn’t…

Candice was forced to kill three more people in their journey through the forest, and each time she did, she apologized to their corpses.

It took a while for Cadmus to realize that, as they ventured further, the number of enemies was increasing for some reason. Had Professor Mackenzie’s area already been captured by these people?

If so, then that was probably the worst-case scenario. Cadmus made sure not to voice this speculation to Alice or Candice.

On the other hand, there was some good news as well. During this whole time, Cadmus’ body had slowly but steadily regained its mobility. By now, he could probably draw a decently complicated magic circle if he wanted.

He was about to tell Candice so, when he spotted a gathering of tents, their white colour making them stand out from the greens and browns of the forest. Candice collapsed in relief, and she was about to say something, but Cadmus put a hand on her mouth.

In her happiness at finally making it here, she had failed to notice something that he did. Surrounding this gathering of tents was a sea of corpses, all dressed in the same sharp midnight-blue uniforms. The uniforms of the Academy guards.

Candice put a horrified hand on her mouth. While the sight of a dead Academy guard wasn’t that surprising—they had passed plenty of those on the way here—the sheer amount of corpses here was abnormally high.

Had they been guarding Professor Mackenzie’s teaching area before being killed by the ambushers? If so, then why were there so many of them here? Even Professor Carmen and their group had not received these many guards.

And did this mean that he was right? Was Professor Mackenzie’s area really lost to the attackers?

“Cadmus Guiles?” A voice called out from behind them.

Cadmus turned to look warily, and recognized the owner of the voice as Ardea Regis’ friend, Elise Auxil.

“And Lady Regis?” Elise asked, looking surprised. She knelt beside them, “What’re you both doing here?”

“The bigger question is, what are you doing out here?” Cadmus said, “Has Professor Mackenzie’s position already been captured by the enemy?”

Elise looked confused, “I wouldn’t know. Her highness and I haven’t been there yet. And I’m out here because I’m scouting the area to make sure that no one is coming to ambush us from behind.”

Wait… what? Was this not Professor Mackenzie’s position?

He narrowed his eyes, “Auxil, where exactly are we?”

Elise raised an eyebrow, “You got here without even knowing that? Talk about unlucky. Currently, we’re looking at the enemy’s main base camp in Lorem forest. This is where they’ve been staging all their attacks from.”

Cadmus stared at her, blank-eyed for a second. And then, he palmed his face with a deep sigh.

He’d made a mistake. There had been a fatal flaw in his plan to follow Ardea’s trail. He had thought that she would go straight to Professor Mackenzie. Instead, she had decided to come here, to the heart of the enemy attack.

So, instead of leading them away from the enemies, following Ardea’s trail had instead brought them right to them.

“…Crap.”