Cadmus followed carefully after Elise as she led them to Ardea’s current position. They moved in silence, as they didn’t want to risk their voices reaching the enemies camped out nearby, and honestly, no one wanted to talk right now anyway. It had been a long night, and Cadmus could tell that everyone was exhausted—especially Candice. She had probably never been through a more taxing day than today.

After a few minutes, they reached Ardea. She was hiding behind a dense group of bushes, carefully watching the enemy camp like a hawk. When they approached her, she gave them a brief glance before turning back to her target.

They knelt beside her, and she smirked,

“You look well enough for someone who was sent flying off a cliff.”

Her tone was taunting, and it took Cadmus a second to realize that she was talking to him.

He tilted his head curiously. If she was talking to him, why was her tone mocking? That had only been the second battle he had ever fought in his life, and it had also been his first ever unplanned battle. Wasn’t it obvious that the result would be something like that?

But he didn’t want to be impolite, so he simply nodded, and said,

“Okay.”

His answer seemed to annoy her for some reason.

“You’ve seen some of the bodies of the Academy guards here, correct?” She asked, discarding the previous topic, “Have you come to any conclusions?”

“Clean kills in a single stroke,” Cadmus remembered, “Just like the bodies near where our group was camped. More importantly, no signs of battle. Meaning the guards were killed without even having a chance to fight back.”

Elise’s eyes widened dramatically. Was this information really that surprising for her?

Cadmus ignored her and continued, “There’re a significantly higher number of dead guards here compared to where our group was camped though. I would have guessed that they staged an attack against the enemy’s main base, but if that was the case, then they definitely wouldn’t have been killed without even having a chance to fight back. So, the only conclusion I can come to is that this used to be the Academy guards’ main base, and it was taken over by the enemy.”

There was a small period of silence, before Elise stuttered,

“Th-that’s… exactly what Her Highness said…”

“Taking over the main basecamp of the gaurds was probably the first step of the enemy’s plan,” Ardea said, “And then, from here, they’ve been staging the rest of their attacks throughout the forest. If we can capture this place, we can cripple their attacks.”

“Conversely, that also means that this place is far more well-defended than the contingents of enemies roaming around the forest,” Cadmus noted.

“Of course.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Cadmus asked, “Because you wanted to strike the enemy at their heart?”

Ardea didn’t look away from the enemy’s basecamp, but her eyes did narrow,

“…No. I was the one leading group one, and yet, even though I killed most of that group of enemies that we encountered, reinforcements arrived and they managed to capture and run away with many of our group members.”

Huh… so that’s probably what that man he had interrogated had meant when he said, “My comrades—my friends—she killed all of them!” He had probably been talking about the fatal defeat they had suffered against Ardea.

“I told the rest of the group which direction to head and left them to search for more enemies,” Ardea said, “Then, when I found some, I interrogated them and found out where their main basecamp is so that I can rescue our captured groupmates. I will not abandon them since they were captured while under my care.”

Personally, Cadmus felt that she had been a bit foolish. What if the rest of the group had encountered another group of enemies? They wouldn’t have stood a chance without Ardea then.

However, he didn’t say anything, opting to change the topic.

“We found some information ourselves,” Cadmus said, “Apparently, their leader is someone they call Mr. Praesse, and they’ve come here looking for hostages. What for, I don’t know yet.”

Ardea glanced at him with a vaguely surprised expression on her face,

“You found the identity of their leader? I’m surprised. No one I interrogated gave away the name of their leader, no matter what I did. These people are fanatically loyal to him. You must have found a weak link.”

“The person who gave me this information gave it through his own negligence and anger, not torture,” Cadmus explained, “Although, he was indeed ready to disregard his leader’s orders in his lust for revenge.”

“How lucky for you.”

“Will you help us then?” Elise asked, “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to do something to the enemy’s main basecamp.”

Cadmus shook his head, “Unfortunately, your conclusion is incorrect. We simply came here because we followed Ardea’s trail. We didn’t know where South was.”

Ardea clicked her tongue in annoyance,

“Disappointing as always.”

Then she gave Elise a reprimanding glance,

“And Elise, notice that he has Candice accompanying him. That coward would never do something as terrifying as rushing towards the heart of the enemy. That should have been enough to tell you that they didn’t come here knowing that the enemy’s main basecamp was here.”

Candice’s gaze fell to the ground below, and Elise looked horrified that she had received Ardea’s chastisement.

“M-my apologies, Your Highness! I will be more observant in the future!”

Ardea glanced towards Candice as well,

“Although… it seems like that look in your eye has changed somewhat. I’m impressed, Guiles, her father has been trying to turn her into a less of a coward for all her life, and yet you accomplished it in one night.”

Cadmus shook his head, “That wasn’t my doing. I was incapacitated and simply asked for help, and she responded with more courage than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

Candice looked stunned at his words, but he ignored her. It wasn’t like he was lying.

“Doubtful.”

“Believe what you want,” Cadmus said, “I have no way of convincing you.”

Ardea scowled and decided to latch on to some of his previous words,

“You said you were incapacitated? Will you be a burden?”

Cadmus rotated his arms and stretched his legs a little,

“I’m perfectly fine now. We can go in whenever.”

“W-wait!” Alice said, looking up at him, “You’re going to go in there as well!?”

Cadmus shrugged, “Since we’re already here, why not? We might even get more points from the Academy because of this.”

“B-but…”

“Don’t worry,” Cadmus said, giving her a reassuring smile, “We’ll be fine.”

“I wanted to see what spell they used to be able to sneak in such a heavily guarded area,” Ardea said, “However, I doubt they’ll be using it now. Let’s go.”

Contrary to Cadmus’ expectations, they were able to sneak into the camp rather easily since there were only a few enemies posted on guard duty. The rest they could tell were inside the tents due to the noises of conversation.

Thankfully, the white tents were all opaque, so their sneaking figures probably couldn’t be seen from the inside of the tents.

“Do you know where the prisoners are located?” Cadmus asked as he carefully followed after Ardea.

He had never tried sneaking anywhere before, so he was trying his best to just minimize the sound he was making with his footsteps. He didn’t really know what other steps were involved in the art of stealth. There were also a lot of bodies of dead Academy guards littering the ground, so he had to be careful not to step on them either.

“One of the larger tents at the other edge of the camp,” Ardea answered, whispering.

She didn’t look worried at all, and merely seemed to be directing all her focus on just another task that had to be completed.

They quietly made their way to the tent that Ardea had specified, and found two enemies standing at the entrance, guarding it.

Ardea moved first, she held up a hand, and a complicated magic circle shined into existence. From what Cadmus could tell, when used, the spell would send an electrical signal that would instantly knock a person unconscious. The only problem he could see with the spell was that it had to be used at point-blank range.

Huh… so she could use more than just fire spells…

Elise followed next, drawing the magic circle for a simple [rock spike].

Then, they both moved with synchronized ease. First, Elise fired her [rock spike] at the guard on the left, the projectile piercing through the space right between his eyes with unerring accuracy. He fell over, and it took the guard on the right a second to realize what had just happened. He opened his mouth to scream, but Ardea was already there, using her spell to send him into a deep unconsciousness.

Cadmus had to admit, he was impressed. While coming here, Candice had been forced to aim at her targets’ throats first before killing them because the portion of the face that was instantly fatal to an attack—the space in the middle of the eyes and the nose—was too small for her to aim at.

Elise had managed to hit that area perfectly, and with no hesitation at that. Although, the fact that she had used a [rock spike] told him that her knowledge in magic might be a little lacking.

They were about to enter the tent, when suddenly, Ardea yelled,

“Dodge!”

She pushed him, and since his physical abilities were worse than average, he instantly lost his balance and fell. As he did so, a light blue projectile the size of a small pebble passed by where his head had just been.

He hit the ground with a ‘thud’, and, feeling a little disoriented, he hastily scrambled back to his feet, turning his head to where the spell had come from.

There he stood, a handsome young man—probably in his twenties—holding up a magic circle. He had spiky black hair, and a faint stubble nestled on his well-defined face. His unusually dark, charcoal-black eyes looked more amused than annoyed at the fact that he had missed.

What was more interesting to Cadmus was the magic circle he was aiming at them. It was immensely complex, and from what Cadmus could tell, it was a water-based spell that would… suck the moisture out of a specific part of the body? At the very least, he could tell that it was a spell designed to incapacitate rather than kill.

Ardea’s yell seemed to have attracted the whole basecamp’s attention, and now, people were pouring out of the tents and assembling behind the handsome man.

Was he their leader?

“Are you… Mr. Praesse?” he asked.

The amusement in the man’s eyes died a sudden death, replaced by a glint of wariness.

“And who was it that told you that name?” He asked, his mouth curving into a frown.

“I wonder.”

He narrowed his eyes, “You… have I met you before? You seem familiar…”

Cadmus raised an eyebrow, “Not to my knowledge.”

The man made a noise of consideration, before turning his gaze to Ardea,

“And you. I’d received reports that you were coming here, but I never expected you to sneak in so boldly.” He glanced at the dead body of the enemy near them, and a hint of sadness crossed his face, “I’d have assigned more guards to reinforce them otherwise.”

“How did you know we were here, Praesse?” Ardea asked coldly.

“And how do you know I’m Praesse?” The man asked.

“You are Praesse,” Ardea said firmly, “I am sure of it.”

Praesse locked eyes with her, and then tilted his head, looking a bit taken aback,

“Huh… you’ve got good instincts, Dragon Princess. Indeed, I am Everett Praesse.” He bowed mockingly, “A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”

His troops chuckled behind him, some of them giving mocking bows of their own.

Cadmus glanced behind. Thankfully, since they were at the edge of the camp, the enemy troops had only assembled behind Everett Praesse. They hadn’t been surrounded.

However, that could easily change, considering the difference in numbers. The enemy had, from the looks of it, about fourty or fifty people, while on their side, they had only four. That kind of gap was nearly impossible to close with skill.

“And we knew you were here because we knew you were coming,” Everett Praesse said, “You didn’t think we’d just given up against you, did you? We’ve been watching you carefully this entire time. Your combat abilities are frankly ridiculous, so we refrained from attacking you, but it’s obvious that you’re far less experienced in stealth. When you snuck into our camp, I stopped our ambush in order to see what you came here for. To think it was just to rescue some of your classmates…”

He smirked at her, and Cadmus got the feeling that there was a lot of anger hidden behind that expression,

“Ah… but you’ve really done a number on my people, haven’t you?”

Ardea tensed her muscles and lowered her centre of gravity,

“And I will do so again.”

“I doubt it.” Everett Praesse said, “I’ve gathered the most skilled of my mages here.” He gestured at the crowd of enemies behind him, who puffed out their chests proudly, “Even someone with your skill will fall. You’re lucky that we won’t aim to kill you.”

Cadmus raised his hand, “May I ask a question?”

Everett Praesse turned to him blankly, and Ardea spared him a glare.

“This isn’t a classroom.” She said, sounding like she was at the end of her rope, “Just ask!”

Cadmus nodded, “Why are you attacking us in the first place? I know you guys need a hostage, but what for?”

Everett Praesse took a moment to consider something. Then he shrugged,

“Well, you’re going to find out anyway, so I’ll just tell you. The Laurucium Academy of Magic contains the greatest treasure trove of knowledge on the continent. We want a few specific books, and we were just going to capture some of you students to use as a ransom to get those books. It wasn’t going to be a violent affair at all, until you guys began fighting back.”

He glared at Ardea in particular, and Ardea gave a frigid stare right back.

Cadmus tilted his head curiously, “So… these dead Academy guards at our feet… killing them doesn’t count as a ‘violent affair’?”

A muscle in Everett Praesse’s face twitched,

“They were… a necessary sacrifice.”

“For the sake of you getting your hands on those books?” Cadmus asked.

“In a sense,” Everett Praesse admitted. He brought up a passionate fist, “But we need those books for a reason! We need to bring peace and prosperity to this nation!”

Cadmus raised an eyebrow.

Everett Praesse gestured at Ardea, “Why don’t you ask your friend there? Her father is a part of the problem after all.”

Cadmus glanced at her, and noticed that her jaw had tightened.

“Enough.” She said finally, “It’s time to fight.”

Everett Praesse sighed, “Why don’t you just give up? There’s no way you can win in this situation. Let’s just end this without any further bloodshed.”

“The only way this will end without bloodshed is if you surrender,” Ardea said. The coldness in her tone seemed to bring the temperature down a few degrees, “I won’t even let you retreat.”

Everett Praesse’s lips curled into a frown,

“Very well then, have it your way. Take them down!”