Cadmus tilted his head curiously at Everett’s words,

"You knew my sister?”

“‘Knew’!?” Everett laughed, “We were the best of friends!”

Then, a shadow of sadness passed across his face,

“Ah… to think I’d be reminded of something so nostalgic today…” he grinned at Cadmus, “That spell of yours, it was too complicated for me to understand, but I definitely saw the formula for [mind-control] in there! I never expected you to know it as well!”

Realization struck Cadmus like a bolt of lightning,

“That’s how you killed the guards… You used [mind-control] on some of them to kill the rest. They never had a chance to fight back, because they never expected an attack from their own comrades. That’s also why you attacked at night—because [mind-control] only works on weak-minded people, and you wanted to wait until they were sleepy and their mental guard was at their lowest.”

Everett nodded, “Yeah, I had to be patient and meticulous to take over their whole basecamp without having them raise the alarm. I thought I could take a few hostages without anyone noticing that way as well, but, well, you guys spotted one of my men and ruined everything.”

Ardea gritted her teeth, “Are you both seriously saying that a spell to control someone’s mind exists!? That’s impossible! If such a spell existed, I would definitely know it!”

Cadmus couldn’t help but find Ardea’s words confusing. What was she talking about? Wasn’t [mind-control] a spell that everyone knew? Ember used to use it all the time on birds and other animals to get them to play with Cadmus when he was young.

How could someone as skilled in magic as Ardea not know this spell?

“Of course you wouldn’t know it, Dragon Princess,” Everett said, shaking his head, “It was a spell designed by your friend’s sister, Ember Guiles.”

Ardea glared at Everett, probably for presuming to call them ‘friends’, and Cadmus’ mind went blank for a second.

…Huh? The [mind-control] spell had been designed by Ember? It wasn’t just a spell that she liked to use?

Everett carefully drew out the magic circle for [mind control], and Ardea’s body tensed in response. He smirked in amusement at her reaction,

“Don’t worry, with how aware you are right now, this spell won’t do anything to you.” He heaved a great sigh, “This spell is the legacy that Ember left behind for us, but… it’s still largely useless for our purposes. I believe it can still be greatly improved.”

He gave Cadmus a look, “Why don’t you join us? Those magic circles behind your back are proof that you’re just as great of a genius in spell creation as Ember was. With your help, we can perfect Ember’s final legacy to the world. We can finish what she was never able to!”

Ardea’s eyes widened, in panic or in surprise, Cadmus didn’t know. And then, she created a magic circle and aimed it at him as well,

“Guiles, if you accept, I will not hesitate to cut you down.”

Cadmus ignored her. He was too lost in his own thoughts. If this was Ember’s final legacy, why had she never told him so? Why had she never acted more proud about this spell of hers?

“The symbol for Dolos is in the wrong place.”

It took a moment for Cadmus to realize that the voice had come from him.

No… not him. From his breast pocket. From Alice.

He slowly looked down at her, and there she was, staring intently at the magic circle that Everett had drawn. Cadmus’ heart dropped into his stomach as he realized what this probably meant.

As Alice’s eyes remained fixed on Everett’s magic circle, her breath shortened, and slowly, she began to look more and more scared,

“I… I recognize the magic circle as well… But, I can tell it’s not the final form. The one he’s drawn is just the base…” She looked up at Cadmus, terror flaring wildly on her face, “I-if your sister created this spell, and only a few people know it, then why do I know it as well? Why do I know that this isn’t the perfected form of the magic circle?”

Cadmus almost flinched as his fists clenched tightly enough to almost draw blood.

Could it be…? When he had created Alice, he had been afraid of this, but thankfully, Alice had never noticed. And Cadmus would rather have kept it a secret forever…

But now…

Everett looked at Alice, an interested look on his face. Cadmus had the feeling that he wasn’t just interested because Alice was a homunculus.

Alice pitifully tugged at his robe,

“H-hey Cadmus. Why—”

“Alice. Not now.”

Cadmus could tell that he was trembling, and he cursed the fact that he’d let more panic leak into his voice than he had intended to. However, his words had done the job, quieting Alice before she could say anything more.

Thanks to her though, Cadmus now had a clearer picture of what had happened between Ember and Everett.

He took a deep breath to calm his frazzled nerves, and locked eyes with Everett, “My sister didn’t fail, did she? She had already perfected the [mind-control] formula while she was alive, but she came to disagree with you in some way, didn’t she? That’s why she never told you what the perfected formula was. That’s why you’re stuck using only the base form.” Then, a thought popped into his head, “That’s why you want hostages, isn’t it? So that you can get the books you need from the Academy to perfect the spell yourself.”

A flash of annoyance flickered across Everett’s face,

“You’re pretty sharp, aren’t you, kid?” He narrowed his eyes at Alice, “But that homunculus…”

Cadmus pushed her down into his breast pocket to shield her from his gaze,

“What is it that you intend to use my sister’s spell for?”

Everett scowled at Cadmus, “Don’t say it like I took advantage of her! We both agreed that this was the best path to take for the nation! And then, without a word of warning, she just left!”

“And what path was this?” Cadmus asked, “What were you and my sister trying to accomplish?”

Everett seemed to think something over.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said finally, “I can tell you’re not going to join us. Not today at least.”

Before Cadmus could say anything in response, Everett raised a decisive hand. Ardea was the first to realize that something was wrong, and immediately fired a [flame dragon] at Everett, but she was a second too late.

Everett’s troops rushed forward, fanatically defending their leader with their bodies. They screamed as they burned to death.

More troops rushed forward, drawing their magic circles, however, Cadmus had already realized what was happening, and used his [dead puppetry] spell on the guards at his feet again. The guards engaged the enemy troops in combat, and Ardea used this chance to have her [flame dragon] crash down against them to kill them all in one fell swoop.

There was a magnificent explosion of flame, and the enemy troops were sent flying in all directions, every single one of them smeared in white-hot fire. They shrieked and cried as they were slowly incinerated.

Most importantly though, Everett had used this chance to disappear into the forest. Finding him now would be near impossible.

Ardea growled in irritation, firing another [flame dragon] right into the sky as Cadmus killed the mana he was feeding to his [dead puppetry] spell, letting the Academy guards drop lifelessly onto the ground again. Cadmus assumed that Ardea did this partly to signal their current position, and partly to vent her frustration at having lost the enemy commander when he had been right in front of their eyes.

Seeing that the coast was clear now, Candice and Elise came running back. They checked to see if Cadmus and Ardea were alright, but otherwise didn’t speak much. Thankfully, they seemed to realize that Cadmus had too much on his mind to hold a proper conversation right now.

Alice looked up at him, waiting for an explanation to her own questions, but Cadmus merely told her,

“Later.”

He pretended not to see the way her face twisted in desperation.

It took maybe thirty minutes for Professor Mackenzie to arrive at their location all by her lonesome (it seemed that most of the Academy guards had been killed at her teaching point as well), but to Cadmus, it felt more like five minutes. He had been submerged so deep in his own thoughts about tonight’s revelations, that he didn’t even notice the time fly by.

She asked them all sorts of questions like “Are you guys alright?”, and “What happened here?” Ardea explained everything, and once she was done, Professor Mackenzie seemed to have trouble in deciding whether to look impressed at what they had accomplished or annoyed at having attempted it in the first place.

She freed the imprisoned students and led them all back to her camp, occasionally shooting Cadmus a few worried looks. He understood why. He had been largely quiet this whole time, too absorbed in his own thoughts to want to say anything right now. Explaining everything would take far more energy than he had right now, so he decided to just let it be.

As they followed after Professor Mackenzie, Ardea came up to him. There was an incredibly displeased frown on her face. She opened her mouth…

And then she closed it, seeming unsure of what to say.

She clenched her fists, and then tried again,

“I suppose… I owe you an apology.”

Her words, so out of character for her, pierced right through his fog of rumination.

“…What?”

Ardea’s scowl deepened, but she didn’t take it back.

“Your sister… I know of her,” she said instead, “She is commonly considered to have been the most talented mage to graduate from the Academy. However, not all of that talent was natural. When you consider the fact that she holds the record for the highest number of points earned in the history of the Academy, you realize that she polished her skill against people just as talented as her. The other students had to earn those points so that your sister could win them by duelling against them after all.”

Cadmus raised an eyebrow, wondering where Ardea was going with this. Ardea ignored him and kept her eyes fixed in front of her.

“My father is a weak king.” Her face darkened, “That’s why there are still small uprisings out in the countryside. That’s why I swore that I would be stronger than him. I swore that I would be stronger than everyone, so that I will one day be worthy enough to rule this country.”

She glanced at Cadmus, “I wish to face powerful opponents to facilitate my growth, just like your sister did. And when I met you and realized that you were a scholarship student, I counted you among those powerful opponents—after all, only the brightest of students are offered a scholarship. However, when you failed to recognize the surname of the ruling family of this kingdom, I deduced that you must have been offered your scholarship by accident.”

She glared ahead, as if recalling a distasteful memory,

“Then, you revealed your homunculus. I did not wish to be mistaken in my initial assessment—I was too prideful to tolerate that. That’s why, I did my best to try and prove that you were indeed disappointing—to prove that you didn’t really deserve your scholarship.” She heaved a great sigh, “However, I cannot deny that I was wrong any longer. My wish is to grow stronger, and yet I was trying to brush you aside, one of the candidates who could help me achieve my wish.”

Cadmus remained silent for a while. Then, he asked,

“Is that why you rejected your scholarship? So that it would go to someone else?”

Ardea nodded, “Correct. There are only a finite number of scholarships that the Academy can offer, and I wanted them to gather as many talented rivals as they could for me.” Her forehead furrowed, “In any case, I apologize for treating you unfairly. That is all.”

She did not wait to see whether he would accept her apology or not, choosing instead to speed up her pace in order to separate away from him. Cadmus watched her go silently. To be honest, he didn’t really care how Ardea had treated him, but if she felt the need to apologize, then who was he to stop her?

The rest of the trip passed in silence.

When they reached Professor Mackenzie’s camp, the first thing Cadmus noticed was how cold it was. The leaves were covered in frost, there were pillars of ice sticking out from everywhere, and the ground was covered in enemy corpses, looking as though most of them had frozen to death.

Oliver had been in this group, and he told Cadmus how Gelida Olvo had single-handedly slaughtered the enemy groups like they were nothing. Professor Mackenzie had apparently been away, and when she had come back, the battle had already been over by then.

The other groups were also here, most of them having been protected by the teachers or Arthur and his friends. All in all, other than a few wounds here and there, their class didn’t suffer a single casualty. Even Professor Carmen made it, looking only mildly injured. Although, by her own admission, she had only utilized delaying tactics against the enemy in order to buy group one more time to escape.

Professor Mackenzie had already sent a messenger pigeon back to the Academy when the enemy attack had been discovered, so they didn’t have to wait long before carriages guarded by a large number of Academy guards soon arrived.

The students were all loaded onto the carriages, many of them looking severely shaken, and they quickly set off to return back to the Academy.

As they rode through the night, Cadmus quickly nodded off, feeling the exhaustion finally catch up to his body.

Cadmus opened his eyes.

He looked around. He was in his house in Benig, which was uncharacteristically clean and decently organized. He could see through the windows that the sun was setting, dousing the world in a coat of brilliant orange.

It took him a moment to realize that this was a dream.

He hadn’t had a dream ever since the Academy’s classes had started, but he knew for sure that this was one because he only ever had one sort of dream. His dreams were always memories—memories containing one specific person.

Ember Guiles passed through him as she made her way to the porch behind the house. A younger version of himself accompanied her, looking as though all was right in the world. And, to him, it had been.

Cadmus followed them and watched as they took a seat on the back porch.

He remembered this day well. This was the last time that Ember had seen the light of the sun. This had been Ember’s last day alive.

Just like he remembered, they talked about all sorts of things, and inevitably—due to his almost desperate interest in it at the time—the topic turned to magic.

“Listen up, Cadmus,” Ember said, grinning, “Magic is miracle given form. Anything you can imagine is possible to achieve with magic!”

He greedily listened to Ember’s voice, like a man dying for thirst finally receiving some water.

As they continued conversing, Cadmus closed his eyes, remembering Everett’s words.

“Don’t say it like I took advantage of her! We both agreed that this was the best path to take for the nation!”

Cadmus’ heart constricted painfully in his chest as he looked down at his beloved sister.

“Hey, Ember… what was it that you were trying so hard to achieve…?” He whispered.

As expected, Ember did not answer him.

Cadmus kept his gaze fixed on her face. Even now, he could remember every single detail. Her long and curly bright red hair, her narrow green eyes, the way she grinned so widely…

Her mere presence had always been enough to make him feel so safe.

A memory came to mind. One day, a short time after moving to Benig, they had missed the weekly market, and unfortunately, they had run out of food a few days later. The entire town had none to spare them, so they had been forced to walk in the dead of the night to the next town over.

He remembered that night well. The moon had been cloaked in clouds, and they only had this tiny little fire spell to light up the path in front of them. There was no one around, just them two. Cadmus hadn’t been able to see two feet in front of him, and yet, he hadn’t felt scared at all.

All because his sister was walking in front of him, looking as though she knew exactly where she was going. Even as a kid, Cadmus knew that, logically, she could only see what he could. But still, he hadn’t felt any fear at all.

And then, when she died…

Something important had been ripped away, leaving a gigantic hole in his heart. His whole world had come crashing down around him, leaving him stranded in that very same darkness, with no light to guide him on his path.

But…

Cadmus had never wondered what Ember had felt that night. Had she been afraid? Or had she perhaps held full confidence in her own abilities?

Cadmus looked back at their house. He had never wondered why they had left Anguis and come to Benig in the first place. He had always just assumed that there was no one wiser than Ember, and that she knew what she was doing.

But now…

“And then, without a word of warning, she just left!”

He looked down at his sister again, who was still talking to the younger version of himself.

“Hey, Ember…” He whispered again, “What was it that you were so afraid of, that you ran all the way here?”

Cadmus waited, and hoped beyond hope…

But of course, Ember did not answer.

He closed his eyes painfully, collapsing on the porch next to her. He felt a deep, hollow sense of pain echoing throughout his body. Of course… of course, it was impossible to ask her now. He was years too late.

…

…

…

“Magic is miracle given form.”

Ember’s voice came like a beacon, louder and clearer than he had ever heard her before. Cadmus slowly turned to her, his eyes wide, but she wasn’t talking to him. She was still talking to the younger version of him. And yet…

“And miracles are always good. However, what is good for some people is not always good for others. The nature of a miracle depends on the person wielding it.”

Cadmus stared at her in a stunned silence. He had never understood why she had said those words back then. But perhaps…

It was time for him to find out.