As soon as the staff member assigned to them had declared that the second round had begun, Elise Auxil had been eager to rush through the forest at full speed in order to find one of the beacon orbs before any other team could get to them. This round was a race, and only the fastest teams would be able to pass—at least, that was the conclusion that Elise had come to after Professor Mackenzie had explained the rules.

Which was why she was confused when Cadmus refused to take off running alongside her. He was just walking after her, as though this was just a pleasant stroll in the woods for him. Elise made her way back to Cadmus and asked,

“What’s wrong? Why’re you going so slow?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t possess the stamina or the skill to navigate through a forest at full speed,” Cadmus said calmly.

Elise frowned, her impatience rising, “But if we don’t hurry, other people will get to the beacon orbs before us! We’ll be disqualified!”

It was annoying. The way Cadmus looked so calm in the face of this challenge was inexplicably annoying to Elise. Here she was, racking her brain, trying desperately to figure out a method to find even a single beacon orb, and yet, there Cadmus stood, looking as unfazed and relaxed as ever.

So why was it that Elise felt that Cadmus had already found the path to victory, even though she was the one putting in all the effort here?

Ardea’s regal face flashed through her mind for a split second, and Elise’s lips pressed into a thin line. Cadmus and Ardea… they were so different, and yet so alike…

Cadmus said, “We need to find an animal—any animal.”

“…Sorry?” Elise asked, confused at the bizarre statement.

“Once we find an animal, we’ll know where to go next,” Cadmus explained, “Do you have any experience in hunting or tracking?”

“A little…” Elise said, still confused.

“Then you lead,” Cadmus said, “I apologize, but I am woefully inexperienced in these sorts of matters.”

Elise silently stepped forward, her mind still trying to puzzle out what Cadmus intended to do as she started scouring the forest ground for any signs or tracks of any animals that had passed by recently. When she found none, she turned her eyes up to the trees.

There were no recent tracks in the area, so the pair began slowly walking forward, with Elise leading as Cadmus had said. The annoyance she had been feeling just a moment ago had been replaced by abject confusion and curiosity. And, Elise had to admit, it felt nice to be relied upon.

With her mind now far clearer than before, Elise felt a small kernel of shame lodge itself inside her throat.

“I’m… sorry,” she said after a while.

She did not look back at him, but when he spoke, he sounded rather confused,

“For what?”

“I know that you have preferred to team up with Vinari,” Elise said, “It was my selfish request that lost you that chance.”

“I don’t particularly mind partnering up with you—or anyone else really,” Cadmus said, and instead of sounding like he was just trying to wave her apology away, it genuinely sounded as though he was simply trying to clear up a misunderstanding, “As long as they help me pass this round, I would be willing to partner up with anyone. Rather, I believe you owe Oliver that apology.”

This time Elise did turn back to face him, allowing her puzzlement to colour her features.

“I’ve noticed that Oliver seems to have trouble interacting with people whose names hold some renown,” Cadmus explained, “Having paired up with Ardea Regis… I imagine he’s not having a very pleasant time right about now.”

Ipsum forest was wild and untamed, a pain to navigate through, but it was beautiful to look at. Tall trees towered overhead, their lush green leaves allowing only select rays of sunlight through, and their sturdy wooden trunks of solid brown wedged deeply into the dirt underneath. The ground itself was covered in a layer of soft green grass, and flooding it were plants and shrubbery of equally vibrant green.

Indeed, it was a sight many would appreciate to see.

Too bad Oliver was too nervous to really take in any of this. He was following behind Ardea, who hadn’t said a single word as soon as the round had started. Yes, the silence was uncomfortable to Oliver, but what was even more uncomfortable was the way Ardea moved. She was skillfully making her way through the rough tangle of plants and bushes that swamped the forest, but there was a sharpness to her movements that betrayed her anger.

Having had enough of the oppressive silence, Oliver took a moment to wipe the sweat from the palms of his hands (along with some dirt) by rubbing against the soft material of his school robes before speaking.

“U-um… Ms. Regis? Where exactly are we going?”

Ardea stopped—which was a relief because Oliver was already getting tired from this ridiculous pace of movement—and turned back to look at him. Oliver flinched, there was a rage in Ardea’s red eyes which immediately made him want to leap for cover.

“Are you deaf, Vinari?” Ardea barked, “Or are you simply incapable of using that head of yours for anything other than speaking?”

Oliver privately wondered whether she was insulting his intelligence or his inability to hear whatever she wanted him to hear. He daren’t voice that question though, he’d had enough of her ire for a lifetime. Instead, he chose to close his eyes and focus on all the sounds he could hear.

There was his own panting, a bunch of bird songs, the buzzing of insects, and…

“Rushing water?”

Ardea nodded, the severity on her face not letting up a single bit, “Exactly. There is a river nearby. We can use water spells to procure drinkable water, but food is another matter. There are animals in this forest we can hunt, but catching fish would be a far easier venture. Besides, it is best not to consume too much water created from spells. It is known that doing so may cause someone to become sick.”

Then, without waiting for a response, Ardea continued moving forward. Oliver suppressed a groan. Hopefully, the river was close, he wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to last at this pace.

It took approximately twenty minutes of searching around, during which time Cadmus felt he did very well to resist his urge to complain impatiently, before Elise found something.

“Fur…” she said, peeling a small orange clump of fur from the bark of a tree, “Looks like… a tiger’s—”

“There are tigers here?” Alice exclaimed.

“—Or a fox’s,” she turned back towards Cadmus, “I think it’s most likely a fox, but I’m sorry, I’m not too experienced at this so I can’t be sure. Will either of those do?”

Cadmus nodded, “Yes. Which way did it go?”

Elise kneeled and closely inspected the ground. Then, she turned right and started moving very slowly.

“I know that you’ve defeated Randall Crawford, and I know that you helped Her Highness against Everett Praesse in Lorem forest, but if we’re going to be facing a tiger, I need to know: are you skilled in combat when you have no bluff or dead bodies to work with?”

Cadmus glanced down at the steel arming sword hanging from his waist.

“…No.”

Elise looked back up at Cadmus, her face showing clear signs of hesitation at pursuing Cadmus’ plan,

“Then—”

“But that doesn’t matter, does it?” Cadmus asked, “You’re a scholarship student as well, are you not? And you handled yourself well enough in Lorem forest.”

A muscle jumped in Elise’s jaw, and she turned to look at the ground again,

“Yes, of course.”

They continued on, slowly, unsurely, and silently. Their rather peaceful silence was only broken by occasional grunts of exertion, and moments when Elise had to stop because she had made a mistake and had to backtrack a bit.

Then, after a while, Alice asked,

“Hey, Elise, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why did you decide to partner up with us instead of Ardea? I mean, aren’t you guys best friends?”

Elise did not answer, and if Cadmus hadn’t seen her freeze for a split second before continuing as though nobody had said anything, he would have thought that maybe she simply didn’t hear Alice’s question over the sounds of the forest—it was rather noisy for some reason, what with the bird songs, distant howling, buzzing of insects, and all the greenery they were trampling underneath their boots.

Alice must have seen it too, because she did not repeat her question.

And so they continued just like that, with no one attempting to strike up a conversation again. Cadmus found that it was rather nice. It gave him time to think.

The sun was setting now, and Oliver’s stomach groaned as he watched Ardea speared a fish on a wooden branch and cooked it over the fire she had set up. Yes, he was rather hungry, he had not eaten a single thing today after all, but the groan had also been caused by anxiety. He had failed to contribute at all to Ardea’s efforts, and now the anger that had been inside her all day seemed as though it was aimed at him for being so useless.

He glanced at the small pile of fish beside her. She had been the one to expertly catch those with her magic, and, despite his rather ravenous state of hunger, he did not dare to ask whether she would be willing to share. She already looked as though she would eviscerate him if he made a single clumsy move.

“What?” Ardea said, sounding impatient as she met his eyes, “I know that you are useless, but I thought that you were at least capable of some things. Do I have to do everything myself?”

Oliver winced. She wasn’t exactly wrong, he had proved himself to be fairly useless today—

“Here.”

His thoughts were interrupted when Ardea tossed a fish and another branch at him.

“Cook this yourself,” Ardea said, “I will not cook it for you.”

Oliver stared at the fish, dumbfounded. He had thought that she wouldn’t allow him anywhere near her supply of food, seeing how he had done nothing to earn it.

He looked back up at her,

“U-um, thanks…”

Ardea ignored him.

The sun had almost completely set by now, and Elise was still following the animal tracks they had found. Cadmus thought he had seen a few flashes of orange among the leaves, but other than that, they had not seen a single animal at all.

“This is taking too long,” he said.

This time, he wasn’t just complaining. Something odd was going on here.

“You said you were inexperienced at this, so if the tiger or fox was so far away, and the tracks were so old, how could you follow them so well?”

Elise looked frustrated, “I… I don’t understand either. The tracks were recent, so I don’t know why we haven’t gotten to it yet.”

Cadmus glanced up at the rapidly darkening sky.

“Let’s stop. If we don’t find a place to rest now, we’ll be forced to choose between wandering in the dark, or constantly expending our mana in order to see where we’re going.”

“But the tracks—”

“We’ll find other tracks tomorrow,” Cadmus said, “When we can see.”

Elise glanced at the trail they were following before sighing and standing up.

“I suppose you’re right…”

“We’ll also need food if we want to keep our energy up,” Cadmus said, “Since we can’t seem to find any animals, berries and mushrooms will have to do.”

“Do you know how to recognize which berries and mushrooms are poisonous?” Elise asked.

Cadmus shook his head, “Not at all. Do you?”

“I know a little bit.”

“Then you’ll search for food,” Cadmus said, “Meanwhile, I’ll gather the firewood. Even I can do something as simple as that.”

Elise wasn’t sure what to think of Cadmus. He always seemed like he knew what he was doing, but there was so much that he simply could not do. He decided their team’s course of action today, but Elise had been the one to do most of the work.

Was this really the same person who had created a homunculus? Was this really the same person that Ardea held in such high regard? If Elise couldn’t see Alice avidly watching the roaring flames and the mushrooms cooking in their wooden skewers right now, she would have never believed it. In fact, even though she could see Alice right there, it was still hard to believe that Cadmus had been the one to create her.

“What do you plan to do once we find an animal?” Elise asked, rotating her mushroom skewer so that it was cooked evenly.

“We’ll ask it for directions to the nearest beacon orb,” Cadmus answered.

Elise blinked. She tried to find some sign that indicated that Cadmus was joking, but no, it seemed that he was actually serious.

“I-is that right…?”

Cadmus glanced at her, “We have five days, so if we can’t find an animal tomorrow, I will follow your plan. Although, in the first place, your plan was to simply wander around searching for a beacon orb anyway, so we’re already partly following your plan.”

Elise bristled, “My plan was to search the forest quickly, not to just wander around while walking!”

Cadmus nodded, “Understood. If we can’t find an animal tomorrow, then we will speed up and move as you wish.”

Elise narrowed her eyes, “…You seem confident that won’t happen.”

Cadmus smiled politely, “I suppose I am. Though we were not able to find an animal today, I’m sure I’ll be able to figure out why before tomorrow ends at the latest.”

There it was again: That immense confidence in himself. Elise wondered, why did Cadmus always look like he knew that he’d be able to solve whatever came his way? Why did he seem to hold the same assuredness as Ardea, despite being capable of so much less?

“We’ll see,” Elise said doubtfully.

“Vinari, wake up!”

As far as mornings went, Oliver had woken up to far better tones than Ardea’s harsh call. Perhaps some portion of his complaint had shown on his face, because Ardea said next,

“I have no time to baby you like a child. Go wash your face in the river so that we can get moving already.”

Oliver groggily opened his eyes and stumbled to the river. He winced as he splashed the cool water onto his face, wondering why Ardea sounded so annoyed. Yes, he hadn’t woken up early enough, but that was only natural, wasn’t it? They had taken shifts last night to keep watch, and so Oliver’s internal biological clock had gotten all messed up. Plus, sleeping against a tree was way different than sleeping on a normal bed. It was uncomfortable as hell!

Besides, Ardea had had an advantage. It was already her turn to keep watch when it was time to wake up, so she had already been awake!

“Vinari, hurry up!”

Oliver cut the rant in his head short and, after wiping his face on his clothes, jogged back to Ardea.

“Wh-where are we going now?”

“We’re going to be searching areas where it looks like a beacon orb might be hidden. For instance, caves or manmade structures. I doubt that the organizers of this tournament simply scattered the beacon orbs wherever. Keep your eyes peeled, and try not to disappoint me too much.”

Oliver nodded silently. There was no way in hell he was going to say anything. Ardea still seemed to be in a bad mood, and he suspected that agreeing with her was the only way he was going to get through this unscathed.

Elise glared at the tracks in front of her. Once she and Cadmus had woken up, it hadn’t taken her long to find some more orange fur (Elise idly wondered whether there was a fox burrow or tiger den nearby or something). They had proceeded to follow the tracks left behind by this animal for the better part of the morning, but just like yesterday, they had failed to encounter a single animal for some reason.

She would have complained about how this was a waste of time—because she really did think it was—but she couldn’t deny the fact that she was the one who was tracking this animal. It was strange that they hadn’t found it yet, but she worried that perhaps the responsibility lay with her and her lack of skill in this area.

So, some part of her pride simply refused to give up until the very end.

“I don’t understand…” Elise heard Alice say, “This is a forest. We should have encountered at least one animal by now…”

“It is strange…” Cadmus agreed.

“Maybe we can lure one of the birds to us?” Alice suggested, “I mean, they’re probably up there in the trees somewhere. We keep hearing their chirping after all.”

“Yes, but even they seem to run away as soon as we get even remotely close…” He trailed off, as though he had realized something, “Oh… I see. I understand now.”

Elise turned to look at him, “Understand what—”

Elise abruptly stopped speaking when, suddenly, she spotted a flash of green from the corner of her eye, and her instincts flared, causing her to tackle Cadmus to the ground. Good thing she had too, because the flash of green turned out to be a series of thick vines that burrowed deep into the ground where they had just been standing.

Had they been pierced by that, it would have surely ended their participation in this tournament here and now.

“Ow…” Elise heard Cadmus groan as they both got to their feet.

She looked towards where the vines had come from, and two people walked out from within the thicket of trees. One of them was a boy with a bowl cut and brown eyes, while the other was a girl with a pixie cut and similarly brown eyes. Both of them were cloaked in the telltale maroon robes of the Institute.

“Oh ho,” the boy with the bowl cut laughed smugly, “So this is the famed Necromancer? I’m not impressed.”

The girl with the pixie cut nodded, “Yeah, you had to get your butt saved by your partner! You’re definitely not a worthy rival for Mark!”

Cadmus raised an eyebrow, “Do either of you have any business with me?”

The boy with the bowl cut nodded with a sneer on his face, “We do. I’m Zane Brycen, and this is Tanya Louise. We’re friends of Mark, and we’ll be taking you down here and now for what you did to him.”

“…Are you really his friends?” Cadmus asked doubtfully, “I’ve seen neither of you beside him even once, and he chose to partner up with Gale Holland pretty quickly.”

“I will be his friend one day, ok!?” Zane said, “It’s just a matter of time!”

“And, I will be his girlfriend!” Tanya chimed in, “Especially once we defeat you!”

And, for the first time since this round had started, Elise felt that Cadmus and her were in sync: the both of them blinking as one at this strange duo’s sentiments.

“I’m… quite sure that Tempor won’t be happy with your actions,” Cadmus said, “He himself told me that he wishes to personally defeat me in the third round.”

Zane and Tanya shared an unsure look before their expressions hardened again, and Tanya spoke,

“Even if what you’re saying is true, I’m sure that he’ll be happy to hear that we already defeated you in the second round! He’ll understand that if you couldn’t even get past us, then there’s no way you would have been a worthy opponent for him!”

Cadmus looked horribly confused, “…What?”

Elise could sympathize.

Zane growled impatiently, “Urgh! Just fall before us! We’ll deal with the rest!”

Zane and Tanya looked ready to attack, so Elise sprung into action first. Her fingers moved deftly, and she had already created a magic circle for [fireball] before the duo could even take aim with their own magic circles.

However, Elise failed to fire a shot before a thick tangle of vines struck at Cadmus and her, forcing them to split up and dodge. Elise gracefully created some distance with a few leaps, but Cadmus was barely able to escape injury by clumsily scrambling back.

Zane chose to point his magic circle at Cadmus, and the vines obediently followed his direction. Seeing this, Elise took aim at Zane, and discharged a few [fireballs] his way. No matter what the spell, if the circle was broken, the spell would fail as well.

Unfortunately, their team seemed to have anticipated this tactic, because Tanya pointed her own circle in front of Zane, and her tangle of vines quickly snaked there, shielding him from the barrage of [fireballs].

Probably seeing that Elise was the greater threat right now, Zane turned to her and shot her a smug smirk,

“Attack and defense! We have two people, so we can cover both bases!”

Elise felt the need to protest, “But the fire—!”

“We didn’t create these vines from magic, but we sure as hell bolstered them with it!” Zane said, commanding his vines to strike at her, “Ha! We really got lucky when it turned out that the second round would take place in a forest! This is where we shine!”

Elise pirouetted away from the attack, and fired a few [fireballs] at the vines at point-blank range. She leaped back as her attacks struck, feeling no desire to be burned by her own spell.

However, once again, the [fireballs] didn’t even leave a mark on the vines.

“Fire won’t work on our spell!” Zane laughed, “There’s a reason that Merlin is known to use spells like these as well!”

Elise had heard that Merlin used a lot of magic that involved nature, but she quite doubted that the legendary mage’s spells were as small scale as this.

Still… Elise didn’t know how to stop these vines. She could already tell that creating a magic blade to cut them would be suicide simply due to the sheer number of them coming after her, and fire, the enemy of all plant life didn’t work against them either.

She racked her brain, trying to think of a projectile spell that could function as a ranged magic blade, but before she could come up with anything, the tangle of vines closed in for another assault, and Elise once again twirled around it. This time though, Zane had grown wiser, because one of the vines suddenly branched off and wrapped around her left wrist, finally grabbing a hold of her.

Elise tried pulling her arm free, but no matter she tugged, she couldn’t pull away!

Zane’s smirk widened, “Got you~”

He cocked his arm to make a motion to finish the job, but before he could, Cadmus’ voice rang out,

“How strange. I thought it was me you were after.”

Zane froze and glanced over at Cadmus, with Elise following suit. Having been left alone—even if for just a few seconds—Cadmus had taken full advantage of the opportunity and had drawn a complex-looking magic circle of his own.

“And what are you going to do with that circle?” Zane asked, “Our defense is still here, you know?”

Tanya brought up her own tangle of vines in front of Zane to prove his point.

Cadmus didn’t look fazed, “Do you really think that the magic of someone whose fame surpasses even Tempor’s would be so weak? Such a pathetic bundle of greenery won’t be able to stop my attack. Nor will you be able to dodge it.”

Zane’s face twisted in alarm, and, with a jerking motion, he called all his vines—save one—back to augment Tanya’s defense. He did, however, refuse to let go of Elise, and made sure to keep the vine that had caught her still wrapped around her arm.

Elise wondered, would Cadmus’ spell be able to reach Zane and Tanya now that they had shored up their defense? In the first place, why had he called out to them instead of simply attacking with his spell when he had the chance? Was he that confident in this ‘undodgeable’ spell of his?

Cadmus’ circle glowed bright, and then, a geyser of white mist erupted from it. Elise narrowed her eyes in puzzlement, was this… some kind of poison attack? It certainly didn’t look poisonous, but Elise held her breath just in case.

She thought she saw Zane and Tanya look just as confused as her, but the mist filled the area so quickly, flooding the visibility there in a veil of such heavy white, that she simply couldn’t make sure.

Suddenly, Cadmus was right in front of her, his arming sword unsheathed and in his hand. He took a look at her still-trapped left wrist and clicked his tongue in annoyance, before swinging his blade with all his might and cutting it off.

Elise was confused, “Wha—”

Cadmus put a hand on her mouth, stopping her from speaking. Then, he pressed a finger to his own lips in a silent ‘shushing’ motion. Understanding what he meant, Elise kept her mouth shut.

“Damn it! He got us!” Zane yelled as Cadmus took Elise’s hand and pulled her along in a light jog. Elise heard the sound of vines writhing around, and one of them stabbed the ground right near Cadmus and her. Thankfully though, none of the vines found them.

As they got further and further from their enemies, Elise heard Tanya ask,

“Wh-what happened?”

“It’s a trick!” Zane’s voice was far now, and Elise could barely hear the echoes of his words, “They’re running away!”

Soon enough, Zane and Tanya’s anger-filled cries faded away, and Elise and Cadmus exited the cover of the mist. However, they did not dare stop jogging until a few minutes later when Cadmus stopped to lean against a tree, panting far more heavily than he should have been from having jogged for such a short amount of time.

Fortunately, they had actually put some decent distance between them and their enemies, but Elise felt that this still wasn’t far enough. Cadmus must have felt the same, because he soon began walking again. And Elise could tell from his gait that it wasn’t a relaxed walk.

Elise tried hard to catch some hint of Zane or Tanya’s voice, and when she couldn’t, she finally felt comfortable enough to speak again,

“Guiles, that spell…”

“A harmless spell that submerges an area in mist in order to reduce visibility,” Cadmus said, confirming her suspicion, “We had to retreat. We simply don’t have a method to combat those vines right now.”

“And that lie…” Elise said, “You told Zane that your spell was undodgeable and could break through Tanya’s vines because you wanted him to call back his vines near me, right? You did that so that you could cut me free without him instantly realizing what was going on and using the rest of his vines to defeat you too.”

“I had hoped that he would let you go as well,” Cadmus said, “After all, I wasn’t sure if cutting those vines with a sword would work either. But yes, that was my next best hope.”

Realizing that he was still holding said sword, Cadmus resheathed it into the scabbard hanging from his waist. In some distant corner of her mind, Elise noticed that it was a clumsy resheathing, taking him several tries to align the tip of the blade perfectly to the entryway of the scabbard.

Elise opened her mouth, to thank him or apologize for thinking badly of him, she didn’t know. But it didn’t matter anyway, because no sound came out. Seeing that her voice was not working anymore, Elise closed her mouth.

Once again, her view of Cadmus Guiles had been thrown for a loop. For someone who was so incapable of doing so many things, he sure seemed to show an amazing degree of competence in rare, select situations.

“Let’s not stand around doing nothing,” Cadmus said, “Now that we’ve lost our pursuers, can you please search for more animal tracks?”

Elise frowned, “But—”

“Don’t worry,” Cadmus said, “I’ve figured it out. I’ve figured out why we haven’t found any animals, and how to find one quickly.”

Elise raised a curious eyebrow.