“It’s sound,” Cadmus explained as Elise scoured the forest ground.

Finding more animal tracks would take some time, at least that’s what it seemed like to Elise, judging from the previous two times. Still, because of those previous two times, she was now sure of what she was looking for, so, hopefully, that would speed up the process.

“Sound?” Elise asked almost absentmindedly, doing her best to keep her focus fixed on her task.

“Yes,” Cadmus said, “I’ve been trying to figure out why we haven’t seen a single animal since yesterday, and the answer I’ve arrived at is sound.”

Elise frowned and stood up to face Cadmus, “I… don’t think you’re right. I know that sound frightens animals, but we would have still at least caught a glimpse of an animal or two before they ran away. It’s a good guess, but…”

Cadmus did not look discouraged at all, “No, it is sound. I considered it yesterday and discarded it as well. But, when I couldn’t think of any other answer, I revisited it, and then I finally understood. It’s not just about the animals. Think carefully about where we are right now.”

“…Ipsum forest?” Elise guessed unsurely, not knowing what he wanted to hear from her.

Thankfully, he nodded, “Exactly. We’re in Ipsum forest—a place where, according to Professor Mackenzie, the garrisons in Anguis and the Royal Guard come to train for forest engagement.”

Elise still felt confused, “…So?”

“Laurucium is a militaristic nation, and I imagine that the Royal Guard is supposed to be the best of the best, especially considering the fact that, you know, their primary purpose is to protect the Royal family.”

“Your guess is right,” Elise confirmed. She had served as the princess of Laurucium’s retainer for several years now, so she knew the military structure of Laurucium well.

Cadmus nodded again, this time in what seemed like satisfaction, “Taking all of this into account, I’d wager that the training here doesn’t simply consist of drills. A lot of practical training must take place here as well, similar to the way we’re competing in this tournament with all our abilities. To make matters worse, this is a rather small forest…”

He looked at her expectantly, like Ardea did when she expected Elise to fill in the remaining blank spaces on her own. As though they had already given her enough information, as though her mind could make the jump that theirs had.

Elise opened her mouth, trying desperately to think of the answer Cadmus had arrived at, but Cadmus seemed to realize that Elise did not know the answer and spoke first,

“Professional soldiers and mages fight against each other here all the time. That means that the wildlife here probably tends to get caught in the crossfire. My guess is that the animals in this forest have learned to run away from humans at the slightest hint of our presence. And, since we’ve been making so much noise by walking over all these plants, I bet the animals hear us coming and follow that instinct, causing us to never encounter even a single one.”

Elise stared at Cadmus, dumbfounded. There had been barely any hints, the pressure of the second round had been bearing down on them, and he had allowed himself only a single day…

And yet, he had pieced together the answer shrouded in fog.

“B-but, that still doesn’t explain how we’re going to find an animal!” Elise protested, “Even if we knew how to suppress the sound we’re making, they can still locate us by our scent and—”

“I told you, didn’t I?” Cadmus said, “The answer is sound. Not only to how the animals are finding us, but also to how we’re going to find one.”

“We’re… going to be locating them through sound?” Elise asked unsurely.

Tracking animals through sound… that was a complex skill that Elise had certainly never learned. Cadmus didn’t seem like the type to know it either, but… after everything Elise had seen from him, she wasn’t willing to disregard the possibility that he had somehow learned it before for whatever reason.

Cadmus shook his head, “No, once you find some tracks, we’ll be calling an animal to us.”

Elise furrowed her brow, “…What?”

Cadmus blinked, “Oh right, I never told you, did I? When I created Alice, I implanted the ability to speak to beasts and monsters in her head. Once we find the tracks, we’ll have Alice call out to them, to lure them to us. If they’re keen-eared enough to run away from us, then they’re certainly keen-eared enough to hear our calls.”

Elise felt a blank sense of tiredness infiltrate her body. The homunculus even possessed an ability like that…? How impressive…

No, Elise corrected herself, it wasn’t the homunculus that was impressive, it was Cadmus Guiles. He was the one who had implanted the ability to speak with beasts and monsters in the homunculus’ head. And, he was the one who had figured out why they hadn’t been able to find an animal until now.

Ardea’s face flashed through her mind again, and Elise closed her eyes, pressing on her forehead to stave off the sudden sense of weakness that had assaulted her.

Why were they all so…?

“Are you alright?” Cadmus asked.

Elise cracked her eyes open and saw that Cadmus was looking at her curiously. Alice was staring at her as well, looking more worried than anything.

“I’m fine,” she said, the smile she gave them to assure them probably coming off more as a grimace.

She turned her back them and knelt again,

“Let’s just hurry up and find those tracks.”

Ardea and Vinari had spent the better part of the day searching for any manmade structures or caves—as was their current course of action—but Ardea had already been in a foul mood from the start, so by the time the sixth hour passed, her tension was running at an all-time high.

She swore, if Vinari made another clumsy movement, she was going to—

Luckily for Vinari, right just then, Ardea spotted a hint of grey through the thicket of trees in front of them. Without another word, she took off, easily maneuvering her way around the dense shrubbery that guarded the way forward.

“W-wait!” She heard Vinari yell from behind her.

But Ardea did not stop. A hint of victory—finally! Why on Earth would she stop? Besides, she was moving in a straight line anyway, so she was sure that Vinari wouldn’t lose her. Even he wasn’t that stupid.

She emerged from the copse of trees, and bore witness to the sight that she was correct. The grey she had spotted had indeed been the grey of stonework. Specifically, stonework belonging to the large pyramidical structure in front of her.

It had an eerie sort of feel to it, and it seemed to be an abandoned temple of some sort, with vines and moss growing everywhere as chunks of the structure itself had already fallen apart. But, honestly, Ardea couldn’t care less about any of that. Dilapidated or not, if she could find a beacon orb in there, she would be satisfied.

Vinari finally caught up to her, panting heavily as though he had just run a marathon.

“M-Ms. Regis! You just suddenly started running! Wh-what—”

His mouth abruptly clicked shut when he noticed the temple in front of them. Finally, Ardea couldn’t help but think, honestly, this was the person that Guiles chose to spend most of his time with?

“Let’s go,” Ardea said shortly. It was already the second day of the round. If someone more competent, like Elise, had been her partner, then they would have already found a beacon orb and returned by now.

At the thought of Elise, Ardea’s features twisted into a scowl. It was no use thinking about her aide. She had made it clear that she preferred the company of people other than her. Ardea would make do with Vinari.

Besides, it was ungraceful of her to complain about Vinari being her partner. She had been the one to command him to join her after all.

Ardea silently entered the main entrance of the temple, with Vinari carefully following behind. What awaited them was a long corridor. It was dusty, and the flooring was cracked and broken. However, strangely, the torches hanging from the walls were lit.

And that’s when Ardea looked down, her keen eyes easily picking up among the disturbed dust—

“Footsteps.”

“So someone’s been here?” Vinari asked.

Ardea nodded, “Yes. Recently. They may still be inside even.”

The pair cautiously made their way forward, with Ardea having given up hope of making Vinari walk a little quieter. As the two ventured deeper, they came across various interesting things, such as broken magic circles on the walls, spikes sticking out of the ground, a few pitfalls, and more.

Vinari looked at them curiously as they passed, “Are these…?”

“Traps. Yes.” Ardea said, “And it seems that the team who came before has already cleared all of them.”

Vinari grimaced, “If there’s really beacon orb in here, then this team has already gotten to it, haven’t they?”

“Yes,” Ardea said, “Prepare for a fight.”

Vinari gulped, and they continued walking down the torch-lit corridor. They were presented with turns and twists, but unlike the labyrinth in the first round, there were no branching paths. This was good as Ardea knew that they were going the right way then, and if the enemy team tried to exit, they would undoubtedly come across each other.

Soon, as they made another turn, faint voices reached Ardea’s ears. She put a hand on Vinari’s chest to stop him from blundering forward and giving away their position, then motioned for him to be quiet.

Vinari looked confused, but Ardea ignored him for the moment. She tried to strain her ears in an attempt to decipher what the voices were saying, but they were still faint, so she put that off for later.

“A pair… no, two pairs,” Ardea explained to Vinari in hushed whispers, “There are four people ahead.”

They crept forward, slowly but steadily, and stopped just short of an entryway in front of them which seemed to lead into a large chamber. Thankfully, there were also a few column-like protrusions on the sides of the corridor, so they could hide there and sneak a glance inside.

As Ardea had suspected, there were four people inside: one girl and three boys. Two of the boys were large and heavy, with features like gorillas, while the other boy was the complete opposite, looking lean, almost stick-like. The girl, on the other hand, was very short. If her face didn’t have a mature tint to it, Ardea would have guessed that she was a child of eleven or twelve.

They were all huddled around a smooth-looking glass ball. The periodic pulsing of bright blue light from it clearly identified it as a beacon orb.

“Wh-what are we going to do?” Vinari asked nervously, limiting his voice to a single breath.

It was a good question, because Ardea wasn’t sure of the answer herself. Her first instinct was to simply attack and take the beacon orb, but these people outnumbered her and Vinari, and judging by the fact that they had managed to bypass all the traps here, they clearly possessed some degree of skill.

To make matters worse, Ardea doubted that Vinari would be of any help here, meaning she would have to face them alone.

That wasn’t really a problem, she had been in plenty of battles where she had to face enemies who outnumbered her by a significant margin, but in this case, she simply wasn’t sure what their aggregate skill level was.

She could take that risk, of course. She had done so plenty of times before.

But…

Rex Optime’s face flashed through her mind.

…She had no intention of doing so unless she absolutely had to.

“Anthony Kayden, Hewie Dacre, Trey Kimball, and Bethany Mckenna,” Vinari said suddenly.

Ardea blinked. While she had been immersed in her thoughts, Vinari had poked his head out and snuck a quick peek at their opponents.

“…Do you know them?” She asked.

Vinari grinned sheepishly, “Nah, I just ramped up my research on the Institute students once I decided to join the tournament. The good news is that I know what they can do, the bad news is the fact that I know what they can do.”

Ardea glared at him, “Explain.”

Vinari flinched under the weight of her impatience and dispensed with his meandering, “E-er, the Institute is all the way over on the continent of Gaia, so I don’t know much about most of their students. The fact that I know these guys’ names and what they can do means that they’re skilled enough to be included enough in my research.”

Ardea stared at Vinari for a few seconds.

“Tell me what you know then.”

When Elise spotted the small paw print on the dirt, she thought for a second that her mind was playing tricks on her, exhausted from the task of trying to find animal tracks for so long. But then she blinked and peered closer, and sure enough, it was still there.

Thus, she finally allowed her body to relax, and announced,

“Found it. It’s here.”

Cadmus knelt to her level and followed her gaze.

“So it is,” he said, “What would you bet on it being, a fox or a tiger?”

Elise gave it some thought. The paw print was too small to belong to a fully-grown tiger, but it could still belong to a tiger cub. On the other hand, a fox would fit these prints perfectly (probably). If she had to choose one, she would probably guess:

“A fox.”

Cadmus nodded. Then, he looked down at Alice,

“We’ll go with fox, Alice. If nothing happens after a while, we’ll try tiger as well.”

Alice gave him a playful salute, “Roger!”

She began drawing a magic circle, and, curious, Elise raised an eyebrow at Cadmus.

Cadmus noticed her expression and explained, “Alice knows how to communicate with any animal, but she only possesses human vocal cords. So, she’ll be using a magic circle to help her make the same sounds that foxes make. The hard part comes after.”

Once again, Elise found herself curious, but Alice had finished her magic circle by now, and Cadmus motioned for Elise to be quiet.

“Alice will try calling a fox, but if we make too much noise, it may be scared away,” Cadmus whispered, “Let’s just stay silent and watch for now.”

“Sh-shouldn’t we hide then?” Elise asked.

Cadmus shook his head, “No, it probably already knows we’re here anyway, and even if it doesn’t, it’ll smell us once it gets closer. Our best option is to simply not be too loud or make any sudden moves.”

Elise supposed that made sense and closed her mouth with a click. Seeing that she had no more questions, Cadmus gave Alice a nod.

Alice, in turn, made a strange howling sound, which was almost instantaneously transformed by the glowing magic circle into a more natural howl that one might expect to hear from an animal. It was like hearing an echo, but a really quick one. Alice made a sound, and a similar yet different-sounding sound carried through.

She kept repeating her howls, and Elise waited with bated breath. Cadmus, on the other hand, had only tilted his head like a child curious to see what would happen next. Elise didn’t understand how he could be so calm right now. The whole plan had been Cadmus’ idea, so if it failed, the responsibility would lay with Cadmus as well. If Elise had been in his position, she would have been panicking to no end.

Some deep, ugly part of Elise actually maybe wanted this whole endeavour to fail. For some reason, Cadmus’ calm in the face of… everything really, was somehow a little annoying.

Elise bit down on the inside of her cheek and squashed her dark thoughts. It was no good thinking that way. If this plan failed, then they would lose two days for nothing. In a round consisting of only five days, two days could easily lead to their defeat.

Thankfully, after approximately ten to fifteen minutes, a fox slinked out from within the shrubbery in front of them. It had bright orange fur and a white underside that vividly stood out against the greenery all around it, and though Elise didn’t have the ability to communicate with it, even she could tell that it was eyeing the three of them with a healthy amount of caution.

Elise’s lips stretched into a smile. She had been right. She had been right! The tracks had belonged to a fox!

Alice paused for a few seconds at the sight of the fox, before Cadmus gave her a slow nod. She nodded back and proceeded to produce a few whines that her magic circle made more animalistic. The fox gave her a stare that seemed almost curious or stupefied, but it did not respond verbally.

Alice winced and seemed to struggle in thought for a bit before giving a few more unsure barks. Once again though, the fox simply stared.

Elise slowly leaned in closer towards Cadmus and whispered,

“Wh-what’s happening?”

The fox’s eyes snapped to her, and Elise felt a rush of guilt as she froze. She should have remained quiet, she should have just left her questions for later…

The fox kept its gaze fixed on her still form, as though evaluating her, and then, slowly, its eyes shifted back to Alice.

Cadmus must have felt that it was okay to talk now, because he cautiously whispered back,

“Foxes don’t just communicate through sound, they also communicate through body language and scent. Of course, Alice can’t utilize any of these, so she’s limited in what she can say to it. She can understand the fox better than the fox can understand her.”

The fox spared Cadmus a glance, but it was a far cry from the sharp gaze it had assaulted Elise with. It seemed that the fox had grown used to their talking.

“What is she saying then?” Elise asked.

“I can’t understand her either, so I can’t be sure, but I’d wager something along the lines of ‘help’.”

Elise listened closely, and indeed, Alice’s whines and barks did sound a little… distressed. If she had heard those sounds coming from an animal, she would have been led to believe that the animal was probably injured.

The fox suddenly lowered its body to the ground, looking ready to pounce, and it shot her and Cadmus a sharp look before fixing its gaze on Alice again. Then, it let loose a series of short growls, almost as if asking whether they were the reason Alice needed help.

Whatever the fox had said had put Alice in a state of panic. She raised her hands, as if to calm it down, and stuttered when she barked back. Thankfully though, the fox seemed to understand her words, and instantly relaxed its body, looking more curious than anything now.

Alice made another series of barking sounds, but this only seemed to confuse the fox more, causing it to stare at her silently.

“E-erm, Elise, do you know any illusion magic?” Alice asked, “I need to show him what a beacon orb looks like.”

Elise hadn’t expected Alice to speak in the human tongue again, so she took a moment to process Alice’s question and respond.

“No, sorry,” she said, shaking her head, “I’ve only ever heard of illusion magic, so I don’t even know the basics.”

“Will the light inside the beacon orb do?” Cadmus asked, “It’s true that I’m inexperienced in illusion magic, so I can’t produce something as complex as the image of the beacon orb itself, but even I can create a simple light show.”

“Maybe that might work…” Alice said unsurely, “But I suppose it won’t hurt to try.”

Cadmus nodded, and began drawing a magic circle in the air. However, this seemed to spook the fox, judging by how he had suddenly flattened his body in a position to pounce again, and was growling agitatedly at Cadmus.

Seeing this, Cadmus paused in his drawing, and Elise was struck by a sudden understanding,

“Guiles, if the animals in this forest have all learned to stay away from humans because of the damage we cause to them, then…”

She looked pointedly at the half-drawn circle in front of Cadmus.

Cadmus seemed to have already caught on as well, “Yes, they must therefore regard magic as a great threat as well. The fox probably ignored Alice’s circle due to it being too small.”

“What do we do then?” Elise asked, “Draw the circle behind your back so that he doesn’t see it until you’re done and ready to use it?”

“No!” Alice said, “Animals may not think like humans, but they’re still smart! If you hide your circle, he’ll think that you’re getting ready to attack it. Just—slowly draw it. I’ll try to keep it calm while you do.”

“Very well,” Cadmus said.

He slowly began drawing again, which only seemed to agitate the fox more. Alice followed with a set of soothing, low-pitched purrs, and, upon hearing them, the fox’s eyes flicked to her as he paused. Though he did not seem to calm down at Alice’s attempts, he at the very least stood fixed in place, neither attacking nor running away.

It took a while for Cadmus to finish his magic circle due to his deliberately slow drawing speed, but once he did, he did not activate it instantly. First, he gave Alice a questioning look. Alice, in turn, let loose another series of barks at the fox, before giving Cadmus a nod.

Cadmus held the magic circle flat on the palm of his hand and faced it towards the sky before activating. It shone brightly as magic circles did when activated, and it periodically emitted a burst of blue light. Though the blue light didn’t look exactly like the one that emanated from the beacon orbs, it was still close enough that Elise could see the resemblance.

The fox kept its gaze fixed on the blue light, and slowly—very slowly—his wariness melted away. Then, at long last, he seemed to understand, giving the three a cheerful yip.

Alice grinned, “He says he’ll help—”

Cadmus nodded, “Good.”

“—If we give him some food.”

The Dragon Princess was powerful. Oliver knew this, not just because of the rumours or his research, but also because he’d had the pleasure of personally witnessing some of her duels when she had challenged everyone she could at the start of the school year.

But, the last time he had seen her fight was against Rex Optime, and it had been a while since then. During this time, he had forgotten just how ridiculously overwhelming her power truly was. And now, he was once again reminded of it.

Once he had told her what each of those four Institute students in the chamber specialized in, she had stated,

“Now that I know what these people are capable of, I have no reason to be wary.”

As per her words, she had charged in right after, A magic circle instantly shining into existence as she did so.

The battle didn’t even last two minutes.

Anthony Kayden and Hewie Dacre, the two large boys with gorilla-like features, were the first to go. Ardea must have targeted them first because, as Oliver had told her, even though they only tended to use simple spells due to their lack of magical knowledge, their combat abilities were among the top percentile of their class.

The other two, Trey Kimball and Bethany Mckenna, directly contrasted Kayden and Dacre by only being mediocre at combat, but specializing in knowing and utilizing immensely complex spells. But drawing complex spells took time, and Ardea had torn through Kayden and Dacre so fast, that Kimball and Mckenna hadn’t even had time to finish their circle before Ardea came bearing down upon them.

Once Ardea was done, and all that remained at her feet were the burnt, fallen bodies of her enemies, she knelt and picked up the beacon orb they had come here for in the first place. Oliver exited his hiding location and walked up to her, curiously examining the ancient elven artifact in her hands.

Yes, he’d gotten a good look at it when Professor Mackenzie had shown it to them at the start of the round, but this was the first time he was seeing it from so close. Ardea noticed his curiosity and handed him the orb, saying as she did so,

“I must admit, Vinari, you have impressed me today.”

Oliver couldn’t help but feel surprised as he ran his hands along the smooth surface of the orb: this was the first time he had seen Ardea looking anything other than angry or annoyed ever since this round had started. And to think she was complimenting him…?

“I can see why Guiles keeps you around,” she continued, “Though I believe that your talents would be put to better use serving me instead of him. I can offer you far better rewards for your service as well. An attractive proposal, no?”

Oh…

Oliver liked to think that he was largely a laidback individual. Of course, there were things that made him angry, but for the most part, he could keep a lid on his emotions.

But this time…

“No.” He said coldly, his anger sharpening his words into a fine edge, “And I don’t ‘serve’ anyone. Cadmus may be better at magic than me, but he understands that doesn’t make me his follower. We’re friends. Maybe if you understood the same, Auxil would be with you here right now.”

Oliver tossed the beacon orb back to Ardea, who looked like she had just been slapped in the face, and marched out of the chamber.

Fortunately for their group, Elise still had some of the mushrooms they had roasted over the fire from last night. It was disgustingly cold now, but the fox accepted it all the same. That was enough to seal the deal, and soon they were following him as he slinked through the forest.

“Are we sure he knows where he’s going?” Elise asked after a while.

“I… think so?” Alice said hesitantly, “He did say he understood what we’re searching for, and where to find it.”

Elise bit her lip, “I see… and does he have a name?”

Alice shrugged and let out a few questioning barks. In response, the fox turned its head and responded with a few barks of its own before looking ahead again.

Alice translated, “He said that he doesn’t have a name, but that we can call him whatever we like.”

“How about Orange?” Cadmus suggested.

“Because… his fur is orange?” Elise asked.

Cadmus nodded, “Exactly.”

Elise gave him a look, “Your naming sense is really simple, isn’t it?”

“Is it no good?”

Elise sighed, “No, I suppose it’s fine. I’ve just never seen a pet being named so haphazardly.”

“You still haven’t,” Cadmus said, “Orange isn’t a pet. This is just a temporary arrangement.”

“Fair enough. Orange it is.”

Alice relayed this to Orange, and Orange responded with an affirming bark.

Some time passed, and, when the sky started getting dark, Orange suddenly veered off-course with a few yips, and started trotting towards a new heading.

“He says that he’s thirsty,” Alice translated.

Now that Alice mentioned it, Elise too felt rather thirsty. In fact, this went beyond the level of just ‘thirsty’. Her throat was parched, her tongue was completely dry, and her lips were hardened and cracked. She supposed that it made sense, since the last time she had drank any water had been yesterday morning.

If forced to, she could still go on for a few more days without water. But that didn’t mean she wanted to.

Orange led them through the greenery for a while before they emerged from a thicket onto the bank of a river. Elise suddenly felt a rush of gratitude toward Orange: without him, they would have probably never found this river.

They decided to make camp there for the night, and once again, like yesterday, Cadmus gathered the firewood while Elise found the food. Since they were at a river, Elise settled on catching fish.

She managed to catch a grand total of four fish, but then suspected one of them to be inedible, and so released it just to be safe. Thus, Cadmus and Alice were given one fish, Elise kept one fish for herself, and the final one was given to Orange.

Orange dragged his portion away from the group, and Alice explained that he was still wary of them, so he was going to eat alone.

After a while, doused in the light of their campfire, and her stomach filling up with food, Elise felt a sudden sense of comfort and drowsiness assault her. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she wanted to do nothing else but sleep now.

However, it seemed Cadmus other plans.

“Now that we’re well on our way to a beacon orb, let’s talk about how to handle those two people who are hunting us—Zane Brycen and Tanya Louise, I believe their names were.”