Alice was abruptly awoken when the world suddenly jolted for her. She couldn’t see what was going on since she was still inside Cadmus’ breast pocket, but she could tell from experience that they were moving, and much more quickly than Cadmus usually liked to at that. Grabbing a handful of the soft fabric of Cadmus’ cloak, she pulled herself up and stuck her head out of the breast pocket.

She had been right, Cadmus, Elise, and Orange were jogging through the uneven terrain of the forest, and Elise was holding two magic circles: one she was using to constantly pump out mist, and the other she was using to periodically cast [ground spikes] behind them.

Cadmus, who was panting severely, noticed Alice come up.

“Oh… you’re… awake,” he barely managed to breathe out.

“Wh-what happened!” Alice asked.

Seeing that Cadmus was in no shape to explain, Elise took on the job herself, “We came across Zane Brycen and Tanya Louise again, and we decided to run away. It’s been a while since then, and we haven’t stopped once, so Guiles is already at his limit.”

Alice blinked, trying to process all that. In the meantime, she asked,

“A-and those spells you’re using?”

“We need to keep the mist going, or else these [ground spike] traps we’re using will be easily spotted,” Elise explained, “In which case Brycen and Louise will be able to increase their pace, which will allow them to catch up with us in no time. Guiles was the one using these before, but he wasted a portion of his mana while trying to develop a spell that would allow us to render Brycen and Louse’s vines useless, and continuing to use these spells will only drain his mana further. Considering how tired he is already, we agreed it would be best if I used them.”

“Oh… so it didn’t work…” Alice muttered. Then, her head snapped to Cadmus, “Wait—no! Forget that! You said you’d wake me up if anything happened!”

“Sorry… There was… no time…” Cadmus said in between pants.

Alice immediately felt guilty for getting angry at him after seeing him like that.

“A-ah, sorry then. J-just breath…”

They jogged for a little while longer before Cadmus slowed to a fast-paced walk. He was so tired that he could barely walk in a straight line, and every step of his worried Alice that he might lose his balance and fall down. Elise slowed to his pace, and said gravely,

“We can’t keep going on like this. We’ve slowed down our pace three times now, and it’s clear that you won’t be able to continue on for much longer. Either Brycen and Louise will catch up to us, or you’ll collapse before then. It might be time to think of a new plan. Maybe we could use the beacon orb as bait, and set a trap for them?”

Cadmus, now that he was walking, seemed to have regained some of his energy and was panting less.

“A trap isn’t likely to work,” he said, “They’re already wary of traps, and they’d immediately suspect that something was up if the beacon orb suddenly stopped moving.”

“But if it kept moving, it would be fine?” Alice asked.

“No. Even if it kept moving, they would likely be too cautious to fall for…”

Suddenly Cadmus trailed off, and his bright green eyes gleamed with… something as they glanced over Alice for a quick second.

“…a trap,” he finally finished, “Sorry, I was too tired and lost my train of thought there.”

Elise nodded understandingly, “In any case, if we can’t set a trap—”

“You’re lying, aren’t you, Cadmus?” Alice asked softly, interrupting Elise, “You’ve thought of something haven’t you?”

She didn’t know why he was lying, perhaps it had something to do with the way he had looked at her, but she was sure that he’d already come up with some kind of plan. She’d spent her whole life with him; there was no way she couldn’t be sure.

A hint of fear flashed across Cadmus’ face, but it had gone by so fast that Alice was sure that she was the only one to spot it.

“Of course not,” Cadmus said, “If I had already come up with a plan—”

“Please, Cadmus, don’t lie to me,” Alice said, “I know you—better than anyone. And I’m sure that you’ve thought of something right now.”

Elise gave Cadmus a probing look, “Guiles…?”

“…It’s not worth the risk,” Cadmus revealed reluctantly.

“Whatever you’ve come up with, it has something to do with me, doesn’t it?” Alice asked, “That’s why you don’t want to use it, right?”

Cadmus stayed silent, but Alice could tell that she had hit the nail on the head.

“…You said that I was your trump card,” Alice reminded him, “So—please, let me do what I can. I want to help.”

Cadmus did not answer for a while.

To be able to manipulate time. It had been an idle daydream of Zane Brycen’s when he was young, especially in moments when he had forgotten to complete an assignment due soon, or when he had to get up early for classes, or whenever he said something particularly embarrassing to others.

But that was all it had been: a daydream.

And then, a few weeks or so after starting his school year in the Carmenian Institute of Sorcery, he came to learn of a boy his age who had managed to turn that fanciful daydream into reality. It was a strange shock to the system. Zane had heard of many exceptional individuals who had created amazing things, but none of them had been so close to his age, nor were they attending the same school as him, and none of them had brought to reality such a personal daydream of his.

And so, despite having never even spoken to Mark Tempor, Zane became an instant fan.

Zane’s father was a mage as well, so whenever he went to gatherings with his fellow mages, he brought Zane along to ‘make connections’ and ‘expand his horizons.’ Zane had never been too enthusiastic about going to these gatherings, but after hearing of Mark Tempor, he found that he no longer hated the idea of attending them—he relished them, in fact, as he would get to talk about his new idol to people who probably knew him and his accomplishments well.

And knew him they did, but not as well as Zane had hoped. Whenever he went to talk to one of his father’s mage friends about Tempor, they would offhandedly mention how impressive his achievement was, but then they would always follow it up with some sort of variation of:

“Tempor’s research into time magic is impressive, but If you’re looking for a role model your age, there’s this student in Terra who attends the Laurucian Academy of Magic: his name is Cadmus Guiles—he’s the younger brother of the famed Ember Guiles. Apparently, he’s managed to overturn generations of magical knowledge by creating an actual, living homunculus.”

It was frustrating. Sure, this Cadmus Guiles person had managed to do something impressive by creating a homunculus, but Mark Tempor was even more impressive! He’d managed to actually manipulate time! How could creating one fake human ever match up to that?

The people within the Institute—staff and students—were more willing to focus on singing Mark’s praises instead of Cadmus Guiles’, but the people within the Institute were such a small fraction of the magical community that it hurt. It was like becoming a fan of a new celebrity or a new public athlete: it felt nice to hang out in a small circle that praised them, but when you gauged their reception throughout the wider world and found that another celebrity or athlete that had come to prominence at the same time was overshadowing them, it stung.

But, there was nothing Zane could do about it, so he suffered in silence, voicing his complaints to only the few who could understand where he was coming from—one of those few being Tanya Louise.

Then came the Twin Peaks Magical Tournament. Zane decided to take part for a variety of reasons: To see Mark Tempor in action, to put his own skills to the test, to see what the Laurucian Academy of Magic was like, and last, but certainly not least, to see what all this hubbub about the ‘Necromancer’ was all about.

And boy, was he disappointed. In their first meeting, the Necromancer had to be saved by his partner, and his partner had done most of the fighting. The only worthwhile thing he did was flood the area in mist at the end and run away. Even the Necromancer himself was admitting that he had no way of fighting people as insignificant as Zane and Tanya.

And this was the person who had overshadowed Mark Tempor?

If he’d shown that he was at least more skilled than Zane and Tanya, then Zane wouldn’t have liked it, but he could have at least lived with it. But no, even in their second encounter, all Cadmus Guiles had done was defend and then run away using the same tactic as before.

It was unacceptable. Someone like this didn’t even deserve to participate in the same tournament as Mark Tempor, much less to overshadow him!

Keeping the light from Cadmus Guile’s beacon orb in sight, Zane stepped carefully through mist-flooded landscape, making sure to keep an eye out for the traps that Cadmus Guiles had periodically left behind for them. He would stop at nothing to defeat Cadmus Guiles in this round.

“Are we… are we really going to be able to catch up to them like this?” Tanya asked, sounding discouraged, “We’ve had to slow down so much because of these traps, and at this rate—”

“We’ll definitely be able to catch up to them,” Zane said firmly, “Cadmus Guiles has used this mist to hide his traps and slow us down since he can’t hide himself with that bright beacon orb in his possession, but the best way for him to take advantage of this strategy is to increase his own pace while he’s slowed us down. However, we can tell from the light of the beacon orb that the distance between us hasn’t really increased, which means that they can’t speed up for some reason.”

“And… that means we’ll be able to catch up to them?” Tanya asked.

Zane nodded, “Soon they’ll run out of mana from constantly creating all this mist and these traps, and that’s when we’ll get them. It’s just a matter of time.”

Almost immediately after he said those words, the mist began thinning. A smirk came over Zane’s lips as he realized that his predictions were coming true: Guiles and his partner had run out of mana.

Zane didn’t have to wait long before all trace of the heavy white mist completely disappeared. Now that their vision wasn’t veiled anymore, Tanya and he were able to break out into a run without having to fear stepping onto a trap again.

Then the smirk was wiped from Zane’s face when he saw the light from the beacon orb move further and further away with greater speed.

“You said that they couldn’t speed up!” Tanya accused.

Zane stared as the light from the beacon orb seemed to gain even more distance, “They-they shouldn’t be able to… I don’t know how… It must a final desperate sprint or something…”

They chased after the light with everything they had, using up more stamina than they needed to by plowing through the greenery with more force than grace. However, no matter how much they pushed themselves, they seemed unable to close the distance between them and their target. Eventually, they were forced to stop when their burning lungs and muscles could support them no longer.

“It… it doesn’t make sense…” Zane muttered, “We had them…”

“They’ve stopped as well,” Tanya pointed out.

And indeed, the light from the beacon orb was no longer racing away from them like before. It was just sitting in place, far away from them but still in sight.

“Do they have a way of tracking us…?” Zane wondered out loud, “But how? We’re the ones chasing them.”

“What do we do now?”

Zane took a few moments to come up with something, “…We herd them to an open area. If they have a way of tracking us, then we should be able to dictate their movements somewhat. In an open area, we’ll able to see exactly how they’re tracking us. The river is to our east, right?”

Tanya nodded, “I think so, yeah.”

“Then that’s where we’ll herd them,” Zane said, “I’ll stay here, and you go around them to their Northwest. Make sure to maintain the same distance from them that we’re at right now. Once you’re in position, fire a small [fireball] into the sky—it should be fine, even if the Academy staff checks up on you, after seeing that you’re not in any trouble, they should leave you alone.”

“And what if they don’t?” Tanya asked, “What if they say that we have to forfeit?”

Zane grimaced, “In that case explain the situation to them quickly. We don’t have the time to figure out another way to signal each other.” Tanya looked worried, but Zane pushed on, “Anyway, I’ll be moving to their Southwest. Once you give the signal, we’ll begin moving towards the river as one. That way, we should be able to herd Cadmus Guiles and his partner there as well.”

Tanya took a moment to commit Zane’s instructions to memory, and once she was done, she nodded and took off. As Zane watched her disappear into the greenery, he wondered how things could have possibly gotten to this point. Just a while ago, they had been on the final step to victory, and now, suddenly, they were being forced to take foolish risks in order to put a barely-concocted plan into motion.

Was this also the doing of Cadmus Guiles? Zane wouldn’t be surprised: Cadmus Guiles had indeed proved to be an expert in running away.

Shaking his head off these thoughts, Zane moved into position. Just in time too, as a small [fireball] from a small distance away shot into the air right after. As planned, Zane began slowly heading for the river, spreading out his vines as far as he could in an effort to dissuade Cadmus Guiles and his partner from heading in any other direction.

Somehow, the plan actually seemed to work. The light from the beacon orb—the only way to judge Cadmus Guiles’ team’s position—also slowly began moving away from them in the exact direction Zane wanted them to.

This was unexpected for Zane. He had faced Cadmus Guiles twice now, and both times his plans had failed. To see a half-baked plan like this succeed… Zane wasn’t sure how to feel.

Still, perhaps Zane should have expected this. His plans hadn’t failed because Cadmus Guiles was the superior mage, they had failed simply because Cadmus Guiles had refused to engage. This half-baked plan of his wasn’t a combat strategy, it was a tactic to hunt them down, and even a barely-formed one like this one would work well against someone who only ran away.

In any case, Zane could hear it now. The rushing sound of the river was close by. Just a little more… just a little more and he would finally be able to see how Cadmus Guiles and his partner were tracking them…

By now, Zane estimated that Cadmus Guiles and his partner had already reached the river. All Zane had to do now was spot them. It was strange how the enemy team hadn’t switched directions yet, but Zane guessed it was because they were crossing the river instead of following it to the left or right.

He eagerly crept forward, and slowly—too slowly—the open area of the river came into sight. There, through the trees, vines, and greenery, Zane spied the clear blue of the river. With it came the sight of its sloping, rocky banks, and more importantly their target.

It was a fox.

To be more specific, the fox had a beacon orb tied to its back by a strip of black cloth whose material looked suspiciously similar to that of the Academy robes. And, right in front of that beacon orb was Cadmus Guiles’ homunculus, her blonde hair and miniature frame unmistakable. She was sitting atop the fox, as though it was a horse.

“No…” Zane whispered. A dagger made purely of hatred seemed to have plunged right into his heart, and right now he wished for nothing but a chance to rip Cadmus Guiles in half with his bare hands. “No! No! No! NO! NO! NO! NO—!”

He punched the tree beside him with everything he had, and didn’t even register the pain of its impact as he dashed out onto the bank of the river. But it was already too late. The fox was already on the opposite bank, its wet orange fur proof of the short swim it had taken.

The fox spared Zane a short glance before scurrying off into the forest on the other side of the bank.

And that was it. It would be impossible to catch up now—to the fox or to Cadmus Guiles’ team.

Zane had been right the first time. Cadmus Guiles had not been able increase his pace while running away for some reason, but instead of choosing to stand and fight as the alternative, he had used the fox to lure Tanya and Zane away so that he and his partner could escape without being chased.

Zane didn’t know how Cadmus Guiles had gotten the fox to do his bidding, but he had been correct to guess that Zane would follow after the beacon orb. After all, it had been their best method of tracking Cadmus Guiles’ team.

“Zane!” Tanya called as she ran up to him, “Aren’t we going to chase after that fox? It has a beacon orb!”

Zane glared stonily at the place the fox had disappeared from, “It’s useless. That fox was able to track us and avoid us while we were chasing after it. There’s nothing we can use to catch up to it. We’d just end up wasting all our stamina by chasing after it.”

“So… how are we going to defeat Cadmus Guiles?” Tanya asked.

Zane grit his teeth, feeling frustrated at his partner’s lack of understanding,

“It’s impossible now! He’s beyond our ability to track! And even if we do miraculously find their footprints again, they’ll have already reconvened with that fox at the edge of the forest by the time we catch up to them!” Zane palmed his forehead, feeling a sudden sense of tiredness invade his body, “It’s over… we can’t do anything against them now…”

“B-but how?” Tanya asked, “Will they signal each other, or—?”

“It’s a fox,” Zane murmured, “It can probably track Guiles’ scent or something.”

“Does that mean… we’ve lost?” Tanya asked.

Zane took a moment to gather up his remaining energy and motivation before answering, “…Not yet. If we can’t fight him in this round, then we’ll just have to fight him in the next one. All we have to do right now is find another beacon orb.”

Tanya nodded, “Understood!”

After sending off Orange and Alice away with the beacon orb as bait for their pursuers, Cadmus almost just plopped down on the dirt then and there. However, though tired beyond belief, he still had enough sense to realize that they had maintained the same heading during their retreat, and that their pursuers might realize this fact and use it to find them again.

So, in the interest of remaining hidden, he and Elise picked a random direction and walked that way for a while before finding a sturdy tree to rest against. As he breathed deeply and swallowed back some bile, unwanted visions of Alice assaulted his mind. He imagined her being caught by Tanya Louise and Zane Brycen, he imagined her being eaten by Orange, he imagined her—

“You look worried,” Elise noticed.

“I am worried,” Cadmus admitted, seeing no reason to keep it hidden, “Alice is the only successful example of life created from magic. If she dies…”

The thought of it was too horrible to imagine. All that laurite he had used… all of the progress he had made…

It wasn’t like Cadmus couldn’t continue his research without Alice, he’d already noted down all of his methods, but it was a different matter altogether to have a living Alice on hand. If Cadmus came across any complications in his research, he could always just investigate Alice further and find out what he had gotten wrong or missed.

But, if Alice died, that avenue of problem-solving would be forever closed off to him. To make matters worse, Professor Mackenzie had stated that the student with the most points in the Academy could take as much laurite as they wanted from the national reserves, but only as long as they could justify it to the school. Without Alice, he would lose his justification, and the Academy staff might reject his requested amount of laurite.

Elise seemed to find his words a bit disturbing, but she made no mention of it, “Why’re you so worried in the first place?” She asked instead, “Orange—along with the rest of the animals in this forest—were able to stay hidden from us even when we tried actively hunting them. Even with that beacon orb broadcasting his position, I doubt he’ll be caught so easily.”

Cadmus nodded, “I agree. But Tanya Louise and Zane Brycen catching Orange and Alice is only one of my smaller worries. I am more concerned about Orange himself.”

“What about him?” Elise asked, “He’s chosen to help us out, hasn’t he?”

“Yes, he has,” Cadmus said, “But, at the end of the day, Orange is still a wild animal: he doesn’t think nor act like humans. We can never be sure if he’ll suddenly decide that Alice isn’t worth helping and simply eat her.”

“But… I thought we came to an agreement,” Elise said.

“We did—in a sense,” Cadmus said, “But we simply don’t know what an agreement means to Orange. Even when Alice was translating between us, all she was doing was putting his vague communications into the nearest human concepts. It was the same vice versa: she simply took our complex ideas and did her best to communicate that in a way that even Orange could understand.”

Elise seemed to struggle with something before opening her mouth and asking, “Then… why? Why did you allow Alice to risk her life for something like this? I understand that this tournament is important for you: you’ve made no secret of wanting to reach first place. But, it isn’t as though losing here will be the end. Surely the same can’t be said for Alice.”

Cadmus opened his mouth to answer, but then he realized that he himself did not know the answer. What Elise had said was undoubtedly correct: it was why he had refrained from voicing this strategy in the first place.

However… when Alice had pleaded to be allowed to help, the memory of Rex handing Cadmus an extra ticket for Alice had suddenly jumped across his mind. It was a strange thing, and Cadmus still did not understand why, but that memory had somehow forced him to allow Alice to do what she had wanted.

“…I don’t know,” Cadmus finally decided to answer honestly. “But, I suppose… I figured that she’s alive, which means she has a right to decide what she wants to do.”

He didn’t know where the latter portion of his answer had come from, but it sounded right, so he did not take it back.

Elise looked surprised for a moment. But then, she smiled and said simply,

“I see.”

The conversation ended there. And, after a bit more rest, they began moving towards the direction Orange had indicated again. Now that they no longer had any pursuers, they were allowed to walk at a comfortable pace. However, neither of them had forgotten that there were more enemies in this forest than just Zane Brycen and Tanya Lousie, and so they made sure to keep a wary eye out for any signs of danger.

Now would be the worst time to get caught off guard. Cadmus might have regained some of his energy, but he was still largely exhausted. And though Elise had more stamina in stock than him, she had used up too much of her mana to put up a decent fight against anyone they came across.

Thus, Cadmus couldn’t help but let loose a small sigh of relief when the tall chain-linked fence that signified the outer edge of the forest came into view. Four days ago he had crossed that fence with such energy, and now he could barely keep himself from collapsing on the spot.

They reached the fence with no problems, and Cadmus gazed through it longingly, feeling the need to shower and rest more fiercely than ever now that the end was in sight, but no one showed up to greet them. The reason was obvious. Though they had managed to complete one part of their task by making it here, they still did not possess the required beacon orb.

The matter of acquiring it remained out of their hands though, so Cadmus once again took a seat on the raw dirt, and leaned against a nearby tree to rest his body. Soon enough, Elise followed his example. The silence between them was comfortable, but it left an opening in his mind that allowed unwanted thoughts to enter again.

What if his worries had been right? What if Alice had been eaten? What if she had been caught by an enemy team? The beacon orb’s light was bright, so maybe—

“Oh, hey, brats. What’re you doing here?”

It was Professor Mackenzie, and she was standing on the opposite side of the fence with a curious look on her face. This place seemed rather out of the way for their meeting to be a coincidence, so maybe one of the Academy staff keeping watch on them had told her that they were here?

“You don’t have a beacon orb, but I doubt you’ve come to forfeit,” she said, her gaze boring into Cadmus, “Especially since you’re on the team.”

“We’re waiting,” Cadmus said.

“For?” Professor Mackenzie’s eyes flicked down to Cadmus’ empty breast pocket, “And where’s Alice?”

“If all goes well, she’ll be here soon with a beacon orb.”

Professor Mackenzie blinked, “Huh. Leaving her all alone in the dangerous forest? Sounds kind of risky. You sure you made the right call?”

Cadmus schooled his facial expression into one of calm as a jolt of anxiety ran through his body. He was usually confident in his decisions, but perhaps this one had been too risky like Professor Mackenzie had said. It was why he had been against sharing it with Elise and Alice from the start.

“…Are you allowed to help us like this?” He asked in lieu of an answer.

Professor Mackenzie shrugged, “It’s not really helping, is it? You can’t really change anything now, can you? Besides, I don’t even know what you guys actually did.”

Cadmus nodded, “True enough.”

“Still, you’re not wrong,” Professor Mackenzie said, “I’ll keep quiet for now. Don’t want to end up helping you out unintentionally. It could become a huge scandal if I did.”

She made good on her words, and Cadmus found himself regretting saying anything. Normally, he wasn’t a huge fan of meaningless conversation: it risked distracting him from the task at hand. But now that there was nothing to do but wait, he couldn’t help but want for that very same meaningless conversation to distract him from his worrying.

As time went on, his worries continued escalating. He was in the process of coming up with a completely new plan to search for Alice and Orange, when Professor Mackenzie said,

“Oh? Looks like we’ll get to see whether congratulations are in order or not soon.”

Cadmus felt confused for a second before he followed her gaze and caught sight of the tell-tale light of the beacon orb peeking through the greenery. It took Cadmus a moment to realize that it was heading towards them.

Elise shot to her feet with a cautiously hopeful look on her face, “Do you think…?”

Cadmus did not answer, and instead simply waited with bated breath. The light continued its steady approach, moving rather quickly, and yet too slowly for Cadmus’ tastes. The minutes crawled by, and just when Cadmus couldn’t take it anymore, Orange burst victoriously through the shrubbery, the beacon orb still securely fastened to him, and Alice still riding atop him, looking completely unharmed.

Cadmus was the first to move. He crouched before Orange and let Alice hop onto his hand. Her cheeks were flushed, and there was a vivid shine of excitement in her wide blue eyes.

“It seems like you had fun,” Cadmus said.

Alice nodded animatedly, “I did! Orange moves so fast! And-and—we swam across the river!”

Cadmus did his best not to show just how troubled he felt after hearing that. Had Alice fallen into that river, her size would have never permitted her to escape its current. That river could have very easily been her final resting place.

Professor Mackenzie made a sound of realization, “Ah… I see. I’d forgotten that Alice could communicate with animals. So that’s what you used.”

Cadmus deposited Alice in his breast pocket and gave Professor Mackenzie a nod.

“Well, that’s the end of it then!” She said, punctuating her sentence with a clap of her hands, “Since you guys have the beacon orb now: Congratulations! You guys are one of the only twelve teams to pass this round! You can rest easy now!”

Cadmus and Elise shared a look. Then, as one, they breathed a heavy sigh of relief. There was still the final round to go, but Cadmus could tell that both he and Elise were just happy to be free of this forest for now.