After declaring Cadmus and Elise as having passed the second round, Professor Mackenzie offered them two choices. They could either stay here, within the tents that the Academy Staff had set up right outside the forest so as to learn of any new developments in the second round before anyone else; or they could return to the Academy to take a much-needed shower and get some well-deserved rest.

Neither Cadmus nor Elise hesitated for even a single moment before selecting the latter option. Cadmus supposed it would have been beneficial to stay here and learn of any new troublesome participants that he had failed to notice before. However, he simply had far too much to prepare for the next round and needed all the time he could get.

Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t ask which teams had already passed this round before them as they waited for their carriage to arrive and pick them up.

“Well, the first ones to exit the forest with a beacon orb were Mr. Pendragon and Mr. Du Lac,” Professor Mackenzie answered promptly, “Ms. Regis—Ardea Regis—and Mr. Vinari came right after. All three Holland siblings have made it as well, along with Gale Holland’s partner, Mark Tempor.”

Cadmus felt his eyes unconsciously narrow after hearing Tempor’s name. Of course, he had expected Tempor to easily pass the second round—he had seemed too capable to fail. Nevertheless, it was not welcome news.

Professor Mackenzie tapped a finger against her chin, “Who else… who else…? Oh yeah—that student from the Isle of Dawn, Ito Shin, and his partner, Charles Redford, made it around the same time as Ms. Regis and Gale Holland as well.” She gave it some more thought, “And… I think that’s it. That’s all of them—which means, counting you both, twelve people in total have passed the second round for now.”

“That’s only half of the number of people who can pass,” Cadmus noticed.

“Yes, but don’t get your hopes up,” Professor Mackenzie said, “The rest of the beacon orbs are probably on their way here. And even if one or two won’t be found today, they’ll definitely be found tomorrow.”

“Because you will be making them even brighter?” Cadmus asked.

Professor Mackenzie chuckled, “Exactly. I should’ve known you would easily notice that.”

Rather, Cadmus wondered how anyone could fail to notice the difference in brightness between the current beacon orbs and the one Professor Mackenzie had displayed at the start of the round. It had been somewhat subtle yesterday, but the difference was far too obvious now.

“In any case, your ride’s here,” Professor Mackenzie said, gesturing into the distance.

Cadmus took a look and noticed she was right. A lone carriage was steadily making its way towards them, looking tiny in the distance. As he watched it approach, he asked,

“Can you tell me who among the people who passed chose to stay here?”

Professor Mackenzie hummed in thought, “I guess you all would find out anyway if you chose to stay as well, so it wouldn’t hurt to reveal their names. Only three people chose that option: Mr. Pendragon, Mr. Du Lac, and Mr. Ito.”

Cadmus remembered how Arthur and Lancelot had waited after the first round for Gawain to arrive before heading into the carriages together. Were they doing the same here?

Cadmus glanced at Elise. Ardea had done the same for Elise back then, but it seemed she had not waited for her this time around. He didn’t know whether Elise had noticed that fact, but she did seem pensive after hearing Professor Mackenzie’s words.

The carriage pulled up in front of them soon after, and, after Alice said goodbye to Orange, Cadmus and Elise climbed aboard.

“The third round starts next Saturday,” Professor Mackenzie said by way of farewell, “Which means you all have exactly one week to prepare for it. Don’t do anything stupid between now and then, alright?”

Cadmus and Elise nodded before Professor Mackenzie closed the door. The carriage began moving again, and Cadmus intended to rest his eyes for the duration of the trip; however, before he could even close them, Elise spoke,

“So… Morgana’s team, Gawain’s team, and Olvo’s team still haven’t passed the second round yet.”

Cadmus nodded, suppressing a sigh and pulling his fading consciousness together to focus it on this conversation,

“Correct.”

“That must mean that Olvo and Gawain suffered more damage than Eviere could heal, no?” Elise asked, “If she had healed them right after, they would have probably made it out with a beacon orb by now as well. They might not end up passing this round after all.”

“…Perhaps.”

There was a lot more Cadmus could add to that, but at the end of the day, it would all just be speculation. There was only one thing he could say for sure: Though Connor Holland’s spell had been amazing in the sense of how powerful it was, Gwen’s spell had been even more amazing in its own right.

At the very least, Cadmus didn’t think that Gwen’s spell was ineffective enough to fail against the wounds he’d seen Gawain and Gelida suffer.

Elise frowned. She seemed to want to pursue the topic, but then simply sighed and said,

“I suppose there’s no use talking about them now though. We’ll find out everything soon enough.”

“I agree.”

And that punctuated their conversation. Perhaps because Elise had noticed how tired Cadmus was, she did not speak further, and with a grateful nod of his head, Cadmus leaned against the side of the carriage and fell asleep rather easily.

Unfortunately, the distance between Anguis and Ipsum forest wasn’t very far, and Cadmus was awoken far too soon for his liking. Both he and Elise exited the carriage at the Academy gates, with Cadmus still blearily rubbing his eyes as he did so.

Thankfully, there was no crowd to greet them this time, and the two were able to make it to the dorms with no interruptions. Before they separated to head to their respective rooms, Elise held out her hand,

“I believe this is it. Though it was only for a short while, it was an interesting partnership. I’m grateful; working with you has taught me much.”

Due to his sleep-addled mind, it took Cadmus a moment to realize that she was requesting a handshake,

“I see,” Cadmus said, taking her hand with his own and complying with her request, “I am grateful as well. If it wasn’t for you, I would have had a much tougher time passing the second round.”

Elise smiled.

“CADMUS!”

Cadmus’ concentration snapped like a rubber band when Alice directly assaulted his right ear with her loud call. His hand jolted in surprise, erasing a portion of the top right quadrant of the magic circle he had been working on.

After Cadmus’ parting with Elise, the rest of the previous day had passed by like a blur for him. He had taken a shower in a tired daze, and then had slept through the entire day, not waking up until early this morning.

It had felt a little strange waking up back in his dorm bed after spending three nights in a forest, but he moved past it quickly enough when he realized that his entire body had been beset with the heavy ache of muscle soreness.

It was a good thing that he hadn’t been planning to move around all that much today anyway. In fact, he was planning on using this entire week to work on trying to develop a countermeasure for Connor Holland’s lightning spell, and the most physically demanding thing he would have done today is walk to the library. However, he had woken up so early that the sky was still dark, which meant the library was still closed, so he had been forced to use the books he had brought from home to help with his preparations instead.

He had been focusing on working on those very preparations when Alice had called for him. Cadmus levelled a flat stare upon her, which was a little difficult as she was currently standing on his right shoulder.

“What?” He asked, idly wondering when she had even awoken.

Alice pouted angrily, “I’ve been calling you for a while now! You haven’t had anything to eat for hours—you must be starving!”

Now that Alice had pointed it out, he could indeed feel the astute lack of food in his stomach. But, more importantly—

“The sun’s up…”

He hadn’t noticed it while engrossed in his work, but the high point of the sun indicated that it had come up a while ago.

Alice looked confused, “Yes, and?”

“That means the library opened a while ago.”

Cadmus ran his hand through the rest of his magic circle, erasing it wholly (it was a failed attempt anyway), and quickly dressed himself before storing Alice in his breast pocket and leaving his room.

“W-wait, we’re going to the library now?” Alice asked as Cadmus stepped slowly and deliberately across the campus grounds so as to limit the pain from his sore muscles. “What about food?”

Cadmus supposed she had a point: working on an empty stomach would most likely yield less than satisfactory results. He switched his course and headed for the canteen first.

Thankfully, the canteen was empty on account of all the students attending their classes. As a participant of the Twin Peaks Magical Tournament, Cadmus was exempt from attending classes for as long as he still remained in the tournament, which was why he could come here even though classes were in session.

His only worry was that he may have to enter the city to get something to eat, as it wasn’t serving time for the canteen yet. But, his worries turned out to be unfounded as the canteen staff easily accommodated him without complaints.

After impatiently scarfing down his food (a fact that Alice made sure to scold him for), Cadmus finally made his way to the library, wherein the ever-unenthusiastic Mrs. Lea Theca greeted him.

“Mr. Guiles, haven’t seen you in a few days,” she said, looking bored beyond reason, “Heading up to the seventh floor again?”

Cadmus nodded.

Mrs. Theca checked one of the papers on her untidy workspace.

“Seems you’re still in twenty-second place,” she said before she handed him a pass, “Here you go. You know the drill: show it to the guards and they’ll let you in.”

Cadmus nodded again and ascended the curved stairs at the back.

Cadmus spent the entire day in the upper levels of the library, moving between floors to find the books he needed to help in his research. His first priority right now was to recreate Connor Holland’s lightning spell so that he could understand how it worked and develop a countermeasure for it.

However, he was already faltering on the first step.

Connor Holland’s lightning spell had been rather complicated in structure, and Cadmus had only managed to catch sight of it for a few minutes at most. He simply hadn’t had enough time to commit the entire formula to memory.

If things continued this way, this venture would be another failure the same as his attempt to create a modification of Everett Praesse’s spell. Thus, when night fell, and the Academy staff had asked him to leave on account of the library closing for the day, Cadmus felt a small bout of frustration tug at his insides.

On his way back to his room, he found Arthur Pendragon sitting on one of the benches near the fountain that stood in front of the dorm buildings. It was rather late in the night, so he was alone, and there was a contemplative look on his face as he stared at the sea of stars above him.

Cadmus’ first instinct was to simply ignore him and walk past, but then he remembered that he had an important question to ask.

“Hello, Pendragon,” Cadmus greeted.

Arthur met Cadmus’ eyes and nodded politely, “Hello. Congratulations on passing the second round.”

“And you as well,” Cadmus returned with equal politeness, “Did Gawain pass as well?”

Arthur blinked, “Gawain? Yes, he and his partner arrived with a beacon orb a few hours before the round ended. Why do you ask?”

“You were right!” Alice exclaimed to Cadmus as she popped out of his breast pocket, “Gwen did manage to heal him!”

“Gwen…?” Arthur repeated, “You know what happened to Gawain in the forest?”

Cadmus tilted his head curiously, “You don’t?”

A melancholic smile came over Arthur’s face, “When I asked Gawain, he avoided my question. He did not seem to want to talk about it, so I left it be.” He gave Cadmus a look, “But you seem to know as well. Did you battle him in the forest?”

“No. We simply spotted him by coincidence and spied on him for a little while.”

“I see…” Arthur seemed to find his next words hard to voice, “Would you… tell me what happened to him? I don’t think Gawain will tell me himself.”

Cadmus supposed he had enough time to acquiesce Arthur’s request, but before he could, Alice protested,

“Wh-what about Gawain though? He doesn’t want you to know, right? Are you sure you want to go behind his back like this?”

Her words seemed to give Arthur pause, “Yes… it would be despicable of me to ask you to reveal something that Gawain wants to keep hidden. However, I saw Gawain right after he exited the forest, and the damage done to his armour isn’t something I can simply ignore. I am shouldering too many responsibilities to afford to lose to a simple careless mistake. I must know what happened to him.”

The sheer conviction in his voice made Alice shrink back into Cadmus’ breast pocket, and she said weakly,

“A-ah… I see…”

Cadmus waited for a few moments to see if either one of them had anything more to say, but when he saw that they didn’t, he proceeded to explain all that he’d seen in the battle between the alliance of three teams that Gawain had been a part of and the Holland brother’s team.

After Cadmus finished regaling everything he could remember, Arthur sat there for a while, a strangely worried expression slowly blooming on his face.

“And you’re sure this is accurate?” Arthur asked finally, “You’re sure that Gawain lost against a single team even though he had two other teams to help him?”

“I have no reason to lie to you,” Cadmus said truthfully.

He didn’t understand why, but it seemed that the story of Gawain’s loss had hit Arthur harder than expected. Arthur had always shown such composure to Cadmus, but now some of that composure was conspicuously absent.

“I… don’t understand…” Arthur muttered, “Gawain is skilled, and he had such an overwhelming advantage… to lose and then be forced to retreat in a situation like that… how could that be possible…?”

Cadmus shrugged, “The Holland siblings are simply a greater threat than many of us imagined them to be.”

The worry did not leave Arthur’s face, but he did nod,

“Yes… they are…”

“Guiles, Pendragon. It is strange to see the two of you together,” A third feminine and authoritative voice interrupted them.

Cadmus and Arthur turned to look and found Ardea Regis approaching them. There seemed to be an angry sort of glint in her eyes, and her face was twisted into a deep scowl. Her presence was commanding and heavy even on the best of days, but today there was something almost crushing about the air around her.

“We were discussing how Gawain was defeated by Connor and Elis Holland, and how that means that the Holland siblings are a greater threat than we previously thought” Cadmus explained.

Ardea raised an imperious eyebrow, “Gawain was defeated?”

“He still passed the second round,” Cadmus said, “But yes, he was defeated when he challenged Connor Holland’s team. And this occurred despite the fact that he had people such as Gelida Olvo and Morgana Le Fay supporting him.”

“You must be terrified after hearing that, Pendragon,” Ardea said, her gaze boring into Arthur, “You cannot afford to lose to people with no reputation such as them, no? And yet they were able to defeat Gawain, a man said to be your equal in terms of pure skill.”

She seemed to hit the nail right in the head, judging by how Arthur’s frown had deepened.

“…And what about you, Regis?” He asked, “You aren’t permitted to lose either, are you?”

“Yes, and I won’t,” Ardea declared, sounding as though her words were a foregone conclusion. “I will crush everyone who is placed before me.”

Her eyes flicked towards Cadmus, and Cadmus suddenly thought of Elise. Evidently, he wasn’t the only one, because Alice asked right after,

“Even Elise?”

Ardea’s face flared in fury, and she glared darkly at Alice. The sight of Ardea’s anger frightened Alice so much that she wilted and retreated back into Cadmus’ breast pocket until only her wide, quivering blue eyes were visible.

“My only purpose is to win,” Ardea said in a low, deadly voice, “Why should I care who I face?”

Cadmus felt it wise not to point out the anomalous reaction that the mere mention of Elise had elicited from her.

“I… must go,” Arthur said, abruptly bringing himself up to his feet, “Thank you for sharing your information with me, Guiles.”

With a dip of the head to indicate gratitude, he rushed off with a strangely concerned look on his face—not really running, but not really walking as purposefully and carefully as he usually did either.