“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to announce that the Twin Peaks Magical Tournament will be starting off with a bang!” The announcer trumpeted, “On one side, we have Ardea Regis—” The display orbs all zoomed into Ardea’s profile, who didn’t seem to care at all that every eye in the coliseum was upon her. “—The Dragon Princess! There are very few who don’t know her name, and fewer still who don’t know of her unsurpassed capability in both magic and combat!”

The audience shrieked in delight as Cadmus silently watched the display orb circle Ardea’s image.

“Do you… think that Elise will be alright?” Alice asked worriedly.

“…I wonder.”

Oliver approached and chose to occupy the empty space to Cadmus’ right.

“Ardea’s the first person chosen to fight, huh?” he said, “I’m not surprised.”

“I thought the matchups were chosen at random?” Cadmus said.

Oliver shrugged, “It’s just a popular theory among the fans of the Twin Peaks tournament: we think that the organizers only pretend to choose the matchups at random, but in fact, they pair up strong people against weak people at first to build up hype for the final stages of the tournament.”

“Elise isn’t weak!” Alice said angrily, “She helped us loads in Ipsum forest!”

Oliver shrugged again, “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen her fight. But I do know this: Elise is probably no match for Ardea, and I’m sure the organizers know this as well.” He shot Alice an easygoing smile, “Don’t take it so seriously though; it’s just a theory.”

Alice bristled, but it was Cadmus who spoke, “I’m not sure if I agree. There are very few of us here right now who have a chance at defeating Ardea, and I believe that Elise can most likely be counted among those few.”

Oliver, and even Alice, stared at him, blank shock showing on their faces. Alice may have taken offense at Oliver considering Elise weak, but it seemed that even she had believed that Elise would lose against someone as powerful as Ardea.

“Y-yeah, I guess you wouldn’t have offered to help her otherwise…” Alice finally mused.

“Help her?” Oliver repeated, “What do you mean?”

“Elise told us during the second round that she was aiming to defeat Ardea!” Alice regaled proudly, “And Cadmus offered to help! She—” Alice suddenly slapped her hands over her mouth, looking ashamed, “I—um, I probably shouldn’t be telling you all this without asking for Elise’s permission first… could you please forget what I said?”

Oliver shrugged, “You didn’t tell me much anyway: just that she wants to defeat Ardea. And, honestly? That expression on her face right now tells me that already.”

He gestured at the display orbs, and Cadmus saw that they were displaying Elise’s profile now. Though she looked a little nervous, her face was set in hard lines of unmistakable determination.

“And on the other side, we have Elise Auxil!” The announcer introduced, “Though her name may not be as widely known as her opponent’s, don’t take her too lightly! She still managed to pass through all of the rigorous qualifier rounds, and may just end up surprising us!”

The crowd cheered once again, though the noise they made was noticeably less intense this time.

“Organizers! Please put the shield up!”

Two members of the Academy Staff walked out onto the field. One of them pulled out an orb similar to a beacon orb (though this one had what seemed like what fog contained within, instead of pulsing blue light), and cast a spell on it. Cadmus could barely see the magic circle being used due to the display orb not zooming enough to it, but, judging from what the announcer had said, and from what little he could make out, the spell being used was designed for protection.

He was proven right when, suddenly, the orb glowed a bright against the spell cast at it, and a shimmering dome of nearly transparent blue bloomed to life around it. It rapidly expanded until its range reached the edges of the stands, and Cadmus gazed at it in shock.

It was too large. The shield was simply too large to justify its creation: the magic circle that had been cast had been far too small to cast something as big as this, and the coverage displayed here was beyond a single person’s mana capacity to cast (the only exception he could think of was Ardea Regis, and she was an anomaly far beyond other anomalies).

Now that Cadmus saw it, he vaguely remembered seeing a shield like this used during Ember’s tournaments as well, but he had been too young back then to understand the impossibility of such a creation.

“Is it that orb that’s allowing for such a large spell to be cast?” Cadmus muttered to himself, “But even so, where is the mana to sustain it coming from…?”

Oliver heard his words and raised a curious eyebrow, “You don’t know what the Laurucian enhancement orb is?”

“The Laurucian enhancement orb?” Cadmus repeated.

Oliver pointed at the image on the display orb of the shining orb that the Academy staff member was casting his spell at, “It’s called the Laurucian enhancement orb, and it does exactly as the name says: it enhances the effective range of any spell. The tournament organizers always use it to create a shield to protect the audience from stray spells.

“That should tell you something about what the organizers think of our abilities. They’ll try their best to make sure we don’t end up killing our opponents, but they know that sometimes they won’t be able to react in time. That’s why they always set up a shield to protect the audience, and that’s why they had us sign those forms just in case.”

Cadmus remembered that Professor Mackenzie had said something similar, but he was far more interested in this ‘Laurucian enhancement orb’ right now.

“It’s a magical orb. Does that mean that it’s another relic left behind by the ancient elves?” He wondered, “But then why is it called the Laurucian enhancement orb?”

“I-it’s because there were only a handful of enhancement orbs left behind by the ancient elves,” Candice explained from Cadmus’ left, “There was a war fought over them a few hundred years ago which involved the whole world. And, to end that war, it was agreed upon by everyone that each significantly influential country would receive one. L-Laurucium was one of those countries.”

“A war that involved the whole world?” Alice asked, “Just for something that can make a spell bigger?”

Candice nodded, “E-even now, it’s one of our nation’s greatest treasures. Whenever Anguis is under attack, the enhancement orb is used to place this same shield around the entire city. It’s not impenetrable, but it has significant strategic value.”

Cadmus tilted his head curiously, “But where does the mana to enhance the spells actually come from? Does the orb gather mana from the air throughout time?” he shook his head at his own theory, “But even if its gathering rate is amazingly high, why would they leave the capital potentially defenseless for a while just for the sake of a tournament?”

“O-oh, no, it’s nothing like that,” Candice said, “The enhancement orb simply uses crisscrossing leylines to enhance spells. That’s why it can easily be used consecutively without delay.”

“The Coliseum is built above overlapping leylines?” Cadmus asked.

Candice nodded, “Y-yes. And the Royal Castle as well.”

As the other member of the Academy staff down below experimentally fired a few basic attack spells at the dome-like shield and watched them harmlessly splash against it (most likely to assure the audience of its impenetrability while testing to see if it was properly working at the same time), Alice looked up at Cadmus with a curious look on her face.

“What are ‘leylines’?”

Cadmus took a moment to try and figure out a way to answer her question in a way that she could understand.

“In short, leylines are currents of mana that travel underground in a set route,” he explained, “We humans can’t harness them at all, so they’re useless for us. However, the ancient elves were able to make use of the locations where they overlapped to power their spells. As a result, those spells are only usable in locations where leylines overlap.”

Alice seemed to understand most of his explanation, but Cadmus could still see a little confusion on her face.

“For example, that enhancement orb,” Cadmus said, “It uses overlapping leylines as power, so, in this city, it can only be used here in the Coliseum, or in the Royal Castle.”

“And… there’s really no way for us to use those leylines?” Alice asked, “I mean, you won’t need laurite if you can just use those leyline things to power your spells, right?”

Cadmus shook his head, “Unfortunately, that simply isn’t possible. Leyline mana has different properties than the mana that we use. From what I’ve read, it’s more… raw. That rawness makes it fundamentally incompatible with our magic circles. To utilize leylines as a power source, we first need to figure out how to make three-dimensional magic spheres—and that’s something humans just aren’t capable of.”

“Maybe not right now!” Alice said optimistically, “But one day we might be able to figure it out! I mean, ‘magic cannot create life’ used to be common magical knowledge, but you were still able to create me!”

Cadmus shook his head again, “This and that are two very different cases. No one had the perfect combination of resources, knowledge, intellect, and drive that I had to create you, so the idea that ‘magic cannot create life’ simply became accepted as fact. It also didn’t help that even the ancient elves left behind texts corroborating that statement, and, from what I’ve read, mages tend to revere them as the pinnacle of magical knowledge.

“But humans not being able to use three-dimensional magic spheres is just a fact of biology. It’s been well studied throughout history, and the conclusion makes perfect sense. We’re missing an essential component in our genes that the ancient elves possessed. For example, no matter what I do, I won’t be able to instantly create fully formed magic circles like Ardea Regis does. It’s the same with the ancient elves and their magic spheres.”

Alice looked discouraged, “Oh… that’s too bad. I thought that things would have been so much easier if you could just get the mana you need with no problems.”

Cadmus nodded sincerely, “I agree. If such a thing was possible, I wouldn’t even need to be here.”

Honestly, it was more than a little annoying, having to participate in all these activities just to obtain the laurite and research materials he wanted. If the Academy could just hand him those things, he would be able to grant them spells the world had never seen in no time.

That sounded like a win-win situation to him. It was too bad the Academy didn’t work that way.

The other Academy staff member who had accompanied the one maintaining the shield spoke up, pulling Cadmus out of his thoughts.

“Hello, I will be serving as the referee today,” he said, his firm voice carrying throughout the whole coliseum, most likely due to another sound-enhancing circle built into the ground, “The rules are simple. Once I say so, the battle will begin. The victor will be decided once one of you announces your surrender, or once I declare the battle over. That is all. Any questions?”

Elise raised a shaky hand, which oddly contrasted with the determined look on her face, “Will we lose if we step off the battlefield?”

It was a strange question, since the stone battlefield on which they were standing was very large: it could probably fit more than a hundred people upon it. However, seeing Ardea’s stony expression twist slightly, Cadmus knew that she and Elise were both most likely thinking of the same thing: Ardea’s battle against Rex Optime, and her subsequent defeat which had resulted from a simple ring-out.

The staff member shook his head, “As long as you remain within the bounds of the shield, you may step anywhere.”

Cadmus blinked. That was a far larger area than he had been expecting. The bounds of the shield covered the entire arena below, racetracks and all, so it was possible for both opponents to be literally several hundred meters apart at some point.

“Of course,” The staff member continued, “I will intervene if you only spend all your time just running away instead of engaging your enemy. But, that’s only if you do so in excess, and it most likely won’t come to that. Any more questions?”

Ardea kept her heavy gaze fixed on Elise while the latter minutely shook her head, looking as though she simply wasn’t capable of doing any more.

The staff member nodded in a satisfied manner, “Very well. Prepare yourselves then—and wait for my mark. We will begin shortly.”

Cadmus leaned forward. Though he had already seen both of them fight before, it would still be prudent to watch them both carefully. For all he knew, he could be matched up against either one of them later in the tournament.

It was heavy. The pressure from having every eye in the coliseum looking down upon her was immeasurably heavy for Elise Auxil. It was as though someone had placed her under the world’s largest waterfall, and it took all of her strength just to make sure her knees didn’t buckle.

Having Ardea glare her down from across her certainly didn’t help matters.

But, this was the battle Elise had been waiting for all this time. This was her chance to finally have Ardea acknowledge her power. Despite how nerve-wracking it was just standing under this sea of gazes, Cadmus had been right: this was her lucky day. The battle she had wished for, the battle that was never even promised to her, had arrived with a swiftness that surpassed even Connor Holland’s lightning spell.

Nevertheless, the pressure remained, so much so that she barely noticed both Acadamy staff members, the one maintaining the shield and the referee, retreat to the edge of the stands. The referee raised his hand high, and the remaining noise from the crowd died a slow death.

Elise shook her head slightly to get her focus back on track, and locked her own gaze onto Ardea’s. There would be no second chances here, and she would never forgive herself if she lost due to a lack of focus of all things.

A beat passed. Elise’s fingers, already in a position ready to draw, twitched. Then another beat. Elise took a deep breath.

And then—

“READY YOURSELVES!”

The crowd seemed to disappear—

“AND—BEGIN!”

Ardea and Elise burst into action at the same time. They both instantly raised their right arms to create their magic circles, but Elise took the additional step of leaping away from Ardea to create some distance between them.

As expected, Ardea’s magic circle shined into existence first while Elise was still in the midst of drawing her own. Any other mage would have panicked at this point, but Elise wasn’t worried.

Three [flame tigers] leapt from Ardea’s magic circle and rushed at Elise; but, just as they were about to reach her, Elise finished her own magic circle and swiftly pushed the appropriate amount of mana through it, bringing a large flowing wall of water to life right in front of her.

The [flame tigers] crashed against [water wall] and evaporated in a blast of steam. Probably. Elise couldn’t see over the wall to the other side, but she did hear the sizzling of steam, so she was most likely right.

“The [flame beast series],” Elise called over the wall, feeling strangely calm as she began drawing several new magic circles, “It has always been your preferred collection of spells, Your Majesty. And, when it comes to fighting single opponents, you have always preferred using [flame tigers] over the rest.”

Ardea didn’t say anything, but Elise knew a new attack was coming soon—a much bigger one this time. It was true, Ardea could simply flank her: not only would she have to use less mana that way, but [water wall] was just as rigid as [earth wall], meaning Elise would have to create a new one to defend against any flanking maneuvers.

But Ardea would never choose that option: efficiency of mana usage meant nothing to someone who had nearly unlimited reserves of mana. More importantly, Elise knew that Ardea preferred to demonstrate the full difference in power between her and her opponent whenever she could: the tactical value of the mental strain it put on her opponents could not be overstated.

That was why, when Elise spotted a portion of the large fiery body of Ardea’s snake-like [flame dragon] charge towards her and crash against her [water wall], she wasn’t surprised at all. The other side of the [water wall] was engulfed in a violent explosion of steam, but the [water wall] which should have collapsed against the [flame dragon]’s incredible power, stayed proudly standing—though there was no denying that it had shrunk significantly, and there were even large gaping holes in portions of the flowing wall.

Elise spotted Ardea’s shocked expression through one of those gaps, and pounced on the opportunity.

“I have served you as your aide for most of my life, Your Majesty,” Elise said, finishing up her third circle. Ardea could instantly create magic circles, so Elise had been using this chance to stock up on her own magic circles in order to keep up, “And in that time, I have only seen a handful of people who have managed to defeat you in battle—Rex Optime among them. Now that he has revealed a technique that allows even someone as untalented as me to rival you, did you really think I would be complacent enough to stay as useless as before?”

Elise saw Ardea’s eyes narrow and vanish behind the mending gaps of the [water wall].

“You…”

“Yes,” Elise called over the wall, drawing several lines to connect the outer edges of all her magic circles so that she could carry them as one, “I have identified the maximum mana limit of my magic circles, and have learned to risk that limit to strengthen my spells—just like Rex Optime!”

That was a lie.

Learning how to risk the maximum limit of a magic circle was a time-consuming and terribly difficult process. Even with all her effort and time being spent on learning this, Elise had only managed to learn how to maximize the power of two spells: [water wall] and [waterball] (both spells had been chosen with Ardea in mind, of course).

In all honestly, even with these two spells, Elise was in no way shape or form even close to utilizing their maximum power like Rex Optime. The size of the magic circle drawn, the thickness of the lines—basically, everything that the caster themselves created would have the most impact on how much mana the circle as a whole could handle. This much Elise could do, if she drew the circle exactly as practiced.

But environmental factors affected the mana limit of a magic circle as well, albeit to a very negligible extent. Rex Optime had the ability to make an estimate of how much impact those environmental factors had on his magic circles, but Elise could not, so reaching the complete maximum effectiveness of even just her two spells was out of her hands.

In other words, Elise could draw out most of the additional power from [water wall] and [water ball], but not all of it, like Rex could. And this was only the case if she drew those two magic circles exactly as practiced. If Elise were to draw the circles for [water wall] or [waterball] even just a tiny bit larger or smaller than practiced, or were she to draw their lines even a tiny bit thicker or thinner, the maximum limit would instantly become unknown to her.

But Ardea didn’t need to know that.

If there was one thing that Elise had learned by partnering up with Cadmus in the second round, it was that lies and bluffs could serve as highly effective weapons in a battle if used correctly.

Suddenly dropping the [water wall] (unlike [earth wall], it needed constant mana to maintain, and so could be dispelled just as easily), Elise added its circle to her collection and rushed at Ardea while she was still reeling from her shock. She separated one of the four magic circles from the rest, [magic sword], and poured mana through it before swinging it directly at Ardea’s torso.

But Ardea was an experienced combatant. Recovering quickly from her surprise, she looked as though she was about to create a spell of her own to block Elise’s blade, most likely a [magic sword], based on what Elise had seen her use in situations similar to these in the past. But then, Ardea hesitated for a split second and decided to leap back instead, taking a moderate scratch on the arm that drew blood as a consequence.

This was the sort of result that Elise had expected and hoped for.

When Ardea had fought Rex Optime, she had clashed [magic swords] with him, and had her blade cleanly sliced through due to him pushing his magic circle to the limit; there was no way she was going to risk that happening again.

Even if Ardea knew that Elise hadn’t had enough time to master all her spells like Rex had (which she probably did), she still couldn’t be sure which ones Elise had indeed mastered, and thus had to entertain her lie.

And due to that, for the first time, Ardea was on the backfoot. Elise couldn’t let this chance go to waste.

Elise pursued after Ardea before she could prepare a counterattack, and let loose a flurry of rapid swipes at her person. Ardea grimaced as she tried to dodge around Elise’s attacks and create some space, but it was not to be. Elise determinedly maintained her furious pressure, knowing that if she let Ardea go, her chances of victory would go with her.

Slowly, the cuts on Ardea’s body accumulated, and her grimace grew deeper and deeper. Elise made sure not to let it distract her, she made sure to let nothing distract her. The battle would be decided here and now… she would win, here and now—

“Enough!”

Ardea, without dodging, let Elise’s blade slice deeply into her left shoulder, but in return, she used that opportunity to create and activate the circle for [fireball] in an instant with her right hand. A brilliant ball of flame shot out, and Elise barely managed to avoid it by stumbling to the side.

Ardea tried taking advantage of this opening, but Elise was already prepared for this scenario: she pulled out the [waterball] magic circle from her collection and fired it the same instant Ardea fired her [fireball] again. They collided in the middle in an explosion of steam, but as they were spells of the same calibre, Elise’s significantly higher mana-charged [waterball] pierced through and struck Ardea right in the chest, sending her stumbling back.

The [waterball] had lost a lot of its mass and momentum in its collision with the [fireball], so it didn’t do much else to Ardea, but the slight disorienting was enough for Elise to connect the [waterball] circle back into the collection of other circles held in her left hand, and leap back onto the attack with her [magic sword].

“As I said!” Elise grunted, aiming her strikes to Ardea’s heavily injured left shoulder, “I have already learned how to risk the mana limit of all my spells! Your attacks will not reach me!”

Ardea stifled a cry of pain as one of Elise’s attacks met its target. She tried once more to disengage and create some space, but Elise would not allow it. She chased after her, and kept up her attack, and Ardea’s grimace almost seemed to take on a sad lilt.

“To think that you have prepared so thoroughly against me…”

Ardea paused for a split second, as though all the motivation had suddenly left her body, and using that opportunity, Elise struck directly at her chest. Ardea managed to dodge by leaping back at the last second, but Elise’s blade still struck true and inflicted a deep gash upon her.

Elise knew that this amount of damage probably wasn’t enough to defeat Ardea and chased after her, but even so, Ardea’s hand whipped up and the magic circle sprung to life, several [flame tigers] leapt out of it one after another, and Elise was finally forced to give up her chase and step back in order to pull out her [waterball] circle.

She managed to quickly dispatch the [flame tiger] due to her unerring accuracy, but it still took too much time. By the time Elise was done, Ardea had already created a [flame dragon], but instead of having it attack, she merely had it float in front of her like a menacing guard dog.

“To think that you would seek my defeat so earnestly…” Ardea said, unsteadily swaying slightly at her feet, most likely due to how much blood she had lost. “I never realized that you despised me to this extent.”

She looked as impassive as ever, but, perhaps due to the blood loss, or perhaps because Elise simply knew her that well, she could see the slight trace of sorrow in her frame.

Elise stared.

That’s not…

“Very well, then,” Ardea said, “I suppose a portion of the blame lies with me for never noticing your loathing for me. I will answer your feeling in kind, and face you properly as your enemy.”

I wasn’t…

Ardea took a breath and clamped down on her swaying out of sheer stubbornness, “Come. Let us end this properly.”

She commanded her [flame dragon] to charge forward, and Elise simply watched it approach for a second.

Then… something seemed to snap, and Elise burst into action.

“I have never once despised you, Your Majesty!” She said as she pulled out her [water wall] magic circle and cast it in front of her.

The [flame dragon] merely snaked over the flowing wall this time, but once it was at the apex of its curve, Elise let her spell collapse and rushed at Ardea. The [flame dragon] was much too high to swerve and stop her before she could get in a range where both she and Ardea would get damaged if it crashed against her, but there was still enough distance between her and Ardea for the latter to simply cast another [flame dragon].

In response, Elise cast another [water wall], feeling the drain in her mana acutely now. The new [flame dragon] was much too close to change direction this time, and ended up crashing against Elise’s [water wall].

Once again, Elise dropped her spell and resumed her charge, yelling as she ran through the blistering steam,

“I have always considered you worthy of my deepest respect! I would consider it an honour to continue serving you until the day I die!”

Ardea’s eyes widened.

“But—!” Elise pulled out the circle for [magic sword] and swung her newly created blade, “You have never once thought of me as someone worthy enough to follow you! You have never once treated me as someone you can trust—someone you can look upon with even a fraction of the respect that I give you!”

The [magic sword] sliced through Ardea’s circle for [flame dragon], but Ardea managed to obtain some distance in time.

“You stated to Guiles that those rivals who are worthy enough to face you must always remain your enemies!” Elise said as she chased after Ardea, “I will defeat you here and now, and prove that I too am worthy enough to be your rival!”

Ardea grimaced again, “I never meant—”

“Your words were spoken with honesty back then, Your Majesty! Don’t try to change them now!” Elise said as she was suddenly assaulted by a barrage of [fireballs]. She cut through them with ease and continued her charge.

“No, it was not my intention—”

“No matter your intentions, your true feelings were made clear!”

Ardea backpedaled, looking as though she was struggling to speak, “No—those were not my—those words were never meant to apply to you!”

“WHY NOT?”

“BECAUSE I NEVER WISHED TO CONSIDER YOU MY ENEMY!”

Elise finally caught up, slicing through Ardea’s [fireball] magic circle, but Ardea created another [magic sword] just in time, and instead of clashing against Elise directly—where her blade had the potential to be sliced cleanly through like in her battle during Rex Optime—she pushed the flat of her blade against Elise’s blade and swept her aside using her own momentum.

Elise tried recovering her balance, but before she could, a magic circle for [flame tiger] instantly shined into existence in Ardea’s hand, and she fired it against Elise at point-blank range. The [flame tiger] exploded, damaging them both, but mostly damaging Elise, and wiping out all her magic circles as it sent her tumbling to the ground.

Elise’s chest burned, but even so, she tried to scramble to her feet. She could still do it, she could still win—

Three [flame tigers] slowly circled her, looking ready to pounce, and the heat from their fiery bodies made her sweat.

It was over. This was the end.

“You… are my sole friend, Elise,” Ardea said, her face twisting in frustration as her crimson eyes blazed with sincerity, “And that is why I have always hoped that we would never have to stand on opposite sides of the battlefield.”

“But here we are,” Elise said, frustratedly biting her lower lip, “And I’ve lost, proving that I’m still worthless.”

“No. If anything, you have proven the opposite,” Ardea said, gesturing at the bloody gashes on her shoulder and chest, “I wished to protect you and have you stay behind me forever, but somewhere along the way, I forgot that you are a powerful mage in your own right. I… apologize, Elise. I should not have disregarded you so.”

Elise’s eyes prickled warmly, and the referee announced,

“Victor: Ardea Regis!”

The coliseum erupted into a cacophony of ear-splitting noise.

Cadmus watched as the crowd cheered, and soon they began chanting Elise’s name, with the announcer yelling over them,

“WHAT A SPECTACULAR SHOWING! WHAT AN UNEXPECTED RESULT! THIS MATCH WILL BE TALKED ABOUT IN AGES TO COME! WHO COULD HAVE EVER EXPECTED ELISE AUXIL TO CAUSE SUCH AN UPSET LIKE THIS? ARDEA REGIS WON, BUT ELISE AUXIL GAVE AS GOOD AS SHE GOT!”

“I have to admit, I never expected this either,” Oliver said softly, looking shocked, “To think that Auxil could land even a single attack—let alone so many—on the Dragon Princess herself…”

Cadmus nodded, “It wasn’t about power, it was simply that Elise knew Regis so well that she was able to plan out the entire battle beforehand. Which was why, when the plan went even slightly awry, she lost instantly.”

“You helped her too, didn’t you?” Oliver said, glancing at him, “It’s too bad. The plan you guys came up with was pretty good—even I thought that Ardea was going to lose—but it looks like it was just shy of enough.”

Cadmus raised a confused eyebrow, “Help? What do you mean?”

Oliver blinked and turned to look at Cadmus directly, “Didn’t Alice say that you offered to help her? Wasn’t Auxil’s entire battle plan made by you two?”

Cadmus shook his head, his gaze returning to Elise, who was speaking to Ardea with tears in her eyes as members of the Academy Staff loaded her up onto a stretcher (it seemed the sound-enhancing magic had been stopped, so no one could hear what they were saying), “Not at all. Indeed, I offered to help, but…”

“…Shall I tell you how to defeat her then?”

Elise blinked, “Are you saying you have a sure method of defeating her?”

“I’m saying that, if you tell me what skills you possess, I can create an ideal strategy for you that will allow you to defeat her.”

“…And you’re sure you can come up with something?” Elise asked finally.

Cadmus felt his lips stretch into a slight smile, “Of course, that is the only way I know how to fight, after all.”

Elise seemed to give it some thought, and then, with what seemed like great difficulty, she spoke,

“I… I would want more than nothing to ask you to come up with something to help me win…”

“Then—”

“But,” Elise’s profile seemed to straighten as the glint of determination suddenly shined brightly in her brown eyes, “If I were to do that, there would be no meaning to my victory. However I fight Her Majesty, I must do so myself.”

Cadmus frowned. He didn’t quite understand the reason behind her resolve, but he could tell that she would not change her answer.

“…Understood.”

“…And so we left it at that,” Cadmus finished, “Everything Elise achieved against Regis today, she achieved under her own power.”

Oliver looked strangely pensive. He turned back to watch Elise finally be carted off by members of the Academy staff, and finally let loose a thoughtful,

“Huh.”

He didn’t seem to want to speak anymore, so Cadmus left him be. Alice seemed similarly thoughtful, but instead of staying silent, she looked up at Cadmus and asked,

“Would your plan have been better? If Elise had accepted your offer for help back then, could you really have come up with something that would have allowed her to defeat Ardea?”

Cadmus noticed that both Candice and Oliver’s curiosities had been piqued by Alice’s question, but all he could offer them was a shrug.

“I don’t know. Elise refused to reveal all of her abilities to me back then, so I haven’t had nearly enough time to consider all of her options,” he explained, “Maybe if I had more time and more information, I could give you a better answer.”

“Oh…” Alice said, looking disappointed.

Cadmus spoke again, watching as Ardea declined medical help on the spot and followed after Elise, “I will say this though, I had only thought of Elise as a threat to Ardea because she knew her so well. I would have been reluctant to call her the same against any other opponent. But, I never expected these kinds of tactics from her; as she is now, I would certainly be wary of facing her as well.”