"Edgar, Rath!?" She scoffs at the student with almost silvery hair, "What's the Scion of House Rath want to do with a nobody like him?!"

The Nelgarian boy smirks.

"I told you, right? He's my classmate. Do I need to have a justification to save my classmates, Scion of Augustus? Besides…" Edgar pats Kayrus' right shoulder. "He's not exactly a nobody, isn’t he? After all, he’s the Archmagus Augustus’ Apprentice, he’s practically his heir."

"SHUT UP!"

She raises her wand, now back in its original form, and points it at the Nelgarian student.

“He is not the heir, and never will be!” she yells.

She swings her wand to the side immediately unleashing three fireballs at once at the two boys. However, facing this threat, the Nelgarian doesn't lose his calm smile.

Edgar raises his wand, a metallic rod that looks more like a small crowbar than a wand. He points that iron wand of his to the incoming fireballs, and circles of water immediately float in front of them. Naturally, when the fireballs hit those instead, they're immediately extinguished as quickly as a burning match inside a bowl of water.

"Your fire seems colder now, Augustus girl, what's the matter? Too tired now?" He taunts her.

"Kuh…Shut up!"

Two more fireballs are flying out of thin air from her wand, each of them flying in a more snake-like path now, trying to confuse Edgar’s defense by obscuring from which direction they’re going to hit. But the Nelgarian already anticipates this tactic for this time he instead envelopes both himself and Kayrus inside a dome-like structure made of water, shielding them from the fireballs that finally come from their rear and left flank.

“From someone who claims she’s the heir to one of The Ten families, this is honestly a subpar performance, Augustus,” Edgar smirks at the girl after he dismantled his dome shield.

Helena glares back at him for that taunt.

“I’ll show you Nelgarian, THE TRUE POWER OF AN AUGUSTUS!!!”

She swings her wand above her head like a circle. Soon, a fireball appears above her, one that grows larger and larger with each circular motion she does.

"Okay, she’s completely lost it this time." Comments Edgar. He then turns to Kayrus. "You best step back now."

"What?"

"Just step back for a bit. I need some space for this one."

Seeing he has no reason not to, Karyus steps back a few feet from his classmate.

Edgar then holds his wand with both hands and points it upwards above his head. At the same time, his wand glows blue, and suddenly a large pool of water forms around his feet. And the more he holds his wand like that, the larger and deeper the pool becomes.

Meanwhile, Helena's fireball has now grown into a ridiculous size, three times the size of an adult man and almost as bright as day, dwarfing its master below whose motion becomes slow and heavy. The sheer size of the spell clearly drains her energy, and she's going to unleash that spell soon.

"This will be tight…" mutters Edgar.

"King's Flame: Fury!"

And then, Helena directs her wand to the two Bea students, along with the huge fireball that flies with scorching heat. It is so powerful in fact, that even with a bit of distance Kayrus can still feel the heat of its fire.

"Edgar!" Shouts Kayrus when the fireball flies closer at them.

"I know! Don't worry!"

In one quick but powerful motion, Edgar crouches down and stabs his wand into the pool of water below.

"Cold Hands!"

At that spell's command, dozens or so giant hands made of water grow out of the water pool. Those hands working together manage to slow the incoming fire projectile flying towards them. Only slowing it, for the fireball's power is stronger than even it was expected.

"I'm not done yet, Suffocate!" Shouts Edgar.

In a single unison, the hands tighten their grips and push harder against the fireball, finally managing it to stop. But the spell doesn’t just end there, for the giant water hands then combine themselves into an even larger hand, one that dwarfs the fireball. With its giant size, it buries the fireball inside of its fist. The almost instantaneous extinguishment of the flame results in an explosion of superheated steam, one that is only barely contained by the body of the water hand, and turning it into a small shower of warm water above that covers the small area where the fight is.

“I’m in awe, Augustus, you’re tougher than I first thought,” says Edgar after waving his wand to keep the water from drenching him and Kayrus. “But it looks like you’re in no condition to continue our dance, isn’t it?

True to his words, Helena is looking much worse than before the fight started. With her whole body being drenched from the water, her face and hair look pale and messy. With her head hanging down, she is still desperately trying to catch her breath. Anyone can see that she is in no condition to continue fighting.

“Shut up…” she says back at him. She has no energy left to even shout back. “I’m the one who decides when this fight is over.”

“Don’t be stupid, Augustus girl. You know it won't end well for all of us if we keep this up. Especially you.”

“Shut…up….”

Edgar shakes his head. “You truly are a Scion of Augustus, you have that die-hard stubbornness like most of them are. This is why your enemy has a lot of enemies. Be nice, will you?”

“That’s mightily hypocritical of you, Rath…”

“At least I have the self-awareness for that, why do you think I asked you to stop?”

“I don’t know,” Helena raises her head, “maybe because you’re a coward.”

“In the eyes of the fools, caution is cowardice. Are you a fool, Augustus?”

“Don’t make me laugh, I-”

But Helena doesn’t have the chance to utter her rebuttal, for her entire body suddenly leans over and falls to the ground. She falls unconscious.

“Helena!” screams Edgar rushing to her aid, with Kayrus not far behind him.

“Is she okay?” asks Kayrus when the two boys reach her body.

“Yeah, she’s fine..” answers Edgar. “She just overexerts herself, casting more spells than her body could handle, especially that last one. She just needs some rest, that's all.”

“Good.” Kayrus nods his head, feeling relieved. However, Kayrus then turns his sight on his classmate, giving him a sharp glare in the process. “Because now I want to ask you some other questions.”

Edgar doesn’t look back at his classmate, but instead picks up Helena’s body and carries her with both hands.

“I know, how I suddenly managed to help you, right? To cut things short, I followed you here. As for the reason,” he looks over Helena’s sleeping face before turning back to Kayrus, “That, unfortunately, has to wait. I need to take care of the Sleeping Princess here first.”

“Fine…” says Kayrus, despite clearly looking he still has some suspicion about his classmate. “Let me help you with that.”

But Edgar refuses Kayrus’ offer for help, and the silver-haired student shakes his head.

“I can do it myself, the Clinic Hall is not that far from here. Besides, you have something much more important to worry about.”

“What do you mean?”

“You haven’t realized it yet?” he looks around, “our fight was rather noisy, and yet no one among the faculty or the security, the IDs, arrived to check. Don’t you think it’s weird? It’s almost as if-

“Someone allowed this fight to happen.”

“That’s right,” Edgar nods his head, “And whoever it is, it’s got to be someone high up in the food chain to be able to order the IDs not to interfere. Whoever it is, I think you should return back to the dorm right now.”

“I guess you’re right. I understand…”

Just as Kayrus is about to leave Edgar with Helena, however,

“Right, one more thing,” he turns back, “About this fight, if it’s possible-”

“To keep it a secret? Don’t worry about that, only the three of us will know about this. It’s the best for all of us, after all.”

Feeling reassured in that front, Kayrus finally walks away from that area and back to the boy’s dormitory. Edgar, as he said before, is also carrying Helena away in the direction of the Clinic Hall.

Finally, the fight in that secluded place is over, with Kayrus only managing to survive thanks to the unexpected help of the mysterious pocket watch, and the timely intervention of his classmate. All participants of the fight have now left the area…

And yet, some people still remain in that place, for stepping out of the shadow of the trees is the female figure of an Imitation Doll with a bun of black hair, Leinna. Observing the surrounding area with her pair of black eyes, she pulls out from inside her robe a device in the shape of a small silver-grey box.

“Situation Report: Subject K has left the area, and subject A has been evacuated by Subject R to the Clinic Hall. No sign of any of them noticing the observation, and no witnesses either. Logged to the observation note, the Shield function of the Seal Key has been activated, anticipating the activation of other functions. of the item” She speaks to the device in a hushed monotonous voice.

A buzzing voice is heard talking back from the device.

“Understood, we will continue the observation, Archmagus. Unit LN-001, out.”

She puts back the device into her robe, and after looking over to one particular direction of the trees and hedges, she walks away as if nothing happened. As time passes, and the ID is finally nowhere in sight, two men come out of their place of hiding: the very same spot of trees and hedge the Imitation Doll just looked over.

“Do you think she knows about us?” asks the man with the black slicked back hair, Stefan, to his partner.

“I doubt that, if she was, she would have attacked us already.” replies the other man, Maximilian. “Let’s go, we need to report back to Charleone right now, things are going to be complicated.”

“Why?”

“Simple,” says Maximillian, “There are currently only two Archmaguses aboard this ship. One is our Charleone, who obviously doesn't trust an ID enough to keep an eye on Kayrus like this. So that only leaves the other one...”

“The Principal..”