The day of the last mission before winter break arrived far too soon, Rin felt. On that Monday morning, Rin woke up with most of the muscles in her body feeling just slightly sore from training so hard. She hoped it would be worth it when it came time to do whatever this next mission required.

Putting on her usual armor, Rin walked out of her room just before it would normally be time for the next class with a serious expression and a determined stride. The other students were already outside with their teachers.

As Rin exited the building, she stood at the back and crossed her arms. Cara noticed her and nodded to herself. Eve flew over to Rin as she saw her as well.

"Holy crap, holy crap!" Eve said, flying in circles around Rin. "This is it!"

"Yeah... Can't believe the day's already here. This term just sort of flew right by us."

"Yeah, I mean, look at you!" She said, gesturing at Rin's body. "You look so strong!"

"I guess," Rin replied with a slightly embarrassed chuckle. It was certainly true that, if one looked past her massive rack, one would find a very toned body. It felt like only yesterday that Rin could almost be described as almost chubby.

"On my end," Eve added, "I think so much excruciating exercise has made me look just a little more colorful, huh?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes dramatically.

"If you got any more colorful you'd almost be annoying to look at," Rin replied with a smirk.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Cara finished scribbling some notes as Eve said that and cleared her throat. Gaining the attention of the students up ahead, she spoke up.

"Alright, everyone's here. Today, we're going to be doing more duo missions. You can pick a partner if you want to, or we can just assign you to someone. If you do pick a partner, make sure it's someone you trust, though. This mission might take a while. Once you're done picking, I'll tell you what we're doing today. One of you will end up alone, given the number of students. Don't worry, whoever does is coming with me."

Immediately, some of the students were looking around for familiar faces to tag along with. Naturally, Eve and Rin's eyes went to each other.

However, before the two of them made today's partnership official, someone else tapped Rin's shoulder.

As she turned, she found Elisa standing there, with her hands on her hips and her two greatswords crossed on her back.

Rin froze.

"Hey," Elisa said, as Eve's eyes widened next to Rin.

"Uh... Hey," Rin replied somewhat quietly. It wasn't that she was feeling shy. Despite her crush, she and Elisa had talked enough by now to where she could hold a conversation with her without turning into a tomato. It was that she was simply surprised. She'd expected the noblewoman to find someone else.

That wasn't what Elisa had in mind, though.

"Wanna tackle this together?" The sunlight-haired woman asked her, giving her a wink.

"Really?" Rin immediately asked. "I-I mean, you... You want to?"

"Yes," Elisa answered quickly. "We... We might not get the chance to again, after all."

The instant she said that, understanding dawned on Rin.

[... She's right,] Rin thought. [She's getting married soon.]

Rin glanced over at Eve, who quickly said something before Rin could.

"It's okay if you do this one with her," Eve stated, waving whatever concern Rin was showing away. "We already did a mission together."

"Are you sure?" Rin asked.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll find someone."

With that being said, the fairy just flew away. Disappearing past the other students' bodies, Rin was left with only Elisa to speak with.

"Uh, alright then," Rin said, a little smile slowly appearing on her face. "Let's do it."

At that moment, Elisa breathed what seemed like a sigh of relief, though, maybe Rin was misreading her.

"Nice. I guess I'll get to show off for my roommate a little."

"Oh?" Rin arched a brow. "Is that why you wanted to team up? You wanted to impress me?"

"That's part of it."

[... I might not survive this trip,] Rin thought. She wasn't exactly referring to any of the potential monsters she could be fighting.

It took a couple of minutes before everyone had their partners. Varyn asked Sara, who simply accepted with a bored expression. Lisa asked Dylan and Alea teamed up with Seth. That meant that, unfortunately, despite what she'd said, Eve ended up alone.

Rin was a bit too distracted, however, by the beautiful woman standing next to her to think about that too hard.

"Okay, everyone's got someone?" Cara asked, before she quickly identified Eve, hovering by her lonesome. "Eve, you're with me. Now, listen up."

All of the chattering ceased as soon as the Rank A adventurer said that. She cleared her throat again and finally let them know what they'd be doing today.

"You'll be visiting a mountain to the southwest," she began to say. "If you've ever ridden the train to Dren, then you may have seen it, though you probably didn't think too much of it. Well, that mountain is infested with monsters," Cara stated. "It's called Dagger's Peak, and it's a massive place where it's believed that a large amount of Essence came together to form... chaos."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alea asked, her arms crossed as she stood next to Seth.

"It means that things make no sense," Cara responded quickly. "Snow, sand, and verdant woods. You'll find all of it there, as a result of the Essence that's concentrated in that area. We've told you before, right? Essence can mess with reality itself, hence why we can use it to shoot fire out of our hands."

[I mean, yeah, but can Essence really manipulate things to that extent? On its own? On a whim?] Rin thought.

"Now, I need to be clear about this," Cara continued, "you will be taking a marked path. There's a specific side of the mountain that only has Rank D monsters. Do *not* pass to the other side, alright? You'll find Rank C monsters you're not ready to fight. Stay on course, and stick to the paths we marked for you."

"Your task is simple," Maria said, following up on Cara's statements. "Make it to the top of the mountain, in whichever way you can."

Her eyes went to Rin as she said that last part. Rin took that to mean she had full permission to use her [Spirit Flame]. It was also a reminder to use her bread-and-butter techniques.

"With my exception, of course, since I'll be acting as Eve's partner, we won't be assisting you here," Cara declared. "We won't be helping at all. You either make it to the top or retreat back to the bottom and we'll find you on our way back to the academy."

[If whoever gets hurt is still alive,] Rin added.

"We want to simulate a real mission for you," Cara said. "So, you will not be receiving any help. This goes without saying, but, be extra careful."

"Treat every fight you get into like the life-or-death situation that they will be, okay? Are we clear?" Eli, their limit-breaking teacher, added. Even his eyes looked a little more serious today.

"Don't go walking over any rune traps," Harriton said, giving them a thumbs-up. "Though, if you do, I guess we'll end up finding out who's been paying attention in class."

A few of the students chuckled at that and Cara soon got their attention again.

"Is everyone ready?"

One by one, the students all affirmed that they were. Rin and Elisa shared a little look before Cara nodded at them all.

"Alright. Let's head out."

Just like that, it was time. This would be their last mission before winter break. Before they could officially begin taking real missions on their own.

Rin was both excited and deathly afraid of what could happen.