For the next few days, Cadmus roamed around the campus, trying to find people to challenge to a duel so that he could at least raise his number of points again. However, for some reason, no one was willing to accept. Whenever he asked them, they would look a little frightened and quickly excuse themselves.

He’d even gone to Rex Optime again.

“Seriously? You’re going to challenge me again, despite seeing just how outclassed you are?” Rex asked.

Cadmus shrugged, “I will admit that you are highly skilled. However, as I stated, I will not lose.”

Rex sighed, “I’d accept, but… after that battle with the Dragon Princess, I think I just want to rest for a while. Sorry.”

Cadmus felt a small surge of irritation, but there was nothing he could do if his opponent didn’t want to fight. So, with a polite goodbye, he left.

As a few more days passed, his frustration steadily built up. How was he supposed to earn more points when no one was accepting his challenges?

As though the world had heard his frustration, the very next day, all the first years were gathered into the main hall for an announcement.

“Yo, brats,” Professor Mackenzie greeted, taking her place behind the podium and drawing a magic circle to enhance her voice, “We’re about to take a week-long trip to Lorem forest in about three days, so prepare yourselves. We’ll be teaching you all how to survive in the wild for the first two days, and then we’ll leave you to it for the rest of the week. There’ll be a set of optional challenges that you can complete in that time, which if you do, you will receive up to two-hundred points.”

The whole hall broke out into a mass of murmurs and whispers. A lot of it was just a bunch of complaining. A significant portion of this Academy were nobles after all. Having to retrieve their own food from the canteen was a hard enough adjustment for them, and now they had to try surviving out in the wilds? Now that was just preposterous.

Of course, this was tremendously good news for Cadmus. While two-hundred points would only be enough to bring him back into the ranks of the top fifty, Cadmus was sure that this wasn’t going to be the only activity to offer them points. If he could earn the most points possible from every single activity sent their way, and stacked them, then, by the end of the first year, he would probably have enough points to be able to make it into the top ten.

“We’ll be providing you with most of the supplies you need there,” Professor Mackenzie said, “So make sure to only bring a few pairs of clothes. Also, most importantly, make sure not to spread this information. Our destination must only be known to the people in this room. It’s for your own safety.”

Some of the first years nodded unenthusiastically.

That wasn’t good enough for Professor Mackenzie. She glared at them severely, “I don’t think you all understand. A lot of you are nobles, and therefore targets of all sorts of less than savoury individuals. If any of you spread this information on where this class is going to be, then you will be putting your, and your classmates’ lives in danger.”

Multiple people gulped, and everyone seemed to be taking Professor more seriously now.

“Do you understand?” She asked.

Nearly everyone gave some sort of confirmation this time.

Professor Mackenzie smiled grimly,

“Good.”

Once again, Cadmus was forced to wait for what felt like an excruciatingly long amount of time for the day he had been waiting for. If anything, this Academy had taught him more patience than magic.

This wasn’t a compliment.

When the day of their departure finally arrived, they were forced to wake up at the crack of dawn, and were escorted to a fleet of horse-drawn carriages.

Yawning and rubbing their eyes sleepily, students got into the carriages one by one. Cadmus and Oliver were waiting in line together, so they got into the same carriage, but the carriage could fit more than two people so two more students joined them.

One of those two students was a familiar, sturdily-built woman with tan skin and short blond hair. It was the really enthusiastic student that Professor Mackenzie seemed to like: Gelida Olvo.

The other student was a girl that strongly resembled Ardea Regis. She had the same long red hair—though she kept her’s loose, unlike Ardea who kept her’s tied into a ponytail—the same fair skin, and the same red eyes.

However, while Ardea’s clear eyes seemed to hold a tremendous amount of purpose in them, this girl’s eyes were always looking downward, as though avoiding everyone’s gaze. And while Ardea’s face was more angular and always seemed to carry a sharp look, this girl’s face was more round and seemed to give off a more unsure yet gentle feeling.

Most importantly though, she seemed to be very nervous right now. She kept eyeing Cadmus fearfully as though she thought he was going to turn into a vicious monster soon and eat her or something.

“Hello, I’m Gelida Olvo! You’re Oliver Vinari and Cadmus Guiles, right?” Gelida greeted cheerfully. She seemed far too energetic for this time in the morning.

Oliver, who was still half-asleep, seemed to snap awake, “You know my name?”

Gelida laughed, “Of course! I’ve memorized the names of most of the people in our year!” She turned to Cadmus and grinned even wider, “More importantly though, we two are the only people Professor Mackenzie recommended for a scholarship this year, so let’s do our best to make her proud!”

Cadmus politely nodded back. Now he understood why Professor Mackenzie was so familiar with Gelida.

Oliver turned to the other student, “And you are?”

The girl’s nervousness seemed to increase twelvefold at the question, but, after a few deep breaths, she answered with all the effort she could muster,

“M-my name is Candice Regis! P-pleasure to meet you!”

Cadmus raised an eyebrow, “Regis? Any relation to Ardea Regis?”

Candice nodded hesitantly. She tried to look him in the eyes, but then seemed to find them too scary, so she turned her gaze down to her knees,

“Y-yes… Ardea is my cousin on my father’s side. T-the king is my father’s brother.”

Cadmus remembered his first meeting with Ardea. She had been calm, purposeful, and filled with majesty. Most importantly though, he remembered Ardea’s duel with Rex Optime. Her talent with magic was nearly unmatched.

And then here was Candice Regis, a girl who stuttered at the beginning of every sentence and couldn’t even meet his eyes.

“…Are you sure?” Cadmus asked disbelievingly.

Candice seemed to take physical damage at his words,

“H-how mean!”

Then, she sighed slightly and gave a bitter smile,

“Although, I understand why you would say so. Unlike me, Ardea’s just so… queen-like. And she’s so good with magic as well… I, on the other hand, took two weeks to learn to draw a spell as simple as [fire] properly.”

Cadmus wasn’t sure what to say, and one look told him that Oliver and Gelida were in the same boat. It was then that Alice decided to pop out of his breast pocket.

“That’s alright, isn’t it?” Alice asked with an innocent tilt of her head.

Gelida and Candice stared at Alice with surprised expressions on their faces, but Alice continued speaking, either unfazed or not noticing their surprise,

“Recently, I was feeling unsure about myself as well. And that’s when Cadmus told me, ‘that’s why we’re in school’.” Alice gave Candice a determined smile, “If there’s something that we feel we’re lacking, then we’ll just put in all our effort to fix it! That’s what school is for, after all. It’s a place to learn!”

Candice looked a little stunned at Alice’s words. And then she smiled slightly,

“Your words are very encouraging. Thank you.”

Alice blushed a little in embarrassment, "O-oh, no worries. I just wanted to help."

Huh, Cadmus thought, these two were surprisingly similar...

“Oooh, you’re an actual homunculus!” Gelida fawned after a moment of silence, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Alice. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, it’s so good to meet you as well!” Gelida said with a cheerful wave, “So, when were you created? Do you…”

Cadmus tuned her out. He was still a bit sleepy, and Alice could answer her own questions. He closed his eyes, and drifted off in no time.

Cadmus awoke when he felt someone shaking him. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that it was Gelida.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at her questioningly.

“We’re about to reach our destination.”

Cadmus took a look outside of the carriage windows and noted that the sun had reached its zenith. To think he’d slept for this long…

After a few minutes, they came to a stop, and everyone exited the carriage. They were told to line up and wait so that the professors could do a headcount.

Cadmus took this opportunity to look around.

They were still just on the side of the main road, so there were a lot of carriages passing them by. There was also a grassy open plain across from them that swayed gently in the cool wind. On the other side, however, stood Lorem forest. It looked dark and dense with shrubbery and tall trees, but nothing too intimidating. There was even a well-enough defined path inviting them in.

“All right, brats, we’ll be splitting you up now,” Professor Mackenzie said once they were done with the headcount, “Each student will be assigned to a specific group. All the groups will be taught by one of us professors, just in different areas of the forest.”

The groups had probably been drafted on the way here, as Professor Mackenzie was reading off of a piece of parchment, announcing which student was in which group.

Cadmus was assigned to group one. He didn’t know most of his other groupmates very well, but there was one name he easily recognized.

Ardea Regis.

He winced. Hopefully things would go smoothly…