Now that they had found the beacon orb, Elise let out a brief yet deep sigh of relief, before immediately preparing to head out again. They had only completed half of this round’s task after all.

However, before she could take a single step, Alice asked, “Can’t we rest here for a while? We’re still only on the third day, so we have plenty of time.”

For a second, Elise wondered why Alice even wanted to take a break: she had spent most of the second round inside Cadmus’ breast pocket. However, then Elise realized that Alice hadn’t requested a break for herself, she had requested it for Cadmus.

In all the excitement of finding the beacon orb, Elise had failed to notice that Cadmus’ breathing was heavier than usual, not to mention the subtle trembling in his legs. Honestly, they really hadn’t walked for long enough to make a person in even just decent shape very tired, but perhaps all the constant activity from the past two days combined with Cadmus’ already terrible physical prowess was taking its toll.

Still, Elise wanted to continue moving. They just had to push a little further to pass this round. Surely… surely Cadmus could endure for just a little longer…?

Elise opened her mouth to make her case, but Cadmus spoke before she could.

“No, we don’t have time to take a break,” Cadmus said, to Elise’s great surprise. He held up the beacon orb in his hands, “This thing… have you noticed how it’s far brighter than when Professor Mackenzie showed it to us at the start of the round?”

Elise had indeed noticed that. The blue light within was pulsating periodically in the same way as back then, but the intensity of the light was far greater now—almost blinding, when before it had merely been ‘bright’.

“Professor Mackenzie said that they had turned it down to its ‘lowest setting’,” Cadmus said, looking troubled, “But looking at how much brighter it is now, I think they’ve been turning it up bit by bit. I don’t know if they can do it remotely or not, but I don’t want to wait and find out.”

“You think the organizers have been making the beacon orbs brighter?” Elise asked, “But why?”

“Oliver said that the Twin Peaks Magical Tournament is one of the most anticipated events of every year,” Cadmus explained, “But the audience only gets to watch the last round. The organizers have set up twelve beacon orbs in this forest, and I imagine that they want to make sure that all of them are found. As the round goes on, they probably want to make these orbs easier and easier to find, so that exactly twenty-four participants move on to the next round.”

“And… how bright do you think these beacon orbs can get?” Elise asked.

Cadmus shrugged, “I don’t know, but it is called a ‘beacon orb’. If it can get bright enough to function as a beacon, then…”

He didn’t need to explain further. Elise could already imagine being on the move with a brightly flashing beacon orb announcing their position to everyone in the forest. In a situation like that, escape—let alone escaping unscathed—from the multiple teams targeting them would become a terribly difficult feat.

“Let’s cover it up for now,” Cadmus said, storing the orb in his thick, flowing cloak’s sleeve. At the very least, the cloak managed to dampen the beacon orb’s light. “Hopefully, they can’t control the beacon orb remotely. But, I have no way to make sure, so we just have to leave this forest before it’s too late.”

Elise swallowed back her nervousness, schooled her expression into one of resolve, and nodded.

Unfortunately, despite Cadmus’ words, he was still tired, and his physical ability was still dismal, so they couldn’t just take off running. They had to walk through the forest at a painfully slow pace, during which time Elise kept glancing at Cadmus’ glowing sleeve worriedly to see whether any observable change had occurred.

Worse yet, they had to traverse through uneven ground, since Cadmus had firmly declared that they would no longer follow the river. Elise had been reluctant to part with a source of water, but she had to admit that Cadmus’ worries were right: with the beacon orb in hand, they could no longer stick to a location as open as the river—especially since many other teams would flock to it with the same thought of it being a water source. It simply wasn’t worth the risk.

Perhaps most surprising of all, Orange had followed after them, even though Alice had told him that he’d already upheld his end of the bargain. Perhaps Orange didn’t understand what Alice was saying, but he was just following after their group instead of leading them now, so Elise suspected that he was just sticking around because he found them interesting or something.

Cadmus, choosing to take advantage of this, told Alice to ask Orange where the nearest exit to the forest was. Orange nudged his head in a specific direction, and though they still weren’t sure whether he’d understood their question properly, they still decided to go that way because it seemed to be a better option than to just randomly pick a direction and start moving that way till they hit the edge of the forest.

As they walked, Elise led the way and Cadmus followed closely behind, most of his attention still focused on his magic circle. At times, he would test it out on some of the greenery around them, but it never seemed to do anything.

They continued their journey like this for a while, but, when the sun began to set, Elise was forced to call for them to stop. It wasn’t the setting sun that was the problem (though it probably would be later), it was the fact that Cadmus could clearly no longer continue on. His entire body was sweating and trembling as though he had just run a marathon, he could barely keep his eyes fixed on his magic circle, and he kept stumbling everywhere (even more than usual). This had caused their pace to slow to a crawl, so even if they did keep moving, they wouldn’t get very far before they would have to set up camp for the night.

“I know that we’re in a hurry, but continuing on like this helps no one,” Elise said sternly, “If we encounter any enemies, you won’t be able to escape in your current state.”

Cadmus took a few moments to catch his breath before he spoke, “Perhaps… you’re right.”

With that, he let himself collapse on the ground right then and there, and Elise would bet anything that he was at least slightly regretting his choice not to follow the river, parched as his lips looked.

On account of his tremendous tiredness, Cadmus was not able to help set up the fire or gather the food, so the job fell entirely on Elise this time. To be honest though, Cadmus had merely collected the firewood before, so taking on his portion of the work as well wasn’t that much of a problem.

Still, it took a while, and by the time Elise had returned to Cadmus’ position with the gathered fruits, mushrooms, and firewood; three-fourths of the sun had dipped below the surface of the world, dousing the entire forest in a fast-fading reddish-orange.

Perhaps owing to their two days of experience with this, the setting up of everything went far faster this time, and by the time the sky had shifted into an inky black littered with stars, they were already cooking their tasteless mushrooms over the fire.

“It’s lucky you know all this,” Alice said as she watched Cadmus slowly rotate his skewer, “I doubt Oliver would have known how to identify edible food and stuff, and Cadmus… well, the only practical skills he’s good at have to do with magic. Without you here, this round would have been way harder for us.”

Elise smiled thinly, looking at Cadmus, “But, like you said, you would have figured something out, right?”

Cadmus nodded, “Yes. However, that doesn’t mean it would have been easy. You have been an exceptional partner, Elise. It’s because of you that we were able to find a beacon orb on only the third day. I’m immensely grateful to you.”

Elise’s cheeks warmed a little at the praise. Having no words to respond with, she simply dipped her head with all the professionalism she had.

…He was similar—similar to Ardea. It was a thought that had made itself known every now and then throughout this round, and it was a thought that had only grown stronger when she had realized his true nature. Sure, Ardea didn’t think of victory exactly like Cadmus, but they seemed to share a similar sense of arrogance.

Or at least, that’s what she had thought. Yes, their arrogance was similar, but they were also so incredibly different. Those narrow eyes of his, which always seemed to be tinted red under the influence of fire, looked so clearly green now.

“I asked to partner up with you for a selfish reason,” Elise found herself saying, “I didn’t simply choose to ask you on a whim.”

She didn’t know why she was revealing this. But, for some reason, she couldn’t help but remember this afternoon, when Cadmus had so strangely denied his obvious love for magic. He had revealed a side of him back then that she had never seen, even if he wasn’t aware of it himself. Wasn’t it only fair to reveal a side of herself as well?

At the very least, she owed them both—Alice and Cadmus—an explanation.

“My goal… is to defeat her Highness during this tournament.”

Cadmus smiled wryly, “You’re not the first person to have said that.”

Elise shook her head, “No, I don’t want to defeat her because she’s powerful. I just… you remember what she said to you, don’t you? ‘Those rivals who are worthy to face me must always remain my enemies’. To her, I’m not worthy enough to be a rival.”

Cadmus and Alice remained silent, both looking unsure of what to say.

“I first noticed it when Everett Preasse revealed himself to us in Lorem forest,” Elise continued, “Her Highness told me and Lady Regis to retreat, but she accepted your help, because she considered you worthy enough to help. And, from that point on, whenever she talked about you, or Arthur, or Lancelot, or any of the other scholarship students, there was always this… spark in her eye. It’s like you guys are competing with each other on a completely different field, leaving the rest of us unexceptional students out.”

“B-but, you’re a scholarship student too, right?” Alice asked.

Elise smiled humourlessly, “I am, but I didn’t receive the same scholarship as Cadmus—which is a full scholarship. The Academy also offers partial scholarships, which they’re far more liberal with. You only need to fulfill two conditions to receive it: One—the recipient must not be a noble, and two—the recipient must show good potential for growth. I fulfilled both requirements, so that’s what I received.”

She narrowed her eyes at the fire, simultaneously trying to avoid seeing how Cadmus and Alice had chosen to react after hearing her shameful revelation, while also steeling her resolve,

“But, I don’t want it to end like that—with Her Highness considering me a mere follower. Even though I wasn’t offered the same scholarship as her, even though I don’t have her immense talent, I still want her to acknowledge my power. At least once, I want to defeat her and stop her from disregarding me.”

There was a thoughtful silence for a while after her proclamation. And then, Cadmus asked,

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

Elise blinked, taking a moment to process the question before looking at Cadmus in the eyes.

“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.”

As usual, despite saying such a ludicrous thing, Cadmus looked absolutely confident in his words.

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

Cadmus' lips stretched into a slight smile.