We Are Four

We are four.

Ethan shook the key in his hand.

"I've already secured us a place to sleep."

"H-how…?"

"That's a secret."

It was a keyring to some building he had wrangled out of the principal.

"It's probably in one of Thief School's unexplored spots. One of the abandoned buildings. Sweep and scrub it and it'll be a thousand times better than this place."

The doubt in Sera's heart washed clean away.

"Ethan…!"

"But don't get the wrong idea. If we don't fight the scramble, enrollment is off the table—and the path to that place will be sealed."

Sera's eyes sparkled like stars.

"You've got it all figured out…!"

"Sera Barakin."

"Y-yes!"

Ethan slipped the keys into his pocket.

"Would you rather spend your days with cobwebs, cockroaches, and ice-cold water? Or a clean school life with a soft bed and warm hot water?"

She clenched both fists and whirled them around.

"Obviously the bed and hot water!"

"Want to join my squad too?"

"I want to join…!"

Sera pursed her lips and spoke timidly.

"What do I have to do to make that happen?"

"It's not an easy path. I'm not sure you can handle it…"

"I-I'll do it! I'll do anything! I hate cockroaches!"

At Sera's fervent declaration, Ethan narrowed his eyes with grave seriousness.

"Good. The condition I set is—"

"Condition?!"

His mouth opened with solemn weight.

"From now on, every red… spicy vegetable side dish you receive from your family, I will be the one eating it."

The smile vanished from Sera's face.

"Th-that won't work…"

"Then there's nothing to be done. Negotiations are over."

"W-w-w-wait wait!!"

Sera seized the hem of Ethan's clothes as he rose from his seat.

"Let go. I never gave a thief permission to grab my clothes."

"What's that supposed to mean…! Uuu… what do I do…"

"Hesitation means you're already weighing gains against losses. Sera Barakin. I never realized you struggled so much with a decision of this easy difficulty."

"N-no I'm not!"

"I'm leaving. Plenty of people want into my squad."

Ethan shook her off and took hold of the doorknob.

Sera chewed her lip, eyes welling.

"I'll give them! I'll give them!"

She rose with clenched fists and pleaded pitifully.

"B-but without that I can't eat… leave me one plate…"

"Fine. When a crate arrives, I'll leave you one side-dish plate."

"Uuu…"

Though Sera's eyes glistened, Ethan sat back down looking thoroughly satisfied.

"And hand over the brown soup dish made from fermented beans as well."

"Eek!? How do you even know about my family's secret recipe…!"

"Also the dish where you mix various vegetables into rice and eat it."

"Uuu… those vegetables are only handled by our merchant guild…!"

Faced with the prospect of having every delicious food from her family stripped away, Sera felt like bursting into tears on the spot.

"I don't want to eat bugs… uuu…"

After listing every dish in a row, Ethan made her write them down and passed the food list back to her.

They smeared the sticky sap clinging to a cobweb onto a contract and pressed their fingerprints to it.

"…That concludes the negotiations. Any objections?"

"None… eww, gross…"

"Good. Then for this Dormitory Scramble, I'll specially include you in my squad."

"Th…anks…"

Wearing the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠face of someone who had lost everything, Sera sat down beside him.

"Sera Barakin. In this scramble, we will use a strategy no one has ever heard of."

"What is it…?"

In this damned school where you could only eat bugs and tree bark…

Having handed over precious foods that money alone could never buy,

Sera found herself looking forward to whatever magnificent tactical strategy would come out of Ethan's mouth.

Ethan opened his mouth with a serious look.

"We're going to do nothing for three days."

Sera's eyes went dead-fish blank again.

"…What?"

"I said we're going to do nothing."

"Why?"

"Just because."

"…"

He couldn't tell her yet—the plan might leak—but there was a reason for taking no action during the first three days of a four-day Dormitory Scramble.

That was when the home team's vigilance was at its absolute peak.

Unless it was the final day, the moment you infiltrated you would be discovered by the upperclassmen and dragged away.

I felt that bone-deep when I was in the Special Forces, operating as a KCTC infiltration team.

So in the meantime he planned to gather all kinds of information with Sera.

"What are you talking about!"

Sera, on the other hand, shuddered at the words that had just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠left Ethan's mouth.

She had signed away every scrap of food in a contract and was now doomed to bugs and tree bark—

and they were going to do nothing for three whole days of the scramble?

Th-this bandit bastard!

Her hands trembled.

After enrolling in this school, for the first time she found herself wondering whether assassinating a fellow freshman cadet was allowed.

We went down to the first floor and decided to find teammates first.

"No talent in your barracks?"

"Just looking at them, they're all kids who enrolled without even knowing what a thief is."

"Excellent friends, then."

"Huh? Why on earth…?"

Leaving Sera scratching her cheek behind him, Ethan decided to hunt down the talent he needed to recruit immediately.

"Sera Barakin. I'm certain there was one freshman with wings."

"Earlier she was muttering about being hungry and headed out the back door."

They had to chase her.

Cadets were already clustering together left and right. If someone else recruited that girl first, the difficulty of the Dormitory Scramble would skyrocket past all reason.

Ethan and Sera stepped out through the rear gate.

"…What is this? Glitter powder?"

"Star Dust."

Powder that looked like it belonged at a party venue trailed from the temporary dorm's back door all the way into the forest.

"Sera Barakin. This way."

"Got it."

Ethan followed the trail deeper into the woods until a small stream appeared.

"There she is."

A cadet with wings on her arms was squatting by the water's edge, digging in the dirt.

"What were you doing out here?"

At Ethan's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠question the cadet wearing a halo turned her head.

"I was gathering mushrooms for dinner."

Ethan pointed at what she held in her hand.

"That mushroom will kill you if you eat it."

"Oh, really?"

The haloed cadet went bweeegh and spat out whatever was in her mouth. The moment the mushroom fragment hit the ground—

Sizzle.

—it melted a hole straight through the soil.

"What the—! Are you okay?!"

"Ah, I'm fine… Even if I die, I just revive after three days…"

Sera clapped both hands over her mouth in shock, but Ethan remained utterly unfazed.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Iska."

"Race?"

"As you can see, angel half-blood."

Hearing the name, he guessed she was probably of House Aelos—the half-blood line of the archangel who once aided the hero that founded the empire.

"Iska Aelos, right?"

"Huh? How did you know?"

"I've got good instincts."

Ethan took hold of the halo, gave it a little shake, then asked,

"This the real thing?"

"…It's real, so I keep wearing it."

"Good."

He patted her on the shoulder.

"You're in. Join our squad."

"Whoa, nice. Looking forward to working with you."

Beside them, Sera—who had watched the entire exchange—froze like a statue.

"Huh? Huh-huh?"

"What's wrong, Sera Barakin?"

"N-no…"

She seemed to have lost the power of speech. Both of her pointed ears had gone so red they stood out against her dark-elf bronze skin.

"Why… why…"

She trembled, then cried out as if wronged.

"Why does she get recruited right away! I had to hand over every scrap of food from my guild just to barely join! Why does she get to walk in with zero conditions?!"

"Angel half-bloods are strong."

Sera's mouth snapped shut.

"Would you rather take Iska's place as the angel?"

"N-no…"

In the empire, whenever someone snidely brought up angels, the meaning was always the same.

Can you revive in three days like them when you die?

So, Sera, want to die and revive in Iska's place?

Sera got stabbed by a senior's dagger and is busy reviving right now. Mommy's going to the dormitory.

As a merchant-guild daughter, Sera knew exactly what that meant. She could only stand there trembling.

"A-are you… alright?"

"Sera seems extremely happy about your joining, Iska."

"Y-yes… that's good then…"

Iska and Ethan exchanged friendly conversation.

Sera spent the entire afternoon with her cheeks puffed out like an angry blowfish,

but Ethan completely misread the situation.

I never expected her to get that embarrassed.

Must be because she's a dark elf—probably her first time seeing an angel half-blood.

He decided he should lighten the mood so the two of them could get along.

"Sera. Do you know how many angels there are in heaven?"

"No idea."

Sera brushed past both of them and walked ahead. Then she stopped, spun around,

"…How many?"

"One thousand and four."

"…"

Silence fell. Sera's ears began turning red again.

Wow. I didn't expect her to like it that much.

Looking thoroughly pleased, Ethan patted her shoulder and headed back toward the temporary dormitory.

Buying that Empire Gag Humor Collection from the general store before coming here was the best decision I ever made.

Once again, Ethan had thoroughly, gloriously misunderstood everything.

Second floor of the temporary dormitory.

From behind the locked door, Ethan's voice could be heard murmuring.

"So the route we infiltrate will basically be Ruby Dormitory."

"Why?"

"Look at the barracks order and it's simple. We're Barracks One, so they'll most likely assign us the first-numbered dorm—Ruby."

Ethan covered a sheet of parchment of unknown origin with complicated diagrams.

The Dormitory Scramble could be summed up in a single phrase:

Capture the flag.

Four dormitories stood on campus.

1. Ruby Dormitory

2. Topaz Dormitory

3. Emerald Dormitory

4. Sapphire Dormitory

In the main hall of each dorm hung a flag bearing that dormitory's crest.

Upperclassmen would use every means at their disposal to stop freshmen from taking the flag.

Freshmen would try to snatch the flag from the upperclassmen.

That was Thief School's entrance exam—and the event that decided which dormitory you would live in for the entire semester: the Dormitory Scramble.

The catch was that neither side could let the supervisors catch them in the act.

Sera crossed her legs.

"It's fine if we get caught."

"Is it, though?"

"It is!"

Ethan furrowed his brow.

"You don't even know what the scramble is."

"Uuu… when I first heard about it I just couldn't remember right away!"

When Ethan gave her a look of pure pity, Sera immediately scowled.

"Ugh, just listen to me for a second, Ethan! The supervisors look the other way!"

"Why? Explain your reasoning, Sera Barakin."

"…Could you maybe call my name with a little more affection?"

"Not easy."

"Ugh."

Sera folded her arms.

"It's still an entrance exam… an entrance exam!"

She jabbed a finger at one of the stick figures drawn on the parchment.

"Every participant is a cadet still learning thief techniques. It's impossible that active thief supervisors would never detect us even once."

"Fair point."

"So as long as we don't openly show ourselves and fight in plain sight, the supervisors won't stop us or dock points."

In short: hide cleanly and stylishly on your own, and stop the other side from reaching their goal. That was the heart of this scramble.

Iska, who had been listening quietly, raised a hand.

"Um… but didn't they say five people per squad…?"

"They did."

"But we only have thr…ee…"

Ethan stroked his chin.

"We are four."

"Huh? Why?"

Iska counted on her fingers, then looked up.

"W-wait, more importantly, we aren't even four right now. We're three."

Just as Ethan was about to open his mouth, a mana-amplified voice thundered through the entire temporary dormitory.

Ah, right.

He had completely forgotten the principal told everyone to assemble in the auditorium.

"Think we're getting punished?"

Clearing out first was the priority. Ethan hurriedly folded the parchment and tucked it away.

"Everything we discussed here stays secret."

"Got it."

"Yes… I'll do that."

Ethan's group stepped out into the dormitory courtyard.

Cadets were clustered thickly inside the auditorium.

They had already taken seats on the log benches that had somehow been laid out.

Professors stood behind the wooden stage, while a little farther forward the chairman delivered a speech into a mana microphone.

The cadets were already half annihilated.

"Khhh…"

"Mmm… mmm…"

"Zzz…"

This was the first time the principal who confiscated student IDs had ever looked like a fairy. Ethan wondered if this school taught sleep magic even though it wasn't Mage School.

"Where'd the principal go, by the way?"

"Yeah, weird…"

The principal was nowhere to be seen.

"He was here until lunch, told us to gather the students in the auditorium, then just vanished?"

Ethan suddenly lifted his head.

White smoke was slowly seeping in behind the stage.

He glanced around, then whispered,

"Sera Barakin. What's that fog behind the stage?"

"Huh? What fog?"

Sera swung her gaze this way and that, apparently searching the surroundings.

"There's nothing there?"

She clearly couldn't see it.

Ask the angel.

Ethan tapped the shoulder of Iska sitting beside him.

"Angel friend. Can you see that fog?"

"Y-yes? Fog?"

Iska was the same.

Is it only visible to me?

He studied the other cadets. None of them seemed the least bit interested in the strange phenomenon.

Apparently, among every cadet present, he was the only one who could see that fog.