The Crack
The makeshift beds fashioned from gathered natural materials didn't need packing, so for Team 7, taking down a single tent among the four of them was all it took to finish breaking camp.
When they arrived first in front of Etila, Cesset looked at her with expectant eyes and held out both hands.
"We came in first. No tokens?"
"Nope. Just wait."
"Tch. Should've rested a little longer."
Cesset clicked her tongue, turned her head, and waited for the other teams to arrive. Everyone had looked frantic with time running short, but ten minutes turned out to be surprisingly enough — every team assembled in front of Etila without a single one missing the cutoff.
"We'll march in order, starting with Class A's Team 1. This is a stealth movement, so no torches — but since this is training, I won't stop you from exchanging opinions. We move. Follow me."
The students recoiled at Etila's words. They couldn't use mana, and now they had to pass through a dense forest without fire. The massive trees blocked nearly all moonlight, and the ground was uneven.
A long two-column formation took shape, and as the group march began, groans rose from all around. Pushing through a pitch-black forest with nothing but the back of the person in front of you was no easy feat.
"I can't see a thing. We're going the right way, right?"
"The instructor leading us isn't going to get lost."
Rai answered flatly, but the academy students — who'd never marched at night without light — grew restless at the limited visibility and the awkward going. When Aria caught Cesset, who'd nearly tripped over a tree root, Cesset turned a face full of complaints toward Rai.
"Raikkang, got any tips for making this march easier?"
"The world isn't that easy, kid. No mana means you put up with the inconvenience."
"Come on, tell us something."
When Cesset asked, mimicking the nickname Diana used for Rai, he looked at Zeroa.
The look said, Go on, tell them the answer — but Zeroa just blinked those innocent eyes and said, "Why?" Rai let out a small sigh and glanced at the students behind them.
They'd been told conversation was allowed, but everyone was too busy struggling with the unfamiliar night march to actually exchange any real opinions. Behind Team 8, where Philia was, the Class C students were looking at Rai as if expecting something.
"As long as you can't use mana, there's no magic trick. You lot are trained as commanders, so looking around has become a habit — but here, just watch the back of the person in front of you and your own feet. If the person ahead is walking fine, the path is safe. At the very least, you won't twist an ankle or tumble off a drop."
It was modest advice, but it would at least keep them from getting hurt, and Philia nodded. Everyone here, herself included, had been walking while scanning surroundings they couldn't even see.
Focusing on the person ahead narrowed your field of vision, but it was definitely safer. And with less entering your sight, the mental fatigue was lighter than staring into the dark on high alert.
While Philia was concentrating on Zeroa's pack and feet, thinking it was good advice, Gilbard muttered under his breath.
"Acting all cool with advice anyone could give."
Philia's head turned at his words.
But this time they were close to Team 7, so Zeroa and Aria in the row right ahead looked at him too. Cesset was craning her neck from in front of Aria, which meant even Rai — who hadn't reacted — had clearly heard it.
"I'm sorry. That was a slip of the tongue. I'll be more careful."
"You're not the one who should be apologizing, Philia. Isn't that Gilbard's job?"
Gilbard had flinched under everyone's stares, and when even Aria looked at him with cold eyes, he clammed up completely. When Philia stepped in to apologize, Cesset frowned and spoke sharply.
Gilbard's mind went blank. His eyes darted around, and in his line of sight he caught an academy staff member watching from a distance, evaluating them — and Aria's face.
"D-do I need someone's permission to express my thoughts? Honestly, it's advice anyone could give."
"Until you heard that 'anyone could give' advice, you were looking around like a stray dog that got kicked out. How's your neck? I was worried you'd snap it, the way you were whipping your head around."
When Gilbard doubled down, putting on a tough front, Cesset sneered and mocked him.
The mocked Gilbard scowled and started toward Cesset, but Philia raised a hand to stop him.
"Don't break formation. And you started this."
"Whose side are you even on right now? If you like Team 7 so much, go join them."
"Eww — so childish. If you like Team 7 so much, gooo join them~"
"Cesset."
When Cesset parroted Gilbard's words to mock him again, Philia called her name and shot her a look that said stop. Cesset, unhappy, worked her mouth, then turned her gaze forward again. Philia looked at Gilbard.
"Get it together. We're marching."
"That's what I'm—"
"I said get it together."
Gilbard felt the strength in Philia's arm blocking his body and couldn't continue. He shut his mouth. Once he went quiet, Philia lowered her hand and focused on Zeroa's back again, walking in silence.
Gilbard's face was full of resentment, but he kept his head down and said nothing, just walking.
The students around Rai quietly followed his advice as they walked, and even those too far away to have heard it gradually grew accustomed to the march and naturally started walking while watching the back of the person in front of them, just as he'd said.
The march went on so long they started to wonder if it would ever end, and it finally wrapped up around dawn, as the sky began to lighten.
In a wide clearing where the students could gather, Leila stood with perfect posture.
"Thank you for your hard work, Instructor Etila."
"Yes, I can finally get some rest. Hang in there, Instructor Leila. Class A, stay sharp. You've got this."
Etila handed the students over to Leila, stretched, and headed off elsewhere.
The students, who'd been moving through the night without sleep, felt a wave of relief as they assembled in the comfortable-looking clearing — surely they could rest a little now. Leila, however, spoke with cold precision.
"While relocating your assembly point, you were ambushed and scattered."
"..."
Without disappointing the students who'd feared training would start immediately, Leila continued.
"Separated from the main force, you must rejoin them with all haste. The main force, carrying this flag, will be in the forest. Rejoin them within two days."
As Leila spoke, a staff member beside her raised a flag.
Once the students had confirmed the flag, a white light formed around the staff member holding it, and they teleported away.
"The main force numbers around ten thousand. They will keep moving, searching for terrain suitable for setting up camp. You have two options. Follow the traces of the moving main force, or find the location where the main camp has been established. Whichever you choose is up to you."
Staff members distributed maps to each team. This time they even gave Team 7 a complete map, and Zeroa was delighted — but Cesset and Rai wore bitter smiles.
Giving them the same conditions as everyone else meant something was still coming. Finding a moving main force would be hard enough, and now there would be additional conditions.
"All team leaders, step forward."
Thanks to Leila's brisk, no-nonsense pace, there was no need to wonder what else was waiting.
While Cesset went forward and waited, someone approached Rai and spoke.
"Hello, Instructor Rai."
"Oh, if it isn't the princess. I heard you wanted to see me."
When Sixth Princess Emilia, whom they'd only seen from a distance, approached, Zeroa panicked and tried to drop to one knee, but she stopped him.
"It's all right, Zeroa. I'm a student of Legandia Academy, just like you. I'm your classmate."
"B-but..."
Frozen in an awkward half-crouch, Zeroa couldn't collect himself — caught between panic and joy that Emilia had called him by name.
"It's fine. Please treat me casually. It's been a while, Aria."
"Yes, Lady Emilia. I'm glad you look well."
Emilia and Aria, who were related, exchanged formal greetings.
They weren't close enough for warmth, though. After the polite exchange, Emilia looked at Rai.
"So, what do you want? Spit it out."
Rai had already seen Emilia several times while conducting lectures. She always asked people to treat her casually, but among the instructors, Rai was the only one who didn't use honorifics with her.
"I came hoping I might be able to join Instructor Rai's team."
"You sent Diana yesterday, and now you've come yourself?"
"I'd have to go at least that far if I wanted any hope of having you with me, Instructor."
"Pretty enthusiastic for a nobody instructor."
"A nobody? If I had to pick just one person among everyone gathered here, I wouldn't hesitate for a second — I'd choose Instructor Rai."
Rai chuckled quietly, and Emilia laughed along with a soft fufu.
As a direct descendant of the Emperor, Emilia knew Rai's past as the Devil of All Nations. He had been the Empire's greatest enemy; in terms of ability, no one here could compare.
"Sorry, but I'm with these kids right now."
"Turned down, I see. Can't be helped. If the chance comes again, I'd love to work together."
Despite coming in person, Emilia withdrew without a fuss. Whether she'd truly come to join the team was ambiguous, and Zeroa tilted his head. Aria watched Emilia's receding back in silence.
While they'd been talking with Emilia, Leila had apparently finished briefing the team leaders, because she now addressed the students in a loud voice.
"You were fortunate enough to survive the ambush, but in the chaos you lost supplies, and your team leaders have chosen which supplies to lose. Class A Team 1: half of all supplies excluding food. Team 2: half of all supplies excluding food. Team 3: half of food..."
The students stared blankly at the announcement.
The explanation had been long, but boiled down, it was simply this: dump the food, or dump the equipment. And they hadn't even given the team leaders time to consult their members — the leaders had decided alone.
The team leaders standing in a line beside her wore grim expressions, looking like criminals for something that wasn't even their fault.
At this sudden development, students either celebrated or despaired over their leader's choice.
With only three days of food to begin with, most had chosen to lose equipment, though a few teams had chosen food.
"So the stamina advantage only lasted a day."
While Zeroa worried about which supplies they'd lose, Rai was disappointed they hadn't gained much of a stamina edge.
Each team was called, and staff collected supplies from the members — but Team 7, Rai's team, was skipped over without being named. Students found it strange and looked at Rai, but he simply listened to Leila in silence.
"Class G Team 8: half of all supplies excluding food. And lastly, I'll announce Class B Team 7's decision. Team 7, as a penalty for having an instructor, will lose not half but all of the supplies they chose."
Zeroa's mouth fell open in shock. The other students thought this was a bit much, and looked at them with sympathy.
Cesset stood with an awkward expression, avoiding Team 7's eyes.
"Team 7 has lost all of their food."
The moment Leila finished, a staff member approached and pulled the food from Zeroa's pack. Most of what had been inside was food, so his pack went slack, as if announcing their current situation.
"Stamina advantage is back on the table."
At Rai's unbothered remark, Zeroa stared at him, utterly devastated. The team leaders who'd been standing in a line beside Leila returned to their members, and a dejected Cesset approached Team 7.
Walking with her eyes on the ground, Cesset flinched and stopped when she met her teammates' gazes, then smiled awkwardly.
"If I'd known this was coming, I would've snuck some food during the march."
There had been no rest during the night march. They hadn't even eaten breakfast, they were starving, and now they had no food — not even drinking water. Cesset averted her eyes.
Among the silent teammates, Rai looked at Aria.
"What would you have done?"
"...I would have discarded the equipment. Even if we lost all the issued gear, we'd still have our personal equipment."
"Zeroa. You."
"Food... I guess?"
"Is that a question?"
"No, no. Food. Food."
When Rai glared and asked, Zeroa panicked and answered again. Having heard both of them, Rai looked at Cesset. She swallowed hard and spoke.
"I-it's the leader's decision. Don't complain, Raikkang."
"Who's complaining? You did good."
"Huh? You're not mad?"
"You didn't lose it. Why would I be mad at you? If anyone deserves cursing, it's the academy for pulling this crap."
Seeing he didn't look angry, Cesset hesitated a moment, then lifted her head.
"I'm sorry, everyone. We may have nothing, but let's live happily anyway."
Back to her usual self, Cesset was asked by Rai why she'd chosen food, and she looked at Zeroa as she answered.
"Because I trusted Zeroa."
"Huh? Me?"
"Yeah. You know the forest well. You've taught us a lot about edible plants, too."
"Even so..."
"And the equipment we have now is the essential gear Raikkang picked out himself, so I figured we absolutely needed it."
When Cesset spoke with confidence, Rai ruffled her hair.
"Other than calling me Raikkang, you did well. If you'd lost the equipment, I'd have kicked your ass."
"Hehehe — so you'd kick Aria's ass instead?"
At that answer, Rai turned his gaze to Aria, and she flinched, covering her backside with both hands. The sight was so cute Zeroa couldn't hold back a laugh, and when Aria, embarrassed, awkwardly straightened her posture, Rai immediately lunged.
Aria startled and ran, Rai chased, and Zeroa and Cesset laughed behind them — they didn't look like a team facing a serious crisis at all.
While Philia watched Team 7 looking so cheerful despite the enormous difficulty they faced, Gilbard grumbled beside her.
"Why the hell did you choose food?"
Philia had also chosen food, so Team 8's rations had been cut in half. The already meager supply was now even smaller — even if they rationed carefully, there wouldn't be enough.
"The Forest of the Antipode has a wide distribution of vegetation. We can gather plenty of food."
"Did you get ranger training or something?"
"No, but I roughly learned how to identify edible plants."
When they'd assembled at the gathering point the day before, Philia had noticed something odd about Team 7. They'd been eating different food from everyone else, and the fresh-looking plants and mushrooms seemed to have been foraged along the way. Combined with their issued rations, Team 7's table had been far more abundant than the others', and Cesset, having eaten her fill, had conserved a considerable amount of stamina.
Thinking of foraging itself wasn't hard. Distinguishing what was actually edible, however, required knowledge. Teams without someone who knew the forest well couldn't even dream of it, and most of the teams that had chosen to discard their food had a student well-versed in the woods among them.
Having enough to eat your fill was an enormous advantage — not merely physical, but mental. That satisfaction, Philia believed, would raise their efficiency. So at the gathering point, she had gone to find Zeroa and asked him about edible plants.
She couldn't learn everything in so short a time, so she had studied only plants that met specific conditions: species widely distributed in the Immutable Forest, easy to identify, with no similar toxic lookalikes. Just a handful. During the march, once the sun began to rise and visibility improved, she had practiced spotting them.
She was still a beginner. But after learning from Zeroa, she had been surprised by how many plants caught her eye. That was why she had boldly chosen to discard the food.
"You're going to manage with what you half-assed learned yesterday?! And we have to find the main force — you're going to waste time foraging?"
"That's right. I am going to spend time foraging."
"Listen to you, so confident. You think that half-baked knowledge is going to help?!"
"Hey, let's not fight. Honestly I don't get it either, but it's already decided, so let's move. We don't have time to waste being angry."
When Gilbard got angry, Rhon stepped in from the side to mediate. He grabbed Gilbard, who was about to start shouting, and pulled him back, saying something to him to suppress his emotions, then approached Philia.
"I'm sure you had your reasons, but I also think losing the equipment would've been better. The pack is insanely heavy — my shoulders hurt. I was jealous of Team 7."
"Yeah. Let's dump the equipment too."
"What?"
"What did you just say?! If you were going to do that, you should've chosen equipment instead of food from the start!"
Gilbard, whom Rhon had barely managed to restrain, exploded in fury and came at Philia.
The atmosphere soured. Somneri just stood there reading the room, and Philia, her expression unchanged, spoke calmly.
"There's equipment we can't afford to lose. All we're dumping is two tents and the tools for maintaining the gear."
"..."
"I learned a lot watching Team 7 from the side. No — not just Team 7. I learned a lot from the teams around us too. We're going to dump the extra gear and travel light."
"Weren't we supposed to decide things together, by sharing opinions?"
Rhon asked with an awkward smile, and Philia nodded.
"That's right. Losing supplies because of the leader's choice couldn't be helped, but right now I'm presenting my opinion. Let's dump the unnecessary equipment and conserve our stamina."
"Dump the food and dump the equipment? What kind of stupid idea is that."
"We're just throwing away what's useless. I don't think that's stupid."
"That's your opinion."
Gilbard sniped at her, irritated. Philia, figuring she'd take one more opposing vote, looked at Rhon. He glanced at Gilbard, then, looking apologetic, gave a bitter smile and opposed Philia's suggestion.
With two people opposed, Somneri quietly raised her hand against it as well. Once everyone was against her, Gilbard spoke with a triumphant air.
"You still think you're right?"
"For now. But if everyone's against it, we'll keep the equipment as-is and move out."
Even with everyone opposed, Philia's expression didn't change. She stood up calmly.
Rhon had opposed her to soothe Gilbard's explosive temper, but when he actually went to put on his pack, his shoulders felt heavy. He shook his head and followed Philia. Somneri hesitated, then, seeing Gilbard's face, quickly hurried after the two of them.
Left alone, Gilbard saw Philia looking at him from a distance, felt a surge of anger, clenched his teeth, and chased after her.