Chapter 98: Through the Teachers’ Eyes IV ( Magic Castle Bonus )

The Second Communication :

When the leader network activated again, the arrangement was already different.

James and Sophie were physically together.

Elizabeth and Daphne were physically together.

Only Class Five remained alone.

The second communication opened with James reporting that they had handled a monster group to the east.

Sophie added that Classes Two and Three were approximately forty minutes ahead of Classes One and Four.

Elizabeth asked about Class Five.

Alash appeared.

Darius frowned almost immediately.

"He looks terrible."

Selene nodded.

"He has been healing while traveling."

"And using Barrier whenever the group is attacked."

"Yes."

"And he’s still carrying that pillow."

"Apparently."

On-screen, Elizabeth asked:

"Status?"

"Alive."

Darius closed his eyes.

Theoran looked amused.

"Your group," Elizabeth clarified.

"Also alive."

"Vortex."

"Thirty-seven."

The faculty knew the number.

The other leaders did not.

Their reactions were immediate.

James had lost three.

Sophie one.

Daphne two.

Alash had lost none.

Daphne asked:

"How?"

"Barrier."

Darius pointed toward the screen.

"There. Again."

Selene smiled.

"He appears committed to brevity."

"He appears committed to understating everything."

Elizabeth moved to the more immediate problem.

Distance.

Class Five remained nearly two hours behind the convergence point.

James asked whether they could maintain the pace.

"No."

Darius nodded.

"At least he isn’t pretending."

Then Elizabeth looked toward Daphne.

"We should send two of the empty wagons toward Class Five."

Daphne’s answer came immediately.

"No."

Darius leaned forward.

"Here we go."

Those wagons had been negotiated less than an hour earlier.

Daphne needed them.

Elizabeth knew Class Five needed them more urgently.

Neither argument was unreasonable.

Elizabeth reduced the request.

One wagon.

Daphne still refused.

James quietly asked Sophie whether they should leave the conversation.

Sophie whispered:

"No. This is interesting."

Selene laughed.

"I like her."

"So does everyone," Darius muttered.

The argument continued until Alash raised one hand.

"I have a solution."

The four other leaders looked toward him.

The professors did too.

Alash appeared to regret speaking almost immediately.

Daphne asked what he wanted.

"Don’t send the wagon."

Elizabeth frowned.

"Send the horses."

Silence followed inside the network.

A similar silence followed among the faculty.

Darius slowly looked toward the Class Five screen.

Stretchers.

Wounded people.

Several horses already being used to help transport those capable of riding.

Then he understood.

"Medical litters."

Selene nodded.

"Between pairs of horses."

"Faster than stretchers."

"And Class Four keeps the wagons."

Theoran’s fingers tapped once against his cane.

"Simple."

"Obvious after he said it," Darius admitted.

The Hermit finally looked toward him.

"Most useful solutions are."

Daphne and Elizabeth agreed.

No wagon.

Send horses instead.

Alash sighed.

"Excellent. I accidentally participated."

Darius stared at the projection.

"Accidentally?"

Theoran smiled.

"He continues to maintain the fiction."

"What fiction?"

"That responsibility keeps happening to him."

Selene looked toward the Hermit.

"What do you think?"

The Mirage Hermit remained focused on Alash.

"The first time, he accepted a role because people were already in danger. This time, nobody asked him to solve the disagreement."

Darius considered that.

"He volunteered."

"Briefly."

"And immediately regretted it."

"Naturally."

The Hermit’s gaze shifted between the paired leaders.

"More importantly, they are beginning to stop thinking in terms of class ownership."

Darius looked toward Daphne.

"She absolutely thought those were her wagons."

"Yes."

"Very strongly."

"And yet she accepted another solution that helped Class Five without costing Class Four the resource she needed."

Theoran nodded toward Elizabeth.

"And Aurelius changed her proposal instead of forcing the first one."

Sophie and James had already begun moving together.

Elizabeth and Daphne had done the same.

The five separate problems from the beginning of the examination were becoming fewer.

Larger.

Shared.

Selene looked toward Class Five.

"Now they only have to actually meet."

The Hermit was quiet for several seconds.

Then:

"That may be the difficult part."

Darius laughed.

***

Nearly an hour later, the observation screens showed four classes gathered along the same road.

Class One’s wagons occupied the center.

Class Four’s mana carts had been integrated around them.

Class Two guarded the perimeter.

Class Three’s scouts controlled the nearby ridges.

Students mixed more freely than they had earlier.

Not completely.

Class identities remained obvious.

But less important.

Only Class Five was missing.

Then Sophie’s forward scouts spotted them.

A long column appeared on the eastern road.

Wounded civilians.

Stretchers.

Students.

Horses.

Thirty-seven members of Class Five.

Still all of them.

Darius leaned slightly forward.

"There they are."

Selene’s eyes moved toward the front of the approaching group.

Then stopped.

"...Is he asleep?"

Darius followed her gaze.

There, seated on a horse, leaning forward over the animal’s neck with his silver pillow beneath his face, was Alash Vortex.

Darius stared.

"He is."

Theoran slowly closed his eyes.

Professor Selene began laughing.

The Hermit said nothing.

Darius pointed toward the screen.

"He’s sleeping on a horse."

"Yes," Theoran said.

"During your examination."

"Apparently."

"While approaching four class leaders who have been waiting for him."

"Also apparently."

Darius looked toward the Hermit.

"You did this."

The Hermit finally answered.

"I did not tell him to sleep on the horse."

"You created the situation."

"I created monsters, ruined cities, a fortress, a distorted forest, an underground temple, an infirmary, several hundred civilians, and a Citadel."

His gaze moved toward Alash.

"The horse is his contribution."

Selene laughed harder.

The four leaders noticed Class Five approaching.

Then they noticed Alash.

Elizabeth was the first to speak.

"Is that him?"

Sophie looked.

"He’s sleeping."

James stared.

"On a horse?"

Penelope answered from beside him.

"He’s been doing that for twenty minutes."

Daphne’s response was quieter.

"How?"

Darius pointed toward her.

"Correct reaction."

Theoran sighed.

"You’re agreeing with Spinster now?"

"On this, absolutely."

The faculty could not hear Alash’s private thoughts.

They could only watch him remain motionless despite four SSS students discussing him several meters away.

Sophie laughed when it became obvious he intended to continue sleeping.

James mentioned that they had been waiting almost an hour.

Penelope immediately defended Class Five.

"We were transporting more than a hundred wounded people without wagons."

James paused.

"Fair."

Darius nodded.

"Also fair."

Elizabeth moved immediately to the medical problem.

"How many are still critical?"

"Twenty-one," Penelope answered. "Another thirty-seven need assistance walking, and several others shouldn’t be moving this much at all."

Then, with considerably more force:

"We need those wagons."

Elizabeth answered immediately.

"We can reorganize them."

Daphne offered Gravity support.

Sophie offered to adjust the route to accommodate wagons.

James offered Class Two as the outer escort.

Darius looked between the screens.

"He’s still asleep."

Selene nodded.

"They’re reorganizing five classes around his patients while he’s asleep."

Theoran’s mouth twitched.

"Efficient delegation."

Darius stared at him.

"You’ve been spending too much time watching Vortex."

"Possibly."

Penelope finally addressed Alash directly.

He opened one eye.

The following exchange did little to improve Darius’s opinion of the situation.

Alash claimed he had delegated.

Penelope reminded him that he had not even met the other leaders yet.

"I heard them."

"That isn’t meeting."

"Close enough."

Darius shook his head.

"He cannot possibly believe that."

"I suspect belief is irrelevant," Selene said. "He wants to sleep."

Eventually, Alash lifted his head.

And for the first time inside the examination, the five class leaders stood within the same physical location.

Elizabeth Aurelius.

James Vellaroux.

Sophie Trohan.

Daphne Spinster.

Alash Vortex.

Theoran’s expression became more serious.

Before the examination, he had selected them separately.

Five students whose strengths made their weaknesses easy to overlook.

Now all five stood in the same constructed road.

The faculty watched closely.

Alash looked at each of them.

Then stopped.

Only for a moment.

His fingers tightened slightly around the reins.

Elizabeth noticed immediately.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

Daphne narrowed her eyes.

"You froze."

"I was waking up."

"You were staring at us."

"I have eyes."

Sophie laughed.

James, characteristically, had already lost patience with the entire exchange.

"We can discuss his staring problem later. We need to move."

The moment passed.

Darius looked toward the Hermit.

"What was that?"

"What?"

"Vortex stopped."

"He is exhausted."

Selene nodded.

"His mana recovery has been poor for hours."

Darius continued watching.

Something about the pause had seemed strange.

But nothing on the magical readings changed.

No unusual spell activity.

No fluctuation in the illusion.

Nothing the faculty could identify.

The Hermit had already dismissed it.

So Darius did too.

Then Daphne looked at the pillow.

Again.

"The pillow."

Alash looked down at it.

"Yes."

"You were sleeping on a horse with a pillow."

"Correct."

"Why?"

Alash stared at her.

"Would you prefer I sleep on a horse without one?"

Sophie immediately turned away, shoulders shaking.

Elizabeth covered something suspiciously close to a smile.

James closed his eyes.

Daphne stared at Alash.

"That was not my question."

"It answered the important part."

Darius looked toward Theoran.

"These are your five leaders."

Theoran’s expression remained perfectly composed.

"I am reconsidering several professional decisions."

Selene laughed.

Even the Hermit’s mouth moved slightly.

Barely.

Then Alash climbed down from the horse, and the actual work began.

Elizabeth immediately proposed reorganizing resources.

Alash looked toward Class One’s wagons.

Then toward his patients.

"Agreed."

Sophie smiled.

"You agreed very quickly."

"You have wagons."

Darius covered his face.

"Of course."

Penelope added:

"Rest."

Alash looked betrayed.

Theoran sighed.

"Also of course."

What followed interested the faculty considerably more.

Elizabeth offered four wagons for Class Five’s critical patients.

Penelope demanded five.

Elizabeth refused.

Penelope reminded her of the twenty-one critical patients and thirty-seven others requiring assistance.

Elizabeth offered four wagons and part of a fifth.

Penelope considered it.

"Four and a half."

"Agreed."

Darius blinked.

"That was fast."

Selene glanced toward him.

"They both know what they need."

"And Vortex?"

On-screen, Alash was watching the exchange with what looked suspiciously like satisfaction.

"He appears pleased that someone else is negotiating."

Theoran nodded.

"Entirely consistent."

Daphne committed Gravity support to difficult terrain.

James redistributed Class Two’s weapons and assigned his class to the outer perimeter.

Sophie began adjusting the route for wagon travel.

Elizabeth reorganized wagon space and supplies.

Penelope directed the patient transfer.

And Alash, stood there for several seconds.

Watching.

Darius waited.

Surely someone would look toward him.

Ask for approval.

Request a decision.

Nobody did.

The five groups simply began moving.

Stretchers approached wagons.

Weapons changed hands.

Mana crystals were redistributed.

Scouts advanced.

Healers reorganized patients.

Class One’s civilians helped clear transportation space.

Class Four students reinforced loads.

Class Two spread around the perimeter.

Class Three checked the route.

The five separate classes began turning into a single convoy.

Selene became quiet.

Darius did too.

Theoran watched his five leaders disappear into the movement of nearly two hundred students and hundreds of constructs.

For the first time that day, none of them appeared to be trying to prove that their class mattered more.

The Hermit broke the silence.

"There."

Darius looked toward him.

"What?"

"That."

The Hermit gestured toward the screens.

"No leader is controlling the entire group."

Elizabeth coordinated logistics but did not command James’s fighters.

James controlled the perimeter but did not question Sophie’s routes.

Sophie handled information without requesting everyone’s approval.

Daphne supplied mana and Gravity without personally carrying the convoy.

Alash handled medicine without attempting to supervise everything surrounding it.

Theoran understood.

"They’ve divided authority according to competence."

"Temporarily," the Hermit said.

Darius smiled.

"You had to ruin it."

"It has been less than one day."

"Still."

Selene watched Alash finally get ordered by Penelope to help move critical patients.

He looked toward the wagon.

Then toward her.

Then back toward the wagon.

"Fine."

She smiled.

"He still needs supervision."

"Everyone does," Theoran said.

Darius looked toward the five leaders once more.

"So that’s it?"

The Hermit glanced at him.

"What?"

"They learned cooperation."

"No."

Darius sighed.

"Of course not."

"They have learned that cooperation works when everyone’s interests align."

The Hermit’s pale eyes moved toward the distant Citadel beginning to appear on the horizon of the illusion.

"That is easy."

Theoran followed his gaze.

The Citadel was finally visible in the distance.

Massive walls.

Four towers.

A sealed gate waiting at the end of the examination.

Several professors relaxed slightly.

They had been watching the students struggle for hours. Now, with all five classes finally moving together and the objective within sight, the hardest part appeared to be behind them.

The Mirage Hermit knew better.

His pale eyes remained fixed on the approaching group.

There was still one thing none of the faculty knew.

One final condition he had deliberately kept to himself.

The Citadel would only protect one hundred living beings.

The Hermit’s expression did not change.

"Now," he said quietly, "we see what they do when cooperation is no longer the easy answer."

Darius glanced toward him.

"What does that mean?"

The Hermit smiled faintly.

"You’ll see."

For some reason, Darius immediately disliked that answer.