Chapter 89 - Alliance (Patreon)

Making her way through the forest was not one of Reyna’s favorite activities. Doing it with Missy made the experience considerably worse.

Still, the pairing made sense.

Elii was useless in the forest and not much better in a fight, but she could at least delay an attacker if their base came under assault. Arien was probably the strongest member of the group apart from her, which made him the obvious choice to defend the flag, while Matt and Greg should be capable of handling themselves if they ran into a few opponents.

Missy’s role was simpler. If things went badly, she was competent enough to buy Reyna time to escape.

Reyna had no intention of sharing that assessment with her. Missy already seemed convinced she was second only to Reyna within the group, apparently forgetting that the higher a family’s status, the greater the expectation that its children dedicate themselves to their studies and serve as examples to the lesser classes.

They had been moving south for nearly an hour, passing several Ratgliders along the way. The creatures were easy to spot mainly because they radiated faint traces of mana.

As planned, they ignored them.

Reyna wasn't even sure they could have caught one if they'd tried. The creatures looked absurdly fast. She would have had to spend a considerable amount of mana to prevent one from escaping.

“Did you feel that?” Reyna asked, stopping.

Someone had cast magic ahead of them.

“No?” Missy replied uncertainly.

How could she not feel a mana surge that obvious? Was this really supposed to be one of the Academy's top thirty students?

She pressed a finger to her lips and motioned for Missy to follow.

Another pulse came a minute later, then another after roughly the same interval. The timing was too regular for combat.

Someone was signaling.

A clearing appeared ahead through the trees, with four people waiting inside.

Bazyl sat on the grass, releasing another stream of Air mana into the sky. Orana Leswig, a fairly attractive blonde and the strongest mage in his group after Bazyl himself, stood beside him, while Pori and Sebastian lingered only a few paces away.

Reyna waved to them.

“I told you she’d come,” Pori said with obvious satisfaction.

Bazyl rose and brushed dirt from his trousers. He was handsome enough, though far too thin for Reyna’s taste.

“I’m glad you were right.”

“You were expecting me?” Reyna asked.

“But of course. There’s only one way to win this, isn’t there?”

“An alliance,” Reyna said.

Part of her was relieved she would not have to convince them. Another part was mildly annoyed that the solution had apparently been obvious to everyone.

"An alliance," Bazyl agreed. "Effie completely disrupts the balance and ruins the spirit of the competition. It's truly refreshing to compete against intelligent people who recognize that immediately."

"So?" Reyna asked. "Do we attack with three groups, or do we wait for Adam?"

"Adam was already here. Personally." Bazyl sighed. "His exact words were, and I quote: 'I won't take part in the dirty schemes of aristocrats.' Then he walked away."

Reyna glanced at Pori, who confirmed it with a nod.

"But three groups should be enough. Three people from each?"

"Nine people against Effie's six?" Reyna frowned. "That might not be enough. Four from each group."

"And what if Adam's group tries to take advantage of the situation?"

"We'll have to take that risk. He doesn't know when we're attacking. And if the assault on Effie fails, we have no chance of winning anyway."

They spent the next half hour discussing which students would participate, when and where they would meet, and how long the truce would remain in effect if the attack succeeded.

By the time they parted ways, Reyna was reasonably confident that three groups working together could eliminate Effie’s team.

She could hardly wait to see her childhood friend defeated.

Several minutes after leaving the clearing, Reyna stopped beneath a tree.

“Did something happen?” Missy asked.

“No. Let’s wait.”

A few minutes later, soft footsteps approached through the forest.

“Over here,” Reyna called.

“So?” Pori asked as she joined them.

Reyna was pleased that she had understood the signals during the meeting. Of all the students at the Academy, Pori was probably the person Reyna came closest to considering a genuine friend.

They came from powerful families, shared many of the same interests, and could spend entire evenings talking, shopping, or gossiping about other students.

Their families belonging to opposing factions complicated things. So did Reyna’s upbringing, which had taught her from childhood that complete trust belonged only within the family.

Within the Academy, however, Pori was as close as Reyna allowed herself to get.

"What did you want to talk about?" Pori asked.

"Do you trust Bazyl?"

"You know I don't. But you also know this is his only path to victory if he wants to win."

"I don't know. Something feels off."

"Rey, you're just annoyed that someone else came up with the same idea you did."

"Fine, maybe you're right. But we should still keep an eye on him. Do you want to continue the alliance after Effie is dealt with?"

"I don't know. Senhal is... strange. He acts like very little actually matters to him. I think he agreed to this alliance because he wants to fight Effie. After that? No idea what he'll do. Do you have a suggestion?"

"We hit Bazyl's group the following day. After that, may the best team win."

"No problem on my end. I can't promise anything, though. I'll try to convince him."

"How are the boys?"

"Matt seems happy. He's enjoying all the sneaking around and the prospect of a fight. Arien is whining and complaining, as usual."

"The day he stops complaining is the day we should start worrying," Pori laughed.

"Right. I should get going. See you the day after tomorrow. Bye-bye."

"Bye-bye."

Ignoring Missy's questioning look, Reyna started back toward camp.

Hours later, as they approached camp, Reyna felt traces of recently expended mana long before the clearing came into view.

Far too much of it.

She quickened her pace.

A shout came from somewhere ahead, and Reyna broke into a run, already preparing Air and Fire magic in case someone had attacked the base.

She burst into the clearing and stopped, staring at the scene in front of her.

By the time the initial shock wore off, Reyna was trying to decide whether strangling Arien or drowning him would be more satisfying.

Apparently, boredom had driven him to build a shower and toilet for the camp, with Elii helping instead of stopping him.

Near the stream, Arien had raised an earthen platform supporting a wobbly structure that vaguely resembled an outhouse. It had no door, only a spiral-shaped entrance that at least provided some privacy.

The shower stood on the opposite side of the clearing.

That monstrosity was nearly ten feet tall, built entirely from earth, and probably radiating enough mana to advertise their position to half the forest. Inside, mounted against one wall, hung a large earthen reservoir filled to the brim with water. And beneath it sat a massive stone still glowing with heat from the ridiculous amount of mana Arien had pumped into it.

At the other end stood Arien himself, grinning from ear to ear.

"This part took the most time," he explained proudly, like an artificer presenting his first magical creation. “I had no idea how to connect everything and redirect the water using pressure, so I relied on good old gravity instead." He pointed upward. "See that lever? If you pull it to the side, it uncovers a grate at the bottom of the tank."

His grin widened. "Ready?" 

He pulled the lever. A stream of water immediately poured from the reservoir.

"Ta-da!"

Water splashed onto the stone floor below.

"You do have to be careful with the temperature, though. Matt was right, I overdid it with the heating stone. Tomorrow I'll try to add some sort of vent at the top of the tank to release excess heat.”

"Arien," she finally managed to force out through clenched teeth. "Do you realize that after all that spellcasting, anyone who gets within a few hundred meters of us will be able to find our base?"

“Probably,” he replied without the slightest hint of remorse. “But does it really matter? They would’ve found it sooner or later anyway. Unless we planned to avoid using magic for several days, which seems a bit unrealistic. Besides, I figured that with this much mana in one place, nobody would notice where I set up my early-warning network.”

"Early-warning network?"

“Ha! So it worked. Even you didn’t notice!” Arien said triumphantly. “Nobody wants to stand watch all night, and even if we did, we’d probably spot an intruder too late. So I put simple Mana Threads around the camp. If someone crosses one, I’ll know immediately.”

Reyna stared at him for a long moment.

Then she slowly shook her head.

"So you're saying this shower works for how long?”

Half an hour later, freshly bathed and dressed in clean clothes, Reyna sat beside the campfire with her eyes closed, listening to the others recount their day.

Perhaps Arien’s construction had not been entirely idiotic after all.

Maybe she wouldn't kill Arien after all. Maybe she'd even thank him tomorrow.