Chapter 239: The Mastermind Vs The False Genius

January 22nd, 2012 — 11:36 AM

Floor 2 — The Ventilation Shafts

Perspective: Masked Rogue

Four flags secured. Only Group 5 remained.

How tedious.

I walked silently through the dim, dripping corridor of the second floor. Milo Sterling had been a disappointment. A rabid dog swinging a heavy stick. The rest of the class was no better. They relied on flashy magic and crude violence, completely ignoring the fundamental laws of combat, timing, and environmental control.

The last flag was missing. It must have been Elfina’s lackey—the quiet, unremarkable boy in the oversized hoodie—who took it and ran while Sterling was distracted.

I calculated the time elapsed. Assuming average physical statistics for a Rank F student, he should have already reached the surface by now. Yet, the ambient mana currents and the faint scuff marks on the stone indicated he had stopped moving.

He was waiting.

I rounded the corner of the narrow ventilation shaft.

Snap.

My heightened senses registered the sound a fraction of a second before the mechanism engaged. A tripwire. Not wire, but a dried, fibrous cave-root stretched taut across the ankle-line.

I looked down. A crude quartz striker had just been pulled against a piece of hidden flint.

Sparks.

They ignited a hollowed-out stone basin packed with a mixture of finely crushed guano and sulfur.

A dust explosion.

In a confined tunnel, the rapid expansion of gas didn’t need shrapnel. The overpressure alone was enough to burst eardrums and liquefy internal organs.

Clever.

I didn’t retreat. I threw my left hand forward, instantly compressing a dense sphere of wind magic around the basin just as the mixture flashed. The explosion detonated inside the vacuum seal, muffling the acoustic shock and starving the chemical reaction of oxygen. A cloud of harmless black smoke wafted against my mask.

I stepped over the scorched stone, my mind racing.

Guano as fuel. Sulfur as the oxidizer. How did a student source those materials and calculate the exact stoichiometric ratio for a confined space explosion in less than 10 minutes?

I continued forward, my steps even lighter now.

Fifty yards ahead, the corridor narrowed into a high-pressure air intake valve. I paused. The stone floor ahead of the intake was smeared with a strange, pale paste.

Toxic cave fungi.

I looked up. A stone block holding back a pile of loose debris had been deliberately fractured.

If I stepped forward, the vibration would shatter the block. The debris would fall, violently shifting the air pressure. The intake would suck the concentrated, toxic spore dust directly into my path, blinding and choking me instantly.

A pressure-differential trap.

I raised my right axe, channeling a thin, razor-sharp current of water along the blade. I threw it.

The axe spun through the air, cleanly slicing the fractured stone block from a distance. The debris crashed down. The air pressure shifted violently, violently sucking the toxic spores into the vent.

I waited three seconds for the air to clear, retrieved my axe, and walked through the now-safe corridor.

He isn’t just setting traps. He’s utilizing fluid dynamics and atmospheric pressure.

I turned the final corner, the corridor sloping sharply downward.

I stepped onto the stone, and my boot immediately lost traction.

Mineral pitch. The steep decline was coated in sticky, frictionless oil.

I adjusted my center of gravity instantly, prepared to slide down the slope gracefully. But as I slid, the thin layer of dust covering the pitch blew away, revealing dozens of upright, razor-sharp shale plates embedded in the floor.

A slide-and-shatter pivot trap. Falling face-first into it would shred a person’s vital organs.

I slammed the hilt of my axe into the stone wall to arrest my momentum.

Click.

The impact against the wall triggered a secondary mechanism. A rudimentary counterweight made of a heavy shale slab dropped from a hidden alcove.

I looked up. The keystone of the ceiling had been destabilized. A ton-weight stalactite was falling directly toward my head like a guillotine.

A layered kill-box.

I pushed mana into my legs, violently propelling myself backward up the slick slope.

The massive stalactite crashed into the floor exactly where I had been standing, shattering the shale plates and sending razor-sharp shrapnel flying in every direction.

I raised my cloak to block the debris, but a jagged piece of shale sliced through the heavy fabric, tearing a deep gash across my left shoulder.

Blood soaked into my clothing.

I stood at the top of the slope, clutching my bleeding shoulder. I stared at the devastating mechanical marvel below me.

A counter-weight guillotine triggered by acoustic vibration. How could a normal human set this up? Where did he even get the shale? This requires the structural intellect of a master engineer.

I bypassed the destroyed keystone, my respect for my target shifting into cold caution.

At the end of the corridor, I found him.

Kaiser Everhart.

He was standing against the dead-end wall, clutching the pink Group 5 flag tightly in his left hand. He looked absolutely terrified. He was hyperventilating, his eyes wide and trembling as he looked at my bloodied cloak and twin axes.

"Who... who are you?" he stammered, his voice cracking. He pressed himself against the cold stone, trying to make himself smaller.

I didn’t speak. I simply held out my open hand, demanding the flag.

Kaiser shook his head frantically, clutching the fabric to his chest.

"No! Where is Elfie?!" he yelled, tears welling in his eyes. "Did you hurt her? Tell me what you did to her!"

He was pathetic.

With a desperate, clumsy shout, Kaiser lunged forward. He threw a wild, uncoordinated punch aimed at my mask.

I didn’t even need to use my axes. I simply tilted my head, letting his fist pass harmlessly over my shoulder. I pivoted on my heel and drove my knee ruthlessly into his stomach.

Kaiser gagged, his eyes bulging as the air left his lungs. He collapsed to the floor, coughing violently.

I stepped over him and reached down to take the flag from his grip.

Kaiser’s fingers clamped down on the fabric with surprising desperation.

"No..." he wheezed, coughing up saliva. "Elfie worked so hard... I can’t give it up. I can’t give it to you!"

I remained silent. I raised my heavy boot and drove it into his ribs.

Kaiser screamed in pain, curling into a ball, but his grip on the flag didn’t loosen.

"Why are you doing this?" he sobbed, blood dripping from his lip as he looked up at me with wide, innocent eyes. "I thought... I thought we were classmates."

I kicked him again, harder this time.

Then I grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie, slamming him back against the stone wall.

I punched him directly in the jaw.

His head snapped back. His lip split open, blood running down his chin. He looked completely broken, a physically fragile boy being beaten to death in the dark.

Yet, his resolve didn’t break. He still wouldn’t let go of the flag.

I stared down at his bleeding, pathetic state.

If he really cares about her this much... my bluff will do wonders.

I released his collar, letting him slump back onto the cold floor. I turned my back to him, deliberately looking back down the dark corridor toward Floor 3.

I took a single step toward where Elfina was.

A bloody hand weakly grabbed my ankle.

"Please..." Kaiser whispered, his voice trembling with sheer desperation. "Please don’t hurt Elfie."

I casually kicked my leg back, sending my boot squarely into his face.

Kaiser groaned, falling flat onto his back.

I knelt down beside him.

I reached out and grabbed his bleeding forearm to pry the flag from his fingers.

As my fingers wrapped around his arm, I froze.

Beneath the oversized, baggy fabric of his hoodie, his arm didn’t feel like flesh.

It felt like a coiled steel cable.

Myofibrillar hypertrophy.

Unlike sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which simply pumps fluid into the muscles to increase their size and volume for show, myofibrillar training increases the density of the contractile proteins themselves. It produces insurmountable, terrifying physical strength while keeping the muscle volume deceptively small and unimposing.

Even though he was lying here, completely unable to fight, his forearms possessed the structural density of a high-tier physical enhancer.

Kaiser flinched, pulling his arm back weakly.

"Don’t touch me..." he begged, his voice still shaking with fear.

He looked up at me, his eyes filled with terrified innocence. "Take the flag. Just... please don’t hurt her."

I stared at him through the eye-holes of my mask.

Let’s see how far he can go to beg for her life. Maybe I’ll make him my next pawn.

I leaned in close, bringing my painted, crying mask inches from his bleeding face. For the first time since the exam began, I spoke.

"I’m going back down." I whispered, my voice cold and hollow.

"And I am going to rip her eyes out. What are you going to do about it?"

Kaiser’s breath hitched. Tears streamed down his bloodied cheeks.

"Take... take the flag." He forced the pink cloth toward me with a trembling hand, his voice breaking into a pathetic sob. "Please... I’m begging you. Just leave her alone."

I looked down at the flag, then back at his crying, bruised face.

If I accept the flag now, he believes he has bought her safety. But if I truly want to elevate Class C... humbling Elfina Lunaris to her absolute core will only push them to a better standard later.

"You call crawling through drainage vents doing what you were supposed to?" I said, my voice filtered cold and hollow through the mask. "You ran away from every real clash. You let the others bleed while you hid in the dark."

"We’re not strong like Milo! We had to outsmart the maze! That was our only chance!"

"Outsmarting a maze is useless when the world outside is a slaughterhouse. Milo is a rabid dog, Nysira has a fragile ego, and you are a coward who begs on his knees. Your entire class is a garbage heap of leftovers."

"We’re classmates... we can improve. If you take the flags, you fail all of us. Why are you doing this?"

"To cure your delusions. Genuineness without unity is a death sentence in this Academy. If I leave Elfina Lunaris untouched, she will continue to play her pathetic representative game until she gets buried by Class A. I am doing her a favor by breaking her now."

"She isn’t playing! She genuinely wants to help us! She’s the only one who didn’t look down on us! Please, take my flag, take my phone, take whatever you want. Just don’t go back down. Don’t touch her. I’m begging you."

"Starlight won’t save her from reality." I adjusted my grip on my twin axes. "And your tears won’t save her from me."

"I think I’ll break her hands, too. That way, she’ll never be able to cast that ugly magic again."

I turned my back on him. I took one step toward the stairwell.

Then, every survival instinct drilled into my body screamed in absolute terror.

A cold, suffocating pressure washed over the corridor. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

It wasn’t mana. It was pure, distilled killing intent.

I spun around.

Kaiser wasn’t on the floor anymore.

Immediately turning back forward.

He was standing directly in front of me.

There was no sound. He hadn’t displaced the air. One second he was bleeding on the stone ten feet away, and the next, he was inside my guard.

I reacted purely on reflex. I swung my right axe in a brutal horizontal arc aimed at his neck.

Kaiser didn’t duck. He stepped forward. He raised his right arm, using his forearm to catch my wrist just below the hilt of the axe. The deflection was instantaneous and perfectly angled, redirecting the momentum of my swing past his shoulder without taking any of the force.

Martial Arts?

I didn’t hesitate. I threw a rapid left hook with my second axe.

Kaiser parried it with the back of his hand, neutralizing the strike with a soft, circular motion that trapped my wrist against my own chest.

I unleashed a flurry of strikes. Four, five, six lightning-fast attacks—slashes, thrusts, and pommel strikes meant to overwhelm any standard guard.

Kaiser deflected every single one of them. His movements were minimal, almost perfect. He didn’t use strength; he used structure. He flowed around my attacks, his hands sticky and unyielding, parrying my axes with a martial arts mastery that defied logic. He was closing the distance with every deflection, smothering my weapons.

I was being outmaneuvered in close combat. By a child.

I let go of the axes, shifting to my legs. I threw a blindingly fast front kick aimed at his knee, immediately followed by a spinning hook kick to his temple.

Kaiser casually lifted his shin to check the first kick, then ducked smoothly under the second, his balance absolutely flawless.

I was completely exposed.

In a desperate, final attempt, I caught one of my falling axes mid-air and swung it downward in a vicious, point-blank chop.

Kaiser stepped into the strike. He drove his elbow upward, catching the inside of my bicep and completely neutralizing the axe’s momentum. At the same exact moment, he tilted his fist and drove a left-handed strike straight toward the center of my mask.

The punch carried enough structural force to shatter my skull.

I couldn’t dodge. I couldn’t block. I closed my eyes behind the mask.

The impact never came.

A sharp gust of wind washed over my face.

I opened my eyes.

Kaiser’s left fist was hovering a millimeter away from the white ceramic of my mask.

I looked past his fist, staring into his eyes.

The terrified, innocent, crying boy was gone. His tears were gone. His trembling was gone.

His blue eyes were utterly dead. They held absolutely zero fear, zero hesitation, and zero emotion. He was looking at me the way one might look at an insect they had decided not to step on.

Why did he stop?

Kaiser slowly lowered his fist.

"Keep this between us," he said. His voice was no longer cracking. It was flat, calm, and terrifyingly cold. "I do not want to interfere with your intentions. So keep Elfie out of it."

He didn’t ask. He stated a fact.

I stared at him for a fraction of a second. Then, I reacted.

I swung my hand in a vicious backhand, slapping him across the face. As his head snapped to the side, I leaned back and drove a heavy front kick directly into his stomach.

The kick launched Kaiser backward. He slammed against the stone wall and crumpled to the floor, coughing violently as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He curled into a ball, clutching the flag to his chest, playing the fragile victim once again.

I stood in the center of the corridor, my chest heaving beneath my cloak.

I knew it. My analytical mind raced, piecing together the impossible sequence of events. Even with my formal training, he just dismantled me. He possesses some sort of formal mastery. The explosive traps, the atmospheric pressure manipulation, the dense myofibrillar muscles... I knew he was holding back. This threat was just a test to draw it out. And I was right.

I looked down at his "beaten" form lying flat on the floor.

He could have killed me. He chose not to because it would ruin his facade. He was willing to be beaten, humiliated, and bruised just to remain invisible.

I don’t intend to make a monster my enemy. It’s better if I end the test here.

I bent down, retrieved my axes from the stone floor, and adjusted my cloak. I looked at the three flags secured in my belt.

Four groups defeated. The class hierarchy shattered.

This will reach the future I envisioned.

Without another word, I turned and disappeared into the shadows of the ascending staircase, leaving the terrifying anomaly behind.

January 22nd, 2012 — 1:00 PM

Gymnasium

Perspective: Elfie

We had all lost.

We stood in a tight line formation back in the gymnasium. The cool, damp air felt heavier now, pressing down on my shoulders like physical weights. The other classes—Class A and Class B—were lined up perfectly in their respective sections, their uniforms clean and their postures confident.

We were a disaster.

The medical instructors had rushed down to heal the worst of our injuries. Scarlet’s legs were bandaged, Xavier was holding his ribs, and Delyra was glaring at the floor with a bruised eye. I looked over at Kai standing next to me. His lip was split, a jagged cut running along his jawline, and his cheek was swelling. My chest physically ached looking at him.

I wanted to hold his face and cast a healing spell until every single scratch disappeared, but he was staring blankly forward, keeping his hands shoved deep in his hoodie pockets.

I laced my fingers through his. He didn’t pull away. He just gave my hand a light, tired squeeze.

Instructor Theodor stood on the elevated platform, holding a thick stack of grading sheets.

Not a single person in Class C carried a flag. We were absolute failures of the practical test.

"This concludes the Practical Dungeon Exam." Theodor’s voice echoed across the gymnasium, silencing the quiet murmurs.

"For many of you, this was a harsh awakening. This test was designed as a benchmark. It allows us to properly evaluate your raw capabilities so we can create appropriate, scaled exams for your future. Now, we will go over the results for each class sequentially."

Theodor flipped the first page.

"Class A," he announced, his voice carrying a note of genuine respect. "All five of your groups successfully retrieved your flags and returned to the surface. Your maximum completion time was 15 minutes."

15 minutes.

It took us over an hour just to navigate the waste paths and find our flag. We were fighting for our lives, bleeding and panicking in the dark, and Class A had finished the entire labyrinth in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. It felt so incredibly, impossibly unfair. The gap between us wasn’t just a physical distance—it was an ocean.

"You coordinated perfectly as units." Theodor continued, nodding toward the elite students. "You annihilated the monster ambushes in the starting stages exactly as expected. However, Group 1 holds the fastest record in the academy’s history."

The room went completely silent.

"Led by Rose Valentine." Theodor read from his clipboard. "A student in her group, Lucas Reindhardt, descended to the 5th floor all alone, retrieved the flag in the first 2 minutes, and brought it back in the next 2 minutes. 4 minutes total. Supreme speed and absolute efficiency. He has created a new benchmark for this academy’s testing."

Whispers erupted immediately.

I looked over at Class A. Rose Valentine stood near the front, her vibrant blond hair perfectly styled, looking elegant and composed. But the members of her group standing behind her did not look happy.

They looked furious.

"You completely broke the formation, Lucas." One of the boys from her group snapped, glaring at him.

Lucas Reindhardt didn’t even look at him. He was inspecting his fingernails with the casual indifference of someone deciding what to have for dinner.

"The lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinion of a sheep." Lucas said nonchalantly. "Why do I have to slow down for your inferiority? You should feel blessed you were born in the era that holds my divinity. Throughout this academy, I’m the greatest student it has ever received."

Another student gritted his teeth, his face turning red. "You arrogant, self-obsessed freak! You didn’t even care about the rest of us!"

Lucas sighed, tilting his head slightly. "I understand the importance of consent, and I respect the bodily autonomy of small dogs like you."

"But if you want to survive, stay out of my way."

Julian, the dark-haired desk partner of Lucas from Class A, stepped forward, pointing an angry finger at him. "You didn’t even follow the strategy! You didn’t even make a map of the dungeon yesterday like the rest of us! You just rushed in blindly!"

"I do not concern myself with revising until the last minute." Lucas scoffed. He reached over with his opposite hand and cracked his shoulder loudly, wincing slightly as he rolled his neck.

"It’s hard work, carrying my entire class."

The entire group looked ready to cast spells right then and there.

"Enough." Rose Valentine intervened. She looked at Lucas, her ruby-red eyes narrowing slightly. "Lucas brought results. That is all that matters."

Lucas smirked, glancing down at Rose. "Your concept of unity is flawed, Rose. You are simply too slow."

Rose didn’t flinch. She just offered him a polite, razor-sharp smile.

"The lion also ignores his shoulder pain after ego-lifting." Rose replied smoothly.

Lucas actually looked slightly annoyed for a split second before crossing his arms and scoffing, looking away.

Rose turned her attention back to the platform, gracefully dismissing him. "Let’s ignore him. Instructor Theodor, please continue."

Theodor nodded, finally letting go of the internal class drama.

Before he could speak, the heavy double doors opened.

A new instructor walked in. She was breathtakingly beautiful, wearing the pristine white and gold robes of Class A’s homeroom teacher. But while Instructor Aisha had silver-blonde hair, this woman had hair like spun obsidian—jet black and flawlessly straight—and striking, piercing blue eyes.

I glanced at Instructor Aisha. She was standing near the edge of our Class C formation. Her hands were balled into tight fists, her knuckles turning white. The usual warm, melodic smile she wore for us was completely gone, replaced by a look of sheer, unadulterated frustration.

The dark-haired elf walked gracefully past our section toward the platform. As she passed Aisha, she didn’t stop, but I saw her lips move, leaning in just a fraction of an inch to whisper into Aisha’s ear.

"You should give up on your stubborn dream. You’ll never surpass me, and this test has proven that fact."

Aisha’s eyes widened, and she bit her bottom lip so hard I thought it might bleed.

The older sister stepped up onto the platform, taking her place next to Theodor, looking out over her flawless Class A students with a proud, regal smile.

"I will grade the classes based on your overall performance." Theodor announced, adjusting his clipboard. "The fund distribution for your respective dormitories and resources will be given tomorrow. Next up, Class B..."

Theodor flipped to the second page of his clipboard. His expression softened slightly, though he still maintained his strict, authoritative posture.

"Class B. All five of your groups successfully completed the test and retrieved your flags within a 45-minute window," Theodor stated, his voice echoing clearly. "I am particularly impressed by your restraint. Unlike the other classes, not a single group in Class B was greedy enough to hunt for bounties. You focused entirely on your own objectives, localized your resources, and as a result, your overall class survival rate was exceptional."

The students of Class B stood tall, a collective wave of pride washing over their ranks.

"However," Theodor continued, "Unlike Class A, your Group 1 did not take the first place record. Class B’s Group 2 arrived first, completing the dungeon in exactly 24 minutes, led by Sylvia Somerset."

He paused, looking at the other side of the Class B formation. "Followed shortly after by Group 1, coming in at 29 minutes, led by Victor Sterling."

At the front of the Class B formation, a breathtakingly beautiful girl with cascading silver-white hair and piercing violet eyes tilted her head. Sylvia Somerset carried herself with an ethereal, almost divine grace. She turned slightly to look at the tall, handsome boy standing at the head of Group 1.

"24 minutes against your 29, Victor," Sylvia said, her voice smooth, melodic, and laced with absolute condescension. "It seems your precious philosophy of ’leave no one behind’ is quite the heavy deadweight."

Victor Sterling didn’t lose his warm, confident smile. He stood with perfect posture, his golden-brown hair catching the dim cavern light.

"We were only 5 minutes behind you, Sylvia," Victor replied, his baritone voice calm and measured. "And all five members of my group are standing tall without a single scratch. Can you say the same for your squad?"

Sylvia offered a flawless, cutting smile. "Scratches are merely the price of victory. Why carry dead weight when you can let them serve their purpose as stepping stones?"

"Because a kingdom built on broken stones eventually collapses," Victor countered, his tone polite but firm. "True strength elevates those around you. We win together."

"Oh, Victor... still trying to lift the unworthy with your own two hands," Sylvia sighed dramatically, as if she were speaking to a naive child. "I don’t build kingdoms. I ascend to godhood. A goddess doesn’t share her throne, nor does she slow down for mortals."

"Your brilliance is undeniable, Sylvia," Victor said smoothly, refusing to be rattled. "But brilliance without a unified purpose is merely vanity. Let’s see whose methods hold up when the real academy trials begin."

"I look forward to it," Sylvia replied, turning her violet eyes away. "Try not to drown while saving everyone else."

Theodor watched the brief exchange without interrupting, knowing that the rivalry between the two prodigies was the exact catalyst driving Class B’s success.

"Your funds will be allocated appropriately as soon as your homeroom instructor arrives to sign the authorization," Theodor said.

Right on cue, the heavy doors opened once more.

A tall figure stepped into the gymnasium. He was a demon, possessing deep crimson skin and two curved, obsidian horns that swept back through his perfectly styled black hair. Unlike the pristine robes of the other instructors, he wore a sharp, impeccably tailored black business suit, looking entirely out of place in a damp dungeon staging area.

He walked up to the platform, adjusting his silk tie, his glowing red eyes fixed on Theodor.

"Theodor," the demon instructor sighed, his voice raspy and exhausted. "Why exactly did I have to come down here? I have a syllabus to finalize."

"We were going to take a group selfie," Theodor replied completely deadpan.

The demon just stared at him, unblinking.

Theodor cleared his throat. "I’m joking. It’s about the funding distribution. I need your physical signature on the authorization documents before the administration processes them."

The demon instructor muttered something under his breath about bureaucratic inefficiency and took the clipboard to sign.

Theodor’s expression instantly darkened. The mild amusement vanished, replaced by a heavy, suffocating disappointment. He turned his gaze slowly toward our section.

"Finally. Class C."

The entire cavern seemed to grow colder. I felt my stomach twist into a painful knot.

"To my absolute, uttermost disappointment..." Theodor’s voice boomed, carrying a harsh, biting edge that made several of my classmates flinch. "Not only did you fail to meet the time limit... none of your groups passed. In fact, not a single flag was returned to the surface."

A wave of utter shock rippled through the gymnasium.

The students in Class A and Class B broke their disciplined silence, erupting into a frenzy of murmurs and harsh whispers.

"Not a single flag?"

"Are they really that pathetic?"

"Even the lowest ranks in our class managed to get theirs... how do you fail completely?"

"A garbage heap of leftovers..."

The whispers felt like physical daggers. I bowed my head, my face burning with a deep, consuming embarrassment. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, hot and humiliating.

It wasn’t just the public shame that hurt. It was the agonizing, heartbreaking truth that burned in my chest.

We were going to win.

Group 5 had actually done it. We had solved the riddle, bypassed the main traps, outsmarted the maze, and retrieved our flag. We had survived Milo’s brutal ambush. If it hadn’t been for that masked monster—that unknown rogue who systematically hunted down every single group and stole our hard-earned victories—we would have passed. We would have proven that Class C wasn’t just a joke.

But no one else knew that. To the rest of the academy, we were just failures.

Theodor looked directly at our battered, bruised, and broken class. His eyes swept over Milo’s unconscious form, Delyra’s bruised face, and finally locked onto me.

"Class C," Theodor demanded, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "How did this happen?"

Silence.

Then Delyra stepped forward, her violet eyes blazing with fury.

"One of our own sabotaged us."

The murmurs across Class A and Class B died instantly.

"Someone wearing a white mask attacked every single group," Delyra continued, her voice trembling with restrained rage. "They weren’t hunting for bounties. They were hunting to destroy us."

Cressida spoke next, her voice short and blunt. "They hit our group on Floor 4. We didn’t even have time to react. Delyra and I were already injured from Milo’s ambush, and then this person came in and took our flag like we were nothing."

"They hit us too," Rigel said, adjusting his cracked glasses. His calm, analytical voice barely concealed the frustration underneath. "My group tried to fight back. Sophia cast a point-blank celestial blast, and they just tilted their head and let it miss. I landed one clean hit, knocked an axe out of their hand—"

He paused, swallowing hard.

"—and they used the opening to kick me in the face. Leena bound them with Elvian roots, and they ripped free through sheer leg strength and launched off the wall like a projectile. The technique wasn’t brute force. It was refined, formal martial arts."

Leena nodded, her green braids swaying. "I’ve never seen anyone break an Ether-Root bind physically. I thought it was impossible."

Mira’s ears flattened against her head. "They came through our group’s area too. I couldn’t even track their scent. Whoever it was knew how to mask themselves completely."

"I-I saw them fight Milo," Scarlet stammered, clutching her bandaged legs. "They were... they were terrifying. They deflected everything Milo threw at them. Lightning, earth magic, his warhammer. They took it all apart like it was nothing."

The entire gymnasium turned to Milo.

He was standing at the far end of Class C’s formation, his massive arms crossed, his jaw clenched so tight the muscles in his neck bulged. A massive bruise covered the left side of his face where the masked rogue’s boot had connected.

"Whoever that was," Milo growled, his voice a low, dangerous rumble, "I’m going to find them. And when I do, I’m going to break every bone in their body. They didn’t beat me. They ambushed me after I’d already fought my way through three floors."

"You were already attacking other groups, Milo!" Delyra shot back. "You attacked us first! You’re part of the reason we’re standing here with nothing!"

"Shut your mouth, Nysira. I was playing the game. That masked freak wasn’t playing anything. They were sabotaging."

"Playing the game?" Rigel’s voice hardened. "You put Cressida and Delyra in the dirt. You nearly crippled Scarlet. You paralyzed Elfina with lightning and mocked her while she couldn’t move. You call that playing?"

"I call that winning," Milo snarled. "Something none of you know how to do."

"You didn’t win either!" Leena snapped, her usual cheerfulness completely gone. "You got kicked unconscious! We all lost!"

The class erupted. Voices overlapping, accusations flying, fingers pointing.

"If you hadn’t gone after our group, we would have made it back!"

"Your group was too slow to begin with!"

"At least we didn’t get knocked out cold by one person!"

"At least I actually fought instead of hiding in drainage vents!"

I stood in the middle of it. The noise crashed over me like waves. My classmates were tearing each other apart.

Blaming each other.

Hating each other.

And the other classes were watching us do it.

I felt the tears spill over. I couldn’t stop them. They rolled hot and fast down my cheeks, dripping off my chin.

"Stop."

My voice cracked. Nobody heard me.

"Please stop!"

The gymnasium fell quiet.

Everyone turned to look at me. The crying girl with the split uniform and the trembling hands.

"We lost... I said, and my voice broke on the word. "All of us. Together. Not because of Milo. Not because of the masked person. We lost because we were never fighting as a class."

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, but the tears kept coming.

"Look at us. We’re standing here, bleeding and broken, and instead of figuring out how to get better, we’re screaming at each other. Class A finished in 15 minutes because they moved as one. Class B finished because they trusted each other enough to focus on the objective. And us? We spent the entire exam fighting ourselves."

Scarlet was crying now too. Xavier had his head down, gripping his notebook so tight his knuckles were white.

"I know we’re the leftovers. I know nobody wanted us. I know every single person in this room thinks we’re a joke." My voice shook, but I forced myself to keep going. "But we’re not. Scarlet learned an entirely new magic technique in two days. Xavier mapped the entire dungeon by hand. Mira navigated us through paths that nobody else even knew existed. Rigel stopped to help classmates who weren’t even in his group because he believed we were still family."

I looked at Milo. He was staring at the floor.

"Even Milo fought harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. He just... fought the wrong people."

Milo’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue.

"We can’t keep doing this," I whispered. "If we keep tearing each other down, we will never survive the real exams. We will be expelled. All of us. Please... I’m begging you. Let’s be a class. A real one."

The silence that followed was heavy and absolute.

Then Kayla Caroline stepped forward. The tall, stoic girl with the flowing black hair and piercing blue eyes. She had been silent the entire time, standing at the edge of the formation with her arms crossed.

"She’s right," Kayla said quietly, her voice steady and precise. "I lost my flag to that masked individual as well. Group 2 had no chance. They dismantled our formation in under 30 seconds."

She looked at me, her serious eyes holding mine.

"Our class cannot win while divided. The data proves it. Every group that attempted to operate independently was eliminated. The only logical path forward is coordination."

The weight of Kayla’s words settled over the class. Even Milo didn’t argue.

I turned to Theodor, my heart hammering in my chest.

"Instructor Theodor," I said, my voice raw and desperate. "Please... give us another chance. Let us retake the test. We’ll do it right this time. Together."

Theodor stared down at me from the platform. His expression was cold, immovable, and utterly without mercy.

"There are no second chances for death, Miss Lunaris."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I flinched, my shoulders caving inward.

"In a real combat scenario, failure means a body count. If this had been a live operation, every student in your class would be dead." Theodor’s voice was granite. "You failed. And because of your own foolish, self-destructive behavior, Class C is denied all physical capability funding for this quarter. You will receive no allocation for combat equipment, training facilities, or supplementary resources."

My knees buckled slightly. I felt Kai’s hand gently press against my lower back, keeping me upright.

Theodor reached beneath the podium and placed a small bundle of colored fabric on the surface. Five flags, crumpled and dirty.

"These are your flags. I recovered all of them scattered across the 2nd floor of the dungeon. Whoever took them didn’t even bother to bring them to the surface."

The finality of his words crushed me.

I couldn’t hold it anymore. The tears that had been burning behind my eyes for the last twenty minutes finally broke through every wall I had built. I crumpled. My knees hit the cold stone floor. My hands pressed flat against the ground.

I cried.

Not the quiet, dignified tears I had shed during my speech. These were ugly, broken sobs that tore out of my chest like something was physically ripping apart inside me. My shoulders shook violently. My breathing came in jagged, desperate gasps.

We failed. I failed. I failed everyone.

The whispers from Class A and Class B washed over me, but I couldn’t hear them anymore. Everything had become a muffled, underwater roar. All I could feel was the cold floor under my palms and the hot tears streaming down my face.

Then a hand gently touched my shoulder.

"Elfie."

Kai’s voice. Soft. Steady. Like it always was.

He knelt down beside me on the cold stone floor, right there in the middle of the gymnasium, in front of three entire classes and four instructors. He didn’t care. He never cared what anyone thought.

His thumb brushed gently across my cheek, wiping the tears away. But more kept falling, replacing them instantly.

"I really wanted to win," I choked out between sobs. My voice was so small it barely existed. "I really, really wanted to win, Kai."

"I know."

"We worked so hard." I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to stop crying and failing completely. "Scarlet learned a whole new technique for this. Xavier stayed up until 3 AM mapping the dungeon. Mira pushed herself past her limits scouting for us. We did everything right. We solved the riddle, we found the flag, we avoided every main corridor trap—"

My voice cracked and shattered.

"—and it still wasn’t enough."

Kaiser didn’t say anything for a moment. He just stayed kneeling beside me, his hand warm on my shoulder.

"It was enough, Elfie."

"It wasn’t!" I looked up at him through blurred, tear-soaked vision. His bruised face was calm. Patient. Impossibly gentle despite the cuts on his lip and the swelling on his jaw. "We’re standing here with nothing! No flags, no funding, no respect! The entire academy just watched our class tear itself apart and get publicly humiliated!"

"And now they know your name."

I blinked, my breath hitching mid-sob.

"They heard your speech," Kaiser said quietly. "Every student in this gymnasium heard the Class C representative stand in front of 75 students, bleeding and crying, and beg her class to be better. That’s not nothing. That’s everything."

"But I..." My lip trembled violently. I couldn’t look at him. I dropped my gaze to the floor, watching my tears darken the cold stone. "I wanted to impress you, Kai."

The words fell out of me before I could stop them. Tiny and fragile and honest.

"I worked so hard because... because you always save me. You always make things okay when everything falls apart. And I wanted... just once... I wanted to be the one who won. I wanted you to look at me and think ’she did it.’ I wanted to prove I was worthy of everything you do for me."

I pressed my hands against my face again, the shame burning worse than the sadness.

"And I couldn’t. I feel so terrible that I couldn’t."

A long silence.

Then Kaiser’s arms wrapped around me.

He pulled me into his chest, gently, carefully, the way you hold something precious that’s about to break. I buried my face into the fabric of his hoodie. His heartbeat was right there against my ear. Steady. Calm. Unshakable. The same heartbeat that had been steady when the Crawlers attacked, when Milo ambushed us, when the masked rogue came for our flag.

It never wavered. It never panicked.

And right now, it was beating just for me.

"This was good, Elfie," he murmured into my hair.

"How?" I whimpered.

"Your group worked together. Perfectly. Five people who were called dead weight by everyone in this academy navigated a dungeon, solved a riddle, fought monsters, survived an ambush by the strongest kid in the class, and retrieved their flag. That’s not a failure. That’s a foundation."

"But the class—"

"The class heard you today. Milo heard you. Delyra heard you. Even Kayla stepped forward. That doesn’t happen because of a flag, Elfie. That happens because of you."

I sniffled hard, rubbing my face against his hoodie, not caring that I was soaking it with tears and probably ruining it.

"Next exam," Kaiser continued softly, "this class will work together. Because today they felt what it’s like to lose alone. And they heard what it sounds like when someone genuinely wants them to win together. That person was you. Not me. You."

"I still wanted to win too," I stuttered through the tears. "I worked s-so hard and I... I just..."

My voice dissolved into another sob.

Kaiser held me tighter. He rested his chin on the top of my head.

"Elfie," he said, his voice so quiet that only I could hear it. "Would winning here make you smile again? Would it make you happy?"

I went quiet.

The tears kept falling, but the sobs slowed. My fingers curled into the fabric of his hoodie, gripping it like a lifeline.

I thought about it. Really thought about it. About Scarlet’s proud smile when her ice worked. About Xavier’s quiet confidence when his map saved us. About Mira’s ears perking up when I told the group we could do this. About Kai, standing behind me through every single moment, never asking for anything, never wanting credit, just... there. Always there.

Would winning make me happy?

"...yes," I whispered, so softly it was barely a breath.

Kaiser said nothing. He just held me.

The demon instructor, Sukuna, had been leaning against the wall with his arms folded, watching the proceedings with bored, half-lidded eyes. But now, he tilted his head. His glowing red eyes narrowed.

Then he laughed.

A short, raspy, genuinely amused laugh that cut through the heavy silence like a blade.

"What’s wrong, Sukuna?" Theodor asked, frowning.

Sukuna pushed himself off the wall, strolling over to the podium with his hands in his suit pockets. "Maybe you should get those eyes checked, Theodor. Look at the flag’s affinity."

Theodor blinked. He looked down at the bundle.

Columbina, the Class A instructor with the obsidian hair, leaned forward, her piercing blue eyes narrowing as she extended her hand over the flags. Her fingers hovered over the pink one.

"It has no mana," Columbina stated, her elegant voice sharp with confusion. "This flag carries zero mana affinity. That shouldn’t be possible."

Sukuna laughed again, shaking his head. "A student managed to fool all of you. That flag is fake."

"Impossible," Aisha said instantly, stepping forward from the edge of our formation.

"It can’t be replicated," Theodor agreed, his brows furrowing deeply. "Each flag was woven with a unique mana-threaded dye. The pigmentation is bonded at a molecular level to the instructor’s own mana signature during fabrication. Even if you could visually replicate the color, the crystalline lattice structure of the mana threading would be completely absent. It’s the same principle behind currency authentication. Both Class A and Class B attempted to forge copies during the test and failed precisely because of this."

"That’s all true," Sukuna said, picking up the pink flag and holding it to the light. "If you’re trying to replicate it with magic. But what if a student manually engineered and recreated the flag physically? Ground the pigments by hand. Mixed the dyes from raw materials. Stitched the fabric manually. That’s why nobody can detect the forgery through mana affinity—because there is no mana in it at all. It’s a perfect visual replica built entirely from physical chemistry."

"But who—" Theodor started.

A hand rose from the Class C formation.

My hand.

Except I wasn’t holding it up.

Kaiser was.

He was standing right behind me, his bruised, beaten face completely calm. In his left hand, held high above the heads of the entire class, was a pink flag. The real one. It pulsed faintly with Theodor’s mana signature, unmistakable and undeniable.

The gymnasium went dead silent.

Kaiser lowered his hand, looking at Theodor with those half-lidded, sleepy blue eyes.

"Elfina planned this."

My heart stopped.

"She anticipated that someone in our class would attempt to sabotage the test," Kaiser said, his voice flat and casual, like he was explaining the weather. "She noticed the behavioral patterns during the group assignments. The resentment. The infighting. She knew someone would try to take every flag by force."

Columbina stepped closer to the edge of the platform, her blue eyes sharp. "How did she recreate the flag’s exact color and fabric texture without magic?"

"She had me collect the raw materials from the dungeon," Kaiser answered. "Sulfur deposits for the yellow base pigment. Cave fungi paste as a binding agent. Guano mineral salts for the ammonia-based fixative. Quartz stalactite dust ground into a fine powder and mixed with the fungi to create a reflective pink dye that matched the original flag’s hue under torchlight conditions."

He paused, scratching the back of his head. "She told me exactly what to gather and how to mix them. I just followed her instructions. The stitching was done with fiber stripped from the inner lining of my hoodie."

"That’s why you were collecting useless materials during the test," Theodor said slowly, his eyes widening.

"They weren’t useless," Kaiser replied. "Elfina identified every material by name before we entered the dungeon. She had the entire formula planned."

He’s lying.

My breath caught in my throat. My heart was hammering so violently I thought it might crack my ribs.

He’s giving me all the credit. He planned this. He built the fake flag. He collected the materials. He engineered the entire deception. And he’s standing in front of three classes and four instructors, attributing every single detail to me.

"So the saboteur took a decoy," Sukuna said, a wide, sharp-toothed grin spreading across his crimson face. "And the real flag has been in your pocket this entire time."

"In Elfina’s pocket," Kaiser corrected. "She asked me to hold onto it for safekeeping. Her plan was simple. Let the saboteur believe they had won. Let them take every flag. Then walk to the surface with the real one. She wanted to prove that Class C’s representative could outsmart even the biggest threat in the room."

"But why not just run to the surface immediately?" Aisha asked, her gold-flecked eyes glistening with something between shock and barely contained pride.

"Because Elfina wanted the class to see what happens when they fight each other," Kaiser said quietly. "She wanted them to feel the loss. To understand that no amount of individual strength can overcome a united enemy. The saboteur beat every single group alone. But they couldn’t beat the one person who was thinking about the class instead of themselves."

The gymnasium was completely, utterly silent.

"She isn’t crying because she lost, and she isn’t crying because it was hard."

"She’s crying because she knows how much they must hate her right now. To be a leader like Elfina is to accept that you will be misunderstood by the very people you are trying to save."

"They’ll call you a mastermind."

"They’ll say you manipulated them. And in a way, you did."

"You took on the burden of their hatred so they wouldn’t have to carry the burden of their own failure."

"That’s not manipulation, Elfina. That’s grace. It’s the heaviest kind, but it’s the only kind that changes people."

He looked back at Aisha, who was watching the scene with a newfound, profound respect.

"A leader isn’t someone who is loved while they work."

"A leader is someone who is willing to be hated, as long as it ensures that when the real fight comes, the people standing next to them are finally a team."

Theodor stared at the real pink flag in Kaiser’s hand. Then he looked at me.

I couldn’t speak. My lips were trembling. Tears were streaming freely down my face. But they weren’t just tears of relief anymore.

Underneath the shock, a wave of profound guilt washed over me. If everyone believed Kaiser’s lie, then I was the one who had played god with my own classmates’ fates. I had let them fail. I had watched Delyra bleed, Scarlet cry, and Rigel get beaten, all for the sake of some grand, calculated lesson on unity. The thought of being that kind of cold, deceitful leader made my chest physically ache. I hated lying to them. I wanted them to understand the importance of working together, yes, but not like this.

Not through a web of manufactured suffering.

Yet, looking at Kai’s steady, unblinking eyes, I knew I had to carry this weight.

For his sake, and for theirs, I had to play the part of the mastermind.

He did it again.

He always does this. He hides in the shadows, acts like a fool, lets everyone laugh at him, and then at the exact moment when everything is falling apart, he quietly, invisibly, saves everything. And he never takes the credit. He gives it all to me. Every single time.

Kai... why do you always do this for me?

Theodor slowly reached down and took the pink flag from Kaiser’s hand. He examined it, turning it over, his massive fingers feeling the mana threading woven through the fabric.

His expression shifted. The cold disappointment cracked, just barely, into something resembling reluctant respect.

"Group 5 passes."

The words echoed through the gymnasium.

Class A and Class B erupted into confused, stunned whispers.

I felt my knees give out. Kai caught me, his arm wrapping around my shoulders. I buried my face into his chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Elfie," Kaiser whispered directly into my ear, his voice barely a breath. "You need to stop crying. People are going to get confused if the mastermind who allegedly orchestrated this entire lesson is weeping like a lost child."

I let out a wet, hiccuping laugh against his chest, trying desperately to swallow my remaining sobs.

"That concludes today’s practical," Theodor’s voice boomed across the gymnasium, cutting through the murmurs. "Classes are dismissed. You may all leave."

The tension in the room finally broke. The heavy double doors of the gymnasium groaned open, and the students began to file out.

I pulled away from Kaiser, finally wiping the last of the tears from my cheeks.

Class B walked out first. As they passed our section, Sylvia Somerset kept her eyes locked on me, a mixture of cold intrigue and calculation in her gaze. Beside her, Victor Sterling offered me a polite, lingering nod, his hazel eyes searching mine as if trying to read the truth behind the strategy.

Then Class A moved.

Rose Valentine walked past, her footsteps light and measured. Her blond hair swayed as she paused slightly, her blue eyes landing on me. She looked thoughtful, as if analyzing a puzzle. But then her gaze shifted past my shoulder to Kaiser.

A small, knowing smile tugged at the corner of her lips, a brief flash of amusement in her eyes before she walked on.

Kai kept his expression completely neutral, staring blankly ahead as if he hadn’t noticed her at all.

As the elite classes left, the remaining students of Class C immediately crowded around us.

"You actually did it, Elfie!" Scarlet beamed, her green eyes wide and sparkling. "Even one flag is enough to secure us partial funding! We won’t have to train with broken wooden swords!"

"I-I didn’t think we’d get anything at all," Xavier admitted, clutching his notebook. "Thank you, representative."

"A bit theatrical, letting us believe we failed," Delyra remarked, crossing her arms. "But I suppose it got the point across. You saved us from a complete embarrassment. Good job."

Rigel offered a respectful nod. "You really thought ahead, Elfie. You saved the class’s reputation today. We owe you one."

"That was so cool!" Leena cheered, bouncing on her heels.

Milo Sterling shoved his way through the crowd, his face still bruised and his green eyes dark. He stopped in front of me, grunting.

"Next time, use your own brain and don’t make us wait," Milo growled, a half-ass, begrudging thank you hidden beneath his hostility. "And don’t use your lackey to show off. If you have the flag, just reveal it yourself."

He threw a sharp, irritated glare at Kaiser before spinning on his heel and walking away.

"He’s just mad because he got outplayed," Mira purred, her grey tail swishing happily.

I looked around at my classmates. For the first time since we had entered Asura Academy, they weren’t looking at me with pity or indifference. They were looking at me with respect. I looked back at Kai, and saw a soft, quiet smile on his face as he watched the crowd congratulate me.

As we all began to walk out of the gymnasium, Kayla Caroline brushed past Kaiser. It happened in a fraction of a second, completely unnoticed by the classmates surrounding me. In a fluid, invisible motion, her fingers slid a small, neatly folded square of paper directly into Kaiser’s palm. Kaiser’s hand closed over it instantly, slipping it into his pocket without a word or a change in his expression.

Once we finally cleared the academic halls and stepped out into the afternoon air, the crowd dispersed, leaving just the two of us walking down the stone path.

"Well, Mastermind," Kaiser teased, bumping his shoulder against mine. "How does it feel to save the class?"

"Exhausting," I sighed, though a smile finally broke across my face. I reached over, wrapping both of my hands around his arm and hugging it close as we walked. "And you’re a terrible liar, Kai. Ground quartz and cave fungi? Stripping fiber from your hoodie? You made me sound like some kind of mad alchemist."

"It worked, didn’t it?" Kaiser laughed. "Besides, you look the part."

"I do not!" I pouted, squeezing his arm. "But... thank you. Seriously."

"If you’re really thankful, you can let me buy you a piece of chocolate cake from the commercial district."

I raised an eyebrow, looking at him skeptically. "And how exactly are you going to afford that?"

"Loans," Kaiser replied, his voice completely deadpan. "It’s my natural talent. I’m already in debt of exactly 7,291 gold throughout Celestine and Asura. A few more copper coins won’t hurt."

I burst out laughing, shaking my head. "You’re ridiculous, Kai. Seven thousand gold? You’d be in a dungeon for the rest of your life."

"It’s a heavy burden, but someone has to carry it," he sighed dramatically.

I just smiled, resting my head against his shoulder as we walked together. The afternoon sun was warm, my classmates were safe, and as long as I was holding onto his arm, I didn’t care about the gold, the exams, or the rest of the world.

I was just happy.