Chapter 138

Chapter 138

The wind roared past their ears, and everything around them blurred as if seen through a sped-up lens. Several figures leaped and dashed swiftly through the forest, their silver-haired leader a prominent flash in the deep, dark woods.

"Chief..." a student following behind hesitated, "Your hair is too conspicuous."

Eve had already noticed the problem. She sighed, abruptly halting at the next turn. She listened intently; the footsteps of their pursuers had faded, likely shaken off.

After a moment, she turned to the others. "You all go ahead in a bit. I’ll cover the rear."

"L-Let’s rest for a bit first. I really can't run anymore," Liz gasped, plopping down on the ground without a care for her image. With no immediate risk of being caught, she seized the chance to catch her breath. God knows why the Chief was so fast; chasing her had nearly cost Liz her life.

The thought of Eve covering the rear, and another frantic, life-or-death chase, made Liz’s eyes roll back as if she were about to faint.

"I don’t hear the Command Department pursuers' footsteps anymore."

"Obviously. They’d need wings to keep up with this speed," Liz retorted irritably. "They’re not the ones being chased—why would they run so desperately?"

The student who had spoken earlier turned pale. "...Yeah, you’re right."

"Alright, if we’re resting, then rest properly. Don’t chat while you’re gasping for breath," Eve scolded, giving each of them a light tap on the back of their heads. She glanced at her wrist device. "We have two minutes until the next location update. Use this time to catch your breath."

The other students dragged out their replies: "Okaaay—"

Two minutes later, everyone’s wrist devices vibrated simultaneously as the new electronic map appeared.

Eve looked down, and her expression instantly changed. "Damn."

On the map, a cluster of blue dots—Eve remembered clearly that this was Jessica’s team—had veered in a different direction. Jessica had taken on the largest number of team members, so her group had the most blue dots among the six teams. But what was even more alarming was the swarm of white dots trailing closely behind them.

The Command Department already outnumbered the Mecha Department, and with the pursuers initially chasing Eve now redirected toward Jessica, the disparity was nearly twofold on the map!

Meanwhile, the Scout Department wasn’t faring well either. Another group of Command Department members had gathered on the tail of one of the Scout Department teams, and if that team continued forward, they were likely to run right into the Melee Department.

The chaos caused by Grace’s earlier Burst Wind Chime had left Eve only able to recall the escape directions of the Mecha Department teams. She couldn’t immediately remember who was leading this unlucky Scout Department team.

But it didn’t matter anymore. No matter who was leading them, it seemed they were doomed to be eliminated.

Unless...

A glint flashed in her eyes as she glanced at the scattered white and orange dots not far from their team. She made a snap decision and turned to the others. "You all take a detour and go support Jessica."

"What about you, Chief?"

"Didn’t I say earlier? I’ll cover the rear," Eve lifted her chin, her delicate features half-obscured by shadow, radiating an indescribable ruthlessness yet reassuring the remaining students. They stared blankly as Eve rolled up her sleeve, revealing a familiar mechanism. "—And while I’m at it, I’ll try to eliminate a few of them."

Hidden under her sleeve was none other than Tachibana Maki’s wrist-mounted crossbow.

Eve had snatched it from her just before she was eliminated, along with the arrow quiver at her waist.

"......"

The others had nothing to say. They turned and scrambled away efficiently, with Liz leading the pack. Though she often made sneaky faces behind Jessica’s back, whether out of genuine concern or pretense, she truly cared about the little princess.

Eve stood quietly for a moment, watching until the group disappeared from sight after a few leaps. Then she turned and headed back in the opposite direction, straight toward the approaching pursuers.

The rustle of crushed leaves mingled with the wind, and tree shadows danced around her. Her slender figure drifted through the forest like a phantom. Suddenly, the faint sound of a drawn bowstring tightened.

Swish—

Eve’s ears twitched. She pushed off forcefully, like a top-tier gymnast, engaging her core to its limit. As she leaped, her body arched into a perfect crescent moon mid-air.

A silver arrow grazed dangerously past her by three centimeters, shooting past the boundary of the night with a sharp whistle. With a soft thud, the girl landed steadily on a square, moss-covered boulder.

Soft footsteps approached. A youth with exquisite features emerged from behind a tree, holding a large silver-lacquered longbow. His silver hair was tied high, perfectly framing a face so handsome it was almost aggressive. He swiftly nocked another arrow and aimed it at Eve.

Eve let out a puzzled "Hm?"

"What, surprised to see me?" Cecil scoffed, his tone sharp and biting. "Are you that afraid of facing me? You even deceived me and the family head, claiming you’d apply to the Command Department, only to end up in the Mecha Department alone."

"Did it feel good to lie to me? Even better to avoid me, isn’t it?"

His voice grew increasingly bitter, filled with inexplicable resentment. As his emotions surged, he drew the bowstring taut, the gleaming arrowhead aimed squarely at Eve, each word laden with accusation.

"—Do you really hate seeing me this much? Do you despise me so intensely that you’d lie repeatedly just to get away from me?"

"......" Eve blinked, her expression genuinely bewildered. "Wait, what kind of melodrama are you acting out here?"

"Stop playing dumb!" Cecil snapped at her.

Eve was utterly baffled, unable to comprehend his logic. "What am I playing dumb about? And this is a competition. If you have issues, we can talk about them behind closed doors at home—can you please be serious?"

She leaped down from the moss-edged boulder and took a step toward him, only for Cecil to retreat nervously. "Don’t come any closer!"

"......"

Eve was at a loss. "Young master, what do you want?"

Under the cover of darkness, figuring no one was around, Cecil hesitated for a moment before pulling a round signal jammer from his pocket and tossing it to the ground. Eve let out a surprised "Wow," but before she could speak, Cecil cut in, "This is an audio-only jammer. It won’t affect the wrist devices or the fairness of the competition."

Otherwise, the school wouldn’t have turned a blind eye to him bringing it in.

His expression was a mix of conflict and resolve, his ice-blue eyes fixed intently on Eve. "I chased after you to confront you, but before we fight, I have a few questions for you."

Eve politely extended her left hand, signaling him to spit it out.

"I know you never liked me from the start, but plenty of people dislike me, so I don’t care," Cecil said arrogantly, tilting his chin up. "But you’re different from the others. Did you ever genuinely consider... killing me?"

"Do you really want to know?" Since he seemed to have sensed it, Eve saw no point in denying it. She nodded. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you posed a threat. I felt that if I didn’t eliminate you, I might suffer some losses in the near future. At best, I’d end up with a husband with violent tendencies or cause some friction with the family head. At worst—" Eve spread her hands, her tone casual. "—I might accidentally lose my life. Who knows?"

Cecil had considered many reasons but never expected this. Stunned, he almost laughed. "Why would I ever want to kill you?"

"Does it depend on your will? Fine, let’s hypothesize: What if you discovered I had plans to poison you?"

"I’d pretend I didn’t notice," Eve raised an eyebrow in surprise, only for him to finish grimly, "and then force the poison down your throat instead. If you died, your epitaph would be forever linked to my name. If you survived, I’d be deeply moved that you showed me mercy, and as repayment, I’d marry you."

...Spoke too soon.

Eve struggled to hold back but finally snapped, "You psycho, drop dead."

She drew her light sword just as an arrow shot toward her like a silver meteor. It clashed against the blade, scraping off a shower of sparks. Three or four more arrows followed in quick succession. A platinum butterfly materialized, and Eve’s figure dissolved into the air like ink in water.

Cecil was well-prepared. The silver moon clematis bloomed close behind him, its radiant moonlight enveloping him like a barrier. As top-tier S-class Spiritual State users from the Medici family, one specializing in offense and the other in defense, they found themselves locked in a stalemate.

The Spiritual State had a two-hour time limit. Eve could easily wait for the silver moon clematis to reach its limit and eliminate Cecil without shedding blood, but she wasn’t about to just sit around wasting time.

She was growing impatient.

Especially when Cecil started asking absurd questions again: "So, do you have someone you like now, Eve?"

"What are you, a tabloid editor, Young Master?" Eve retorted sarcastically. "What does it have to do with you?"

"So there isn’t, then."

"......"

"Do you have anyone else you dislike?"

"......"

Eve seemed set on shutting him out with silence, but Cecil, for once, appeared unusually tolerant. He didn’t bother calling her out for disrespect—perhaps because he had never expected respect from her in the first place, just as he never expected anything but trash from Grace’s mouth.

He chuckled to himself briefly before saying, "Eve, Alice and the rest are probably on their way here by now, right?"

Let them come, Eve thought. She’d just bail.

"I’ll be waiting for the day you kill me, just as you plotted to kill the Third Steward and the Fourth Steward," Cecil said. "I know that day will come, and you’d better act quickly. Because starting today, I will spare no effort to find opportunities to kill you too."

"If you really die by my hand, it’d be nothing less than you deserve," Eve replied coldly.

Their pointless conversation had wasted too much time. It was hard to believe that this lordling had chased her all this way just to discuss such weird, philosophical crap.

Eve could almost hear the voices of people approaching from afar. She stood up to leave, but just as she lifted her foot, she remembered something important and stopped in her tracks.

At that moment, Cecil spoke again, doubtfully asking again, "—You really don’t like Lorgar, do you?"

Eve: "Don’t make me throw mud in your face."

Cecil finally shut up.

Alice finally arrived with the others, running late. From a distance, she saw the massive silver moon clematis still in full bloom and breathed a sigh of relief. But as her gaze shifted, her expression turned grave. She held her sword ready in front of the others and whispered, "Eve is still here. Stick close to me."

As fellow mental manipulation types, she and Eve were immune to each other’s powers. However, the others lacked such luck and, unlike Cecil, had no silver moon clematis for protection. They raised their weapons in confusion, unsure where to defend.

The girl drifted over, her figure as light as morning mist. If not for the gleaming sword in her hand, the scene might even be described as elegant.

She deftly avoided Alice’s block, using the momentum to swing past her and crash into the group. By the time Alice shouted for the others to be careful, it was too late. The phantom first eliminated two people at random with sleeve-mounted darts, then, taking advantage of the teleportation light, slipped into the rear of the group.

Grace seemed to sense something and looked up.

"I’m glad to see you’ve already learned to gang up on me with others. You must have guessed I’d go to the Weapons Department to form an alliance next and set off immediately, right? Maki Tachibana isn’t this familiar with my methods."

"I’m really not angry about that," Eve raised her energy blade high, her face dark. "But mud splashing on my face is really dirty. Go reunite with your Department Head and repent together."

The silver-gray wristband snapped with a sound, and the teleport light flared.

Grace: "Uh, sorry, but at that time..."

Before she could finish her last words, a deafening rumble, like a landslide, erupted in the distance. Everyone, including Grace herself, turned to look in shock.

By the time she belatedly recovered from the interrupted conversation, the lights of the starship’s medical bay were already above her.

The fox-eyed Weapons Department Head was getting the royal treatment from the medic. Seeing Grace teleported out, she waved calmly and said, "Hey, good evening, Grace."

"......"

Grace grabbed a cup from the table and splashed water all over Maki Tachibana’s face.