Theodore couldn’t sit still. In under two minutes he’d dragged his chair beside Hol and Luo Wei and rasped in his gravelly drake voice, “Hey—what did you guys do out there?”

“We just walked past the infirmary,” he went on. “Saw the Lower Division squads from Snake Academy and Laine Academy— all ten of them blind!”

Hol put on innocence. “Why would you think that has anything to do with us? Their blindness has nothing to do with us. We’re good kids.”

“Really not you?” Theodore doubted. “Then why were their professors in there jumping mad and cursing Siria?”

“Probably jealous,” Hol said with a guileless grin. “We did take first.”

“Tch. Anyone can take first,” Theodore snorted. “We’re first too.”

“Gentlemen,” Sebastian Noel said gently, “could you lower your voices? Spare a thought for us older seniors, alright?”

Theodore turned, eyes bulging. “Oh? Your Senior Division only got second this time, huh?”

Sebastian smiled. “Need I remind you your final ranking last year was also second?”

Theodore lifted his chin. “Then let me remind you—your team only ranked third last year.”

Sebastian: …

Younger schoolmates—truly a loathsome species.

“Theodore,” Laura tugged his sleeve, not wanting him to offend everyone in reach. “Let’s go check on Gordon. I wonder how he is.”

Gordon was their injured teammate, still in the infirmary.

“What happened?” Luo Wei had caught enough to glance over. “Is he badly hurt?”

Laura nodded. “He got his leg bitten by a magic beast. I’m afraid he can’t join the next round.”

“That guy’s brain is broken!” Hol bristled. “The match was over and he just had to stick his head near a beast and get chomped. He did it on purpose—just doesn’t want to compete!”

“Who told you to fling dung everywhere? Gordon ran off because you scared him,” Laura muttered.

“What’ll you do next round?” Luo Wei asked.

“Use a substitute,” Theodore said, leaning back. “Gordon’s a sword apprentice. Their class has another decent one named… uh…”

“Winnie—Winnie Charlie,” Laura supplied. “You forgot? You were in the same class in the Lower Division!”

Winnie?

Luo Wei looked surprised. She hadn’t expected Winnie to move up from substitute to regular. Her earlier help now felt unnecessary; even without it, Winnie probably could have proved herself to her parents.

At one‑thirty the Church provided a free lunch for the magic apprentices.

The Church forbade meat, so the meal was plain fish stew and roasted bread—hardly satisfying for nobles used to lavish spreads.

The Siria squad was fine. For Jack and Hol, fish stew plus bread was a rare treat.

Still, enemies meeting face-to-face made tempers flare. If not for their supervising teachers, some of those nobles glaring daggers might have rushed over to tear them apart.

“Must be nice being rich,” Theodore gossiped on the way back. “Those blinded kids healed that fast—no idea how many bottles of high‑grade healing potion they burned.”

Hol’s mouth curved. “Couldn’t be helped. They didn’t bring substitutes. Without chugging potions they couldn’t even enter Round Two.”

They joked along, but Laura kept scanning around, attention drifting.

Luo Wei noticed and patted her shoulder. “Laura, looking for someone?”

“Huh?” Laura snapped back, saw it was Luo Wei, and waved quickly. “No, no. I just… find it odd we haven’t seen anyone from the Divine College.”

“True,” the others perked up. “Didn’t see them in the dining hall either.”

“Maybe their squad hasn’t left the arena?”

“Impossible. Even unconscious, the ten academies’ professors would’ve brought them out.”

“Then where are they? Not in the apprentice lounge.”

“Maybe they went to a professors’ lounge like we did.”

“The Divine College doesn’t have accompanying instructors—what lounge?”

“Who cares whether they brought teachers? This is a church. The whole place is theirs. You asking where their lounge is?”

Casual words—sharpened ears.

The Death Penalty Squad all pricked up, trading subtle glances.

Reaching the lounge door, Hol and Theodore excused themselves to “use the toilet,” heading for the washroom.

Soon after, Luo Wei and Gladys left “for fresh air.”

Moments later, Laura slipped out.

The five regrouped in a quiet corner.

Hol spoke first. “That person still hasn’t made another move.”

Theodore frowned. “Could it be he sent those threat letters just to make us enter?”

“No way. Why waste that effort?” Hol speculated. “He’s definitely inside this church. We just don’t know who he is.”

“Then he’s either a student or a teacher,” Theodore declared.

“I think neither,” Laura said, shaking her head. “People from other academies barely interacted with us. They had no chance to learn our identities—let alone know about those two… those two…”

Her voice caught; the last word refused to leave.

Luo Wei sighed and patted her shoulder. “Laura—besides me, who else did you tell?”

Laura wiped her eyes. “Hol.”

“I—I swear I never told anyone. Not a soul! I’d die before spilling her secret!” Hol blurted, panicked.

“No one said you did,” Luo Wei said evenly. “But maybe we’ve been stuck in a faulty assumption.”

“Maybe the sender doesn’t know you deeply. He only suspects—so he used threats to test you.”

Theodore blinked. “Meaning what?”

“I get it,” Hol said, brow tightening. “He doesn’t know our real identities. The letters forced us to show up so he could watch our reaction. By competing, we confirmed his suspicion.”

Take Laura’s letter: maybe he didn’t know her parents were skinned into two cloaks. He just guessed she’s Cat Beastkin and picked ‘two catfolk cloaks’ to scare her.

Those two cloaks might be her parents—or not. Laura assumed they were.

Theodore finally followed, eyes widening. “So we walked right into his trap? If we hadn’t joined, we’d be fine?”

“It’s my fault—I dragged you in,” Laura said miserably. “He might not know who you are, but he definitely knows I’m—”

“Shh.” Luo Wei cut her off. “Careful. The walls have ears.”

Silence fell. They’d been so absorbed they’d nearly forgotten—this was a church. Church territory.

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