"Could you explain to me why I'm seeing a Gihin wearing the medal meant for nobles on him...?"
Qayid had watched Midas with a sharply stern gaze as the youth didn't waste any time to extract the enemy's sun shard from them once he escaped his unconsciousness - the hooded student was now tied with old rope onto one of the pillars that held up the unused underground waterway they called their hideout.
"This is the informant belonging to the child of the head commander..."
"And he, who is he - one of them...?"
Midas froze as Qayid pointed his finger sharply at Foulard, the blonde boy's eyes wide as he shivered, stressed by their glances alone - feeling completely out of place in the lair. Finishing tying the knot, the youth laid down the ring in which the sunshard belonging to the enemy was slotted onto the table.
"Yes. He was sent to destroy my dorm..."
"Midas, you idiot - why did you bring him here...?"
"...he also showed me where his informant was - and with him in our possession, we have an actual chance of getting a grasp on the commander's son. Plus, there's still a third student lingering around to protect that guy... we need to make sure we also get our hands on them."
"You do know... that this guy precisely knows where our base is found now - don't you!?"
Qayid, the older student, grasped Midas's collar, clearly more distressed by the news than Midas had intended, as his brows furrowed and his tone raised. Grasping his wrists to try to unwind himself, the youth glanced at Foulard, who only looked down at the ground with a guilty expression.
"This place will be discovered regardless of whether we entrust noble students or not - especially given how you attract people to your cause." It will take one Gihin, or someone from the other parts of the desert, with ulterior motives to come to your gatherings... we now know that the son of the commander uses southerners just as water kingdom locals, so don't make it sound like I'm responsible for your lack of security..."
Stumbling back, Midas ripped his hand off of himself - his vision still somewhat smeared from the fight - slowly sliding down onto a stool. The youth's expression was sharp, almost just as stern as Qayid's - unfazed by the sheer size and strength of the older student. Jakal was now watching from the other side of the table, unable to say a word while the masked girl who brought Foulard continued to watch - her eyes on Midas.
"Qayid, it was my idea to bring this student with me - I'm sure that Midas would be in a much worse condition if it weren't for this northerner to help him in battle..."
"Foulard here was exploited for his trust - the son of the head commander lures people in need with things like money or reputation among other nobles, so I wouldn't be surprised if the same would also apply to him..."
The youth was somewhat surprised hearing the girl's words, eventually realizing it was the same girl he had freed from the grasps of the northern students a few days ago. Midas leaned forward on his stool with a thoughtful expression, his fingers intertwining as he stared at the closed eyes of the seemingly still unconscious older student, their face covered in bandages only to leave their eyes visible. Their mantle and hood were made of old fiber, the light brown fabric completely enveloping his torso from head to his belt.
"Well, my approach can't be too bad if the other way you think we might get new people to join our cause is to make our enemies into friends... and personally, seeing someone who belongs to the same folk that tries to suppress us now wanting to help, isn't that reassuring... He is evidence for that fact, because once this guy wakes up, he most likely will memorize this place and try to report the location of it back to that brat..."
"Not if we can give him what the head commander's son promised him as well..."
"You can't be serious... what if he requested money? Or someone of his family to be released from prison...?"
"Qayid is right, Midas... nobles like him can promise much greater things than we or even you could. I think it's smarter to focus more on the southern students that are already like-minded with our idea of fighting against the nobles instead of trying to sway those who serve them..."
"Obviously, I lack money or connections - however, money can be gathered... and if he wants me to rescue someone for him, that would honestly be quite convenient - because the reason I joined this party was to rescue someone for my own benefit as well..."
Hearing what Midas spoke, Quayid and Jakal went silent for a split moment, the masked girl keeping her distance to observe as the youth continuously stared down at the hooded student who was tied to one of the damp stone pillars of the underground canal - his sunken head eventually rising as two glassy pupils began to stare back at him.
"Now I see why he was so stressed about you, the student that arrived upon recommendation from the Cascrender university - you should be dead... however, you somehow resisted your fate and now even took from me the one thing given to me to stop you in the first place. If I go back now to tell where this hideout is located, there is a good chance he will let me keep my gear."
Hearing the hooded student murmur, Qayid slowly drew his hammer - already letting its head rest over the ring Midas placed down at the table. His critical glance is not only resting on the foreign student but also on the youth for the possibility of him failing to persuade him to their side.
"Or, you lose your gear... return to him with nothing and then get abandoned just like Foulard did. Why would you trust someone like that if you have already been part of the process of this abandonment... From what we know, he still has one person left to work for him."
"Are you trying to extort me? Pathetic... do you have no sense of pride?"
"For all I care, I'd let you bleed out down here - I honestly have had enough of dealing with lackeys like you. The fact that there's still a third isn't really helping my mood either. However... I think it would be quite the waste to let you go like this, not only for your intel but also for your abilities - so, either you tell me what you really want or I will double down on my... patheticness."
Midas only stared at the hazy white pupils of the student, bowed forward to look down at him. He had already drawn his rusty sickle - his fingertips tracing the rusty edge of it, feeling how the metal curled into a crescent. Upon his words, no one spoke. To Foulard, Midas looked more like a criminal than someone's savior; however, he couldn't really call the head commander's son a good person either - even if he wore a perfectly ironed uniform.
Not hearing him speak, Midas rested his sickle against the side of the student's throat - he needed to prove a point to him; the fact he could go this far without much hesitation somewhat scared him, as if he didn't feel any guilt for the many water kingdom knights he had slain before, as if having to act violently was something normal.
"No, you are right... I have never seen the third person he had hired, but I'm sure I would be left behind instantly after failing his expectations - no matter if I managed to take you out or not... the chance of simply abandoning or even betraying me because of my origin alone is just too high. They toy with our and our families' lives as they please - dying to stay loyal to someone like him is just not worth it. Especially since there is still something I have to take care of."
"Thank you for trusting me. Could you tell us more about the third person that he hired then...? I'd like to help with whatever it is you have to take care of, in return."
"Trust is a bit of a leap... but I'm sure this is the right decision. I have not seen their face - we were meant to act on our own; therefore, seeing our faces was not needed and more of a hindrance. The head commander's son most likely knew that this might happen, so he made sure to not let us see each other. The only real info I could give you about them is the fact that I couldn't register their mana at all - usually every person's mana I easily pick up, even from far distances... but with them, there was absolutely nothing."
"You act on your own...? Didn't Foulard work under you?"
"He was an exception - a risk we took since we had a spare water stone left. However, getting more people involved wasn't something he planned to do, as managing only us three was enough work in itself - so he told us."
Midas felt relieved the student eventually complied, retreating his blade from his throat again with a sigh, eventually untying the rope that was tightly wrapped around his torso, helping him get to his feet. He could tell that their new member was still reluctant towards the other people in the room - especially Qayid, as he watched him take the ring; the face on the hammer-wielding student was still suspicious of him.
"What do you think... should we wait until the third one shows themselves...?" Or is approaching the head commander's son the smarter option?"
"Both are wrong - I'm pretty sure if they want to stay undetected; therefore, waiting for them could take a very long time and most likely ends up in you getting overwhelmed in the end anyway. And taking him head on will definitely lead to our defeat - he is protected by multiple members of the knighthood, people with fighting experience, and most likely water stones... a few students in their first Trestempo here won't be enough to break through his defenses."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but he is right... if I gathered everyone, we would have around fifteen to twenty people... but most of them don't have weapons, gear, or any mana stone to speak of. Older students know they will ultimately work for a business owned by someone originating from this nation - while most students in their first Trestempo here are too scared of fighting and risking their lives... those cowards."
"What if... we just separate him from his guards...?"
"I could pick some of them off from a distance - at least if I have my sunshard..."
"No... not yet. You'll get it back after you help us set up our confrontation."
Qayid's decision was final judging by his tone; before Midas could think of a way to come up with a deal, he already stuffed the ring into his pants pocket, heading upstairs, most likely to get more people to recruit. Jakal looked between Qayid and Midas - his expression less stressed and more focused as he quickly followed him upstairs.
The room was much quieter once he left. Foulard eventually peeked his head out from behind one of the many pillars of the hideout, slowly retreating to Midas again. The masked girl with the long braids eventually took Midas's hand beneath her palms - looking up at him through the holes of her mask, the tiny openings coming together to form a four-leaf clover that spun from the middle to the sides of the mask.
"Now we are equal. The fact you already were a member of this group made rescuing you much easier... My name is Raqisa; since I haven't told you, the time you guided me back to my dorm."
The student beside him watched the exchange in silence, seeing Raqisa talk to Midas in a soft, inviting tone while her hands reluctantly slipped away from his again. Slowly sitting down onto one of the stools, she eventually turned her attention to one of the many papers scattered on it - he was unsure if she was really reading or just pretending not to watch Midas.
"Forgive me, I'm Qannas. I'm not sure if I could be of any help to you now, though; I'm useless without that ring."
"You won't be, if you're able to still keep an eye out at the head commander's son. Plus... it might be good to know how you ended up on the roof anyway. Please show me, if you can."
"Of course - follow me."
"Hey, don't just leave me here...!"
Foulard hurried after the two; wanting to be left alone in that room was the last thing he wanted to do right now as he made sure to stick to the other two while they were heading upstairs. For a quick moment, Midas turned his head back to Raqisa with closed lids; however, the see-through shape of her mana flowing through her body was clearly visible through the darkness of his lids, and he was able to see the outline of her head as it nudged to the side questioningly.
"Something wrong...?"
"No - sorry, it's nothing..."
Muttering back at Raqisa, Midas turned his back on her again and left. With Qannas leading them, they quickly ended up in the third compartment's fourth floor again - the youth easily passing through the guards, as he was accompanied by two students wearing the nobles' emblem on their robes and blazers. The giant library he only fleetingly saw as he dashed through it to catch up to Qannas stretched from their floor up to the roof of the central compartment - three floors filled with shelves of books, maps, and other literature like scrolls that were stuffed in and between the mass of books.
"There is a ladder on the highest floor of the library - it leads up to a door that brings you onto the roof... From there, I used Null-Abilities to jump from roof to roof; it's the highest point of the entire campus."
"That's why you left your room open when we tried to find you - you must've seen us from afar."
"My eyes do most of the work - Foulard let me know where your dorm was; I just had to make sure to remember what your mana looked like. I was able to track you through the entire main building just by that one image I made of you in my head, no matter if a crowd of people was among you. When Foulard accompanied you, it was even easier."
After climbing multiple sets of wooden stairs leading up the floors of the library, eventually reaching the foretold door, Midas's face was met with a howling, cold wind. His eyes widened as he could hear the sound of the clay roof shingles clank beneath his soles - Foulard spreading his arms out to his sides as the wind made his suit flutter wildly, his eyes wide as he grinned at the unobstructed sight of the setting sun as well as the rolling hills beyond Montcanals' wall.
"Woah...!"
"This is way too high up..."
Midas murmured, making sure to not step too close to the steeply slanted edge of the roof, frowning in dim distress as he peeked down at the ground. Used to the environment, Qannas squatted down on the very edge of the roof - looking out towards the city.
"The moment my projectile collided with your head... I didn't miss, did I...?"
"You didn't. However, telling you why I'm still standing will only create more questions for you."
"Guys, the sun is setting...!"