Moonlight pierced through the tension, as thirteen examinees kept an eye on each other with a cautious spacing.
As if unaware, Ciel only leaned further, cream trailing down her cheek with an oily tickle.
Perfume filled her nostrils with a refreshing sweetness as she whispered to the elf, whose brows raised with confusion.
"Ciel. My name is Ciel."
A smile bloomed at her lips, hands pressing down onto the rough floor. "May I ask for yours?"
Rainbow spires from afar exploded in the far distance, illuminating part of the elf's skeptical expression.
"You peeked at my spellbind earlier, didn't you? Can't you just look at the scoreboard?"
Ciel shook her head. "I insist otherwise. There's… meaning in speaking your name out loud."
Even as the Queen kept her voice low, her seriousness was not remiss.
"Eh…" The elf's lips gaped with a frown. "Don't wanna. If you beg so sincerely, I can't help but reject you."
"...sure." Ciel nodded, though the elf's frown deepened at her deadpan response.
The elf's hand stretched. And with a careful pat onto Ciel's head, the Queen's arms buckled under the weight.
Her head then fell into the laps of the elf, who smirked with a teasing glint in her eyes.
"It's my alias, but call me Quia. The scoreboard should state the same."
Quia. Ciel's lips moved on their own, munching on each syllable of the name.
"It sounds weird."
"It. Is. An. Alias." The elf gave her a light pinch on the nose. "I should at least do this much to hide my strength. I'm quite famous from…or maybe in this case, compared to where I came from."
Two black orbs of curiosity were set alight. "An elf princess?"
Though Ciel recalled they're usually black-haired, unlike the wavy blonde from Quia.
"Nah, it's a lot more normal." Quia rolled her eyes.
"Ah, but I can assure you I'm not a damn mimic." The elf added, a hint of sharpness seeping into her voice. "I will kill you now if you assume otherwise, and I can guarantee you I will win."
Ciel was about to unfold her retort, hoping to dispel the flicker of distrust before-
"Everyone, please look here."
A firm voice, full of confidence and the scheming purr of a cobra's seething, attracted her attention.
She was not alone, as everyone stared at the centre.
The source of the voice belonged to a tanned man with long black hair. His chest was well-toned with muscles, exposed through black linen clothes with green outlines, paired with straight leather trousers.
The gold circlets wrapped firmly at his forehead, pairing oddly with his beastly pale eyes to give a fierce look of a beast, smart and experienced with his hunt of previous prey.
"Look now at the scoreboard. Can we afford to abide by our times like this?"
He pointed at the fiery texts. Amongst the numerous zeroes, one number stuck out on the top, partnered with a name that contained a noble flair.
"Orion Christania." The man called out. "The Prince of the Ruined Kingdom has finally amassed his first point. We will be left behind soon, if we dally here for too long."
Noises erupted. Whispers of caution were aimed at the man, or the one named Orion.
Ciel's head ghosted at Quia's skin before pushing herself up from the lap, listening attentively to gather any information she could.
Another, from the other side of the cliff Ciel faced, spelled out their doubts.
She recognised that blonde man, whose hostility didn't bulge away from her moments ago, same with the trembling, meek girl behind her broad shoulders.
"So what? We can't hope to match against that bastard prince's might!"
The blonde growled. "Are you suggesting we team up in a situation where we don't know who might stab whom? Don't be ridiculous!"
The beast-eyed man scanned the blonde, scowling. "Aren't you teamed up yourself with a woman rather nicely? Don't be ridiculous with your hypocrisy!"
The girl, with a face filled with freckles and pale skin, flinched and hid further behind the blonde.
It was only now that Ciel recognised something: the girl wore a village robe that was filled with mud and dry soil, unlike the blonde's tunic, that were untattered and clean.
"She's my childhood friend, you asshole!" The blonde shielded her further. "If anything, it's even weirder that you don't team up. How do you expect to survive a whole Nightfall alone?!"
"Exactly! Now now shush, back to business."
Beastly-eyed, as Ciel lazily called him, shook his head and only turned to the others, who were hopefully more reasonable.
"I know all of you were currently running out of mana." Beastly-eyed gripped his fist, the sight so dramatic that one would mistake him losing a lover.
"That's why you all hid in this cliffside in hopes of respite. I would know, because I'm also one of you."
Worries flashed across the scene, lingering gazes locking onto the beast-eyed with hope.
The haggard look on all of them was a subtle nod, the result of facing countless monster waves before arriving at the cliff.
The only exception was the elf, shifting her posture comfortably, now that a certain white-haired shortie was occupied with the beast-eyed's performance.
"That is why I'm willing to make the first move here." He continued, before lending out a palm with the space itself distorting atop.
What followed was a blue vial flickering into existence. The container was gold-tinged, glowing with a clear blue, a color more vivid than the one Ciel hid in her skirt's pocket.
Then a few clings drew a gasp from everyone, blue vials spawning from mid-air and cluttering the ground, a treasure trove before the man's feet.
"I was blessed, or rather, cursed with an ability to summon any item from my merchant guild's inventory. Protecting me means an effective infinite supply of mana potions."
He rubbed his nose as if to scrub his arrogance clean. "But I also have one clear advantage."
Raising a finger, he gave a confident grin, golden teeth lining across his upper lips
.
"Mimics also run out of mana, much more if they only inherited half of a corpse's mana regeneration and capacity, right?" He laughed.
"Then they have no choice but to use me, the only one that can supply their mp for hunting others."
"You mean…"
One of the onlookers, with a pair of curved glasses that dangled at his round nosebridge, asked aloud.
"That mimics wouldn't betray anyone if any of them here team up with us, should they lose a source of proper mps?"
"That's correct, intelligent young man."
The beastly-eyed continued.
"The only way for them to survive this game was to end it early by eliminating everyone. That can't be achieved with their limited mana, so if they're on our team, they won't dare to betray us until way later into the exam."
His arms spread open, like a generous embrace to encompass anyone.
"Naturally, everyone that team up under my lead will clear out every other examinee, including Orion, fast and swiftly, before inevitably turning on each other."
Then, his grin fell into a malicious scowl.
"But everyone knew this was a deal with nothing to lose. With fifteen of us here, against seventy-six of them I counted outside, scattered and distrustful of teaming up, this is an advantage no one should miss out on."
"Then what if the mimics backstabbed us first before they knew it?"
A gruffy man stood far apart from the cliffside's end. At his back was the forest, trees and leaves rustling as if something moved amongst them.
He continued. "Besides, mimics don't have to face constant pressure from their own brethren, right? They'll be the ones who were at their full strength while we're busying fending off against waves from the Nightfall."
"Oh, please. Those weak mimics?" He chuckled out loud. "They will be the ones who fell behind first. A team of fifteen! I repeat, fifteen! Infinite mana, no less. Would you cast away infinite mana for some mere mimics?"
A scowl almost revealed itself from Ciel's expression. She gathered from Summer that the mimic only ranked tenebra II, but only for their ability to deceive.
After all, halving the possessed corpse's original capability hurt the threat assessment.
They were, undoubtedly, extremely weak for monsters, especially if they possessed younglings' corpses to enter the exam without suspicion.
Well, she wouldn't like to be forced into a team-up, regardless.
The gruff man was about to retort again, before the scoreboard flashed with a foreboding gleam, flames flaring as one line of text zoomed upward from the bottom.
'Orion Christania - 1'
'Calvessa Loriana - 1'
Glares only reciprocated the two names, now gloriously settling to the top.
No one wanted to be left behind, and the beastly-eyed had made it clear just now that this was a race that they couldn't afford to lose.
Cooperate first. Betray later.
Urgency muddled out their clarity. Even with the suspicious gaze from the blonde and the man with a bearded chin, everyone wanted in on the scoreboard's top.
With the hurriedness mellowing into the tension, the beastly-eyed concluded with a polite smile.
"For the weak and unlucky like us, let's drag others down before it's too late."
He chuckled out. "It's not like we're going to die. What's to fear?"
The frackled girl, behind the now reluctantly agreeing blonde, twitched at his edged voice.
At this moment, when the breeze sang along with everyone's eagerness, Ciel's mind was dead silent.
She didn't like this beastly-eyed. Not one bit.
She was never smart enough to survive long. But she was lucky, and most importantly, not stupid enough to invite herself into an obvious trap.
The young man happened to be of the same category.
A decision was made. Ciel reached out with her hand.
A brief light flickered before she grasped her staff, a movement without any hint of noise now that everyone's excitement was focused on the beastly-eyed.
"What are you-"
The two dark orbs narrowed. Ignoring the elf's surprise, Ciel raised the staff-
And fired a blue beam into the pile of mana potions.