Nico moved first.

Both hands came up as he sprinted forward, already muttering under his breath. "I already have enough problems in my life," he said. "And somehow another one showed up. Just like the one currently beside me."

Valea was half a step behind him. She turned her head mid-sprint. "Who exactly are you calling beside you?"

Then they hit the boar from opposite sides at the same time.

Nico drove both index fingers forward, mana mixing with element at his fingertips.

Compressed jets of water hammered into the boar’s flank in rapid succession — Aqua Bullets hitting hard enough to rock the massive creature sideways.

It skidded a full meter, found its footing, and kept coming.

On the other side, Valea closed the distance and let her palm barely graze the boar’s hide.

Gale Palm.

The compressed burst launched the boar several yards sideways.

It rolled, hit the earth hard enough to shake the treeline, somehow found all four hooves again, and shook its enormous head like the whole thing had been mildly inconvenient.

"Stubborn hog," Valea said, watching it stabilize.

"Just like you in the morning," Nico said beside her. "Ugly and angry."

Silence.

"...What," Valea said slowly, turning toward him, "did you just say."

The boar lowered its head and charged again at full speed.

Valea did not look at it. Her eyes stayed on Nico.

She raised one hand toward his face.

"Eat this."

The wind hit him point blank.

Nico’s cheeks rippled under the force and he went flying backward through the air before crashing into the nearest tree hard enough to rain leaves down on everything below him.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO IDIOTS DOING?!"

Cedric’s voice cut across the clearing like a blade.

Aries stood very still, looking from the charging boar to Valea to Nico distributed across a tree trunk.

’What is wrong with these people. Are they allies or enemies?’

"Aries." Cedric appeared beside him. "As you can see, this isn’t the safest place to wander alone." He glanced at the boar wheeling around for another charge. "Why don’t you join us for now?"

Then he stepped forward.

And disappeared.

That was the only way to describe it. One moment he was there, the next the space he’d been standing in was just empty space, and the boar was mid-charge with its tusks leveled—

He was standing ten meters away. On the other side of the boar. Back turned.

One hand completing the motion of sliding his sword into its sheath with the ease of someone finishing something they’d done ten thousand times.

The boar stood completely still.

Then a clean line split across its entire body.

The massive creature folded sideways, hit the ground, and didn’t get up.

The clearing went quiet except for leaves drifting down from Nico’s tree.

Aries stared. His brain was doing the math on the distance and the time and not finishing either calculation.

"...How," he said slowly.

"Flash Step." Eren materialized at his shoulder, arms folded, wearing the face of someone watching a show they never got tired of.

"One of Master’s best techniques. Looks ridiculously cool every single time."

Aries looked at Cedric — already turned back around, already saying something calm and measured to a still-sparking Valea about the difference between combat priorities and personal grievances.

’He’s strong,’ Aries thought simply. ’Genuinely. Effortlessly. Terrifyingly strong.’

____

The boar became dinner. Woodsmoke drifted through the clearing.

Before the dinner, Eren explained more about their situation. They are academy cadets currently undergoing a semester-break field assessment under Cedric, who turned out to be both a highly respected knight and an academy instructor.

The one detail that made this camp different from a normal one was Nico, sitting against a tree with his wrists tied neatly behind the trunk.

"Why," he said to no particular audience, "is it always me."

"Because you throw the first insult every single time," Valea said, sympathy entirely absent. "Without exception."

Cedric stood nearby with the folded arms and patient expression of someone who had given this speech before and fully expected to give it again. "You do tend to start approximately ninety-nine percent of these arguments, Nico."

Nico clicked his tongue and looked away. "Hmph. So even you’re siding with that wind-blowing witch—"

"THAT’S IT." Valea was on her feet in one motion. "I am going to KILL you—"

"They’ll never change," Eren said from the log beside Aries. He held out his canteen without looking away from the scene.

Aries took it because it seemed like the right response.

Cedric caught Valea by the back of her collar with one hand, kept talking, didn’t break stride.

Aries watched this for a moment. "I mean," he said thoughtfully, "it’s understandable. Being siblings is a lot."

Eren inhaled water.

The coughing that followed was substantial. He turned toward Aries with streaming eyes and one raised finger. "What," he managed between coughs, "did you just say. Siblings. Who told you siblings?!"

"They have the same house name," Aries said. "Ivoryhall. I assumed—"

"You can’t just ASSUME siblings from a shared name!" Eren said, with the energy of someone personally wronged by this. "That is such a massive leap—"

"They also fight like siblings, calm down," Aries said, raising both hands. "You’re reacting like I insulted someone’s bloodline."

Eren pointed at him directly.

"They’re engaged."

Aries paused.

Several seconds passed in silence.

He looked at Valea — straining against Cedric’s grip, jaw set, eyes sharp as anything.

He looked at Nico — still tied to a tree.

He looked between them and searched carefully for any trace of warmth, fondness, or the basic mutual tolerance required for two people to stand in front of each other and choose a future together.

He found nothing that fit the description.

’No,’ he thought with complete certainty. ’Those two?! UNPOSSIBLE!’

Evening settled properly over the clearing. The argument had wound down to a low simmer, and Cedric had turned out to be genuinely good at cooking.

Nico had been untied some time ago. He was holding up his end of the deal — basic silence — with the patience of someone saving energy for a better moment.

Valea settled beside Aries near the fire. Closer than before.

"Well then, Aries." She rested one elbow on her knee. "Tell us a little about yourself."

"Don’t pressure him," Eren said from across the fire. "He’s still getting used to us."

"No, it’s fine," Aries said, reaching for the back of his neck. "I just genuinely don’t know what to say."

Cedric looked up from the fire.

"Then let me ask something simpler." He set down what he was holding. "Mage or knight?" A short pause. "And what elemental affinity?"

Aries lowered his hand slowly.

"...I don’t know yet."

Eren nearly came off his log. "Wait, you’re not awakened?"

"I am," Aries said quickly. "I just don’t know exactly what I am. The only thing I’ve managed so far is mana spheres."

"That’s strange," Nico said quietly from his end of the log.

Nobody argued with that.

Cedric reached into his cloak and drew out a smooth sphere — identical in every detail to the ones from the awakening ceremony.

He held it out across the fire, the firelight shifting slowly across its surface.

"That’s..." Aries felt the weight of it just from looking.

The memory came without asking. Standing on that platform with hundreds watching. The stone cold and completely dead in his hands. The instructor’s flat, final voice.

’First failure of the decade.’

"Well then." Cedric’s eyes held his steadily across the fire. "Why don’t we find out exactly what you are?"