The bus hadn’t even reached its full speed when the first incident left Killian questioning, even as the rules were spelled out to him.

"Are you nuts?"

Thankfully, Evelyn broke the silence before the coordinator was done. It was a pre-recorded message, so her important question couldn’t be answered.

At the front of the bus, the screen had suddenly lit up and thrown the Amega newbies to a preliminary trial that involved invading a nearby B-tier realm and subdueing ten jaguars.

Jaguars. B-tier realm. D-Rank newbies. It didn’t make sense to Killian.

"If the Amega Region declines, then points will be deducted from their future accomplishments while in the academy," the coordinator added. "Unless their Regional Leader handles it herself."

The six newbies turned to Killian whose blood pressure had dropped by ten. The last beasts he fought were from B-tier realms, with the help of Thistle, and he had still passed out.

Now, he was being sent to take down another ten without fail. He dragged his hands down his face, lowering his head into his palms.

But he knew he shouldn’t refuse it. He needed to get double his capacity within the next seven days. This preliminary might just be what he needed.

"You all can recover the points later." Evelyn concluded after seeing Killian’s reaction, she pulled him away from the pleading eyes of the girls. "That is too dangerous—"

"Master, let’s go together!" Pixie yelled, raising her hands. "We can do it! Right, guys?"

Before Evelyn could react to what she just said, the other newbies raised their hands.

"Yes, let’s go together!" they agreed.

"We’d be more confident with the Leader-sir with us!" Felina said innocently. "Even if only Leader-sir."

Evelyn stared at the girls in disbelief. She narrowed her eyes at Pixie. It was as if these girls didn’t know what they were asking for.

The realm would be a B-tier realm and they were merely D-Rank newbies. Also, they had insufficient teachers so their abilities were lacklustre.

They only had their confidence and resolve.

"We’ll go." Killian announced.

Evelyn snapped his head to him. "What—"

"Yay!" The girls had an uproar, and two pulled their bags from the back seat to take out their weapons. Pixie flashed a smile to Killian, before going back to get her weapon.

Juda and Evelyn turned to Killian in unison, their eyes narrowing at him.

"Didn’t she call you Master, earlier?" Evelyn noted.

The silence stretched between them because Killian had nothing to say. He had told Pixie to stop. He looked away.

"We are just friends. Really."

Evelyn nodded like she understood, but her eyes held no light. "Just friends? It’s nice to see you have friends who call you Master. Should I call you Master too? We are friends, right?"

Danger alarms rang in Killian’s head as she spoke. He also noticed Juda step away, as if leaving him to his fate.

"No, it’s..." Killian snapped his fingers. "You guys can come with me. I doubt any of you have had any missions since I left. Let’s kill these beasts together."

Juda and Evelyn stayed quiet for a while, while Killian hoped that had successfully changed the topic. The newbies returned with their weapons.

Evelyn rushed to the front seats to tell George, giving Killian a chance to breathe out. *A promise of violence always gets her going, I see.’

Juda sighed. "I didn’t agree."

"You didn’t disagree either." Killian reminded. "And I dare you to disagree with Evelyn, traitor."

Juda smiled, raising his hands in surrender.

The bus stopped abruptly, as if the driver was in on the conspiracy the coordinator orchestrated.

Killian stepped down, having the names of the newbies Evelyn had gotten from the Amega leader.

"Jane. Felina. Ryuk. Kelsey." Killian paused, then continued after a sigh. "Pixie. Kia. We’d be divided into three groups. Evelyn will team with Felina and Ryuk. Juda, Kelsey and Pixie. And I will," Killian looked away from Pixie’s frowning face and pointed at the last two. "Jane and Kia will go with me."

Evelyn nodded, and calmly wrapped a hand around Felina’s and Ryuk’s shoulders. "Let’s all get along, okay?"

Ryuk nodded stiffly, but Felina shoved her hand aside. "Please, don’t treat me like a kid. I’m seventeen—"

"Act seventeen when we meet the jaguars too, miss. I’d be counting on it." Evelyn chimed with a soft smile, and it disappeared when she started moving towards the forest.

Killian nodded at his decision. ’Evelyn, the resident brat-tamer. Felina would be good with her, and Ryuk can learn a little about Wind Control since Evelyn had good teachers.’

He turned to the innocent Juda who stood beside the spiky-haired and serious Kelsey, along with the Pixie who glared at Juda like his existence was the cause of all her problems.

"He will manage." Killian concluded, moving towards the forest. "I just needed each Sound and Mist User in different teams."

The three teams reached the portal within the forest.

Evelyn huddled her team together to make sure they were sent to the same location, but Juda and his team stood far apart.

Killian ignored them, he whispered to Kia. "Hold her hand. We have to end up in the same place."

Kia gripped her friend’s hand and nodded. "We’re ready."

The portal hummed to life at exactly the time the coordinator told them. Each team slipped in. Darkness and silence followed, before a ray of sunlight restoring vision once again.

Killian looked around for the girls, and to his surprise, everyone had all arrived at the same spot.

"I figured," Juda said. "After all it will be pretty unreasonable to scatter newbies inside a B-tier realm."

"I doubted they’d still try to be reasonable." Killian scanned the area. The habitat was familiar to the B-tier realm he entered with Theodore, except for less trees.

And that meant less places to set traps and hide. "The teams remain. We all have a Sound User so if there’s danger—"

"Use us as sirens to alert the others. We will be so happy to help," Felina said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Evelyn calmly placed a hand on her head, being more than five inches taller. "Yes, and since you’d be happy to help, do your role well when the time comes, okay?"

Felina shoved Evelyn’s hand off her again, but said nothing else.

The teams dispersed, leaving behind the foreboding silence that had followed them into the portal.