Jakos stares at me, his jaw hanging. “Y-you’re that little girl?”

“You know me?”

“We have met once, before my assignment. Natasha informed me your incident led to this group’s uncovering.”

“That makes things easier.” I stand. “The amount of information you have provided is sufficient enough to determine what they are planning. Do you have any information on the higher ups?”

His lip curls. “I know a few names, but the majority of us only interact with one or two people. For me, that was Meer and Lethos. Lethos talks with a guy he always calls ‘Sir,’ and Meer talks with another guy named Rhine.”

Sir would be fake Price. I sigh. “Do you have any ideas on this Sir’s name?”

He slowly shakes his head no. “Lethos has never called him anything other than-”

I put a hand up to shush him. “Do you hear that?” Outside, the faint sound of barking dogs gets louder. Cursing, I open my backpack, a handmade, leather bag with drawstrings as the straps, and take out a big black cloak, similar to the one I have on me. After tossing it to Jakos, I place the jam stone in my pack and go outside. What spell would mask my scent? Thinking of one, I nearly use the magi language before remembering that this is a magic jam zone now, and even if I could use it, I would be traced. Not having the mana dispersing potion on hand is truly ruining my prospects of being an antagonist. Using the mana from my ring, I say, , the English equivalent of the word in the magi langauge.

A white fog gathers in the area as well as within the hut. This should erase that I was ever here. Jakos, having donned the cloak, comes out and examines this in a daze. I pull him along before tapping into my ring again and saying, . While the magi language has different levels of strength for a barrier based on wording for a barrier, the english language does not. I have to settle for a different word and thus a much less efficient spell. After placing the barrier above us, I visualize us moving upward quickly, and we fly upward. I notice the brightening sky then and curse.

Then Jakos says, “I have a nosebleed.”

I turn to him and see his blood has indeed started trickling from his nose. I stop our ascension and take out a big piece of cloth from my pack. Sometimes I forget that others were not trained in the same way as I was. Handing the cloth over to him, I remind him, “Don’t let it fall.” He takes it and nods.

Visualizing again, I move the barrier in front of us and shoot us toward a lake I’d seen during my earlier flight, a ways off from the path back. Just as we reach the lake, I can feel the mana begin to sputter out. I let us descend quickly and then stop us a few feet above the ground before releasing the spells, no longer able to maintain them without damaging myself. We fall onto fine white sand just as the sun rises over the horizon. Though I had expected it, I didn’t actually think that I would use all the mana stored.

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Standing and dusting off my clothes, I say, “Build a place here and hide out. I trust you can survive for at least a few weeks.”

“Y-yea…” he says.

“In that case, I have to go before they find me missing.”

Before I can move away, I hear him call, “Wait.” I turn back around. “How did you… use magic with a jam stone around?” Something feels very off. Jakos should be innocent, though, so I throw my suspicion to the back of my mind.

I almost forgot the jam stone. Quickly retrieving it as well as a smaller scent bag, I place the items on the ground. “It’s a secret. No one else should be able to do this, anyway. Stay here and be good. This scent pack should fully mask your scent. Just keep it on your body at all times.”

Then, leaving him, I turn and jog off in the direction of the academy. Some ways away in the middle of the nearby forest, I can feel the mana gather around me. Heaving a sigh of relief, I say, . As a white fog falls onto the trees, I escape through the canopy of the forest and shoot myself back to the academy, where I land around my previous lift-off spot, no longer able to maintain my spells. Wondering how to get back in, I spend a few moments admiring the sky’s changing colors.

Then, I say, , and a rope appears in my hand. It’s one of the climbing ropes used by the rock climbing club, left on the ground next to their climbing wall. Yes, even a magic school has athletic clubs. I head over to the tree with the overhang and manage to throw the rope to loop over the branch. Using both sides, I tug, and feeling that it’s quite stable, I nimbly climb up and then pull the rope after me.

Finally, I loop the rope a few times over my shoulder and jump down from branch to branch to the ground within the fence. If I head over to the climbing wall, no one can fault me for having this rope, right? Leaving my black cloak and my pack on the ground, I run over and set the rope on the ground.

“What are you doing here?” a familiar voice says, and I nearly scream as my heart pounds heavily in my chest.

I turn to see Jennis leaning against a nearby tree and struggle to keep my expression neutral. “Why are you here?” Did he see anything? Why didn’t I notice him?

“I was here before you were. It was you who didn’t see me.” He puts his hands behind his head and grins. “So what were you doing with the climbing rope?”

“I was testing a theory.” I wince inside.

“Oh? What theory is that?”

Shaking my head and smiling, I say, “It’s a secret.”

“I didn’t know we still had secrets between us. And what’s with your getup? What happened to wearing the academy uniform?”

“I shouldn’t have to explain myself to you.”

He sighs and pouts. “I thought we were closer than that.”

“You know as well as I that in the process of testing some theories, the clothes will be damaged, not to mention the person. I was merely taking precautions.” I’m speaking before I realize it. “Where have you been?”

His smile returns. “I was out on my assignment. I just got back in time to see you lugging that rope here.” So he didn’t see me in the forest?

I feel the tension within my body leaving. “Your assignment was big enough to span almost an entire week?”

“It’s some small research project. Do you need me to send you back?”

“No. Will I see you in class later?”

“Yea. Then, see you later?”

It’s not until I get back to my room that I realize what’s off. I haven’t found out why Jakos didn’t bother to conceal himself and even seemed to want to be caught.