*** PoV: Keith ***

When Father gave the signal, the girls rushed out on a moment’s notice. Alan being our enemy, they were just so eager to beat his ass. I could see where that came from, as Alan was definitely an enemy of maidens, but following the same thought, so was I. Why did they prefer me over him?

Despite their eagerness to fight, fortunately they kept their cool for long enough for us to flank the fortress instead of rushing straight in. Unfortunately, that only lasted until the moment they caught sight of the red armbands of Alan’s team. They rushed at the boys. So much for me being their leader.

Something felt off though. Why was Alan’s team here? Sure, offense might be the best defense in some situations, but when one knew two separate teams would attack them, it was utter foolishness to leave their fort undefended while striking at one of those teams. The other team would just walk straight into the empty fort.

And then… The gates of hell were let loose. I was sure my eyes caught an armband changing colors in the middle of the melee. And another one further away. The fight between our teams became a literal free-for-all. The girls of my team were attacking whoever was nearest to them, and so did Alan’s boys. Teammates no longer existed.

My eyes locked onto Alan, his arm waving, at the other side of the battlefield. When I waved back, he pointed at the fortress. Without any better plan at my hands, I turned that way and started running.

“Hey there. Why are you out here? Shouldn’t you be guarding that undead lady of yours?” I was assaulted by Alan’s questions the moment he got near me, but those questions confirmed it: We’ve been had. Hanna fooled us into thinking we would be fighting each other.

“I thought you were the one protecting her. To think both of us would be attackers…”

“Yeah, didn’t expect it either, but looking at that mess, she made the correct choice with Claude’s team.”

“Why would Claude ever be the correct choice?” I looked at Alan confused.

“It’s not Claude she picked. It’s all of the Shadow and Ilishwa from class. She made a group of dark magic users protect her.”

“So that’s why she made Lina switch teams. She wanted everyone with dark magic affinity on the same team.”

“Sounds like it. If she left her with you, she could have spotted every single trap they laid.”

“We could have spotted them either way.”

“Did you?” Alan’s disapproving stare was aimed straight at me.

“Obviously not. Everyone else just rushed ahead ignoring my orders,” I looked away.

“Same here. Those guys on my team hate your guts.”

“How come they are fine with you? It’s the opposite with the girls.”

“You are a prince, Keith. Any girl you pick is off-limits to them, and the girls themselves want to marry into the royal family. It’s a given that girls would love but the guys would hate you. In my case, I have no such value to the girls, and the guys can just sell me out to Kath if I dare to look at the girls they like.”

“I call double standards on that. It also doesn’t stop you from picking up girls.”

“It only works the first time, and don’t say that like you weren’t the one taking me on those excursions.”

“You need me to be able to sneak out of the castle without the guards noticing and reporting it to Kathleen.”

“Speaking of sneaking out, how about you sneak into this fortress and open the gate for me?”

“Let me have a quick peek… Are those skeletons?” I shuddered. “Why are skeletons walking on the walls? I know Hanna is the one in there, but isn’t this too much?”

“Don’t assume the undead lady is the only one able to use necromancy when she has all those dark magic users around her.”

“That’s not what I meant. You know perfectly how little skeletons are capable of when left on their own. They need someone to give them commands constantly, as they can’t really adapt to the situation at hand. Wouldn’t it be easier for them to stand guard themselves?”

“Doesn’t that just make sneaking in easier for you?”

“It does,” I muttered with dropped shoulders.

“Then why are you complaining?”

“Because I don’t want to believe they would make that mistake after making our teams crush each other.”

“Lina’s hands were probably full, setting that thing behind us, so she did not have time to babysit Claude,” Alan shrugged, clearly losing interest in the topic. “I’m surprised he can even get dressed without her in the mornings. He must really hate that the girls are in another dorm.”

“Actually those two rented a flat and live together.”

“Is that why we never ran into Lina in the girls’ dorm?”

“Obviously. Well, let’s just get this over with. Give me five minutes and you’ll be able to walk straight in.”

*** PoV: Hanna ***

Lina messed up big time. I knew it was her first time creating a skeleton army, but did she really assume she could place them and just let them be? I had one of my own skeletons mixed in the group, and they didn’t even notice.

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I used that skeleton to monitor our surroundings, and it didn’t take long to spot Keith and Alan through its vision. They seemed to be in the middle of a strategy meeting. A bit after that they split up, Alan staying behind, waiting near a random boulder while Keith started approaching the walls making sure he was behind cover every time Lina’s skeletons bothered to look his way.

After about 10 minutes, he managed to get to the fortress walls without any of the other skeletons noticing, then climbed inside when all but mine showed their backs. He might have not known that, but he was in the safe from the moment he passed the wall.

Claude was the first to notice something was off. His ears, worthy of a cat, picked up the creaking sound of the gate opening, but it was too late. By the time he reached halfway there, all of us could hear Alan screaming, trying to dodge the volley of arrows let loose by the skeleton guards. However, even that stopped the moment he stepped inside.

Lina’s command for the skeletons was to attack anyone approaching the walls, which, obviously, did not extend to anyone inside the walls, or retreating from the walls for the record. That made me remember how long it took me before I could give accurate instructions to my zombie snow leopard back when I was a child.

“Everyone, into defensive formation! We have a VIP to protect!” Claude gave his commands the moment he spotted the two boys walking towards us.

“CHARGE!” Lina shouted from right behind him. The team members prioritized her commands for some reason, and left their defensive positions at a moment’s notice.

“Hey, Alan, I got you inside safe and sound, so could you do something before they trample both of us?”

“Safe and sound is stretching it,” Alan growled, breaking the arrow sticking out of his left arm before using the same arrow to point towards us and start chanting his spell. “As a descendant of Satan himself, I shall scorch the lands and skies.”

The Shadows did not spare a moment to chant their counterspells, expecting the Demons’ signature [Demonic Hellfire] spell. “““Let our scent be masked by the raging waters. [Flash Flood]!””” The spell, however, got their Ilishwa teammates way before reaching Alan, and cats definitely did not like getting drenched. Claude climbed his way up the fortress wall, while Keith jumped onto Alan’s shoulders - making the latter grimace in pain - to avoid the sudden flood of water rushing towards their legs.

Alan, on the other hand, never finished the spell he started chanting, switching to a completely different one instead. “When the cleansing flames get purged, an eternal winter takes over. [Frozen Hell].”

I could not blame the defenders for falling into this trap, as even for me this was the first time seeing a Demon use ice magic. I was aware that most of them could wield it, thanks to my Demon ex-boyfriend telling me it was one of their racial affinities, but he was one of the rare individuals without any proficiency in it. In exchange for not having ice magic, his fire magic was stronger, and he could also use simpler dark magic spells. Unlike him, Alan seemed to be proficient with both types of their racial magic.

Keith jumped off of Alan and started knocking the stuck members of the defending team out, while Lina and Claude landed on top of the ice with a loud crash, the former having clung to the latter’s scarf to escape from the ice, nearly suffocating the boy and ultimately making him fall down.

As for me… Yeah, the chant should have clued me in, but I was just standing there with my legs embedded in a thick layer of ice. I had to use Formless’ hammer form - which I haven’t had the time to master yet - to break myself out, then I promptly hid behind the team of my proud guards. Sorry, correction: the last standing pair of my proud guards.

“Are you willing to surrender, Claude?” Keith asked. “You don’t seem to have any options left, and I’m not losing in a fair fight.”

“Are you mocking me?” Claude laughed, holding his stomach. “You know I never fight fair.”

“I like your spirit, but do you really have any tricks you could use to defeat them?” Lina asked. “I could probably handle Alan, but Keith is stronger than me.”

“Teach, everything is allowed in a war, right?” Claude asked me with an ears-wide smirk.

“Only if you win. It’s up to the winner to decide what’s fine and what’s not,” I replied.

“In that case, let me be the worst scum the Academy has ever seen. Lina, I’m leaving Alan to you. I’ll handle Keith myself.” Suddenly he looked way more serious than I have ever seen before. Not that I knew him before that day.

“Sounds fun,” Keith grinned. “Alan, you heard Hanna too, right? If we win, you’ll be forgiven even if you accidentally grab Lina’s breasts.” Did they forget that this wasn’t an actual war? I could already see Sister’s face when I told them what Alan did.

“Is that your way of encou–” My only guess for how that was supposed to end was “–raging me?”, but we’ll never know. How it actually ended was Alan’s eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, then a bright-red-faced Lina with steam shooting out of her ears punching him in the face, promptly knocking him out. Just a second later Claude’s sword stopped a hair’s breadth away from Keith’s neck, who was similarly staring at Lina’s bare breasts.

Claude used the time while two on the attacking team were talking between each other not to attack Keith, but to slash at his own teammate’s armor straps. She was so occupied with preparing for an actual fight that if it wasn’t for Alan freezing up, she wouldn’t have noticed what happened. Reminder to myself: wear something long - preferably with sleeves - under my armor so it needs more cuts before completely falling apart.

The clanking sound of Lina’s chestplate hitting the ice below our feet marked the end of our first mock siege.

“Stop staring at me, pervert!” Lina shouted at Keith while trying to cover herself.

“What pervert? Where?” Keith asked with a smirk on his face. “It’s not like I saw anything, as there was nothing to see. I knew elves had modest chests, but some of you not having any is news even to me.”

“Wow. I might have been the scum who exposed her, but even I would not go that far,” Claude whispered to Keith, slowly withdrawing his sword and taking a step back.

“You bastard.” I could feel a sudden chill on my back. “I’ll gouge your eyes out.” For some reason that didn’t sound like an empty threat. I silently took a step towards Lina, getting ready to stop her on a moment’s notice. “I’ll rip your limbs off and shove them up your ass.” I reached my hand out trying to grab her shoulder.

“Lina, that’s enough. I’ll beat him up for you, so please calm down.” Claude held his empty left hand out towards her.

“I’ll bite your throat if I have to.” I was too late. Lina jumped towards Keith with her hands held out ready to grab him before I could have caught her. She never reached him though. Only her splattering blood did. Her headless body fell in front of the prince’s legs, her flying head with a confused expression on her face passing by him.

Both Keith and I looked at the culprit. He squeezed his sword and scarf so tight his fingers lost all their color. Furthermore, he was shaking. That did not look like the shock of killing someone for the first time, but something rooted way deeper.

We stood there frozen stiff for minutes before I could get myself to speak.

“Keith. Get the medics and your father here.”

“What can the medics do about this?” asked the pale-faced prince.

“They can make sure we can get Claude back to the city alive,” I said, then knocked him unconscious with an uppercut, making him and his teeth fly in opposite directions. “I’ll do something about the girl in the meantime. We don’t need the others to see this when they wake up.”