Duelcrest Academy

Sam Rover's words were still on my mind as I crossed the corridors of the west wing in search of Sophia. Of course, I still couldn't rule out the possibility that he was just a very good actor, but I found it hard to think he was just bluffing. After all, it made sense:

"If his innate power really does have something to do with dark magic, it might have some harsh consequences for his body if he abuses it".

Perhaps it was similar to the mana release ability I had manifested in the dungeon: incredibly powerful, but with a permanent price to pay for using it.

"In any case, I hope we can find a peaceful solution to this situation."

After the adrenaline of the duel had worn off, I'd begun to feel a little bad about beating up my classmates like that. Of course, I was not the one who started the fight, but maybe I had gone a bit too far. I had even offered to help Sam get the wounded to the infirmary, only to be met with a venomous glare from Andrea and the other two girls. The boy had quickly declined after thanking me.

"This is exactly what Skylark wants, to pit us against each other..."

I picked up the pace. Aside from the group of six I'd just clashed with, there was only one unaccounted for student who wasn't part of our alliance, so the school building was relatively safe to cross.

"I need to find Celeste and ask her what happened between her and Sam. But I think I'd rather meet Sophia first so I can ask her opinion..." as I followed this train of thought I felt a shiver run down my spine, "fuck... if she finds out I fought 1vs5 she'll kill me!"

I was thinking about hiding in a closet for the rest of the game when I noticed something. In front of me, poking out from the corner, I could see what appeared to be a lock of long red hair.

"Nicole..."

For a second I thought she was planning to ambush me and pass me the curse, but as I cautiously advanced towards her she jumped out into the open with a smile on her face.

«So it was you who caused all that ruckus!» she exclaimed.

«Yeah, I ran into some trouble getting here,» I replied, still on guard.

«What's wrong? I don't have a contagious disease, you know?» she grinned, sensing my reluctance to come closer.

"What am I thinking... even if she is the traitor, she wouldn't gain anything by giving me the curse now, in fact she would hand me a huge advantage."

«Sorry, my nerves are still a bit on edge,» I apologised as I relaxed a little.

«That's all right!» she exclaimed as she patted me on the shoulder. As expected, I didn't feel any strange sensation that could signal the passage of the curse.

«Who were you fighting with?» she asked as we began to walk side by side.

«Sam Rover and four of his allies,» I replied.

«You fought five people at once?!» Nicole blurted out with a shocked look on her face.

«Didn't you do the same? I heard them say they tried to capture you as well,» I asked, confused by her surprise.

Nicole was silent for a second and then, biting one of her fingernails, she said:

«So that's what it was all about! I didn't understand why I was suddenly attacked earlier! But no, I didn't fight five people! It was just this blonde girl, Andrea Gunner I think her name is, and two other guys. I was with Penny and they started throwing spells at us. We knocked one of them down and they backed off.»

«Oh...»

"So it was just a 2vs3 and I used it as an excuse to get into a 5vs1... well, I guess things worked out in the end."

The more I thought about it , the more I realised how reckless I had been for the umpteenth time.

"Sophia's going to chain me to the bed this time... wait... that doesn't s-... no what the hell am I thinking!"

«So you say those guys are part of an alliance like ours... damn, things are going to get complicated then,» Nicole commented, unaware of the strange direction my thoughts had taken me.

«Yeah...» I nodded, my mind racing again.

"She doesn't know that Celeste and Sam have talked either, from the sound of it... it really seems like our leader has been keeping it a secret from everyone... but why?"

There was only one way to find out.

«Nicole, do you know where Celeste is?»

A look of horror suddenly crept across her face.

«Crap!» she shouted, then grabbed my wrist and started dragging me down the corridor.

«What?!»

«She's in her room! And I was supposed to stand guard at the door! Let's get there quickly before she notices I'm gone!»

We arrived at our destination to find Penny waiting for us with an irritated look on her face.

«Nicole! What happened to 'I'll be right back' ?» she snapped as we approached, then her expression changed to a smile, «I'm glad you're okay, Liz!»

«I'm glad you're okay too, Penny.»

«She fought five people at once! That's what all the noise was, Penny! I had to go and see what it was...» exclaimed Nicole.

«Sure sure,» Penny said in an annoyed tone. She was probably thinking Nicole was lying to justify her long absence.

«You should go in Liz, I'm sure Celeste wants to talk to you,» she then added.

«Alright, but... what about Sophia, is she inside too?»

As much as I wanted to shed some light on Sam's conundrum, I was also worried about my girlfriend's whereabouts.

Penny grinned in response:

«You really are two worrywarts! I told her to wait here, but she insisted on looking for you! Wilhelm had to go with her as she wouldn't budge. It seems you haven't crossed paths, so she's probably somewhere in the other corridors of the west wing.»

«I see...» I replied, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Her and Will together... if someone, a few weeks ago, told me that they were going to team up to look for me, I would have thought they were crazy."

Even after Penny's words of reassurance, part of me still wanted to go and find my girlfriend.

"But I should do my best to defuse the bomb that might be waiting for us. I'll see you soon Sophia, be safe."

«All right, if you see her, tell her I'm inside.»

«Will do!» Penny and Nicole exclaimed in unison.

When I opened the door to Celeste's room I was immediately greeted by her cheerful voice.

«Liz Liz! Please, tell me you have good news!»

Celeste was sitting at her table playing with her wand, spinning it in her hand. Philemon was also in the room, leaning against the wall with his usual impassive expression.

«Good news?» I asked, sitting in the chair in front of her.

«Yes! For instance, that you have the Demon card!» she said, a hopeful look on her face.

"So, as I thought, that's what we're going for. She wants to collect the Demon card and combine it with the curse to make sure none of our friends get killed."

I sighed:

«No, I'm just a puny Villager, I'm afraid.»

«Aaaah!» Celeste grunted in obvious frustration, «what are the odds that none of the seven of us has a special card?»

«You mean we're all villagers?» I asked, taken aback by that revelation.

If that was the case, she was right: the chances were definitely slim. That was if the handling of the cards was actually random.

«Let me guess, you think we are being set up by Skylark?» asked Celeste, a slight smile creeping across her lips.

«The old bastard has done it many times before. Even though I don't think you've ever been on the receiving end of it.»

Celeste chuckled a little:

«I don't think that's the case this time. Otherwise he wouldn't have given me this!»

Having said that, she quickly reached her hand across the table and touched mine. Suddenly, a purple mist seemed to grow around me, blurring my vision a little.

«What?! Is this the -!?» I exclaimed.

«The curse,» Celeste finished for me. She grabbed my hand again and the world returned to its normal colour.

«Like I said, Skylark wouldn't have given us this if he really wanted to mess with us. After all, we have the keys to the game in our hands now. The question is how we use them. Not having a special card will certainly make things more complicated, but we'll manage,» she said with a confident look on her face.

"Complicated..."

It seemed like a good moment to bring up the question of Sam. If this game was going to be complicated, it was because of him and his group.

«Celeste, we need to talk about something.»

«Sure! Seems pretty serious from the look on your face, shoot it!» she replied, giving me a questioning look.

«After leaving the room I was ported to, I ran into Sam Rover and a bunch of students...»

The smile on Celeste's face instantly froze. I could tell immediately that she fully understood what I was about to ask her. She glanced at Philemon before she sighing and stating:

«Let me guess, he told you I turned down his offer of cooperation and that's what you want to talk about?»

It was obvious that she was less than thrilled that I had found out.

«So it's true then... you've kept it a secret from everyone except Philemon, haven't you?» I asked, looking at the boy to my left.

«Don't get me wrong, I would have kept it from him too. He just happened to be there when Sam and I spoke,» Celeste explained, following my gaze.

«I see... so why did you hide it from us?» I asked, looking into her eyes.

«I'm sorry, but I had my reasons. Will you hear me out?» Celeste said.

Her hands were now fidgeting nervously with her wand. Her tone was a far cry from the confident one she had used a moment earlier.

"What the hell happened to her?"

From her reaction I could guess that there was no malice behind her strange behaviour. But I still wanted to understand what it was all about. I reached out to place my hand on hers but, remembering the curse, I stopped myself and instead gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

«Of course! I admit I was quite surprised when I heard about it, but I trust you, Celeste.»

«Thank you, Liz,» she replied, but her expression remained clouded, «I think you're going to be pretty angry with me though.»

«I might be, but I can always forgive you. Isn't that what friends do after a fight?» I replied, remembering what Sophia had said to me a few days ago.

Finally, Celeste seemed to cheer up a little:

«You're right!» she replied, giving me one of her usual bright smiles. Then she quickly turned serious and began to explain:

«First of all, it's not entirely true that I refused Sam's offer. In fact, I said yes to him in the beginning.»

«You did?» I asked confused, «did you find out something about him that made you change your mind?»

"Maybe it's about his innate power?"

But Celeste shook her head:

«No, he actually seems like a very stand-up guy. He was pretty straightforward when he came to talk to me, and he seemed very serious about taking on Skylark. According to Philemon, he's always been quite popular with the other students as well... I was honestly glad that he wanted to join us.»

"I can imagine that being true. There's something charismatic about him. He seems like a natural born leader, just like Celeste... I wonder why I never noticed him."

It was then that his words came back to me:

"When you're on a pedestal, it's hard to notice the people below you."

"I guess he wasn't wrong, eh? When Amy was still here, she was the one who kept an eye on my other classmates... I really am hopeless without her around."

«If that's the case, then why did you change your mind and refuse to cooperate?» I asked Celeste.

She seemed to hesitate again at this direct question:

«You see... he didn't want to join us alone, that's the problem. He wanted to bring all his friends into our alliance as well.»

I looked at her confused:

«Isn't that a good thing? We would have had all the students on our side! Minus one, I guess. But I bet that lonely student would've joined in too as soon as he realised we were all on the same side.»

Celeste smiled bitterly at my words:

«Sounds great, doesn't it? I was excited too at first, but then... I thought about it and realised the full implications.»

«The... implications?» I repeated as my mind began to process those words.

It only took me a few seconds to think of some possible issues, but I decided to let Celeste explain:

«First of all, there's the question of trust. We are already freaking out at the possibility of a traitor in our midst, even though we are all friends. If we invite six more people we barely know into our ranks, the possibility of being betrayed would increase tenfold.»

She paused a little, probably to give me time to disagree, but I couldn't find anything wrong with her statement. So she continued:

«But even if we decide to trust them, there's something even worse: the weekly eliminations. Right now it's clear how we should approach them: we're doing our best to help our allies. But if I'd let Sam and his friends in, it would have been much more complicated. This week we would have had to decide who was going to die between Penny and Jen Corbain. How are we supposed to make such a choice? Obviously you and I would have wanted to save Penny because she's our friend, while Sam would have chosen Jen. We would have started fighting between us less than a week after we started working together!»

She was right again. While we could prioritise the lives of our members in our limited alliance, that would have been impossible if we'd accepted all the students.

"But this also means..."

I looked at Celeste's pained expression and asked quietly:

«Celeste... when it's time to escape... you want to leave them behind, don't you?»

My friend sighed as she ran a hand through her long brown curls:

«I was sure you would ask... You see, when I decided to form our alliance and lead it, I understood that I would have to make some hard decisions... I thought I was ready for it... but it's damn hard, Liz,» she murmured, but that moment of weakness only lasted a moment, «but I've made my choice. As the leader of our alliance, I have a duty to bring you and the others home safely. If I have to commit sins to do so, I'll gladly become a sinner. We'll leave the other students here, because bringing them up to the second floor with us would only increase our chances of being discovered.»

She said those terrible words with a straight face, but I could still feel the inner turmoil they caused her.

«Is this why you didn't say anything? You wanted to shoulder this alone so as not to distress us?» I asked her, trying to be as gentle as possible.

«I just didn't want any trouble. I knew that kind and righteous people like you and Wilhelm would have fought me on this... I didn't want to fill your heads with anything other than looking for a way to escape.»

This time it was obvious she wasn't telling the whole truth. She just didn't want us to feel bad about it, I was sure of that.

"Kind and righteous... why do people think I am some kind of big damn hero?"

I always had selfish reasons for my good deeds... But I couldn't deny that right now I was trying very hard to find a good reason against Celeste's decision.

"Leaving seven young people to die... people who have suffered by our side all these months, it's so cruel."

«Won't having more students on our side help us deal with Skylark?» I tried to ask.

But Celeste quickly shut me down:

«I think we've already decided to go for the element of surprise when we try to take him out, haven't we? If it comes down to a straight fight, I don't think even 20 or 30 more people would help us... unless they have some kind of broken innate power.»

"...they might have one."

But I wasn't sure that telling Celeste that Sam had access to demonic magic would have helped my case.

"If anything, it would make it harder for her to trust him..."

Of course, I had no intention of keeping it a secret for long, in case this game came down to fighting him, but...

Celeste read the indecision on my face and put a hand in front of her, signalling me to stop:

«In any case, now that this event has started, there's no reason to even think about cooperating with them anymore.»

«What do you mean?»

«I have a plan, and if it works, we can save Penny.»

«What?!»

Celeste smiled at my exclamation of surprise. But there was nothing joyful about her expression.

"Save Penny... eliminating the person in front of her won't help... in fact, it would make things harder as the point gap would wi-...!"

I had understood. There was a way.

«The Demon card! The 1000 point bonus! If we give it to Penny with the curse, she'll shoot up the leaderboard!» I exclaimed, jumping out of my chair.

«That's right,» Celeste commented, not nearly as excited as I was, «but there may be a slight problem with this version of the plan.»

"A slight problem... version of the plan?"

In response to my confused face, she continued:

«Would Penny be okay with choosing who dies? That's the other advantage that the Demon card combined with the curse gives to its owner.»

"She's right," I thought, biting my lip, "as much of an asshole as she can be, Penny is a very kind person... condemning a classmate to death is not going to be easy for her."

«You're probably thinking the same thing about me. That's why I thought of an alternative...»

It only took me a moment to understand what she was going for.

«The 1000 point penalty.»

«As usual, we're in sync,» but I could tell this time she wasn't happy about it, «if we give the Demon card to another student and keep the curse away from them, we can make them slip into last place, giving Penny at least another week to live.»

Behind her cold smile I could see all the reluctance she was feeling. After all, it was a diabolical plan, demonic even. By not giving the curse to the Demon's owner, we would be condemning two people to certain death instead of one.

But the troubles were not over. There was something else that worried me.

«How are we going to get the Demon card Celeste?» I asked, already knowing the answer in my heart.

«By force. It's not like we can ask them nicely to hand it over. They are also not going to accept any duels from us. So we'll attack the other students tonight and steal their cards. Then we'll choose two of them and keep them under surveillance until the end of the game, so that we can pass them the curse and the Demon card if necessary. Of course, I hope Penny will be willing to take the responsibility of choosing a victim... but we have to plan for the worst case scenario.»

Celeste had spoken in a plain tone, almost as if she were reciting the weather for the day. I just couldn't find a good way to react. It was an extremely cruel plan. Penny's life was to be saved, but at what cost?

«Are you going to tell Penny about all of this?» I asked, at a loss for words.

«I'll have to. But I don't think she needs to know the whole story. I know she won't like it either way, but if she doesn't know about their offer to cooperate, she might accept it as the best thing to do,» Celeste replied, looking at me seriously.

So it came down to this.

"She wants me to keep quiet."

The reason was obvious. It was much easier to subject the other students to this kind of treatment if we saw them as enemies rather than potential allies.

"Fuck..."

I desperately wanted to tell her no, but I struggled to come up with a good counter-argument.

"One person has to die today, and I don't want it to be one of my friends. And if it's to save Penny... maybe another life is worth sacrificing..."

But I just couldn't accept it. If not agreeing to cooperate was a bit like leaving Sam and his friends stranded at sea, this was like deliberately drowning them by holding their heads underwater. Maybe the end result would be the same, but...

"I'm letting my emotions get in the way of my rational thinking... that's why Celeste is our leader and not me."

Trying to buy time, I turned to Philemon, who had still not said anything:

«Is this plan your idea?» I asked him.

«Why do you ask? Is there something wrong with what Celeste said?» he replied, raising an eyebrow.

«The other day you suggested we gang up on the student above Penny, this plan is kind of similar, so...»

«It's not like that, Liz. Philemon isn't manipulating me or anything, we came up with it together,» Celeste interjected.

«But then... why did you stand up to him the other day?» I countered.

«That's right, I did. But the situation is different now. This event will force us to kill one person anyway, so we might as well use it to our advantage. We're also very close to putting our escape plan into action, so it doesn't really matter if people want to take revenge on us at this point,» she replied with the same bitter smile on her face, «it just seems like the most logical course of action. I know you and Philemon have had your disagreements, but I'm the one making the final decision this time.»

"Then why do you look like you want nothing more than for me to give you a reason to change your mind..."

But I just couldn't find one.

«Celeste... As you said, it all sounds logical, but... I can't go along with it. I have said it before, but I refuse to dance to Skylark's tune. Even in this school, there are some lines we shouldn't cross. And killing classmates who haven't done anything wrong is one of them.»

«I understand,» Celeste said with a nod, «and I'm not asking you to participate. I'm just asking you not to interfere.»

«Not interfere... doesn't that make me an accomplice anyway?»

«What is the alternative? Do you want them to have the Demon card? Do you realise that we won't be able to give them the curse that way? Are you willing to risk one of our lives just to uphold your morality?» intervened Philemon in a harsh voice.

«There's no need, Phil,» Celeste tried to stop him. But he continued:

«There is a need. Belvoir, as always, you think only of yourself. Can't you see we're doing our best to save Penelope? We are proposing actual solutions instead of spouting idealistic nonsense.»

His hostility, which he had always managed to hide, was now obvious.

"And the worst part is that I can't think of anything to say in return..."

«It's fine if you think that about me, but I still...» I muttered, lowering my eyes.

«You won't kill an innocent person? Tell me, was Foster a threat when he was begging for his life at your feet? You dispatched him without mercy, so why is this a problem? Because it's not about you, it's about Penelope.»

«Philemon!» yelled Celeste jumping to her feet, «you're going too far!»

«No, he's right...» I murmured.

He was. Why was I acting so high and mighty? I was a murderer with blood on my hands. I had killed a man who was begging for his life simply because he had colluded with Finch, perhaps not even willingly. Why was I protesting now, when the deaths of our classmates could have been used to save our friend's life?

Back then, in that bloodied arena, I had thought that a part of me, the one that housed my humanity, had died. Back then, I thought I was ready to take on the role of the villain, mercilessly eliminating any obstacle to our survival.

"But since then... I have changed again."

I had learned something terrible: what it meant to lose someone you loved. It was a pain so deep that I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Not that I thought Skylark was capable of loving anyone.

"And now that I've seen that they share a bond similar to ours... I can't do something like that to Sam and his friends."

Besides, there was something else wrong with this whole thing.

«You're assuming I don't care about Penny. But do you?» I asked Philemon, now looking him straight in the eye and clenching my fist.

«Of course I do,» he replied, obviously confused by my newfound will to argue with him.

«Then how can you think this is what she wants? Do you know what she told me? That some things are worth dying for! And that living with regrets is like not living at all!» I blurted out.

«She said that when she was relatively safe, I assume,» Philemon scoffed, «but now that her elimination is imminent, she would of course be trying to save her life!»

«She is the only one who can decide that! I also tried to impose my so-called 'rational' thinking on her in the past and I'm only now realising how stupid I was!» I exclaimed, «And you are doing the same thing! Making all these plans without even talking to her! She's not a baby, she has the right to decide for herself! Besides, if you're so sure she's going to react the way you think, why are you hiding all this stuff from her?»

This question finally seemed to hit the mark. Philemon opened his mouth before closing it again. Celeste looked at me with a faint smile and after a moment of silence the boy spoke again:

«You're right, I neglected how Penny would feel. I'm sorry, I was angry and I was too harsh. I don't think you did anything wrong with Finch. And I can understand your reservations about our plans,» he said, cleaning his glasses.

«That's okay, I needed to hear those things anyway,» I replied in a lighter tone.

«But I still think we should stick to our plan. Especially since Penny might feel terrible about it, we need to keep the details a secret. Killing at least one of the other students is the only way to solve this game. Our plan will give us the best result. Unless you have one that is better?»

Philemon put the ball in my court. But as I had already realised, I had no good moves. In the end, strength was the only way to decide this game. Trust was not something we could build when our and Sam's group's interests were in opposite directions.

So in the end there was only one point I could fight Philemon on:

«As I said, I won't go along with this, but since I can't offer a better alternative, I'm willing to stay out of it... as long as Penny is informed and agrees with your plan. We owe her the truth, otherwise what kind of alliance are we?»

«There you go again with this idealistic crap...»

In the end, both my eyes and Philemon's fell on Celeste. She was going be the one to make the decision. The girl seemed to understand and took a deep breath. I could see in her usually sweet brown eyes, now filled with worry, which side she was going to choose.

But she had barely opened her mouth when the door to her room was forced open. As had happened so many times in the past, every single one of my problems suddenly became insignificant as I stared at Sophia making her entrance. I couldn't resist jumping into her arms.

«Sophia!» I shouted, crushing her in a hug.

«The cavalry has arrived! I'm here to rescue the stupid hero I have for a girlfriend once again,» she chuckled.

«Rescue.. wait, did you hear the whole thing?» asked Celeste, stunned.

«I got the gist of it...» she replied with a smile as we pulled away from the embrace, «I accidentally broke your muffling spell by touching the door handle, and since your discussion seemed quite animated, I stopped to listen.»

«Oh...»

«Don't worry, I sent Penny and Nicole to stand guard on both sides of the corridors. They didn't catch anything,» Sophia said at Celeste's worried expression.

«I see...»

«So how do you intend to 'rescue' your girlfriend? Have you come up with an alternative plan?» asked Philemon impatiently.

I looked at Sophia with hopeful eyes. If anyone was clever enough to come up with a solution that wouldn't turn us into heartless monsters, it was her. But my hopes were soon dashed:

«Not at all,» Sophia replied.

She seemed to realise the effect her words had on me and put her arm around my shoulders, adding with a confident tone:

«But I have a way of deciding whether we should go with Elizabeth's idea of telling Penny and letting her decide, or follow Philemon's one of keeping her in the dark. A method that would make no one feel bad and be 100% impartial.»

«I think Celeste has already decided-» Philemon started to say, but was immediately cut off:

«How?!» Celeste asked . I could see that she was feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

«Well, if Philemon's argument is so airtight that we can't counter it with words, we'll just have to cut through it,» Sopiha said.

«Cut through it...» I repeated, «Wait! You're saying that...» I blurted out.

«Philemon, Celeste, it's time you gave me and Elizabeth a chance for revenge. We challenge you both to a duel,» my girlfriend finished, confirming my suspicion.

Philemon looked at her as if she had gone completely mad:

«A duel?! May I remind you that we are in the middle of Skylark's trial? Besides, do you really want to put something so important at stake in-»

He stopped mid-sentence. Following his gaze, I understood why. It was clearly written on Celeste's excited face that his fate had already been sealed when Sophia had uttered the word 'duel'.