"Soren, you're really good at this!"
Her praise was bright, almost incredulous, and it made him glance back over his shoulder to make sure she was still close, still steady on her feet.
He gave a small smile in response, the kind that didn't show teeth, the kind that was meant to reassure rather than charm.
"I'm just paying attention," he said, and then, because her breathing sounded a little heavy, he added, "Do you need a break?"
Olivia's eyes widened as if the question itself was unexpected, then she shook her head quickly.
"No, I'm okay. I can keep going."
"Alright," Soren replied, not pushing, but he slowed a fraction anyway, making the decision for both of them without making it a debate. "Tell me if you start feeling tired. This place is… a lot."
An hour had passed since they had teamed up, and it had gone better than his nervous mind had wanted to believe.
In that time, they had collected ten mana beads, finding them tucked in roots, half buried in damp soil, resting near streambeds where the light caught them like little pieces of glass, and each time Soren located one, he made sure Olivia was the one to pick it up half the time, even when it would have been faster for him to do it himself.
He told himself it was for the plan.
He told himself it was to keep her engaged, to make sure she didn't feel like baggage, to make sure she didn't realise how much he was shaping their "partnership" around a future betrayal that wasn't really betrayal, just… timing.
He also told himself it was because she deserved to feel like she was earning it.
That part made his chest ache in a way he tried to ignore.
They had only encountered one other student so far, a boy with wary eyes and a hand hovering near a weapon, and the moment he saw two bracelets moving together instead of a lone target, he had backed off without a fight, choosing easier prey.
Soren hadn't chased him.
He had watched him retreat and felt a cold satisfaction, not because the boy was afraid, but because for once the world had done the simple thing, the logical thing, the thing that didn't require Soren to bleed for it.
Olivia, however, had looked unsettled after, her gaze lingering on the direction the student left.
"It's okay," Soren had told her then, quietly. "Most people won't pick a fair fight when they can pick an unfair one."
She had frowned at that, not disagreeing, just… saddened.
He kept thinking about that sadness now.
Soren tugged up his sleeve and checked his bracelet again, the screen's modern glow feeling absurd against bark and moss.
.
– 1st - Amelia Einhardt (25 Points)
– 2nd - Raylin (13 Points)
– 3rd - Renen Karnstein (10 Points)
– 4th - Eiser Undyne (8 Points)
– 5th - Esper Rupindolf (7 Points)
– 6th - Carlen Frenun (7 Points)
– 7th - Edward Undilten (6 Points)
– 8th - Alex (6 Points)
– 9th - Annie (6 Points)
– 10th - Olivia (6 Points)
.
'Safe.'
For now.
The plan itself was simple, crude in places, full of assumptions that could collapse the moment a stronger student decided to stop playing around, but it was working, and right now "working" was all that mattered.
Olivia had already found a bead before they met, which meant she would always be ahead of him by a single point as long as they split everything evenly.
So Soren kept her close, kept their pace steady, kept their route cautious, and let her remain visible on the leaderboard.
Let her stay in tenth.
Let her location be broadcast.
Let predators see a priestess and think "easy," then see that she wasn't alone and decide it wasn't worth the trouble.
Continue splitting beads evenly.
Then near the end, as long as she stayed in tenth place, he could overtake her with one last bead, sliding into the top ten as the timer ran out.
It was flawed, and it was unfair, and it made his stomach knot every time he looked at the number beside her name, because it was proof of how he was using her.
The guilt didn't go away.
It didn't vanish the way the reward window had tried to make it.
It just sat under his skin like a splinter, small but persistent, impossible to ignore once he noticed it.
He told himself she would still place eleventh if he took tenth, which was still far better than she would ever manage alone in a battle royale designed to punish support students.
He told himself that eleventh could still be impressive enough to trigger achievement funds.
He told himself that if anyone came for her, he would fight, even if it was stupid.
And somewhere in the mess of those justifications was the quiet truth that made his kindness feel strange even to him.
He didn't want her to get hurt.
Not because the story demanded it or because she was a heroine, but because she was standing beside him, trusting him with soft eyes and open hands, and Soren's warmth, when it chose someone, didn't come in careful portions.
It arrived whole, almost embarrassing in its intensity, like it didn't know how to be anything else.
"Are you doing okay?" he asked, lifting his gaze from the bracelet to her face, and his voice softened automatically, as if she were something fragile he had no right to hold.
Olivia's expression brightened.
"Yeah, I can't fall behind when you're doing this well."
Soren let out a quiet breath that might have been a laugh in another life, then caught himself and simply nodded.
"Alright," he said, then hesitated, and added, "If you ever want to stop and just… sit for a minute, say so. I won't be annoyed."
She blinked, smile widening again.
"You're really nice, Soren."
The words hit him harder than they should have.
Nice.
It landed like a label he didn't know what to do with, as if she were surprised he hadn't tried to hurt her, and maybe that was the problem, maybe that was what this exam was teaching everyone to expect.
He swallowed, then gave her a careful smile that felt almost too honest.
"I'm not trying to be nice," he said quietly, then continued, as if he had to explain himself, "I just… want to do well in this exam."
Warmth wasn't something he handed out thoughtlessly; he knew that, and yet with Olivia it kept happening anyway, automatic, like his body had decided she was safe before his head could argue.
He let out a breath and looked at her properly.
She didn't question it.
That, too, made him feel worse.
There was a part of Soren that had been watching her closely since the moment he saw her name, waiting for the inevitable twist, the inevitable proof that the world didn't match the game, the way Lilliana and Felix had already shattered his assumptions.
So far, Olivia seemed to be the same as he remembered.
Kind, timid without being helpless, earnest in a way that made you want to lower your guard, and it brought him a thin thread of relief he hadn't realised he was craving.
If Olivia was still Olivia, then maybe some parts of the map still matched the territory.
Maybe.
Soren rose from where he had crouched near a root cluster, brushing dirt from his fingers.
"Shall we go—"
A violent sound tore through the forest.
BOOM—!
The ground didn't quite shake, but the air punched outward in a pressure wave that made leaves jump and birds explode into frantic flight, and Soren's unfinished sentence died in his throat.
His entire posture changed in an instant, the softness falling away as something sharp and practical slid into place.
That was not a bead being collected.
That was not someone tripping.
That was a spell, or a clash, or something big enough that even this forest couldn't swallow it quietly.
Olivia flinched, hands rising instinctively towards her chest, eyes wide.
"Soren…?"
He was already pulling up his bracelet, thumb swiping fast, forcing the interface to show what mattered.
The location of the top ten students.
He scanned through the dots, heart beating harder than it had any right to after an hour of relative calm.
'Annie's far,' he thought, eyes flicking. 'Edward too. Esper and Raylin are together on the other side of the exam site…'
His gaze moved again, faster now, and then he saw it.
He felt the blood drain from his face before his mind even finished processing what the screen was telling him.
"Shit," he muttered, the curse slipping out raw.
Olivia's voice trembled.
"What's wrong, Soren? Did something happen?"
He didn't answer immediately, because the answer was sitting on his wrist like a brand.
The explosion had been close.
And one of the top-ten dots was closer.
Too close.
Moving.
Soren turned his arm so Olivia could see the screen, not because he wanted to scare her, but because he needed her to understand that this wasn't a choice they could debate, and the moment her eyes landed on the name, her face went pale in a way that made Soren's guilt spike viciously.
"T-That…" Olivia stammered, swallowing hard. "Uhm… what should we do?"
For a heartbeat, Soren's mind offered him the easiest escape.
Let go.
If she was alone, she would run to the person she trusted most, she would find him, she would be safer with someone who belonged at the centre of all this, someone strong enough that being kind didn't come with a cost.
His hand loosened on her wrist for half a second.
Then he tightened it again, because he had already made his choice the moment he approached her, and because he didn't have the luxury of pretending he was doing this for purely clean reasons.
There was no discussion to be had right now.
"Run," he said.
It was the one clipped word he allowed himself, because anything longer would have made him hesitate.
Olivia's breath hitched, but she nodded, and Soren didn't waste time soothing her with pretty reassurance.
"This way. Stay close, don't look back, and if you trip, I'll grab you," he said, voice tight but controlled.
They turned and fled in the opposite direction of the explosion, sprinting through undergrowth, branches snapping against their sleeves, breath tearing in and out of their lungs, the forest blurring into wet green streaks as panic finally caught up with them.
Whatever lay ahead couldn't possibly be worse than what was behind them.
He didn't believe that.
Not for a second.
But he ran anyway.
————「❤︎」————