“Very well…… I’ll share my plan with you.”

  With that, Hulim Heyerar broke a branch from a tree and began drawing on the ground.

  “This is where our camp is located.”

  Hulim used curved lines to stand for forests, mountains and rivers, a circle to mark their own camp, and then placed several triangles near the drawn lines.

  “These are the camps of the other teams.”

  “And this area right here——”

  Hulim pointed to a section of the sketch where several triangles were clustered closely together.

  “This is the camp of the allied teams. As you can see, they’ve set up their camps side by side. It’s clear they formed an alliance long before this competition even began.”

  The four teammates stared at the simple map Hulim had drawn in complete silence, stunned into awe.

  “Incredible…… That’s amazing! You’re brilliant, Lady Hulim! Did you really map out everyone’s positions in such a short time?”

  Nia looked at her with eyes shining brightly, her voice already laced with admiration.

  “Hmph~! Naturally! This is my Hulim, after all~!”

  Fran huffed proudly, a smug look on her face.

  Ander and Klein said nothing, but the shock in their eyes matched Nia’s perfectly.

  When Hulim had first mentioned that some teams had allied, they hadn’t thought much of it—they’d assumed she’d merely spotted a large group of people gathered together from up in the trees.

  But they’d been completely wrong. It wasn’t just a crowd she’d seen; she’d pinpointed the exact location of every camp, noted that the allied teams had settled together, and even mapped out the positions of all the other scattered teams.

  And she’d done all that from just a short while of observing from a single tree?

  Every single team accounted for?!

  “Um……”

  Hulim realized she might have shown off a little too much, but there was no helping it—old habits were hard to hide.

  “It’s not that impressive. They’re simply terrible at concealing themselves, and the tree I chose has perfect visibility, covering nearly the entire area. That’s why I was able to locate all of them.”

  Well…… it was the tree she’d picked on purpose, of course it had the best vantage point.

  “It’s still incredible! Even if I’d seen all those people, I could never remember their positions this accurately.”

  Klein shook his head and said.

  Ander studied the map carefully, then looked up and asked:

  “Lady Hulim, what should we do next, then?”

  “Hmm——”

  Hulim thought for a moment, then spoke slowly and steadily:

  “My idea is this: since they’ll come looking for us eventually, we might as well let them find us on our own terms.”

  The four exchanged puzzled glances.

  “If we let them find us willingly, won’t that put us in great danger?”

  “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

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  Hulim shook her head, and drew a semicircle at a specific spot on the ground.

  “What I mean is, we build a decoy camp here, then intentionally reveal it to them, luring the allied teams straight to this fake location.”

  “I’ve already scouted this spot—it’s roughly equidistant from several other independent camps. If we create enough deliberate commotion, the teams from those nearby camps will assume the allies are launching an attack on them. In all likelihood, the two sides will end up fighting each other.”

  “Ohhh——! We can actually do that?!”

  Klein slapped his forehead in amazement.

  “But how do we build a convincing decoy camp?”

  Ander asked at this point.

  “To make them believe it’s our real camp, we need solid, believable proof, don’t we?”

  Hulim nodded, then pointed to the triangle closest to the circle representing their own camp on the map.

  “That’s why we need to take over this position as quickly as possible.”

  “According to the rules, once a flag is taken, that team is disqualified. But there is no rule stating that other teams cannot use that captured flag. All we need to do is seize this flag, and we can set up our decoy camp right here.”

  “……”

  The group looked at one another.

  Finally, they all nodded in unison.

  “Alright, let’s do it!”

  “Now that we’ve decided, let’s assign our roles. To be safe, someone must guard our real camp. Fran, you have great strength but low stamina—you’re not suited for long-distance raids, so the duty of defending our real camp falls to you. Ander, you are our frontline fighter; if a strong warrior like you stands guard beside our real flag, no one will doubt that this is our main camp.”

  “As for Klein and Nia, I need you to draw the attention of the allied teams and the scattered independent teams respectively. You do not need to engage in combat—only lead them to the decoy camp and this target location……”

  After explaining her entire plan in thorough detail, Hulim looked around at the group and asked:

  “Do any of you have other opinions or questions?”

  The group shook their heads.

  “None at all. It’s an incredibly detailed plan.”

  Ander pulled a folded sheet of rough paper from his pocket and quickly copied the map from the ground onto it.

  “No time to waste—we move at once.”

  ……

  Deep within the forest, a boy and a girl stood beside a small flag planted firmly in the earth.

  “Do you think some monster will suddenly leap out at us……?”

  The girl asked, staring at the eerily silent woods with a hint of fear in her voice.

  “I-I don’t think so……?”

  The boy paled at her words, but forced a brave tone despite his own fear.

  “Didn’t they say this forest is completely safe? Besides…… look, the instructors are watching from the mountaintop! There are two C-Rank instructors up there—if any monsters appeared, they would take them down immediately, right?”

  “B-But…… weren’t there rumors of unknown monsters roaming this place a couple of years ago?”

  “……Can you please stop saying such terrifying things? I’m already creeped out beyond belief.”

  Rustle!

  At that very moment, the bushes behind them suddenly shifted.

  “Eep——!!!”

  “Aaaah——!!!”

  The boy and girl let out shrill, piercing screams in unison.

  “It’s here——!!!”

  And then they scrambled away in blind terror, fleeing so quickly that they completely forgot about the flag they were supposed to protect.

  Ander poked his head out from behind the bushes, staring at the fleeing pair in utter bewilderment. He then glanced back at the others.

  “……Am I really that terrifying?”

  The others shook their heads, equally confused.

  “More importantly, we’ve secured the flag.”

  Hulim stepped forward and pulled the flag out of the ground in one smooth motion.

  “That was far too easy. I thought we’d have to fight for it, but those two just screamed and ran off. Completely absurd.”

  Klein muttered, still unable to wrap his head around what had just happened.

  “Alright, let’s go, Klein. We don’t have much time.”

  “Coming right up!”

  Seeing his teammates already moving efficiently toward their next destination, Klein hurried to catch up.

  Meanwhile, somewhere else in the forest.

  A formation of over a dozen boys and girls moved slowly through the trees, searching cautiously as they went.

  This scene was spotted by the instructors observing from the mountaintop.

  “An alliance, hm? Quite a sensible strategy, if I do say so myself~.”

  Colette commented with a warm, amused smile. For her, this exam was the perfect way to pass the time.

  “Hmph!”

  Kuno, standing beside her with his arms crossed tightly over his chest, let out a cold, disdainful snort.

  “The weak always huddle together for warmth, placing all their hopes in others. They don’t even realize they’re walking straight into a trap. Teams lacking both wit and resolve are nothing more than a rabble!”

  “My my~, harsh as always~! Well, you’re not wrong—these little ones are in for a very rude awakening~!”

  Ps：I'm going out for a dinner gathering and not sure what time I'll be back. If I get back early, I'll try to finish writing and update one chapter. Thank you all, and wish you a wonderful day!