I stepped across the safe zone boundary and felt the magical barrier settle over me like a warm blanket. All the tension that had been accumulating in my muscles during that whole confrontation with the Prince disappeared.

  Safe. I was actually safe.

  The challenge area was massive. Way bigger than I'd expected. The field stretched so far I could barely see the other end, just a shimmer where the protective magic cut off. Target stands were set up everywhere, and floating markers drifted around at different heights.

  Two A-rank students from the Prince's team were already there, standing near the center with fancy enchanted gear. Focus crystals, precision gloves, some kind of targeting monocle thing. They glanced at me with obvious disdain before deliberately turning away.

  Right. Still the undesirable. Still the bait who barely mattered.

  The Prince entered right behind me. He headed straight for his teammates without even looking in my direction, already talking strategy in low voices.

  They were taking this seriously. Of course they were.

  I surveyed the field again, trying to distract myself from the nervousness. A large magical timer floated above the challenge area, displaying the time remaining before the competition officially began.

  Three minutes.

  I turned back toward the hills I'd come from, scanning for any sign of my teammates. The landscape was empty. Just grass and scattered rocks. No movement. No figures approaching.

  Where were they?

  Perhaps Nico would appear. He'd been watching earlier, he was probably very close by. That would at least give us two participants. Though we'd still be one short of the required three.

  Two minutes.

  The Prince glanced in the same direction I was staring, his confident expression slowly morphing to confusion.

  One minute.

  Now both of us were restless. Even if my team showed up now, they'd need to sprint at full speed to reach the boundary in time.

  What if they'd been intercepted? Or maybe the castle had already fallen under the Prince's siege force? I tried not to think about it, but the possibilities kept appearing in my mind anyway.

  Thirty seconds.

  The Prince's teammates exchanged uncertain looks.

  Fifteen seconds.

  My heart was hammering now.

  Five... Four... Three... Two... One...

  Zero.

  The timer flashed gold and the challenge activated instantly. Targets materialized fully, some springing up from the ground, others descending from the air. Movement patterns activated. Point values appeared in glowing numbers above each target.

  But I was completely alone.

  The Director's voice boomed across the field: "TEAM AURORA HAS BEEN ELIMINATED FROM THE FIRST CHALLENGE DUE TO INSUFFICIENT PARTICIPANTS. TEAM AURELIUS WILL COMPETE ALONE FOR BONUS POINTS."

  The Prince's head snapped toward me. His confusion transformed into disgust so visceral I actually took a step back.

  "Where is your pride?!" His voice carried across the entire field. "Abandoning a challenge without even attempting to compete? What sort of coward leads a team that runs at the first sign of difficulty?!"

  I opened my mouth to defend myself, but honestly? I had no idea what was going on. I was just as confused as he was.

  Then a giant scoreboard materialized in the sky above us.

  Easily visible from anywhere in the competition zone, glowing bright enough to compete with the sun itself. Two columns of numbers dominated the display.

  TEAM AURELIUS: 0

  TEAM AURORA: 0

  The Prince gestured at it with his spear, his confidence returning like a tide rushing back to shore. "You see? Your cowardice gains you nothing! While we accumulate points and prove our superiority—"

  The numbers changed.

  TEAM AURELIUS: 0

  TEAM AURORA: 15

  The Prince's voice cut off mid-sentence.

  Fifteen points. That was a capture.

  The scoreboard updated again, almost immediately.

  TEAM AURELIUS: 0

  TEAM AURORA: 30

  Another capture.

  TEAM AURELIUS: 0

  TEAM AURORA: 45

  And another.

  "What..." The Prince breathed, his spear lowering slightly.

  Oh.

  Understanding hit me so hard my knees actually went weak. I had to lock them to keep from stumbling.

  Aurora hadn't sent anyone to the challenge. She'd deliberately forfeited it. She'd used me as bait to trap the Prince and two of his best students here. Locked in a safe zone, unable to leave while she tore through his siege force.

  She'd known the Prince would send people to attack our castle. She'd known he would take personal interest in me, that his ego wouldn't let him pass up the opportunity to humiliate me directly. She'd probably even anticipated that he'd bring his strongest students to ensure the siege succeeded quickly.

  And she'd turned all of it against him.

  One S-rank and two A-ranks stuck in a safe zone for the next fifteen minutes. Unable to leave. Unable to help. Unable to do anything but watch their team get systematically dismantled.

  The captures kept coming. Fifteen points every few seconds like clockwork.

  I was completely stunned. Aurora wasn't just good, she was operating on an entirely different level. She was playing chess while the rest of us were still learning which way the pieces moved.

  I looked at the Prince.

  His face had gone from confident to confused to horrified in the span of about ten seconds. The perfect military posture cracked. His shoulders hunched forward slightly. The spear lowered until its tip nearly touched the ground.

  For the first time since I'd met him, Prince Aurelius looked genuinely shaken.

  "No," he whispered. Then louder: "No. This isn't—this can't be—"

  One of his teammates stepped forward hesitantly, clearly trying to salvage something from the situation. "Your Highness, we should focus on maximizing our challenge score. If we perform exceptionally well here, we might—"

  "Be silent!"

  The Prince's head whipped around. The raw fury in his eyes made the A-rank actually stumble backward, his words dying in his throat.

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  "Let me think!"

  But there was nothing to think about. Nothing to plan. The safe zone rules were absolute. Once you entered for a challenge, you couldn't leave until it concluded. Aurelius kept muttering, kept pacing back and forth at a high speed, trying to think on how to salvage the situation.

  But the captures kept coming.

  "Underhanded tactics," he muttered under his breath, loud enough for me to hear. "Sacrificing honor for short-term advantage. This is exactly why such methods are discouraged in proper military doctrine."

  His knuckles were white around the spear shaft.

  "Cowards hiding in their holes, waiting for the enemy to look away before striking from behind."

  He spun toward me suddenly, spear coming up to point directly at my chest. "YOU! You were part of this from the start, weren't you? The bait! The lure! Playing the pathetic weakling to draw me in!"

  "I didn't—"

  "Don't insult my intelligence! Standing there with your head down, your shoulders slumped, playing the defeated victim!" The Prince was working himself into a fury now, his voice rising with each word. "And I fell for it! I actually believed you were just another incompetent failure stumbling through the academy!"

  He let out a bark of laughter that had no humor in it whatsoever.

  "The perfect actor. Tell me, Kai, how long have you been practicing that expression? That wounded look? Was that rehearsed, or does deception just come naturally to you?"

  Before I could respond, the scoreboard changed. Our score, which was at 150, suddenly jumped.

  TEAM AURELIUS: 0

  TEAM AURORA: 250

  That wasn't fifteen points.

  That was a hundred-point jump.

  The objective. Aurora had captured the objective from inside the Prince's castle.

  The Prince saw it too. His face went from flushed with anger to pale in an instant, like someone had drained all the blood from his body.

  "Mary," he choked out. "She... Mary was guarding it. How did they—"

  The question died on his lips because the answer was obvious and terrible. Aurora had somehow gotten past Mary, while simultaneously orchestrating the capture of his entire siege force.

  How many students did she beat? How fast was she moving? The logistics alone should have been impossible.

  The captures kept coming. The score climbed relentlessly, each update another nail in the coffin.

  The two A-ranks were watching Aurelius with growing concern, but neither dared interrupt. The one with the monocle caught my eye briefly before quickly looking away, clearly uncomfortable with the entire situation.

  "Your Highness," the other one tried cautiously. "If we—"

  "DON'T!"

  The Prince rounded on him with such sudden violence that both A-ranks actually flinched.

  "Don't offer me empty strategies! Don't pretend there's a solution when we both know these rules are absolute!"

  He gestured violently at the shimmering boundary of the safe zone.

  "The moment we stayed inside, we became prisoners! That's the entire point of the safe zones!"

  The A-rank's face paled. Whatever he'd been about to suggest died immediately. He bowed his head and backed away, rejoining his companion in uncomfortable silence.

  The Prince turned back to the scoreboard. His breathing was heavy, ragged. Like he'd been running for miles.

  The numbers kept climbing. Steadily. Mercilessly.

  "This isn't leadership," he said, still in an unsettling, calm voice. "This is cowardice dressed up in clever clothing. Real leaders face their opponents directly. They don't hide behind tricks and manipulation. They don't use pawns and sacrifices."

  But even as he said it, I could see the doubt creeping into his expression. Because deep down, he had to know that this was leadership. Just not the kind he'd been taught to recognize.

  The scoreboard kept updating. Each change was like a hammer blow to whatever pride he had left.

  The Prince stepped right up to the safe zone boundary. I could see every detail of his face now. The slight twitch in his left eye, the way his nostrils flared with each controlled breath.

  His blue eyes, usually so cold and controlled, were burning with barely suppressed rage.

  "When this is over," he said, voice dropping to barely above a whisper, "when these protections fade and we return to the real competition, I will show your leader exactly what happens to those who mock the crown."

  He stepped closer, close enough that I could feel the heat of his mana radiating off him like a furnace.

  "No tricks. No schemes. No hiding behind safe zones and clever tactics. Just power against power. Direct confrontation. And when I crush her completely, when I demonstrate the absolute difference in our abilities, everyone will understand that cunning can never replace true strength."

  I should have stayed quiet. Should have nodded and backed away and let him have his moment of angry defiance.

  But watching those numbers climb, knowing Aurora's plan had worked exactly as intended, I felt something unfamiliar bubbling up in my chest.

  Pride.

  Not in myself—I'd done nothing but stand here like an idiot. But pride in my team. Pride in Aurora for having the audacity to try this.

  "She's already beaten you," I said. "Right now, in this challenge, watching your score sit at zero while ours climbs past four hundred. It's already over."

  The Prince's hand tightened on his spear so hard I heard the wood creaking under the pressure.

  "Shut. Up."

  For a moment, I thought he might actually try to attack me despite the safe zone. His spear came up. His weight shifted forward. Every line of his body screamed violence barely restrained.

  But he caught himself. Forced his body back under control through sheer force of will.

  "You know what the worst part is?" he asked, his voice taking on a different quality—not angry anymore, but something almost pitying. "I actually feel sorry for you."

  That caught me off guard. "What?"

  "You think you're part of something. You think this victory makes you matter." He gestured at the scoreboard with his spear. "But you're still just bait, Kai. Still just the disposable piece she threw away to make her plan work. The moment you're no longer useful, she'll discard you just like everyone else has."

  The words stung more than I wanted to admit. Probably because part of me wondered if he was right. Aurora had barely spoken to me before today. Had never shown any particular interest in my existence. Why did I trust her to begin with?

  We stood there, staring at each other across the invisible line of the safe zone boundary, as an uncomfortable silence settled over the field.

  His two teammates had moved away, giving us space. They were watching the targets now, occasionally taking halfhearted shots at the easier ones. But their hearts clearly weren't in it.

  What was the point of scoring fifty bonus points when your opponent was racking up hundreds through captures?

  The Prince finally turned away, walking toward the center of the field. His spear dragged behind him, scoring a line through the perfectly maintained grass.

  When he reached the middle, he stopped and stared up at the scoreboard, watching the numbers continue their relentless climb.

  Then, finally, the updates stopped.

  TEAM AURELIUS: 0

  TEAM AURORA: 610

  Six hundred and ten to zero.

  The silence that fell was deafening.

  "She won't even show me the courtesy of fighting," he said to no one in particular. His voice was flat now, empty of the fury that had filled it moments ago. "Doesn't even consider me worthy of direct confrontation. Just a problem to be maneuvered around. An obstacle to be avoided rather than overcome."

  His knuckles were still white on the spear shaft.

  "Like I'm some minor inconvenience instead of—"

  He cut himself off. Took a deep breath. And then his control finally snapped.

  "YOU COWARDS!"

  The words exploded out of him, echoing across the entire field and probably carrying all the way back to both castles.

  "YOU DARE MOCK ME WITH THESE TACTICS?! YOU DARE TREAT THIS COMPETITION LIKE SOME COMMON STREET BRAWL WHERE ANYTHING GOES?!"

  He raised his spear above his head with both hands, gripping it so hard I genuinely thought he might snap it in half. His whole body was shaking with the effort of containing his rage.

  "THIS ISN'T LEADERSHIP! THIS IS DISGRACE! THIS IS EVERYTHING WRONG WITH MAGES WHO PUT VICTORY OVER HONOR!"

  It was a declaration. Not to me, not to his teammates, but to the entire world. To everyone watching this competition unfold. A public statement that he rejected these methods, these tactics, this entire approach to warfare.

  His two teammates hurried over, trying to calm him down, trying to pull him back from whatever edge he was teetering on. But he shrugged them off with enough force that one nearly fell.

  He eventually pulled away from both of them. He turned without another word and walked toward the far end of the challenge area. Away from me. Away from the scoreboard. Away from everything that reminded him of his failure.

  His spear still dragged behind him, carving a deeper line through the dirt with each step.

  I watched him go, then slowly sank to the ground where I stood.

  Six hundred and ten to zero.

  Aurora had used me as bait, yes. But effective bait. The Prince had been so focused on humiliating me, on proving his superiority over the undesirable first-year, that he'd walked right into her trap without even realizing it was a trap.

  And now his entire siege force was captured. His strongest students locked out of competition for the next thirty minutes while their capture timers ticked down. Unable to help. Unable to defend. Unable to do anything but wait.

  Aurora would waltz into the second challenge with her full team while the Prince scrambled with whoever was left, probably just students that were able to run away.

  I looked back toward where our castle should be, somewhere beyond the hills and protective barriers.

  All those captured students meant we had an almost guaranteed win in the next challenge. And with this massive point differential, defensive play was suddenly viable again. Even if we lost every remaining challenge, as long as our castle stood and we kept participating, our victory was all but assured.

  The math had changed completely in the span of fifteen minutes.

  I sat there in the dirt, watching the Prince at the far end of the field methodically destroying targets with precisely controlled spells. Each shot was perfect. Each hit dead center. But they were worth only twenty five points in total, almost a meaningless number.

  If this competition was meant to show who the better leader was, the answer was already clear before the first challenge had even officially concluded.

  It just wasn't the answer anyone expected.

  Especially not the Prince.