"You, you, and you." Raelis pointed at a few people. "Gather five more each and explore the castle. Come back to me in an hour with all the details."
They seemed the most reliable out of the bunch.
Of course, he didn’t base it on their looks alone, as he had heard of each of these people before.
Charlotte, the black-haired beauty and an incredibly skilled swordswoman.
Antares, a demonic mage. Well, not yet...
He’s someone who’d become evil, but that’s because his childhood sweetheart found someone else, Raelis thought, sending prayers his way. He called a demon and tried to kill everyone, but was killed less than an hour later.
Despite that, he had a knack for magic and leadership, so he was a good candidate.
She had given him quite a lasting impression, so naturally, she was someone he trusted.
Antares cleared his throat and raised his hand.
"You’re not inside a classroom. You may speak whenever you wish, so long as the question you ask is worth my time," he added.
Antares stared at Raelis for a moment, then nodded.
"Very well... What exactly do you want us to look for?"
"Hidden rooms, food storage, armory. The basics of what we’ll need to fight against the others," Raelis replied calmly, then turned to the rest of his current soldiers.
"Don’t worry, those who lack combat skills won’t be forced to fight," he stated. "You can help out with other matters, which I’ll assign to you after the scouting team gets back."
"So we’re the scouts then, huh?" Antares mumbled, then nodded. "Alright. I’ll head east, the others can go the other way."
With that, the scouts, including Alice, dispersed.
Once again, silence descended, but it didn’t last long as Raelis once again stood up and walked behind the two thrones.
Embedded into the ground was a single yellow flag, and this was the thing they needed to protect.
Clea approached beside him.
"Do you think we’ll win?" she asked flatly.
"I’m sure we won’t lose."
Raelis didn’t have the actual details of this exam’s results, but he did know that all of his siblings passed.
But now that I’m here, the outcome will be a little different.
He wanted to speak with Clea a bit more. However, he wasn’t exactly sure how to strike up a conversation with her.
Both of their personalities were similar, they were both total introverts.
That was when she suddenly spoke up
"If you were the enemy, where would you attack from?" she asked in a low voice.
Raelis tilted his head. "With my capabilities I could waltz straight through the door and they would probably not notice me... but, hypothetically, I’d enter through the ceiling, set up a distraction, then steal the flag and get out."
She listened to him patiently, then nodded.
An extremely faint smile appeared on her face, the first one he had ever seen.
"I would not approach from the ceiling. It’s too obvious," Clea remarked as she crouched down, tapping the floor.
Immediately, a dull sound rang out, almost as if the floor was hollow.
"I would come through the bottom. My guess is that the throne room is connected to a wine cellar. But if we were to have someone guarding it, I believe our chances of winning would then increase significantly."
His eyes widened as he stared at her speechlessly for a few moments.
But then, he decided to bring his own ideas to the table.
"The headmaster never specifically stated the flag must remain here. We can always move it elsewhere, or even take it with us while we invade the other teams."
"That is true..." Clea muttered, placing a finger on her chin.
"How about we prepare some fake flags and plant them everywhere? The only ones who’d know where the real flag is would be us," she whispered.
A smile appeared on his face.
"I agree. And we can use that to our advantage to rule out the rats as well."
The awkwardness from earlier was completely gone as the two began exchanging all sorts of strategies and plans, falling so deep into the conversation they didn’t notice the scouts had returned.
Alice cleared her throat, snapping them back to reality.
She stepped closer, stopping right in front of them.
"We have three kitchens, two barracks, three training grounds," Alice said. "Those are the most important locations I could find in the west side of the castle."
After that, Antares approached and straightened his back.
"The east side had several gardens with all sorts of crops growing. There was a smithy, and even an alchemy workshop."
"Crops...? Hmm..." Raelis mumbled, turning to the candidates who were standing around, fidgeting in annoyance.
It was clear some were thinking of acting against Raelis and the team.
He hadn’t addressed them much, so the morale was pretty low.
But he couldn’t help it.
Bringing their morale up with a speech might do the trick, but if they were too motivated, then they might do something irrational like charge at the enemy ahead of their preparation date.
So his plan was to first settle everyone down in their roles, and move from there.
"Does anyone here know how to handle crops?" Raelis asked.
No one spoke, but that was when a single scrawny girl raised her hand and stepped up.
"I-I’m Anna... my mom is a nurse, so I know a lot about herbs, especially how to grow and maintain them."
Perfect. Raelis nodded.
"Okay Anna, you’ll be the one in charge of making sure the crops are grown properly. I’m sure that their growth rate will be enhanced by several thousand times, considering this exam would at most last a week."
Though the headmaster predicted it would only last a day for some reason...
"That’s okay, a plant is a plant," Anna replied with a smile. "But... I won’t have to handle all the crops by myself, right?"
Raelis shook his head and began assigning some people to help her out.
It was pretty soothing to command others. It almost felt like he was playing chess.
After he was done with Anna’s side, he moved over to the blacksmiths, then finally, the alchemists.
Once everyone had a role, he was left with a solid fighting force.
Out of the 84 people present, 31 were assigned to support and utility roles.
That meant he had 53 people who could fight, including himself and Clea.
But before he proceeded with training and all that other nonsense, he shot a glance toward Charlotte.
I still need to hear her out as well.