Chapter 203: Cooperation

“Let’s go—”

Dennis readied the knives he was using for torture as he prepared to follow the plan that his class had decided on.

They were ready to make history by becoming the first class to achieve the fastest clear in the Academy Tournament, until Cillian blocked Dennis from moving forward.

“Hmm?”

Then, Dennis glanced toward the expression Cillian was currently making. There, he saw his lips had curled upward, but his face was telling otherwise and definitely not someone in a good mood.

“Hey, I’m not going to shock you too much and bring you the bad news, but…”

Cillian let out a short breath as if trying to calm his beating heart, but the group was unaware that he was simply feeling both excited and nervous at the same time. Then, he continued.

“Our opponents are the Black Shepherds.”

“What?”

Willow was the first one to react when such an absurd statement came from Cillian himself. At first, she thought it was a joke, but she soon realized that Cillian wasn’t the type of person to crack jokes like that.

The group started making strange faces after realizing it as well.

The Black Shepherds had become enemies throughout the whole world after what they had done at Viola. This group was also not unfamiliar to them, since they had encountered them in one situation or another.

After the attack at Viola during God’s Descent, they had been quiet. But it seemed they hadn’t stayed that way for too long after making an appearance in their first fight in the Academy Tournament.

However, one question swiftly resurfaced in their minds, and it was none other than Vin who raised it to the group.

“If we take Cillian’s words seriously, how is it possible that they managed to sneak into the ground complex without the other people becoming suspicious of them?”

With the current tight security that the Academy possessed, they couldn’t possibly bypass the checking and inspection by the instructors.

‘Unless the whole Xesie family was working with the Shepherds, that is. Damn it…’

Cillian answered the question in his head, the same question that was probably circulating in everyone’s minds.

Since he had no way to tell them until he laid the groundwork for it, Cillian changed his plan as his eyes landed on Aster, who was already looking back at him.

It seemed like the same answer had already appeared in his head. Not just anyone could come to that conclusion when they didn’t even know about the partnership between the great family and the Shepherds.

‘Should I tell them or not?’

Cillian was contemplating it very carefully.

He was afraid that it would lead to countless branches of possibilities that might turn out for better or worse for them. In fact, everything was already tilting toward the worse side.

Would they be able to handle the consequences of knowing one of the biggest secrets in the world right now?

‘I’ll be giving them a death warrant if I do. But at the same time, the instant I did it, it will help me progress toward exposing the Xesie further, at the risk of them dying without even knowing why. So fucking hard.’

And it seemed that the same person who also had this information was on Cillian’s side, as he looked toward the group and said,

“Let’s think about this and regroup with the others for now. We will tell them about the situation and plan our movements forward. We have to scrap the initial plan that we made and think of ways to finish this without incurring any heavy casualties.”

Aster told them what they had to do right now, but it was his subtle way of telling Cillian to keep Xesie’s involvement with the Shepherds away from the group for now.

Cillian got the cue and didn’t pursue the idea any longer as everyone agreed with Aster’s suggestion.

Soon, they all made their way toward the other people in their class.

They didn’t keep the news to themselves. After all, what would keeping it a secret benefit everyone when they could help each other solve it together?

However, some found it ridiculous.

“That’s absurd. There’s no way the Sorcery Academy would make an obvious mistake like this. I would get it if the other class had Black Shepherds in their own class, but not all of them! This is crazy. Absolutely crazy!”

One of those who found this ridiculous was a member of a noble family named Jones, but he did not quite have the same influence as Willow or Fred, who had been transferred to a different Sorcery Academy.

His full name is Bob Jones.

Bob had a daunting look that spoke of confidence. He had freckles around his face and a not-so-well-built body, judging by the outlines of the clothes he was wearing. Right now, however, he was looking nervous like some of the others.

Though he made quite a good argument.

Bob was on Willow’s side, and he had shown it through the voting. However, just because he supported Willow didn’t mean he could simply follow her around and wag his tail every time without expressing his own opinion.

Most of the people in Class 7-A were the same, though they weren’t confident enough to speak up like Bob.

“Okay, Bob. Calm down. The reason we informed everyone here isn’t to throw everyone into a panic. We have to think this through carefully.”

Dena tried to calm things down while Bob was slightly panicked, even though he tried to hide it.

Who wouldn’t panic in this situation when their class had all come from Viola, and each of them had their own experiences with these Shepherds?

Everyone had concerns, and they were right to feel that way.

That’s why Aster took on the role of a leader as he presented himself to everyone, his crimson eyes looking around before he spoke.

“We have a plan that we would like to follow. First, and most importantly, we have to locate the Receiving Area as fast as possible. The versioned battlefield is quite large, and the Receiving Area can appear anywhere, but it shouldn’t be located too far from us. Second, we escape from that place. However, for us to do that, we must get the flag of the opposing class.”

One couldn’t simply enter the Receiving Area without the flag of their opponent, as it was the only thing that could make the gateway to the outside work.

“That is the hard part.”

Because no guards were allowed in the same place as the students taking part in the tournament, everyone assumed that they would be safe from the versioned battlefield and that it would be all right not to apply the same changes to the guards.

The Shepherds had exploited this and decided to attack right away on the very first day.

“Because of the first two things I’ve said to all of you guys, I’ve come to the third part, which is the inevitable fight between the Shepherds and us.”

There was no denying that there were bound to be casualties once they started fighting the Shepherds. Cillian didn’t say it out loud, but there might be some deaths in their class right after the start of the Academy Tournament.

But if they were able to cooperate and do their own thing, they might be able to hold them off and avoid that from happening.

It was a matter of who listened to whom.

They were not kids anymore who would throw a tantrum just because they weren’t put in the position they wanted.

Cooperation. That’s how they would be able to overcome this.

That’s why Aster continued by saying.

“Let’s do our best and survive this.”

Even though he said that with his usual charismatic persona, the people in their class didn’t believe it.

It was nothing but empty words that would provide them with nothing.

[Death Flags x40]

‘It sucks but…’

Cillian gazed around the area where the whole class was gathered and continued.

‘…if there ever comes a time when there are people who need to be saved, I’ll only save those who are close to me.’

Even though Cillian thought that inwardly, he deeply hoped that he wouldn’t have to make that choice since it would mean resorting to his last option.

That’s why he added inwardly.

‘We’re all definitely going to do our best and survive this.’