"Hello?" Soren called, keeping his voice low, calm, and deliberately ordinary, like he was greeting someone in a corridor rather than walking through a forest where people were being hunted for points.
He made sure it carried just enough to be heard without pushing, then slowed his steps even further, shoulders loose, hands relaxed at his sides for a moment before he lifted them again, palms open, fingers spread.
No sudden movements, no weapons, no sprinting out of the trees like an ambush, even though the bracelet on his wrist had already confirmed what his eyes couldn't see yet.
Olivia was nearby.
What it didn't tell him was whether she would panic, whether she would bolt, whether she would assume the worst and throw whatever divine trick she had at the first stranger who approached, or whether she would do the sensible thing and distrust everyone.
'Who in their right mind would trust someone during a battle royale?'
The thought came sharp and immediate, and it was followed by an equally unpleasant truth that sat heavy behind his ribs.
He needed her to.
Not because he liked the idea, not because it was clean, and definitely not because it felt heroic, but because out of every plan he had spent the past weeks turning over, this was the only one that didn't collapse the moment reality pushed back.
Even the idea he had thrown at Felix, half-joking and half-hoping, didn't come close to this in terms of actual survivability.
Quest rewards didn't care about pride, and neither did the bracelet's ranking feed.
So Soren raised both hands properly this time, slow enough that it couldn't be mistaken for a spell, and started forward again, making sure his approach was obvious.
He even let his footsteps be loud.
Leaves crunched, twigs snapped, damp soil sucked faintly at his boots, and every instinct that told him to move silently, to make himself small, to survive, had to be pressed down for the sake of looking safe.
If she was going to panic, better now than later, better while he still had space and time to back away, better before they were forced into each other's orbit by the shrinking barrier.
That thought tugged at something else too, something he kept trying not to look at directly.
Olivia was one of the main heroines.
In the game, she was the kind of character the story bent around, the kind of person who was supposed to be protected by the narrative itself, and now he was walking straight towards her because he wanted to use her name on a leaderboard like a lantern in the dark.
It felt like stepping onto a marked path in a forest that had never been kind to him, like putting his foot on a plank and realising, too late, that the water beneath it was deeper than it looked.
A small, tight anxiety curled in his stomach, familiar in shape if not in reason, and he forced his expression to stay gentle anyway.
Because whatever else was true, she was still a person, and she was still alone out here.
As he closed the distance, a figure shifted between the trees.
A girl only a bit taller than Lilliana, with soft brown hair that didn't look styled for battle and warm brown eyes that were too open for this place, her build a little rounder than most academy students, not unfit, just… gentle, like someone who belonged in a chapel's quiet light rather than on damp ground with mana beads scattered like bait.
He saw the tension in her shoulders before she noticed his hands, the way she held herself as if ready to flinch, and he instinctively slowed even more, letting the silence stretch so she could choose what to do with it.
"「Information」," Soren whispered.
.
[Olivia]
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Race: Human
.
'Bingo.'
It wasn't that he needed the confirmation; he already knew, but seeing the name on a window still made something in him twitch.
"Hello?" she replied, and her tone was… bright and surprisingly relaxed, not forced, not brittle, more like she was trying to be brave and accidentally overshot into polite cheer.
The moment she properly registered his raised hands, the tension in her posture eased far more easily than Soren expected, her shoulders loosening, her gaze softening, and for a second she even looked relieved, like his existence meant she wasn't as alone as she had feared.
That caught him off guard.
It should have worried him, honestly, because anyone who relaxed that quickly in this exam was either unbelievably sheltered or already running on panic and desperation, grabbing at the first thing that looked safe.
Still, he answered smoothly, because he had chosen this approach, and if he hesitated now it would only make him look less trustworthy.
"Hi," he said, keeping the word simple, then adding, "Sorry if I startled you."
"Oh! No, it's okay," she said quickly, then blinked, as if realising she should ask the obvious question. "Who are you?"
'What should I say here?'
If he mentioned his rank, everything would fall apart instantly.
Ninety-sixth place came with a reputation he hadn't asked for and couldn't outrun, and the last thing he needed was to watch her face change from relief to fear because she had heard whispers about the "creepy" weak student who had almost killed another student in a mock duel.
So he gave her the truth that wouldn't destroy him.
"Soren," he said after a beat, and because labels mattered in a place like this, he added, "I'm a magician."
Luckily, his first name still didn't mean much to most people, at least not outside the circles that liked to gossip, and Olivia's expression didn't shift in the slightest, as if the concept of "Soren the magician" fit neatly into her world.
"Oh! Nice to meet you!" she said, smiling with genuine warmth. "I'm Olivia, a priestess. So… why are you here, Soren?"
She tilted her head, not suspicious so much as curious, and the openness of it made something in his chest tighten in a way he didn't like.
'She's dangerously…'
The thought tried to form into something flippant, something easy, and he strangled it before it could turn into another cheap defence, then softened his gaze instead.
"Are you hurt?" he asked first, quietly, as if that mattered more than his own plan, and he watched her carefully as he said it, trying to read whether she was limping, whether her breathing was off, or whether there was blood he couldn't see.
She startled, then shook her head.
"No, I'm okay. Just… tired."
"Alright," Soren said, and the relief in his voice came out a fraction too real, strange in his own ears. "Good. Please tell me if that changes."
She blinked again, cheeks colouring faintly, like she wasn't used to someone prioritising her wellbeing.
He hated that it made him feel guiltier.
Because he was still here for a reason.
"I'm looking for a teammate," he said, careful with his tone, careful with the shape of the words. "I saw your name in the top ten, and I remembered you from the mock duels. I thought… if you were alone, it might be safer for both of us to stick together."
That part was true.
He had remembered her, remembered how she had looked when the mock duels turned ugly, how she had tried to keep her composure even when the academy's culture pushed people into cruelty, and there was a steadiness to her kindness that felt like the opposite of this forest.
What he didn't say was the thought that had snapped into place minutes ago the moment he saw her name appear on the ranking feed.
There was a key piece of information he had overlooked while he had been obsessing over combat match-ups and route efficiency.
He had assumed only model students and battle-crazed students cared about midterms, overachievers chasing prestige, nobles trying to impress their families, thrill-seekers who treated everything like a game.
But there was another group.
Commoners, and more specifically, students without money.
Each semester, students were allocated a set amount of funds for daily living, food, basic supplies, the bare minimum to stay functional, and for some people that allowance was a mild convenience, but for others, it was irrelevant because their family simply covered anything extra.
For someone like Soren, it was a tightrope.
For someone like Olivia, a priestess without offensive power, without a family name attached to her, it could be the difference between enduring the academy and being crushed by it.
Stellaris Academy, for all its cruelty, did have one system that could act like a lifeline.
The achievement system.
Students who showed noticeable improvement, who earned strong results, who distinguished themselves in studies or practical exams, could be rewarded with additional living funds, sometimes enough to ease the constant, grinding pressure of survival.
For nobles it was pocket change.
For failing students it might as well not exist.
That was why Soren had ignored it until now.
But for Olivia?
It was something worth fighting for, even if she would never say it out loud.
"A teammate?" she repeated, her brow furrowing slightly, uncertainty flickering across her face.
"Yeah," Soren said, then added quickly, gently, "Only if you want to. I'm not here to corner you, and if you'd rather be alone I'll leave, I just… thought it might help."
It came out softer than he expected, and he saw her shoulders ease again, as if the reassurance had settled somewhere deep.
She hesitated, then asked another question.
"But why me?"
Because you're visible.
Because your name draws attention away from me.
Because you're the safest bait in the entire exam.
Because you're a heroine, and if the story has any mercy in it, it won't let you fail.
Soren swallowed every ugly thought and chose the closest truth he could live with.
"Because you seem trustworthy," he said, and when he saw her eyes widen slightly, he clarified, "You don't look like you're enjoying this, and you're not carrying yourself like someone who wants to hurt people."
It wasn't a lie.
At this moment, Olivia was the most trustworthy person in the entire exam, not because she was weak, but because she didn't understand violence the way the academy demanded people understand it.
Even Felix didn't compare.
Felix knew too much; he could smile and joke and still cut someone down if it meant surviving.
Olivia…
Olivia trusted him because he was unarmed and polite.
There were downsides to that kind of naivety, so many that it made Soren's stomach twist, because it meant she would be hurt easily in a world like this, but for his plan, it was perfect.
Someone this kind wouldn't backstab, wouldn't betray, and wouldn't decide that the easiest way to climb the rankings was to take his beads while he rested.
"Eh? Really?" Olivia said, rubbing the back of her head, shy in a way that didn't feel performative. "I don't know if I'm… I mean, I'm not very strong."
"I'm not asking you to be strong," Soren replied, and his voice turned gentler without him quite deciding to do it, as if his body had already chosen how it wanted to treat her. "I'm asking you to let me help, and I can promise I won't do anything behind your back."
The promise tasted dangerous, because he was already doing something behind her back, just not in the way she meant.
He met her gaze anyway, steady, sincere in the part that mattered.
"And, if we do well, it helps you too. If you want the extra living funds from achievements, placing high matters, and you don't have to shoulder that alone," he added, quieter, as if speaking too loudly would break it.
Olivia blinked, lips parting slightly, and for a heartbeat, Soren wondered if he had misjudged, if he had said too much.
Then she gave a small nod, like she had been offered a hand while drowning and didn't quite know how to refuse it.
"Hmmm…" she murmured, putting on the appearance of thinking it through, but the truth was written in the way her fingers tightened around her bracelet, the way she glanced into the trees as if expecting someone to come running at her.
Alone, separated from Alex, relying on luck and prayer, this was the safest option she was likely to get.
"…Sure," she said finally, and her smile returned, bright but not foolish. "Why not? You seem trustworthy too."
The smile she gave him made something twist uncomfortably in Soren's chest, sharp and unpleasant, because it wasn't earned, not really, not when his motives were split between genuine concern and calculated need.
.
[Rewards: Rare Magic Skill, 150 Points]
.
The window flashed through his vision like a pulse, and for a moment the guilt was shoved down by sheer, ugly relief, by the knowledge that this could actually change things, that this could finally push him over the threshold where he wasn't constantly one mistake away from being helpless again.
He forced himself to breathe.
Then he lowered his hands and offered her something safer than the truth.
"Thank you. We'll take it slow, alright? We don't need to fight anyone if we can avoid it."
Olivia nodded quickly.
"Okay."
And as they started moving together through the trees, Soren kept his pace deliberately matched to hers, not letting her fall behind, not letting her rush ahead, and the strange warmth of his own gentleness sat alongside his anxiety like two incompatible truths sharing the same skin.
————「❤︎」————