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For the next several days, Reon did nothing.
He quietly kept building himself up while observing everything around him, committing every detail to memory without drawing attention.
At noon on this particular day, the sun was brutal enough to scorch the skin, and the stones had grown hot to the touch.
Millianna was carrying a rough brick nearly as wide as her chest, inching through the dirt one step at a time.
Days of increasing labor had long since burned away the lively energy she used to have. Now, with every step, her thin ankles trembled slightly.
The base of the tower was right in front of her. She gritted her teeth and tried to force out one last burst of strength, but her foot suddenly slipped.
The brick flew from her hands, and the heavy shadow of it came crashing down toward her.
For one brief instant, she felt weightless.
Then the impact she expected never came.
A slender but powerful arm reached in from the side and caught the falling brick with ease.
"You okay?"
Reon's voice broke through her panic.
Millianna froze for a second, then hurriedly shook her head.
"I-I'm fine."
Reon gently set the brick down onto the cart beside them.
"Don't push yourself too hard."
He looked at her, his tone calm.
"If the big ones are too much, take smaller ones. If you can't finish, call me over."
"Th-thank you..."
Millianna started to thank him, but her eyes drifted involuntarily to his cart.
It was piled high with stones the exact same size as the one she had just dropped, stacked up like a small hill.
"Reon... did you get stronger or something?"
Even Hugh, dense as he usually was, had noticed the change.
A few days ago, Reon had nearly collapsed even with Hugh helping him. Now he was doing more work than anyone else.
And it had only been a matter of days.
Not far away, Simon had also gone still in disbelief. Reon was clearly smaller and thinner than he was, yet the strength he displayed was even more outrageous.
"My body's just recovered, that's all."
Reon answered casually, though his eyes continued sweeping the area with care.
He had spent days watching the overseers around the site.
They changed shifts every thirty minutes, and their patrol routes covered nearly every corner.
Nearly.
That meant not all of them.
Reon had found a blind spot, a narrow path cluttered with discarded materials. Whether by accident or design, the guard there was strangely lax.
It was almost as if that place had been deliberately overlooked.
Even at the end of the day, when work was over, no one ever seemed to bother checking it.
Day after day, it stayed the same.
Just then, Reon felt someone lightly tug at the edge of his shirt.
He looked down and saw Hugh leaning in with an oddly secretive expression.
"Come see me tonight," Hugh whispered. "I've got something to tell you."
Even though they were all in the same cell, the fact that he came to see me clearly meant there was something he did not want everyone else to hear.
Reon raised an eyebrow.
Over the past few days, everyone except him had been worked to the bone. Hugh was exhausted like the rest of them.
So what could he possibly want?
It could not be that he had fallen for Millianna or Erza and wanted advice about it... could it?
Still, nighttime in the cell was dead time anyway. Reon had no reason to refuse.
Besides, getting involved in someone else's love life sounded like decent entertainment. He was interested.
"Sure, I'll come by tonight."
As it turned out, Reon had wildly overthought things.
That night, Hugh gathered everyone he was close to into a corner of the cell. Clearly, he had something important to announce.
"Hugh, what is it already? Just say it. Stop dragging it out."
Wally was the first to lose patience.
"Relax." Hugh lifted his chin, looking smugly mysterious.
That infuriating expression made Wally start to turn away again.
"If you don't spit it out right now, I'm leaving."
Seeing that he meant it, Hugh hurriedly stopped him.
"What's your hurry? But don't blame me if this shocks you all."
He drew in a deep breath and declared solemnly,
"I found a way to escape."
He widened his eyes, waiting for stunned reactions, but everyone just stared at him blankly for a moment. So he rushed on.
"I found a hidden route with no guards. If we prepare properly, we can slip out through there tomorrow night."
"S-so we really have a chance to leave?"
Millianna asked in delight. It was not that she had been unimpressed. She had simply been too stunned to react at first.
"Then my sister..."
Simon muttered under his breath.
Erza, however, stayed silent. Her eyes shifted toward Reon, who had not changed expression at all.
"Reon, what do you think?"
Jellal had caught the same thing and turned to ask him directly.
With everyone's attention suddenly on him, Reon thought for a moment.
He had originally intended to wait a few more days, but this opportunity was good enough.
So he decided to be direct.
"Drop the plan, Hugh."
"Why?"
Hugh stepped forward at once, agitated.
"I've been watching that place for days. There are no guards there at all. If we move before the tower's finished, this is absolutely our best chance."
The others looked just as confused.
Reon did not explain right away. Instead, he crouched down and picked up a crushed fragment of shell from the floor.
He opened his palm and held it out for everyone to see. In the dim light, the rough white edge of it stood out clearly.
"You all know this place is on an island, right?"
"Yes."
Simon answered first. He was physically stronger than most, and when he had been brought here, he had still been conscious enough to feel the rocking of the sea.
"We're trapped on an isolated island in the middle of the ocean. Even if we really do get out of the tower, then what?"
Reon's voice was quiet, but every word landed clearly.
"If we don't have a boat, are we supposed to swim all the way back to shore?"
The problem was so obvious, so simple, that everyone had completely overlooked it.
It hit them like a bucket of cold water.
The excitement in their eyes dimmed at once.
"So what, then? We just do nothing?"
Hugh clenched his fists.
"I can't accept that."
"Neither can I."
Simon and Wally spoke almost at the same time.
"Do you know when the supply ships dock? Do you know when the guards change shifts? Do you know where the magical troops are usually stationed?"
Reon's tone gradually turned colder.
"No. You don't. If all you do is act on raw emotion, you'll just get everyone killed."
His words landed with undeniable weight.
No one could refute them.
"The plan definitely has holes, but..."
Jellal tried to speak, only for Reon to cut in calmly.
"That's why, Hugh, you need to give up on your plan."
He lifted his eyes and smiled faintly.
"Instead, listen to mine."
Everything I just asked about?
"By coincidence, I happen to know all of it."
The instant he finished speaking, the corner fell silent.
After a long pause, Simon was the first to ask, almost unable to believe it.
"R-really?"
"What, do I look like a liar?"
Reon shrugged.
"You bastard. You were messing with me again, weren't you?"
Hugh lunged at him on instinct, but against Reon now, he had no chance at all. Reon pinned him down easily with one hand.
"Reon, what kind of plan do you have? Don't tell me you actually know a way to get a boat. If that's true, then we really could leave through Hugh's path."
Wally asked the question with growing excitement.
Still holding Hugh in place as he struggled, Reon answered,
"I noticed that path Hugh mentioned a long time ago."
He paused.
"The problem is, it's very likely bait. A trap the cult set to catch anyone trying to make a move."
"You mean they're using it to draw out that wizard from earlier?"
Jellal frowned.
"But they already searched the place top to bottom. Are they still worried? Their guard is really that high?"
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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