Volume III - Chapter 16: A Wicked Game

Breathless, I asked with a deep sigh.

"Did they give up on us?"

Julian, no different from me, looked back out of the corner of his eye.

Our pursuers had given up when the distance between us and the canteen had diminished. They were afraid of that place.

"I think they did."

We stopped running, our steps slowly slowed down.

We looked at each other and it was quiet for a moment. Then Julian's face broke into a grin and I could only smile slightly.

"I didn't know you could run that fast."

"I didn't know you liked swearing so much."

We were a little relieved that the danger seemed to have been averted, but the relief was inevitably marred by the sudden sound of the watch on my wrist.

~beep!

My first thought when I heard the sudden notification was that the academy had made a new announcement, but then I realized something else: it hadn't come to Julian.