To The Havrevel River

Ramona clicked her tongue. The lead professor from Olafssey was not just going to let this go. The question was if he was concerned about an unknown person suddenly joining, or if he had another purpose.

"Her expertise is ancient history, specifically related to Terran studies. She has experience with actual expeditions, and has some training in linguistics and animal handling before she gave to Nafriton."

"Oho. I heard that Nafriton had found a good seedling lately. Ms. Glowery must have been training hard under you for a long time. By the way, was she the one made that enormous impact on the Forest Waypoint police last semester? I would love to meet her original animal taming teacher."

The Nafriton professors erased the surprise from their faces while the others looked on in interest. Ramona narrowed her eyes. So, he had another purpose. Olafssey clearly did their research on Nafriton. They've heard about Aayla all the way in Leistung.

"She did indeed participate in some extracurriculars last semester. Does anyone have any more questions about this year's rules? No? Good. The competition starts tomorrow at dawn then ends seven days later at sunset. Don't forget to hand out the maps to the target zone for the main camps this year."

Done with their questioning, Ramona ended the meeting right then and there. The guest teams would badger her with questions if she let them. They were keenly interested in discovering the headmaster's progress on overhauling the Nafriton's curriculum.

Over the years, magic only universities have expanded beyond magical subjects. Only Nafriton has lagged behind, and is now starting to get left behind. Even the likes of CNU were starting to catch up. Anyone could catch up to them except for those annoying jerks.

"Let's go Aayla. I'll introduce you to the Nafriton team while we have dinner."

Aayla hurriedly followed behind her. The school teams split up for the night. Nafriton rented rooms in several homes near the southern edge of the village. Poignant stares and a grand meal greeted them upon their arrival.

"Oh? You all didn't need to wait for us. The food's already gone cold."

"That's the first thing that you tell us? Isn't there a small matter that you need to talk with us about?"

"Yeah, like adding another student to the trip at the very last minute! And a first-year at that! Deputy Heston, these wilderness survival trainings are too dangerous for a first year."

"It's fine. The headmaster assigned her to the expedition several days ago."

"Several days ago?! Why didn't you tell us then?!"

Aayla nodded her head in agreement. She was curious about that as well.

"I couldn't have you all disagreeing with me, could I? In any case, Aayla's already here."

"Deputy Heston! Please take this seriously!"

"I am. Very seriously. I'm sure that you've all heard about Aayla from Professor Argall and Professor Hartaris during the first semester. She's survived a couple encounters with enhanced magical beasts twice, including that incident with the northern glacial boar. Both times with her bare hands and less than her current mana capacity."

The students broke out into whispers. They heard about Aayla working at a residence hall and her helping with the mysterious creature investigation on campus. This was the first time that they heard about her other exploits. The faculty and Forest Waypoint officials had kept the northern glacial boar incident tightly concealed.

"Still, what are you thinking, deputy headmaster? Accidents happen and the nearest decent medical facility is over a half days hard ride away. Technically, her magical prowess doesn't meet the requirements for this kind of expedition."

"The headmaster has made his decision."

"You can't be serious. At least let her stay in the village."

Ramona slammed her cup down on the table. An invisible pressure descended on the professors.

"I said that the headmaster has made his decision. All that you need to know is that she needs to get experience. That's why she's out here. All that you need to do is to keep her away from the other teams' professors. I am well aware of how dangerous these areas can be. I will be responsible for her safety.

"Your questions will need to wait until you can speak with the headmaster in private back at Nafriton. Am I understood?"

The professors nodded. The pressure bearing down on the professors suddenly lifted. Ramona turned her attention towards the students.

"As for the rest of you. You will not discuss with anyone the incidents that I just mentioned. It's best if this training exercise finishes quietly. Stay as far away as possible from the other teams as you can. Am I clear?"

The students nodded like pecking chickens. The deputy headmaster was already on edge. They did not want to push her over it. Still, this was strange. Why was the deputy headmaster so insistent on letting a first year go with them? Why did she specify to talk with the headmaster 'in private'?

"Good. With that out of the way, let's eat before the food gets colder."

The meal was silent. Ramona calmly ate her food, but an odd tension filled the air. Most were afraid of setting her off. Aayla silently ate her own food. Now she had more questions than answers. Not even halfway through the meal, Ramona left to go back to her room.

The professors soon followed. The students would head out at dawn, but half of the professors would leave before that to check for dangers that the students couldn't handle. With the adults away, the room soon turned lively again. There was still a bit of planning left to do.

The cold young lady began the conversation. "Your name is Aayla Glowery, yes?"

"That's right."

The cold young lady stared at her for several seconds. "You're just as interesting as my sister described. I'm Aubrey Parlow, the captain of the Nafriton team. My cousin is Renee Parlow, by the way. I believe that you two have met."

Aayla's eyes lit up in surprise. What a small world.

"If you don't mind me asking, why exactly is a first-year like yourself going with us to the Havrevel River?"

"Are the rumors of you beating up Lysander Foryl true?!"

Aayla spit out her drink and coughed. Aubrey glared at the student who asked. One of the students whapped the asker the back of the head.

"… I can neither confirm nor deny that. I'm not really here to compete. Deputy Heston just wants me to get some experience and I want some quiet time away from campus. I spent all of winter break there."

None of that was technically a lie. Spending all of winter break on campus wasn't the real reason why she needed quiet time, but they didn't need to know that.

"Why did you stay on campus over break? Shouldn't the dorms be empty? Did you get into trouble?"

Another violent whack and a small whimper of pain resounded throughout the room.

"Please excuse him. This is Stallen Fyllios, the notorious master of inadvertently asking awkward and misleading questions. He may be a bit of an idiot, but his tribe has excelled with earth magic before the first wizard families arrived. Upon occasion, he's actually very helpful."

His 'tribe'? Aayla noticed that Chinebarians had two distinct styles of names: fantasy-like and Victorian English-like. Those with the more fantasy-like names are probably from a tribe. So, we have immigrants with the Victorian sounding names and natives with fantasy-like names? Interesting.

"I just had some troublesome business to take care of. You might hear about it this semester anyways, so it's not that big of a deal to ask."

"Could you go into more detail about what experience that you need? Deputy Heston mentioned that you already had some experience with expeditions."

"Just small archeological ones. Nothing longer than a month. As for what I need, I'm not actually that sure. I literally learned that I was going on this trip a few hours before I left."

"May I assume that you are trying to make a joke?"

"No. I wish I was. If it makes a difference, I don't need to leave the main camp. I'll happily stay and watch over things."

Aubrey rubbed her temples. She thought for several minutes.

"Well, it's fine. If you can truly take on a northern glacial boar with your mana capacity and inexperience, you should be able to keep yourself alive for a week out here.

"I agree that staying inside the main camp is best for all of us. You want quiet time, we want a smooth experience and Deputy Heston wants to keep you away from the other teams. If you really need to leave, wait for a professor or one of us fourth-years.

"Keep in mind that your presence may cost us points if we discover something and you're with us. You can't earn points by yourself, but I'm not sure if that invalidates all findings for a group that you're in."

The team spent the next hour or so strategizing. The professors would hand out the maps with their destinations in the morning. However, they had a general idea of what to expect already. The next day, all of the teams left exactly at dawn.