Evin's eyes widened in surprise at the news, and imdiately, he thanked the Empress for this boon of luck. These two hours of exploring the Tunnels were worth it after all!
"Alright. Let's get you to your father," Evin declared smilingly.
"T-thank you," the girl replied timidly.
"Ah, what's your na?" Evin asked as he glanced around the room, wondering if he could find sothing useful. The room was relatively well-furnished for a would-be prisoner, with a comfortable cotton bed, a chair and a table filled with food, and a room which he guessed was the bathroom. Well, Evin knew that this whole test was a role-playing event of so sorts, so he supposed that they couldn't put a 6-year-old girl in an actual dungeon.
"My na is Ara Faizan, conqueror. Though please just call Ara."
"Well, Ara, you can just call Evin," Evin replied and noticed one object that seed out of the ordinary on the chair. It was a small device of so sorts, with a tal base holding a glowing glass orb on top of it. "What's that?"
"Ah, this… I don't know," Ara replied with difficulty. The girl obviously knew what it was, but supposedly wasn't allowed to speak of it. "But I don't think you should touch it carelessly. At least not the orb."
Evin asked.
"Ara, do you think we should bring this thing with us to your father?"
"Yes. Maybe you can ask him about it."
The answer was unexpected, but Evin was interested in the item so he gladly picked it up and put it in his back, careful not to touch its orb like Ara warned him. "Alright, let's go. Ah, but I have a few things to do before, so please bear with ."
Evin then brought Ara out of her room and walked towards Kolin's group. He found two of the girls sobbing in the corner, while Kolin was arguing with the girl and the boy about sothing. As far as Evin could notice, no rat fell upon the five yet.
They imdiately started to beg Evin to let them go when they saw him coming in. The two girls even shalessly begged Ara, a child, to let them go when they saw her.
"Sorry for the rough treatnt, but I couldn't really let you guys free until I saw what was behind the last door," Evin explained and opened the gates for them, "Wait ten more minutes here, and then go out."
"Who's this girl?" one of the girls asked.
"None of your business," Evin replied and pulled out the five's lodestones from his bag. Since the air in the Island was filled with an apparently endless source of mana, the extra lodestones were just a waste of inventory for Evin. "Here are your lodestones."
He knew it was pointless to make excuses to appease Kolin, as these five were sure to have only bad things to say about him at the end of it all. He was mostly explaining himself to the teachers, who were surely listening to the conversation, and Ara. Evin didn't want to leave a bad impression on the Ruler's daughter.
"I'll hold your hands so I can turn you invisible," Evin said to Ara, as they walked up the stairs outside.
"You can do that?"
"Yep. But you need to keep silent, alright? I can't really tell whether any of the students would be waiting for outside, so we need to be extra careful."
The two tip-toed outside and were both hit by the glaring light of the sun. Evin tried his best to scout out the area despite his squinting eyes, but thankfully, no one seed to be waiting for them. He expected Kolin's group to be part of a bigger one, but unexpectedly, that didn't seem to be the case.
Thanking the Empress, he quickly brought Ara away from the Tunnels' entrance and said, "We'll stop by the infirmary and the Shelter for so food and supplies, if that's alright with you."
Ara didn't have any objections, and the two made their way to the Infirmary in an hour's ti. Evin wasn't confident in his skills to make Ara fly with him, so trip naturally took so more ti.
The Infirmary was a simple, large pavilion built in another open area inside the forest, and there was a sign outside that banned anyone from starting fights nearby. Thankfully, the place wasn't as crowded as Evin expected it to be and the teachers didn't look intent on dousing the approaching students in cold water.
Evin didn't want to create a scene, so he silently approached a free teacher with Ara on his side and asked to have his face checked. The teacher told him that the wound wasn't as deadly as it looked and that it would heal by itself over ti. He just had to keep it closed and clean, so it didn't get infected. But he still offered Evin a choice between having it healed by magic and getting it sewn. After all, the wound had still almost penetrated his cheek.
After a brief consideration, Evin decided to tough it out and let it heal by itself over ti. He might need the magic healing later on; and if he got it sewn now, it would take too much ti. The teacher shrugged his head and after cleaning Evin's wound, put so salve on it and told Evin to not move the wound around too much.
After Evin was finished, bringing Ara, he walked southwards into the forest, before circling around and going north towards the Shelter. This ti, the walk only took 15 minutes.
He saw Teouka and the other teacher still loitering around the place, but contrary to the morning, this ti he saw a group of 6 students looking through the food as well. He circled around the place, made himself and Ala visible, and approached the Shelter from the direction of the Tunnels.
Teouka noticed him at this point and started chanting; but Evin waved the card he obtained in the air and she stopped to greet him. "Welco to the Shelter. Can I see your card?"
"Hello, teacher," Evin smiled and showed her the food and supply related cards. Discreetly, he then handed her the cards relating to the more detailed map and the Cove.
The other six students eyed Evin with greed, but seed unwilling to make a scene in the Shelter.
"Ooh, quite impressive!" Teouka exclaid as she glanced through the cards. "Well, you can pick whatever you want from around here, while I bring out the other item. Also, is your face alright? You should really go see the infirmary soon, you know?"
"I'll visit it after this," Evin said loud enough for the students to hear.
Evin was thankful that the teacher didn't ntion anything about the other item being a map, and also for not ntioning anything about Ara. The other six students were surely curious about it all, but Evin wasn't so generous to relay information to his enemies.
Turning to the girl, he said, "You can pick anything you want. I've access to much more food than I need."
The two ate to their heart's content and Evin put so extra food in his newly acquired backpack. When it ca ti for him to choose a tent, he originally wanted to pick the smaller one he bought, but ultimately decided on a larger one, wide enough for two people, but low enough to be less visible.
While they were eating, Teouka ca with the new map and the info on the Cove. Evin didn't hurry to read them yet, planning to check them out on the way to the Ruler's Palace. But as he was waiting, one girl from the six-man group approached him.
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