KNOCK KNOCK

Cæ glanced up from his couch towards the door with an expectant expression.

He had documents in both hands containing the information that Serulia had brought him on the seven finalists of the combat competition. Some of them were in Miranda's team, including Miranda herself; thus, it was relevant information considering that the others would not have memorized it like he had. The tea-table before him was scattered with the documents, illuminated by the light of the morning Sun that peered through the windows to the left of the room. The air was warm despite winter, courtesy of the heater.

He quickly got up to open the door, finding none other than Serulia outside.

"You're a little early," he remarked, gazing at his magiwatch, before returning his attention to her, studying her attire.

She donned a villit, the traditional ethnic attire of the Durmen Principality, her homeland once more, comprising a short upper garment that exposed her midriff and back, covering only the upper half of her abdomen with a cloth gently wrapping around her upper chest and neck in a special bind.

The lower garment was comprised of a long, baggy cotton garment that reached her ankles.

This time, however, she had on an extra layer of clothing wrapping around her upper body, protecting her from the winter chill in the air outside a heated room.

"I was looking forward to today's meeting," she smiled at him. "Is it not fun to engage in group activities for a team project?"

"It is what it is," Cæ stepped aside, gesturing her inside.

She walked in, directing a sweeping gaze across his room with her light blue eyes. "Your dorm room feels as… detached as ever. Do you truly not have any personal belongings?"

Cæ hadn't added anything to the little tables or the racks or in the little kitchen.

It felt like walking into a hotel room that one had booked for a single night.

"I didn't have many personal belongings for most of my life," he remarked with a nonchalant tone, closing the door behind her.

"No pictures?" she raised an eyebrow, turning around. "Is that not strange? Or is that just a normal in Elendir? I am not entirely familiar with more domestic customs in this country and culture, I am afraid."

"…Neither am I, unfortunately," he replied casually, sitting down on his couch with the documents on his table. "I only had a few years of it with…"

His voice trailed off.

Serulia gazed at him with a careful expression, sensing she had stepped on a sensitive topic.

"Well," she continued. "At least it does not smell like sweat and soap this time."

"You came to my room after I had a long, long final round in the selection process," Cæ huffed lightly. "You wouldn't expect it to smell like anything else."

"I suppose that is indeed true."

"Now, enough prying into my room. Did you get the data I asked you?"

She raised a hand, within which was a small case with some documents in it.

"I did."

"Great, then let's get started immediately."

KNOCK KNOCK

"Can you get the door?" Cæ asked absentmindedly, going through the documents.

The request took her aback, almost as if she wasn't accustomed to being asked to open the door.

And in truth, she hadn't.

It was perhaps the first time in her life, even.

However, she didn't want to come off as… haughty, so she immediately opened it.

Outside were Lorden Adanbami and Hyoken Sirura.

The former appeared tense, having overdressed with a semi-formal shirt and pants with a custom tailor-fit blazer atop, while Hyoken was underdressed with a white shirt and some shorts.

"Sup," he casually greeted Cæ with an upward nod.

"Come in," Cæ called out to them, gesturing them inside.

"T-Thank you for allowing me into your home!"

"No need to be so formal," Cæ remarked, skimming through some of the new intelligence documents that Serulia had brought with her. "Now, all that's left is…"

STEP

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The four of them glanced at the door, hearing footsteps.

Their eyes lit up as they found Silian standing there, wearing a serious expression with his light green eyes fixed on Cæ. He wore surprisingly casual clothes with a simple over-shirt atop a t-shirt and some casual pants.

It wasn't something that he would expect from the scion of the Sylvester Family.

"Come in," Cæ beckoned him. "Have a seat. We were just about to get started."

He wordlessly walked in, taking a seat on the couch as he discreetly studied Cæ's dorm room.

He found it to be as empty as Serulia did.

His was, of course, furnished by his family servants who put up many of his prized personal belongings and his family's even family ornaments in his dorm room. He hadn't even realized what the dorm rooms of the magicademy looked like without them due to the fact that they had been decorated before he had even set a single foot in them.

He didn't say a word, of course.

He may have ultimately relented and agreed to stick with the team, but that didn't mean that he was suddenly friendly with the team.

"Alright, with the five of us here, we can soon enough get started," Cæ remarked.

"W-What about the trainers?" Lorden asked with a nervous tone.

"They can't be a part of the planning process, remember?" Cæ pointed at some documents. "Serulia got intel on them and on their people, on both sides. We'll plan it out, and then give them the plan, and they will execute their roles."

"…So how do we plan for this?" Hyoken asked, studying the materials on the tea table before them. "Are you just going to chalk it up yourself and then force yourself to try and partake in it? Because you ain't leader yet."

Hyoken spoke informally and casually.

He was the only commoner student there aside from Cæ.

"I have no intention of forcing my visions on you," Cæ replied with a calm intensity. "I don't believe myself to be infallible by any means. I think we can discuss it and deliberate on something that we can all agree on, although the final decision will still be left to me as the leader. But to start with, I will have all of you go through the summaries of the profiles that Serulia has brought, and then we will commence our first strategizing session. After that, I will have you go through the materials more extensively, and then we can go through a second strategic session where I intend to finalize our broader approach. Over the next two days, we will refine the minutiae and convey it to the trainers on our team."

"…Why not just give us copies of the materials from the very start and tell us to go through with it in our own time from the very start?" Silian slowly asked in a low tone.

Cæ was surprised he had even chosen to talk with him.

It wasn't the worst development, of course.

"It helps smooth out the strategizing process," Cæ replied to him. "Rather than commencing the strategizing process after becoming experts on our opponents, it makes sense to strategize as we're learning about them. This way, we know what to look for when learning the finer details about them. The summaries contain the most important variables that simplify the strategizing, while the details are only important if they disrupt the big picture enough. It's more organic this way."

Intuitively, his answer made sense, even if Silian couldn't think of a real reason, it wouldn't be better to learn more about their opponents entirely the first time and then get to hashing out a strategy.

Cæ, on the other hand, didn't trust them to even fully read all the documents if he gave them all the documents the first time.

"Let's get started immediately," Cæ remarked as each of them received summaries. "Our opponent's team leans more offensively, while our team leans more defensively. They have Dranst, Kyrell, and Seol, who can partake in defense and offense, but would probably fare better offensively. They have Miranda and Lyarna, both of whom are effective at divination. On the trainer side of their team, they have two offensive specialists and three defenders."

He turned towards all of them.

"This forces them to adopt an offensive strategy. If Miranda wishes to use her team effectively, she will definitely use them to mount a devastating offensive attack," Cæ told them. "Conversely, we have gotten the most effective defensive players from the trainers, making it most effective to pursue a defensive strategy."

Serulia nodded. "That does sound most logical, but it is rather unfortunate that our strategy is so dependent on our own players."

"We ain't got no choice," Hyoken huffed. "I don't like balling up in defense, but it does make the most sense."

"Actually…" Cæ remarked as an uncharacteristically small smile emerged on his face.

"I have something else in mind right off the bat."

The other four turned towards him.

"…Miranda is intelligent enough to have come to the conclusion that we did regarding both our teams," Cæ remarked. "She likely figures that to make the most effective use of her team, she will have to launch a fast and strong frontal assault led by her trainers. She is also intelligent enough to figure out that we are likely thinking the same thing. But…"

His eyes narrowed.

"If we use her expectations against her, we can overrun her overwhelmingly."

Silian frowned, sharpening his eyes. "…You mean not pursuing a defensive strategy just to catch her off-guard?"

"Yes, if we turn into a symmetric battle, then it truly is a coin flip as to which side will win. I don't wish to mindlessly turn into a simple battle," Cæ remarked. "I wish to make the most of what I have."

Silian wasn't convinced by his logic.

"But using a defensive strategy makes the most of a team with many defensive players, does it not?"

"Only if you're looking at the players' profiles themselves and not their strategy and expectations," Cæ replied calmly, turning towards him. "My right arm may be stronger than my left arm, but if my opponent is expecting a right hook and is prepared for it, then a left hook is likelier to do me good than a right hook, even if the latter is more suited when purely looking at my strengths."

"…" Silian stared at him with furrowed eyebrows.

He instinctively wanted to retort and discredit him, but he put the urge aside.

The analogy itself made sense, but not everyone was convinced that it applied to the situation that they were at.

"Throwing a left hook in this context would mean… launching an offensive assault with defenders?" Serulia's expression grew incredulous. "That sounds…"

Her voice trailed off.

She didn't want to say ludicrous.

But that was her first thought.

"If we do that," Lorden grew immersed in the hypothetical. "Then it will become a race for which side can reach the other and beat the other side first. And given that their offensive team consists of actual offensive trainers and students, and ours consists of the defensive experts, then won't we lose that race?"

"Not if we can sufficiently sabotage their expectations and thus invalidate their tactics," Cæ replied.

"But what exactly does that mean specifically?" Silian sharpened his gaze.

"Well, for starters…" Cæ turned towards Serulia with an expectant gaze. "We will have you secretly focus exclusively on offense."

Her light blue eyes widened as she understood the merits of his plan.

"The lead trainer, Mr. Sowel, said that I would be most effective as a part of the core defense along with Hyoken…" she murmured. "And given that you chose both of us, I assumed that you would be following his plan…"

The smallest of smiles cracked at the edge of Cæ's mouth.

"She will also be assuming that, which is why she won't know what hit her when both you and Hyoken will lead the offensive."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.