Erio couldn't bite back against such a fierce shutdown, and he sank back to lean against a tree while listening to the others ramble. He took it upon himself to watch their surroundings. However, he focused on the forest around them, so he missed when Shim Lester approached.

"Quiet! There is no reason for the lot of you to be making this much noise. Retreat to your tents!" Shim ordered.

"Oh, but—" Maura started to protest. They were having so much fun talking about magic. It was also beneficial to her progress. She didn't want to stop.

"But nothing!" Shim hissed before turning around with a flick of his robes. He would not allow them to continue making a ruckus.

Maura's shoulders slumped in disappointment as she slowly entered her tent.

The boys shared their tent since the commoners were only given two. Since Maura was the only commoner girl, the boys let her have it out of respect for her, but it did leave the other tent pretty cramped.

It didn't help that Taryeon brought his charcoaled slab of meat with him to gnaw on until they fell asleep.

The only one who didn't fall asleep was Alec. He would have liked to, since he had a feeling that tomorrow would be a long day, but his mind would not stop spinning, thanks to what Maura had brought up.

He was intrigued beyond measure. A fire that existed without burning anything. He couldn't simply chalk it up to 'just magic.' That was the same as saying that fire was just fire. It wasn't enough. He wasn't satisfied. He wanted to understand it better.

So, he ignored his fatigue from having read runes all day and continued using [Reader] to understand the spell Maura had cast earlier.

What he discovered surprised him so much that he couldn't stop there.

He was so excited that he didn't sleep a wink.

Alec woke up with bags under his bloodshot eyes, but with a smile on his lips as he greeted the sunrise. To his surprise, he wasn't the only one awake so early, not counting the drivers tending to the horses.

Victoria was sitting by the nobles' campfire, sipping on a cup of tea. Seeing as she was alone, Alec realized that she had lit that fire and boiled water for her tea all on her own.

'Well, that's…' His impression of her sank. If she were capable of doing all that, why did she have her attendants do it for her while she just watched?

She didn't need to take care of the others, but she could at least have taken care of herself, no?

To avoid any awkwardness, he nodded toward her in greeting when she looked over at him before going to the commoners' campfire to light it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Victoria's melodious voice carried across the camping grounds between sips.

Alec turned around with a raised eyebrow, dispelling the mana in his hand.

"May I ask why, Lady Fosra?"

"The fire pit is contaminated."

Alec's eyes narrowed as he inspected the pile of coal and ash on the ground, as well as the firewood next to it.

He wouldn't have noticed it if Victoria hadn't pointed it out, but there was a tangy smell that shouldn't have been there.

He frowned.

'Benjamin, I guess.'

After sighing deeply, he turned to Victoria.

"Thank you for the advice, Lady Fosra. Do you know what it is?"

However, Victoria had stopped looking in his direction. It seemed like she was fully content with just that much as she turned her full attention toward her cup of tea.

Alec scratched the back of his head and stared at the dead fire pit. Breakfast would be cold today.

Fortunately, the only one who seemed to mind that was Taryeon. The others accepted Alec's explanation that he woke up early to see a furry critter of some sort crawl into the fire pit, especially Maura. After his gift, she had no interest in worldly affairs.

The discussion about whether they should make another one dragged on long enough for Shim Lester to tell them to stop dallying and get a move on.

However, they didn't get long before Maura frowned and stuck her head out of the open window of their carriage.

"It smells like fire."

"Huh?"

"Something's burning."

Before the others could understand what was going on, she had already swung the door open and scampered onto the carriage roof, almost falling off when the coachman pulled the mules to a halt.

She cupped a hand over her brow as she scanned around until she found what she was looking for.

Up ahead, she saw plumes of black smoke rising into the distance.

Hearing the mules cry out at the sudden halt, the other coachmen naturally slowed down before letting a fuming Shim unboard and walk toward Maura with a face as dark as the clouds of smoke.

"You'd better have a damn good reason for causing a commotion."

"There's a fire over there!" She called out from the top of the carriage, pointing toward the smoke.

"Magister," She added after a moment.

"So? Shim asked.

"Ah?"

"So what if there's a fire over there? What does that have to do with you? Don't answer that. Regardless, it is not a good enough reason to make a ruckus and delay us."

"What if the forest's on fire? Can't we check it out since it's on the way? Please, Magister!" Maura pleaded.

Shim glared at her for a moment. His eyes scanned her up and down where she was standing on top of the carriage, her skirt fluttering in the wind.

Eventually, he cleared his throat and turned away.

"Get down from the carriage."

Her shoulders slumped as she jumped down. However, right before she entered it, she overheard Shim telling the driver up front to go to where that smoke was coming from if it was close.

"Thank you, Magister!" She called out without getting an answer.

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