The days passed with the relationship between Ethan and Alice staying the same, and Stephan and Violet getting closer. Now that Stephan has settled the issue with Rosalyn, he made bolder moves on Violet and eventually asked her to be his. Violet had shyly agreed. 

Ethan was aware of the progress in the relationship between Violet and Stephan and felt a little ache and sting in his heart. However, he also realised that everything would seem alright whenever he was with Alice. Although the little ache and nagging in his heart remained, he was at peace with it at the same time because it simply felt right to be around Alice. 

Leah had lost the hold she had on Violet but she continued to follow Violet on her 'patrols' to save people who are being bullied. Violet's reputation continued to soar among the oppressed and plummet among the strong. Nobody asked about and tried finding Alice anymore.

Half a year passed like that and the final examinations arrived.

Their results came with a ranking for each subject and an overall performance. Everyone passed the subject examinations with flying colours, even Alice. However, everyone else did so well that Alice's good results still fell behind and looked above average at best. Even Ethan was surprised that Alice would only do averagely for all the hard work she had put in. He had personally witnessed everything she did after all.

I knew you made a few mistakes but... to cost you to fall behind others by so much? That's insane. How does this happen? BaoBao lamented. There was only a minuscule probability of this happening according to his calculations but it happened.

To be honest, I can't explain it either. It's kind of amazing in it's own way.

You should just let me tell you the answers next time so that we can find out if it's a world hack.

Good idea.

News about the ability examination arrived and everyone got excited. 

The ruthless school that did not care if students survived or died had ruthless tests as well. The final examination they had to pass to graduate was a month long survival task in the wild. Their performance will be graded based on the state they are in when they come out of the forest. If they come out in pristine condition, they performed the best. To pass, they only needed to survive the wild and against the schemes of others. If they died, they failed. 

The period of the test always varied over the years and would only be told a week before the departure date. Students who managed to steal the information would have more time to prepare in advance. Going to the site to scout and lay traps were also allowed. There were no rules nor boundaries. It was a deadly examination.

Violet wanted the group to meet up and strategise for the upcoming examination. Ethan relayed that message to Alice but Alice did not give a reply. BaoBao had given her a warning when she received news of the examination. Alice, this examination is the final crucial development.

...Understood. Alice had mentally prepared herself for what was to come.

When it was time for the group to meet during lunch the next day, Alice did not turn up. The group wanted to find her at her room but Ethan stood up first and told Violet that he would get Alice here for her.

"You know where she is?"

"I'm just guessing. Instead of having everyone go around finding her, let me do it." He sped off using his ability as a boost. Seeing that, everyone was convinced that it was more efficient to leave the search for Alice to him.

Ethan went to find Alice at their usual spot. The moment he arrived, Alice informed him, "I didn't say that I would attend."

"It was not exactly a question." Ethan said softly.

"I'll fight you if you drag me."

Ethan felt like her resistance this time was really strong so he did not force it. Instead, he asked her, "Are you worried about something?"

Alice ignored him.

"Leah?" Ethan did not give up.

Alice continued to ignore him.

"That you're the weakest among us?"

Alice still ignored him.

"You're worried about relying on us, aren't you?"

Alice finished up her sandwich and cleaned up to start studying.

"Alice. I know how much you desire to be strong. I've witnessed all your hard work. You may be the weakest among us but you're no longer weak. You can stand your own ground."

When she continued to ignore him, he covered her hand that she was using to write with his. She looked up to look at him dead in the eye. "Stop bothering me." Alice said coldly.

He held her intense gaze and stood his ground. "You know Violet will choose to tail you anyway. It's no different in the end. We'll be together as a group."

"Leave." Alice stayed firm in her decision.

Ethan raised his hand that was covering hers and brushed the back of his four fingers against her cheek. "I'll respect your decision then." He left to relay Alice's answer to the rest.

BaoBao appeared with an expression of surprise on his face. "That worked."

Alice shrugged. "What matters is that I managed to not group with them."

"But he has a point, Violet would tail you anyway."

"Doesn't matter, this means that they won't have a fixed route isn't it?"

BaoBao cocked his head in confusion.

"Do you really think Leah is so kind hearted to do nothing after what happened at the Christmas event?"

BaoBao looked as if he understood something then shook his head.

"Leah would probably be a bother for the remaining days." Alice sighed.

During the subsequent days, Leah had indeed started to become friendly with her in class again. It was like back to the old days when Leah was trying to get in her good graces. Other than that, everything else remained the same. Ethan never asked her about grouping together again either.

On the day of departure, before they boarded the carriages, Leah was walking beside Alice. She pretended it was as such due to their classes being beside each other. The 2 and 3 abilities users had better carriages and were further up ahead in the line of carriages.

Leah finally asked Alice of her plans. "Alice, so what are you planning to do to survive the forest?"

Alice ignored her.

"Violet's concerned, you know."

Alice still ignored her.

"...Actually, why don't you come around anymore? Did you fall out with them?"

Alice's attention was finally grabbed. Perhaps I can get something out of her.

Alice pretended to be spacing out and staring off into a distance when she was actually looking at Ethan. She knew where to find him because she had BaoBao watch everyone relevant from the Christmas party. 

Ethan felt an intense stare on him and frowned. He turned to the direction that he felt the intense gaze was coming from and made eye contact with Alice. Surprise filled his eyes. This was the first time she looked at him so intensely. It made his heart beat faster.

Alice then opened her mouth to talk slowly, masked as laziness. "You're right... I fell out with them." When she saw how Ethan frowned slightly, she knew that he was listening. How clever to use the wind to carry my voice over.

"Do you hate them then?" Leah asked.

Alice confirmed that he was listening since his eyebrows locked tighter together. She cast her eyes down and looked to be deep in thought. Then she tilted her head and looked at Leah in a lazy way, "Actually, I do. Especially that Violet. I hate how she always thinks she's all good and kind. Helping people even when they don't want to be helped. Not giving people what they really want, only doing whatever she wants. What a bother."

"I agree with you! Who does she think she is?" Leah was getting a little excited but remembered to keep her volume low. "Do you want to cause some trouble for her then?" 

"How?" Alice raised an eyebrow.

"Tell me the route you're going to take in the forest."

"How will that help?"

"Ambush." Leah smiled evilly.

"Won't that be bad? It's my route." Alice said this as if Leah was really stupid.

Leah frowned and thought Alice was the one who was lacking in intelligence. "I'll tell you where we will set up the ambush and traps. You'll easily avoid it then."

"What makes you trustworthy? How do I know you're not against me instead?"

"Because I hate Violet too."

"So?"

"The enemy of an enemy is a friend."

Alice looked contemplative then asked Leah, "Why do you hate her then?"

"Same reason as you."

"When you decide to tell me the truth, then I will consider trusting you." Alice began to walk off but Leah panicked and grabbed onto her sleeve. Alice turned her head to look back at her.

"You remember what happened during the Christmas event, don't you? She betrayed my trust. She was supposed to support me." Leah said that with hurt and anger shown on her face.

"She's right though. What can she do to Ethan? She can't force his feelings. I don't like working with dumb willful people." 

Leah looked at Alice who seemed to be looking down on her. Leah's face turned red. "...I didn't ask her to make Ethan fall for me. Even a simple nudge from her would be fine. Even if she told him to maybe give it a thought or something, I'd be happy. But she did not do a thing!" There was venom and hate in Leah's eyes.

As if you'd really be satisfied with that. "...Alright, I'll work with you." Alice smiled cordially. Leah's face brightened as her hopes and mood was raised up high.

She really can be quite spiteful. BaoBao shivered as he thought to himself. He knew that she was planning to do the same thing she did in the previous world.

"However, you mentioned an ambush. You obviously can't pull that off by yourself. Who else is involved?" 

"They also dislike Violet so all will be fine." 

"Hmm... I don't know if they're trustworthy. I trust my judgement." 

Leah became frantic again. It was so hard to get Alice to respond and agree and time was running out. It was soon their turn to board the carriages. "Since you trust me, and I trust them, you can trust them by extension, can't you?"

Alice dragged out the silence until it looked like Leah was going purple in the face then she relented. "Alright. Tell me the details of the ambush then. Also, tell me how many people are involved. Specific identities would increase your credibility." 

Leah let out an audible sigh of relief then decided to reveal the identities of the people she deemed was fine to sacrifice to pull Alice in. Alice's route was crucial information for their plan to work better.

Ethan's face darkened as he found out the number of people involved in this scheme. Although Leah only revealed a few people who were already known to be against Violet, he could guess that everyone who ever stood against Violet was probably involved. The problem was that the total number of those people was still only a subset of the number of people Leah mentioned. There are others I don't know of. Ethan concluded gravely.

Alice purposely dragged out her silence again. "Sounds credible..."

Leah waited. They were inching closer to the carriages by the minute.

"The plan is realistic too... It would work." 

Leah ran out of time, it was their turn next. "Your route? It would only work if we know your route!"

Alice suddenly looked full of innocence and blinked a few times. "I have no route. I didn't have the resources to go scouting before today. Did I not mention already? Dear me."

Leah's hopes were dashed mercilessly.

"If it helps, I will stick to heading North." Alice shrugged then entered her carriage. Leah was stunned. Her classmates behind her had to nudge her forward and into the carriage.

Ethan nodded to Stephan to show that they could move off now. He shared a private carriage with Violet and Stephan. This would be safer as it lowered the probability of having their carriage rigged.

As Ethan was worried about others having the same idea as him to use the wind to eavesdrop on people's conversations, he communicated with the other two through writing. After relaying everything he knew, they began discussing their next course of action.

Stephan - Let's just kill her the moment she arrives.

Ethan - That'll alert all the involved parties and we won't know who's involved.

Stephan - Didn't you say it was likely everyone who stood against Violet before? Just kill off  anyone who doesn't agree with her.

Ethan - That's too risky. We'll have to stay on guard the whole time if we alert the rest then we'll be the ones to get worn out first.

Violet - Then we walk into their trap and attack when they do?

Ethan - No. We'll attack just before that.

Stephan and Violet nodded their heads in unison. Violet used her fire to burn their note to ashes.

Meanwhile in Alice's carriage, she pretended to take a nap to avoid interacting with the other 3 people in the carriage. BaoBao, the results of our game will be revealed soon. Guessed what's the scenario like yet?

Yeah! I'm sure I got it right this time! BaoBao said confidently.