[Lifespan Remaining: 10 days, 13 hours, 44 minutes.]
Noct knew when it happened as well.
Thinking back on it, the signs were all there, yet he had overlooked them. The fact that the entire camp had been sleeping unusually well.
It was on the first night, when he had been sneaking off with Alice. Klein looked out of it and was completely out cold. That was when the culprit swapped the keys.
’Damn it. We weren’t the only ones sneaking around...’
"Clear the entrance! Get into alert protocol, now!"
Klein’s voice snapped Noct out of his thoughts. The instructor swept past him, calling for the medical staff as he pushed through the tent flap. Noct followed immediately after.
"Move!" Klein yelled as he approached the group of candidates, who were already beginning to swarm the place in their curiosity.
Beyond them, Alex and Lucy were struggling to lower someone onto a stretcher. Airy stood beside them, one hand pressed against her mouth, her eyes widened with horror.
Alice was there, too. Blood covered her uniform, but her wounds were considerably lighter than those of Group 11. But that was when he saw who was lying on the stretcher—Gareth.
His greatsword had shattered and one sleeve had been torn away, exposing a wound under his shoulder. Dark purple veins spread from it, branching across his chest and climbing toward his neck.
’Shit.’
Noct dropped beside him as a healer pressed both hands over the wound and tried to bandage any bleeding areas. But the purple veins continued spreading further.
"What happened?!"
"There was a passage. Gareth said..." Airy held back tears. "He said someone told him we could find enough cores if we head north. We went through a secret area not on the map...He said the entrance was sealed, but he had a way to open it."
"We told him to go back," Alex softly added. "We should’ve pressed harder. But we thought turning back meant failing the examination."
He looked between them, before staring at Alice, who avoided his gaze. She had the same hunch he did, Noct knew that for sure. "Why did you lie to me? Why didn’t you tell me you were going after them?"
"...I did help Instructor Klein. Afterward, I thought—"
"Thought what?"
"That I could bring them back..."
Noct turned back toward Gareth as he began coughing. Dark blood spilled from the boy’s mouth. Noct recognized the poison, and at this stage, there was nothing in the camp that could save him now.
The healer tried her hardest to press her hands against his chest, but to no avail.
"Gareth. Look at me."
It took a moment for the boy’s eyes to find him.
"Who gave you the key?"
Lucy looked sharply toward Noct, but he kept his attention on Gareth. "The person who told you about the passage. Who was it?"
The boy tried to speak, but all his words came out as soft rasps. "He said...we could pass. And if we did...we’d be hired. He...promised that we could have...a better life."
"Who promised you? Tell me his name."
Gareth tried once more, but blood caught in his throat. And in the next second, his eyes rolled into the back of his head...and his body went limp, once and for all.
"Gareth?" Lucy shook his shoulder, tears pouring freely now. "Gareth, open your eyes!"
Alex caught her before she could do anything else, but his own hands were trembling. When she began to sob, he lowered his head and held on.
Noct stared at his face. He was just a boy who wanted to join the royal guards, someone who had a bright future ahead of him. Now he would never wear their uniform.
Noct clenched his jaw. "Damn it...It’s all my fault."
He stood up at once, giving them some distance. But that was when he heard a small noise coming form his waist...a faint click, and then another.
Noct carefully reached under his cloak and pulled it out just far enough to see the needle beneath the glass surface spinning violently.
’The trap...?’
His attention snapped back to the people crowded around. Alice was beside him, while Annie and Finn were just nearby. Even Violet remained with Robin’s group...while her custodian was standing behind her, head down and looking like he had just seen a ghost.
The receiver’s needle abruptly locked, before...
"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!
Dirt and smoke shot up into the sky, the resulting force shaking the entire camp. Several candidates was blown away while equipment and camp supplies scattered through the air.
Ash rained down from above, as everyone turned to look at what just happened. Instructor Klein reached for his sword, yelling. "Everyone, stay back!"
Noct couldn’t move, his eyes completely fixed on the terrified custodian sitting across the fire, and the equally scared Violet hiding behind Robin.
"Group Leaders, keep your members away from the staff tent!"
Naturally, nobody listened.
Noct followed the others while keeping the brass receiver hidden under his cloak. The section right behind the mirror had partially collapsed, and several wooden crates had been thrown across the ground.
A fresh crater opened, reaching all the way to the nearby staff tents, evidence of someone tripping off the trap.
Albert stumbled out from behind the smoke a moment later, clutching onto a large cooking pot .A few other academy workers near the impact or were in their tents, came crawling out a few seconds later as well, with some receiving worse injuries than others.
"What happened?" the butler coughed. "The ground just suddenly exploded underneath me!"
"Are you injured?" Klein asked.
"Only startled."
It was like everything that Noct tried so hard to prevent came crashing down all at once. Nobody got hurt from the explosion, but there was too much collateral and people caught for him to figure out who triggered the trap.
"Instructor Klein!"
A guard came running toward them, the same one that Noct had spoken to this morning. "The—there’s a whole army of undead coming!"
"What...?" Klein muttered. "How many of them?"
"I—I don’t know, sir."
"Then what direction are they moving?"
"...Toward us."