They continued their march through the dense, humid canopy of the marshlands.

Footsteps squelched in the saturated mud. Armor clinked softly against leather. Every Scout on the perimeter kept their eyes glued to the towering mangrove trees as they neared the central river.

While they were still on their side of the Great Divide, they couldn’t afford to drop their guard.

"Are we even on the right track?" Viktor suddenly murmured from beside Ivan, loud enough for everyone nearby to hear as his dark eyes scanned the foliage around. "It feels like we’re walking toward the drop zone. Shouldn’t we go more south?"

Ivan just gave him a dry glance, not even bothering to slow his pace. "We’re fine. I was the one who personally asked for this route."

"I know, that’s why I’m asking," Viktor pressed, tone sceptical. "We should be crossing toward the enemy’s flank. Heading this far toward the drop zone puts sixty-five Cadets right in the open while the supply crates come down. It’s an invitation for an ambush."

"And I’m telling you, we’re fine," Ivan snapped back, rolling his eyes. "I’d appreciate it if you could stop doubting whatever I do."

"Oh, my bad. I didn’t know you were an experienced hydrographer now who wouldn’t make any mistakes," Viktor scoffed, pulling ahead so he was walking shoulder-to-shoulder with the boy.

Ivan stopped dead in his tracks, turning to face Viktor with a scowl. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you’re not making sense!" Viktor raised his voice slightly, stepping right into Ivan’s space. "With your history of screw-ups, I wouldn’t be surprised if you made a mistake but are too whimpy to admit it."

"What screw-ups? I don’t know, Ivan," Viktor pretended to think it over, then clapped his hands in mock exaggeration. "Oh, how about the time you tried climbing Old Miller’s windmill and fell through the bloody roof? Or when you took Irina to watch those stupid glowing fishes by the quarry and ended up dropping her grandmother’s silver hairbrush right into forty feet of pitch-black water?"

Ivan’s face went red. "I was twelve, you asshole! And I retrieved the brush, didn’t I?!"

"After getting hypothermia and shivering in my room for six hours while I snuck you my dad’s dry clothes!" Viktor shot back, his crimson eyes flashing with genuine, long-festering indignation. "I told you not to go there. I was the one who had to lie through my teeth to your mother! I was the one who rubbed running alcohol into your frostbitten chest while you whined like a dying badger!"

It looked like Ivan would burst a blood vessel right then and there. "Right. Viktor Svalinn. Always the hero," his dark eyes narrowed, the tint of blue in them growing intense. "How insecure do you have to be to keep weaponizing childhood so you could feel superior? Congratulations. You helped your friend. Want me to commission a statue?"

Viktor flinched slightly, obviously not expecting a comeback this sharp from the meek boy he had grown up with. "Hey. You might wanna get in the water if you’re going to keep talking like this."

Ivan scoffed, then opened his mouth to spit a retort, but Irina beat her to it.

"Ivan, stop it!" Her voice cut between them, a firm hand going to her boyfriend’s chest to gently push him back a step. "You don’t have to snap at him like that. Viktor’s right. We’ll be more exposed crossing near the drop zone. If you had a reason for the detour, you could have just explained it calmly instead of acting like he’s picking a fight."

Ivan stared at her, not surprised by her taking Viktor’s side, but disappointed nonetheless. He looked from Irina’s stern face to Viktor’s victorious sneer, then back at her.

His chest heaved under his light armor. "Yeah. Always the voice of reason, my girlfriend. Would it kill you to support me for once?"

"I’m not—" she started something, but Ivan had already lost interest.

"Ask literally any naval specialist in this unit. The current in the south of the river at this time of the day is twice as violent," he grumbled, then turned around to walk off toward the front of the formation. "I’m going to check on the forward scouts."

All around, the Cadets kept passing. Some pretended not to notice the drama, while others were genuinely too lost in their own conversations to pay attention.

Irina let out a long sigh, pressing a palm against her temples as she watched his receding back.

Viktor offered her a sympathetic look, lightly patting her shoulder. "He’ll cool off. Don’t worry about it."

"I know," Irina murmured, her voice sounding exhausted.

Viktor gave a gentle nod before picking up his pace to fall back into his flank position, leaving Irina near the middle of the formation.

A couple of quiet moments later, a quiet presence stepped up beside her.

There was a small reassuring smile on Casey’s face. "Navigating a relationship during a high-stakes military exercise can’t be easy, huh? Are you alright?"

Irina turned to her, a little surprised before giving a half laugh, weary. "I’m... fine. I don’t know. It seems like these days, every time Viktor tries to offer even a bit of constructive advice, Ivan acts as if his entire manhood is being challenged."

Casey walked alongside her, posture relaxed yet attentive. "Childhood friends often carry old patterns into new contexts. From what I gathered, Viktor seems very protective of you."

Irina blinked, then coughed into her fist. "It’s not like that. Not... not anymore."

Sure. If there was a blush on Irina’s cheeks, Casey must’ve just imagined it then.

"Ivan just..." Irina continued coolly, giving a vague gesture. "He has changed so much and so fast. I don’t know what happened. He used to be so soft-spoken and gentle. It started when he began spending time with that... that bitch before the midterms. Juliana," she rolled her eyes, lip curling like even the recollection of that name was bitter on her tongue.

"Wait. Wait, wait," Casey’s ears suddenly perked up. "Juliana? As in Juliana Vox Blade? Lord Samael’s Shadow?"

"Ah, yes," Irina nodded, disgust clear on her face. "They were very friendly for a while. She was the one who dragged him out of his shell, I guess. I don’t know what spell she put on him to change him so much, and not in a good way."

They broke through the dense treeline, stepping into the mud-choked expanse of the riverbank.

Up ahead, many Cadets had started boarding the rafts to cross the Great Divide, its brackish water churning turbulently under the overcast sky.

Casey’s breathing was picking up. Her palms were sweating, her brow furrowed into tense lines as her mind raced. "Are... are they still friends?"

"Monarchs, no," Irina chuckled, relieved. "Though he was very worried about Lord Samael and that bitch when they went MIA in the Death Zone. But after they returned fine? I don’t think have spoken a word to him. I was surprised when I asked him to join Lady Thalia’s faction instead of theirs, and he immediately agreed. I really thought he would refuse. I guess... in some aspects he hasn’t changed that much. He chose us, his friends. So he does care about us. Even if he’s a bit of an idiot at times."

Casey barely heard the rest of Irina’s words. All of a sudden, the wind blowing off the river felt ice-cold against the back of her neck.

Her eyes were frantically searching for the boy in question.

It all made sense. Too much, in fact.

Samael Kaizer Theosbane wasn’t stupid. Cocky, arrogant, and hubristic. But not stupid.

When he put on a blockade over the Great Divide despite having no powerful naval specialists, everyone assumed he was overconfident in his aerial unit.

When he stretched his forces too thin despite the threat of an invasion and lost both his Bishop Sectors, everyone assumed it was a strategic blunder.

Even now, when he sent his entire aerial unit on a one-way trip to drop off two platoons filled with some of his most formidable heavy-hitters, everyone assumed it was desperation.

One last reckless gambit of a cornered king.

But that was not the case at all. Samael Kaizer Theosbane had not been playing a defensive war. He had been preparing a battlefield.

Casey’s heartbeat quickened. The trap which she couldn’t find before seemed so obvious now.

The river. The Sectors. The drop zones. The troop movements.

Oh gods...

The trap was the entire battlefield itself!

Casey’s eyes widened. A whisper slipped her dry lips, "The supplies crates..."

Irina looked over. "What?"

Casey didn’t hear her.

For six days straight, Samael had starved both armies.

He destroyed the supply crates after securing the ones that were dropped on the first day. He forced both sides into a state where whoever controlled the drops would control the war.

That was what everyone assumed.

But then he sacrificed his own aerial forces today. Why? If he had truly intended to maintain that attrition strategy, he would’ve kept the skies locked down.

Instead, he abandoned the blockade. Why?!

Because the blockade was never the objective.

It was bait.

It was a way to make Thalia believe the skies were safe once his aerial forces disappeared, a way to make her believe she had finally broken through.

It was a way to make her gather as many troops as possible into a single concentrated force and have them cross the river... so one of his planted assets could sabotage the entire operation at once!

Oh gods! Oh gods!

This entire time, everyone had been looking at the Great Divide as a barrier that separated two armies. A natural defense.

But Samael saw it as a weapon that stretched for kilometers, connected every battlefield and invasion path.

The moment Thalia’s army tried crossing over, they wouldn’t just be making their way to enemy territory. They would be stepping directly into the range of his strongest asset.

Ivan.

The realization hit Casey so abruptly that for a moment, the sounds of the marching army around her faded into nothing.

With her blood running cold, her eyes finally found him. The boy was standing at the edge of the riverbank, watching everyone cross with an easygoing smile on his face.

The three prongs of his trident were hovering too close to the water.

It seemed like he was about to step in and take a raft when Casey swiftly summoned her sword and shouted, "Stop right there!"