I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Ten days after the Founders’ Fair, the contaminated crates remained sealed while academy life continued around the investigation.

Arthur attended his regular lessons, completed short escape drills with Emily, and became accustomed to the plain support band around his wrist.

That morning, Morwenna brought eight first-year students into the academy’s enclosed training ruins and divided them into two groups. She climbed onto a low section of broken wall while the students moved to their assigned sides.

"Team Red: Vance, Alicia, Cedric, and Chloe," Morwenna announced.

Arthur examined his temporary team. Alicia gave them speed and close-range pressure. Cedric could close routes and divide the ruins, while Chloe carried the communication markers and medical kit.

The missing pieces were more noticeable. Felix would not be standing in front of Arthur’s bow, and Emily would not be available to drag an enemy away if it reached him.

For once, Arthur would have to plan around that weakness instead of treating his teammates as emergency equipment.

Morwenna pointed toward the opposite side.

"Team Blue: Leon, Thorne, Elara, and Felix."

Leon’s group possessed a strong frontline and the best conventional archer among the first years. It also contained Emily and Felix, who were already arguing over which corridor offered the better approach.

Elara listened for several seconds before walking away from both of them to inspect the ruins herself.

"Three flags are planted across the ruins," Morwenna called out. "The first team to secure two flags wins. Full-power mana attacks are restricted to prevent structural collapse. Begin."

Arthur gathered Team Red behind a low stone barrier while Morwenna finished checking the training wards.

Without Felix, attempting to hold a fixed defensive line would only leave them waiting for Team Blue’s stronger frontline to arrive. Arthur instead placed Alicia in the center, where she could force Leon and Emily to react to her movements.

Cedric received a different task. Rather than surrounding the group with barriers, he would block selected corridors and interrupt Elara’s sightlines.

Chloe fastened the communication markers to the outside of her kit and checked each clasp before looking toward Arthur.

Arthur reminded Chloe to remove anyone who took a serious hit.

She tested the final marker clasp without looking up. "I don’t need you to tell me that."

Arthur considered defending himself, then remembered the Founders’ Fair and wisely let the matter end there.

Cedric raised an earth wall across the main avenue as soon as the whistle sounded, cutting the ruins into two narrow approaches.

Arthur used the blocked sightline to climb a broken pillar overlooking the left corridor. Felix guarded the nearest flag below, with Emily positioned several steps behind him.

Arthur fired his first blunt marker at Felix’s exposed shoulder. Felix caught it on the upper edge of his shield, but the impact forced him to turn away from the corridor entrance.

The second marker struck Emily across the back of her training armor.

She spun toward the pillar.

Arthur fired again before she could decide whether to ignore him. The shot clipped her upper arm and left another bright mark on the padding.

Emily abandoned the flag position and charged.

Arthur retreated across the broken roof, firing often enough to keep her attention while refusing to remain within grabbing distance. Every step drew her farther from Felix.

Alicia entered the corridor from the opposite side.

Felix turned to meet her, but Cedric raised a short earth wall behind his shield. The wall did not trap him completely; it merely removed the room he needed to retreat and reset his stance.

Alicia struck the shield once, changed direction, and slipped around its exposed side. She reached the pedestal, pulled the flag from its ring, and cleared the corridor before Emily could return.

Morwenna’s voice carried over the ruins.

"Flag one to Red."

Team Blue changed its approach at the second flag.

Elara stopped following the main avenue and moved through the upper ruins instead. Arthur reached a collapsed roof expecting another clear firing position, only for a blunt marker to strike the stone beside his hand before he exposed himself.

Elara had predicted the position. Her next marker struck the roof edge as Arthur tried to move, forcing him back before he could establish a firing angle.

Below, Felix occupied the narrow passage leading to the flag. Alicia could not circle his shield inside the confined corridor, and when Cedric began raising another wall, Felix advanced before the stone could close around him.

Emily met Alicia in the center and kept her occupied with broad training strikes that forced the duelist to give ground.

With Arthur pinned above and the other two blocked below, Leon crossed the open route and removed the second flag from its pedestal.

"Flag two to Blue," Morwenna called out. "Next flag decides it."

The third flag was planted in the center of a tight, enclosed courtyard. Both teams rushed the space simultaneously.

The close-quarters clash was immediate and chaotic. Emily threw a heavy punch toward Alicia, who parried and redirected the force. The deflected blow slammed into Cedric’s raised earth barrier, shattering the stone.

A heavy chunk of debris spun backward, catching Cedric hard against the side of his helmet.

Cedric stumbled into a stone pillar. When he pushed away from it, his eyes failed to focus on the fight in front of him.

"I’m fine," Cedric grunted, raising his hands to cast another barrier.

Chloe stepped between Cedric and the fight before he could cast again. She lifted the front of his helmet and moved one finger across his vision. His eyes followed too slowly.

"Sit down. You’re out."

Cedric tried to look around her. "Vance, I can still hold the lane."

Arthur was already moving into the space Cedric had been protecting.

"Alicia, shift left. I’m covering this side."

Chloe guided Cedric down against the pillar while Arthur rebuilt the formation around the three people still active.

With Team Red down one member, Leon broke away from Alicia and sprinted toward the final pedestal.

Arthur saw him move from the opposite entrance. Leon was faster across open ground, but Arthur had the shorter route.

He let Whisperwind hang from its shoulder strap and ran.

Leon reached the pedestal from the left just as Arthur arrived from the right. Their hands struck the flag’s activation ring together.

The training seal flashed red, then blue, before settling into a confused violet glow.

Morwenna blew the final whistle.

"Draw."

Morwenna looked from the violet flag seal to Cedric sitting under Chloe’s supervision.

"Neither team kept its usual formation, and neither stopped functioning when the first plan failed. That was the exercise."

She pointed toward the exit.

"Return the training weapons and get out of my ruins."

Arthur recovered Whisperwind while the others carried the training equipment toward the changing rooms. Elena waited beneath the main archway with a thin archive folder under one arm.

When Arthur approached, she addressed him with the same formal distance she used in class.

"The archive office released the closed-mine report," she said. "Morwenna wants you to review the route section before bringing the file to her."

She handed him the folder. A narrow strip of paper beneath the temporary seal carried Morwenna’s initials, giving Arthur permission to open it.

Elena’s eyes remained on him for only a moment.

"Do not lose it, Cadet Vance."

Arthur secured the folder beneath his arm. "I’ll bring it to her after I’ve reviewed the relevant pages."

Arthur waited until the other students had entered the changing rooms before stepping into an empty alcove near the armory.

He checked Morwenna’s initials once more, opened the temporary seal, and removed the old report.

The first pages covered the miners’ symptoms, the closure order, and the relocation of the surviving workers. Arthur moved through them until the contents sheet directed him to the freight section.

The page beneath his thumb was numbered thirteen.

The next was twenty-two.

Arthur checked the contents again. Pages fourteen through twenty-one should have contained the supplier routes, maintenance access, and freight records.

Eight pages were missing.

He examined the binding. The sheets had been removed long enough ago for the exposed edge to gather the same yellowing as the surrounding paper. Nothing revealed whether they had been lost during rebinding, destroyed in storage, or deliberately taken.

Arthur closed the folder around one finger and read the contents entry again.

Whoever—or whatever—had removed the pages had taken the only section capable of tracing the ore beyond the mine.

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