*Charlotte's Pov*
"I'm not leaving with Lucas still inside the colosseum. He'll make it out alive."
"Fine then, don't leave, then Aisha will die."
I bit my tongue.
"Harry, could you take Aisha, Lauren, Rose with you?"
"But with the three of us, we might not be able to fight."
Harry had a point.
Screeeeeeeeeeech.
The whine of the tyrant was heard.
"Char, the scream is going to attract monsters."
"If you send the three of them alone they'll die."
No. No. No.
"Claudie, go with them, I'll go on my own."
"And have you die with him?"
She was indignant.
"No way, I understand he might make it out with the skills you've spoken about, but with Lauren healing, Harry carrying and Rose left to protect them by herself they will die."
"If I leave you and Lucas will both probably die too."
Rose interjected.
"He's already near death, and on the chance he makes it alive out of the arena, he won't be in any fighting condition."
"You'll be like Harry carrying Aisha, useless."
"Hey!"
"Shh."
I put my head in my hands, I needed to think.
"Wait, Claudie, do you think you could make it if I-"
"Hey, you guys, we've got injured."
A boys voice rang out.
"2 of us need healers fast, and Me and her need minor healing later too."
"Do you guys know of a safe place?"
"Yea we tagged it with safety before we got here."
This situation was not getting better.
Rose sprang up.
"Charlotte, listen, now we've got a lot of injured, we have to get to the barracks like he said."
"If we don't make it, he'll have made us run for nothing."
I pulled my head out of my hands.
I'm sorry Lucas.
I gripped my rapier until my knuckles turned white.
"Harry give me your team's comms orb."
"If I get word I'm going back."
"No way."
"Let's go."
The faster we got to the barracks the faster we could go back to get Lucas.
I hated this.
I wanted to be with him, even if it meant our untimely demise.
I was a mere 4th princess, unable to succeed the throne, and if I hadn't been committed to this academy, I may have been used as a politial tool.
In the midst of everything, he stood there for me, in my time of need.
But I couldn't do the same.
I walked fast.
I was leading the group in a fast march fashion.
I held the orb in my hand hoping for a response from Lucas.
***
*Rose's Pov*
"Princess Charlotte, we need to slow down, the injured can't keep on like this."
I hated this.
I hated watching someone so strong anguish like this.
I pushed for the creation of the camp, not because I thought Lucas would die, but I believed he would live.
"I'm sorry, I'll move slower, but we're only 5 minutes out from the camp."
"Charlotte, I get that you want to go back to Lucas ASAP, but he'll make it out alive."
"I trust that someone like him, wouldn't martyr himself."
She looked a little less gloomy like that.
I liked the princess, she reminded me a lot of my younger self.
Back when I only held a portion of the whole merchant group, I had a servant.
More specifically I had a friend, a confidant who I lost.
During a massive split because of the heir battle, he had to be left behind in order to protect me.
I felt despair in that moment, but not today, I felt motivated to make the base and run back.
To get the boy who resembled him.
"Monsters, get ready for battle."
I put my sword up.
I was going to slice, tear, and stab through these enemies, until I saw that what happened to me wouldn't happen again.
When we found him, he had to be rushed to the hospital, I wasn't allowed to look.
And when I did, he had lost an arm, but it wasn't his arm that was really lost, it was his soul.
He was tortured for information about me, not that he ever gave up.
He smiled, under pain, so I swung, he comforted me despite the wounds, so I swung.
He saved me, when I was incapable of the same, so I swung with everything I could.
"Alright, they're clear let's move."
One of the people from the other group sounded.
"You did great."
"If you can talk, then we can move."
But this wasn't for them, this was for Charlotte, this was an apology for a younger me.
We soon reached the barracks.
And there already were two teams waiting.
Aurelia von Svarmet was there.
The princess hung her head in shame.
"Charlotte, where's Lucas?"
Claudia stepped in.
"We have injured, we need them, right now."
She pointed at Celeste and Aisha.
"Fine, put them down here, my team wil sort you out."
"I'm going to find Lucas."
Clearly she understood.
The pain of losing someone.
She didn't ask, she already knew, the meaning of the face, of someone bringing damning news.
I wonder who it was for her, that would cause her to react so strongly to her knight.
I guess she's like me too.
Princess Charlotte grabbed the ducal princess' shoulder.
"I'm going with you."
She handed Aura the comm orb.
"Is this?"
Charlotte only added a nod in response.
"Claudia, Charlotte, Ms. Aurelia, let me handle management for now, I have skill and experience here."
"I will move with the latter two, and I need you, Ms. Claudia to oversee this."
"When Aisha wakes up have her join Lauren, Ms. Celeste, and the other healers."
"Have Morgan select people for the defense of the camp, and then begin with the rationing of food and supplies, in Lucas' bag, on Aisha's person. There should be enough to support the camp."
"Ms. Charlotte, Aurelia, let's go."
With that the three of us left.
***
*Charlotte's Pov*
For some reason during the battle and in the camp Rose, showed more reactions than normal.
She seemed more ready to retrieve Lucas than I.
It was uncanny.
When Claudia announced a battle, Rose would leave her longsword in her waist holster, in favor of a dagger.
She swung it without abandon, not missing a single hit.
She by far, had racked up the most kills.
When Claudia announced the end, she followed right after me, as if knowing my objective.
One of the battles, after Claudia's announcement, a girl from the other group told her good job, she snubbed them, and continued forward.
It was like she was diverting all the attention of making the choice to leave Lucas behind onto herself, but why?
And so I asked as we flew down the hallways.
"Hey Rose?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you convince me to leave Lucas, but then drag all the negative attention of leaving him onto yourself?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Why were you so eager to let Lucas be left behind, but be the first to turn around and go get him?"
Aura jumped in a little angry.
"Were you feeling guilty? Did your trade-offs not work?"
"I'm sorry princess' it's nothing like that."
"In fact, I feel that I am in the same boat as you."
"When Charlotte came back with the news, or rather, when she didn't and simply walked in with her head low, you knew."
"I resonated with that, in that we are kindred spirits, to know that bad news has come, because the people closest to us fear hurting us because of it."
"I originally wanted to ask, what exactly it was you lost, to make you understand that look from a messenger, but it would have been insensitive."
"As for Ms. Charlotte, you having to have left him behind was just like me."
What?
"What do you mean?"
Aura spoke on my behalf.
"Well, I also lost someone, much like you Ms. Aurelia, and when I went back they had been badly tortured, and had lost much of their soul."
"I'm sorry."
Aura's face turned from anger, to aggrivation, to sadness and sympathy.
"I just simply didn't want someone else to go through the same thing."
"I understand, Ms. Rose, I'm sorry for judging so early."
"It's okay Ms, Aurelia, and please just call me Rose."
We arrived at the colosseum.
"He's in there right?"
Aura began to walk and I stopped her.
"There's a tyrant."
"Not yet, let's see if Lucas made it out first."
We circled around the exits and found him halfway inside a wall with sword and orb in hand.
Aura made short work of removing the wall around him.
I grabbed his body.
"Lucas?"
I could feel his heart beating.
"Thank you."
I rested my head on his chest and began to cry.
"Thank you for being alive."
***
*Rose's Pov*
I have to say I am thankful to you too, Lucas.
Your bravery and skill not only saved lives here today, but also the souls of the three of us.
Charlotte upon confirming his life, despite the battle, cried on top of him.
Aura and I began healing him.
I had no practice with such an artifact, but it's smooth nature was incomparable to most of the artifacts I've ever held in my hands before.
His wounds were quite severe, even moreso than everyone else in the camp combined, his body was a wonder.
"That's weird, his body didn't."
Charlotte picked her head up.
"Wait, you're right, he didn't."
"Didn't what?"
I asked.
"You think it's okay to tell her?"
"I don't know."
"It's okay, please, if it's important, you don't have to tell me."
"Alright, then we'll be putting up a sound barrier now."
They talked for a few minutes as Charlotte joined Aura and I in healing him.
As soon as they had healed him enough for the journey, they extended the barrier around us to me.
"Hey, Charlotte, how come Claudia didn't do this when we were heading with the other group?"
"Actually she did, but the scope of the spell was too wide, and with how many of us there were, we got spotted anyways, so she turned off the spell since it wasted mana and didn't exactly help."
"I understand."
"Alright, Aura is going to keep healing so we can all move at a decent pace, let's get back to the camp."
***
*Claudia's Pov*
I hope that boy is alive, for everyone's sake.
Not just to keep the two princess' rage under control, but because he seemed to be aware of everything, prepared for everything.
We had multiple groups of students enter the camp, and we started to terraform the labyrinth to make more room.
They had varying levels of injuries, and worse more, there were too few healers for the injured.
We laid some of the less injured down on cots.
We couldn't afford to heal them yet.
Thankfully they didn't really complain yet.
Aisha after waking up, continued to heal.
She had been healing for quite some time.
She had run out of mana, multiple times, undergoing mana exhaustion, and she simply removed a cork from a mana bottle, and continued.
She had surely taken in 3 different mana exhaustion layers, and still continued.
Her eyes had deep bags around them, maybe she thought they hid the guilt she felt.
They did.
But I knew, you didn't push yourself to these limits for duty.
You do it for a purpose, and what more terrifying a purpose than a person who believes they've killed someone.
One of the boy's groups started to make complaints, as if they were in any shape, or authority, to do so.
As I moved to scold them, Aisha, moved to heal them.
Celeste, Lauren, and a healer, named Korin, a boy who was shy, continued on with the more severe injuries.
So far no one had died, and the flares were lighting up the labyrinth.
We probably had more than a fifth of the students at our camp currently.
Some people were unwillng to give up their rations, but in order to get treatment, they did.
I didn't like this method, but until one of the princesses, Rose, who was a much better person than the other merchant lady, or Lucas returned, I headed the role of administrator.
I couldn't understand what was taking the school so long to extract us from the dungeon.
Surely this 6 almost 7 hour long excursion was not a test.
That Tyrant nearly killed us.
This wasn't a test, right?