Zavier wasn't sure why but he didn't go to sleep during her turn either and kept her company. During the whole mission he had found certain anomalies when it came to her. She had been way too calm during all this.

Any normal student their age would have been freaking out by the time Dahila had only been slightly worried. She hadn't shown any fear for her own life even in the most distressing of all situations and was not even worried about killing off her opponents.

Either she did not have any emotions and was a mechanical existence from the sci-fi movies of his past world or she had nerves of steel. He was hoping to get some of these answers from her to get a better understanding of her.

The atmosphere once again returned to silence but that silence wasn't romantic at all. It was that awkward silence when two people can't make any conversation at all, either because there is no common topic between the two or they don't know how to broach any topic at all.

It usually happened when one of the two didn't show any interest in conversing or the two people were so different from each other that there was no common point between the two.

But in the case of these two people sitting by the camp side, both of the situations held true. Zavier didn't know how to proceed with his questions while Dahila seemed the least interested in holding conversation.

She was acting like her cold steely self even Zavier had taken the initiative to keep her company during her shift. In the end he steeled himself and initiated conversation with the cold witch.

"I noticed that during the events of the past few days and especially those of today, you were unexpectedly calm and composed."

"So? Weren't you the same as well?"

Zavier had been caught as well. Of course, he hadn't been afraid because there was no real danger to his life at all. He had his clone in his closet at home.

Until the time it was killed off too, he was immortal. Since he couldn't just tell her that, he only smiled and laughed off her question before putting forth his own question.

"Do you not feel afraid, for your life and for yourself? Are you not scared of dying?"

"In this world, there are scarier things than just dying. Don't you think?"

'What can be scarier than dying? Isn't that the ultimate end?'

Zavier wanted to ask this question and was practically at the tip of his tongue about to be flung out but he held himself back thinking that every one of them had their own secrets just like he had one of his own that he couldn't tell anyone.

So, he hesitated in asking about her secrets too; otherwise, he would have felt too much of a hypocrite.

An awkward silence prevailed between the two of them once again. Nobody was willing to break the ice between the two. In the end it had to be Zavier who took the initiative because Dahila looked as if she could stay there for the rest of her shift without saying a single word.

"What do you think we should do if more enemies appear in the morning?"

Dahila felt that the question was easy to answer. She had already known that the teacher would never let them fight as long as she was there.

"Miss Valerie would be there to take care of them so we don't have to do anything."

Zavier looked at her incredulously wondering whether the girl was trying to act oblivious or if she really was that naïve that she hadn't noticed that Valerie had only been pretending to be all right in front of them.

In reality she would only worsen her condition if she used any magic. He didn't break her little bubble and continued to prod.

"You are forgetting something here. What if she has really been affected by the toxins of the enemy and is unable to come up with enough power to hold off the enemies that would come next? What would we do then?"

"You are right. We need to figure it out beforehand or there would be confusion on the battlefield."

Dahila could be pretty straight forward when it came to it. She accepted the situation quite easily. It looked like she had also known that there might be such a possibility and had always been open to such a suggestion.

She had only been trying to see how much grasp Zavier had of the current situation.

"Do you think that our strength can even make a dent in the current situation? Can we hold off the enemies even if we try our best? If I was the enemy then I would surely send someone who was stronger than the two who had come earlier if I wanted to avoid more casualties.

If the purpose of all this was only to prod the strength of the teacher or us, only then it might be possible that they send someone of similar strength to those who appeared earlier. That would be our only chance to survive this ordeal."

"Even escaping in such a situation would not be as easy as it appears. Those mages were able to injure Valerie so they should at the very least be B rank mages.

Our current strength is unable to handle such difficult opponents even if we bash them with our heads. That would only lead to pointless death and injuries."

"Looks like you have reached the same conclusion as me."

Dahila looked at Zavier in a joking manner but the answer she was expecting wasn't a joke at all.

"Yes, it seems so. One of us has to stay behind with the box since the target of the mission seems to be either the box or myself."

That too was just speculation based on what they had known so far. The only one that had been cast an illusion on was Zavier. There had to be a reason for that.

Since they had no way of knowing why that had been done, they had to incorporate that into their plan so that there wouldn't be any mistakes during the execution of it.

Dahila looked delicate and precious like a little ice princess but Zavier was sure that she must have either led a harsh life or she might just have been that cold and devoid of any and all expressions whatsoever, because she was not even the least bothered about choosing a sacrifice.

Before Dahila could speak any further, Zavier took the initiative to say what he had been holding back.

"I will stay behind with the box and will hold the enemy off in case they try to come after the rest of you. You have to make sure that you escape with Alissa and Valerie before I am unable to hold them back any longer."

Dahila seemed shocked for the first time during their discussion. She must not have expected that Zavier would actually take the initiative to stay behind.

She was thinking that Zavier would try to push the responsibility onto her since he had better chances of escape compared to her because of his superior strength.

It was not that Dahila was trying to shy away from the task but that she truly thought that Zavier was the best possible candidate to stay behind because he was stronger than she was.

He could hold off the enemy longer than she could have which would have enabled him to earn more time for the escaping ones. She had been waiting to see what Zavier would do.

She had seen the strong acting 'holier than thou' while pushing others into the sacrificial pit with their own hands just because they were stronger. She wanted to know if Zavier was one of those and would choose to save his own skin instead of caring about the people who were related to him.

Humans had the tendency to show their true selves in times of crisis, she knew that.

She had been waiting for the moment that she would discover more about Zavier who had always been the greatest mystery for her.

He had hidden himself too deep and even she had been unable to figure him out. The curiosity about his reasons had been eating her from the inside out but she hadn't asked him about it. She knew that some taboos couldn't be broken.

Therefore, his suggestion caught her by enough surprise to force her to reveal what she actually felt. Overwhelmed by what he had said, she had forgotten to maintain her façade.

She was wondering what his reasons for staying behind were. She couldn't even tell whether it had anything to do with the fact that he was related to Valerie and there was something going on between him and Alissa as she had witnessed earlier.

Whatever the reasons, Dahila felt his resolve from his body language, he really was determined to do so till the end. Therefore, she too vowed to protect the two girls, after exploiting the opportunity provided by Zavier, until they reached home.

Zavier nodded in appreciation of her understanding. It looked to him that he had given her less credit than it was due. He could see that the girl was incredibly practical.

If the situation had demanded her sacrifice, Zavier was sure that Dahila wouldn't have shied away from it.

At the same time, he felt that it was better that he was here or the girl might have had to remain behind since she was the strongest in the class other than him.

It was not as if Zavier wasn't bothered by this kind of solution but the same was the demand of the situation. There was no other option available to all of them.

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