The meeting went on as the others recommended more conventional strategies that played to their defense, even if it felt dull compared to the more insane strategy that Cæ had proposed. There were those like Lorden, who were inspired by Cæ's crazy strategy but lacked his courage, who proposed a strategy that was offensive, but did not entirely betray defense like Cæ's strategy.

However, that was actually worse, for it inherited the worst of both worlds. It had poor protection for the flag, but didn't deviate from the reasonable expectations that Miranda likely had, preventing them from being able to completely negate her strategy. In particular, there were none that were able to reach a decisive advantage.

At most, the sensible strategy that Silian proposed, which had them playing to their strengths, and the strategy ideas that the trainer leader had shown them, was one that didn't risk losing in embarrassing fashion like Cæ's plan risked, if Miranda somehow saw through their plan.

While these ideas lacked the gimmicky tricks of Cæ's idea, they didn't stress everybody out as much.

Cæ also understood why they were a little averse to his idea.

It was because they had no personal stake in the outcome of this match.

After all, it was a match between Cæ's leadership versus Miranda's. Thus, they didn't lose anything that they would have gained if they had won the battle. He knew that he would need to be a bit more compelling in his rationale.

"A bad leader will reflect badly on you, no matter how good the individual members of a team are. A bad leader will completely sabotage the entire team and make your performance in the Magic Contest very poor," Cæ explained. "It would be one thing if you yourself were responsible for your poor performance, but can you imagine how frustrating it would be to look weak and incompetent because of a bad leader?"

His words had an impact on the other four, who grew serious.

"Based on everything you have seen with Miranda and everything that you have seen of me, who do you think will be a more annoying leader to be under, and who do you think will likely better lead you to victory?" Cæ raised an eyebrow. "Who knows, maybe some of you genuinely prefer Miranda. But as for who is better, allow us to deploy our strategies, and let us see who emerges on top."

He shrugged. "Perhaps Miranda will prove to be a better leader and end up winning, but then you will have no doubt at all. You will have no doubt about the fact that she is the better leader out of the two of us."

Cæ's stormy gray eyes swept over the four of them.

"What do you think? Don't my words make sense when considering what is best for our performance in the Magic Contest?"

"I am for your plan, Cæ," Serulia's light blue eyes sharpened. "I think your plan is genius, and I think that you will make for a better leader than Miranda. I have gotten intimate reports on how well the Slum Talent Acquisition Program was run, and everything that I have seen suggests that it was run like a professional team that did what it did for a living. Something that is quite impressive for someone who is still a student."

Lorden nodded vigorously. "I-I agree! I think you will make for a much better leader than Miranda or Kyrell."

That gave Cæ the support of two of the four remaining students.

"I'm willing to go with your idea, for now," Hyoken heaved a resigned sigh. "I don't like that girl. She acts too haughtily and looks down on students with a commoner background like mine; it rubs me the wrong way. I don't think I would get the respect and regard that I deserve."

That left only Silian, who was not so easily convinced as the rest of them.

"…I have misgivings with your plan." He sharpened his green eyes, folding his arms. "I think it's reckless, presumptuous, and far too risky to be worth achieving. However…"

He heaved a deep breath.

"If the four of you are for it, then I'm willing to go along with the majority for now. I will commit to the plan with the best of my power. If it fails and we lose, then you will be the one to bear responsibility for it."

It was a more reasonable and mature response than Cæ had expected from him.

It appeared that he had misjudged Silian a little with his visceral reaction to Cæ the day prior. But the fact that he could put aside his pride and how embarrassing it must have been and participate in the discussion showed that perhaps Silian was not as bad as Cæ had thought.

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Or at least, he had changed a lot in the span of one year.

Still, that didn't mean Cæ was simply willing to become buddy-buddy with a guy who tried to kill him in cold blood for simply being born in the slums. Cæ was not forgiving by nature, and this was far too far to simply forget.

Especially when Silian hadn't apologized for what he had done or even the slightest bit of regret or remorse, from what Cæ could see. Still, it was good that their communication on the surface was good, even if they didn't like each other.

"Then we are in agreement for now," Cæ remarked. "I will have all of you go back home after this brief meeting and dive deep into the documents we have prepared on our opponents and search for something that could negate this strategy that I have proposed. Imagine if you were on the other side, what could you possibly use to break this strategy? Then let's develop this strategy as much as possible until there are no loopholes."

The group accepted that it would tentatively move forward with the strategy that Cæ provided, while looking for details in the materials provided by their opponents' team that could potentially invalidate this strategy.

"My biggest concern is the trainers," Cæ remarked with a serious tone. "These are retired professionals who played the sport competitively and know it inside out. They will not compromise the match by inserting their own strategizing into the match and skewing it in either mine or Miranda's favor, but they will fight with all their power in the match."

Of the four trainers that Miranda had gotten, however, none of them were divination experts, although they possessed some divination skill with magic. It meant that he could relatively safely rule out the possibility that the trainers would bust his strategy.

"She has a lot of offensive-oriented magetants among the four trainers that she has, so my strategy should make those assets much more useless than they otherwise would be," Cæ remarked. "It should be in the interests of these trainers to be as fair as possible because they have a vested interest in ensuring that the best leader gets selected."

That was why he was certain that the trainers would allow the competition to unfold fairly without skewing it in favor of any one person over the other.

"This one might be a problem," Serulia remarked, showing him a profile of one of the trainers. "He has the best divination skills out of the four trainers on Miranda's team. With the experience he has on top of that, he might see through your plan."

Cæ's gaze sharpened as he studied the trainer.

He was a forty-year-old man with twenty years of experience as a former Capture The Flag player in Elendir. He was indeed quite experienced, and depending on how good his divination exactly was, it was possible that he would realize that the 'fake flag' was in fact the real flag.

"…It is a possibility that I can't dismiss," Cæ remarked. "We will need to come up with a stronger guarantee that he will be fooled. He may not contribute to Miranda's strategy to ensure that the leaders can truly show their worthiness alone, but if he realizes that it is the real flag that we are leaving out in the open, he will report it to Miranda like a good member of the team."

Lorden grew nervous at those numbers. "…What do we do then? We can't have one member disrupt your plan to such an extent."

Cæ fell into thought as he considered the point.

What did he really need to do to sell the idea that the flag that they were leaving out was a fake flag?

"If it were a fake flag, it would probably require a tremendous amount of magical energy to maintain from a distance," Cæ remarked knowingly. "If it becomes clear that it would be simply too absurd for the fake flag to be sustained for as long as it is without Serulia around, they will realize that it is the real flag, unless…"

He turned towards Serulia with a knowing expression, "…they have reason to believe that you made special preparations to make it feasible."

Serulia frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Maintaining a fake flag over long distances is very difficult," Cæ explained. "The longer it is maintained, the more difficult it is. In fact, maintaining it too long would probably be beyond your ability, normally that is. That could give away that it is a real flag, not a fake illusion or conjured flag."

She nodded. "That's true. That would give away that it is a real flag. Maintaining an illusion or conjuration for that long would be too much for apprentice mages like ourselves."

"The solution to that is to make them believe that you have taken measures to ensure that you can maintain the illusion and the conjuration of the fake flag," Cæ explained. "For example, ask teachers doubts on how you can increase your casting time period of a particular illusion. Then, before the match begins, begin chanting a fake incantation to make it seem that you're really pushing yourself to the limit to do what you're doing. These sorts of subtle hints will make it more convincing to them that you're able to cast fake flags for longer periods of time and reduce the probability that they will see through it."

"Ah…" Serulia mused with a hint of realization. "You want me to sell that I am doing everything in my power to cast a fake flag conjuration so that they do not ever suspect that it is the real flag."

Cæ nodded. "Yes, that's pretty much it. You will have to really sell it. You're the key to our strategy."

She nodded with a serious expression. "I will keep that in mind. I do not intend to fail you."

The five of them continued trying to refine and foolproof their plan to make sure that it didn't get busted. They brainstormed ways that the plan could fail and proposed ways in which precautions could be taken to ensure that the risk could be minimized.

They spent two hours discussing various parts of the plan in depth before the meeting finally came to an end.

"Alright, that's enough for now." Cæ heaved a sigh after they arrived at a consensus on many a point. "For now, go back to your rooms and continue reading into the materials that Serulia has gathered. Make sure that you have everything you need for the next meeting. Good job, everybody."

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