Chapter 412: Second place

Only a sharp, fresh cut at the end of the ice stem signaled the Ice Flower had ever been there at all—a trace of someone who came to take their prize first.

"I still can't ducking believe it! What kind of shirt is this?!" Dieter exploded, running up to the broken stem and hovering his face closer. "It bloomed! Look, that stem—it was broken off by someone."

Cael tried harder to keep his cool, but when he clenched his fists, he could feel claws prickling his skin. There was a thread of reason in all that, he was sure, and he had to find it.

"There was no way we'd miss anyone else racing to the flower. Not with Niko, you and Ludwig back there. There's no way to reach that far without several powerful mages in your team, and an absence of this many mages wouldn't have gone unnoticed! Ludwig's spies or Astnar's would've told them, and they would've told us. Not to mention, WE would've noticed!"