[the next day]
In the cold morning, Lania stands behind the Academy where she's supposed to meet up with John, she's wearing a brown winter coat that has the Academy's golden logo on it, as she waits, she looks so pissed.
Lania: (Argh, where the hell is John?! We were supposed to meet here, jeez, leaving a woman in the cold like that? He must be drinking hot chocolate in his room, ahhh I really want a cup of hot chocolate).
While she's drifting away in her imagination, John appears from the side of the building, wearing a gray winter coat with the Academy logo on it while Elesa sat on his shoulder covering herself with his scarf.
Lania immediately noticed the big difference between her coat with low quality materials and his coat that looks like it came out of a Luxurious clothing shop.
John: good morning Ms. Lania, I see you've came here earlier than me, in that case, let's go, shall we?
Lania: pardon me for asking you Mr. John, but where did you get your hands on this high quality coat? the Academy's one isn't even good as yours.
John looked at her with a confused expression as if she asked about something everyone knows.
John: Hmmm? You know you can customize it right?
Lania looked shocked, the words barely coming out of her mouth.
Lania: ehh? Customize it? How?
John: just go to the Deanship of Student Affairs and ask to customize your coat, you can choose the color and the materials of it... Lania? Are you there?
Lania looked quiet and pale, at least that was the case from the outside, as for her inner thoughts, it is a different story.
Lania: (WHHHHHYYYYY?! WHY IS THAT HAPPENING TO MEEEE?!! OH MY GOSH I'M SO EMBARRASSING!!!).
John: Lania are you alright?
Lania: y-yes, I'm fine.
John: in that case, let's go, we have a long road ahead of us.
As the conversation ended, Lania and John with Elesa on his shoulder starts moving.
As they walk further in the massive white snowy field, the Academia starts to get smaller with every step they take, Lania couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity in this road, eventually, her curiosity pushed her to ask John.
Lania: John, where are we going? You still haven't told me where we're going today.
John: . . . .
Lania: Hey! Are you even listening to me?
John gave her a side eye while remaining silent.
John: . . . .
Lania understood that any question she asks won't be answered so she gave up.
When they reached the forest that's Located after the field, Lania had an idea of where they're going.
Lania: (this place, could it be that we're going to them?).
Lania was so focused on her thoughts she didn't see that John had stopped walking, so she collides with his back.
Lania: Ouch!!! Hey why did we stop?!
John: look at the ground.
Lania looked at where John is pointing his finger, and to her Surprise, she saw a footprint in the snow.
Lania: huh?! a footprint? Is someone lost here in these woods?
John: I doubt that's it, I have a guess, but let's keep going for now.
Lania: Hmmm.
Lania clearly had no choice but to follow him.
They kept walking until they reached what looks like a path, a few of the trees that was already there was chopped by someone.
Lania: do we still have to continue?
John: yes, I guess by now you already know where we're going.
Lania: yeah, I figured that out, we're going to the main camp of the snow Elves.
John: you can go back if you want.
Lania: No, I can handle it, besides, leaving you alone in the snow Elves camp will be dangerous.
John gives her a gentle smirk as he hears that.
John: as you wish, then let's climb one of those giant trees to scan the camp.
They climb one of the trees with no effort and stand on a branch viewing the snow Elves camp, they start putting a plan to move in the camp without being detected.
Lania: so, what's the plan? Surely we won't just go there and expect them to open their doors for us.
John: we'll hide behind the tents, move whenever a nearby guard moves, in other words, we'll keep it low, if anything happens we'll run, understood?
Lania: mhmm, understood.
John extends his hand to Lania out of the sudden.
John: hold my hand.
Lania: W-W-W-WHAT?!! WHY?!!
Lania's face immediately turned red as John extended his hand to her, as calm as ever, John doesn't bother to explain why.
John: just hold my hand and you'll see.
Lania: (I think I have read about something like this before, he wants to take our relationship to the next level, that's definitely it, but we barely know each other, aw well, but if he tries to kiss me I'll kick his ass... probably).
As soon as she touched John's hand, Lania immediately sensed something is wrong, she can't feels John's presence, but what really made her entire body shake is that she can't even feel her own presence.
John assures her it's safe to be like that.
John: I can see that you are terrified, but don't worry, it's just a Technique I'm using, as long as you hold my hand, your presence will be hidden, now let's establish some rules before we go.
Lania: a-alright.
John: first of all, you need to stick with me and don't even think about leaving my side, the second thing is, no matter what, you need to keep your mouth shut, i can hide our presence but not our voices, nod if you understand.
Lania nodded, no words, no questions asked, nothing.
John: good, let's move.
With that they start jumping from tree to tree holding each other's hand, eventually, they reach the back of the camp and start moving carefully behind the tents until they stops behind a noticeably bigger tent, and what they hear from it really sends a shock wave in their Spines.
Baldur: so, my little spy, what did the humans do?
Baldur's smirking voice echoes in the tent while the snow Elves' spy starts explaining what the students in the Academia have been doing.
Spy: Oh Prince Baldur, the humans must've known about our Attack on them, they were preparing for something in the past few days.
Baldur: heh, so that little piece of shit betrayed us after all.
John can feel Lania's grip tighten up, he looks at her and sees a terrified expression all over her face.
John: (so they were watching us this whole time, and the footprint we saw must've belonged to that spy, damn it, are they going to attack us now?).
Spy: my lord, I suggest we attack them now since they don't expect us to, that will give us the element of surprise.
Baldur: hehehe, you see their preparation as a problem for us, but I see it as an advantage.
Spy: excuse my question my lord, but how?
Baldur: since our little friend Lania had told them about our Attack, she must have also mentioned why we're here, and knowing how nobles act, they're now most likely looking for the spell to make a deal with us, by that, they'll save us the time we would've spent looking for it by ourselves.
To Be Continued . . . . .