While Theo was running through the dense forest, he found that Alea seemed to be more relaxed as she began to visit other participants, have a talk with them, and cheer them up.
Seeing that she almost reached his position, Theo turned left and distanced himself, going around her position before passing her.
Albeit, the next few seconds he did that, Alea appeared next to him with a big smile on her face.
"Ah, you were the guy who defeated Laust Lange. So, you are still alive. To think we are in the same group." She waved her hand, greeting him.
"Ehm… Nice to meet you? How can I help you?" Theo asked politely. His heart beat faster because he didn't feel Alea's presence despite seeing her. 'She must have the control over her Awareness.'
"Well, I'm just greeting everyone here since we will be here for a whole month together. And I believe most of the people who manage to follow Instructor Rick are not going to leave just like that."
"Okay?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, trying to stop their conversation using his boring attitude without offending her.
However, he underestimated the woman called Alea Eilric. Firstly, he didn't expect that Alea would slow down and talk to them one by one. If he knew something like this would happen, he wouldn't have finished the first lap just to confirm the route.
And the second thing was Alea's persistence. She ignored Theo's attitude and asked him. "Still, You are here safe and sound. I see. Hey, do you want to form a group with me?"
That question stunned Theo even though what she aimed at was entirely different. She thought, 'Hmm, I already have candidates for the third-year, who is my friend, Ellen. As for the second-year students, I have settled it with Phyrill Hilbert and Sihan Raskaka. Due to the rule limitation, I need two candidates for the first year.
'I can choose Laust Lange, but this guy is also interesting. Although the fight wasn't that serious, he truly managed to keep up with Laust Lange. And there are another ten first-year students who are among the top in this group.
'If only I could find that "Joker" that seems to be hiding among first or second-year students, I will definitely choose him. Well, I need to come up with a replacement first for this training camp. Thus, I will be choosing one of the first-year students for the first session.'
"Ehm… I'm afraid that I'm not qualified to be your partner." Theo shook his head. To be honest, he had two opinions. Alea would be a great teammate to push him to the top, yet, it came with a huge risk. He didn't know if he had prepared enough to face that risk.
"You don't need to look so annoyed." She suddenly pouted.
"Eh?" Theo was bewildered by her statement since he only replied to her with a poker face. Even his tone was calm and polite.
"The movement of your eyes, the fact that you are so polite to me, and a few other clues… I know that you are annoyed with my presence here." Alea made a grin before saying, "I'm born with a pair of good eyes, you know. Discerning your hidden intention is something that I'm good at."
"…" Theo's eyebrows twitched as he recalled how Alea read him openly when he acted as Joker. This was the reason.
After a few more steps, he suddenly realized something ridiculous.
"Ah, you are really interesting." Alea didn't miss that as well.
What Theo noticed was her movement. It was completely the exact same to him. Every time he avoided a tree, she would take the same step as him while keeping their distance and position the same. In other words, even if he tried to shake her off, she would be able to read him and knew what he was about to do.
'Master… Is this what you mean by Genius? I can become this strong because of Master's help and if Master trained me from a young age, I would have become like Laust… I see. Laust is not a genius, but someone who has a head start. Compared to the one before me, who can literally do something like this, it's not even worth mentioning.' Theo sighed inwardly, realizing why his master said he wouldn't believe what a genius could do.
Meanwhile, Alea was scanning him from top to bottom before turning on her Skylink that had the form of a bracelet.
It projected a blue screen where she clicked on a note, giving her a blue paper. She started everything she found about Theo while muttering, "Hmm. His abilities are hidden, he is calm and composed as well as has a good observation sk—Guak."
Before she finished, she hit the tree because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going.
Theo, on the other hand, kept moving as he began turning left and right to confuse her and disappear from her sight as if he just escaped from a tiger.
"Ouch." Alea made a weird smile while stroking her forehead. "It hurts. Anyway, I should check the other candidates first, but I think he is the most interesting guy. Though, I wonder if he has realized the true meaning of this training camp."
She shook her head and ran to another candidate, doing the same thing to get their reaction.
On the contrary, Theo was sweating profusely, muttering. "That wasn't good. Everything was backfired. What was the deal with that woman? I couldn't understand her mind. She looked like an open book, telling others her secret, but her actions were so random.
"Besides, that woman was dangerous. Now I wonder how many "geniuses" like her are there in school…" Theo took a deep breath. "It seems I need to discover them one by one and have them in my team. That will allow me to win the spot for Grand Gaia."
Knowing what he needed to do, he started creating plans toward it while wondering whether he should accept Alea's invitation or not.