The final day of herbalist exams was dedicated to the interactive field test. Test takers were each assigned to a different greenhouse in the palace and told to monitor the flora for the entire day until the next sunrise. Alice's assigned greenhouse was the most transparent, with almost all walls and roofs made of glass. She logged all activity into her testing notebook every fifteen minutes and when something major happened.

After rearranging the irrigation, the redhead observed the rare plants that she rarely saw out in the open. I'm not surprised that palace staff can afford to grow rare plants under artificially controlled conditions. Although she knew about various rare plants from books and other records, this was her first time seeing some in person.

The plant that caught her attention was the most was a tall stem with axial flowers from base to tip and a decent amount of leaves at the base. Different plants had different flower colors, ranging from solid purple to spotted white. "These are foxgloves! The entire plant is poisonous and not suitable for self-medication, but Grandfather would know what to do." That also means a fine line between living and dying...

Alice looked up and saw the full moon. I wonder what everyone else is doing. I've never been away for so long. Shun's probably not used to being alone either. Did he report to work yet? After making sure that nothing else had problems, she went to sleep on the improvised bed that the administrators provided.

The next morning, Alice woke up to the sunlight and checked the greenhouse one more time before signing off her notebook. Someone opened the door and asked, "Are you Alice Gehabich?"

The redhead faced the blond man at the door. "Yes, I am. You are?"

"My name is Spectra. I work for Prince Hydron, but that's not important. You've been disqualified."

"What?!" Alice dropped her notebook and ran up to Hydron's assistant. "But why?! It would've saved me all this time here if I had known that I failed—"

"In addition to being disqualified, you must see Prince Hydron immediately. Ladies, help me out here." No matter how much Alice flight fought back, Sellon and Zenet subdued the girl and took her outside. "Anubias, we need to post announcements on the bulletin board first."

"I'm just waiting for you."

In the market square, the two men glued papers onto the bulletin board quickly before returning to the palace. Both Shun and Dan had the day off and came to check results. The raven-haired youth focused on herbalist roster, while the brunette saw another announcement and screamed. "The army is having another draft!"

"Aren't you in the army already, Dan?"

"Yeah, but the need for a draft means that there will be an urgent battle coming soon!"

"Oh...I didn't know that." However, Shun couldn't find what he wanted. "Dan, can you read this for me? I don't see Alice's name."

"Sure." After Dan calmed down from reading the draft announcement, he read the results of the herbalist exam and frowned. "I don't see Alice either. Maybe they didn't post all the results yet."

"That's impossible—" Shun felt someone tapped his should and turned around. "Chris, Soon, what is it?"

"There's another body," the short blond whispered. "We also heard that you don't see Alice's name."

"I'm worried about what happened. I want to stay and wait, but now there's another dead body." He thought about what to do and told Dan, "I need to go. Let me know when you see Alice."

"I'll let everyone know when I see her."

Shun followed Chris and Soon to a remote area in the hills. "Do either of you have pen and paper? Alice took her notepad with her."

Soon took out a fountain pen and napkin. "Use this for now. We'll try to memorize everything as well."

"Thanks." With a branch, Shun pulled the female victim's clothing away at the neck, wrists, and ankles. "Nothing new, but her palms have weird cuts." He touched the bizarre marks and began seeing things.

A woman was gagged and tied to a chair that rested in front of a desk. All windows were closed. The only source of light was the oil lamp on the desk. Someone walked over and took a seat.

The person laid a book on the desk and flipped through a few pages. Upon reaching the desired page, the person took out a brush pen, a bowl of ink, and blank pieces of paper. The person began copying text from the book onto the blank paper.

After finishing all pages, the person waved them dry before whispering something. The person spread the papers on the desk and took out a small blade. Approaching behind the woman, the person cut into the woman's palms as she screamed in agony.

"What was he doing?!" screamed Shun as he exited the vision. He stared at his own hands, which were perfectly fine. "It seemed like the killer tortured this victim by etching symbols into her palms. I remember what each symbol looked like, but—"

He collapsed as the girls held him up. "Soon, we should take him back. This isn't working as well with Alice gone."

"I agree, Chris. Let's hope Dr. Michael is home, if Alice still isn't."

Upon returning to the Gehabich residence, Michael saw the trio and gasped. "My goodness, what happened to him?"

"It's a long story, but part of Shun's condition has to do with not seeing Alice on the results list or in person," Chris explained.

"If there's nothing else, then we'll leave now," Soon added.

"Thank you very much. Have a good day." Michael carried Shun to the living room chairs. "I don't know what happened with Alice's exam, but your health is more important."

He doesn't know about us investigating the murders, my headaches, or the situation with Hydron. "Thanks, Doctor. I was extremely concerned when the results didn't have Alice's name. There's no way that she failed. Plus, there's another draft."

"I know my granddaughter the best, and sometimes she becomes very stressed out. Anyway, you're in no condition to work. This herb infusion water should relieve your pain and aid with sleep."

After Michael returned to work, Shun drank the infused water and felt the effects immediately. He entered the guest room and fell easily onto the bed. Alice, what happened? What did Hydron do to you?

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Why is this still so difficult?!"

Dan fell back into his swivel chair and spun around before feeling dizzy. Runo sat a meter away and sighed. "Maybe we can retrace our steps."

"What does that mean?"

"Think about it. You all know where to search next because Marucho, Ren, and I each memorized different lines of a poem that contained specific words and yielded coordinates when used in conjunction with the medicine book. We need to look back at all the poems and find a pattern."

Dan turned on his laptop, which he then connected to the projector. He opened an empty word document and typed out the six lines of poetry that they were aware of. "I did exactly what you told me to do. What's there to look at?"

Marucho and Fabia entered the workroom as they were greeted by Runo. "Welcome back! But where's Ace?"

"I asked if he needed a ride, but he's taking the day off instead," Fabia explained. "Maybe he's still upset about Mira. What are you two doing?"

Dan rolled his eyes. "Mira annoys me at times—but enough about her. Runo suggested that we analyze the poems that we have in a brute-force attempt to find coordinates."

"Sounds reasonable." Marucho pulled the metal box closer to himself. "How did we miss this earlier? Inside each slot on the remaining faces of the box is a symbol etched inside. We could've known which slot was for which ring this way, instead of performing trial-and-error. Dan, can you help translate the remaining symbols?"

The brunette retrieved a digital camera and took photos while Marucho fixed other technical difficulties. "What do we have, Marucho?"

"The other two symbols mean 'earth' and 'fire'. So far, we have five elements—water, light, darkness, earth, and fire. They may be the same elements that the first line in the poem is talking about."

"Even if the second line means nothing new, the remaining space on the map's legend box suggests six more lines, which means six total elements."

Runo shrugged. "Maybe the sixth line is a closing phrase, like a concluding paragraph in an essay."

Marucho highlighted certain words in the other lines. "Dew is water. Sunlight is light. Shade is darkness. Soil is earth. We found different prescriptions with the words dew, sunlight, and shade, but neither 'soil' nor 'tree' exist in any prescription. Therefore, we should find a prescription with words that relate to fire. Everyone, start shouting words so I can record them."

"Flame!"

"Flare!"

"Blaze!"

"Burn!"

"Kindling!"

"Ember!"

...and the list went on.

Eventually, the blond intern became overwhelmed and stopped everyone. "I think we have enough words now. Time to look in the medicine book. Dan and I will search in the paper book starting on the first page. Runo and Fabia can search in through the scanned images on starting on the last page."

After nearly an hour of searching, Runo screamed, "This prescription uses the word 'ember'! The concoction on this page is sensitive to heat, so preparing it requires extremely good technique. Here are the coordinates."

Dan marked the next destination map but flinched. "Runo, is your idea of extrapolation working? The coordinates you told me are in the middle of a body of water—ironic for the owner of the fire ring."

"Dan Kuso, are you doubting me?! Finding something is better than nothing!"

Marucho reclaimed the laptop and superimposed a modern map over the scanned image of the ancient map. "Based on today's geography, those coordinates land on the edge of a peninsula. This is our only lead. We'll go there tomorrow morning."

Dan walked up to Runo and whispered, "Since you're so good at solving mysteries, maybe you should permanently transfer here."

"And face you every day? No thanks! I see you enough already on a daily basis. Without my idea, you wouldn't get anywhere."

"And without me saying so, you wouldn't be allowed to stay here with us. Also, finding the next step seemed way too easy. This secret isn't very well kept."

"Well, maybe only smart people like the ring guardians know better when it comes to solving the secret that's been kept for years. Therefore, you owe me a thank-you and—"

Suddenly, the brunette's phone rang. "Hi Joe. Thanks for saving me from a yelling lunatic."

"Uh...you're welcome? Anyway, Ace just told me that he wants to take the next few days off. I'm finally free now, so maybe I can help out in his place."

"Sweet! More help is better! I don't understand what's between him and Mira anyway. This is a great time for him to reflect. Let me tell the others that you're coming..."

The brunette walked off to the other work rooms, leaving the bluenette behind. "Thanks for leaving me alone here, Dan!"

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Let me go!"

Sellon and Zenet dragged Alice to Hydron's personal room, where he sat in his seat and played with a fountain pen. "Miss Alice, good to see you again."

"Prince Hydron, I don't understand why I was disqualified for reason."

"Are you really playing that trick on me? I warned you before."

"About what?"

"Either you agree to marry me and keep your herbalist title, or..." He took out a dagger from the pen container and played with it using both hands. "...you face an immediate death."

Alice stared at the bladed weapon carefully. Shun said he saw a flash of silver in his visions. Could this dagger be the weapon? But how would I test Hydron out? Then she remembered how nobody in the royal palace sent help to the natural disaster in Chan's hometown. "I refuse to marry someone who doesn't care about the life or death of his subjects."

Zenet gasped, but Sellon slapped the redhead's face without doubt. "How dare you say that to Prince—"

"Sellon, take it easy," Hydron halted. "Miss Alice, something about what you said makes me think that this is more than just about the wildfires that happened on a piece land of my interest."

The redhead trembled, not expecting Hydron to reply that way. "Do you realize that people are dying brutally elsewhere in here? I won't agree to anything until you agree to investigate."

"Is that it? I really have no idea about what you're talking about, but I'll ask my personal staff to look into it." The female aides glanced at Hydron surprisingly, but Hydron stood up and yelled toward the back of the room. "Spectra, Anubias, please send Miss Alice home!"

"Yes, Prince Hydron," they answered before leading Alice to a carriage outside. They soon arrived at the Gehabich residence, but before letting the redhead off, Anubias warned, "Better listen to Prince Hydron, or else your friends and family will suffer."

"Suffer how?"

Spectra walked up to his colleague and answered, "I'm sure you don't want Shun Kazami drafted into the army for the upcoming war. He did just become the new land surveyor, after all." After more subtle snickering, they finally let Alice go home.

The house was very clean. On the coffee table was a note from Dr. Michael. Grandfather went to see Joe since I went to take the exam...that I didn't even pass. She walked down the hallway quietly and saw Shun's room door slightly open. Shun's asleep already? Better not wake him then.

From her sleeves and interior coat pockets, the redhead took out rare herbs she picked from the greenhouse. Sleep aids, heart medicine, decongestants...thank goodness Hydron's assistant didn't confiscate all this. Anything can be toxic at a certain dosage—

"What are you doing?"

Alice gasped and dropped the plants on the ground. "Nothing! Shun, I thought you were asleep."

"You didn't realize that you were talking yourself so loudly?"

She shook her head.

"Well, I wasn't sleeping well anyway. Your name wasn't on the results list, and none of us could find you until now. What happened?"

"I didn't pass."

"You're lying." They stared at each other silently until Shun continued. "Based on your skill and determination, there's no way that you'd fail."

"Okay, fine! I was disqualified. Happy now?"

"Disqualified? For what reason? There's a difference between that and failing, you know." Alice turned the fire off and sat on the ground at the edge of the cabinet with her head on her arms. Shun realized the problem and sat next to her. "It's Hydron, isn't it?"

"I thought that after the greenhouse field test, everything would be fine. Instead, Hydron's assistants said that I was disqualified for no reason and dragged me over to see Hydron. He said as long as I agree to marry him, I could keep my herbalist title. Otherwise, I would face immediate death. I threatened him back about the recent dead bodies and the fire in Chan's hometown, but he either didn't know at all or was denying everything. He also threatened to hurt my friends and family if I said no, especially by drafting you into the army. What did I ever do wrong?"

"That's not fair at all." He pulled her in closer for a hug as she cried in his shoulder. Maybe now's not a good time to tell her about the symbols I saw in the most recent vision. "Don't take it too hard. There will always be alternatives."

"There are no alternatives. Hydron's serious about this. How do I tell everyone that I was disqualified because he wanted me to marry him? If you didn't believe my lie, then the others won't either." The redhead sat back and wiped her eyes. "But I value life too much to give up right now. I'll think of something."

"Anything that won't ruin your well-being is worth considering."

Alice stood up and turned the fire on again. She tasted the concoction and decided what changes were needed. It's getting there. I just need more time...which I don't have. "Shun, did you find any bodies while I was gone?"

"Um...there was one, but the vision was so weird that my head hurts every time I try to reimagine it."

"That's unfortunate. You shouldn't stress yourself out too much, either."

"Maybe I don't see anything when you're gone," he lied.

The redhead sighed and stirred the pot. I wish that won't ever happen again...

-x-x-x-x-x-

"There's no one here!"

Dan may have controlled his temper about driving, but the others sighed as they saw the fruitless result of pursuing an unofficial lead. Runo tapped the GPS screen a few times before giving up. "Let's walk around. Staying inside won't help."

Everyone got off and admired the surprisingly peaceful atmosphere. Even the bay water was calm. The brunette approached the shore and enjoyed the sea breeze. "If only our lives were as peaceful right now..."

The pigtailed bluenette walked up next to him. "We've been trying to solve the metal box for so long that we haven't had time to find Shun. His mom left me a text message. I don't know how to answer her."

"Shiori-san let me voicemails, too. I don't think I can lie to her anymore, either. I can't believe I'm not doing more to find my best friend."

"Dan, we all know how you feel," Joe empathized. "Upon first look at Shun, I could tell he was a hardworking person and knew how to prioritize. That's why I put him, you, Marucho, and Fabia together as my closest interns."

Fabia nodded. "I still remember when other students looked down on me for being a girl who wanted to pursue archaeology. Shun wasn't like them, and he even lent me his study materials. My final GPA was just above average, but at least I made it into the program."

"Shun helped me a lot too," Marucho agreed. "I skipped a couple of grades prior to college, so a lot of older peers in college despised me as well. My final GPA was in the top ten percent."

"I hate to say this, but what if opening the metal box is the only way to find him?" Dan asked, stirring questions in everyone's minds. "Ace and I saw the footage from Shun's dashcam. The video ended when he placed the phoenix pendant into the box, but I don't see a huge slot like that at all on on—"

Suddenly, something crashed loudly behind Joe, who turned around in shock. "A kite? That means there's someone else here." Later, a tall girl with indigo hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a red dress approached the kite. "Chan?! I thought you were still in China! Long time no see!"

"I'm glad to be back, Joe." The two friends shook hands before the Chinese girl picked up her kite. "Dan and the others are here, too. How did you know that my vacation cabin is here?"

"Vacation cabin?!" the others exclaimed.

Chan laughed softly and continued talking. "After high school, I went back to China as an international college student, in hopes of reconnecting with my roots. I'm on break right now, so I came to Bayview to pass time. My family has owned the vacation cabin for years. I'll take you all there right now. It's just at the top of that short cliff."