There were a few seconds of silent stupefaction, all of them surrounding a defeated Larse, his hands still held up as Lylesia was still threatening to stab him at any moment, her knee pressed against his chest and her forearm against his throat.
"Speak," she hissed. "Now."
"I-it's an exercise!" he admitted. "Brigade Two was told to ambush Brigade Three!"
"But Instructor De Genova was shot," Maltick frowned.
"...It was fake blood," Theora said out loud as she just realized the truth. "I knew something was off. I should have smelled her blood, but it wasn't blood, was it?"
"N-no," Larse said. "She's in on the exercise."
"And Elexei?"
"We were told we would win if we managed to capture one of you and keep them captive until the end of the... class."
"Capture how?"
He bit his li
