A silver-haired man with a long full beard stood at a window, gazing down at the city of Baku. He frowned, as he stood with his hands clasped behind his back. His blue eyes glittering with an unfathomable emotion.

Whatever irascible thoughts the old man might have had going through his head, were shelved when there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.” said the old man.

In came a slightly younger man. Red-haired, with a sharp widow’s peak, and a very classic brand of human handsomeness. Lantern jawed, bright-eyes, pouting lips, and rippling yet graceful physique.

This man was older than middle-aged, but far from being as venerable as the silver-haired senior. Faint hints of elvish ancestry making the newcomer look even younger.

“Master.” said the slightly younger man. Clasping his fist in his palm and briefly bowing at the waist.

“Good evening, Alfwin.”

“Good evening to you as well, Master.” said the younger man. Lowering himself onto one of the couches within the office.

Farrokh Hillman, Elder of the Hundred Night Sect, turned to greet his sole disciple, Alfwin Xaime.

“How goes it?” said Farrokh.

“It goes well, Master. At least for the most part…” said Alfwin.

“Oh? And what’s happening during those times that things don’t go well?”

“It’s nothing, sir...I’m just having a bit of a headache with those Blackvale students.”

“Ah…I could imagine.” said Farrokh. Stroking his whiskers, as he foggily recalled that his disciple had recently been granted the position of a senior administrator within the academy that served as the main recruitment pool and money-making tool for the sect.

“I’ve nothing against those newcomers...but somehow they’re not getting along with the rest like they should.” said Alfwin. His expression twisting as if he were chewing on something sour.

Farrokh just chuckled.

“What you mean to say is that they aren’t allowing themselves to be ‘eaten’ like they should.” said Farrokh knowing his disciple all too well.

“....I...I wouldn’t phrase it that way, master. I just wish they'd try a little harder to integrate with the rest of the student body.” said Alfwin.

“I’m sure you do, youngster. But these kind of things take time and in the meanwhile thanks to the Oddvar-Luce clan and their company, the new students are more of an organized faction than a loose mob or refugees.”

“Mhm...And there’s nothing I can do?” said Alfwin. Furrowing his brow.

“I wouldn’t say that...I’d just advise treading carefully...Housecarl Industries has become one of our Sect’s biggest supporters...Even if these newcomers seem to be generating friction, there are enough clear signs of their intent to eventually join the fold that making too much noise over the minor matters taking place between the students, could end up shooting you in the foot,” said Farrokh. Sternly warning his protege.

“...Yes, master.”

“Very good. Now...Tell me how those kids of yours are doing.

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After confirming that they hadn’t managed to get themselves unenrolled despite their months of playing truant, Andrew and Sophia left HNA’s central administrative building. They stood in the plaza outside the building, and linked their sprites together for the sake of surfing the web on a window they both could see.

Now that they knew they were still students of Hundred-Night Academy, they had to see what they needed to do next. Andrew expected that this semester would be a wash, considering how many absences they had, but that was fine. It just meant that they didn’t have to take this semester’s classes too seriously and could just take their time getting used to the atmosphere of the academy.

“Huh…” said Andrew. Reading through the academy’s site and then going back and doing a couple of searches on the academy as a whole.

“It seems Hundred-Night Academy operates a little differently compared to our old school,” said Sophia.

“Nh...Seems so,” said Andrew. Frowning as he moved past searching the web, and began tapping connections to the akashic plane and the collective unconscious to get a better view of how things in the school’s operation and history.

“Well, I suppose that’s more convenient then, right?... If we take things a little more seriously, we won’t end up wasting a semester,” said Sophia.

“Or we could just cheat the software and test out of those classes,” said Andrew.

“Yes, hoheit...I suppose that is an option too,” said Sophia. Rolling her eyes and smirking, giving her husband a playful pinch as they walked through the plaza together. Then she proceeded to access HNA’s data and make the necessary modifications to the school’s records.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, the various academies that served as the public faces of the magus towers, sects, and mercenary guilds still at least pretended to be proper academies. Here in Graysville, the Hundred Night Academy that served as the public face of the Hundred Night Sect barely bothered with such things.

In hindsight, Andrew and Sophia should have known better. They should have picked up on this little detail during their prior investigations of the goings-on of the academy and Nurari III as a whole.

However back then their focus had been on making sure the school and the planet were safe to live on, with no upcoming upheavals or secret dangers. They hadn’t thought to be concerned about the curriculum and the actual makeup of the academy’s program.

If they had been paying attention they would have already known that the HNA curriculum was basically a copy and paste of the sect’s training curriculum for its disciples with just enough changes added to allow the school to satisfy the empire’s educational standards.

Rather than fussing with classes and required credit hours, the HNA took a more laissez-faire approach to education. A student of Hundred Night Academy would have only one or two classes that they had to take, per year.

The rest of the program was almost totally up to the student. Since all the classes were taught through a mixture of live professors, pre-recorded online lectures, and online programs run by AI-operated virtual tutors and teachers-assistants, there was a lot of flexibility.

A student in the HNA had complete control over how many courses they took, when they took those courses, and how fast the course was completed. If they so choose, they could eschew the lectures, and simply rely on the virtual-tutors and online materials. If they were feeling particularly gutsy they could even simply read the course materials and leave things at that.

The sole requirement for getting credit for the courses was passing the difficult and comprehensive “midterms” and “finals” that school’s testing halls proffered throughout the year.

These midterms and finals general came in the form of standardized tests and essay examinations. They also could come in the form of work product or practical assessment in the case of more craft-based, and more hands-on, courses.

Getting a degree was just a matter of passing all the required courses and there was no particular timeline that needed to be followed for one to do so.

“Mnh…” said Andrew. Tapping his chin.

“What is it, hoheit?” said Sophia.

“I was just thinking it’s a shame…”

“What’s a shame, hoheit?” said Sophia.

“Here we are in a school where we could be basically crank out as many qualifications as we want...but it doesn’t matter because we already work for ourselves,” said Andrew. Wondering why he was only running into such a convenient system now.

“....” Sophia just shook her head. Wondering why that was a cause for the man to look so aggrieved.

“Well, at the very least, it won’t be too difficult to make sure we’ve graduated with a few good degrees by the time we’re done in this place,” said Sophia. Moving conversation onto matters that were a little more meaningful.

“Nh...That’s true,” said Andrew.

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Andrew and Sophia quickly earmarked a number of courses that they needed for their chosen degrees. The degrees themselves didn’t matter but since they weren’t planning to leave Nurari III to soon, they both ended up aiming high and choosing multidisciplinary degrees.

The two eidolons immediately enrolled in those classes that were either fully virtual or only had non-essential live lectures. Those courses they’d simply pass through testing after an appropriate amount of months had passed.

They were pickier when it came to the courses they actually had to show up for. The fact that it was hypothetically possible to graduate without spending a single day in class, excluding the required classes, meant that they could get away with only choosing courses that they had a strong interest in.

Speaking of the required course, that was where Andrew and Sophia were headed now. That required course was yet another indicator of the many degrees of separation that lay between the Hundred Night Sect and the Empire.

One would expect an academy’s required course to have something to do with the many needs and/or recommendations of the empire. Instead, the HNA used the required course as a means of serving its own needs.

At the ninth grade level, right at the beginning of secondary school, all HNA students were expected to spend a certain number of hours in a certain house. An innocuous-looking building that sat in the heart of the city surrounded by thick, high walls, and more security personnel than you’d see at the average military black site.

This house was known as the House of a Hundred Candles. Its top two floors were largely normal, but the basement and below had been the subject of much scientific, spiritual, and philosophical discussion.

This house was also the sole reason the hundred-night sect was able to rise to the level of power that is currently enjoyed. It was the sole reason the sect was able to take-over most of Nurari III and resist the Novem empire’s influence.

The House of a Hundred candles was one the so-called Hidden realms of the martial and magical worlds. A rare treasure amongst the sects and arcane orders. This hidden realm’s true identity was that of a figment realm, a nightmare realm. Which turned the house into a double-edged blade.

On the one hand, the sect gained much power and countless resources, from exploring the depths of the realm. On the other hand, the house’s presence in the heart of the sect’s territory ensured that if they didn’t continually wage war with the creatures that lay at the realm’s depths they and the rest of Graysville would quickly be consumed. With a large portion of the rest of the Blackrose galaxy being soon to follow if the myriad gods, spirits, immortals, and angels of the galaxy didn’t step in to seal away the region.

Thus the sect and its academy had a constant need for young bodies. Young lives that they could use to quell the endless hunger of the House of a Hundred Candles.

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“Huh...A dungeon realm? Neat.” said Andrew. After he and Sophia reached the gates of the fortified compound that surrounded the house of a hundred candles.

Dungeon-realms were a type of figment realm. While not all figment-realms were dungeon-realms. All dungeon-realms inevitably became figment realms, assuming the core survived long enough, and this dungeon, the House of a Hundred Candles, or HHC, was well on its way to become a high-grade figment realm. The only thing it lacked was a proper lord. This was the sole reason the sect was able to plunder it so freely.

“Well, look at who it is...If it isn’t our glorious leader,” said a wry, somewhat sarcastic, voice from closer to the front of the gate.

“Eh?...” said Andrew. He leaned out of the line and saw a family face, framed with silky silver-green hair.

“Oh, Ollie...Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“En...I know. What have you been doing for the last two weeks, man?” said the half-elf. Giving up his place in line to join his friend near the end of the line.

“Honestly,...Nothing. It’s like time just got away from me.” said Andrew. Telling the truth. Somehow, going from being overscheduled to being normally scheduled was enough to throw Andrew off his game, and thus a lot of seemingly small things had fallen to the wayside.

The two youths conversed. Talking about nothing and particular, and simply catching up with one other. Sophia joined in as well and they chatted amiably for the five minutes it took for them to get through the gates.