On the year 381 FP, a year after the academy in Paradise opened, the first batch of “graduates” - really just Cal’s old students helping give the academy a boost, since that way they could call it their alma mater, with her nieces also joining up along with them - formed a party together and soon made their names known in the adventuring circle.

Even when the party was freshly formed, it drew the attention of many, simply because the small party - barely ten people, which was on the smaller side as such parties went - had a most unusual composition. Most adventuring parties of that size counted themselves lucky if they had a single gold-tagged member to lead the group, with the majority of such small, new parties being predominantly of iron to copper tags, maybe with a silver or two to hold the fort.

So when a group was formed where a silver tag - Ashani, who had not been registered for long and had not achieved enough feats to qualify for Gold yet - was the lowest ranked member, with the rest of the group gold-tagged, as well as counting the youngest black-tagged adventurer in history amongst them, there was no way it would not draw attention.

The group distinguished themselves very quickly, as they took on missions that were normally reserved for larger groups, hunts and exterminations that pitted them against great beasts normally only hunted with a force of many dozens if not hundreds, and took them out all by themselves. Before three years were past, another three members of the group had earned their own black tags, while Ashani had earned her gold one within a year. Even the temporary retirement of one of the group’s main frontliners - who was considered a candidate for black tag herself - did nothing to slow their rise to fame.

Generally considered the public face of the group, Willa Ùlfsmund enjoyed the free, unfettered sort of life that adventuring brought her. That free, unfettered attitude also extended to her personal relations, as she never tied herself to anyone in particular. Even so, she was blessed with four children over the years that followed, twin daughters fathered by the then Captain of the Royal Guard of the Elmaiya Empire, Ursus Lebenswerk, as well as a son and a daughter from her long-time friend and party member, Ognar of the Bloodtooth. She continued working actively even after the birth of her children, though, unlike some female adventurers who retired and focused on their family after such cases.

Giselle Aldenvar had joined the party her friends made and worked with them for two years, before she retired from the adventuring life. Her friends were somewhat surprised to learn that she had settled down to continue her parent’s confectionery business, and even married one of their more trusted disciples and started a family with him. For a few years, she lived peacefully in such a manner, even with her boisterous friends who visited frequently.

Her peaceful life had not lasted for long, however. Five years after her retirement, Giselle - by then a mother of two children with her husband - discovered that she was being cheated on by her husband in the worst manner possible, as she caught them red-handed in the act. In the shouting match that followed, her husband inadvertently let slip that he had only been with her for money, and even mocked her for being “unwomanly” to her face.

While Giselle let off the woman her husband had cheated on her with - the woman was a courtesan so she had not even blamed her for plying her trade - she left her former husband half-dead on the ground that night, crippled to the point that he would never have children ever again.

From there, many things happened at a rapid pace for her. A drunken liaison with her old friend Ognar after she poured out her grief on him and Willa resulted in a third child. Giselle herself rejoined the adventuring party a few months after the birth of her third child, and after a couple more years, formed a relationship with Fyodor, who had also joined the group by then. That relationship persisted strongly to the current day and the couple had a daughter that they raised along with Giselle’s other children.

As for Ognar of the Bloodtooth, he lived life with the typical promiscuity that orcish youth often displayed. Cal had no real idea how many children Ognar had sired out there, but she herself knew of six for certain. Two with Willa, another two with Fheeri, with whom he looked close to committing a long-term relationship with before both realized that they enjoyed being free too much, another with Giselle, and one more with the lady who finally made an honest man out of him later on.

Nobody had expected that Ognar would be smitten with - and later, after a tumultuous and passionate love affair that lasted over a year - married an elf who used to make a relatively successful living as a pugilistic gladiator in the Kingdom Down Under’s arenas, who was attracted by the academy’s reputation of benefiting even experienced fighters like her. Either way, Wisperia was welcomed by the group of friends with cheers, and plenty of good-natured teasing aimed at Ognar, and later also joined the party, though more on a part-time basis as she still frequented the arenas as well.

Probably due to their relatively immature age - for people of elven descent like them - Cal’s nieces were more subdued on the relationship front, and mostly stayed by themselves, other than Elaina who seemed to have hit it off with Dan and at times spent time together with him. Their numbers even increased when little Ilena expressed a desire to join her older sister, something her parents saw coming.

While they were not against the idea, they still wanted their younger daughter to be thoroughly prepared, and Ilena went to the Levain Institute of Higher Learning’s practical combat course when she was fifteen, which the girl cleared in a near-record two years, before she went to Cal’s academy to further polish herself off. Only after her graduation did she join the party as she wished, her parents’ worries mostly assuaged by the promises of the others to keep her safe.

After she joined, the adventuring party became even more famous, partly due to the surprising skill of the members, which by then had been proven time and time again, partly because they were probably the only party of their size in history that counted six black tags amongst their ranks, and partly due to the attention Lumi and Ida inadvertently attracted with their presence.

All the children being born also gave Cal something new to be busy about, namely the occasional times when she had to deal with all the new godsons and goddaughters - because of course her students had insisted that she be the godmother of their children - when they visited. Still, it was a pleasant task, one she took to with smiles as she watched over the next generation while they played.