The Academy was quiet. Most of the teachers and students were probably at the auditorium that was set up in the Central Gardens.

Rai enjoyed the quiet, compared to the normally loud halls that would typically be filled with students all chatting away and making a bunch of noise.

Considering that they were walking with Feris in tow, Rai and Sin were both surprised at how pleasantly peaceful the walk was. Eventually, they made it to the outdoor area with rest zones for the students. This was where Rai and Sin often went, since there was a canopy that they enjoyed sitting at.

It clearly became a social meeting spot for their friend group, since everyone else was already there.

Amy leapt up from the outdoor couch, “SINDYL!”

Tullian leapt up from a lone chair, “RAI!”

They both flew towards their newly arrived friends, and summarily planted their faces into the grass.

Rai and Sin had dodged them both.

Lina giggled quietly to herself, while Maya broke out into a full on cackle.

Tullian quickly got up and scruffled the stray blades of grass out of his hair.

“I’ll catch you one day!” He said to Rai.

“I’d rather you didn’t, but if you really want to then by all means keep trying.” He said with a smirk.

Amy giggled as Sin helped her up.

“I’m sorry! I dodged on instinct without realising. Are you alright?” Sin asked Amy as she helped her stand up.

“I’m fine. I’m really super-duper happy that you’re here!” Amy hugged Sin.

Sin welcomed the warm embrace.

Feris went and sat on a wayward chair under the canopy. He closed his eyes and did his best to ignore the noise.

“What’s with the ‘feral one’?” Maya asked.

“He’s just moody since he’s one of us now.”

Feris’s eyebrow twitched. He pretended that the others weren’t there in the hopes that they’d actually disappear from existence.

A voice came from the side of the canopy closest to the building, “H-... Hey.”

Rai turned to see who it was, followed by the others.

It was a face that he didn’t quite enjoy seeing.

Hiron.

Sin didn’t like him. Rai didn’t like him. Most of the people there had a pretty poor opinion of him, which made them all relatively apprehensive at his appearance. Still, past all of their problems, Rai was beginning to feel like they were warming up to each other.

“Hey. We did good yesterday; I didn’t get a chance to tell you.” Rai said.

“Yeah... Uh...” Fuck. Why am I here? “I’m... before you all. For the evaluation. Um...” He didn’t know what else to say.

For once in Hiron’s life, he couldn’t find the words.

Sin sighed.

“Just sit with us. You’d probably hate it out there with all that noise around you anyway.” Everyone turned to her with faces of surprise.

Sin knew how they all felt, but she also felt like she understood a part of Hiron that the rest of them didn’t see. She recalled the parts of Hiron that weren’t showcased at the events she’d gone to when she was younger. Sin hated him, but there was a part of her that felt just as much sympathy for him.

Maybe, she thought, maybe they could reconcile some of their differences and end up on somewhat amicable terms. It wouldn’t be easy, since she’d probably made him feel dejected more than most, but that was something that Sin thought they could work through. If Naam and dad could sort out their problems, at least mostly, then surely we could as well if we actually tried to.

Hiron was confused about how he felt. More than anything, he didn’t want to be here. But there was a conflict within him that he couldn’t make sense of.

He growled.

“Argh! Fuck it! I don’t want to be around you commoners anyway. Just... forget it...”

Hiron stomped away. He didn’t look back.

For a heavy few minutes, Hiron walked around aimlessly. Then, his eyes started leaking.

Tears flowed.

Why... why did you do that? He berated himself.

Hiron ran to a nearby washroom.

He went into a stall and slammed the door shut.

He sat on a closed toilet seat as his eyes kept leaking. Alone in isolation, far away from everyone and everything, Hiron found himself so completely confused that his heart ached.

Angrily, he screamed.

Slam!

He punched the side of the stall, leaving a crack in its wall.

Quietly, Hiron sobbed.

A soft, mature, voice came from outside his stall.

“Trouble brewing, Mr. Whin?”

Hiron immediately recognised the voice. It was the headmaster.

Hiron quickly wiped down his face and sorted his uniform. He left the stall, keeping his head down..

Hiron shook his head.

“N-no sir. None at all s-sir.” Upon speaking, Hiron’s voice cracked.

Rodrick sighed.

“Look at me, Hiron.”

Hiron struggled to raise his head. He couldn’t.

Rodrick could see tremble in the young man before him. Tears dripped from his hidden face.

Hiron couldn’t understand it. He genuinely had no idea why he felt like this. It wasn’t even an emotion that he could recognise. All of the teachings from his father that he’d learned while growing up were yelling at him. Invasive thoughts bombarded him for being weak and despicable for feeling this way. For feeling any weakness at all.

But beyond all of that, he still didn’t understand why.

“Hiron, are you in there?” Rodrick asked.

Hiron didn’t visibly react.

He couldn’t even hear Rodrick over the thoughts that kept violating his peace. Hiron’s tears and sobs were unending as he stood there, not knowing what to do, what to think, what to feel.

He’d entirely frozen up.

Rodrick could tell something was terribly wrong. It was more serious than he’d thought. Hiron was always confident with his techniques, but when it came to people... Rodrick knew that Hiron wasn’t comfortable around others.

Rodrick had an idea.

“I take it you won’t want people seeing you. Come, we’ll go to my office in an invisibility screen.”

Hiron softly nodded.

Rodrick smiled slightly. He heard that one.

He walked slowly, so as to keep pace with Hiron.

They made it to Rodrick’s office, slowly but surely.

Rodrick sat Hiron down on the sofa to the side of the room.

“You can rest in here. Just take whatever time you need for now.”

Hiron was broken apart by his own insecurities. He simply laid down and sobbed into a cushion.

Rodrick’s heart ached for the boy.

“Cry as much as you need to. It’ll help you feel better, so let it all out.”

The headmaster knew that emotions were complicated. For a boy with so much attention and pressure on him, they would be even more difficult to deal with.

For the time being, Rodrick sat at his desk and sorted out some paperwork while watching over Hiron. Since there was a little bit of downtime between the beginning and end of the day, Rodrick felt like he could afford to do this.

Hiron spent most of the time laying on the sofa, quietly sobbing. Eventually, the sobs silenced themselves and Hiron fell asleep.

Rodrick found it just a little bit amusing that Hiron tired himself out that much, especially with the evaluation around the corner. Still, it was a rest that he’d earned after dealing with such a heavy ordeal.

It reminded Rodrick of Mary, who was to start at the Academy in a couple of weeks.

Despite the clear impact that adopting Mary had on Lillia... she seemed much happier for it.

Rodrick looked forward to seeing their growth together. He also looked forward to how she’d interact with Rai and his friends. Their dynamic reminds me of the old days... gosh I really am old. How many years has it been now? I wonder if Bjorn is still churning out named weapons. Hopefully the Sage is doing well... she should be in Aurum soon for the summit. Perhaps I should pay her a visit when she arrives, for old times’ sake.

Elira felt a chill down her spine.

“What the hell was that?!” She shivered.

“Are you alright, Sage?” An armoured warrior asked her.

“I’m fine. Just felt a weird shiver.” She smiled, “Don’t worry about me though, focus on the battle.”

As if on cue, a beam of purple energy shot past Elira and the armoured soldier.

The soldier returned their attention to the hellhound in the pit in front of them. Its exposed ribcage spouted wicked purple flames, and its two heads reeled from the recoil of its hellfire blast.

Elira watched as the Life clan’s forces kept the hellhound at bay. Even though they were holding on strong, the dog was massively outclassing them. Easily larger than my dragon form. By a huge amount... It took 50 of them to just maintain a stalemate before she’d arrived.

Elira analysed the field.

The hellhound is stronger than most of the others I’ve come across. It’s got bright purple runes on its body that don’t quite make sense, and it’s able to use Hellfire more often than the other ones I’ve hunted. Phew... maybe I’ll be able to get it just in time.

Elira imbued her voice with mana and made an announcement, “CLEAR THE PIT! THE SAGE HAS ARRIVED!”

The soldiers of the Life clan fled quickly upon hearing of the arrival of their Sage.

Elira sprouted large, black, draconic wings from her back. Glad I had my robes redesigned for this.

Her massive wings flapped quickly as she floated downwards towards the hellhound.

The hellhound turned its rabid attention to her. It snarled viciously.

A visceral purple glow embedded itself in the hellhound’s eyes, and the flames shooting out of its exposed ribs flared violently.

Elira’s eyes narrowed. A hellfire beam. She quickly looked behind her. No one in the firing range. Good... Wait for it... Wait... NOW!

The beam fired. It connected with the cavern wall behind where Elira once floated. The cavern’s rocks completely disintegrated, and the ones that survived were charred beyond recognition.

The hellhound looked around for her.

It couldn’t see her.

Elira had flown far above the hellhound. The cavern they were in was large, with enough space for her to do what she wanted.

Elira’s eyes shut.

Bright cyan runes appeared in the air surrounding her arms.

She breathed out slowly. The frigid air leaving her lungs was visible as an ice cold mist. Elira stared down at the spine of the hellhound.

She noticed that it was looking around for her. A smirk found its way onto Elira’s face. Good. Keep searching.

Elira took in a deep breath and aimed down at the Hellhound.

Verum Glacies!

The hellhound slowed its movements... then it froze completely from within. Its entire body was now a hellhound-shaped chunk of true ice.

The runes around her arms changed shape and colour, from a bright cyan to a cool silver.

She chanted once more.

Caelum est Velamen.

The floating runes quickly flew forward from her arms and morphed into a suspended film of grey-silvery matter in the air above the frozen hellhound.

Elira completely transformed into a huge black dragon.

The cavern rumbled and debris fell from the roof as Elira roared in a voice that was entirely unlike her own.

She shot downwards.

Quickly, she passed through the silvery film. It encompassed her entire draconic body as she flew. The soldiers watched on as Elira’s draconic form quickly became something like a massive blade crashing down towards the hellhound.

Elira’s eyes could see only one thing.

The hellhound’s spine.

She aimed directly for it without slowing down.

Smash!

Elira landed below the hellhound, leaving a miniature crater where she landed.

The sound of ice shattering echoed the cavern as the remains of the hellhound began to fall. Elira transformed back into her regular self as the hellhound’s two body halves fell in opposite directions, filling the pit with its disembodied body parts.

The Life clan’s warriors cheered for the success of the Sage. This was another hellhound, of many, that she’d single-handedly taken care of.

Elira gestured for them to slide down into the pit.

“Deal with the remains, I want to check out that small cave. I’ll decide what to do with them once I’m done in there.” She pointed to the little cave entrance at the back of the hellhound’s pit.

Multiple soldiers offered to escort her, but she refused them.

“Take care of your wounded. I can handle myself if anything goes wrong.”

Elira walked over to the cave. The entrance... there’s no arcane traps or any seals... am I finally going to get lucky after hunting all of those fucking hellhounds?

She was hopeful.

Elira slowly walked through the small opening, making sure to maintain her mana visualisation to look out for traps.

The tiny opening slowly opened up.

There was a lava pit in a small hole, which lit up the mini cavern that Elira had entered.

Elira looked around. It looks like someone used to... no way!...

She ran over to the makeshift rocky shelf. Elira rummaged through the pile of books. It has to be here. She pushed the ruined books aside and stored the somewhat salvageable ones in her spatial storage rune for restoration later. It has to!

Eventually, Elira found it. Right at the bottom of the pile.

She brushed the dust off of the tome that laid hidden amongst the pile of books. After reading the words on its cover, Elira’s body relaxed, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally. FINALLY!

She put the grimoire in her spatial storage, and went back out to the rest of the clan’s soldiers.

They were gathering the hellhound’s body parts to be used for various reasons.

Elira looked at it carefully...

Greed got the best of her.

She smiled at the soldiers.

“The runed parts of its skin, I want them. Oh, and its eyes. Give me its eyes and tongue. AND the spine too... the clan can have the rest.” She held her smile. From her calculations, there was easily enough space in her spatial storage to store all of that stuff.

The soldier in charge stared at her, bewildered. Eventually, they just sighed.

“... Fine. Just because you killed it.”

“Thanks!” She swiftly moved on, “It should take half a day to prepare the rest of this body for transportation. We’ll take it back to the capital, which should take three days. Get to it!”

The soldiers saluted, though they were already ‘getting to it’ as the Sage put it.

Elira smiled to herself. I’ll take a little while to rest, then I’ll go to Aurum’s capital with the Warden for the summit. Then I’ll finally get to see my nephew again...

She thought about the grimoire that she’d just spent a month searching for. Elira grew a sly grin on her face. That brat better appreciate this present from his precious aunt! Ah, what am I saying. He wouldn’t know its value even if I told him. I’m definitely going to tell him. I have to brag about this, it’s taken so fucking long that I deserve that much at least!

Elira triumphantly nodded to herself as the plan to journey to Aurum for the summit cemented itself in her mind.