After breakfast, Viktor decided to skip sleeping and go walk around town as things started to get set up for the day. He was one of the few students who were actually awake, another one being William who had slept like a baby whilst Viktor and Yue killed Werewolves all night. Viktor didn’t have the energy to yell at him for it and so he simply settled for giving him a stern look as he saw him lazing around town.

After a couple of hours of just observing the townspeople’s morning activities, he was about to go read a book or something back at the inn as everyone started to wake up from their rest. He was almost at the inn when he noticed Frida sneaking around. She seemed to be clearly avoiding a group of women who were discussing what to make for lunch. He decided to quietly follow her, not planning to do much besides observe her. 

His plan of not interfering was tossed out the window as Frida was about to sneak into the forest from behind a house. He pulled her arm silently, holding her back.

“What are you doing, Frida?”  He asked with a grin that was a little unsettling.

“M-Mr. Ivanov! Uh...I’m just trying to get herbs from the forest…” Frida said whilst looking away, she was too scared to lie to him so the words just slipped out.

“Do you usually do this? It’s dangerous you know?” Viktor asked, squatting down so their height difference wasn’t so drastic.

“Well...I used to go almost every day with my brother Wilhelm but my Momma sent him out to live with my auntie in Munich after he broke his arm while running away from one of the monsters...I haven’t gone since..” Frida murmured, she was telling the truth but she was purposely acting a little coy, trying to get Viktor to pity her and go with her.

“Monsters? Do you mean werewolves or the creature that showed up when we arrived yesterday?” Viktor asked with a raised eyebrow.

“One of the things you killed yesterday.” Frida murmured glancing at Viktor’s sword.

“Fine, I’ll go with you.” Viktor chuckled and decided to play along.

Viktor was cautious as they walked into the forest and Frida picked the herbs she knew. Viktor just kept watch and looked around the forest for anything that might seem unusual.

“I heard that Miss Yue got hurt, Will I still be learning magic?” Frida asked as she walked beside Viktor. Viktor sighed, remembering how word gets around quickly in small towns. 

“Yue will probably be okay by this afternoon, and I can always teach you by myself..” Viktor murmured and helped Frida over some rocks that were in the way.

“Are you sure that I can learn magic? Momma always told me that women can’t go to magic schools and she’s always talking about how a lady can’t be good at magic and that only men are good at magic.”  Frida murmured looking a bit sad.

“Of course you can learn magic! There are plenty of strong female mages, most of them just never go to big academies like the Academy of Magic Arts. But even we have strong female mages, have you not met Mai? Or Marianne? They’re pretty strong.”  Viktor said and smiled at her

“What about Miss Yue? Is she strong?” Frida asked with curious eyes.

Viktor faltered a bit but he hid it perfectly, “Yes, Yue is very strong, we’re probably at around the same level actually.” Viktor murmured with a sheepish smile.

“All of the women in my family are mages actually,”  Viktor said and smiled at Frida who looked very happy to hear this.

“Really? Even your mom?” Frida asked as she picked some herbs.

“Yeah, she’s very strong too. People call her the strongest woman in Russia.” Viktor said as he helped Frida pick some of the herbs. Frida looked at him with an amazed look on her face.

“Can I become strong?” Frida asked, looking up at Viktor with hopeful eyes.

“I guess this is your first lesson then...Everyone in the world has a core, a core is what determines just how strong you have the potential to become. Most people have paper cores which means they can’t learn magic but some people have different cores like you and me. You have a silver core, which means you have the potential to even be strong enough to join the advanced class in the academy.” Viktor said with a smile, he was speaking in a light-hearted tone but he was actually super aware that they had gone pretty deep into the forest.

Frida was amazed and super happy that she had potential so she just stood there happily but  Viktor, on the other hand, had secretly moved his sword so it was behind him and he used his hand to unsheathe his sword with just one hand and send it flying toward the Chuchuna that had been watching them. He whispered an incantation for a fire spell under his breath to hide evidence of the body.

“We should go now..”  Viktor said after bringing his sword back. Frida nodded and they turned around and started walking back to town. Their little trip had actually helped Viktor Grasp the size of the forest and just where the Chuchuna’s might be and where the Werewolf den might be.

It was already noon as Viktor helped Frida sneak back into town.

“Where were you?” 

Viktor flinched, thinking they got caught for a second until he looked up and realized it was Yue who was looking at them with a raised eyebrow. 

“Um...Don’t worry about it..” Viktor said with a sheepish smile. 

Yue looked like he had rested well, he wasn’t wearing his jacket so he wouldn’t agitate his injury and had his hair fully down. He only carried his Jian sword and had Viktor’s jacket in his hands.

“I want to worry about it now..” Yue murmured and handed Viktor his jacket.

“How are you doing, Miss Yue?” Frida asked, using simple words since she remembered that Yue didn’t really speak German.

“I’m doing good!” Yue said with a smile as he looked at Frida.

“Are you really?” Viktor asked in English, doubting Yue a bit.

“Yeah, I feel better now..”  Yue murmured, he actually felt a little stiff but the pain from his wound was keeping him from stretching.

“I should get going before my mom notices, bye-bye!” Frida said as she looked at the time. Yue smiled and waved as he watched leave and then turned to Viktor.

“You should’ve slept…” He murmured and looked at him with disapproval. He could tell that Viktor was starting to get a little tired. 

“It’s fine, I’ll just sleep later...Come on, we have a meeting with the rest of the class after lunch.” Viktor said and started walking with Yue to the inn. Yue seemed like he didn’t believe him but he sighed and walked with him.

After lunch, they all met in one of the rooms where the boys slept. Yue and Viktor sat in the front while everyone circled around them, sitting on the beds or chairs they had brought over.

“Just how many were there?” Marianne asked, she was asking the question to Yue and Viktor but looking at Alexius.

“Walter and I only got around a dozen of them that came from Viktor and Miss Yue’s area,” Alexius said and looked a bit embarrassed.

“We got around 100 of them,” Viktor said and sighed. Those numbers seemed crazy, for there to be more werewolves than there were villagers in town was baffling. Everyone else was shocked as well.

“Even if there are thousands of them, it isn’t too bad because they’re not very difficult to kill but the fog is a different issue… I analyzed it and it’s spirit fog but it also seems to be mildly toxic. My wound probably won’t heal because it was exposed to it for so long.” Yue explained and touched his shoulder a bit.

“Spirit fog?” Walter asked, confused. The rest of the students seemed to not really know what that was either.

“It’s fog that is created by vengeful spirits or mages who have made a pact with vengeful spirits. Normally it has the ability to create scary illusions or block sight. It isn’t usually toxic and doesn’t usually catch onto wounds or clothes..”  Mai explained, baffled that the class didn’t know about it.

“They must have a leader...probably something mutated, Werewolves aren’t naturally capable of using magic,” Viktor said and stood, he had thought of their plan.

“For today, I’ll go into the forest with half of you and Yue and the rest will guard the town, focusing on the areas that the fog spread to. If my group doesn’t find much we’ll switch tasks tomorrow and Yue’s team will try searching in a different direction. We should also ask around about the fog to the villagers since they didn’t mention anything about it.”  Viktor explained his 

Plan and looked at Yue for his approval. Yue nodded quietly.

“I’ll be on Viktor’s team,” Mai said and smiled, surprising everyone including Yue who thought she was going to be on his team. Viktor just nodded, letting pretty much anyone join his team as they wished. The meeting ended and Mai went with Yue into his room.

“Why did you go on Viktor’s team?” Yue asked. He was a bit bothered that he wouldn’t have any of his friends in his team.

“Because Elizabeth went on his team, I can’t have her getting handsy with him while you’re away!” Mai said with a determined look.

“Huh? Elizabeth? Why would she get handsy with him?” Yue asked, completely unaware of Elizabeth’s crush on Viktor.

“Ah...you must be blind to anything that isn’t monsters or Viktor… Well whatever, just know that I’m making sure that your man isn’t taken by anyone else.” Mai said and rolled her eyes.

Yue still didn’t really understand but he let it go. He had to start teaching Frida some basic magic with Viktor. They met up at the inn and Viktor and Yue started to teach her how to make a small fireball. It was mostly Viktor doing the teaching since Yue couldn't speak german well enough to explain.

“Frida have you ever been awake during the werewolf attacks?” Viktor asked, as he held Frida’s hands still as the flame she was creating got bigger. Frida nodded a bit but she was busy staring at the flame with an amazed look on her face. Her attention wasn't fully on their conversation because of it.

“Do you know anything about the fog?” Viktor then went on to ask.

“You can see it?! I thought it was just my imagination since my mom couldn’t see it!” Frida exclaimed, the flame in her hands becoming bigger with her excitement.

“Everyone in our group can see the fog...can none of the villagers see it?” Viktor asked as he fizzled the flame a bit.

“No, other than my brother and I, no one else could see the fog!” Frida exclaimed. Viktor translated to Yue and looked at him to see if he knew why.

“That’s not what typically happens with spirit fog… It’s probably part of the special properties of the new fog. The person or werewolf creating the fog must be strong..”  Yue murmured. He turned toward the forest, looking worried.

Viktor turned back to the topic of magic and sighed a bit. He actually wanted to talk some more about the fog and what happened that night but he figured that Yue might not want to talk about, especially not somewhere where people could just walk in at any moment.

“Act as if you’re pushing the flame without actually touching it… Don’t be scared, I’ll put it out.” Viktor instructed Frida and smiled. Frida looked unsure, she didn’t want to burn anything but she hesitantly did so. The small flame flew a couple of feet and then got snuffed by Viktor’s hand.

“Now just that can help you against a lot of the monsters that show up from the forest but for bigger things you’re gonna need to learn to make stronger flames.” Viktor said and clapped a little for Frida. Yue clapped too but he felt a little bad that he couldn’t really help teach because he wasn’t very good at German.

It was almost 5 pm so Viktor decided to end the lesson there and send Frida home so he could get at least an hour of sleep before sunset. Him and Yue walked together on their way to their rooms. Yue wanted to look through his prophecy notebook to see exactly what he remembered about his dungeon prophecy and look through some grimoires. Viktor stopped him when he was about to open his door, his curiosity got the better of him.

“Why could I see the werewolves through the fog while you couldn’t?” Viktor asked straightforwardly.

Yue faltered a bit, he had forgotten that Viktor didn’t know that his ‘insight’ didn’t refer to insight eyes. He gulped a bit and took a second to come up with a lie.

“My eyes are incomplete...I have an identical twin and the ability is split between us, that’s probably why you could see through the fog while I couldn’t..” Yue lied and tried to slow his own heart rate to make it seem like the truth.

“Oh…Okay…” Viktor murmured, seeming slightly suspicious.

Yue entered his room and silently hoped that Viktor actually believed it and wouldn’t go snooping around. If he went too far and realized that the Xia family didn’t have a daughter name Yue, things could turn out badly for him.