Upon returning to the town they found that there was a commotion. The other students seemed flustered and unsure of what to do as they watched from the sidelines. A group of burly men were standing in front of a store in town. A foreign carriage had crashed into the storefront and Frida’s mother was on her knees, holding her cheek as Mai stood in front of her, angry but unsure of what to do. Marianne was holding onto Frida on the sidelines, stopping her from running to her mother so she wouldn’t get hurt. 

Yue and Viktor immediately connected the dots. Their formerly relaxed expressions hardened and they walked into the center of the commotion.

“What’s going on here?” Viktor said with a cold look.

Yue stood beside him, his expression was also cold and his hand on his rapier. 

“She ruined our carriage and now she says she doesn’t have the money to fix it!” One of the men yelled in German. He didn’t turn around before he said that but when he did he faltered slightly at the sight of Viktor’s intimidating noble aura and Yue’s clear intention to use his sword.

Viktor was appalled by their audacity. They crashed into the store and expected Frida’s mother to pay for it. 

Yue didn’t understand what he said but just from context clues, he could tell it was something unreasonable. He looked at Mai who seemed ready to fight at any moment and locked eyes with her.

‘The Villagers say they do this all the time, they come to town and do something like this and the people who can’t pay for damages end up in debt and leave the town because they can’t pay. There’s no need to hold back Viktor, just kill them!’ Mai said through telepathy to Yue and Viktor.

‘We can’t kill them…’ Yue said through telepathy and sighed, using magic to fix the storefront and the carriage, before Nonchalantly walking to help Frida’s mother up.

“Your carriage is fixed, leave,” Yue said in German without even looking at them. He honestly didn’t mean to sound as curt as he did but his little knowledge of the German language made it difficult to be polite.

The men were flustered for a second, they didn’t expect Yue to be a mage. They quickly bounced back with anger, still trying to get money from the villagers somehow.

“Come back here you bitch! Who the fuck told you to use your low-rank magic on our carriage?!” One of the men exclaimed and growled, going to punch Yue, who didn’t even know what they were saying and hadn’t turned around.

Yue only turned around when he heard a scared scream and Viktor’s voice.

“If you touch her, I’ll kill you.” Viktor said in German as he put his sword to the neck of the man who had tried to hit Yue. His expression was generally indifferent but his eyes were clearly furious.

“Y-You..!” One of the men started before they watched Viktor lift his free hand. He created a fireball in his free hand and glared at the men.

“Leave.” 

 Yue turned back to Frida and her mother as he saw that Viktor was doing just fine. He was a bit confused by their amazed expressions.

“Mr. Viktor must really like you, Miss Yue..” Frida said with a blush, giggling a bit.

“Huh?!” Yue said, shocked and embarrassed after processing those words. He blushed bright red and looked away but Mai was just smirking at him as well.

“I-It’s not like that!” He whined.

“They actually left…” The Village Chief said with an amazing look as he watched the men leave the town in their carriage. Viktor sheathed his sword and sighed, thinking about how to stop them from ever coming back.

Yue tried to move past the topic but Viktor walked over to him and grabbed his wrist, dragging him off to the inn. Yue was confused and extremely embarrassed. The more Viktor acted out like this, the harder it was to convince people that they didn’t have a secret relationship.

“W-Wait where are we going?!” Yue asked as he was suddenly dragged past his own bedroom. He was pulled into Viktor’s room and ended up sitting on the bed with a bright red face.

“T-This is incriminating!” Yue exclaimed and hid his face a bit, embarrassed by the idea that someone might’ve seen them enter the room.

“Huh? Oh… Yeah...sorry..” Viktor murmured after looking at the situation he had put them in. He was tempted to flirt but he decided to go along with his original intentions instead.

“Before we went out I was actually planning on suggesting that you and I go with a small team to try and reach the leader of the werewolves as fast as possible tonight but...I think it’d be best if we slowed down and took some of our time during the day to have some of the villagers learn swordsmanship..” Viktor explained.

“But there’s very few people with swords in the village....” Yue murmured, confused about how they were going to fix those numbers.

“I’ll just buy every villager a sword then?” Viktor said as if it was obvious, looking confused as to why Yue thought such a minor thing was an issue.

‘Right...rich..’ Yue thought to himself, forcing himself to not roll his eyes and remembering his rich girl role.

“Are we allowed to use our own funds and connections during expeditions?” Yue asked, wondering if the reason Viktor was keeping this between the two of them was because it wasn’t allowed. He relaxed a bit now that he knew he wasn’t going to be actually doing anything incriminating.

“Yeah we’re allowed to use our own money and connections for anything that involves the town, we just can’t use it to get a new room for ourselves in the inn or buy something like clothes. It has to benefit someone other than ourselves.” Viktor explained.

Viktor smiled as he watched Yue relax and lean back a bit as he sat on his bed. The more he looked at him the more curious he was about if he altered his body with magic or not. 

“Are you going to buy the swords from the merchants that are coming tomorrow?” 

Viktor nodded after a couple seconds of silence. Yue looked confused but Viktor didn’t mention anything, Yue hadn’t actually told him that he was a boy so he wanted to wait until he was ready to tell him.

—

That night the front line of the forest was Viktor, Mai, and Yue. Mai had given someone else the lookout position just so she could fight alongside Yue. It didn’t seem like that though. When Yue walked out to the forest she found Mai and Viktor whispering to each other and he froze.

He was suspicious. On one hand, they could just be having a casual conversation and he was reading too much into their volume of choice and on the other hand, Mai could be spilling all his secrets to Viktor. There also was the slight twinge of jealousy that he couldn’t explain but he waved it off and just kept walking.

He yawned a bit, partially to alert them that he was there and partially because he was genuinely very tired. Mai immediately stopped talking when she noticed him which only made him more suspicious but she seemed carefree as she rushed to his side. Her expression changed when she looked at Yue closely though.

“Are you okay? You seem tired..” She said and touched Yue’s pale face.

“I’m fine, I just didn’t sleep well,” Yue said and smiled, trying to reassure Mai that he was fine. Other than being a little tired he didn't feel sick or anything but Viktor and Mai looked unnecessarily worried.

The werewolves showed up slowly again like they had the first night. At about midnight the fog rolled in and they started to attack. Yue sent his Jian sword to clear the fog and immediately started to cut down werewolves.

Mai quickly adapted and started cutting down werewolves as they came. She was in the center, between Yue and Viktor so she didn’t actually end up fighting too many of them since the werewolves were aiming for the two of them. She noticed a particularly big werewolf and rushed in to stop it from reaching Yue who seemed to have his hands full. 

She tried to cut the werewolf down but it just held her sword back. She became a bit flustered for a second, unsure of what to do. Before she could decide, the werewolf suddenly flew backward.  

Yue had run up and stabbed it in the stomach before kicking it away.

“The bigger ones can usually block a sword, they’re a bit annoying.” Yue murmured and sighed.

“Get ready, more of them are coming,” Viktor warned as he cut down a werewolf.

Yue felt a bit agitated for some reason, his mind felt fuzzy as if he couldn’t think very clearly.  He ignored it and rushed forward to kill more of the werewolves. 

More of the werewolves could speak this time around but Yue was cutting them down so quickly they didn’t get the chance. Mai didn’t know whether to feel worried or competitive as she watched him kill werewolf after werewolf without a second thought.

The fog rolled back and Mai was going to ask what happened to make Yue speed up like that but she noticed that his eyes had turned black and looked confused.

“Your e—!?” She started before Viktor suddenly covered her mouth.

“It’s only temporary, you’ll make him anxious if you mention it,” Viktor whispered, remembering what happened during the first night.

“Yue,” Viktor called, announcing his presence before he walked toward Yue because he noticed how on edge he seemed. Yue quickly whipped around, almost drawing his sword before he realized it was just Viktor and Mai. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Viktor asked. He looked worried as he slowly walked closer to him.

“Yeah...Just a headache..” Yue murmured and turned back to face the forest as his eyes turned back to their usual color and he relaxed.

Viktor clearly didn’t believe that and Mai was also skeptical but they didn’t say anything about it. They waited for sunrise and then walked to the inn together in silence. Viktor and Mai made sure everyone avoided doing anything that could get on Yue’s nerves as he went on his way to his room to sleep.

“Could it be the fog..?or his injury?” Mai said, whispering the last part.

“Fog? Was it foggy whilst you were out there?” The village chief who had come early to visit them asked.

“Oh..good morning. It’s always foggy during the time the werewolves come out..” Viktor murmured.

“Is it really?” The village chief said, surprised.

“It’s a kind of fog that can’t be seen by people who aren’t mages.” Viktor explained, “While you’re here sir, have you heard of anyone in town getting sick or acting different either after leaving windows open during the night or becoming sick after a werewolf encounter?” 

“Well...when there were only a few werewolf sightings here there was a hunter who killed one but ended up with a large injury on his arm and it didn’t heal for a long time. He started to get hallucinations and insomnia until one night he disappeared…Everyone thinks he went into the forest and got eaten by monsters or became a werewolf.” The village chief said and patted Viktor’s back.

“I heard that your co-captain got injured, you should keep an eye on her...She seems like a strong young lady though so she might be better off than that hunter.”  The village chief said before going off to talk to the innkeeper.

Viktor translated for Mai and they both made their way to Yue’s room, worried for him now that they heard of that story. They knocked on the door and didn’t get any response. Mai peeked inside, she was a bit relieved that Yue was asleep, it helped her nerves to know that he didn’t seem to be having insomnia or hallucinations as far as she knew.

“I think he’ll be fine..” She murmured, closing the door. Viktor was still unsure but he decided to trust Mai’s judgment.

—

Yue woke up to a knock on his door. He didn’t really pay attention to anything as he stumbled to the door.

“Yesh..?” Yue slurred as he opened the door and saw Viktor waiting there. Viktor was silent and just stared at Yue’s sleepy expression and his messy uniform and hair.  He found it quite adorable but it wasn’t really time for him to still be sleeping.

“What?” Yue asked, rubbing his eyes a bit, still half asleep.

“It’s going to be sunset in a couple of minutes, Yue. You’ve been sleeping all day.” Viktor murmured and chuckled. He took Yue’s hand and placed a small loaf of bread in his hands so he could eat something.

Yue still wasn’t fully awake but he was very hungry so he started munching on the bread without paying much attention to Viktor who had started to button his shirt and fix his tie for him. He really didn’t even pay much attention when Viktor turned him around and started to mess with his hair either.

“You must be really sleepy..” Viktor chuckled. He put Yue’s hair up in a ponytail and smiled at his work before turning Yue back around. Yue was still happily munching on his bread and not even listening,  dozing off while eating.

“I guess excessive sleeping is better than insomnia..”  Viktor sighed and picked Yue’s blazer off from a chair in the room and along with Yue’s swords before dragging him off to the forest entrance.

“You slept until now? It’s been 12 hours!” Mai exclaimed as she saw how Yue was so sleepy he was leaning on Viktor without an ounce of shame. 

“He’s still not awake…” Viktor chuckled trying to put Yue’s jacket on him.

“Wake up before you get embarrassed, Yue,” Mai said and pinched Yue’s cheek a little.

Yue only started to become more awake when the sun had fully set and he remembered his responsibilities. He still felt hungry and tired but he was starting to get a sense of his surroundings a bit, there would still be a couple of hours before the werewolves started attacking so he still had time to shake off his drowsiness. He put his swords on their holsters and finished putting on his blazer.

He paused for a second and blinked a bit, trying to make himself more awake.

“Let me take a look at your wound in the morning Yue, I want to try and heal it again,” Mai said and turned to face Yue. Yue was so sleepy he was spaced out looking behind her and didn't seem like he was listening.  She was about to use a water spell to see if that would wake him up more but Yue suddenly appeared behind her and a clang of metal could be heard. 

Viktor immediately turned toward them, he had been looking in the opposite direction and didn’t feel a presence until just then.  Yue had his Jian sword in his hand as he blocked a sword that had almost sliced down on Mai. A werewolf that could wield a sword had appeared and it was also either really fast or it could hide its presence. Mai was shocked and now wondered if that was why Yue was staring behind her.

“Ah... I feel more awake now..” Yue murmured. He and the werewolf were essentially stuck in their position as they seemed to be of equal strength. It didn’t matter much though, Yue could still move his rapier to stab him, or so he thought. The werewolf removed one of the hands he had holding the sword that was blocking him and used the other to draw another sword to block his rapier.

Yue quickly managed to push through with his Jian sword because the pressure on the sword he was blocking physically stopped but the werewolf switched directions and aimed to slice through his side. Mai quickly blocked the word aiming at Yue’s side so Yue could cut the werewolf down with a clean slice through its neck.

“I was scared for a second...That one was fast..” Yue murmured, getting chills as he touched his side. Mai and Viktor couldn’t even say anything, they were just shocked at how close of a call that was.

The fog started to roll in and Yue stared at it as it came closer.  The fog was blocking his prophetic ability. While the fog was around he was unable to use his power, but before or after the fog he could. It also seemed to be dulling everyone's instincts day by day. Viktor should’ve been able to notice that presence before it got that close. The only reason he knew the werewolf was coming was because he had a prophecy about it while he was talking to Mai and had acted on it.

Yue backed away from the fog a bit so he could have a prophecy. He didn’t see anything crazy happening today after the sword-wielding werewolf but he noted a werewolf that was just sitting on a tree observing the whole time before disappearing with the fog.

“They're not just evolving randomly, I think they’re learning from us and strategizing…” Yue said and glanced at both Mai and Viktor who agreed with the hypothesis and had calmed down.

-

Over the next few days, Yue was proven correct, the werewolves would start coming as soon as the sunset and more sword-wielding werewolves would appear, some were even copying certain sword styles that they used. They stopped appearing before the fog though, the first sword-wielding werewolf had been their test run for that and had proven that it would only be easier for Yue to cut them down like that.

“Miss Yue, You’re always tired lately...Would you like some tea?”  Frida offered as she watched Yue yawn for the millionth time while teaching her a new spell.

“I’m fine..” Yue said in German as she looked over Frida’s magic circle. Mai was taking some time to read through the grimoire Yue was teaching Frida from as she sat beside them and she was about to urge Yue to just accept the offer but someone else beat her to it.

“Just accept the offer, it’ll do you good to get your energy up,” Viktor said as he arrived at their little meeting place for teaching Frida magic. He wasn’t wearing his blazer or tie and instead had a towel over his shoulders. He was also being followed by some young men from the village who had started to learn swordsmanship from him.

Yue just hummed and turned to face him a bit. It was a bit amusing to see Viktor being followed around by starry-eyed admirers but he had been wondering something for a while now.

“How old are you two?” Yue asked in German.

“We’re 19, Miss Yue.” One of the boys said with a blush on his face, Yue usually never talked because he wasn’t good at German so hearing him speak was the goal of some of the young men in the village. He had recently been learning more German but he still rarely had conversations with other people.

Viktor was confused about why Yue had asked that and why he seemed so surprised at the answer.

“We’re the same age..” Yue murmured. He generally didn’t look his age either, especially since he had lost a lot of muscle while preparing to move to the academy but the two young men looked a lot older than him. He had been curious about their age because they seemed older than Viktor and it was amusing to see them look so amazed by him constantly.

“Eh? You’re only 19?! I thought you were my age!” Mai exclaimed, shocked.

“How old are you?!” Yue asked, also shocked that Mai wasn’t the same age as him.

“Viktor, Marianne and I are all 22 and everyone else in the class is 21...You’re like a baby!” Mai said, getting over her initial shock and just laughing.

“I’m not a baby…” Yue murmured with a pout, “I turn 20 in March…”

“Then you’re actually younger than them, they turn 20 this year.” Viktor laughed and sat down beside Yue.

Yue now wished that he hadn’t said anything since now Mai was trying to get him to call her senior sister and Viktor just looked amused.

“Anyway! Your magic circle is perfect Frida.” Yue said in German, changing the subject out of embarrassment.

“Miss Yue looks very young, I think everyone thinks you’re older because you’re strong,” Frida said in German with a smile. She had been catching on to some English after hanging around Yue and Mai. Yue would’ve been proud of her for understanding but he didn’t feel very happy that she was using it to reaffirm the fact that he is very young.

 

“I’ll accept that Tea offer now…” Yue murmured, his eyebrow was twitching a bit and his cheeks had turned red.