They passed through the barrier that surrounded London and landed in an emptier edge of the city. The rest of the group joined soon afterward. Yue and Viktor looked over the state of the city, it was packed with all kinds of people, regardless of class, waiting, and trying to survive starvation and magic intolerance as they waited for their name to be called to be evacuated.

There were people from all over England and even Scotland here trying to use the mass teleport pads to evacuate the country but because of the number of people, only around 60 people per day could evacuate. The mages that operated the teleport pads were probably about to die from exhaustion but they couldn’t just stop.

“Well students, go on. Your goal is to either take some land back from the monsters or to protect the city until the dungeon raid is done. If it turns out that there really is another dungeon in England then you guys might be stuck here until November.” Mr.Wagner said and stepped away from the group. 

Yue took a deep breath and glanced at Viktor to see if he had anything to say beforehand. Viktor shook his head so Yue addressed the group

“Half of you are going with me, we need to scout out the city’s situation and find ways that we can make the situation better for the people stuck here. The other half are going with Viktor to watch the front lines and set up the tents.” Yue explained.

The groups split themselves up pretty easily although most of the 2nd tier group was conflicted between the choice of front lines or staying in the objectively safer group. Most of them ended up in Yue’s group regardless because some of them were injured. Yue nodded to Viktor before taking his group to start going around the city.

“Where should we start?” Mai asked as they walked toward a more crowded area of the city.

“The hospital is our main priority. We make sure there isn’t negative energy building just from the people who have just given up because that will cause illness to spread.” Yue said and observed the people who were out on the streets.

The people out on the streets had sunken eyes and looked tired. Even those whose clothes looked like they had at one point been very high class were covered in dirt. Women were clinging to their children or the belongings of the children that didn’t make it. It was devastating to watch, the people looked like they were beginning to lose all hope, they didn’t even seem hopeful as they looked up at the group. 

The group walked into the hospital near the center of the city and the nurses actually seemed relieved. There was only so much they could do since they didn’t know magic but now that the students arrived there was a chance for them to finally rest after running around for months.

“Is the head doctor busy?” Yue asked and walked up to a nurse.

“Y-Yes but he’ll be done soon.” The tied nurse said, trying not to show how excited she was to get a break.

“Okay...Please lead us to where most patients are then so we can take a look while we wait,” Yue said, he could feel that negative energy might soon begin to build from the hospital if they don’t start treating the patients more effectively. 

The nurse nodded and led them through the halls. In an effort to stay organized, the people who were in the hospital for injuries caused by monsters were in different rooms than people who were just sick. As a result, one side of the hall was full of the painful cries of people whose arms had been torn off while the other had no sound at all. 

They entered one of the illness rooms and Yue gulped quietly. The room was full to the brim with patients who were silently suffering. Yue went up to a patient whose life force seemed particularly weak and kneeled beside them. The nurse panicked and was going to say how she wouldn’t suggest that they touch patients but Yue lifted the sleeve of the patient and inspected the patient’s pulse.

“Is it because of negative energy?” Mai asked and squatted down next to Yue

Yue nodded and used some healing magic on the patient to get them to a better condition while they tried to figure out where the negative energy was coming from and how to cure everyone who was being affected by it. The head doctor entered the room, soon afterward and apologized for not being able to meet with them immediately.

“The illness that these people have, it has been spreading through the town right?” Yue asked as he stood up and shook hands with the doctor.

“Ah yes...I’m not a mage but I’m certain that it has to do with our situation...” The doctor said and gulped a little.

“Please tell me about their symptoms.” 

The doctor described the symptoms in detail and they matched up exactly with the symptoms of negative energy among people who aren’t mages. The people affected by negative energy would start off with fatigue, if they continued to be exposed to the negative energy they would develop a cough where they would cough up black blood. After that stage the patient would give into their fatigue and be unable to speak or move, they would just silently suffer as the demonic energy consumed them. The person who Yue had helped was on the last stage, just as many of the other people in the room were. 

“Have you been getting information on just who is getting sick, where in the city they’ve been staying, where they’re from, or how long they’ve been sick?” Yue asked. He observed the doctor closely as well, he didn’t seem to be experiencing the symptoms.

“U-Uh...We haven’t really been able to find out everything but, the people who are getting sick are mostly upper-class people and those who are at the point where they’re about to die are people who have been in the city the longest...People who only recently came to the city aren’t as sick.” The doctor explained.

Yue looked at the clothes that the patients wore, they were clearly high quality and save for the black blood that was splattered on them, they seemed clean. 

“Then it must be some place in the city that has negative energy,” Anika said and looked toward Yue.

Yue turned to look at a patient for a second as he felt a familiar feeling in his eyes. His eyes glowed and a prophecy appeared before him. 

In the prophecy, he, Mr. Wagner and Viktor were inside of a tent, standing over a table. The table was circular and had a large crystal in the center that was projecting a map of the city with lots of little red dots all over it. The dots slowly disappeared as Viktor raised his hand a little.

“The rations are now being inspected thoroughly—“ Viktor said to Mr. Wagner, although his words were cut off as Yue forced himself out of the prophecy.

“Can rations be bought with money in the city?” Yue asked and turned to the doctor.

“Yes, the people who managed to keep their riches as they came to the city buy extra rations every day.” The doctor answered.

“The rations, are they animal products or manufactured goods from overseas?” 

“Neither, they’re mostly vegetables and bread grown from the fields that were made in the city's park.”  

“Then we have to check the rations and the water.” Yue said, not leaving anyone any time to give their input before walking past the doctor and out of the room.

“She’s not how I expected her to be…” Annabel, a second-tier class student murmured, before going with the group to follow Yue.

—

Meanwhile, Viktor’s group started setting up the tents. Mr. Wagner just sat down in a chair that he had in his own storage ring and watched them while Viktor just observed the front lines.

“Mr. Anderson took care of the number of tents right?” Mr. Wagner asked after counting the number of tents that were being set up.

“Yes, sir.” Viktor murmured.

“He probably tricked you.”

“Huh?” Viktor turned to Mr.Wagner, confused.

“There’s only one leader tent and three female-only tents. Miss Xia will have to stay with you in the leader tent.” Mr. Wagner said and chuckled.

Viktor coughed a little and turned back to looking at the front lines silently.

“Oh~ so it’s like that...Don’t be too loud~.” Mr. Wagner teased.

Viktor was a bit embarrassed but it didn’t show on his face. He watched the other students set up the tents. He walked over to Elizabeth and Ava, a girl from the 2nd tier class, who were struggling to set up a tent.

“Elizabeth. Don’t cause trouble.” Viktor warned as he set up their tent for them.

“Huh?! I wasn’t going to cause trouble!” Elizabeth exclaimed with red cheeks.

“If you weren’t planning on causing trouble you would’ve joined Yue’s team where you would actually be useful,” Viktor said with a look that silenced Elizabeth immediately.

Ava just watched with a bit of admiration toward Viktor. She had been wanting to say something about how Elizabeth wasn’t really helping with putting up the tent but she was a bit scared that Elizabeth would throw some high-ranking magic at her in retaliation. Elizabeth had essentially just been yelling at her to do this and that when She had already been doing the correct thing.

“By the way, Miss Ava, do you have any particular way of fighting?” Viktor asked, being much more polite toward Ava.

“O-oh uh I specialize in mid-range spells…” Ava stuttered and straightened up a bit, her cheeks red.

“Hmm...alright.” Viktor murmured.

“They look kinda good together don’t you think?” One of the 2nd tier boys said to Alejandro.

“I mean I guess... I can’t really grasp that guy’s personality.” Alejandro whispered.

Walter and Alexius, who were setting up their tents behind them, looked at each other with a confused look after hearing that. They looked toward Ava and Viktor and wondered if they really seemed like they could be a couple. Ava was a very pretty girl, she had light brown hair and hazel eyes and she was cutesy like a puppy. Since she was a complete contrast to Yue, it seemed weird to hear that she was being paired up with Viktor.

“I’m loyal to Miss Yue but I guess a cute girl matches well with Viktor’s cool attitude…”  Alexius murmured.

“No no no, Miss Yue is definitely cute. She’s cute but also a femme fatale. She’s definitely perfect fo—!”

“What.” 

Walter almost kneeled to repent as he heard Viktor behind him. He quickly explained himself, trying not to get killed.

“For you! I was going to say that she’s perfect for you okay!” Walter said and backed away to hide behind Alexius quickly, without even looking at Viktor’s scary face.

“Good. I won’t accept treason.” Viktor said and smiled.

“Hah...As we thought, any other pairing is impossible.” Alexius murmured as Viktor walked away.

“Yeah that guy doesn’t have eyes for anyone but her.” Walter murmured and sighed in relief.

“Well, I doubt Miss Ava has feelings for him just from their short conversation.” Alexius chuckled.

“I feel like you just jinxed it…”

“...”

—

Yue and his group arrived at the park where some tired and sickly men and women were working on harvesting. They were low-level mages who knew magic to make plants grow or had been given magic growth powder from the mage association. They seemed like they would soon join the patients in the hospital as well as their fatigue seemed out of hand.

“What are you going to do?” Mai asked as she followed beside Yue as they walked onto the field.

“Purification magic,” Yue said and took a carrot from one of the workers.

“What are y— oh my apologies Miss.” The worker said, their fatigue had led them to not noticing that Yue was a student until she paid attention to the uniform.

Yue ignored the worker and inspected the carrot. It was quite obviously tainted by dark magic but it looked like a regular carrot to the untrained eye, just a bit small and lacking in color. 

“You can stop harvesting for today, I’ll do the rest. And please send all rations that were sent for distribution back. Any that were already given can stay, just give me a list of the people who received them.”  Yue said to the worker and took their basket of vegetables.

“O-Okay..” The workers said and went to relay this to their supervisor.

“Can you come to Hyde park? I need chalk and help with a purification spell.” Yue said to Viktor through telepathy.

“Alright.” Viktor responded immediately.

Yue felt a bit embarrassed for a second by the quick response and blushed a little.

“Miss Yue, your face is red, are you feeling sick?” Anika asked, a bit worried.

“No, I feel fine…” Yue murmured and pointed to where he wanted the workers to place all the vegetables.

“What can we do to help?” A boy from the second tier class asked.

“When Viktor gets here we need to draw a purification circle over the field and over all of the food that has been made or harvested already.” Yue said and checked through his pockets, looking for the few Mana crystals he had brought with him.

“That’s all?” Another 2nd tier class boy asked.

“Purification is a Beryl type skill, it’s not something we can help with beyond that,” Marianne said and smiled helplessly,

“Huh? What core type does she have?” Annabel asked, she had assumed that Gold was the highest core type that the first tier class had so she didn’t expect someone to be able to cast Beryl type spells. Beryl cores were 2 types higher than Gold cores which were already incredibly impressive.

“At least platinum. The highest type spell we’ve seen her cast is Platinum. Viktor is the same way.” Marianne said and watched as Yue and Mai talked about the dimensions of the area. The two second-tier class boy’s in the group gulped, they regretted agreeing with their classmate earlier that day when he said that he thought Yue was probably not strong enough to be a leader.

“Don’t get on her bad side,” Marianne said and smiled before walking off to stand with Yue and Mai. She wouldn’t have mentioned anything about Yue’s core if she hadn’t seen the boys nod in agreement with their classmate earlier that day. 

Lon3ly

I finished a lot quicker than I thought I would so I decided to post. I’m going to try and get one or two more chapters out within the next week or two since I don’t have school work but we’ll see...