When Yue woke up he still felt pretty sick. He figured that he hadn’t slept very much since Viktor wasn’t in the tent and he could hear nothing but silence outside the tent. He sat up and rubbed his eyes a bit, he would’ve slept some more but he felt there was more value in cultivating for a while. 

He sat in a lotus position, facing away from the entrance of the tent, and started to cultivate. He was relieved as it all went well but he tried to free himself of all worries and simply focus on circulating his Qi¹Vital energy (also written as Chi, but for this story, I will use Qi.) Circulating Qi replenishes stamina and strengthens one's body and in this story, it also stimulates the brain. (Viktor and Yue's ability to learn many languages easily is linked to this).. He hadn’t cultivated in 9 months because Fei Xiang had strictly told him not to out of fear of destroying his spiritual roots. Had he destroyed his spiritual roots they would rebuild themselves within a few days because he was one of the four symbols but according to Fei Xiang the pain would drive him to insanity and cause Qi deviation.

His mental state was much better now so he figured that it would be fine but he had still been worried about it. He felt like he could finally breathe again as he cultivated. He didn’t notice Viktor walk in a few hours after he began cultivating. 

Viktor was going to ask how long he’d been awake for but he noticed that Yue was cultivating and just silently watched for a second. He figured Yue was facing away so he could hide his eyes when he stopped cultivating and decided against going any closer. He decided to just leave him be and sat down to read a few letters he had received that morning. 

Yue stopped cultivating and noticed Viktor’s presence after a couple of minutes. He took a deep breath to let his eyes return to a normal-ish color. He felt so much lighter after cultivating.

“Do you feel better?” Viktor asked, looking up from the letters.

Yue nodded and stretched.

“Do you still need more mana?” Viktor asked and put the letters down on the table.

“Not right now…”  Yue murmured and walked over to Viktor, curious about the letters.

“It’s the list of mages attending the Scotland raid next week, and those who would be available for a raid in England if necessary,” Viktor said and pointed at the letter closest to Yue.

“The other is a letter from the mage association about compensation for this expedition.”

“Compensation?” Yue asked, confused. They hadn’t gotten compensation from the school or the mage association for their last expedition, they only just received the rewards from the dungeon and good grades for their efforts.

“The school is partnered with the mage association so occasionally an expedition that is a request from them comes along and they’re obligated to give us compensation because they’re more dangerous than normal expeditions and they’re essentially forcing us to do them, unlike full-time mages who have a choice,” Viktor explained.

“...how much is it?” Yue asked, with a slightly silly look that made Viktor laugh.

“It depends,” Viktor chuckled, “all achievements that they think are possible for us are listed in the letter. Anything beyond them will have to be evaluated afterward so there’s no set number.”

Yue opened the letter and looked through the large list.

“Every 100 monsters killed by an individual is equal to— I should buy a small country.” Yue murmured, shocked by the large amount of money. He started counting on his fingers how many monsters he remembered killing the night before.

“Barrier expansion is 10,000,000 per kilometer,” Viktor said and watched Yue’s jaw drop.

“I guess that’s a sign that they want us to expand the barrier,” Viktor said and chuckled as he watched Yue. He liked it when Yue relaxed around him so he particularly enjoyed his silly moments and reactions.

“What are we even supposed to do with that amount of money…?” Yue murmured, he was blanking on things he needed money for.  He never really cared about money and he rarely ever dealt with it while he was with his group in China. The most expensive thing he’d ever bought was a hanfu for Xia Guiren’s Daughter and even that cost paled in comparison to things like the dresses Viktor had bought for him.

Viktor didn’t have the same issue, he was used to just letting money sit around in vaults until he got around to using it or just blowing large amounts of it on magic items.

“The mage association isn’t very trustworthy though, so after graduation, it would be within your best interest to not just take rewards without thinking,” Viktor said with furrowed eyebrows.

“...Oh so the European magic association is like that too…”  Yue murmured, people on the Chinese magic association were pretty sneaky as well.

They changed the subject as Yue sat down next to Viktor looking over the other letter. He laid his head on the table and read the letter, not recognizing any names except Viktor’s mother.

“What do you want to do today? We can do the opposite of the groups we had yesterday.” Viktor said and touched Yue’s hair a little.

“We can just keep both groups here since everyone must be tired,” Yue said and turned to face Viktor without lifting his head.

“We can expand the barrier later this week and just focus on making sure the civilians aren’t getting sick as much in the next few days,” Yue said blushed a little as he felt Viktor stroking his hair while looking at him with a smile.

Viktor didn’t say anything and just nodded, continuing to smile and stroke Yue’s hair until Yue could take his embarrassment anymore and stood up.

“Y-You should rest, I’m going to patrol the barrier,” Yue said and swiftly tied his hair up and went to get his blazer.

Viktor chuckled a bit and watched Yue leave the tent. He removed his blazer and set it down on his chair and walked towards his cot. He messed up his own hair changing it from its slicked-back style to have it just hang over his forehead. He removed his gloves and boots before laying down. He laid there for a while and took a deep breath. He started planning out everything they should do to get the expedition done as soon as possible.

‘The faster we beat this dungeon the more time I can spend in academy city with Yue before I have to go back to Russia.’ 

—

“Uh, C-Captain…” 

“Yes…?” Yue was a bit confused by most of the second tier class surrounding him.

“We were patrolling the barrier  near the outer clock tower and—“

“All of you?” Yue asked with a raised eyebrow confused why they had gone in such a big group. He knew they were closer than the 1st tier group since their big loss in Northampton but that felt a bit excessive.  He heard the rustling of clothes and some thrashing about near the parts of the group he couldn’t see.

“Anika and I couldn’t catch up to her and w-we all ended up having to try..” Ava murmured, she was out of breath and looked like she had fallen a couple of times, her knees we covered in dirt.

“Her?—oh.” Yue cut himself off as the 2nd tier group separated a bit so he could see a little girl only around 4 years old thrashing about as her arms were being suspended by Alejandro, allowing her to only move her legs. She had messy black hair and wore a tattered dress that was probably at one point white judging by the uneven color all over it. The girl’s face wasn’t visible but Yue could only assume her arms hurt from the way Alejandro was holding her.

He removed her from Alejandro’s grasp and slowly moved her into his arms. Everyone was surprised that She just stopped moving and stared at Yue through her hair.

“You’re smart huh.” Yue giggled, he had purposely spiked his mana layer, making the girl notice and become curious and a bit intimidated.

“Where do you live?” Yue asked the girl in a soft voice, moving her hair away from her face.

The girl stared at Yue with her amber eyes and pointed to an area past the border after a minute. Yue faltered a little, he had expected her to do something like that but he was hoping she'd be a good girl and point in the direction of the city.

“Sorry, you can’t go over there anymore… You have to stay here.” Yue said and smiled a little.

“I’m going to the city...try not to cause trouble...” Yue told the 2nd tier group and started walking toward the city with the girl.

He used magic to clean her clothes and hair while he carried her over to where a group of people seemed to be sharing rations. He figured she came from somewhere near there since she seemed pretty full of energy according to the 2nd tier students.

“Excuse me, do any of you know this girl’s guardian?” Yue asked the group.

The group looked confused but an older woman stood and walked up to him, taking a good look at the girl.

“Alice? How did you get so clean?”  The woman said and picked the girl out of Yue’s arms.

“I cleaned her up with magic...you should keep an eye on her, she was trying to leave the barrier,”  Yue said and smiled at Alice who was staring at him quietly.

“I’m sorry for troubling you, young lady.” The woman said and curtsied.

“It’s alright,” Yue said before waving a little at Alice and walking back to the camp.

-

“Miss Yue is good with kids too...How is she so perfect?” Annabel murmured.

“Eh? How do you know that?” Mai asked, she just woke up and walked toward them only to hear them talking about Yue. She knew the three of them probably didn’t know about Yue’s close relationship with Frida so he was confused about the conclusions they had drawn.

“A little girl came from the city and she caused hell for us but the second Miss Yue touched her she calmed down and became so quiet,” Ava explained.

“Oh?” Mai was curious about what such a scene would look like. She giggled a bit to herself as she imagined what Viktor and Yue's child would look like.

She could see Yue walking back from the city and was going to go talk to him but he seemed a little spaced out. Yue had been reminded of Guiren’s daughter after looking and holding Alice and he couldn't help but think of the past and how he used to play with her.

“Shishu!” A toddler exclaimed and rushed over to Yue. She wore a violet and pink hanfu and had her hair down with two little hair clips adorning her short hair. She was only around a year old so she stumbled a bit but she picked herself up and continued on her way.

Yue smiled and took off his veil and brought the girl into his arms. Xia Guiren and his wife just watched them fondly, although Guiren would roll his eyes and gave a disapproving look if Yue looked over to him.

“I really didn’t expect Yue to be good with kids.” Guiren’s wife, Chunhua, said and smiled.

“...He's a kid himself. Of course, they get along.” Guiren murmured.

Chunhua giggled and locked her arms with Guiren. Guiren and Yue were really like brothers, they teased and bullied each other but when push comes to shove they’d go to any lengths for each other. 

“You like me more than you like your dad right?” Yue asked Guiren’s daughter who just slurred the word “Shishu” again and squealed as Yue lifted her up into his arms.

Yue smirked at Guiren who just glared.

“That wasn’t a yes,” Guiren said and picked his daughter out of Yue’s grasp, holding her over his head so Yue couldn’t snatch her back.

Yue went on to try and get her back while Guiren just kept avoiding him, his daughter was just laughing happily because she liked being this high up.

Chunhua giggled and watched them. She walked over and motioned to her daughter who immediately started making grabby hands toward her. Yue and Guiren stopped when they noticed she wanted to go to her and both felt a bit defeated as they handed her over.

“Meixiu will always choose her mother over us both…” Guiren murmured and chuckled.

“Of course she will,” Chunhua said and grinned, stroking Meixiu’s hair. Guiren went over and wrapped his arm around Chunhua’s waist, watching his Wife and Daughter with a soft smile.

As Yue watched them he held back a sigh, he wished he’d been born as their child. As much as he loved traveling with his martial family, he could only imagine how different it would feel to have a real biological bond. Especially when it came to people he loved as much as the three in front of him. He just watched silently and smiled.

“Yue? Hello?” Mai asked and waved her hand in front of Yue’s face when she saw that Yue had stopped walking.

“Huh? What is it?” Yue asked, confused.

“...You suddenly stopped walking.” Mai murmured.

“Oh right.” Yue murmured, a bit flustered.

—

“Uh...Viktor...you kind of have some letters on your face…” Yue murmured, it would soon be sundown and Viktor was still asleep but now his letter portal had activated so he had 4 or 5 letters just stacked on his face. He didn’t get a response from Viktor so he just walked over and picked up the letters from his face. He noticed the name “Vitya” written neatly on one and looked down at Viktor’s sleeping face.

"That’s what his sister called him…" Yue murmured and set the letters down on the table before squatting down to watch Yue’s sleeping face. His face looked calm as he slept and he didn’t seem like he had moved much but his hair was messily spread over his forehead.

Yue didn’t want to wake him but he touched a strand of his hair. He kind of wanted to call Viktor by a nickname but he was definitely too embarrassed to voice such a thought. 

Viktor suddenly opened his eyes and turned to Yue who immediately panicked and turned bright red, he didn’t get the chance to move his hand away from Viktor’s hair. Viktor kissed the palm of Yue’s hand and smiled.

“Is it sunset already?” Viktor asked and sat up, putting his boots back on.

Yue nodded and just watched Viktor for a bit. Viktor took some hair pomade from his storage ring and slicked his hair back in its usual style and put his blazer and gloves back on soon afterward.

“Y-You got some letters…” Yue murmured.

Viktor looked through the letters and immediately burned one to a crisp, baffling Yue. It was the letter that had ‘Vitya’ written on it.

“I-Is that okay…?” Yue asked, wondering if that was really the right decision.

“It’s fine,” Viktor said and moved on to read other things.

They both walked out of the tent and walked over to the short-range area. Yue had decided not to do long-range just in case he was attacked again. He didn’t want to run out of magic and end up helpless like he almost did the night before.

“Well...Let’s have a good night.” Yue said to the short range group as he and Viktor went to the positions they planned to stay in for the rest of the day. 

“Yes, Ma’am.” The short-ranged group responded and Yue’s confidence was destroyed by his discomfort over being called Ma’am.

“Please just call me captain or Miss...I’ll take anything over Ma’am.” Yue murmured and Viktor just chuckled as he watched Yue instinctively reach for his sleeve, forgetting his fan was in a different place on his blazer.

Yue blinked a bit and pointed to where the monsters were coming from. The other short-range students were confused and couldn’t see what Yue was pointing at but Viktor looked over and It was clear as day.

“That’s...concerning.” Viktor murmured.

A monster twice their size was out there and they could both tell it was going to be troublesome.