It was uncertain whether or not monsters would appear again so Yue and Mai walked along the turrets and the patrol points near the barrier checking everything. Yue’s gloomy look had lightened up after a few jokes from Mai.

“Oh right, you saw the letter right? The one that Huy sent you?” Mai asked, noticing that Yue hadn’t read it.

Yue nodded, “I already read it.”

“What did he say?” Mai asked and quickly realized how Yue might assume that she was being jealous. She was going to clear it up but decided not to.

“He was asking me to pass on a message to my father when I go back to China during the next vacation,” Yue murmured, It was technically a lie but technically the truth, he would tell the head of the Xia family head what he was gonna do in China but that wasn’t what Huy had written to him about.

“Oh…”

“I didn’t think you would be going back since you didn’t go back during our last break,” Mai murmured.

“Well it’s two and a half months so I have to go back, I’ll run out of things to do if I stay in the dorms alone.” Yue sighed, he had actually planned to stay in academy city and maybe deliver Frida’s Christmas present personally but Huy’s letter gave him a new responsibility.

He had to go find the temple of Azure Dragon in Eastern China. He didn’t even know it existed but apparently, it did. There were actually two of them, a more well-known one in the easternmost point of Asia and One in China.  Huy had written to him to tell him that it would be beneficial to go there and check on how the temple is doing and address the followers of Azure Dragon. He wasn’t interested at first but Huy wrote how the temples were the safest place in the world from him and the place where they’re able the strongest. Huy definitely mentioned it on purpose as an incentive and Yue knew that. He was determined to get stronger though and Huy mentioned that the temple would be the best place to do so.

Yue assumed that Huy planned on bringing Mai with him to the Vermilion bird temple but Mai probably had a different scenario in mind for what was going to happen. He just let her dream and didn’t mention anything about it.

Mai and Yue stumbled upon Viktor who was just watching people patrolling the area. Yue still felt down and gloomy but he tried to hide it from Viktor and tried to cheer himself up a bit.

“I put a temperature regulation spell on the barrier so it should be warmer now,” Viktor said when he noticed them.

“Are you low on mana now?” Yue asked worriedly.

“Just a little but I doubt we’ll be fighting monsters today either,” Viktor said and smiled.

“Who is that?” Mai asked and pointed in the direction of the city all of a sudden.

Yue and Viktor turned to face the direction she was pointing in and were confused about what they saw. Yue expected it to be Alice running toward the barrier at full speed like usual but this time it was Alice’s caretaker. The woman was rushing and almost tripping as she tried to run toward them. She saw Yue and stopped for a second and then tried to run faster but tripped on her way. Yue rushed toward her when he noticed that she didn’t get up immediately.

“Are you okay Ma’am? Why are you rushing over here at this hour?” Yue asked, and kneeled down beside the woman, and started using healing magic on her as he did so. 

The woman raised her head and Yue was taken aback by the tears running down her face.

“A-Alice is missing! Y-You usually bring her back within 10 minutes of her disappearing b-but s-she’s been gone for half an hour!” 

Yue felt his heart drop as he heard that. 

“Mai check around where Marianne is stationed, I’ll check the turret area, Yue check near the barrier.” Viktor immediately said and pulled Yue up. He didn’t have a strong attachment to Alice like Yue did but it wasn’t like he didn’t care about her. He almost had to care, especially when Yue looked like he was going to break into pieces as he heard that she was missing.

The three of them split up and looked around and asked the other students about Alice frantically. Yue didn’t even care that he was talking to Ava and Alejandro, he had to find Alice no matter what.

Ava and Alejandro were awkward as they saw Yue coming up to them.

“Have you seen the little girl who usually runs over here?!” Yue asked, his tone and desperate look shocking Ava and Alejandro.

“N-No, Is she missing?!” Alejandro exclaimed, completely letting go of the awkwardness.

Yue didn’t even answer and just went on to continue looking for her. Ava and Alejandro looked at each other with worried looks and then rushed to chase after Yue. This was a new side to Yue that they’d never seen before.

Mai and Viktor also ended up with students following them and trying to help. They finished looking through their areas and rushed over to Yue to try and help over there as well.

“William is stationed up ahead, let’s ask him, captain,” Anika said and pulled Yue along a little, everyone could tell Yue was shaken, his face had turned pale and expressionless but his mana was moving sharply, expressing his mental state.

William woke up and tried to seem like he hadn’t been sleeping as he noticed so many people walking toward him.

“Have you seen a little girl with black hair come by here?!” Anika asked, she could feel Yue’s mana spiking as she held his wrist.

“Huh?” William asked, surprised by the sudden loud question.

“Oh! That brat.” William said and laughed.

“You’ve seen her?!” Yue exclaimed and his eyes lit up.

“Yeah. The kid walked right through the barrier around 10 minutes ago, probably far gone by now.” William said and squinted in the direction of the barrier as if trying to see if he could see her. Everyone froze as they heard that.

“A-and you didn’t try to stop her?!” Mai exclaimed, absolutely shocked.

“Why would I? It’s not like I care about the ki--”

“What the fuck is wrong with you!” Alejandro didn’t even care that no one could understand him as he yelled in Spanish. He was seething and ready to snap William’s neck.

“Look outside the barrier. If you feel any sort of discomfort go back, the negative energy is strong out there.” Viktor ordered and quickly dragged Yue outside the barrier. Viktor knew If Yue stared at William for just a second longer he knew he’d see William’s head roll so he had to get Yue as far away as possible.

“It’s only been 10 minutes and she has a high-level core. She could still be okay out here.” Viktor said and squeezed Yue’s hand. He didn’t stray too far from Yue but he went on to search for Alice himself. He prayed that Yue wouldn’t be the one to find Alice if she was dead. It was easy to guess just how much that would destroy him.

Alejandro had barely been stopped from punching William. William was being dragged along by Anika who was unwilling to let him escape but also hoping to stop Alejandro from killing him. Alejandro planned to beat him up regardless of the outcome of the situation and Anika would allow that but she believed that it’d be better if they let the academy and the council deal with him instead of murdering him in cold blood.

Yue’s heart was beating so fast he felt like he was going to die as he searched for Alice. He was trying to stop himself from panicking but he kept thinking about how unlikely it was that Alice was still alive. He would doubt that she could be alive for one second and then convince himself that she was definitely alive the next. He started hyperventilating as he checked around every ruin and boulder. He completely stopped breathing as he went to check behind a ruined stone wall.

Viktor knew his prayer didn’t work. It was obvious as Yue dropped to his knees. He rushed over to Yue and saw Alice’s body lying motionless in front of him. Yue was staring at her but in a way, Viktor could tell he wasn’t staring at her at all.

Yue felt sick to his stomach as he looked at her, he couldn’t even actually see Alice with her pale white skin and sunken eyes. Her eyes were open but she was definitely beyond saving, tears had dried on her cheeks and Yue couldn’t even tell if it was Alice or Meixiu anymore. The image of Meixiu in the Hanfu he had bought her with a deep hole in her chest and sunken eyes and a tear-stained face flashed in his vision. His hands were shaking and he wasn’t even aware that he had been holding his breath. 

Viktor checked Alice’s body, trying to see if there was any chance to save her as everyone else went over to them. He tried to not change his expression as he felt Yue staring at him like the world was crashing down. If he showed the fact that Alice was definitely dead on his face, Yue might really snap.

“You’re all acting like she was a princess or someone important, she was just a dumb brat.” William knew he’d get in trouble for what he did but he didn’t care, his status would get him out of trouble, especially because Alice was just a commoner. He’d take whatever beating was coming to him because he knew no one could kill him because of his status. Alejandro still had to be held back from punching him in the face by Walter, Alexius, and Ava. Alejandro could very easily ignore the consequences that would come from him beating him to a pulp especially when he was that furious.

Yue’s expression became completely blank after hearing that, not a hint of sadness or anxiety. He had been blaming himself until he heard that. He remembered exactly who was at fault now. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Yue couldn’t care less about status and he cared even less about the consequences that came from punishing people who have wronged those he cares about.

Yue unsheathed his sword in a split second, the memory of cutting Li Chaoxiang in half was clear in his head as he sliced downward in William’s direction.

“Yue please just take a deep breath,” 

 

Yue was confused and honestly quite angry. William was still standing in one piece in front of him. He tried to move his sword to make another slash but Viktor grabbed his wrist.

“If you attack him you’ll cut through Anika too, Yue.”

Yue tilted his head a little and saw Anika standing behind William. He definitely would’ve probably cut through her too if his slice went through. He silently acknowledged that he had been blinded by rage and almost made a mistake but he realized he had become deafened by rage as well as he suddenly realized the loud and panicked yells of his classmates.

“Y-Yue don’t move your hand.” Mai stuttered with a panicked look as she got closer.

Yue was confused, everyone looked shocked and worried and he couldn’t tell why. He thought about it for a bit as Mai, Marianne, and Ava all tried to come closer to him cautiously.

‘Why did my sword stop...If Viktor only just now grabbed my wrist?’

Mai was going to stop Yue from turning his head as she saw him starting to do so but she saw how tense Yue was and figured he’d only relax if he saw.

Yue blinked a few times trying to figure out what he was seeing.

“Yue, it’s okay,” Viktor said calmly.

Yue’s sword was lodged deep into Viktor’s shoulder. Yue swung the sword hard enough to cut a person in half so he was at first superficially confused by the fact that the sword hadn't cut Viktor’s arm off but the longer he stared the more he came to the realization that he had hurt Viktor. He didn’t know what to think or do as he looked at his hand and Viktor’s bloody shoulder.

“I-I’m Sorry…” Yue stuttered, tears welling up in his eyes.

“It’s okay Yue, Just calm down and let go of the sword,” Viktor said and cursed himself silently. He had seen Yue’s tear-filled eyes and flinched, causing pain to shoot up from his shoulder.

“I’m s-sorry…” Yue repeated, letting go of the sword. He didn’t calm down at all, his tears actually fell and surprised everyone.

‘Take Alice away, and send William to Mr. Wagner and explain the situation. Miss Ava and Marianne please help heal my shoulder. And Mai help me deal with Yue.’ Viktor told everyone but Yue through telepathy, he wanted to make sure as few people saw Yue cry as possible. Partly because he knew Yue would feel ashamed when he was in a better mental state and partly because he was possessive and didn’t want anyone to see his beloved Yue like that.

The students did as they were told and left. Once they left Mai pulled the sword out of Viktor’s shoulder quickly so Marianne and Ava could use healing magic on him. Afterward, she tried to talk to Yue but it didn’t help. Yue continued his mantra of “I’m sorry” and cried. 

He’d never done something like that before. He’d never accidentally hurt someone with his sword. Even in his angriest moments he had restraint and was able to calm himself down or generally avoid hurting innocent people but today he had almost killed Anika, who did nothing wrong and ended up actually injuring Viktor, who also did nothing wrong. Everything felt like it was piling on top of him and he just couldn’t stop crying.

“ah...I didn’t think you’d be such a crybaby, Yue.” Mai sighed helplessly and stroked Yue’s back.

“Let the girl cry it out…” Marianne scolded and tried not to look at Viktor’s wound as she healed it with Ava.

“Yue,” Viktor called out, he was well aware that his wound was probably not gonna heal well but he decided to not care too much about it.

Yue held his head up a bit, still crying.

“Come here.”

Yue shuffled over closer to Viktor without asking questions but he was surprised when Viktor pulled him into a half hug and held his head to his uninjured shoulder. Viktor just hugged him there for some time.

Ava felt awkward and depressed as she watched them, she wished she hadn’t stepped forward to try and heal Viktor, then she wouldn’t have had to see how Viktor treats Yue so differently than he treated her.

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault Yue,” Viktor whispered and stroked Yue’s hair.

Mai decided to join in on healing Viktor to try and distract herself from how sickeningly sweet Viktor was to Yue.

“What are you--?” Marianne started before Viktor cut her off with a quiet shush.

Viktor used magic to make Yue fall asleep and slowly got up from where he was kneeling on the ground, carrying Yue with his arm on his uninjured side. Marianne and Mai were going to yell at him to just stay sitting and to let one of them get Yue back to camp but Viktor just ignored them.

“You can continue healing me when we get back to camp,” Viktor said and went ahead of them.