“I guess I must be pretty low on magic. Since you woke up so quickly.” Viktor murmured. He had been trying to set Yue down on his cot but Yue had gotten off him himself. 

Yue didn’t respond and wrapped his arms around Viktor’s abdomen hiding his face in his chest. His tears were still uncontrollably falling but he had started to think a little more rationally.

“Mai is gonna tease you about being a crybaby.” Viktor chuckled and kissed the top of Yue’s head.

Yue couldn’t stop crying even if he wanted to. He was cursing himself for turning into such a crybaby all of a sudden but he couldn’t help it, he had already been emotionally overwhelmed because of the state he found Alice in, and hurting Viktor was the icing on the cake to make him cry.

“It’s not your fault, I didn’t think through how I was going to stop your sword enough. It’s my own fault.” Viktor whispered and pulled Yue’s face away from his chest so he could get a look at his crying face.

“D-Don’t look…” Yue hiccuped and tried to hide his face. Viktor sighed and pulled Yue so he was crying on his uninjured shoulder again.

Yue’s vision was blurred from tears but he still could see Viktor’s injured shoulder. As it got easier for him to think he started to think that the injury didn’t make sense. The force he used to slice his sword down was definitely enough to cut a person in half. Even if he had gotten weaker since he last used the attack, he had definitely strained himself enough while swinging to make up for the loss of strength. So how could his sword stop only an inch deep into Viktor’s shoulder?

Yue quietly slid his hand onto Viktor’s uninjured shoulder, squeezing it lightly in a way that he hoped wasn’t too suspicious.

Viktor definitely had some more muscle than Li Chaoxiang but that shouldn’t have mattered. Yue’s attack should’ve easily cut through it, it had easily cut through bone after bone when he attacked Li Chaoxiang so why was Viktor’s arm still attached to his body?

“I’m sorry... It must hurt.” Yue sniffled, his tears were finally stopping.

“It’s fine. It’ll heal,” Viktor said and took out a handkerchief and dried Yue’s tears.

“...I had definitely meant to cut William in half. It must be serious…” Yue murmured, wondering if Viktor would just explain it to him if he said it like that. 

Yue hovered his fingers over Viktor’s wound, It had stopped bleeding excessively like it had been when Mai pulled the sword out but it still made Yue cringe as he looked at it.

“It’s fine, the bones have already healed with Marianne and Ava’s help, it’s just a flesh wound now,” Viktor said and grabbed Yue’s hand, stopping him from getting his blood on his hand.

“My body is strong, it would take a lot more strength than that to seriously injure me,” Viktor said and kissed Yue’s palm.

Yue wasn’t sure if that counted as an explanation. He actually felt a bit annoyed by that.

“You’re trying to make me get competitive,” Yue mumbled. Viktor just laughed in response.

“Just rest for tonight,” Viktor said and kissed Yue’s forehead.

Yue wanted to say that he was fine but he couldn’t guarantee that his mental state would be the best. If by chance he had to fight something he might go crazy. He was so scared of hurting someone again and he was even more terrified of hurting someone who was much more fragile than Viktor.

He sat on his cot after Viktor left and didn’t know what to do. He was tired but adrenaline was still pumping through his veins. It was the main reason why he had woken up from Viktor’s spell so quickly.

He couldn’t do much. If he cultivated in his current state, he would definitely destroy his spiritual roots. The memories of Meixiu along with what happened to Alice and how he hurt Viktor were clouding his mind and making it impossible to cultivate. He didn’t bring any books or anything to read or anything to take his mind off things.

Yue hugged his pillow and inhaled shakily, quietly whispering to himself to stop. He was tearing up again.

“You had plenty of time to be a crybaby when you were a kid…” Yue whispered to himself in Chinese.

—

“Do ya’ not know how to cry or something?” Guiren murmured and poked Yue’s cheek.

Little 8-year-old Yue’s arm was definitely broken but there wasn’t even a frown on his face.  He was just sitting there looking at his sword. He couldn’t exactly hold it well now that his dominant hand was broken.

“Eh? Why would I cry?” Yue asked, genuinely confused by the question.

“Because it hurts?” Guiren said and poked Yue’s arm.

“Ow!” Yue whined and shooed Guiren away.

“Just cry Yue, you know you want to~” Guiren teased, about to poke Yue’s arm again.

“The only thing I want to do right now is punch you,” Yue growled, baring his teeth at Guiren.

“I’ll break your other arm without hesitation brat,” Guiren said and flicked Yue’s forehead.

“Don’t be mean to Yue!” Lian Bai yelled at Guiren from where she was cooking up some medicine for Yue.

Fei Xiang looked up from the book he was reading and looked over at Guiren who had been deserted by Yue after he teased him too much.

“He wasn’t raised like a privileged young master. He never had the privilege to cry or act spoiled like kids like you.” Fei Xiang murmured to Guiren who was just watching Yue from afar with a worried gaze.

“Well yeah but,” Guiren murmured a bit embarrassed that his master called him spoiled, “I thought he’d learn to let loose and treat us more like family. It’s been 3 years already...”

—

Viktor had multiple people healing him. Other than Marianne and Ava he hadn’t asked for any of them to do that but they did it anyway. He sighed and just let them do as they pleased.

“You’re injured?”

“Yes,” Viktor responded to his mother who was speaking to him through telepathy.

“I’m certain that all the monsters came to me though?” Elena said with a confused tone. She was actually in the middle of fighting a high-level monster from the dungeon but It wasn’t hard for her to defeat it so she decided to address the fact that she sensed her son’s injury.

“It was not caused by a monster. It was caused by a person.” Viktor responded despite knowing what his mother’s response would be.

“Did ya’ kill them?”

“ No. It was an accident.” 

“...Are you sure you’re my son?”

Viktor almost laughed out loud as he heard his mother’s incredulous tone. He only stopped himself because Mai was already staring at him. She had been staring at him since he got out of the tent with a slight smile on his face. She was definitely already suspicious of what kind of devious things he did to Yue who was sleeping as far as she knew.

“Yeah, I’m definitely sure of that,” Viktor replied.

“Oh! Was it the girl you like? Is that why?”  Elena asked gleefully, the smile on her face made Aylin look at her suspiciously.

“...Yeah...They’re not a girl though.”

“I figured. Even if she’s your type you wouldn’t go for a girl.” 

“I don’t have a type…” Viktor murmured.

“Don’t try and deny it… I’ll talk to you when I’m done beating the boss.” Elena giggled.

“I seriously don’t have a type though…” Viktor said out loud with a helpless smile.

“What?” Mai asked, she and the other students had succeeded in healing his shoulder although there was a slight bruise left over.

“I was talking with my mother, don’t worry about it,” Viktor murmured and laughed a little as he looked at her. He was certain Mai would interrogate him on his previous relationships if she understood Russian.

“Pact of Kin?” Mai asked. Most forms of telepathy couldn’t reach as far as Scotland from where they were. A pact of kin made that range much larger. Talking to someone in Academy city from London wouldn’t be very hard at all with a pact of kin.

Viktor nodded and touched his shoulder a bit. He really should’ve thought about what he was doing before he stopped the sword with his body like that. He could’ve stopped it with his mana or simply reached over and grabbed Yue’s wrist or knocked him out but he didn’t think it through and just acted on instinct.

‘Not even Yue noticed...it’s probably fine.’ Viktor thought and used magic to fix his clothes.

—

Elena sighed as she stood in front of the door to where the dungeon boss was. She looked back at the group and groaned with disappointment. Their numbers had dwindled down quite a bit, around 10 high-level mages were dead including one of her own attendants.

“Do you want to clear it just the two of us? They seem tired.” Elena said to Aylin, she was asking but it was clear on her face that she wanted a ‘yes’.

“...Sure,” Aylin said and stretched a bit.

“You guys stay here. Don’t come in no matter what,” Elena said with a grin and turned to her remaining attendant, “Make sure they don’t come in.”

The attendant nodded and stood, walking over to the door of the dungeon boss room to just make sure no one entered as Aylin and Elena walked in.

The dungeon boss appeared immediately as the doors closed.

“Arrogant aren’t you?” The dungeon boss said as it appeared in the air. The boss was human-shaped but much taller. It was over 3 meters and wore black armor and held a vibrant red sword. 

“Not arrogant. Just strong.” Elena smirked.

The dungeon boss was unamused.

“Should I use my power too or am I just here to watch you go all out?” Aylin said and looked at Elena with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ll give you some action too. If you get the last strike I’ll tell Viktor to fight with his right arm next time.” Elena said and avoided an attack from the boss’ sword. Aylin clicked her tongue and glared a bit in response.

Aylin took off her magic gauntlets. They had been tightly constricting her hands so she stretched them out a bit as the gauntlets fell to the floor.

“Your poor husband.” Elena laughed as she continued to avoid the boss’ attacks.

Aylin’s hands were unlike the hands of any normal human. She had what could only be considered claws. She had long pitch black nails and black markings on her tanned skin¹ I previously described her skin as Tawny beige but I realized that some people might look that up and see mostly pictures of a lighter skin tone than I intended. Her skin is an almond-like color. like a tiger. She abandoned her sword and just slashed at the boss with her claws.

“He actually likes them,” Aylin said and grinned. Elena faked a gag in response.

“Hah! I bet Andrei is even ‘stranger’² code word for kinky ;).”  Aylin scoffed and rolled her eyes. The boss looked like it wanted to speak but it kept getting overwhelmed by both of them attacking.

“...No comment.” Elena laughed.

The boss sent Aylin back a bit and used the time where he wasn’t being attacked to slice toward Elena when she couldn’t dodge.

“Did you seriously think that would work?” Aylin laughed from afar as she watched the sword just stop as it touched Elena.

“I’m called the steel lady for a reason.” Elena laughed. The blade was at her neck. The boss had meant to continue and slice her head off but it had stopped the second it touched her. Large black scutes³ the scales on a turtle's shell. were on her neck around where she was attacked. 

The boss looked at Aylin and then back at Elena.

“You two are—!”

The boss’s head was sliced off before it could finish. The full impact from a simple kick from Elena was enough to shatter its armor and Aylin then used her claws to slice its head off.

“That was disappointing...I hoped it would revive with stronger armor or pull out another sword or something…” Elena sighed exaggeratedly.

Aylin nodded and went to open the door to the dungeon since the door to the treasure room opened.

“2 of the 4 beasts...What a joke, you should all be banned from dungeons!”

Elena was a bit surprised when she could hear the dungeon boss’ voice in her head.

“Black tortoise, you are related to the Ivanovs aren’t you? Tell them that Vseovolod is in the Dungeon in England. He’s not the boss, he’s just there to mess things up because he sensed one of you nearby.”  The dungeon boss said before completely disappearing from Elena’s head.

“... Vsevolod? That sounds familiar…” Elena murmured to herself in Russian.

‘I guess I’ll have to tell Andrei about it. Viktor is probably too busy.’ 

--

Yue didn’t sleep at all throughout the whole night but it all felt like a daze. He just laid on his cot and pitied himself. It was like a film about all of the painful failures in his life had decided to play in his head. 

There were around two and a half months left of the year and Yue couldn’t even believe he made it through March. The more he remembered about the past the more he felt like he was in more pain as he remembered it than when it actually happened. While staying in Paris with Viktor he had hoped he could forget about China forever, and he actually felt like he had forgotten about it for a while but Huy offering his condolences brought him back to reality. As much as he tried to move forward It was like the world was holding him back.

Yue didn’t realize it was morning already until Viktor entered the tent and walked up to him.

“You’re awake?” Viktor asked, and sat at the edge of Yue’s cot, moving Yue’s hair to get a good look at his face. Yue tried to hide his face with his hands but Viktor got suspicious and grabbed his hands and moved them away. Yue’s eyes were red from crying and he still had tears in his eyes.

“Yue…” Viktor murmured, “Did you sleep at all?”

Yue didn’t give any sort of response, his tears started to fall again. Viktor sighed a bit and brought Yue into his arms. He laid with him on the cot and kissed his forehead. For a second he was going to ask why he was crying again and assure him that he was fine but he figured Yue was crying over Alice or maybe what he was reminded of when he looked at her.

The cot was definitely not made for two people, especially not when one of them was almost 2 meters tall. Viktor took off his jacket a bit awkwardly while holding Yue and then went back to holding him a bit more comfortably. Yue quietly apologized for crying again and hid his face in Viktor’s chest.

“It’s okay. You can cry as much as you want.” Viktor whispered, he was tired but he didn’t want to fall asleep until Yue did. He did end up succumbing to his fatigue after a while though. 

Yue was still awake and still had a few tears running down his face as he realized that Viktor was asleep. He sat up and stared at Viktor’s sleeping face for some time. He leaned down and lightly pecked Viktor’s lips.

“Please don’t stop loving me when you find out...I don’t want to be alone.” Yue whispered in Chinese and wiped the tears that had fallen from his cheeks and onto Viktor’s face. He wiped his own tears and slipped back into his position in Viktor’s arms.