“Where is Viktor?” Mai asked as she came out of the building and walked over to Yue who had just finished giving instructions to some other groups that had woken up earlier.

“He’s still asleep.” Yue laughed.

“Are we going to wait for him?” Mai asked, sitting down beside Yue. Yue nodded in response and waved over Alexius and Marianne who walked out of the building and asked the same questions Mai had asked.

“Hmm? Maybe you should wake him up.” Walter said and yawned as he came over and got the explanation as well.

“I suppose I should,” Yue giggled and checked the time.

He got up and went over to their room and opened the door to find Viktor still sleeping. He walked over to the bed and shook him a little. Viktor woke up pretty quickly and yawned before hugging Yue’s waist.

“Good morning,” Viktor murmured and Yue laughed as he ran his hands through Viktor’s hair.

“You were really tired Huh? I already had breakfast and sent all the other groups off to do what they needed to do for the day.” Yue said and handed Viktor his blazer. Viktor pouted, just how Yue expected him to.

“You should’ve just woken me up.” Viktor sighed and stood, pulling on his blazer. He was going to straighten his tie afterward but Yue did it for him.

“Don’t get all sad, you were tired so I didn’t want to wake you.” Yue chuckled and pecked Viktor’s lips, dragging him along. Viktor sighed and fixed his hair as he was dragged.

—

“Do you think the Wyvern will come down again?” Marianne asked.

“Maybe,” Yue murmured. The two groups were walking down the trail that Yue had met the Wyvern on and were starting to get past where they were before.

“I didn’t think they’d be nocturnal…” Walter murmured.

“A lot of the monsters that they like to eat come out at night,” Yue explained and looked around the mountain. He thought the trail had been circling around the mountain to reach the peak but it wasn’t. The trail stopped going up and started going on a decline. It was steep but not steep enough that horses couldn’t walk on it.

They walked around for a couple of hours and Yue was starting to feel a little impatient until he finally saw the cave that he had seen in his prophecy and went over to it. Everyone followed him and he used magic to clear the bushes so they could enter the cave.

“Hmm? It’s empty…” Viktor murmured as he walked around the cave.

“...Maybe the people who came here were hunters?” Mai murmured, there was only a slight trace of what might’ve been an animal living in the cave at some point.

“That would be illegal too but I expected it to be the humans that the Wyvern talked about…” Yue murmured.

“Well it still could be them,” Viktor said and walked out of the cave, looking around the area.

“Yeah, but I thought this would be a Wyvern cave or something that they had been trying to raid. Wyverns usually don’t eat the monsters that can be eaten by humans.” Yue said and left the cave and turned around to carefully observe it and the area around it with Viktor.

“Y-Yue…” Mai murmured as she walked out of the cave. Yue looked confused as he looked over and followed Mai’s hand. She was pointing toward the sky where the Wyvern he had talked to the day before was flying around in circles. It didn’t seem to have noticed them.

“It’s probably just hunting,” Yue murmured and watched the Wyvern dip down from the air. The Wyvern came up after a few seconds with a monster in its mouth and then disappeared up the mountain.

“You should ask it more questions next time you see it, so we can get more information,” Walter said after watching in awe for some time.

Yue nodded and decided to just have everyone continue walking on the trail again. He stopped and hesitated a bit before squatting down on the side of the trail and sweeping some snow off.

“...A pin...” Yue murmured, holding it with the tips of his fingers. His gloves were thin so the snow made his hands cold.

Viktor took the pin from his hands, he was confused about why Yue picked up the pin, and then he looked at the tassel of Yue’s sword and noticed that the stone on it had turned black from negative energy. He examined the pin and the faint design on it.

“Merchants…? This seems like a design they’d use.” Viktor murmured.

“Should we try and investigate it in town?” Mai asked, looking over at the pin.

“... Maybe tomorrow, it’s going to snow in around an hour it seems,” Viktor said and pointed at the darkening skies.

“We should go back...” Yue murmured, he didn’t want to deal with it snowing while they walked along the rest of the trail. Everyone nodded and started walking back to the forest.

—-

“Are you going to the baths?” Mai asked and stretched as they entered the base. Viktor’s group had split from them and went to go get everyone before the snow started so it was just Mai, Yue, and Marianne in the base.

“Hmm? My room has a bath in it.” Yue said and grabbed the keys to the baths that Mai had been talking about and opened them.

“Lucky you…”

“It uses magic so it’s a bit inconvenient if you’re tired…” Yue murmured and chuckled a little.

“Well, both baths are better than just using cleaning magic.” Marianne chimed in and Yue and Mai both quickly agreed.

Mai and Marianne went off to their room and Yue checked around the halls of the base to see if anyone was around so he could tell them the baths were open if they wanted to use them. He found no one and just shrugged it off and went back to his room. Mai and Marianne would probably explain it for Viktor and everyone else so he just decided to take a quick bath.

His quick bath took a bit longer than he Intended but he got lost in thought halfway.

‘I expected it to be related to the Lich and his organization...but It’s just merchants…’

He sighed a bit, he wanted to deal with them as quickly as possible and it would be easier if they continued their pattern of interfering with his expeditions. He spent some time in thought before remembering where he was.

—

Viktor walked into the bedroom, not at all expecting to see Yue shirtless, buttoning up his pants whilst lost in thought. He stood at the door for a couple of seconds, taking in the sight of Yue’s bare back before he saw a student walking down the hall so he quickly stepped inside and closed the door, alerting Yue that he was there. Yue slowly turned around, his face turning bright red.

“...” He didn’t even know what to say. He turned back around and started putting on his shirt quickly.

Viktor smirked and walked over to him and wrapped his arms around his waist, stopping him from fully getting dressed. He rested his head on his shoulder and sneakily took a look.

“I-It’s cold...Just let me get dressed…” Yue murmured and shivered as Viktor’s hands slid up his bare abdomen and chest.

Viktor chuckled and kissed Yue’s neck before pulling his shirt up and buttoning it for him. Yue was still shivering a little, Viktor’s hands were freezing as they ghosted over his chest, and even now that they weren’t actually touching his skin he could still almost feel them.

“You’re so cute, Yue,” Viktor whispered and kissed his ear.

“...Shush…G-Go bathe or something...” Yue murmured and turned around, pushing Viktor toward the bathroom.

Viktor laughed and walked into the bathroom, leaving Yue to collect himself. He got dressed in the bathroom to save Yue some embarrassment and came out soon afterward.

He was surprised to see Yue sitting on his bed wrapped in blankets, waiting for him. He expected Yue to retreat away from him after the interaction they had just now. Yue usually ran away after they had intimate moments so it was surprising that he was waiting for him. He was very pleased though.

-

“If I see the Wyvern again tomorrow I’ll ask if I can see their leader...it might’ve already ‘dealt’ with them though. This expedition might end up being really short…” Yue murmured, sighing as he intertwined his fingers with Viktor’s.

“Well that’s fine, it might be a little hard to explain any deaths but the goal of this expedition is to just calm the Wyverns down so it was bound to be pretty short,” Viktor murmured and kissed Yue’s all over Yue’s neck.

“Yeah but it still feels like there’s some sort of catch…” Yue murmured, he shut his eyes and winced a little suddenly.

‘Did he just bite me?’ He silently questioned himself and turned around to face Viktor, touching his neck a little.

“Yeah...It feels like that Lich and his organization are going to pop up again somehow...Right...I should tell you about that…'' Viktor murmured, his face was perfectly innocent which made Yue a bit confused.

“What?”

“Do you remember the grimoire auction in Paris and how after it I asked you what Hundun was?”

Yue nodded.

“The grimoire had the symbol that we saw in Wolfsstadt and it had a drawing of your eyes...and it called their organization ‘Hundun’. It was trying to recruit people and have them join their cause by turning into a fake grimoire.” Viktor murmured.

Yue froze up. ‘Hundun’, one of the 4 fiends. He knew it was out of spite that such an organization was named that way. It likely didn’t start because of him but it definitely began to grow after his massacre of Li Chaoxiang. He still couldn’t help but think that everything was his fault as he thought of that name even when he knew it wasn’t.

Viktor pecked Yue’s forehead and then his lips, “I don’t know what you’re thinking but... everything will be alright.”

Yue wasn’t so sure that he believed that but he hugged Viktor tightly.

“If you ever end up being involved with them...stay away from the Lich and a man named Li Chaoxiang...I’m begging you.” Yue said and hid his face in Viktor’s shoulder. He knew Viktor was strong, and he knew he didn’t have to protect him, but that was exactly what he thought about Xia Guiren…

“I promise I’ll stay away from them,” Viktor said and rubbed Yue’s back. Yue was taken aback for a second, he didn’t think Viktor would agree without mentioning something about how he wasn’t weak or something like that. He was glad Viktor promised though, it made him feel much better about everything.

Viktor kissed Yue’s forehead and whispered for him to sleep for a while as he turned off the lights and brought him even closer. Yue was worried about getting nightmares since he had been thinking of Hundun and of Xia Guiren but he tried to focus on Viktor to get rid of the thought.

He eventually did fall asleep but it took him a while. Viktor stayed up with him the whole way through though.

—-

Fan Peizhi walked down the halls of the Hundun hideout in France, purposely walking at a pace that was considered ‘normal’. Since Chonglin was all but killed by Li Chaoxiang, Peizhi now had to take a different role in Hundun and he had a lot more eyes on him. He also had Li Chaoxiang’s attention at times since he recognized him as the person who gave him the core he currently uses.

Because of this new attention, he rarely got the chance to report back to Fei Xiang.

He entered his bedroom with normal mannerisms and a normal expression. Even once he got into his room he couldn’t relax. That’s why he was glad the letter wasn’t written in a normal language. Even if he went out of his way to write in some obscure lost language there would be someone in Hundun who’d know it, so instead, he and Fei Xiang completely invented one. One that had complex character rules and crazy grammar rules that made it impossible to guess and incredibly difficult to learn.

‘Dear Lord Fei Xiang, the stage will be set in Italy around early march. Li Chaoxiang and the other members of Hundun are trying to create a ruined area just like London but with two dungeons less than 20 feet from each other. I hate to doubt you but in such a situation...Do you really have a plan?’