“Ugh…” Yue whined, he had rested for a whole day and his body was still achy.

“I don’t wanna get up…” Yue groaned, he still let himself be lifted off the bed by Viktor though.

“Mai is coming over this afternoon though?” Viktor hummed, lifting Yue up into his arms and kissing his cheek as he brought him over to the dining room for breakfast. Yue had no shame in being carried anymore, limping and having all the maids know why was embarrassing enough to make even this feel normal.

Yue sighed, he did want to see Mai since it had been a little over a week now since they returned from Austria and they hadn’t talked at all because of how sick he had been.

“Would you like painkillers?” Anya asked Yue quietly as she served him food.

“...Please…” Yue murmured with bright red cheeks.

For the past 24+ hours, not a second went by where Yue wasn’t reminded of what he and Viktor did. Just Viktor’s little pleased expression was enough to remind him. He definitely was feeling the effects of the Huangjiu near the end of the night but this time he remembered everything immediately and was extremely embarrassed. He couldn’t believe he did everything that he did and Viktor would definitely not let him forget.

“You didn’t let me go all night y’know? It was so cute.”

Yue wanted to slap himself for remembering that but he just focused on his breakfast instead, avoiding Viktor’s gaze.

—

“Are you feeling better?” Mai asked, hugging Yue carefully. She and Yue were taking a walk together along the gardens in the manor since it wasn’t very cold. Viktor was called out to the academy so he didn’t join them.

“Yeah, I managed to absorb all the mana from the tooth so I’m back to normal now,” Yue said and smiled.

“I don’t quite feel stronger like I expected to feel though,” Yue murmured, clenching and unclenching his fists a bit.

“Hmm...maybe your body doesn’t think of it as a strength boost since the tooth was supposed to be there in the first place?” Mai said, looking over Yue’s hair as she caught a glimpse of the white section of hair. Yue nodded a little, that was probably the reason.

“The thing that’s really worrying me is this…” Mai murmured, reaching out to touch the white section of Yue’s hair.

“Yeah...I’m still confused about that too...It appeared when my hair was cut and got bigger while I was sick...I don’t understand why it’s happening at all.” Yue murmured, “I don’t even know if it’s a bad thing...I mean there’s always novels where the ‘immortals’ have white hair because of their cultivation expertise, My cultivation level hasn’t recovered back to such a high level of mastery though.”

“If we were back in Asia we could just go find a divine doctor but it’s a bit complicated to travel right now.” Mai sighed and sat down on a bench in the garden.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Yue asked and sat down beside her.

“Well, I was originally just coming here to see how you were doing but I got a message from Anh last night, and It’s very important. Viktor probably found out already but teleportation devices like letter portals, teleport pads, and even regular teleportation magic are being jammed in the Mediterranean. It’s a big mess and teleport hubs are packed.” Mai explained.

“Is Huy in the area?” Yue asked. He was surprised about the whole situation, it was weird that teleport magic wasn’t working, he’d never heard of such a situation before.

“He said he’s meeting White Tiger because of the whole situation since it’s within their shared territory,” Mai answered.

“Oh...” Yue murmured, “We’ll probably be called into a meeting if the school wants to help do something about it…”

“It’s a very odd situation though...Even the double dungeons in the United Kingdom didn’t stop teleportation pads…” Mai murmured.

“Could that organization from Austria be doing this?”

Yue went silent for a while, he wanted to assume that they would take more time to recover from their loss of the fang and all of the mages they sent to Austria, but he would not be surprised if it had all been a diversion or merely a side goal.

Yue sighed and nodded, "It is very likely."

"Let's talk with Viktor about it later..." Yue murmured and tried to change the subject to ease his own nerves.

"By the way, what happened to the Wyverns in Austria? I killed their leader, so they are probably struggling, right?" Yue asked, tilting his head a little.

"Oh, Viktor was going to try and help them, but Aethen took charge and made himself leader. They made the decision to move up north, where most other Wyverns live." Mai said and smiled.

Yue let out a sigh of relief, he was worried he'd doomed the Wyverns by killing their leader. He then remembered about the monsters in the forest and quickly became worried again.

"What about the--"

"The monsters in the forest? Viktor set up a deal with the mage association to send mages to guard the forest and protect the townspeople from the monsters. It helped give relatively low-level mages jobs, so the association was on board." Mai explained.

"Oh and the Hundun mages that were still alive were taken by the mage association for interrogation, Viktor is supposed to receive updates on that so you should ask him about it if you're curious," Mai added.

Yue sighed in relief once again, glad that everything worked out well while he was unconscious. He was curious about what they'd found out from the Hundun mages. He knew close to nothing about them. Even their motives were unclear to him. Some seemed like they wanted people with powerful core types to give their cores to the weak or just wanted them to not exist, but then there were people like the Lich and Li Chaoxiang who seemed like outliers.

Li Chaoxiang was an enigma and the Lich seemed like they just wanted to further their magic to higher levels. Yue also didn't know what the negative energy manipulator that Viktor fought was after. His core was golden and it seemed like it was actually his own and not someone else's so he was curious about his motives. Of course, it was too late to wonder about his motives now.

Yue and Mai changed the subject once more to something more light-hearted and talked outside for a while until it became a bit colder and they decided to go inside.

"Did you hear about the teleportation pads?" Viktor asked immediately as they entered, he had just returned from the academy.

Mai and Yue both nodded.

"There's a mage association meeting tomorrow afternoon about it and the situation. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Wagner want me to attend as the captain of the 1st tier class but I told them that you two should go as the captain and Vice-captain." Viktor explained as he took off his coat.

"Huh?" Mai immediately looked dumbfounded, she had been treated as vice-captain from the beginning but she didn't expect for it to be official.

"Why are you not going?" Yue asked, confused about why Viktor wanted the two of them to go instead.

"I am going," Viktor said, "But as the Prince of Belarus."

"Oh..." Yue and Mai both said in unison.

"Wait so what are your thoughts on the situation?" Mai asked curiously.

"I think Hundun has someone who knows when and where Dungeons will appear," Viktor said, his expression becoming more serious.

"They are cutting off the teleport pads so people can't leave Medeteranian because a dungeon is going to appear there."

Yue's eyes widened, "Dungeons are more likely to ruin the areas where they appear if people are unable to evacuate...Mages have to spend extra energy to save people and it makes the process slower...It's all planned..."

"They're despicable..." Mai said and frowned.

"They don't think that the world needs mages with high core types, yet they are making countries become ruined..." Viktor murmured, his lips pressed together in a line, "How illogical."

"That's why I'm confused...Is a world without high core types really their goal?" Yue murmured.

They stood silently for a while, pondering what was really going on. Viktor broke the silence and invited Mai to stay for dinner. She accepted and they moved on, deciding to save their conversations for the meeting.

--

'Ugh, not this dream again.'

Viktor frowned mentally as he found himself in a dream. He had this same dream in Austria when he fell asleep after taking care of Yue while he was unconscious after their battle. He had a feeling back in Austria that it wasn't a normal dream. But he was more certain that it wasn't a normal dream now that it had happened twice.

He was in an empty ballroom, it was night time but the moon from outside the open buildings was bright enough to light the whole room. He was dancing with someone. It was honestly a beautiful and romantic scene but it didn't make him happy at all. The person he was dancing with wasn't Yue, so he was immediately not interested, but the fact that it was a woman made it worse.

She had platinum blonde hair and light blue eyes. She generally looked very familiar, but Viktor couldn't think of who she was. It was somewhere in the back of his head, but he couldn't quite grab the right answer. Her expression was stoic, but her eyes were vibrant. She was enjoying herself.

'I'm glad I'm not a prophet. ' Viktor thought to himself, he'd like to avoid dancing with anyone who wasn't Yue.

The dream felt incredibly real, but he couldn't move much more than his eyes despite being fully aware of what was going on. The dream felt like it lasted over an hour last time, so he tried to entertain himself for that time. He had carefully observed every part of the ballroom within seconds and cursed his eyes for actually being active at such a time.

He was dreading the time that was to come and just stared at the moon outside for a while. He didn't expect to become so enthralled by the moon, but before he even realized it he seemed to have woken up.

He was now suddenly staring into Yue's eyes. He is confused for a second.

'What's with this position?'

He was holding Yue's chin and already sitting up even though he had woken up less than a second ago. He examined Yue's expression and furrowed his brow, letting go of Yue's chin and stroking his face for a second.

"What's wron--?!"

Yue had been looking at Viktor with a horrified expression, and he only became more horrified as Viktor's nose started to bleed.

Viktor quickly raised his hand to his nose to stop the blood from dripping and panicked. He would have to explain this to Yue now. He could easily just say that this was normal for him and that it happened once in a while, but he couldn't bring himself to speak as he looked at Yue's expression.

'Why do you look like you're going to cry?'

Minutes earlier, while Viktor was 'dreaming'--

Yue was spooked awake when he felt a cold hand on his face. He whined a little and glanced at Viktor and then at the window just past him. It was still dark out.

"It's too early..." Yue mumbled and just heard a chuckle in response.

Something about Viktor's chuckle felt wrong. It sent a shiver down Yue's spine and made him want to move away from the cold hand that was caressing his face.

"Viktor..?" Yue asked and looked Viktor in the eyes.

"Huh?"

Viktor's eyes were no longer the beautiful gold color that Yue knew and loved. His eyes were light blue with red slitted pupils. Yue didn't understand why he felt so scared as he looked into Viktor's eyes, but he did.

"Why-"

"You're so beautiful...Perhaps it's because you're a dragon?" Viktor said and smiled, gabbing Yue's chin and pulling him closer to him.

Yue was confused and furrowed his brow, why was Viktor acting like this?

"Is something wr-" Yue started.

"Hey, Look into the future for me." Viktor interrupted.

Yue's worried look fell, becoming a shocked and horrified look instead.

'Why...are you of all people...'

Yue didn't know what to think.

Viktor wasn't supposed to be like this. Why was he acting like this? Why was he acting like other people? Did he want him for his power too? He was supposed to be...

"Hurry up and do it already," Viktor said and narrowed his eyes.

Different.

Yue only felt worse as he was forced into a prophecy suddenly.

The prophecy was of him running through the streets of a city, toward the city's center where two large portals were open just a few feet away from one another. Two dungeons appeared in one place but Yue couldn't even feel shocked or even pay attention.

He got out of the prophecy and stared down at the bed silently. He felt like he had been pulled out of his little romantic fantasy.

"Tell me what you sa-" Yue glanced up a bit, his horrified expression still clearly visible on his face as he saw Viktor's eyes slowly turn gold again.