Coming back to the academy after being away really made Yue realize that their time there was coming to an end soon.

“So is the manor just going to stay here even after we graduate?” Yue asked Viktor as he sipped on some tea. They were sitting in the garden together look out toward the garden.

“Yeah, Kolya...or someone else from our family might attend the school later on,” Viktor said and smiled.

“I see…” Yue murmured with a smile. He was glad the manor wasn’t going to just get torn down or something, it’d be a little sad for all of their memories to disappear.

“Should we just do it on a day off?” Yue asked, looking up from the paper where he had been writing some of the specifics about the item they planned to create in Chinese. He faltered a bit as his face ended up close to Viktor’s. Viktor was very immersed in watching him write down Chinese characters with a quill.

“Alright, just meet me at the library then. My manor has an area we can use.” Viktor said and met eyes with Yue.

‘Ah...Rich people..’ Yue thought to himself, having a manor in a different country was expensive, even the rich kids from the area lived in the dorms because building or buying a manor just to go to school there was too expensive for them. He was curious just how much influence Viktor had since he could afford a second home just for him to go to school.

Yue laughed out loud as he remembered what he thought when he was first invited to the manor.

“Hmm?” Viktor looked at him with a confused smile as he watched him giggle.

“I just remembered the day when you invited me to do the project here,”

Viktor chuckled a little as he recalled the same memory, “That was also our first time speaking y’know.”

Yue chuckled and continued to reminisce, “I didn’t think we’d become close back then, and I definitely didn’t think we’d have this sort of relationship.”

“Ah did I make a bad first impression?” Viktor chuckled.

“Well Yeah,” Viktor faked a hurt look as he heard Yue say that but Yue quickly explained, “the second I looked at you for the first time I had a prophecy of when you-- oh…” 

Viktor thought Yue had stopped because he realized he never actually told him the truth about that day. He was going to tell Yue that it was fine and that he understood why he lied to him back when he first asked about it but that didn’t seem to be why Yue had paused.

Yue had actually paused because he realized that the prophecy hadn’t come true yet. In the prophecy, Viktor was covered in blood, he hadn’t seen Viktor be covered in blood at any point in time throughout all the battles they’ve been in together.

“That prophecy...hasn’t happened yet.” Yue looked a little relieved as he thought about that. He looked at Viktor’s confused expression and hesitated a little.

“Oh...It was a prophecy of you--” Yue started before Viktor cut him off.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Viktor said and smiled, “I’m sure it will make more sense when we get to it.”

Yue looked a little conflicted but then he relaxed, “Yeah, I guess so.”

--

“This year was so difficult and they got so much Merit….”

“The gap…”

“The Prince is on a different level…”

“That’s almost the entire first-tier class…” 

Most of the first-tier students didn’t even bother to check the listings on the boards outside of their dorms. The boards had a list of the top 10 graduating students and their total merits, It was usually one of the most important things to graduating students but the first tier class didn’t even bother looking. There wasn’t much of a point in fighting over 4th through 10th.

“I figured Miss Yue was an amazing mage but I didn’t realize it’d be this...exaggerated…” Shirley murmured as she looked at the list.

“Miss Yue is amazing but Why in the world did Lord Ivanov not graduate earlier… His collective merits are crazy…” Anika murmured, she was shocked.

“Congratulations Miss Mai! Your numbers are pretty crazy too though… how did you do it?” Other girls from the foreign dorm asked.

Mai was just silent for a while.

“How many do you need to graduate again?” Mai asked.

“You need 800 to graduate, you can get 200 per year for the minimum participation in classes and expeditions.” A few girls who were surrounding her answered.

“THEN HOW IN THE WORLD DID VIKTOR GET OVER 150,000 IN 4 YEARS?” Mai exclaimed, completely shocked. Viktor’s total merits were 37,500 for the year and 152,000 overall in the time he was in the academy.

“I heard he saved a teacher from falling into a ravine in his first year.”

“And uncovered an illegal magic shop.”

“And rounded up an organized crime ring in his second year.”

“I heard he got a whole bunch of merits for being a teacher’s assistant for almost all of his third year.”

“You got 14,000, Miss Mai. I don’t think you can talk.” Anika murmured. Mai started walking off after staring at the list for a while.

“Hey, where are you going?” Shirley asked.

“To go see Viktor and Yue!” Mai said and walked away.

--

“Congratulations on 1st and 2nd place,” Anya said as she handed Viktor a copy of the list.

“Oh? I didn’t know there was a ranking…” Yue murmured and looked over Viktor’s shoulder.

“Oh wow…Don’t you only need 800 to pass?” Yue asked. Anya nodded and smiled.

“You got more than me for the year but I got more in total because I’ve been here for 4 years.” Viktor chuckled. Yue had 38,000 merits for the year.

“How are merits even counted?” Yue asked, he wasn’t upset over his placement, he didn’t know about the ranking so he wasn’t really being competitive. He also technically beat Viktor so he wasn’t upset at all.

“Teacher’s assessments of our classwork and expedition reports. Mostly expedition reports though, that’s why negative points in expeditions are a big deal, they could make you lose a significant amount of merits. Similarly, when you highlight someone’s effort or improvement in the reports you also help them gain merits too.” Viktor explained.

“Teachers are also allowed to give them based on their whims, giving demerits is a bit more complicated though. The mage association also gives them out if you were helpful to them.” Anya added.

“Ohhh that explains it,” Yue murmured, “A lot of these are probably from Italy then.”

“And London,” Viktor added.

“There is a portrait made of the top three and a portrait for every class as well, do you have an idea of what you’d like to wear?” Anya asked Yue.

“Uh…” Yue was stumped by the question but luckily he felt a familiar presence nearby.

“Mai will help me choose!”

—

“You…” Yue murmured as he saw Viktors suit

for the class paintings. His face turned red as he saw him.

Mai had told them that they should dress according to their temples and Yue didn’t expect Viktor to actually go through with it.

Viktor wore a black suit with golden designs all around the blazer. His hair was slicked back as it usually was during formal events and he wore small golden studs.

“That… suits you,” Yue murmured, he wished he could turn around but Anya was doing his hair. He wore a blue-green Hanfu with various gold details and white details and accessories. Anya was in the middle of doing his hair but it would be in a half up half down style.

“More than my usual white clothes?” Viktor asked with a chuckle.

“You look handsome in both but you never wear this so it’s different…” 

Viktor chuckled after hearing that and smiled, sitting down next to the Vanity where Yue was getting ready.

“You look very beautiful as well,” Viktor said and grinned. He took Yue’s hand and placed a kiss on the back of it.

“We have two paintings to sit through so I hope you’re not uncomfortable,” Viktor murmured and Intertwined his fingers with Yue.

“No, I’m fine. “ Yue said and smiled.

--

“You look great,” Yue said and smiled as he and Viktor met up with Mai at the entrance to the room where they were going to be painted.

Mai wore a red Ao Dai with gold embroidery, it reminded Yue of the clothes she wore in the prophecy of her wedding but it was a bit more simple and instead of a Khan Dong, she wore a golden flower hairpin. She grinned a little at the compliment.

“You two look great too!”

They all walked together into the room and saw that a couple of teachers were there along with the painter.

“You three are quite something... Last year the total merit points of the entire top ten were only around 11 thousand and now just the top 3 are over 200,000.” Mr. Anderson said with a laugh as he saw them.

“More than half of that is Viktor, don’t look at us,” Mai said and linked arms with Yue.

Mr. Anderson and Viktor just laughed. The painter got started once Viktor, Yue and Mai got in position and the teacher started leaving since they knew the painting would take a while.

“Well, this is definitely a class for the history books...I don’t know if any other class will be able to match them.” Mr. Wagner murmured as he walked off with Mr. Anderson.

“Who knows...I know that girl from Wolfsstadt will at least try to reach their level but that’s still a couple of years from now. The mages stationed there say she might just be another case like Mr. Ivanov’s.” Mr. Anderson chuckled.

“Olivia Easton is also very determined to come to the academy. And Nikolai Ivanov is already a prodigy as well, no one knows if he’ll follow his uncle’s footsteps though.” Mr. Wagner said and glanced at Mr. Anderson.

“I’m going to Root for Little Miss Frida, She was personally taught by those two so I think she’ll do well. Who are you rooting for, Evan?” Mr. Anderson chuckled.

“The safe choice, of course, Nikolai Ivanov.” Mr. Anderson said smiled a little.

“It’s not a bet, you don’t have to choose the safe choice.” Mr.Anderson laughed.

“You always say that and somehow the loser always ends up getting punished.” Mr. Wagner said and rolled his eyes, walking a bit faster.

Mr. Anderson didn’t even deny it and just laughed.