Seeing Silver’s inquisitive look, Elder Tian gathered his thoughts for a moment before delivering his judgment.

“Overall, the mind seems relatively healthy. There are certain… issues that will be tough to handle but there is little a healer will be able to do. We could try to fix the issue by locking some of the memories of the previous year but I’m afraid that may just cause a number of other complications. It will take time, but I think he’ll be alright.”

He then turned to Villin who had also been looking at him.

“Just take things as they come, try to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while but don’t force yourself either. It would be best if your memories of this time would be happy instead of stressful.” even though the elder said this, he knew things weren’t quite so simple.

No matter what, this experience will have a lasting impact throughout the boy’s life, he only hoped it wouldn’t be what defines him.

As Silver and Villin were thinking about his words, Elder Tian asked Villin another question, “And say, boy, are you perhaps a member of the midnight tower?”

Hearing this, Villin hesitated for a bit before responding “I only know the white tower focuses on runes. And now I guess the green tower focuses on healing, I don’t know what the black tower is.”

Hearing the honest reply, Elder Tian felt a little lost. The black tower focused on the power of the mind. Their powers were mysterious and unknown. Elder Tian had heard those of the black tower could create their own little world within their minds but had never been able to see it as, if there was a problem with one of their minds, they would ask their peers to help, not healers.

It was only now that he realized what they meant by having their own little world within their minds, it seemed Villin was capable of this.

Thinking of it, he spoke to Villin “When you are feeling better you should try and see if you can contact them. They are a group of magi that focus on the mind. It seems you have already unlocked some of their secrets by yourself, I am sure they would be happy to have you.”

Even though he said this, it was clear he didn’t want Villin to hurry. He reiterated that Villin should rest for a while and try to find himself. When the school year was over, he could try and reconnect with his friends.

When Elder Tian was just about to leave, Villin asked him an unexpected question.

“How is Elinoire?”

Hearing the boy’s question, the old man froze for a bit before sighing. After inhaling deeply, he answered. “Well boy, her mind isn’t in a good condition right now. We are doing our best to try and fix her but things aren’t so easy. If she ever recovers, it will be many years from now.”

Elder Tian gave him a sad smile before eventually walking out the door.

Villin couldn’t help but let out a deep breath when the man left. He couldn’t help but feel on edge and nervous with the man so close to him. Surprisingly, the time he felt most at ease was when Elder Tian infiltrated his mind. He felt in complete control at that point in time. If he caused trouble, Villin could easily take him down.

This control over the situation assured him somewhat.

Now, with the doctor gone, there were no expected visitors for a while. That was, until the end of the school year when Villin’s companions may come to greet him.

At this time, there was only one person he could talk with other than Silver, Ruby. Ever since the lack of increased gravity, Villin could once more converse with her somewhat in the morning. It didn’t feel as stressful as talking with Silver, it seemed natural. This may also be because each of them only said a couple of sentences, but it was nice.

A week after the doctor left, Villin began enchanting again. He began enchanting almost anything he could get his hands on, improving the objects he found. This included things such as cups and plates, things that an enchanter generally wouldn’t waste effort on.

But for Villin, it was ideal for practice. He had to use a wide variety of runes he knew, most of which he hadn’t used for a long time.

Before he knew it, the school year had ended. Students were going home and various guilds focused on defending entered. And, as expected, soon, visitors came.

When Villin felt three people approaching the house, he immediately notified Silver. She opened the door allowing the guests to enter.

Amelia, Kayley, and Rein entered the house with a smile. They heard Villin had been rescued a while ago but hadn’t been allowed to leave the school since they were only in the third grade.

Seeing these three people Villin felt a little overwhelmed, but he was also happy. At first, an awkward situation did occur when Amelia attempted to hug him while he subconsciously backed off, but that awkwardness was quickly resolved.

Silver expected Villin to back out after a little while but she was surprised to see this wasn’t the case. In fact, it wasn’t really because of Villin, but the conversation topics instead.

The amount of time the group talked about personal things were very little. For the entirety of the three hours they were here, the conversation almost always focused around magic and Athena’s Forge. This was the kind of thing, Villin didn’t have difficulty talking about.

Still, some personal talk was obviously also inserted. Like this, Villin found out that Kayley was apparently harmed quite badly in the attack on Decorus, she healed fully in a couple of months though and she was okay now. 

Even though the group tried to stay away from the overly negative topics, at some point the current situation of The Academy was mentioned.

In the last year, The Academy had been on a decline. With Mafoli being integrated into the Decorus school, they quickly became the biggest school, bypassing The Academy.

Over the last year, many of The Academy’s facilities had been attacked, even though the grades hadn’t had any problems, the damage was still substantial. 

Other than this, a couple of the guilds that aided The Academy were also exterminated. This included the famous ‘Runic Army’. 

Even though The Academy had attacked some of their facilities too, including the one Villin had been a prisoner in, things weren’t looking so good currently.

Once they noticed they began talking about such a grim subject, Amelia quickly changed the topic to Athena’s Forge.

Athena’s Forge was doing quite amazingly. The second grade tower stood out, some enchanted equipment and some relatively expensive wands were also left there to help those of the coming years protect the guild’s interests. Even though you couldn’t easily send equipment back to previous grades, since it was enchanted when they were there, it wasn’t too much of a problem.

In the third grade, they had also been welcomed. With the disappearance of “The Runic Army’ and some other smaller guilds, a large number of students weren’t sure where to go anymore.

‘Athena’s Forge’ perfectly fitted their needs. They had great enchanters and also did things such as pill-making. Overall, many of those that fell without a guild joined them, making them one of the top powers of the third grade.

Now, they weren’t sure whether they would be in the third or fourth grade next year. Amelia and Kayley held some confidence they should’ve still passed the test but Rein was a bit unsure. He had spent a lot of time on the guild and the test was extremely tough. Those that managed to made it to the fourth grade by their fourth year were very, very few and technically it was only Kayley and Rein’s third year since they practically skipped the first grade.

Ruby had also been very good to them. The Black Swans and Athena’s Forge had been working together very closely where they could. At times, Ruby would even give Rein a hint or two to aid him in enchanting.

When they were gone, Villin felt a little better once more. He looked at the pile of books next to the fireplace and began reading them. They were the third grade books. 

Technically, they weren’t allowed to give Villin these books to study but Silver decided to turn a blind eye.

Included in these books was also one of the books Villin had left back when he went to attack Decorus, the one that explained how to create true wards.

Villin took these books to his room and quickly began reading them, absorbing the information within. There were some spells he was required to learn and so he asked Silver if he could learn them. His crystal holder was currently still in The Academy under the ownership of his guild, as it was to be used for the guild expenses.

Still, there was plenty to buy any spell he would need, not even including the stake he had of the Blue Mythril mine. This would also bring in vast amounts of magic crystals.

In his name, Silver put out a request to The Academy for the spell blueprints he needed. Knowing his situation, no problems occurred and the blueprints were quickly sent over. This allowed Villin to properly work on his studies. The time spent talking with Silver became significantly less but since he was busy pursuing magic, this felt natural to Silver.

Not having to talk, Villin also felt more comfortable, even though he did always come out to eat.

A/N:

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