Viktor left after saying that. Everyone was frozen as William became embarrassed and rushed away. Viktor rarely spoke but every time he did it carried a lot of meaning. People tended to follow the words of the person they considered their leader, Viktor was that person for the class.

“He’s such an annoying little—!” 

“Mai, where are we going?” Yue interrupted Mai’s grumbling as he noticed that she was heading in the opposite direction of the dorm or any cafe. He was amused by her outburst and felt much lighter now that someone reprimanded William to his face.

“I don’t know..” Mai murmured after looking around. She had just been walking away out of rage without any particular direction or purpose. She sighed and turned to Yue.

“That guy is such an annoying little-! He thinks women are weak and powerless and that we won’t stand up for ourselves. Next time he says something like that I’m gonna—” Mai rambled, clearly still angry.

“Don’t disclose your murder plans in public, Mai.” Yue laughed and pulled Mai along in the direction of the dorms.

“Are you not angry?” Mai asked, confused.

“Oh, I’m very angry. But he’s definitely embarrassed now so I feel so much better.”  Yue said and grinned.

Mai sighed and smiled, deciding to calm down and walking with Yue.

—

The next day was expedition training and from how Mai had explained it, it was an outdoor situation training for when they went out on expeditions. A lot of small towns around the academy and we’re constantly being attacked by monsters, because of this the students of the academy went on expeditions to clear the area of monsters and cast protection magic. Every year they had to receive special training before they began so they knew about new practices and procedures and so they remembered how to fight the demons and monsters.

Yue struggled to put on his clothes. He had to wear a specific uniform to go out on expeditions and for training so he couldn’t wear his Hanfu. It was awkward to wear such tight-fitting clothes and buttoning a shirt was much more confusing than he thought it’d be.

His outfit was mostly white. He wore a white dress shirt under a decorated white blazer with shoulder pads and multiple golden designs and tassels and white pants. His boots and tie were black and he wore small gold earrings just to accessorize a bit. Mai had told him that all of the girls put on accessories and styled their hair because they didn’t want to be mistaken for men just because they wore pants or tied their hair back.

He did his usual red-ish eye makeup and put his hair up into a loose ponytail with a gold and jade hairpin. His fringe and some loose strands of hair framed his face and helped establish his ‘femininity’. His change in clothes and hairstyle made him look older, his use of transformation magic to give the illusion of breasts under his clothes also added to that.

Before leaving he picked up two swords from the coffee table in his room and put them on the sword holster on his side. One was a Rapier he got from the school and the other was the sword that he brought from China.

When he stepped out into the hall of the dorm he immediately heard panicked voices. A bunch of the girls were either struggling to put their clothes on or moaning and groaning about having to wear pants. He didn’t get involved, remembering how annoying the outfit was to put on. He simply went to wait for Mai at their meeting spot.

Mai wore the same outfit as him but she wore her hair in a braid to the side and had ruby earrings. She had a single sword at her side. Judging by the handle Yue assumed it was a two-handed sword, it was probably her own sword from Vietnam.

“Oh wow, you look great Yue!” Mai said and linked arms with Yue as they started walking to the expedition training site for their class.

He would’ve said something about how it wasn’t necessary to dress up and that everyone made too much of a big deal about appearing feminine while still wearing the uniform but it would be hypocritical. Especially since he was the one person who was quite literally using makeup and jewelry to make himself look like a woman.

“You look great too, let’s get to class now..” Yue murmured, a bit flustered.

Meanwhile, in the class training area, most of the boys had already arrived and were waiting for the girls to arrive so they could start. They all wore the same style of uniform but it was very clear that Viktor looked the best in it, he usually wore white anyway so it was by no means unexpected. 

William still had a few people hanging around him but most of his friends had broken off from him and grouped together separately. He kept looking over at Viktor with an angry look, gritting his teeth. He had been thoroughly humiliated by Viktor’s words the day before.

“Where are they? They’re seriously taking forever!” One of the students beside William said and groaned.

The professor was sitting while reading a book as he waited and he glanced up at the sound of complaints.

“The ladies aren’t used to clothes like these, it will obviously take them a while longer to get ready.” The professor murmured, the reason was solid and factual but it didn’t make William’s group stand down.

“Can’t do anything themselves huh,” William said, rolling his eyes.

Viktor’s eyes immediately met William’s as he said that, William flinched, getting ready to try and rebuke whatever Viktor said but they were interrupted by two of the girls arriving.

Elizabeth and Marianne were the other two girls in the class. Elizabeth was the blonde that had been paired with Mai and Marianne had been paired with a guy who used to be in William’s group.

“Sorry, we’re late,” Marianne said and curtsied a bit. She was of lower status than the other students so it was a habit even if it was unnecessary. She had auburn hair and brown eyes, she and Elizabeth were sort of close because they were roommates at the regular dorms but not close enough to be considered friends. Elizabeth didn’t apologize, she was prideful and considered herself to be above the rest of the students.

“Now It’s just Miss Mai and Miss Yue.” William’s other friend murmured.

Their distaste seemed to have doubled when thinking of the two, they were the people who stayed with William even after he was made a fool of by Viktor so they definitely felt the same way as him. Misogynistic and Xenophobic, a combo that ended with Mai and Yue specifically being discriminated against.

“The foreign exchange student dorm is farther than the  regular girl’s dorm.” A student who was mostly just trying to get brownie points from Viktor said and glanced over at William’s group and then at Viktor.

“Ah, I guess we came late..” Mai said in Vietnamese as she started to see the rest of the class in the distance. They ignored how weirdly separated the group seemed and just walked a bit faster. When they noticed them, the boys faltered a bit. They were surprised by how pretty they looked in the new clothes and different hairstyles.

“Woah..” One of William’s friends said as he watched them walk. William knocked himself out of a similar daze and glared at him.

“We’ll get started with training then...Miss Xia...Did you mean to bring two swords?” The professor asked, looking at the two swords Yue carried with him.

Yue nodded, “Another professor recommended the Rapier to me but I can’t just part with my own sword.” 

This shocked the class even more. Elizabeth and Marianne had never lifted a sword before expedition training and always lagged behind because they didn’t know how to use them and were generally bad at combat. They had expected all women to be like that, assuming that swordsmanship wasn’t something that women learned. Yue knew this was the case and almost wanted to roll his eyes, Lian Bai was the most feminine woman he knew and she could easily beat even his master at sword fighting.

The topic was dropped as the professor didn’t want to explain how he found that surprising. Training began and it was heavily focused on physical combat. They practiced on dummies and dolls and practiced using magic whilst using their swords.

Yue was used to it and finished quickly and just looked around. Viktor had also already finished and was walking toward him. Mai was still working but would soon finish so he didn’t think much of some small talk.

“If William Beckham continues to bother you, you should make sure to embarrass him as much as possible. Enough so he won’t even raise his head in front of you.” Viktor murmured as he reached Yue.

Yue giggled a bit, that wasn’t what he expected Viktor to say about the situation but he appreciated it. Viktor seemed to have also surprised some nosy students who had ‘taken a break’ and were listening in. Yue’s giggle also surprised them a bit, it was different from his usual calm and mature act.

“Did you mean to use insight on me that time or was it an accident?” Viktor asked.

Yue flinched and tried to come up with his excuse.

“It was an accident...I didn’t really see anything about your core or things like that if that’s why you’re asking.” Yue quickly said, trying to make sure he didn’t have to prove that he used it.

“It doesn’t really matter if you saw it, it’s not like I’m hiding it,” Viktor said, his face as calm and collected as always.

Yue was curious now, that probably meant that his core was average or above average since he really didn’t seem to care if he saw it. A Core was the basis of magic, the limit of your power was determined at birth by your core. Most people hide their cores because of embarrassment or so they weren’t purposely targeted by people stronger than them. Yue in particular had to hide his core because of its rank, it was a dead giveaway of who he was.

“It’s Mythic.”

If Yue had been drinking something he would’ve spit it out, but instead, he just went silent and his jaw dropped. How could he just say that to someone he didn’t even know? Saying you had a mythic core was essentially the same as saying ‘oh yeah I’m just one of the strongest people to ever walk the earth.’ Paper or ‘dirt’ as most people called it was the lowest core type and meant the person would never be capable of using magic. Mythic on the other hand essentially meant someone had the power to become a god. 

Most people who attend the academy had silver-type cores and most people in the advanced class like Mai had gold-type cores.

“A-Are you serious?”  Yue asked, with a gulp.

“You can check if you don’t believe me,” Viktor said and chuckled.

Yue wanted to check so he placed his hand in Viktor’s chest completely forgetting that he had told him he had Insight. He used a different skill to look at Viktor’s core.

Yue saw a glowing orb that changed from a vibrant purple to a bright gold as he watched it. It was definitely a Mythic core. Yue was shocked as he pulled his hand away but he was definitely not as unsettled or confused as Viktor who had no idea what Yue had just done.

‘I just used the wrong skill..’ Yue thought, glancing around and noting that some other nosy students were looking at him too. He blushed and apologized quietly for touching him.

“Oh, it’s fine..” Viktor murmured, his ears were a bit red.