“No way! When did you find out?!” Mai exclaimed, shocked.

“Right after we got off the teleportation platform, I used insight on Yue because he said I could...I guess he didn’t know that Insightful eyes show that many details about a person.” Viktor murmured. He could clearly tell what was going through Mai’s head when he said that.

‘And you still kept flirting?’ Was exactly what Mai was thinking. She accidentally smiled but tried to keep a serious look. She was actually very happy with that answer since it seemed that Yue was actually falling for him too so he was glad that Viktor kept his attitude the same.

“If you—“

“If I hurt him, you’ll kill me, yeah I got the memo.” Viktor said and chuckled a bit.

“Let’s go back to town,” Viktor said, noting how the fog had almost disappeared. They both rushed on their way back but paused at a small clearing when they heard rustling.

“Eh? You’re here!” A familiar voice exclaimed and got closer.

“Where were you two?!” Yue exclaimed and rushed up to them with Alexius just behind him. Mai immediately just hugged Yue tightly, not bothering to say a word while Viktor stood there a bit, feeling left out even though Alexius was rambling beside him about how worried he had been and how Yue didn’t even need their help.

“Wh-What’s with you?” Yue asked with a confused look, noting the weird way Mai was acting and the weird aura around Viktor.

Mai suddenly held Yue's shoulders and pulled away, looking him straight in the eye with a serious look.

“Yue. You’re really cute.” Mai said, completely serious, she was partially talking about his younger self but also about him in general. Yue blushed and huffed, looking mildly enraged by the comment.

“Oh shush!” Yue said and rolled his eyes, and pushed her away lightly. Mai was unfazed and continued to hold on to him.

“What happened to you?” Yue asked Viktor as he let Mai hold on to him from behind and muzzle into his back.

“We fought the werewolf that could cast spells on our own but he escaped, we chased him for a bit though but the fog rolled back.” Viktor said, deciding not to mention the whole experience he and Mai had.

“The werewolves were definitely different today...they were weak but they seemed to have a target on me today.” Yue murmured.

Viktor’s eyes were very wide as he heard that. Did Yue not realize why they were going after his eyes or did he think they were just going for his face in general? He confirmed one of his worst fears...Yue did have the Azure dragon eyes. That meant more and more people in the future would continue to go after him in the future regardless of what happens here. Viktor sighed and tried to move past it.

“... The werewolves are evolving in a way that is sort of like an army...The ones who came yesterday were the weakest links, they had essentially no sort of mutation, the ones from today could sense magic, two of them could talk and one of the two who could talk could cast gold level magic.” Viktor explained, trying to redirect a bit.

“I met the other werewolf that could talk, he said something that I didn’t understand but he was definitely a bit stronger than the rest of them.” Yue murmured, it would be pretty annoying if they got much stronger or smarter.

“You say that but I definitely saw you break his skull with just a kick…” Alexius murmured, shivering a bit.

“O-Oh...you saw that..?” Yue murmured, a bit embarrassed. Viktor looked intrigued and Mai just laughed at Yue’s embarrassment.

“I think we’re going to have to take it slow, dealing with them in waves every night might be easier than actually seeking them out. They’re definitely after my hair and they probably have a target on you because of yesterday.” Viktor said, steering the conversation back on topic.

Yue nodded and they walked back to town with Yue trying to pry Mai off him and failing miserably. Mai glanced at Viktor as she held Yue with a smug-looking grin. ‘Bet you wish you were a girl huh?’ She said to him telepathically. Viktor didn’t even bother to respond and just rolled his eyes playfully.

When they got back to town the sun was starting to rise and Viktor and Mai realized that they had been gone for a while.

Mai only separated herself from Yue when she wanted to go bathe, she had done a lot more work today than yesterday so she was also much more tired. Viktor took the opportunity to talk to Yue. He was going to say something but Yue started the conversation instead.

“Their leader must be capable of using magic as well if they want your hair…” Yue murmured, looking curiously at Viktor’s silver hair.

“Oh...Yeah most likely.” Viktor murmured, looking at his own hair.

“My hair is a bother honestly, I’ll probably cut it off soon anyway..” Viktor sighed, touching his hair.

He paused a bit after hearing the small gasp from Yue. He looked over and could definitely see how disappointed Yue was to hear that. Yue was pouting a bit, he liked Viktor’s hair as it was. He also couldn’t really imagine him with short hair.

“I’ll have to grow it out again anyway, don’t look so disappointed.” Viktor chuckled. Yue blushed and looked embarrassed, turning away a bit.

Viktor reached out and touched a strand of Yue’s hair, looking at the ink-black strands. Yue froze and turned to face Viktor once he realized that he was touching his hair. He blushed and looked down a bit.

“W-What is it?” Yue murmured.

Viktor shook his head and smiled, before letting go, not saying anything.

“Let’s deal with the Chuchuna nest in the forest this afternoon,” Viktor said and patted Yue’s head. Yue blushed an even brighter shade of red but let Viktor continue.

“O-Okay..” Yue said with a pout, he felt like he was being treated like a child but he didn’t hate it.

-

Yue yawned as he put on his uniform, he hadn’t managed to sleep very well but he had to eat and go with Viktor to Kill the Chuchunas so he couldn’t sleep in. He put up his hair in a simple bun and went to get something to eat.

He ended up sitting alone to eat since everyone else was already up and probably doing something else. He was honestly surprised that the class had actually been doing well in following the plans and helping the villagers, he expected them to be as rude as they had been to him ut they seemed to be taking the expedition seriously. He could tell that it was probably because Viktor was one of the leaders and because they're grades in this year's expedition determined if they graduated.

“Here you are.” Midway through his meal, Viktor showed up and sat beside him, making him jump a little. Yue bowed his head a bit as a greeting, his spoon still in his mouth.

“I taught Frida a new spell in advance so we could spend more time in the forest.” Viktor said and noticed how Yue seemed a little tired and a bit pale.

“I’m not really being much help with teaching huh?” Yue murmured, finishing his meal.

“I’ll actually get around to teaching you German soon so don’t worry about it.” Viktor chuckled and Patted Yue’s head. Yue froze for a second and stared at Viktor with a blush before getting ready to leave the dining hall. He was still incredibly confused by Viktor's new habit of petting him and he was worried that people would see and start speculating more than some already were. He could clearly tell that Alexius and Marianne, who had recently become more friendly with him, were catching on to the weird relationship between him and Viktor.

After leaving the inn, they immediately went on their way into the forest, walking briskly as they looked around to see if any Chuchunas were in the area.

“You don’t have to use fire when you kill one if you let them bleed they’ll attract more and it’ll be good for finding the nest.” Viktor said as they reached the area where he had last seen one.

Yue hummed in agreement as they went forward. The first Chuchuna they encountered wasn’t doing much but hadn’t noticed them yet.

“Do we really have to kill them? If we get rid of the werewolves they will have enough of a food source to survive without terrorizing the village..” Yue said through telepathy as they stalked the Chuchuna.

“The thing is, they’re not supposed to exist here at all, if they’re here then they will mess up the balance of the entire forest and the village, the only reason they haven’t already is because of the werewolves. Getting rid of them and finding out how they got here is the best possible way to deal with them.” Viktor said through telepathy and got ready to just cut the Chuchuna down.

After killing the Chuchuna they waited for a bit and watched as another Chuchuna soon came. They swiftly killed it and started going in the direction it came from. They ended up at a cave where 5 Chuchunas were circling the outside area. Yue and Viktor glanced at each other for some timing before rushing up and killing them.

“This is so easy it’s worrying...” Yue whispered as they entered the cave.

“They aren’t particularly strong, but that’s normal.” Viktor murmured as he stabbed a Chuchuna that attacked him.

They easily cleared out the entire cave, killing all the Chuchuna inside, they didn’t seem to have a leader or alpha of sorts so they were all around equal in strength. Yue made a small ball of magic to light up the cave so they could inspect it.

“Huh? Portal magic?” Yue said, surprised as he looked at the back wall of the cave and noticed a large magic circle carved into it.

“This must be how they got here...it’s linked to a rural area in Russia..” Viktor murmured and made the ball of magic emit a brighter light as he ran his finger over the carvings.

“It’s possible that the werewolves did this, the formation is assisted by magic crystals...” Viktor said as he pulled a small blue gem from a more hidden part of the carvings.

“Where are they getting magic crystals though? And how are they suddenly using mag—” Yue cut himself off, he had a few possible answers to his own questions, and none of them were good.

“Did we jinx it by talking about dungeons at the teleportation hub?” Viktor murmured and winced.

“Let’s hope not..” Yue murmured even though he knew it was because of the dungeon or at least partially because of the dungeon he saw in his prophecy.

Dungeons appeared randomly and could cause changes in the balance of magic and the species that live in the areas where they appear. They're also dangerous to the people around them as the monsters will continue to essentially evolve and get stronger for as long as the dungeon is around. Yue could only assume that the dungeon boss was either what was leading the werewolves or what gave the werewolves power and that the crystals came from the dungeon.

“If it is a dungeon then it’s probably not actually open yet… we would’ve felt the demonic energy by now and the villagers would start getting sick from magic intolerance..” Viktor sighed and started to remove all of the crystals that were hidden in the carved portal formation. A closed dungeon still affects the surrounding area with its magic but it’s a smaller range, closed dungeons open one month after their appearance and cause much more destruction and chaos.

Yue helped Viktor remove the crystals and the formation so the portal wouldn’t be reopened, and then they went and rechecked the cave. They checked the time and did a quick sweep of the area to see if there were any Chuchunas left before going on their way back to town.

“How is your wound by the way?” Viktor asked, looking at Yue’s back.

“It still hurts but I haven’t felt any symptoms of poisoning other than the inability to heal, though it could be that the fog has something I’m partially immune to.” Yue murmured as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Yue...we should seriously deal with it if it’s poison…” Viktor murmured, looking worried.

“I’ll be fine... If it doesn’t end up healing while we’re here I have supplies back in the academy dorms to deal with things like these..” Yue said, already regretting saying anything since Viktor seemed overly worried now.

“Yue…” Viktor said, very worried as he grabbed Yue’s wrist to stop him.

“You’ll just waste magic trying to heal it...I don’t feel sick and the pain goes away with painkillers. I’m fine.” Yue said quickly, trying to get rid of some of Viktor's worries.

Noticing how adamant Yue was about denying that his injury was a big deal, Viktor sighed and decided to let it go.

“Fine…” He murmured.