Yue woke up to a knock on his door. He didn’t really pay attention to anything as he stumbled to the door.

“Yesh..?” Yue slurred as he opened the door and saw Viktor waiting there. Viktor was silent and just stared at Yue’s sleepy expression and his messy uniform and hair. He found it quite adorable but it wasn’t really time for him to still be sleeping.

“What?” Yue asked, rubbing his eyes a bit, still half asleep.

“It’s going to be sunset in a couple of minutes, Yue. You’ve been sleeping all day.” Viktor murmured and chuckled. He took Yue’s hand and placed a small loaf of bread in his hands so he could eat something.

Yue still wasn’t fully awake but he was very hungry so he started munching on the bread without paying much attention to Viktor who had started to button his shirt and fix his tie for him. He really didn’t even pay much attention when Viktor turned him around and started to mess with his hair either.

“You must be really sleepy..” Viktor chuckled. He put Yue’s hair up in a ponytail and smiled at his work before turning Yue back around. Yue was still happily munching on his bread and not even listening, dozing off while eating.

“I guess excessive sleeping is better than insomnia..” Viktor sighed and picked Yue’s blazer off from a chair in the room and along with Yue’s swords before dragging him off to the forest entrance.

“You slept until now? It’s been 12 hours!” Mai exclaimed as she saw how Yue was so sleepy he was leaning on Viktor without an ounce of shame.

“He’s still not awake…” Viktor chuckled trying to put Yue’s jacket on him.

“Wake up before you get embarrassed, Yue,” Mai said and pinched Yue’s cheek a little.

Yue only started to become more awake when the sun had fully set and he remembered his responsibilities. He still felt hungry and tired but he was starting to get a sense of his surroundings a bit, there would still be a couple of hours before the werewolves started attacking so he still had time to shake off his drowsiness. He put his swords on their holsters and finished putting on his blazer.

He paused for a second and blinked a bit, trying to make himself more awake.

“Let me take a look at your wound in the morning Yue, I want to try and heal it again,” Mai said and turned to face Yue. Yue was so sleepy he was spaced out looking behind her and didn't seem like he was listening. She was about to use a water spell to see if that would wake him up more but Yue suddenly appeared behind her and a clang of metal could be heard.

Viktor immediately turned toward them, he had been looking in the opposite direction and didn’t feel a presence until just then. Yue had his Jian sword in his hand as he blocked a sword that had almost sliced down on Mai. A werewolf that could wield a sword had appeared and it was also either really fast or it could hide its presence. Mai was shocked and now wondered if that was why Yue was staring behind her.

“Ah... I feel more awake now..” Yue murmured. He and the werewolf were essentially stuck in their position as they seemed to be of equal strength. It didn’t matter much though, Yue could still move his rapier to stab him, or so he thought. The werewolf removed one of the hands he had holding the sword that was blocking him and used the other to draw another sword to block his rapier.

Yue quickly managed to push through with his Jian sword because the pressure on the sword he was blocking physically stopped but the werewolf switched directions and aimed to slice through his side. Mai quickly blocked the word aiming at Yue’s side so Yue could cut the werewolf down with a clean slice through its neck.

“I was scared for a second...That one was fast..” Yue murmured, getting chills as he touched his side. Mai and Viktor couldn’t even say anything, they were just shocked at how close of a call that was.

The fog started to roll in and Yue stared at it as it came closer. The fog was blocking his prophetic ability. While the fog was around he was unable to use his power, but before or after the fog he could. It also seemed to be dulling everyone's instincts day by day. Viktor should’ve been able to notice that presence before it got that close. The only reason he knew the werewolf was coming was because he had a prophecy about it while he was talking to Mai and had acted on it.

Yue backed away from the fog a bit so he could have a prophecy. He didn’t see anything crazy happening today after the sword-wielding werewolf but he noted a werewolf that was just sitting on a tree observing the whole time before disappearing with the fog.

“They're not just evolving randomly, I think they’re learning from us and strategizing…” Yue said and glanced at both Mai and Viktor who agreed with the hypothesis and had calmed down.

-

Over the next few days, Yue was proven correct, the werewolves would start coming as soon as the sunset and more sword-wielding werewolves would appear, some were even copying certain sword styles that they used. They stopped appearing before the fog though, the first sword-wielding werewolf had been their test run for that and had proven that it would only be easier for Yue to cut them down like that.

“Miss Yue, You’re always tired lately...Would you like some tea?” Frida offered as she watched Yue yawn for the millionth time while teaching her a new spell.

“I’m fine..” Yue said in German as she looked over Frida’s magic circle. Mai was taking some time to read through the grimoire Yue was teaching Frida from as she sat beside them and she was about to urge Yue to just accept the offer but someone else beat her to it.

“Just accept the offer, it’ll do you good to get your energy up,” Viktor said as he arrived at their little meeting place for teaching Frida magic. He wasn’t wearing his blazer or tie and instead had a towel over his shoulders. He was also being followed by some young men from the village who had started to learn swordsmanship from him.

Yue just hummed and turned to face him a bit. It was a bit amusing to see Viktor being followed around by starry-eyed admirers but he had been wondering something for a while now.

“How old are you two?” Yue asked in German.

“We’re 19, Miss Yue.” One of the boys said with a blush on his face, Yue usually never talked because he wasn’t good at German so hearing him speak was the goal of some of the young men in the village. He had recently been learning more German but he still rarely had conversations with other people.

Viktor was confused about why Yue had asked that and why he seemed so surprised at the answer.

“We’re the same age..” Yue murmured. He generally didn’t look his age either, especially since he had lost a lot of muscle while preparing to move to the academy but the two young men looked a lot older than him. He had been curious about their age because they seemed older than Viktor and it was amusing to see them look so amazed by him constantly.

“Eh? You’re only 19?! I thought you were my age!” Mai exclaimed, shocked.

“How old are you?!” Yue asked, also shocked that Mai wasn’t the same age as him.

“Viktor, Marianne and I are all 22 and everyone else in the class is 21...You’re like a baby!” Mai said, getting over her initial shock and just laughing.

“I’m not a baby…” Yue murmured with a pout, “I turn 20 in March…”

“Then you’re actually younger than them, they turn 20 this year.” Viktor laughed and sat down beside Yue.

Yue now wished that he hadn’t said anything since now Mai was trying to get him to call her senior sister and Viktor just looked amused.

“Anyway! Your magic circle is perfect Frida.” Yue said in German, changing the subject out of embarrassment.

“Miss Yue looks very young, I think everyone thinks you’re older because you’re strong,” Frida said in German with a smile. She had been catching on to some English after hanging around Yue and Mai. Yue would’ve been proud of her for understanding but he didn’t feel very happy that she was using it to reaffirm the fact that he is very young.

“I’ll accept that Tea offer now…” Yue murmured, his eyebrow was twitching a bit and his cheeks had turned red.