Regulus POV

Avernian History class is one of the classes with the most people in it. If you don’t talk in it you can go almost completely unnoticed. The professor used my new name as planned and no one even noticed a difference. There was a platinum blond haired elf girl who glanced at me, but I may have been seeing things. 

As usual, I refrained from speaking in the class, going unnoticed by most students, even though Zach kept asking and answering questions as often as he could. I did catch the blond haired girl glance back at me every once in a while though. I saw Ryoto snoozing, preparing myself to shake him awake when Ryla decided to do my job for me, nudging his shoulder.

The class ended when Professor Anne finished his lecture on the Rolcan Empire, a long lost empire led by the Elves in the 200s. “Any questions?” He asked, casting his gaze across the classroom.

Professor Anne saw a person on the far left side of the room raise their hand and began to answer their question. 

As this happened, the blond haired elf girl I thought had looked at me earlier slid over next to me.

“Y-yes? D-do you need something from me?” I was startled.

“You, your friends and my twin brother, Deyah, baked cookies together. He said something about you and that you were in this class, so I was curious about you.” She smiled.

“C-curious about me?” I asked.

“I’m curious as to why you have such a forlorn look in your eyes.”

That one line caused my breath to hitch, not because I was surprised, but because she was so accurate.

“U-Um, I-I don’t know wh-what you mean.” I stuttered out, mentally cursing myself for stuttering so much.

She raised a hand placatingly, “It’s okay, I won’t pry if you don’t want me to.”

I nodded subtly, shifting my attention back to the lecture, this was unexpected.

________________________

Ryoto/Ryan POV :

“That’s the visual aspect done, now for the physical. Hmm..” I need to make sure the shroud doesn't come off if he bumps into someone, but how?

Illusions don’t work that way, well unless you're a once in a millennia prodigy, which I certainly wasn't. I need to make sure the illusion is intangible then…or have some sort of physical resistance. Zach could help with versatility of knowledge in every field, but one of the masters would be just as helpful, if not more.

Master Jei did say to come to her if I needed help, but at this hour? I need to return it to him tomorrow though, and I’d rather not give him an unfinished product.

I sighed in defeat, seems like I need to go looking for her in the middle of the night. I just hope Master Grey doesn’t catch me. Not in the mood to be beaten to a pulp. Time to test out my stealth.

I swiftly closed the amulet, stowing it in my pocket, and exited the room, careful not to make any noise.

“May I ask the reason behind you sneaking out in the middle of the night?”

I jumped in fright, barely suppressing a yelp from escaping through my mouth, “M-Master Dan! I can explain!” I could feel the beads of sweat rolling down my neck.

He raised an eyebrow, looking even more intimidating in the moonlit hallway, “Do tell,”

“I was looking for Master Jei,” I said truthfully.

“And why exactly were you looking for her?”

“I needed some help with upgrading Regulus’ amulet,” I fished out the accessory from my pocket and held it up.

“Ah, young Regulus’ dilemma, what did you need help with?” He dropped his intimidating stare, realizing the urgency of the matter.

I spent the next few minutes explaining to him about the issue I had come across.

“Regulus doesn’t really interact with anyone physically, so it’s not that much of an issue. I can always add the feature later.” I finished, withholding a sigh.

“Hmm, you don’t need Jei’s help for this.” He suddenly declared.

“Huh?”

“I can aid you in this, I do have some form of authority over the fabric of space.” He explained, beckoning me to enter my room. Blinking twice I did as he asked. 

“Just so you know, I didn’t understand a lick of what you said, maybe dumb it down a little?” I blurted out as he closed the door.

Master Dan sighed, “I can control space.”

“Was that so hard to say,” I muttered under my breath. It makes sense why he offered his help. With Master Jei helping me I could only make it so that the illusion doesn’t disperse, but with Master Dans help I could actually make the illusion physical. I could think of multiple ways how this could be useful at a later date.

I moved over to my desk, clearing a space in it and placed the locket down. Tracing my finger along the grooves across its back, I applied a little force upon reaching the mechanism, splitting open the accessory.

“Well then,” I turned back to face Master Dan, “Shall we?”

_________________________

After hours of work, we were finally done with the amulet. Master Dan was a big help, even though all he did was imbue his mana in the pendant at certain points. But we had to test the thing out first before handing it to Regulus. So here we are, with me standing in front of a mirror, holding the pendant in my hand.

I let out a deep breath, time to see if this thing works as intended. I let the shroud over me fall, revealing my purple streaked black hair, two fox ears on my head, and for the first time in a long while let my tails out, four of them. I normally kept them tucked in since they were a hindrance while fighting but I had to check if this could cover up his tail.

I let a small amount of mana to flow inside the pendant, just enough to power it and a wave of energy passed over me. When I looked at my reflection, I noticed how my hair changed to a dull white, and my ears were all but gone. I even had human looking ears on the side of my face. Glancing down I notice one of my tails missing. 

Only one? I guess I did design this according to Regulus needs, he doesn’t have multiple tails like me. End line is, it works. And not going to lie, I look pretty good with white hair.

With that, I deactivated the device, allowing my own passive shroud to blanket over my body. 

“I assume it was successful?” Master Dan asked confidently.

“Yeah, now I just need to hand it over to him before the morning.” I notified him, stretching my back.

“I will handle that, get some rest. You have classes tomorrow.” Master Dan stopped me, and before I could object, he swiftly left the room, pendant in hand.

I groaned, right I had classes. Guess I’ll have to go on 3 hours of sleep again. But something struck me as odd, why was Master Dan so bent on keeping me in my room? 

Stifling a yawn, I shrugged. I’ll think about it later, for now I need to sleep.

________________________

The sound of vigorous knocking woke me up from my sleep, as my brain stirred from it’s sleep-addled state I realized how late it had been. I jumped up from my bed, realization sinking in, Crap, I’m late. 

I pulled my shirt off from my torso and shrugged into the shirt we were issued to by the academy, and pulled the blazer over it. Just as I was about to put on my pants, another series of knocks came from behind the door.

“Give me a moment!” I yelled, grabbing my books and the small knife I kept concealed. Checking my appearance once more in the mirror, I readied myself to open the door. And Lo and behold, there stood a certain group of students, an impatient look on most of their faces.

“Sup.” 

“You kept us waiting for this long and that’s all you have to say?” Hazel snapped, she looked annoyed.

“Regulus, I see the pendant is working fine.” I ignored her, zeroing in on my cousin who stood behind everyone.

“Stop trying to change the subject!” Hazel snapped, stepping forward to beat the shit out of me, if not for Zach holding her back.

“You stayed up late again didn’t you?” He said, disappointed.

“Hey! It was for a good cause this time!” I protested, “Besides we will need to stay awake at times during our trip, someone has to keep watch.”

“You’re volunteering for it then.” Hazel pointed out.

“I may be a night owl, but even I need my sleep.” I retorted, “We will take shifts.”

“E-enough arguing, let’s get the rations we need for the trip now.” Regulus suggested.

“That’s why you’re here? What about classes?” 

“We were given a few days off to collect what we needed, you’re lucky in that regard.” Ryla spoke for the first time since I opened the door.

I let out a sigh of relief, I don’t want to imagine what Master Dan would do if he found out I missed classes.

“So, where are we going to collect the rations?” I finally asked, hurling my books towards my bed.

Hazel gave me a strange look, “The canteen, where else?”

I raised an eyebrow, “I highly doubt it would be that easy.” 

“I brought that up too, but they won’t listen.” Zach spoke, having long since released Hazel from his grip.

“We won’t know until we see for ourselves,” Hazel declared, walking off.

“Hey, wait up!” Zach followed her.

“Well then, prepare to be disappointed.” And then, I too moved.

_____________________

“What do you mean we aren’t allowed to get rations from here?!” Hazel demanded, slamming her hands on the table.

“I’m sorry ma’am but we have been told not to provide any rations for the field trip.” The receptionist didn’t miss a beat, not even bothered by Hazel’s outburst.

Hazel sighed dejectedly, turning towards the rest of us.

“Don’t you dare say it Ryoto.” She threatened upon noticing the smug look on my face.

My smile only grew larger as I waved an arm in front of my face, forming the words ‘I told you so’ using thin lines of fire to get the job done.

She exploded, lunging at me as I ran away cackling.

An hour later, she stopped chasing me, huffing and panting in exhaustion.

I screeched to a halt, laughing at her state, and slowly making my way towards the canteen. While making my way there I heard distinct voices, one was the receptionist and the other one was…. Professor Jonah?

“Hey, what do you mean we can’t get rations for our field trip?!” He projected loudly, clearly annoyed.

“We’re expected to find food and water during the trip, Professor. That’s how it has always been.” I commented, referring to the times I saw others leaving for their trips.

“What?”

I nodded, “Yep, you can ask the Masters for confirmation.”

“I-I mean, it makes sense considering that it is a survival field trip.” Regulus agreed.

“See, even Re-Zaiden gets it.” I caught myself before I could blurt out his real name.

“It would be nice for a challenge, I have to agree. But we don’t know if the other students are as capable as some of us. For example, I don’t know if Ryla can do it.” Hazel said surprisingly selflessly.

"Can you do it? As far as I know, Zaiden and I are the only ones with some experience in that field, Zach probably knows how to do it on paper but has no real experience." I was skeptical if she knew how to survive in the wild.

Hazel stared at me with a neutral face, "I know a little from my time in the city."

"Surviving in a city is very different than in the wild." I pointed out, recalling the times Master Dan sent me out into the forest to 'test my skills'.

"How hard could it be?" She shot back confidently.

“Alright, enough arguing. I'll talk to the headmaster about the rations, in the meanwhile you guys get the rest of the class and ask what they think of this, though they won’t have much of a choice if Headmaster Grey really wants this.” Jonah muttered that last part mostly to himself