"Please excuse me, I'm not very hungry," I said. "I'm going to take a nap in my room."

"Are you sure? The cooks in the palace make extremely delicious meals. If you thought Yunshu's meat buns were good, you'll love what the cooks make!" Miss Zhang said.

"I'm eating your share!" Huotian proclaimed. 

"Sure," I mumbled.

"Yeah, that's what I thought! Losers should know their place!" he sneered.

I raised my fist, threatening to punch him. Wasn't it enough that I already lost? What was the point of rubbing it in?

He jutted his chin arrogantly and smirked. "Try it. I'll burn you to cinders." 

"Boys, how about we don't?" Miss Zhang suggested.

"I'm not doing anything. Little brat has his head up his ass," I said.

"What'd you call me?" The other boy bristled angrily.

"Boys! Enough!" Miss Zhang ordered.

"Whatever," I said, slinking off to my room with my head down. 

"Xuef- Ah, never mind. Huotian, you go apologize to him after lunch when you two have cooled down, okay?"

"Fine."

As I entered my room, I noticed that the dishes from this morning were gone and my bed was made. I threw myself onto the bed, frustrated with my loss. I stared at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had happened.

Where was I? This was obviously still Heiguang, but how long had it been since I disappeared? And more importantly, who was Uriel? 

Questions floated around my mind, all while I wracked my brain for an answer. The thoughts racing through my mind were overwheming, causing my heart to race and my breathing to quicken. The tightness in my chest pissed me off.

"Damn it!" I yelled, punching the wall in hopes that breaking something would help relieve this feeling. My fist bounced off the wall, aching from the recoil. The wall stayed intact. My hand was already slightly swollen, the skin on my knuckles slightly scratched.

I hit the wall again in anger. Again, nothing happened.

I hit the wall again, this time with my other hand. A little drop of blood smeared across the wall, but it still didn't break.

"You're weak," a voice that sounded like Huotian's said.

I whipped around, malice running through my mind. 

"What did you say?" I hissed.

Nobody was there. My door remained closed. I rushed to check if the brat had run off in fear. Still no sign of anyone.

I screamed another expletive before hitting the wall again. Still nothing happened, except a little more blood leaking from my hand.

I gritted my teeth, imagining Huotian's face on the wall, punching it again. I repeated the motion until my arms were sore. As I panted and looked at my bloodied hands, they began to sting, the ripped skin burning as the blood surfaced. Still no signs of anything breaking.

I looked back up as rage filled my head again, but the face on the wall had changed. Pure white hair, paper white skin, chubby cheeks, and deep blue almond eyes. It was me.

The corners of my lips involuntarily tightened as I gritted my teeth, grunting as I slammed my hand into the wall. The wood splintered into pieces, clattering as they fell on the ground. Still breathing heavy, I looked into the mirror and the pit of disgust in my stomach that first formed— no, that I had first noticed when Xiaolong cancelled Huotian's rune circles, exploded.

I smashed the mirror with my hand, staring into my reflection in the pieces of glass laying on the ground. 

"Weakling," I muttered.

Before I could think any further about the questions racing through my mind, Xiaolong swung the door open. 

"Are you okay?" Concern was painted all over his face.

"What's it to you?" I asked.

"I get it," he said solemnly. "It sucks, not being able to live up to your own expectations."

"Shut up. You're lying. You, the one who managed to shut down someone else's rune circle?" I scoffed at the thought of a child comforting the Pendragon, Styrmir. "You don't have to lie to cheer me up."

"I'm not lying. For a long time, I worked my ass off to be able to reach my own expectations. When I finally pulled it off today, I was overjoyed. Believe me, as long as you keep working at it, your effort will pay off."

"I don't need effort. I can do it; there's just something stopping me."

"I was the same in the past. You'll learn eventually, and when you do, it'll pay off."

I stopped, looking him up and down. This was a toddler lecturing me. A toddler. Lecturing Styrmir, the king of all dragons; the subject of this kingdom's worship. Had I really fallen this far?

"What do you know? You're only three."

"Maybe, but I've got years of experience for my age." he smiled. "Come on, lunch is waiting."

                                                                                               ***

"So, after we saw the bug, we panicked and Xuefeng punched it and missed. Multiple times." Xiaolong lied. 

"He broke his hand from punching a bug?" Miss Zhang questioned. 

"No, it was probably the mirror and the wall that did it," Xiaolong said.

"I'm not even going to ask anymore. Just eat your lunch, boys."

"Miss Zhang, how are you able to heal people using aura?" I asked. Before I was transported here, healing using aura was unheard of. For humans to be able to do something that both the Aesir and the dragons were never able to do was surprising. After all, we were thousands of years more advanced than them. Perhaps a thousand years really had passed since Styrmir was alive.

The woman chuckled. "Curious?"

"A little," I admitted.

"Well first of all, my last name isn't Zhang, so just call me Yanjing," she said. "and to answer your question, I'm a pope."

I frowned. "I thought women couldn't be popes."

She grinned as she responded, "That may be true for actual popes, but I'm talking about my aura class."

When I made a confused face, she continued. "It's a subclass of the king-class. Priests are subclasses of the knight, bishop, and rook classes. The thing is, nobody actually knows how the healing works. All we know is that the energy used for healing is slightly different from actual aura."

"Does it have anything to do with angels?" I asked, remembering the shape her aura took.

"Angels? Pretty sure they're a myth," Yanjing said. "Our library is one of the biggest in all of Aethergard, since your mother loved books, and well, y'know, Yichen would do anything for his family. Despite that, the few books with records of angels are all inconsistent and probably just referencing the Faeries."

I jumped out of my seat, ready to rush to the library to see if I could find any of the books Yanjing was talking about. I was stopped by the woman grabbing my wrist.

She clicked her tongue and tutted disapprovingly. "Finish your food, then you can go to the library."

"Fine."

I lifted the silver lid off of the platter in front of me, revealing a translucent steak, shimmering with vibrant colors. Next to it was a bowl filled with a red soup; the smell of chillies wafted through the air, causing my mouth to water in anticipation. Finally, another bowl with plain rice rounded out the meal.

I rubbed my hands with glee as I felt genuine happiness for the first time since I had arrived in this time period. It seemed that the humans had finally begun to appreciate the rare delicacy of crystal panthers.

Yanjing and the other three children watched with horror painted on their faces as I ate the steak. Their eyes widened and their mouths twitched, as if they wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

Finally, Huotian broke the silence. 

"Hey, do you know what cutlery is?"

"Hm?" I asked, half of the steak hanging out of my mouth. 

"You're disgusting," he responded. 

Xiaoyue hopped down from her chair and wordlessly presented me with a fork, spoon, and knife, wrapped in a handkerchief.

"Thanks," I mumbled. How could I have forgotten that humans didn't eat with their hands? Always so inefficient. 

As I finished up my food, I wondered why Yanjing was known as Miss Zhang in my memories. Perhaps Xiaoyue's father's last name was Zhang.

"What's your last name?" I asked Yanjing.