It had been two days since the demonstration, and the school was still buzzing like someone had dumped a lightning elemental into the water supply.
Students whispered about "the new age of golems" and "hidden prodigies." Elena held emergency roundtables to pretend she hadn't been completely bamboozled. And someone had already started a rumor that Alex was secretly a prince from a forgotten bloodline with a tragic past, and Yue was a non-human sealed in the body of a bored teenage girl.
They weren't entirely wrong, but also far off.
Alex leaned against the stone railing of the west tower, looking down at the training grounds. A few students were playing with fire magic, laughing and flinging sparks around like kids with fireworks. He tried not to look smug.
Haku was already ten steps ahead, of course.
"You're going to have to act more confused," Haku said, appearing beside him like a well-dressed ghost. "People are starting to think you know what you're doing."
Alex smirked. "That's because I do."
'After all your lessons and the training with Yue in actual fights, I don't think I would lose to most people here.'
"That's the problem," Haku muttered, sipping tea again. Still bitter. Still refusing to add sugar, because of some unspoken principle. "Your whole appeal was 'mysterious orphan who just wants to learn.' Now you're dangerously close to 'competent with suspicious friends.'"
"I can be mysterious and competent," Alex offered, shrugging.
"Pick one," Haku said, walking off.
He stopped near the stairwell, eyes flicking toward the courtyard where Yue sat now as a teaching assistant; she didn't have to stay at home anymore all the time.
"Also," Haku added without turning around, "we're doing another performance. Vice Headmaster's request. Apparently, I've been 'holding back' and he wants to see my 'full range.' You two are coming. Personal students. Assistants. Whatever sounds more respectable."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "He knows you're lying."
"Good," Haku said. "Keeps him on his toes."
And just like that, the conversation was over.
Yue showed up later, looking mildly singed and extremely amused.
"Did you blow something up again?" Alex asked.
"No," she said, and then after a beat, "maybe."
They both laughed, and for a moment, it was almost normal. Almost like back when they both lived at Haku's place, making ale too strong, stealing snacks, and trying not to get murdered by Haku's stern fatherly look, he got at times.
"I'm bored," Yue said, poking the air with her finger. A tiny icicle darted from her fingertip and embedded itself in the wall. Now able to use some of her powers, seeing she was portrayed as a young mage, "Let's go somewhere."
Alex blinked. "You mean?"
She grinned. "Yeah. That somewhere."
He hesitated for a heartbeat, but Yue was already checking if anyone was around and pulling open the rift, tearing the floor like it was paper and stepping through it like a kid sneaking into the pantry after midnight.
"C'mon," she called.
Alex followed.
The world on the other side hit him like cold breath. Sharp air, thick mana, and that strange feeling of being stretched and grounded all at once. The Cultivation World wasn't just another realm. It was older, more alive, and it looked at him the same way a wolf looks at something that might be food if it moves too slow.
Yue was already flying ahead, her assistant's robe fluttering as she skipped across rocks and trees like gravity owed her a favor. She looked like she belonged there.
Alex didn't.
Not yet.
But he was getting there.
They entered a part of the forest he hadn't seen before, towering trees with black leaves, twisted roots like serpents, and glowing moss that pulsed when you got too close.
"Monster time?" Alex asked.
Yue nodded and cracked her knuckles. "I'm in the mood for something with too many eyes."
It didn't take long.
First came the creepers' six-limbed beasts that slithered out of the foliage like someone had cursed a panther and given it too much caffeine. Yue shattered the first one with a flick of her wrist. Ice bloomed from her palm, freezing the thing mid-lunge and exploding it into jagged shards.
Then came the bonehounds, tall, skeletal creatures with red smoke where their eyes should've been. Alex handled one with a burning lance spell that curved through the air and pinned it to a tree. Another one bit into his shoulder before he blasted it apart with raw mana.
Yue laughed, gleeful and wild.
"You're getting better," she said, slicing through a beast with a fan of ice that hummed in the air like a tuning fork of violence.
Alex grinned. He could feel the difference here, how the mana clung to him, fed into him. It wasn't like the school where everything had rules and constraints. This world pulsed. It bled mana. And he could drink it in.
For the first time, magic didn't just respond, it anticipated.
By the time the sun began to dip into red-orange haze, they had filled a small clearing with monster remains. Yue stood in the center, breathing hard, eyes alight.
"You missed this," Alex said.
"I did," she said honestly. "I love Haku, but he's so... calm. You know? He just watches and nudges. I want chaos sometimes."
"You have me," he said.
She smirked. "You're learning."
They left before nightfall, slipping back into the school realm just as the stars started to come out. Yue sealed the rift with a wave of her hand, and the floor stitched itself shut like it never opened.
Alex followed Yue, wanting to spend the night with his chosen family.
Back at home, everything was quiet. Haku sat in his chair by the window, reading a scroll like he hadn't moved all day.
"You two have fun?" he asked without looking.
Alex froze.
Yue didn't.
"Not as fun as some of the bottles you hide in your second drawer," she said.
Haku sighed. "You are exhausting, you know that?"
But he smiled a little, and they knew he wasn't mad.
The next morning, letters went out across the academy. Another demonstration. This time, a deeper look into "the evolution of synthetic spellwork under unstable elemental interference."
Haku called it "advanced nonsense." Alex called it "a trap." Yue just giggled.
What none of them said aloud was the real problem: The Vice Headmaster would be there this time.
And he wasn't just watching anymore.
He was hunting.