"Red Spear finished the X-ranked quest? That's good to hear," Lone said to Guildmaster Sarah.

He had received a visit from one of the staff members of The Adventurer's Guild shortly after he'd woken up that morning saying that Sarah wanted to see him, so, with nothing else better to do besides grinding his Soul Rooting until classes at The Academy started, he naturally agreed.

Lone was inside Sarah's office at the guild and at the side of the room, Gilbert could be seen endlessly toiling away over a mountain of paperwork. Apparently, it would seem that becoming a nation guildmaster and choosing an adequate nation to manage its guilds wasn't a tireless affair.

"Yup. Well, they lost one of their team members in the process," Sarah casually said with a hint of sadness in her tone.

Lone raised an eyebrow. "Really? I've looked into Red Spear. Isn't their weakest member still an X-ranker?"

Sarah shrugged. "There's a reason that there's only a few thousand X-rankers an' up on the entire continent. Anyone with the talent to reach the X-ranks longs for Divinity. This leads to recklessness in the hopes of enlightenment during combat. It's a fuckin' shame, but it happens."

Lone frowned. He reached into his Dimensional Storage and tossed a sack full of coins over to Sarah's desk. "Give this to Red Spear's leader for me. Tell them to spend it on the funeral and to help compensate the fallen's family if they had any."

Gilbert stopped what he was doing to look at Lone with surprise, but he didn't speak up since he was in the presence of greatness. Sarah chuckled. "Feelin' generous, are ya, Patches?"

Smiling faintly, Lone replied, "Money is no object to me. It has just as much value as air does in my eyes. They've helped me by clearing that quest since it'll still count to the quests I owe you, so why wouldn't I return the favour when I can?"

"Hahaha, fair 'nuff, Patches, fair 'nuff," Sarah replied before she scooped up the coin pouch and affixed it to her belt. "I'll see that Arthur gets this. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Anyway, speaking of quests, any idea of when ya'll take and finish the last two SS-ranked quests? There ain't no rush, but SS-ranked quests are still pretty rare."

Lone could only shrug his shoulders helplessly at that. "It's low on my list of priorities. I'll definitely do them within the next 2-year though, so don't worry about it."

"That's good," Sarah said as she leaned her massive and muscled body - which only paled in comparison to Professor Ruairidh's - against the wall. "By the way, are The Wanderers happy if I sign them up as an emergency group? Count Lorton has been singing yer praises in letters to his noble acquaintances after ya dealt with the Rock Dragon, and I figure it'll do yer group a load of good if ye'r friendly with some of the nobility."

She then grinned and added, "After all, I can only imagine the shit show ya'll start when ya meet 'His Royal Majesty'."

Lone smirked when he heard the contempt rolling off of the woman's tongue as she mentioned the king of Falron. "Yeah, that's fine. Just, try to be considerate of my schedule. I'm free every sixth and seventh sun as well as every day after roughly dusk."

"Great. Now with you and the Seven Deadly Sins, that makes two groups with at least one gem-ranker in them available to actually do the job when it fuckin' needs doin'. It's crazy how incompetent some of the less well-known emergency groups and solo adventurers are at actually successfully clearing emergency missions or at least doing them cleanly. Sometimes, the idiots start more issues than they fix," Sarah explained with a long sigh.

"I can only imagine," Lone replied. "Anyway, it's almost noon. I should really head to The Academy now. It was good catching up, and Gilbert, it was good seeing you," Lone said.

"Right, catch ya later Patches," Sarah said in farewell.

Gilbert nodded and smiled faintly. "It's always good to see you as well, Lone."

Once Lone had left the room, Sarah returned to her desk then asked, "So, Gil. When're you gonna get that disciple of yers to enter The Academy? She's got the talent, for sure."

"When her uncle gives his blessing and when Lone leaves The Academy. He's a great friend and a wonderful person underneath his new-found arrogance, but he's nothing if not a trouble-maker. I'd rather Shana wasn't involved in yet another life-altering event," Gilbert replied with a wry chuckled.

"Ahahaha! 'Trouble-maker' is letting him off lightly!" Sarah yelled in jest, though under her happy face could be seen a look of nostalgia as memories of her old hero friend from long ago filled her mind. 'That fuckin' cunt was right... The damned smartass. Why are all heroes from Earth so similar deep down? They'll all too honest... Well, that's usually a bad thing, isn't it? I've lost track of the number of honestly garbage people that have been summoned as heroes, hahaha...'

----------------------------------------

"Hazel?" Lone asked in surprise.

"Ah, Lone. Soph too. You both chose healing magic," Hazel said with joy lacing her words. 'Well, I already knew from Professor Luff's thoughts...'

She hadn't spoken to her brother since their last adventure, so meeting him like this was certainly nice in her opinion. He was far too busy with all of the side projects he was managing, so he was only actively seeking her group out when their souls had stabilised from their recent rank-ups to help them gain even more strength.

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Lone reached over and rustled her hair. "Yeah. Swind should be here soon too. he told me this morning that he's also a pupil of Professor Luff."

Glancing over at the Snow Bearkin that was standing behind the teacher's podium at the head of the classroom preparing his notes, Lone said, "Speaking of that, Professor, Swind is going to be a bit late. I hope you don't mind. He's taking care of a friend."

Raising his head and peeking out over his stylish glasses, the handsome man smiled. "That's fine. I'm aware of the condition of his lover. Word spreads quickly in this place you'll come to find. I do hope though that he isn't always so violent."

Of course, Professor Luff was referencing to Swind's interaction with the foreign duke's daughter. Almost everyone in the school had heard about it by now, though Lone was lucky enough to know the unmutated version that hadn't stemmed from a wild rumour.

Lone shrugged. "He's actually the most mature and calm of The Wanderers... Well, so long as no one's a total cunt when talking about Rachel, that is.”

"That's reassuring to hear," Professor Luff replied as he returned to his notes.

At that moment, a human student in his late teens approached Lone, Soph, and Hazel. There were hints of nervousness in his barely deepened voice as he asked, "You. What's your relationship with Hazel?"

Following the boy's gaze, Lone saw that he was staring at his hand which was atop the girl's head. He also noticed the young man sneaking glances at Hazel's slightly flushed face.

"Heh." Lone slung an arm around Hazel's shoulder and kissed her cheek. "What do you think our relationship is?"

"You!" More than anger, his voice was filled with dejection and shame.

Soph tugged on one of Lone's tails, sending a shooting pain up his spine which was mostly ignorable thanks to his Physical Pain Resistance, but he still felt it. "I get it, I get it. Mercy, please, Soph."

She pouted, but once he removed himself from Hazel, Soph stopped pulling on one of his nine sensitive and fluffy killing machines.

Lone sighed. "Hazel's my little sister. Now, a better question, who is she to you?"

"What? That's impossible."

"Right? Hazel's a human."

"Maybe he was adopted? Hazel doesn't strike me as being raised by demis."

"That still doesn't really make any sense..."

Lone turned to the peanut gallery made up of fellow healing magic students and said, "Hazel is my blood-related sister, actually. We have the same parents and grew up together." He looked down at his mind-reader sister and added, "Though we've only recently gotten closer."

That ridiculous statement sent a massive ripple through the crowd.

Hazel rolled her eyes and whispered, "I love you, Lone, I really do, but please, stop acting like this. I can already hear them creating rumours in their heads."

Lone just grinned. "I don't give a fuck. If anyone starts shit with you over this, just beat the crap out of them. If you can't, use the orb I gave you and give me a ring. I'll beat 'em up for you. Easy."

"It's still so weird seeing my passive brother become such a violence-fanatic," Hazel grumbled, though a look of gratitude could be seen on her face which didn't go unmissed by Lone.

Shrugging as he found a pew near the front of the class to sit at, Lone replied, "Time and experiences change people."

"Right..." Hazel returned to the pew that she'd used all of last year with a contemplation-filled expression on her face.

A few moments later, Professor Luff raised his head from his papers and smiled faintly. "All settled down now, are we?"

Seeing everyone nod and respond in agreement politely, the Snow Bearkin continued. "Wonderful. Well, in that case, please reach under your desks. There should be a basic instruction manual on entry-level healing magic spells there."

Once the students had done what he had asked, he nodded and said, "Healing magic is actually very difficult to demonstrate since it's a bit unethical to injure people just to heal them, no? As returning students will be aware, we have a partnership with The Adventurer's Guild, and occasionally, adventurers will be sent to The Academy if they have minor and non-life-threatening injuries. On those occasions, we have permission to heal those adventurers, otherwise, we shall be studying the theory behind healing and once a month we shall visit Mystopolis' main hospital, Fairwaye Hospital, to treat patients."

'Huh...' Lone had an interesting idea. "Professor."

"Yes, Student Lone?" Professor Luff replied happily.

"I have no issues hurting myself to give everyone a chance to see your healing abilities or to test their own healing abilities by healing me," Lone suggested. "I mean, It's weird, but I'm, like, this close to having me cutting my hand off and healing it be a habit."

Soph frowned upon hearing that, but she understood. If Lone did this then he would only stand to gain. There were no downsides whatsoever, in fact, in a best-case scenario, Lone could potentially learn an important skill that may help Rachel recover. Due to this, Soph kept her complaints silent.

Well, almost silent. Someone still heard her thoughts, after all.

Professor Luff shook his head. "No. The whole point of being a healer is to prevent pain and save lives, not to create injuries and cause harm."

Lone wore a rare embarrassed smile. "Ah, fair enough."

'He's not wrong. Oh well, I'm sure I can copy everyone's skills after a few months of watching them perform them. If not, I'm in this class for at least a year. That's plenty of time,' Lone concluded.

After that, the class moved along as Professor Luff began running through the textbook's beginnings. It wasn't until an hour after the lesson had started that Swind finally walked through the door.

"A bit later than I had expected, Student Swind, but it's a pleasure to meet you. As you probably already know, I'm your teacher, Professor Luff. Please, find an empty seat and take out the book under your chosen seat's desk. Turn to page 13 once you've found it," the Snow Bearkin requested.

Swind politely nodded. "Thank you. I shall. Also, I apologise for my tardiness. A person very dear to me is... disabled. She had an... episode just before I was about to come to class."

Professor Luff nodded in understanding. "I've had to look after poorly family members before, so please, there's no need to apologise. It's fine, just don't make a habit out it or I may come to doubt you in the future."

Swind lowered his head in acknowledgement before he found a seat and did as he was told to in regards to the textbook.

Meanwhile, the human boy who had questioned Lone and Hazel's relationship held his chin in his hands as he thought, 'What blatant favouritism. He only has a 2% affinity for healing magic... What a farce that he was even allowed into The Academy, not to mention put in the same class as me... A powerful nine-tailed foxkin is one thing, but that mechanical scaled freak doesn't even have any talent... Well, if this class goes the same as it did last year, then I'm going to challenge him in healing magic as soon as a chance shows itself. I'll show everyone that you don't belong here. If I can't pick on that infuriating foxkin, then you'll have to do, Metal Freak.'