---------Hervalle Empire, Hervalle Magic Academy--------

Avior sat in the Headmaster's messy office with Christina, Victoria, Virgoh, Piran, James, and Jessica all trying to avoid stepping on the books and papers strewn all over the floor. Across from them sat the Headmaster of Hervalle Academy. Her wrinkled face was scrunched up as she continued to silently inspect the shell-shocked students as she had for the last ten minutes.

Her chapped mouth opened as she finally voiced her thoughts. "The Muck Eater. You killed it? Seven students. Three Mages at the Third." She craned her neck to Christina, Victoria, and Virgoh.

"Three at the second." The Headmaster's head snapped to Piran, James, and Jessica.

She glanced at Avior. "One at the first." Revealing the Headmaster was unaware of Avior's actual level. Not that she should, it was far beyond her own after all.

"Killed the Muck Eater. Without the Iron Guards help?" Her eyes narrowed with visible doubt as she fell silent once more.

Seeing the Headmaster wasn't going to continue speaking, Christina fighting through her stupor voiced her objection, "Headmist-" A menacing feeling fell on the room "Oh I mean Headmaster." The feeling vanished as if illusionary as the now sweating Christina continued.

"We-we killed the Muck Beast following the honorable Professor Maxwell's strategy. We worked as a team to do it."

"All of you? Mage of the First included?" The Headmaster's eyes seemed to narrow even further as she expressed her doubt at Avior's supposed usefulness. Christina fell silent under the gaze. Her hollow eyes showed her mind had gone back to replaying that horrible scene from the Gloomrot Marshes.

Piran, James, and even the usually outgoing Jessica were silent. Their faces showed their minds were distant. Stuck on the image of the aforementioned professor's head exploding in front of them just a day before. They would overcome the trauma one day, but as for today, just like Christina, were still reeling from the sight of their first real death.

As for Virgoh and Victoria, they seemed confused more than anything. One having already gone through watching his family die while the other had grown up exposed to similar scenes they were largely unaffected by the Professor's violent death.

Virgoh seeing Christina fall silent spoke up in response to the Headmaster's skepticism.

"Headmaster, Avior's artifact was one of the main reasons we managed to defeat the Muck Eater. Without it, we would have never overcome its regenerative ability." His voice gave away some of his confusion.

"Virgoh Grosslain. Adopted son of Nico Grosslain. And Victoria." The Headmaster didn't humor Victoria with her fake family name. "Swear it is true. Now."

Taken aback by the sudden change in tone both hesitated for a moment then raised their hands in unison.

"I Virgoh Grosslain, swear Avior did as I said."

"I Victoria, back Virgoh's words with my honor." Victoria's soft voice layered below Virgoh's own.

Nodding with contentment the Headmaster's narrowed eyes widened and her face relaxed.

"Good." Turning away from the two and towards the four in Sparrow class she continued. "Promotions in order. Hawk Class. Go to housing office. New rooms." Then as if everything was now settled, the Headmaster lay down on the messy ground behind her desk and fell asleep.

Jessica came out of her stupor and spoke for the first time since entering the room, "Did we just get promoted from Sparrow all the way to Hawk class?"

Piran chimed in "We even skipped Falcon Class?"

A menacing aura filled the room. As the sleeping Headmaster's eyes opened. "Four promoted to Hawk. Three already Eagle can't promote. Now leave. Quietly."

The seven students felt the air become heavy preventing them from breathing it and quickly made their way out of the Headmaster's office.

Christina her vacant look, replaced with a smile went to Avior first, "I knew they would realize you deserved to be at the top eventually Avior! Soon enough you'll be in Eagle class I just know it!"

Avior who had been silent up until now gave his practiced smile and thanked Christina while internally his mind was whirring.

Sparrow to Hawk class in one go? And for four of them? Even if the school made a mistake putting someone in Sparrow class when they should be in Eagle they corrected it by promoting them once every few months to make it seem like the student was just growing fast. A double-promotion was a feat Avior had only seen done in one of his lives and that was only because the student had been enlightened by the Sage of the Western Isles themselves! One of only four individuals Avior knew to have reached the mythical 9th rank on the entire planet. Well excluding his future self of course.

For the Headmaster to be willing to double-promote four of them at once indicated the school was desperate to produce talent or generate publicity. Was the war with the Vernicus Kingdom really going that badly?

Avior thoughts continued to mull over possible reasons for the peculiarity as he absently walked back to his dorm. Opening the door he found a concerned Badger, Owl, and Mouse inside. The butch sixteen-year-old Badger spoke first.

"Teacher, Prim's missing."

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Avior immediately felt unease and worry. Emotions that he hadn't truly felt in many lifetimes. It seemed thinking of this life as his last really had warmed some of his cold indifference. At the thought of the leader of his own organization being targeted his heart was stirred awake.

"How long?" Avior found himself gathering a few artifacts while stopping his training in favor of replenishing his mana reservoir.

"Two weeks." The lanky fifteen year old girl with short black hair Mouse responded. "She was last reported leading a team of Chosen pursuing Tyrant remnants in Numina's Warport Arkanis. We've lost contact with the entire team."

The seventeen-year-old Owl with his gray hair and thoughtful face continued the report, "Our intelligence networks haven't had time to develop in the Warports yet. Despite pushing for more answers all we know is an incident happened at the Warport Arkanis docks twelve days ago which resulted in a squad of Arkanis Soldiers being wiped out. On a larger scale, it's been reported the Church has taken in Adinicus Numina's younger brother to study at the Holy City of Solis. We don't know if this is simply the boy's whim or has some deeper meaning between Numina and the Church."

"Funnel whatever you can into the search. I'll make preparations to head out myself as well." Avior responded.

Hearing their powerless Teacher's willingness to risk himself to search for Prim the three felt themselves overwhelmed with emotion. Promising themselves they'd find Prim before their Teacher was forced to place himself in harm's way they left determined to locate Prim using whatever means necessary.

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

Victoria heard a knock at her townhome door waking her from her sleep.

Waiting for a moment Victoria hoped the visitor would leave, but they were not so easily assuaged. A few minutes later the knocking returned.

Reaching under her pillow Victoria retrieved a hidden dagger. Holding it to her side she approached her door placing barriers around herself as she did so. She assessed whoever had come to visit her in the middle of the night was one of her father's enemies. He did have quite a few.

But, upon checking the door's peephole, her expectations proved inaccurate. Hastily Victoria put her dagger away before opening it to reveal five sleepy-looking students and Avior.

"Come in?" Victoria said half wondering if she was still asleep.

Avior, whose face was the only one void of fatigue, spoke plainly. "My friend is in trouble and I'd like you to help me find her."

"Uh sure?" Victoria answered before thinking too much about it.

"Thank you. She was last seen in Numina so it'll be a bit of a trip I recommend you bring some rations accordingly. Everyone else is already packed." Avior gestured to his blurry-eyed companions who all had bags draped over their shoulders.

"Numina?" Victoria was woken out of her daze, "But we'll have to go by boat to avoid the warzone it'll take weeks!"

"Taking the sea would take too long. We can make our way through the Madeline Front we'll just need to be careful." Avior responded as if it wasn't a big deal much to Victoria's astonishment.

Victoria was about to reprimand the idiotic idea, but then she remembered who she was talking to. Sparing a glance towards Virgoh who was looking at her as if judging her next decision Victoria reminded herself of Avior and Christina's background.

They were related in some way to Him. The individual who took over the Empire in one night. The monster whose iron-fisted leadership drove Hervalle down a path of rapid development and war. The person whose name she heard her father cry out while having one of his frequent nightmares. The true ruler of the Hervalle Empire that only the council and a select few knew even existed. Bastian.

And all of Victoria's doubts fell away. Avior wanted to save his friend by taking them all on a journey across a warzone into Numina? Sure why not? Avior and Christina were Victoria's ticket to making her father proud. For that, she would do anything.

Fifteen minutes later the seven students snuck out of the Eagle class compound and made their way to the wall which encircled the entire Academy. Seeing the torchlight of guards at the gate the seven started trying to climb over the stone walls. A decision that proved poorly thought out as Jessica went first only to slip on a loose stone halfway up falling back to the ground with a loud thud.

Attracted by the noise Jessica caused one of the guards to come from the gate, before the seven could flee, spotting them.

"Hey, you there! Students aren't supposed to leave Academy grounds without prior approval. What are you all doing here?"

Victoria readied herself to try and knock the guard unconscious when Christina's voice broke the silence.

"Jenkins?"

The guard's eyes lit up as his torchlight illuminated Christina and Avior's faces. "Oh, Christina and Avior! You and your friends sneaking out to wreak some havoc on poor Hervalle." Jenkins's whole body relaxed as he transitioned into looking like a gleeful adult glancing around conspiratorily.

"Ok as I said before any friend of Glendale's is a friend of mine." Turning away from the students and holding the torch away to avoid revealing them again he did one more sweep for other guards before resuming his talk with the students.

"I'll distract Oswald at the main gates and you should be able to go right by as long as you're quiet. Come back after the morning shift change and say you were all out having breakfast. The guards won't check if you were approved since you're returning and you'll be back inside with none the wiser." The twinkle in Jenkins's eye and the smirk on his face told the students he was likely having more fun plotting their escape than he had in a while.

"Go have fun tonight, and remember you never saw me." Victoria had a feeling the winking guard had misunderstood the students were up to a night on the town, not a dangerous mission to rescue an associate, but she just like her fellow conspirators didn't correct the friendly guard. She assumed he didn't see their filled bags with supplies due to the low light or he may have come to a more accurate assumption.

Taking advantage of Jenkins's distraction of the guards they walked right out the gate without being spotted and vanished into the night to begin their rescue.

--

Avior thought back on the past few hours looking ahead at the rising sun as he led the six students following close behind. They made an unlikely team for a manhunt.

Before deciding to rely on them Avior had thought about a few possible options to find Prim. He could use search magic, but doing so before reaching the Ninth rank was inherently risky, and could result in being revealed to one of the true powerhouses. That was not something Avior wanted to do just yet. Avior could also call upon his servants, but he'd left them to their own devices to accomplish whatever task they had been given. The two who Avior knew were close by were Luxia and Bastian.

Luxia seemed to have a war on her hands. Avior was doubtful she would be able to spare resources for a manhunt in another nation although he could probably use her influence to get through the warfront untouched if need be.

As for Bastian...well Avior didn't really want to introduce that particular failure of his to this mix. The frightful rabbit would likely panic at the first sign of a competent foe. Avior didn't want to waste all his time trying to inspire him to overcome minor obstacles.

That left him to rely on the other resources he'd accidentally gathered in this life: Classmates.

And so that was how Avior ended up sneaking out of Hervalle Academy with six fellow students to hunt for his friend before even getting the chance to move to his new Hawk dorm.

Despite Prim missing Avior couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement as he glanced back at the six students following him out of Hervalle. He was going on an adventure just like old times. He just hoped this one would end better than the ones before.