The Black Lion's children had a new home.
It wasn't a castle filled with dragons, nor a fortress of steel — it was an academy.
Here, they were meant to learn not just to become warriors like Aizen, but to grow into their own selves.
Strength, after all, came in more than one form.
---
Amethyst's "Hero Moment" Afterglow
Mikaela and Crystal were the first to find Amethyst the next morning, still basking in the memory of scaring off Theodore and Lina's bullies.
He stood in front of his mirror again, leaning sideways, tilting his head, running a hand through his hair with an almost dramatic flourish.
"You should've seen their faces," he murmured to himself. "Pure fear. Perfect stance. Absolute—"
"Stop."
Mikaela walked up, grabbed his wrist, and lowered his arm with the calm authority of someone far older — despite being only eleven.
"You look ridiculous," she said bluntly. "You're fifteen. Try acting like it."
Amethyst blinked. "I was projecting dominance."
"You were preening," she corrected.
Crystal giggled in the background.
Little did Amethyst know, Mikaela and Crystal had noticed something else that day — if any of those bullies had so much as touched Theodore, Lina would've attacked without hesitation. Her training under Aizen had made her fast and vicious, even for her age.
---
Crystal's Quiet Genius
School separated Crystal and Lina into different classes.
Crystal's class was filled with chatter and noise, but she kept to herself, eyes always lowered. She was painfully shy, yet behind those hesitant glances was a mind sharp enough to rival Amethyst's — though in a different way.
Where Amethyst excelled in raw cunning and presence, Crystal thrived in structured problem-solving, designing strategies and solutions no one else thought of. Even the teachers noticed, though she never raised her hand unless called on.
---
Mikaela & Theodore: Magic Made Simple
Mikaela and Theodore sat side by side in their classroom. While Theodore was cheerful, his magical control wasn't refined enough for advanced techniques. That's where Mikaela stepped in.
She didn't try to force him to mimic Lyra's complex spellwork or Aizen's brutal precision. Instead, she created smaller, practical spells Theodore could master quickly — flickers of light for distraction, wind bursts for speed, and mana-thread snares for capturing enemies.
Theodore's progress soared under her guidance, and even their teacher remarked that his control had doubled in just a week.
---
Lina: The Lone Wolf in the Gloom
Lina's class was different — quiet, almost unnervingly so. The moment she walked in, every eye was on her. Her unusual hair and fur made whispers travel through the room.
They didn't know what she was — only that she looked different.
Her class focused on mental exercises and preparation for adventuring, training students for the vast ranking system:
F, D, C, B, A, AA, AAA, S, SS, SSS, SSS+, Z, ZZ, ZZZ, and the nearly mythical ZZZ+.
The Dragon King Aizen had slain had reached ZZ — the highest anyone in history had seen. Anything beyond that was considered impossible.
But Lina didn't care about theory. She had already fought real battles — bandits, monsters, creatures that would've torn her classmates apart. She didn't need the academy to teach her how to survive.
---
Amethyst: The Scary Big Brother
In his own class, Amethyst barely spoke. He sat still, eyes half-lidded, his expression unreadable — but intimidating enough to make even the teacher stutter.
He wasn't doing it on purpose; he was just deep in thought.
In his mind, he was somewhere else entirely — leaping around with Crystal and Theodore, laughing as they played.
He loved them both dearly for their sweetness and innocence.
Mikaela and Lina, however… sometimes terrified him.
---
Evening Peace
That night, steam rose from the grand bathhouse. Lyra leaned back in the water, eyes half-closed, while Aizen rested beside her. The day's troubles melted away into the warmth, neither speaking for a long while.
For a brief moment, there was no war, no prophecy — only the sound of water and the quiet comfort of being together.
(End of Chapter 43)