After the lesson I approached Gronir. "Sir, do you have a minute?"

"Ah, is this about your specialisation? Are you considering becoming a death knight?" He asked.

"Um, no. I want to become a normal necromancer. But there is something else I wanted to ask. Something happened during our vacation." I replied.

"Something other than Hatsumi creating a tier two undead? You know, that is quite remarkable for such a young vampire. Especially since it was not even planned. But it will help to study the process. Fascinating, really." Gronir mused.

"Oh, it was something before that. We met a natural tier three undead." I said.

He stared at me. "What?"

"We met one in the mountains. A monster called the Devourer." I replied.

"Tell me everything!" Gronir insisted.

So I told him the story about our hunt and the following encounter. When I finished he was stroking his beard. We both looked at Nyx. She was sitting on the floor, licking her paw. I picked her up and sat her on Gronir's desk. She kept licking her paw and ignored us.

"So, our mysterious cat might be related to a species native to the Everfrost Mountains." Gronir mused.

"We also had a conversation with Hans Frost. Could it be that the Brotherhood was smuggling rare undead? And that you accidentally acquired one of theirs?" Hatsumi asked.

Gronir looked thoughtful. "You mean the incident with Nyx was the Brotherhood covering their tracks? They wanted to make it look like an accident? A student trying a bit too much, losing control of their undead and getting destroyed. That would suggest they had a larger operation they wanted to keep hidden. Assuming the Brotherhood was actually involved."

"With Ilestria targeting Koyuki, no one ever looked too much into the adventurers guild. Aside from one group, which disappeared." Hatsumi pointed out.

"They were also out of corpses at some point last year. What if it was not someone buying them all up to annoy me? What if they had more special corpses and made sure none were accidently sold?" I suggested.

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"That… is possible." Gronir admitted. "Necromancers buying corpses from the adventurers guild is not that common. If the guild has been infiltrated it would only be a few people. They would have trouble preventing the sale of all special corpses, if there was a sudden increase in demand. So maybe they made sure to clear their inventory before another incident happened."

Gronir stroked his beard. "I will make sure the guild gets investigated. But there is another disturbing revelation. If Nyx was always a tier three, just sealed, or dormant, you managed to take control of a natural tier three. A rather impressive feat but I feel like it was not just your talent."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The Brotherhood might have found a way to subdue a tier three to make it easier to control. If that is the case, and they are shipping them around, they might be building a concerning army. It also explains why Nyx cannot talk. Meowing is her native language. Usually creating, or controlling, a tier three would allow them to learn our language. But taking control of a weakened tier three changed the process." Gronir theorised.

I looked at Nyx. I was not so sure. She did understand an awful lot. But maybe the process gave her the understanding without the ability to form words?

"Would there be a way to fix that? Teach her our language?" I asked.

"I have no idea." Gronir replied. "This is not a situation I have ever encountered. Normally I would be quite worried that Nyx regaining her power would overwhelm you but you have proven yourself capable of controlling a tier three with Hatsumi. And you certainly have a big enough core for two tier three." He chuckled.

"Should I try to teach her how to write? Even if she can't form words that might help." I mused.

Nyx eyes narrowed. She raised her paw and slowly deployed her claws. Then she started scratching into Gronir's desk. I was equally mortified as I was curious.

"She is writing something!" I stated the obvious.

We all watched. Then she was finished. Gronir's desk had a single word carved into it: Meow.

Hatsumi snickered.

Nyx looked rather proud of herself and began licking her claws.

"I… I am sorry about your desk." I said, now feeling rather guilty for not stopping her.

"It's fine, it's just a desk." Gronir replied. "But maybe writing is not the solution. It's possible that Nyx will learn once her core grows. If not, it certainly seems like her lack of communication has not hurt her combat effectiveness. In the meantime I will try to find out more about this Devourer."

"Nyx has been devouring quite a few undead. Do you think she will evolve?" I wondered.

"I am not sure if it would be an evolution. She might be recovering her true power if she was weakened and sealed. Which poses another question: Who sealed her? Did they find an artifact, or do they have a notable necromancer?" Gronir wondered.

Then he shook his head. "We are not going to solve this mystery today. Thank you for letting me know, I will look into it. Was there anything else?"

"No, thank you for your time." I replied.

"Anytime." He said, with a smile.

After I left the classroom Leo was waiting for me.

"Koyuki, I have a proposal." He said

"What do you want, Leo?" I asked.

"I have decided to become a death knight and I want you to help me raise a tier three, with a joint casting." He said.

"First, you need to be a senior mage for a tier three, second a joint casting requires trust. I do not trust you." I pointed out.

"Trust could be developed. I would like to invite you…" I put up my hand to stop him.

"I am not interested. I am in a relationship with Helena. Have a nice day."

I walked away quickly. Maybe one day Leo would get the hint.

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