"We're not letting you go alone to meet some nutjob who just leaves an ominous note like that," Sara said as she adjusted the buckles on her leather armor.

"What Sara said. You just got out of the infirmary," Cecilia said as she experimentally made a series of weapons appear and disappear from her hands. "Besides, who writes 'you are being watched' in a note without it being a threat?"

"It definitely sounds like a threat." A knock on her window drew Sara back into her room for a moment. Peeking in, Jun saw the elf carefully unfold what seemed to be a paper airplane and read it before looking at her. "Enchanted messenger," she said, motioning to the piece of paper before it vanished into the woman's storage ring. "Gareth and the others will meet us there. You're not facing whoever this is without backup."

As much as Jun thought they were being overprotective, she appreciated her friends coming with her. Before long the three set out, meeting up with Gareth, Lane, and Corin halfway to the training hall mentioned in the note. Falling in behind Gareth, her friends surrounded her protectively as the noble led the way, his hand resting on his sheathed sword. As they walked, Jun couldn't help but notice the power radiating off her friends who'd first brought her to the Academy. They'd all hit Silver before the Winter Expedition, but the power radiating off them all had a clear edge to it that spoke of controlled violence that could be unleashed instantly.

She hadn't noticed it with just Sara and Cecilia, the effect too subtle for her to pick up, but with their entire team together, her senses screamed at her that they were dangerous, as much as Arwen had felt like a threat that first day. Still, that sense of danger coming from her friends was comforting to her. She knew she could trust them with her life.

It wasn't long before the six of them stood in front of the solid wooden door of the designated training hall. Jun's palms were damp and clammy as her nervousness ate at her. Whoever sent the mysterious note was waiting for her beyond that door, and she wasn't sure what would happen when it opened. Nodding to Gareth, Jun started channeling her mana, preparing to unleash the strongest barrier she could as he reached out and pushed the door open. Her friends' taller frames blocked her view of most of the room, but the lack of violence or sudden movement set her at ease. At least until she heard Lane gasp.

Lane swore suddenly, something Jun never expected to hear from the aristocratic mage, and rushed forward into the room, pushing past Gareth. As the two men rushed out of the doorway, Jun finally got a view into the training hall, and what she saw chilled her.

The room beyond was a large, sand covered courtyard like those she had learned in under Arwen, but looked like a war-torn battlefield. Craters marred the sand from enormous impacts, and the walls were covered in cracks and scorch marks. But those details slipped right out of her mind as she locked onto where Lane and Gareth knelt, cradling a crumpled form. Corin rushed past her, his amulet already glowing as he started towards Lane and Gareth, the warmth of a wide area healing spell brushing against her skin. Beyond the crumpled form Lane and Gareth knelt beside, Jun saw three more forms, each of them increasingly familiar to her. As more details came into focus, she realized that all four wore the school's uniform and carried different weapons.

Taking an unconscious step forward, Jun saw a discarded spear near one of the forms and a pair of daggers near another. The third clutched something small in his fist, and the smaller form lay next to a familiar looking staff. As Lane lifted the girl up for Corin to heal, she finally recognized who it was.

"Aya!" Jun yelled, fear shooting through her heart as she started forward. She only made it two steps before a strange pressure descended, crushing in its oppression as it knocked her to her knees. Less than a second later, she heard several grunts as her friends fell to the ground around her. As Jun fell down, she pumped all of her mana into her barrier, willing it to cover her and her friends in a pair of domes.

The faint glow of her spells let her know that her spell was successful, bolstering her as she struggled to fight against the pressure. Around her she could hear Sara and Cecilia struggling to stand, grunting with the effort. The scuff of leather on sand to her right and left of her told her that her two friends had managed get back to their feet, but it didn't last long. Two cracks like glass shattering filled the air as Jun's barriers shattered, sending twin spikes of pain through her head from the backlash. The pressure increased and Jun heard a pair of thumps and saw one of Cecilia's swords appear in the corner of her vision. As much as she wanted to turn and see what was going on, the pressure was near overwhelming. Whoever this was, they were far more powerful than the goblins in the Forest.

Grunts and snarls filled the air as she and her friends struggled to stand and fight back, but it was a losing battle as something clamped down on her mana. From the gasps around her, it sounded as if everyone else had had their mana sealed at the same time.

"Barely acceptable, young ones," a woman's voice said from the center of the room. As suddenly as the pressure appeared it vanished. Jun sprang to her feet just a split second behind her friends as she reached out for her mana, only to feel it still sealed away by something as she looked to the source of the voice.

A pair of women stood in the center of the room, though only one had spoken. One had silver hair and wore white robes embroidered with a design that seemed to evoke the wind, while the other had was familiar looking with black hair and dark robes that looked almost black with a faint design in multiple colors that reminded her of the images of space she'd seen in her past life. But those details paled next to the pair's most eye catching features. A pair of white furred triangular ears stuck out of the silver-haired woman's head, a fluffy tail with fur of the same color but for a black tip like the tip of a paint brush visible over her shoulder. The black-haired woman had a pair of triangular ears covered in black fur, a single black tail poking out over her shoulder.

"B-Beastkin?" Gareth said as he got back to his feet and took a protective step forward, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"Close enough, little tomcat," the woman in black said in a familiar voice that teased Jun's mind.

Memories of a warm hug in a snow covered field flashed across her mind, bringing recognition with it.

"Shiori?!"

"Inari?!"

Shiori couldn't help but smile to herself, her tail flicking with amusement at the bewildered looks on the young ones' faces, especially her kitten's and Inari's kit's.

With a quick thought, Shiori pulled her aura back from the young ones' mana cores, letting their mana flow freely once again as Inari disabled the sleeping spell on her kitten's teammates. As four began to stir back to consciousness, Shiori felt her friend's aura move moments before the door to the training hall slammed shut. Shiori could practically see the young ones' near invisible fur stand on end at the sudden loud noise, the older ones reacting admirably fast as they whirled to the doorway, mana moving into various skills. Her kitten's response was a bit slower as she started to feed mana into a spell.first then turn around, while the younger students were still groggily getting to their feet, though the slow response was understandable being on the receiving end of even Inari's weakest sleep spell.

"Who are you?" the young tomcat Gareth asked them, his hand on his sword like he meant to draw it. Impressive spirit, even though Shiori knew the threat was pointless. While he might have the resolve to fight, his strength was such that it took her more effort to breathe than it would to crush him. Not that she would do that to her kitten's friend.

"We'll answer your questions once all the young ones are awake," Shiori said, gesturing to the four younger students as they slowly woke.

"Wha-What happened?" the kitten named Aya said as she woke, drawing the young tomcat Lane's attention.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Aya, you're alright!" Lane said, seemingly forgetting her and Inari's presence as Aya took up his attention.

She couldn't help but smile at the pheromones the two gave off as the young tomcat worried over her kitten's friend. She instinctively wanted to swat the two over their heads and just tell them to mate already, but humanoid mating customs were annoyingly convoluted and such an approach would probably have the opposite result. So she would just have to watch the two young ones and hope they did something before their pheromones got too annoying.

Subtly making a sign with her tail at Inari, Shiori relaxed as the fox cast a subtle spell and filtered out the worst of the humans' pheromones from the air around them, leaving just enough to tease her nose. The fox was more than capable of cleaning the scent away completely, but the mocking glint in her eyes made it clear she was enjoying her irritation. Returning the fox's look with a glare did nothing since she put little heat into it, though that didn't stop her from folding and unfolding space rapidly enough to slap Inari's ear with enough force to shatter a tree, earning a slight flick of her ears to show the fox felt was probably a faint tickle.

Shiori suppressed a shudder as a thin blade of air sliced into her neck with the force of a tornado, sending a faint tingle across her bare skin unprotected by her usual fur coat. Flicking her ears slightly, Shiori retaliated by teleporting a Platinum ranked leech into Inari's robes. The leech barely had time to squirm before the fox crushed it in a cage of air before its remains disappeared into the Fox's storage ring.

"Thanks for the gift," Inari signed with her tail.

As the kittens got themselves in order, Shiori and Inari waged a silent war of invisible blows and spells that would have destroyed the building if not for their immense control and Shiori subtly bending space to make sure the aftereffects of their invisible strikes didn't travel too far.

After a few seconds in which the two traded enough power to operate an airship fleet, the young ones looked expectantly at them with mixed expressions of disbelief, anger, and confusion.

Ten pairs of eyes locked onto her as she flicked her tail and she smiled, vaguely remembering that humans and elves took the baring of teeth as a comforting display rather than a show of aggression.

As Shiori thought through what she wanted to say, she heard Inari speak, a subtle laugh hidden in the way the fox's tail twitched as she beat her to the first words again.

"I am Inari," the fox started saying with a mischievous smile, the laugh even more obvious now. "You already know my daughter Sara." The elf fidgeted awkwardly as nine pairs of eyes swiveled towards her. Shiori could feel the smug amusement radiating off her friend as the young ones stared at the poor elf. Michael opened his mouth to ask something, but Inari continued talking, cutting him off before he could speak.

"And this is Shiori," the fox said, gesturing to her as Shiori watched the assembled kittens. The fox's smile widened and Shiori could see the look of horror starting to cross her kitten's face as if she knew what the fox was about to say next.

Shiori beat her to it. "I am Jun's mother," she said, flicking her tail in a rude sign at Inari as she stole the fox's attention. Several gasps and mutters broke out amongst the young ones. Eyes flicked between Shiori and Inari and Jun and Sara, the two kittens shrinking back slightly from the attention. She had to admit, it was amusing to mess with her kitten like this.

"This isn't what we agreed to, cat," she heard the elf mutter too quietly for the kittens around her to hear.

Shiori only smiled in response, her tail flicking in amusement. Yes, this would definitely be fun.

"Recent events have proven that this Academy's proven to be lacking in educating young ones such as yourselves," Inari said, taking the lead again. "Thus, we have decided to take a more hands on role in our daughters' education, and that of their friends. We will be your new advisors." Inari stopped talking and waited for the young ones to speak up. It didn't take long.

"How are you Jun and Sara's mothes? You're both beastkin and they're not!"

"New advisors? Are you even adventurers?"

"What ranks are you? I can't sense anything about your power!"

"What kind of magic did you use earlier?"

"Are parents even allowed to do that at the Academy?! Won't the administrators and other students cause problems and claim favoritism?!"

Their daughters' friends flooded the air with questions as Shiori and Inari had a quick conversation in tail sign until the questions finally petered out and Shiori took the lead again. "All you need to know is that you are all under our care and tutelage. If anyone at the Academy, student or staff, complains, we will deal with it."

Sean poured a healthy measure of amber liquor into a glass and quickly downed it, barely tasting the expensive mana infused alcohol. Just like that, the annual earnings of the average commoner disappeared down his throat as he set the glass back down. As warmth began to spread through his belly and numb his aching head, he eyed the decanter again, the finely detailed crystal reflecting the early morning sunlight.

The Forest's Edge Academy Registrar was having a very bad week. Several sons and daughters from minor noble families died, DIED, in the Forest despite Sean making sure their advisors knew to step in sooner. But at least they had just been minor nobles. Their families, barons like himself, would hardly be able to raise a fuss. At worst they could lodge a complaint with Duke Greygarten, but he knew his liege lord would shield him from such complaints. At least normally. Now he wasn't so sure.

Complicating matters was the death of Lord Salan Highport, a distant nephew of Duke Greygarten. He didn't know what the foolish noble scion had been thinking playing at being an adventurer, or why Count Highport had allowed such recklessness, but Sean knew he would be blamed for the brat's death. After all, he was the one in charge of Duke Greygarten's interests at the Academy, and the nobles knew who truly ran things. It wasn't Allister, the overpowered ex-Adventurer playing at being a noble.

He was the one that truly ran the Academy after all. At least the important bits. He usually left the Combat Branch to the meatheads like Galimund and Arcane Studies to Merin and Thomas. They could have those thankless departments that were little more than factories to churn out soldiers for the Kingdom and the nobles or fodder for the IAG. He usually didn't need to get his hands dirty there, it was enough to covertly provide a list of the best performing students to his liege for recruitment.

In fact he hadn't touched the Combat Branch until Duke Greygarten instructed him to ensure a certain elf got reapproved as an Advisor every year despite the idiot getting several promising students killed. The Duke's motivations were beyond his place to know though, he simply did what he was asked to do and helped cover up the psychopath's excesses.

The psychotic elf was probably going to get another student killed, but he'd still done as ordered. Finding out the team he was advising had that pathetic commoner Allister and Merin forced him to enroll as a scholarship student had been a highlight of the Semester. Her enrollment and scholarship wrecked his carefully balanced budget and took up funds that would have been put to better use enhancing the lives of well-bred students. Duke Greygarten had not been pleased with the revised budget, but unusually interested in whatever artifact the girl owned.

The news that the psychotic elf got himself killed hadn't been much of a surprise, but his students surviving had been. He couldn't help but be worried at how the Duke would take the news of the death of his tool and the survival of the one taking up valuable operating funds. Probably not well.

He wouldn't be surprised if yet another high noble's airship soon graced the skies of above Forest's Edge

All of that paled in comparison to the morning he had. He distinctly remembered falling asleep in his comfortable bed next to his favorite mistress the night before, burning off some of his frustration of the week. But somehow, he found himself waking up, still naked and sticky from the stress relief, in his office with two hauntingly beautiful beastkin women standing over him.

Sean tried to suppress a shiver as he remembered their presence and the look in their eyes. He failed. They'd looked at him like him like he was nothing more than prey, and not in a pleasant way. Being naked and alone with two such exotic beauties was a thing most men would fantasize about, but not those two. Eyeing the decanter again, he pulled the crystal stopper out and took a swig straight from the crystal container, draining half the fortifying liquor as the image of two pairs of predatory eyes stared at him like he was less than nothing as they stood in this very office.

He'd been in the presence of the King and Duke Greygarten, both Mythril ranked beings that far outstripped his own Gold rank, whose power could be felt deep in his bones. Those two had been far more powerful. One lit up his aura senses like an apocalyptic storm whose outer edges were enough to rip the world asunder. The other felt like a deep void that threatened to consume everything in its path. Both were terrifying beings beyond his comprehension.

He'd rushed to obey their orders and was glad to do so. Anything to appease them. Their orders were simple, well within his power as the Registrar, though why two such beings would demand to be made approved Advisors and assigned to those specific teams, he didn't understand. Not that he questioned it, nor the Gold ranked IAG badges they handed over identifying them simply as Inari and Shiori. The badges had even been real. Whoever those two were, he didn't even the students assigned to them. He even pitied them. While he despised that scholarship student who took up part of his budget, he wouldn't dare wish such a demon on even his worst enemies.

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