Chapter 58: Your family

Freya withdrew her gaze.

“The professor is here,” she said.

Ross did not move.

He watched Freya turn around and walk toward the gathered crowd, her ponytail tracing a cold and smooth arc across her shoulder.

He watched her retreating figure.

He never chased after her.

***

During the latter half of the training session, the professor divided the students into small groups for sparring practice.

Freya was paired with a senior student.

The opponent was famous for being skilled in Wind Magic, possessing a sharp offensive style and showing no mercy.

Freya handled it calmly, but everyone could see that her Mana circulation was faster and sharper today than usual.

Wind Blades and ice shields collided in the air, shattering and regenerating.

At the edge of the field, Lyra crouched in the shadow of an old tree. She clutched a piece of jerky she had quietly swiped from the breakfast table, but she didn’t eat it.

Her gaze was locked onto Freya’s moving figure, her lips pressed into a straight line.

“Worried about her?”

A voice came from above.

Lyra looked up sharply.

Anke had sat down on a thick tree root protruding from the ground behind her at some point. She held a notebook for recording notes, and her brown eyes were curved with an inquisitive smile.

Lyra did not answer, merely shifting half an inch to the side warily.

Anke didn’t mind.

“She wasn’t like this before.”

Anke’s gaze moved past Lyra, falling on the figure in the Training Ground.

“When she first enrolled, she spoke even less than she does now, but she wasn’t so… well, hard.”

Lyra’s ears twitched.

“Did something happen later?” she asked dully.

Anke did not answer immediately.

She watched as Freya raised her hand in the distance to release a perfect wall of ice, blocking all of her opponent’s Wind Blades. The movement was clean, decisive, and impeccable.

“I don’t know,” Anke said. “Freya refuses to say.”

Lyra remained silent for a long time.

It was so long that Anke thought she wouldn’t speak again.

“…Did she used to — ” Lyra’s voice was low, as if she were talking to herself. “Did she smile?”

Anke looked down at the girl crouching in the shadow of the tree.

Those red eyes were staring at the Training Ground. They lacked their usual silliness, vitality, or the sparkle they held when she was being greedy for food. There was only a quiet, stubborn, and almost instinctive heartache.

Anke sighed softly.

“She did.” Her gaze also turned toward Freya. “Rarely. But she did.”

Lyra didn’t ask anything else.

She put the piece of jerky she had been clutching for so long into her mouth and chewed slowly.

It tasted very salty.

***

By the time the training session ended, it was nearly noon.

Freya walked under the shade of the tree. A thin layer of sweat covered her brow, and her breathing was slightly faster than usual.

Lyra immediately stood up, like a fledgling finally waiting for its master to return to the nest, following closely by her side.

Freya did not look at her.

But her pace slowed down.

“Boss,” Lyra’s voice came from her side, carrying a hint of subtle caution. “There are no more classes this afternoon, right?”

“No.”

“Then, are we going to the Library?”

Freya tilted her head.

Lyra wasn’t looking at her; her eyes were fixed on her own toes, but the tips of her ears were slightly flushed.

“…We can,” Freya said.

Lyra’s footsteps immediately became lighter.

The sunlight fell on the stone path the two walked upon, stretching their one long and one short shadow very close together.

Very close.

***

In the shadows of the teaching building’s corridor in the distance, someone withdrew their gaze.

Irina Ewell leaned against a pillar alone, a strand of long golden hair wrapped around her fingertip. One loop, two loops, she tightened it against her knuckles.

She watched the two figures cross the plaza and head toward the Library.

She watched the girl with light purple hair slow her pace.

She watched the corner of the white-haired girl’s lips tilt up secretly.

She watched the invisible, natural intimacy between them that others could not interfere with.

She loosened the tightly wound hair.

Without the constraint, the strand slowly bounced back to its original shape, but the middle section was already bent and deformed, no longer as smooth as before.

Irina looked down at the strand of hair she had ravaged, her pink eyes devoid of emotion.

There was only a calm, deep patience, like a hunter waiting for prey to step into a trap.

‘No need to rush,’ she told herself. ‘The game is still early.’

She tucked the hair behind her ear, smoothed her dress, and turned to walk in another direction.

There, it was the practice room that the Crown Prince frequently visited.

***

The afternoon in the Library was as quiet as being submerged underwater.

Sunlight poured down through the high windows, slowly swirling in the dust-filled beams of light.

The scent of old paper and parchment permeated the space between the bookshelves. Occasionally, the faint sound of a page turning came from a corner, only to be quickly swallowed by a greater silence.

Freya sat in her usual spot by the window. Three thick ancient texts were spread out before her — *Theory of Elemental Resonance*, *Study of Magic Origins*, and the copy of *Starry Sky Legacy* she had yet to finish.

She looked down to read, her quill resting to the side, occasionally adding a few strokes to her notebook.

Lyra sat in the chair opposite her, holding an *Encyclopedia of Continent Magic Beasts* she had found in a corner, flipping through it very slowly.

She couldn’t recognize all the words on it, so she mainly looked at the pictures.

When she encountered a magic beast she was interested in, she would turn the book around and point it out to Freya.

“Boss, I’ve seen this one.”

Freya looked up and glanced at it.

It was a magic beast that looked like a wild boar but had six legs. It was labeled as “Swamp Piercer, Danger Level: Medium.”

“…Where did you see it?”

“In the mountains,” Lyra said as if it were a given. “It chased me. It ran really fast. I only escaped by climbing a tree.”

Freya didn’t ask which mountain.

The “mountains” in Lyra’s mouth seemed to be a universal location, covering all the pasts she didn’t want to explain.

She withdrew her gaze and continued reading.

Lyra didn’t mind. She flipped a few more pages and suddenly stopped.

“Boss.”

“Mm.”

“This — ” She pushed the book over, her fingertip pointing at an illustration on the page. “Does it look like me?”

Freya’s gaze fell on that page.

On the left side of the encyclopedia was an exquisite color painting — a giant wolf, white as snow, standing atop a mountain cliff under the moon and howling.

Its silver-white fur emitted a faint glow in the moonlight, and its red eyes were like burning flames.

The text was labeled: Snowfield Wolf King (Rare Variant), Danger Level: Unknown.

Note: A legendary magic beast that exists only deep within the Northern Frozen Soil. Sighting records are extremely few.

Characteristics include silver-white fur and crimson eyes. Its size far exceeds that of ordinary wolves, and it possesses extremely high intelligence and Mana affinity.

Rumored to be able to take human form, though this remains unconfirmed.

Freya looked at the picture, then back at Lyra.

Lyra blinked her red eyes, an innocent look of “Doesn’t it look like me?” written all over her face.

“…It doesn’t,” Freya said as she withdrew her gaze, her tone flat.

“How does it not look like me?” Lyra became anxious, pointing at the wolf in the picture. “Look at the eyes, they’re red! Look at the fur, it’s silver-white! My hair is also silver-white!”

She grabbed a lock of her own hair.

“It glows silver in the sunlight!”

“It doesn’t.”

“It does! Boss, you just didn’t look closely!”

Freya did not respond.

She lowered her eyes and continued reading.

However, she did not flip back that page of the *Encyclopedia of Continent Magic Beasts*.

Lyra flopped back onto the book, looking at the illustration of the Snowfield Wolf King over and over while muttering under her breath.

“I think it looks quite similar… When winter comes and my fur… my hair grows a bit longer, it will look even more like it…”

As she spoke, she suddenly gave a small yawn, and her eyelids began to droop.

The afternoon sun, the quiet books, and the familiar sense of security.

Soon, the sound of even breathing came from across the table.

Freya looked up.

Lyra was lying on the open *Encyclopedia of Continent Magic Beasts*, her face pillowed on her arms, sleeping completely defenselessly.

The sunlight fell on the top of her pure white head, plating it with a soft, fuzzy golden edge.

The illustration of the Snowfield Wolf King was right in front of her face.

Freya watched her for a long time.

So long that the sunlight moved from the pages of her book and landed on the window frame.

Then she reached out, extremely gently, and pulled the encyclopedia from under Lyra’s face. She closed it and set it aside.

Lyra moved, letting out a muffled mumble before changing her position and continuing to sleep.

Freya picked up her quill again and added a tiny annotation in the margin of *Starry Sky Legacy*.

‘Snowfield Wolf King — rumors of transformation may have a basis. Sighting records are rare, perhaps because the race itself is a legend.’

The tip of her pen paused.

She added two more words at the end:

‘To be investigated.’

***

At dusk, the magic lamps in the Library lit up one after another.

Freya closed her book and gently nudged the still-sleeping Lyra.

“Time to go.”

Lyra looked up dizzily, a small red mark from the book pressed onto the corner of her mouth. She stared blankly at Freya for two seconds before her eyes finally focused.

“Mmm… Is it time to eat?”

“You only think about eating as soon as you wake up.”

“I’m hungry.”

Lyra rubbed her eyes and stood up, not forgetting to clutch the *Encyclopedia of Continent Magic Beasts* in her arms.

“Boss, can I borrow this and take it back? I want to read more.”

Freya looked at her sparkling eyes.

“…Only for three days.”

“Yay!”

Lyra held the book and followed closely behind Freya as they walked out of the Library.

As twilight gathered, the stone path of the Academy was covered in an orange-red glow.

The faint noise of the canteen came from the distance, and the evening breeze was mixed with the aroma of food.

Lyra’s pace became faster and faster.

“Boss! Hurry! If we’re late, the meat will be gone!”

Freya watched her figure, which was almost running, and the corner of her mouth twitched imperceptibly.

She didn’t smile.

But there was a very faint warmth in the depths of her eyes.

***

The Academy Canteen was bustling with people.

By the time Freya and Lyra found a corner seat with their trays, Anke was already sitting there with two steaming cups of fruit tea in front of her.

“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

She winked at Freya.

“Guess what I brought for you?”

She pulled a delicate paper box from under the table and opened it.

Six golden and tempting Honey Biscuits were neatly arranged inside.

Lyra’s eyes snapped wide with light.

Anke’s eyes curved with a smile.

“I went to the store specifically to buy them to make up for those half-plate from yesterday.”

Lyra looked at Freya.

Freya gave a slight nod.

Lyra immediately reached out and stuffed one into her mouth. Her cheeks puffed out like a hamster, and her eyes squinted with happiness.

Anke couldn’t help but laugh at her expression.

“Freya, yours is really easy to please.”

“She isn’t mine.”

Freya’s tone was flat as she picked up her fruit tea and took a sip.

“Oh — “

Anke dragged out the sound, looking at her meaningfully.

Freya ignored her.

But behind the rim of her cup, there was an extremely faint curve at the corner of her lips that vanished in an instant.