It didn’t even take an hour.

  The apothecary returned with a small vial filled with thick, red liquid. She handed it to Kana without a word.

  Kana didn’t hesitate. She opened it and drank the entire thing in one gulp.

  Within a minute, the dark discoloration around her healed cuts began to fade. Slowly, steadily, the skin lightened. It took nearly half an hour for the strange hue to return to its natural color.

  “Looks good as new,” the apothecary said after a final inspection. “But you need to be careful. That poison isn’t normal. It’s banned across the continent. Whoever used it on you has power—and connections. Enough to acquire something like this through... other means.”

  Kana nodded. “I’ll be extra careful from now on.”

  The woman held out her empty palm. “Twenty silver coins.”

  Boris handed over a pouch without complaint. It was expensive, far more than they expected—but considering the kind of poison Kana had survived, neither he nor the girls tried to haggle.

  The sun was fully up when they stepped out of the apothecary shop. Kana stepped out a bit late, they heard her buying things, a potion or similar. As they walked, each of them pulled off their cloaks. Suri was the last, deactivating [Doppelganger], having an illusionary copy of them in the academy while they were outside could’ve raised suspicions.

  Too risky.

  “I’ve been thinking,” Kana said as they made their way back to the academy. “Should we start taking battle-related classes?”

  “I agree,” Boris replied. “Humans are more dangerous than monsters. If we’re going to survive, we need to be able to fight them too.”

  Suri exhaled through her nose. “I don’t like the idea… but yeah. We need to defend ourselves from people. That man might come back.”

  As they reached the academy gates, a few students shot them the usual looks—wrinkled noses, sideways glances, subtle scoffs. The copper bands on their arms marked them as the lowest rank. But they were used to it by now.

  They walked through without slowing down, still buzzing from the adrenaline left behind by their encounter with the shadowed man that happened a few hours ago.

  Inside the quiet Copper classroom, empty at this early hour, they headed to their seats. Most students were probably still sleeping in.

  Kana reached under her desk and pulled out the student handbook.

  “Dagger Mastery I. Physical Enhancement I.” Kana read aloud, eyes scanning the available first-year courses. “I’ll take these.”

  She looked at Boris. “You should go for Spear Mastery I and Physical Enhancement I.”

  Boris nodded. “Is that enough?”

  “It’s not,” Kana admitted. “But that’s all we’re allowed to take in our year for battle related classes.”

  “How about you, Suri?” Boris asked.

  “I’m already in Physical Enhancement I,” Suri said. “And I just enrolled in Mana Forms I last week. I’ll think about what else might help in a real fight.”

  Kana gave her a thoughtful nod. “I’m not sure which magic-related classes would help you most either. But we’ll figure it out.”

  Kana was certain the shadow-man would return.

  Not for Boris. Not even for Suri. No—her.

  She was the one who wounded him. The one who broke through his defense. That meant something. To someone like him, it had to. He would come for her—not out of fear or obligation, but pride. Revenge.

  And yet, instead of fear, she felt something else.

  The thrill.

  She should have been terrified. Someone had tried to kill her. A trained killer—skilled enough to dance through shadows and poison his blade—had marked her, and she knew he’d strike again.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  But the thought excited her.

  That brief exchange—those blinding clashes of skill—had awakened something inside her. Every movement, every dodge, every brush with death had forced her to adapt, to grow. She had changed in the span of minutes. She felt it. She knew it.

  Next time… she’d be even better.

  She clenched her fists, her confidence settling like iron in her chest.

  Let him come.

  She was looking forward to it.

  What else could she learn from someone like that?

  Now, all she felt was gratitude—for her skill, [High Awareness].

  If it hadn’t evolved, she doubted she would’ve reacted in time. The moment the man emerged from the shadows, she sensed him. Not saw. Sensed. A whisper of presence in a place that should’ve been silent.

  Even with all its drawbacks—even with how much she resented it most of the time—it had saved her life.

  Not just hers.

  Suri. Boris.

  The skill she often cursed… had been the one thing standing between them and death.

  She exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing with quiet resolve.

  Next time, she’d push it further. Evolve it again, if she could.

  She didn’t want to just react next time.

  She wanted to see it coming and ultimately win.

  And with this new confidence burning inside her, a different thought rose—bold, dangerous, tempting.

  It was time.

  They were ready.

  Ready to raid the heavily guarded thief’s merchant coin vaults. But for now, they would lay low—watch and observe.

  One question lingered in the back of Kana’s mind, quiet but persistent.

  When would the shadow man return?

  …..

  Wor-en found himself wandering into the Copper Class classroom again.

  He wasn’t scheduled to be there. He had other things to do—pending work, unread reports—but for some reason, this room always pulled him in and he liked to finish it here. It wasn’t the space, not the stiff chairs or faded walls. It was the atmosphere.

  The students here didn’t fuss over him. They didn’t watch every move he made or hang on his words like the other classes. They simply let him be. He wasn’t a professor here—just another presence. No expectations, no burdens. His reputation meant little in this room.

  As he stepped inside, nothing had changed. A few students chatted quietly, others read strange books that definitely weren’t from the Academy library. And as always, the most talented ones…

  Were actually sleeping?

  All three of them—even Kana—were slumped across their desks like corpses. Peacefully, asleep.

  He stopped and blinked.

  Rin noticed and grinned. “They’ve been sleeping like that since we got here.”

  Wor-en let out a faint sigh and shook his head, lips curling in a half-smile. He crossed the room and took his seat at the front, center of the classroom. No one looked up. No one needed to.

  There was a small parchment waiting for him on the desk. Folded once, carelessly tucked beneath a stack of notes.

  He opened it and scanned the contents.

  His eyes narrowed.

  Kana and Boris want to be enrolled in combat classes?

  He squinted, rereading the words as if they might change.

  Did my speech last time actually inspire them?

  A chuckle escaped him—quiet and surprised.

  “I’m actually a good teacher.” He muttered though a few copper class students who heard him had a doubtful look.

  …..

  The weekend came, and luckily for Roy, their house was located on the western edge of the capital. Not exactly their house—but one of the many perks that came with his parents' unusual profession: caretakers of the capital’s cemetery.

  Roy had grown up among gravestones and silence. He knew every path, every tree twisted around headstones. The cemetery was more familiar to him than the academy grounds.

  He’d recently conducted an experiment—one inspired by Kana’s reckless but strangely brilliant advice. It had worked, in a way. He'd resurrected a dead cat. Or rather, what used to be a cat. The thing that came back was nothing but bones, held together by threads of magic. No fur, no flesh. Just hollow sockets and an unnatural twitch in its limbs.

  Still—progress.

  Roy waved to his mother and father, who were busy preparing breakfast near the caretakers' cottage. Neither questioned where he was going. They were used to it.

  He ran down the familiar trail toward the older section of the cemetery, where time had overtaken order. Trees loomed over tilted stones. Bushes grew wild between broken graves. It was quiet here. Very few people visited here.

  He knelt before a weathered tombstone, its name long faded. He didn’t know who lay beneath—but that didn’t matter. He closed his eyes, offered a simple, silent prayer out of habit, then raised his hand.

  [Raise Undead]

  The ground trembled slightly. Soil cracked.

  A skeletal hand broke the surface.

  Moments later, a skull followed—eye sockets empty, yet somehow aware. Roy could feel the connection snap into place like a thread pulled taut between them.

  The human bone was waiting.

  Ready for his command.