What was initially meant to be something simple was turning into a large problem. Originally, they’re ‘getting together’ was merely meant as a step to make them less conspicuous in order to work together to locate the books. Unfortunately, due to their unforeseen status, they were now the center of attention. Of course, Lewis wanting to be a romantic to his wife was partially to blame.

What a pain. It was the worst thing for an assassin and a thief to be seen, and every instinct that he had honed was screaming at him to abort the mission, but….

Those damn books. He knew that stopping wasn’t an option. They would have to just get them even with all of the attention on them, or find a different way. And Lewis was stubborn.

“You lucky dog, you,” Terra said as he playfully punched Lewis in the arm.

Lewis had to fight against his urge to rip the kid’s arm off. “No luck about it,” Lewis stated with a matter-of-fact tone. “I just take what I want…” His deadpan tone and stare had the girls swooning, and the boys glaring at him.

Is this really what kids are in to? He sighed with exhaustion.

The professor walked in, and the class settled down for the time as the lesson started. Still, there was electricity in the air from the morning’s events. Most of the students were barely paying attention to the class, and some were even risking small whispers and discussions about the relationship.

“Doesn’t he remind you….” A small whisper.

“Yes…he’s so dreamy…just like the hero from Blades of…”

Of all the damn things… The silver haired boy took in a deep breath, trying to keep his nerves calm.

Simone offered her husband a visible smile now that they were an object. But my love… Do I have to remind you what you were into at their age?

She was internally laughing as her books were brought up. If only they actually knew who was in front of them. They would die.

Class ended with the professor trying to get things back on track. Simone did most of the answering since she could pay attention above all the noise. We just have to reach the top. Even with all their eyes on us.

She took his hand as they stood up. She was delicately holding his books since they were still sharing. There was a notice that her shipment was lost but this would work all the same. She had a feeling that was Angela’s doing. “Do you want to get lunch with me?” Her eyes were shining up at his.

“Say yes Khyri,” Terra was loudly whispering and Simone gave him a side-eye.

You’ve made weird friends.

Right….’friends’

The rest of the morning passed without too much insanity, and when lunch rolled around, Lewis and Simone took a table. The two were sitting in silence, talking mentally as they usually did, when Terra and Sophia both sat down at the same table.

Terra smirked, “Isn’t it adorable that they’re just staring into each other’s eyes?” He made what was supposed to be a kissy face.

Sophia was laughing at it, and looked at the two ‘lovebirds’, “You know, relationships take a lot of time and work. Communication is the key to it all, of course. You can’t just sit here in silence. Talk!” She seemed happy enough. “You two are the highlight of the year, and I’d hate for it to end so quickly.”

Lewis rolled his eyes, and sat back. Of course they wouldn’t know about the resonance, but it was a little annoying to be lectured on communication by a kid. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk. Right now, we’re just enjoying the silence.”

“Silence is dull, though,” Terra said as he dove into his food, chewing loudly. “Lemme tell you about the rumor I heard. I heard there’s a potion that can boost your mana with no drawbacks!”

“That’s a stupid rumor,” Sophia said with a huff. “Everyone knows that there are no shortcuts with magic. Everything has a price.” It was one of the fundamentals. “Besides, that rumor happens every year. The older kids start it to try and get silver from the hopeless newbies before they fail out. It’s preying on the desperate…” She thought for a moment. “Besides, if you want a real rumor…I heard that there’s a VAMPIRE going around.”

This is barely worth it… Lewis was getting bored of it all. Secret potions and vampires. Smut books. Was this all that the students talked about? He was lucky to have missed schooling.

“Well, you see,” Sophia said as she adjusted her glasses. “There was this girl yesterday who said she felt faint, and had to leave. She was as white as a ghost when she went to the infirmary. And that boy the other day who passed out in class-”

“That boy was Carter, and he’s a partier…of course he’s gonna pass out. He rarely sleeps,” Terra said with a grin. “Besides…vampires only like GIRL blood. Hell, virgin blood…” He grinned. “Bet he’ll go after our innocent Simone…”

“Doubt it,” Lewis said.

“Wait what?” Terra and Sophia stared at Lewis.

“Er…” The silver haired boy cleared his through. “Vampires…don’t care about gender, and virgin blood is only used in rituals. Creatures of the night are hardly picky when it comes to their prey. And besides that, vampires wouldn’t pick kids. Not unless they were crazed, and we’ld know if there was a crazed vampire here. It wouldn’t be just a few kids here or there…”

“Wow, look at you being smart,” Sophia said with a grin.

“And ruining my fun,” Terra replied as he sighed dramatically. “I heard there was a game of tag tonight. Magic allowed…how about we do that?” Terra looked to Lewis, ignoring Simone and Sophia.

Sophia turned to Simone, “And while the boys are out to play… did you hear that the new book, Lady Azure, is coming out in a few months? The premise is soooo dreamy, and it’s by my favorite author!”

Simone nodded with Lewis, “Lewis is right. We have plenty of time to talk.” Easy killer, they don’t know. She let out an audible giggle that caught Sophia’s eyes. She watched Simone give Lewis a dreamy look which pleased her a bit.

She listened to the rumors and thought about it some. Lewis… Did Xeik ever tell you what those books were about? If Angela was willing to go to these lengths for them.. There was a chance they were dangerous. Rumors and myths are all based on facts somewhere. Even I had rumors about me. We can’t negate the possibility this has to do with the books… Simone was constantly coming up with a mental chessboard.

When it came down to virgin’s blood she looked at Lewis when he made the comment and kicked his shin. Lewis…. She gave him a whine.

Looking over at Sophia she smirked, “I’ve read allll the books by her.” Lewis was now glaring at her and Simone was laughing out loud.

“What are you laughing at?” Sophia looked confused as she looked between her and Lewis.

Simone finished her lunch and stood up. “You play nice with the other boys.” She had cut off the resonance for a second which got Lewis to give her a look. She started to walk away before she turned on her heel. “I forgot.” She kissed him hard causing all the kids in the room to gasp and clap. “Be safe Lewis~” The resonance snapped back on and she was laughing.

Lewis reacted to the kiss with slapping her bottom with a grin. Simone jumped and stared at him with wide eyes. You are so very unlucky that we can’t just run away right now

The kids were in an uproar at the brashness of the two. Simone was blushing and Lewis was grinning at her. “I’ll see you later,” Simone gave him a quick cheek kiss as she left with Sophia.

“HE IS SO INTO YOU SIMONE,” Sophia yelled up at her.

“Is he?” She smiled and tilted her head.

The Academy schedule was split into two halves; the first half of the day was general studies, while the second half was for more specialized classes. This meant that, unfortunately, Lewis and Simone were separated in the afternoons.

Ugh…figures Angela would enroll me into something so… Lewis was staring at the Diplomatic Studies professor with disdain. Useless…. He slammed his head into the table, which woke up another student two seats down. For a magic academy, most of the diplomatic classes were done earlier in a student’s career, and the only reason to take such a course this late would be for remedial purposes.

Simone, however, was enrolled in a high powered ‘control’ kind of class, designed for immensely powerful spells that need precision to cast. Terra and Spgia were both in this class as well. Terra’s speciality was lightning magic, which needed perfect control, otherwise he would fry himself and everyone around him. Sophia, however, was a specialist of a different kind, utilizing a variety of different elements to create trap magic.

“Professor….you’re falling asleep,” Lewis said with a yawn. :

“Oh….I am…” The professor yawned, and looked at the board. “It seems I dozed off around the third paragraph. Lewis, if you would please read the passage…”

I would rather be anywhere else….

Simone was giggling at Lewis’s suffering. This is probably payback for the cornucopia thing. Just endure it… I’ll help you. Though… My concentration might suffer right now. In the end they found out that Simone wasn’t able to help too much with diplomacy class which meant that Lewis actually had to pay attention.

Simone was listed as a high class pyrokinesis. Her ability to control fire was among the best in the class but she was actually handicapping her power since she couldn’t use hellfire in class. This is so exhausting Lewis… Cuddle me later? She was sending him little whines as she spoke.

Once the classes were over she slinked over to Lewis and snuggled into him. They were dating now so this was okay. Everyone was looking at them as Lewis pet her hair. “I’m so tired Lew~” Simone whined out loud.

“Lew?” Sophia was walking with Terra now as they were both associated with Lewis and Simone. “That is so cute you have pet names now!” It had only been a short time and the two were so close already.

“You did say we should get close~” Simone fought to get out of Lewis’s arms with there being an entertaining struggle where Simone had lost. She sighed a bit as Lewis was wrapped around her and against her back. Mone had a pouting face on her as she looked up at him. “Cheater~” It left her mouth softly but no one knew what she meant but Lewis. He had lightly turned the resonance off so she couldn’t predict what he would do. They did tend to get competitive if they didn’t so it was perhaps for the best.

“Speaking of cheating…” Terra looked at them. “We had someone pass out in class.”

“That’s right… I almost forgot,” Simone spoke out loud. She had forgotten because she was too busy trying to restrict herself from using her full force.

“Her name was Annie. She wasn’t a bad magic user… She was up there in the top scores,” Sophia was quietly whispering. “Why would she need to cheat?”

“It doesn’t make any sense…” Simone put her finger under her chin. “Let’s go get food. I’m starving after all that magic…” They got lunch and later Simone went back with Lewis and Terra to his dorm.

“Curfew is in a few hours but you can stay until then,” Terra liked looking at Simone and she was always so quiet when reading poetry. Lewis liked to listen to her do it.

For Simone it was a good excuse to continue reading to her husband plus she got her cuddles that way. However, when Simone stood up to stretch her legs the world lurched and she fell over and passed out. There was a heavy fever out of nowhere and her body hurt.

“SIMONE!” Terra was up but not faster than Lewis. “This is what happened to Annie!”

Lewis felt that Simone was going to pass out before she did. Immediately he caught her and let her down carefully. “Simone? SIMONE?” He was carefully trying to shake her awake, cursing under his breath when there was no response. He looked up to Terra, “Go! Now! Get someone from the infirmary!”

Terra was up in an instant and he ran out of the door. Lewis looked down at Simone, trying to feel out for her presence through the resonance. “Damn it…” He closed his eyes.

I can’t feel anything. This is bad.

“Xeik! Get your ass here now!” Lewis’ voice rang out. There was a moment of silence, and then a portal opened, Xeik running into the dorm room.

“What’s wrong?” The Divine Mender was already looking over Simone. To him, her mana was practically trying to explode out of her body.

“Lewis. This is going to be hard, but you need to pull the mana out of her body and into yours…” Xeik took his arm, and grabbed Simone’s. “I’ll act as a balancer. We need to work fast….”

Lewis took a deep breath. He opened his eyes, their color flickering azure as he forced a full resonance with Simone. Mana filled the room as he siphoned it through Xeik, pulling as much as he could.

“It’s working.” Xeik looked at Simone. “She’s in the clear. We’re good…”

Lewis nodded, and cut the full resonance, letting it settle to their normal levels. “Thanks Xeik…what would I do without the Divine Mender….”

“THE DIVINE WHAT!?” A voice called out from the doorway. Terra was standing there, his eyes wide.

“Fuck…”

The moment Terra had caught them he was forced into the room by a force. Magic sealed the room and Angela materialized, “You’ll keep this a secret won’t you?” The beautiful goddess bent over at the kid on the floor. “I would hate to make you disappear. You have such a bright future.”

“I… I WON’T SAY A THING!” Terra was scared out of his wits.

Angela crossed her arms and looked at Simone, “This is serious… Has this been happening a lot?”

“…We’ve had a lot of students passing out like her,” Terra stuttered. “It’s been happening a lot more lately.”

“…” Angela thought about it and looked at Simone then Lewis. “This is bad. This is alchemy at work but its goal is magic amplification.”

“But… Simone is a strong mage why would th–”

“…She has mana deficiency.” Angela thought about it. “Xeik… Go steal the records for the students who passed out. Well… chop. Chop.” It didn’t take long for Xeik to get them and Ang poured over them while Simone stirred.

“What?” Simone’s eyes flickered and she looked up at Lewis. “My head hurts Lew…”

“It should…” Angela looked at everyone in the room. “…All of these kids have mana deficiency in some way. It’s not as bad as Simone’s but look at these charts,” she showed Xeik as she spoke. “…Simone hasn’t taken any drugs.”

“Of fucking course she hasn’t,” Lewis snapped up at Angela.

“No, you misunderstand. That means these kids didn’t either,” Angela was thinking and finally she stopped. “Stop eating the food here. It’s Hilaphe Philfer. It’s named after the flower it’s extracted from. There’s no other thing it could be. It’s so dangerous it was banned in standard alchemy….” She got quiet. “Xeik, our top priority is these books. Lewis. Simone. Continue to be undercover.”

“Under…cover?” Terra looked at them. “Are you going to kill me?”

“No, but your friends will die if we don’t stop this. This is an experiment. Starting with the weakest they are experimenting with the drugs. It will look like this but it could be progressively worse. Avoid the infirmary for now. If you get hurt… Xeik will be on call.”

Simone looked like she was in pain as Lewis helped her up. “We’re involving outsiders now?”

“It can’t be helped… Besides Terra might be of use. Your job is to cover for Lewis and Simone. These books are dangerous. They are forbidden texts hidden as ordinary books.”

“Is the school in on this?” Simone asked as Lewis cradled her protectively.

“I don’t believe that the school is responsible. It’s most likely the alchemy or magic departments. Maybe both.” Angela frowned a bit. “This might be my fault. I had to put down Simone’s illnesses when we registered her. I didn’t want them to drive her hard with magic.”

“It’s fine… It gave us a lead didn’t it?” Simone looked at Lewis. “I’ll be fine.”

Lewis gave a glare towards Angela. “If this weren’t so damn important, I’d pull Simone right here and now…” He knew that arguing with both the Goddess and Simone would be impossible at this point, though. “If we’re going to involve an innocent, I can at least be a little more truthful with him…:”

The room became almost icy as Lewis stared at Terra, “If you so much as think about flirting with my wife…I’ll cut your balls off and feed them to you…” Immediately, the room’s temperature went back to normal, and Lewis started thumbing through the other student’s records that Xeik had brought.

Terra was shaking, looking to Xeik or to Angela for any form of comfort. He had just been threatened by a very scary boy, but they seemed not to care that it had happened, almost if they were used to it. “J-just who the hell are you all!?”

“Xeik Eraphim, Champion of the Goddess of Life and Love. That’s her right over there,” Xeik said as he pointed. “And that there is my best friend and his wife. He’s an ex-assassin and she’s an impossibly powerful mage that was resurrected into a rare phoenix after he killed her.” Xeik paused. “When you say it out loud, it sounds so crazy…”

“What have I gotten myself in to!?” Terra said, almost crying.

Simone chuckled a bit at Terra, “He’s mostly harmless.” Xeik was taking a spit of water when he spit it out and stared at Simone. “What? I did say mostly. He’s gotten so much better about his jealousy…”

“…He locked someone in a basement and left them there for a bit…” Angela looked up.

“… He used to kill them,” Simone shrugged and smiled at Terra. “Don’t worry too much about it.” Terra seemed to relax in Simone’s soft presence.

That was when a portal opened and four children came through. The twins were holding their brothers. When the boys spotted their parents they started to get excited and jumping in Lila and Janus’s arms. “Kids!” Simone got excited after not seeing them for a week.

“I thought we told you it was dangerous?” Angela looked at the kids.

“We missed them,” the twins spoke up. “Who’s this?” They pointed at Terra.

“…Daddy’s new friend,” Simone said nervously.

“He flirted with Mommy didn’t he?” Janus asked his father as Simone took Damond and Remy from them. She was rubbing her face against theirs and they were squealing and loving it.

“DA DA DA DA!” The boys were screaming.

“No… Ma. Say Ma,” Simone was trying to get them to say mommy but…

“No!” The boys were giggling and Simone frowned.

“So troublesome.” She sighed a bit as she looked at Janus who was staring at Terra. “…His name is Terra. Can you stop staring at him like that?”

“You two have kids?”

“Oh lord… Do they ever have kids,” Angela groaned a bit.

Simone chuckled a bit and snuggled up to the boys as they started to clap at Lewis now. “The boy is Janus, his twin sister is Lila… And these boys are Damond and Remy.”

“… How old are you two?” Terra was mildly curious.

“Well… Lewis is thirty,” Terra nodded as Simone spoke. “I’m… over 1500?” He was now staring at her. “It’s a very long story but due to a situation that is the reason Lewis had to kill me… Lewis and I have been together since we were both your age. It’s complicated.”

Terra watched as Simone passed off the boys to Lewis since they were now screaming for him. “Sorry… They love their daddy…”