Almost as soon as Yuriko exited the Elemental Conflux, she cast the True Connection spell targeting Gwendith. She wove the vocal and somatic components with runescript drawn with her Anima and waited in anticipation for it to connect. 

But a moment later, she frowned when she felt the spell fizzle out. The spell had different sensations for failure and she was thankful that it wasn’t the dead stop that happened when the spell couldn’t find the target. But then again, she had her threads to confirm her lover’s status so she wasn’t all that worried. Instead, what she felt was that the spell had to go through heavy interference, and it was strong enough that True Connection couldn’t pierce it. That was odd since she was able to connect to Gwendith, Heron, or Saki even when they were in the Braxxon Ruins. Maybe they moved to a different Fount? Hmmm, she would have to try the spell every morning then, as agreed upon. She pressed down on any anxiety since Gwendith’s life was assured. 

Instead, she sighed and headed towards the Steeld carriages. The exams were finally over and most of the students were on their way back to Nirlith. Most of the professors and staff, too, leaving only a few to clean up the base camp. That wouldn’t take more than a couple of days, and when the Conflux reset itself by the end of the year, she wouldn’t be surprised if there remained no sign of the school’s occupation over the past few weeks. After all, the Golden Fields had existed on the border of Bresia for millennia yet when she first entered, it looked like unexplored land. 

She also had half a mind to just fly to Niria rather than endure the trip via the carriages…actually, she was pretty sure there was no downside to doing just that. It wasn’t as if she had much luggage to bring, and she could easily carry Ryoko with her. So she did just that. Ah, she informed Andrea that she was going ahead, it would be rude otherwise, but she made the trip back to her domicile in less than a couple of hours. 

She let Ryoko loose as soon as they arrived, with her handmaiden muttering about buying things at the market. Yuriko shrugged, left most of her gear in her bedroom, and headed off to the Hot Springs Chaos Fount. Fluffington was left in the living room for his convalescence. He’d slept through most of the flight and showed little curiosity at the city. But she expected he’d regain his usual demeanour when he fully recovered. 

She flew towards the portal and entered after registering at the nearby kiosk. As faculty, she had nearly unlimited access. She had to pay for the privilege, of course, but the fact that Desire and Devotee were working at the Inn meant that she also had a discount and preferred reservations. 

She waved hello to her bound Chaos Lords, before heading straight to the springs. Her clothes went into the locker and she washed up at the showers before settling in. She wasn’t alone there, of course, nor were there only women inside. Niria Academy, the city, and the republic in general seemed to have different social mores regarding nudity, at least when it came to hot springs and public baths. Not that she minded all that much, and the steam rising from the hot water did more than enough to conceal the details. 

She settled into the springs with a happy sigh and simply sank into a light trance. The tedium of watching over students, and the brief bouts of excitement, plus the anxiety of Fluffington’s near death had wrung her spirits. After a couple of hours, she left the hot springs, paid the fee at the counter, and waved goodbye to Desire, who pouted at her.

Yuriko chuckled, and said, “Come by tonight.”

The rest of the day was spent in idleness. She went through her training and meditation, then in the evening, cuddled up with Desire and slept. 

The next morning, most of the students had returned, and the proceedings for the graduation and advancement ball were well underway. That was tonight, actually, and she had to be present. She spent most of the day in her office, going through her students’ progress and review. She only had two different classes of Battle Magi, and she only handled about a third of them too. But she gave away all of her Nirian Tokens, and consequently, spent most of her afternoons in private lessons. 

She chuckled at the fact that Sofia and Juliette practically monopolised those sessions. There were a few odd students who asked for runescript conversion help and she also had to help Professor Charles Varko with simplifying True Connection. She had made some progress but it was rather limited. It had to do with the fact that the spell was almost completely efficient already and distilling it down any further was the work of decades, at least. Still, Professor Varko was happy with the few tidbits she managed though all she did was shorten the component nodes by three. 

Once she submitted all of the student reports, not that she made any changes, she got ready for the ceremonies and festivities. The final exam, despite the attack by the behemoth elementals, had ended with no deaths, though more than a few were injured. The healers made short work of the damage since broken skin and bones were easy to fix with healing spells, a marked difference from Animus techniques back home. Of course, Bresians were generally less robust than Imperial citizens, so maybe that was why their healing spells were more advanced. 

Hmmm, she tried to learn healing spells, but they were much more difficult than she expected. It required channelling a strange Elemental Affinity that she couldn’t quite grasp. She tried, but all that came to her was Radiant, and that would harm anyone who did not have an affinity. Which was practically everyone that wasn’t her. And she didn’t need healing spells, not when taking on an Elemental Body and having a firm self-image took care of any injuries, not to mention the difficulty of actually reaching her body to harm her. 

Ryoko presented Yuriko her formal evening gown, which was a flattering blue dress that exposed her shoulders and half of her back, and had a slit down one side of the skirt that exposed her right leg almost all the way to her hip. She also had to wear a rather flimsy pair of panties to prevent the ties from being exposed. 

“Why?” she asked Ryoko.

Her handmaiden grinned. “Your beauty must not be hidden. Your body is beautiful and you should show it off. Besides, you’re already eighteen, an adult, even without considering the fact you reached Knight three years ago.” She shrugged, “Besides, you’ll look good in this. Actually, you’ll look good in anything.”

Yuriko sighed and let Ryoko dress her. She had to forgo a brassiere and put some kind of skin-coloured pasties over her nipples to prevent them from showing through the fabric. She felt a bit insecure that the dress would fall off her so she used her Anima kinesis to hold everything in place. The ensemble also had an indigo shrug that still exposed most of her back but did cover her shoulders and arms. She was supposed to keep that on until after the ceremonies. 

She expected the graduation and advancement ceremonies to be dull, and unfortunately, she was right. The Dean and the department heads droned their speeches for at least several minutes, after which each of the thousand sixth-year students went up on stage to receive their diploma certificates and awards. Thankfully, she wasn’t on the front row seat of the celebration hall and she fell into a light meditative trance that allowed her to while the hours away. It was late afternoon by the time they were done, and she followed the rest of the faculty and students to the banquet hall. 

Practically everyone was here. Six thousand students across six-year levels, a hundred or so professors, and nearly as many assistants, as well as administrative staff. The hall was located on the opposite side of the volcano, nearly a dozen longstrides from Niria Hall. most of the attendees had to take the campus’ internal transport to get there, while most of the faculty flew. Some of the sixth years were capable of the flight spell, but anyone below that preferred taking the carriages. 

Over the next couple of hours, the students trickled in. The banquet hall was a large, multi-level affair, and the several floors were divided by year level. The topmost held the sixth years, and the second floor held the first years. It was structured like a huge stadium, with the central area open all the way to the ceiling, which was covered in glass skylights. The central space had myriad decorations, while the upper floors circled it. Buffet tables were set up for the lower floors while the fourth to sixth years were treated to a sit-down style of dinner. 

She was seated at a table with other professors and they made small talk throughout the courses. By the time eight o’clock came along, dinner finished and the party really started. She stayed on the sixth level with her students and she strolled around the venue. There were alcoves where musicians played, and people danced. There were private rooms on all the levels, though they weren’t being used yet. 

Wine and beer flowed freely, and even stronger liquor came out as the evening progressed. Blanca Ferron found her half an hour past dinner and asked her to dance. 

“Come on!” the Khuni tribesman said as she grabbed Yuriko’s arm and dragged her to a dance floor. Blanca was dressed in a gown that was even more daring than Yuriko’s and her greyish stockings and garter belt showed when she moved at anything faster than a sedate shuffle. 

“Alright, alright,” Yuriko said as she allowed the pretty bunny woman to pull her. She had a flute filled with sparkling wine on her other hand, and she downed the entire thing with a quick gulp. It sent a pleasant warmth down her tummy which spread across her limbs and face. 

The music in the dance hall was slow, and people were holding each other close as they spun around. Yuriko arched an eyebrow and Blanca said, “You’re taller, you lead.” 

The dance was simple enough. Yuriko observed it with her Anima perception and soon followed the steps. After the dance, somebody else asked her to dance, a rather bold student whom she remembered was part of her two disciples’ exam group. 

“Mark, was it?” Yuriko asked the wolfkin.

“Of the Villareal Family,” he said with a toothy grin. “Will you honour me with a dance, professor?” 

“Sure,” Yuriko agreed while Blanca sniffed and pouted. 

“I want the next one!” she said while Mark gave the Secretary an odd glance. Blanca glared back and the wolfkin boy gulped. 

He was a couple of inches taller than she was if she considered the triangular ears sticking out of the top of his head, but he wasn’t as graceful a dancer as Blanca was. He did keep his proprietary even if she was sure he’d been sniffing her scent all the while. But then again, he was a beastkin whose lineage had strong olfactory senses, so that was as much to be expected. His twin brother, Sofia, and Juliette were chatting with Blanca by the time the dance ended. 

Yuriko took more wine afterwards, danced some more with Blanca, Mark’s twin, Javier, as well as Sofia, and Juliette, though the melodies after the second dance didn’t involve any close dancing. As the evening wore on and Yuriko and the others got progressively more and more tipsy, Juliette produced a pack of cards and said, “How about we have some fun?”

She grinned and pointed towards an unused private room.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep