"Have you heard? The Imperial Guards have managed to arrest the Gasher"!
"Really? What happened"?
"Apparently it was a rogue majimonster that had managed to sneak pass the city walls".
"What kind of majimonster"?
"I heard it was a Bearserker...".
"An Ursicle...".
"A Springheel...".
"Something new, some kind of lion-man...".
"I heard it was a badger"!
"Bah! Who cares? I'm more excited about...".
[Well, it appears no one suspects anything of anyone], Voxea commented as I listened in on the students milling about, [Still mildly annoyed at the outcome though].
[Oh it's fine, at least no one thins we're involved], I said to placate her.
[But I wanted to show off more]!
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that but both physically and mentally at that statement.
Two weeks had passed since my friends and I had rescued Boleros and dealt with the Echo, and things had been surprisingly calm...sorta.
The battle that had taken place was anything but quiet, however we had managed to escape from the site and the authorities. I'm not entirely sure how we pulled that off, but Voxea mentioned she had felt an unusual presence heading towards the Imperials as we were running. Maybe it was friendly, maybe it wasn't, but it had helped us escape so... whatever.
I also had the lovely experience of having to lie to my Bori and Albina about Voxea and my magical know-how. I spun a somewhat believable story about finding a maji's tomb back in my home town, digging through all the books and weird artifacts until I had found Voxea's drajule and how it was simultaneously active but not usable. Basically, I told them that I always had Voxea on me, I just couldn't summon her until recently. They gave me a suspicious look for about a minute, but they believed me in the end.
A few days after that, the Imperial Binders had announced that they had captured the Gasher...somehow. The official story behind this was that they had caught the Gasher about to attack someone. Oddly, the Gasher wasn't a binder or a majimonster. Instead, the official narrative was that the Gasher was some guy who got his hands on a cursed magic weapon that came from before the Fall. The Imperials had managed to subdue the guy and were currently looking into ways to de-curse him. In essence, it was a classic case of blaming the maji for all the problems.
As for Alyra and Boleros...
"Hey Silvia"!
"Sis, wait up"!
I stopped eavesdropping on the students to greet my newest classmates, as they came running towards me.
Literally two days after we had rescued Boleros and reunited him with his sister, they had suddenly appeared at my class one day as new transfers. Shocked and awed, I had immediately asked them after classes on how this happened.
The siblings regaled me with a brief story about how after we had splits ways, the duo was found by...Professor Malgorius. He had apparently sense the power within Boleros and wanted to bring him back to the Academy for official training. Not wanting to be separated from Alyra, Boleros had asked to take her with him. Initially he refused due to not sensing anything, but when Boleros asked to at least see if she could summon a majimonster, he obliged...only to be shocked that she could also use majimonsters as well. As such, the two became the Academy's newest students.
I initially thought the two would be rather befuddled by their new environment, but apparently the two had taken to academy life like fish to water.
"Did you hear the news?", Alyra asked me with visible excitement on her face. Evidently, now that her brother was back by her side, Alyra's demeanor had changed to be a bit more upbeat.
"About the Gasher"?
"Not that! I mean about the visit"!
"The visit"?
"She means", Boleros interjected, "have you heard about the fact that the Imperial Family is coming to visit the Academy"?
"Wait, seriously?", I asked with an incredulous look on my face.
"Yup! I guess the news got lost due to all of the news about the 'Gasher', but the Emperor and his family is coming to the academy for an inspection", Alyra explained, "Apparently they're gonna match up some of the students to have a few exhibition matches with the Imperial retainers and some of his kids. Think you'll be part of it"?
"I doubt it, I'm sure they're much stronger and qualified students here than I".
_________________________________________
"I have submitted your name to do an exhibition match and it got approved", Malgorius informed me over tea.
...
Crap.