It had been almost three years since the incident. Malak hadn't told any of them about it, but ever since he said that it was taken care of, no one had bothered the group. Kyōi didn't bother asking about what he did.
It was almost Kyōi's fifteenth birthday, which meant xey could almost register as a professional adventurer and attend an adventurer academy. The trio had all recommended Kyōi go to the academy at Crystal City, as it was one of the kingdom's top adventurer academies, and it was where they had graduated from.
Xey had occasionally assisted Zoryn, Leilani, and Malak with some of their quests. Because of this, xey had continued to level up, gaining eight more levels and reaching level 26. At level 20, the system had unlocked an inventory function, which allowed xem to store items without needing to get a spacial ring. This allowed xem to carry most of xeir belongings with xem without needing to worry about how heavy the items were.
As time went on, Kyōi slowly changed the appearance of xeir human form until it was similar enough to Zoryn for most people to mistake them as related by blood.
Kyōi perched on a tall wooden pole, balancing precariously at the top. With a sword of blue flames clenched in each hand, xey swung the blades quickly, cutting cleanly through targets that were thrown up by the archer standing below the pole.
"Alright Kyōi, that's enough training for now."
Kyōi jumped down, unfurling xeir wings to glide safely back down to the ground. Xey had been training with Zoryn, doing an exercise that both increased xeir sense of balance, and helped xeir control over xeir fire magic.
Thanks to Zoryn training xem with wind magic, xey had learned a fair amount of spells, and several ways to combine those spells with fire magic. Back in xeir previous life, xey had learned that fires fed on oxygen. By using wind magic to provide the flames with extra oxygen, the strength of fire magic was increased by a substantial amount.
Zoryn and Kyōi began to make their way back to the city. They had gone back to the Forest of Beasts to train without having to worry about other people seeing them. Leilani had gone off to do a solo mission, while Malak went off after saying he had to deal with a family matter.
Zoryn spoke up as the city gates came into view. "Kyōi, your fifteenth birthday is coming up in a few days. Did you still want to attend an academy? If you want to attend the one in Crystal City, Malak, Leilani, and I can give you a letter of recommendation so you can skip the entrance exam. As S class adventurers, we have the ability to do that."
After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, xey shook xeir head. "I would like to attend an academy, but I want to get in on my own strength." "Kid, you are going to be double the level and triple the strength of all the other kids, so it's not like you have anything to prove." Zoryn replied jokingly.
Kyōi just grinned as they entered the city and headed for the Amethyst Tavern, where Leilani and Malak said would be where they met up. Upon spotting their teammates seated at a table towards the back of the tavern, Kyōi and Zoryn headed over to the table. Zoryn planted a quick kiss on Malak's cheek once he reached him, while Leilani practically pounced on the unfortunate Kyōi, sweeping xem into a hug. "Kyōi! You're finally back!"
Zoryn muttered under his breath, "I'm back too, you know? Is Kyōi the only one you care about?" Malak laughed at Zoryn before moving to make room for the two at the table.
The mage turned towards Kyōi, speaking softly. "Kyōi, are you going to be attending any adventurer academy? You are almost fifteen, and the school year starts in a couple of weeks." Xey nodded, since xey had made up xeir mind years ago, back when xey had first met the adventurers and learned about the world.
Although Kyōi had disliked the school in xeir previous life, this school seemed far more fun. Instead of learning about Trigonometry, History, Biology, and the like, this world taught students about the magical beasts of the world, how to fight, how to use magic if they had enough mana, and even how to create their own gear if they were interested in becoming a blacksmith. Xey would take learning how to swordfight over learning various kinds of maths any day.
The group left the tavern, Zoryn explaining that they were headed for the academy to register for the entrance exam. Kyōi stared with amazement at the academy. The campus consisted of several buildings, each one with a different symbol above the entrance. Each building was many stories tall, each as large as the university buildings from xeir old world.
They entered the central building, which had a symbol of a quill at the entrance. The building was shorter than most of the others, only three stories tall, and seemed to be the administrative building. Zoryn led the way to the reception desk, where a young man was seated, filling out some paperwork. The young man glanced up, noticing the three adventurers and one kid. "How may I help you adventurers? Are you perhaps here to register the kid for the academy's entrance exam?" The archer nodded, taking out his adventurer's badge to show the receptionist. Kyōi also stepped forward to show the young man xeir ID, which xey had exchanged xeir visa for after the first year of living in the city with the adventurers.
The receptionist held both IDs over a dark grey stone, nodding when the stone began to glow green. The stone displayed the stats from each ID for a second under the young man's gaze. "Alright. Kyōi Woodsworth is registered for the entrance exam. In two weeks from tomorrow, you can go to the exam hall to take the exam."
"Thank you very much sir." Kyōi answered the man politely. The group left the premises, making plans to continue training Kyōi for the couple of weeks left until the entrance exam for the academy.