Xiao Shuchang Chang had been found after being missing for almost thirteen years. People across the four worlds were celebrating after finding out the news. The news was announced immediately after Haoran recognised Shuchang. Thousands of people in Nymphaedra and Eldoria had gathered in Terradawn, Shuchang’s home continent to welcome him back. Haoran also took a few days leave to spend time with his younger brother. While Haoran was going to be away, Yaithra was going to be working with Samantha since they were also working on the same case.

  The investigators, students and servants were standing by the main entrance with their hands together. Tiny fairies were also standing on top of everyone with their hands together. They were standing by the entrance to welcome Shuchang back and wish him good luck in the future. Shilin and Yichen were standing by the doors, waiting patiently for Shuchang.

  The doors opened slowly which revealed a tall man , Shuchang, through the small gaps. The students really wanted to see him but they were only allowed to see him when he was walking past. Once the doors were fully opened, Shuchang and Haoran walked out of the room together. As Shuchang was walking past everyone, they bowed to him as a welcoming gesture. They had to keep on bowing until he was in the carriage.

  Shuchang was showing a little bit of small bruises on his light fair face but most of his bruises had healed and disappeared. Shuchang hopped into the carriage followed by Haoran. Everyone lifted themselves and stood upright with their shoulders straight. The carriage was slowly moving with a few investigators sitting on their horses surrounding the carriage.

  Shilin looked at all the members. “All right everyone, back to work and classes.”

  A junior investigator appeared by Samantha. “Emperor Huang wants to see you and the Manrayar sisters in his office, immediately.”, he whispered.

  “Okay.”, she answered and saw the sisters walking with their friends. “Lithanya, Yaithra.”, she called them. They caught her attention. “Emperor Huang wants to see us in his office.”

  They acknowledged and walked to her. Every time Lithanya was being called by Shilin, she would get really nervous because she didn't know whether she would get caught or not. Samantha waited for them so they could walk together to Shilin’s office.

  Samantha, Lithanya and Yaithra arrived at the office. Samantha gently knocked on the door then waited for Shilin to answer.

  “Come in.”, Shilin answered.

  Samantha opened the door first. “Ladies first.”, she said to the sisters.

  Lithanya and Yaithra walked into the room together, nearly squashing themselves through the opened gap. Samantha rolled her eyes then pushed the sisters further into the room to not waste time.

  “Ladies, ladies, ladies.”, Shilin sang with excitement. “I must congratulate you in solving the first part of this case and indirectly finding Shuchang. Then bringing him back here alive. You should be proud of yourselves for finding the wealthiest merchant’s son after being missing for thirteen years. You’ll probably get a huge reward from that family for bringing Shuchang back alive.”, he explained with a bright smile.

  “Thank you, your majesty.”, they bowed to him.

  “Now we captured the first merchant out of twenty-five merchants who have been smuggling diamond stones in Novaria. We’ll now try to capture the other twenty-four.”, he explained. “Do you know the continent The Land of Novaria?”

  “No.”, they answered together. Well, Lithanya pretended to not know.

  “Okay. In The Tarot Library, there’s a book called The Land of The Precious Diamonds and Novaria. You can find the information about the twenty-five merchants. I also believe that there are still some teenagers missing and they’re probably in Novaria.”, he explained.

  They fully agreed with him in the last sentence. “Do we’ve to stay in Novaria in order to capture the merchants?”

  “No, it’s too dangerous. Rather use the transportation spell to travel there then come back here. Also, Lithanya and Yaithra have to focus on their academy work as well. You can start solving the rest of the case by tomorrow. Haoran will join you next week.”, Shilin explained.

  “Understood, your majesty.”, they bowed.

  “You may leave.”

  Yaithra still couldn’t get over the fact how short the meetings were with Shilin. The women walked to the door together. Shilin stood by his desk and watched the women walking away from him.

  Samantha came out of the room with the sisters behind her. When Samantha closed the door, she immediately started a small conversation.

  “At least, Yichen doesn’t need to worry about the fighting competition because Haoran isn’t going to be here for a week.”, she mentioned.

  They stopped and joined the conversation. “He might be happy for now but Haoran said that he is still going to have this competition.”, Lithanya mentioned.

  “And we all know that Yichen hates losing so he’ll also make sure that this competition will still happen. He has never lost a competition.”, Yaithra mentioned.

  Lithanya fully agreed. “What do we do next?”

  “You ladies go for your lessons then we’ll go to The Tarot Library after classes.”, Samantha answered.

  “Okay.”, they agreed.

  Samantha walked back to her office while the sisters were heading to the field for their Floral Potion and Spell class.

  The first year students were in the floral field now attempting to at least create one flower by using a spell. They were looking at the books while trying to create the first flower. They had to stand in a certain position such as their fingers and how high their hands had to be. Already, a few students got their positions right and the spell. But the spell kept on hitting them and turning the students into a frog shaped flower. And every time, Miss Tauriel Ravenscroft had to change them back into humans.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Again, you must be in a good position and your mind must be clean. No hesitation, just allow the spell to work. Question: have you been meditating to get your spiritual power?”, Tauriel asked.

  “Yes.”, half the class answered, mainly the Tellus and Mortalis students.

  Tauriel wasn’t impressed with the other students considering that they already had powers and they were also failing to succeed the first flower.

  She looked at them with full disappointment. “You’re born with powers and you're supposed to be ahead of them!”, she pointed at the lower class students.

  Lithanya and Yaithra appeared behind Tauriel with their hands together.

  “Ladies.”, Tauriel turned around. “Have you been meditating to get your spiritual power?”, she asked.

  “Yes.”, they answered.

  Tauriel felt Lithanya’s chest and she could feel a slight bit of power. “Excellent.”, she was impressed.

  Lithanya felt a bit uncomfortable that Tauriel touched her chest. “How do you know that? They’re probably lying.”, Dariana mentioned.

  Tauriel looked at her. “Because I just felt the power in Lithanya’s chest.”, she defended Lithanya. “I know what you’re thinking Amelia and that’s not going to happen.”, Tauriel stared at Amelia with a raised brow.

  As much as Amelia wanted to trash the other students, she couldn’t do it because they were heavily protected by Lithanya. Amelia decided to do something to prove that she and her companions were also learning.

  “Let me show you how it’s done.”, Amelia came forward.

  Tauriel rejected politely. “No, Amelia. You need to have a clean mind in order to succeed otherwise you will…”

  Amelia shot a light pink spell in the air but the spell slammed against a rock then hit Tauriel. Tauriel fell flat on the ground and lied there for a few minutes. Amelia dusted her hands feeling proud that she indirectly taught Tauriel a lesson for talking back to Amelia.

  “AMELIA!!!”, Tauriel got up.

  Tauriel was covered with dirt, her uniform was creased and her light golden blonde hair was completely messy with the dirt. Her dark golden eyes were staring at Amelia with full anger.

  “You might have got away with bullying many people for many years by using your royal family’s wealth by being a spoiled brat and getting things your way. But in this academy don’t allow students being spoiled brats.”, Tauriel hissed.

  Yaithra appeared next to Tauriel. “Miss Ravenscroth, don’t trigger your anger with this brat. I know the exact people who can discipline Amelia.”

  Amelia listened and challenged Yaithra. “And who might that be?”

  A small wicked smile appeared on Yaithra’s light brown face while staring at Amelia.

  Amelia was scrubbing the floor with a brush filled with soapy water. Samantha was sitting on the edge of the table and watching Amelia scrubbing Samantha’s floor. Samantha was also eating a big red apple while watching.

  Amelia was getting fed up cleaning the floor. “Servants meant to do all of this.”, she moaned.

  “Welcome to the real world, Amelia. And you’ve only been scrubbing the floor for two minutes, stop complaining.”, Samantha said steadily.

  Amelia continued scrubbing the floor while complaining softly and saying curse words. Samantha could hear the cursed words but she ignored them and continued eating her apple.

  ______________

  After all the lessons were finished and Samantha was done with Amelia. Dariana immediately took Amelia to the bathroom to get cleaned properly. Dariana was in her room, getting ready to go to the fancy restaurant on the island next to The Academy Island. Dariana still couldn’t believe that Amelia tried to do something so stupid considering how strict the academy was.

  “I did warn you not to trigger the senior investigators. They don’t tolerate nonsense. Not to mention that the future empress is here so we’ve to be extra careful.”, Dariana mentioned.

  “I don’t really care because Shilin doesn’t care either. I hate it when people tell me ‘no’ or indirectly tell me no.”, Amelia complained in the bathroom.

  Dariana was sitting by the mirror and putting her make-up on. “Well, you’ll have to put up with this for the next ten years.”

  Amelia came out of the room while wiping her wet hair. “I don’t understand why the eldest heirs of the royal families have to attend the academy.”

  “In case of an unforeseen war.”, Dariana answered her statement while putting her make-up on.

  Amelia walked to her bedroom to get changed. “So, who’ll be coming to the restaurant?”

  “Our usual friends and of course, our future emperor.”, Dariana was so excited to see him.

  Amelia was in her room with four of her own servants. They were putting on the long red and golden pattern silky dress. She was wearing a sleeveless dress because she really wanted to impress Yichen. One servant was putting the busiest sparkling diamond jewelleries. Make-up and her light brown hair were already done since the other two servants used magic.

  After half an hour, Amelia was finally ready. Dariana found it slightly unfair because her servants did everything from scratch without using their powers. Dariana knew why Amelia used powers because Amelia wanted to be extra extravagant for tonight because she really wanted to impress Yichen for tonight and wanted to have some fun with him.

  Yichen and his friends were in the restaurant, waiting for their ladies friends. His best friend, Caspian Hunter Ravenscroft, was also joining for dinner. Caspian was also Tauriel's eldest child and only son. After five minutes of waiting in the private room, Amelia, Dariana and their friends had arrived in the room. Amelia was surprised to see Caspian here which made her smile.

  “Caspian, long time no see.”, she said.

  “I’m surprised that you haven’t seen me because I’m in the same year as you.”, he mentioned.

  Amelia sat on the opposite side. “To be fair, there are over two thousand students in the first year.”, she justified her answer.

  Caspian nodded with a sweet smile. “I also heard that my mother disciplined you earlier.”

  She rolled her eyes with irritation. “I don’t want to talk about it.”, she really wanted to change the subject.

  A waiter came into the room with a basket filled with different types of bread. He placed the basket in the middle of the table with handmade butter next to the basket.

  “Ladies first.”, Yichen offered.

  “Thank you.”, Dariana took a piece of bread first. “So, are you still going to participate in the fighting competition when Mr Xiao comes back?”

  “Absolutely. I’m not going to be a coward and cancel the competition. I’ve never fought with someone that’s on the same level as me.”, Yichen answered.

  “Then you should fight when he comes back.”, Amelia mentioned. “And you must impress me on that night.”

  Yichen started flirting with her. “And what happens if I don’t impress you?”

  “Then you’ll find out on that evening.”, she flirted back. “Do you think that Shuchang will now take over his father’s business when his father retires?”

  “We’ll have to see in a few months. He needs a few months to recover after being missing for a long time.”, Caspian mentioned, then he ate a small piece of bread.

  “Not to mention that Haoran has his own job now so he can’t run his father’s business.”, Dariana pointed out.

  Amelia and Dariana fully agreed. “I bet you he’ll be spending most of the time in banquets, spending money on unnecessary stuff and going on vacation every month.”, Amelia mentioned.

  “I doubt he’ll do all of that. It’ll take him a long time to recover from that trauma. But we shall wait and see how it goes. Let him recover in the meantime.”, Yichen mentioned.

  Caspian fully agreed with his friend. “Are you planning to go to The Golden Snake Island during the winter holidays?”, he asked.

  “Definitely. Yichen and I already made arrangements to spend in a romantic and fancy hotel during the whole holiday.”, Amelia explained with full excitement.

  Yichen was also very excited for this winter. “So, when will the wedding invitation come?”, Caspian asked.

  “Very soon. Don’t worry, you and Dariana will be the first ones to get the invitation first.”, Yichen held Caspian’s shoulder.

  Dariana smiled with full excitement. The same waiter came back into the room with the first course. When the plates were placed in front of the guests, they immediately started eating in silence to enjoy their meals.