Himself unburnt but still covered in soot from everything that had burned near him, Derek finally decided to go ahead and have a proper dinner. For him, that meant some good food and a better TV show, while he figured out a proper time and place for an actual celebration.

  He’d definitely want to raise a (non-alcoholic) glass with Ye-in, and his parents would be right pissed if he didn’t at least sit down to dinner with them in celebration …

  Though even if he hadn’t been deep in thought, he wouldn’t have been able to react in time to what happened next.

  “Yoink,” a voice rang out from behind him, far too close for comfort, then a hand grabbed the back of his jacket, and he was yanked backwards, the world briefly turning into a caleidoscope of colors as he was dragged through some kind of portal.

  With a yelp of surprise, Derek twisted in his attacker’s grip, hellfire gathering in his hand as he threw it where he suspected their head to be, the flame compressing into a powerful attack that might let him hurt someone as powerful as they seemed to be … only for the black fire to splatter harmlessly off a blond head of hair.

  He stopped fighting and sighed.

  “Fuck you, Viktoria.”

  She dropped him at that, wincing. “Sorry, I thought you’d recognize my voice.”

  He hadn’t, clearly.

  Then she raised an eyebrow in mock irritation. “Also, who taught you to speak like that?”

  “You and Tanja did,” Derek replied dryly, surprising himself with how calm he was sounding despite how hard his heart was pounding. “So, what the hell was that?”

  “Come on, you didn’t really think you could get away with telling us you got a legendary [Class] in a text and then go galivanting off to God only knows where?” his other sister asked from a couch on his left.

  “And you thought that kidnapping was an appropriate response?” Derek asked with a sigh.

  “It is when you don’t pick up the phone,” Tanja replied, as if that was in any way a justification. Also, his phone wasn’t off … right?

  He pulled out the offending piece of technology, only for it to refuse to turn on. Ah, shoot.

  “I nearly activated the Bloodline beacon,” Derek sighed, slipping the phone back into his pocket. And wouldn’t magically contacting every member of the family and telling them he was in mortal danger over a misunderstanding end wonderfully …

  “Fine,” Viktoria mirrored his own sigh. “Next time, I’ll give you five seconds of warning before I drag you off to a party.”

  “We also brought your girlfriend,” Tanja added.

  “One, Ye-in and I aren’t together. Two, please tell me you didn’t kidnap the daughter of one of Korea’s S-Rankers,” Derek glared at her.

  “Nah, she got invited,” Viktoria explained, then clapped her hands. “Now, do you want to go to the restaurant wearing that, or are you going to change?”

  Derek frowned at that. Where the hell were they, anyway?

  He looked around. He didn’t recognize anything, so he repeated the question out loud.

  “Top of Akashik Academy, guest professor quarters,” Tanja explained. “We’re borrowing it to set up in.”

  The one Isaac had founded … why exactly?

  “We’ve got plenty of space available, and it’s private,” she answered his unspoken question. “You kept things on the down low, but not down low enough. Not sure who figured it out, but someone did.”

  “And ‘it’ is …” he trailed off, waiting for them to elaborate. He thought he knew, but wasn’t quite sure enough to voice it out loud.

  “Your legendary [Class],” Tanja sighed. “No one’s going to try and kidnap you, not after what happened last time, but they might pester you until you feel the need to start throwing fireballs just to get some personal space.”

  Ouch. Why the hell did she have to bring that up?

  All in all, that incident had left much less of a mark on him than it might have, had things gone even slightly worse, though in all honesty, it had taken him a long time to even realize just what had almost happened, and by that time, the whole affair had already been a distant memory.

  Though that wasn’t to say the day hadn’t had a fundamental impact upon his life, the memory of briefly having full access to his magic … oh, Tanja was still talking.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “So yeah, we’re having a nice meal on the roof, with Mom, Dad, and yo- … and Ye-in, then you’re going to figure out some kind of official statement. You know, something along the lines of ‘I trained my ass off since I nearly got kidnapped at five years old, now I have a legendary [Class],’ then you follow it up with something like ‘but I’d like to thank my teachers above all, I couldn’t have done it without them’ so they go bother the academies instead of you.”

  “And maybe then you tell them about the alternative [Classes] you were offered.”

  That last part was actually something quite a few people did. It was only rarely that anyone shared the details of the [Class] they actually held; it was a security risk, and that went doubly so for anyone famous, or at least known, enough to be making press releases.

  However, when one did something crazy to get a good [Class], even if that was usually at the higher Evolutions, they often released information on the [Classes] they’d earned but not taken, thereby expanding humanity’s catalog.

  But that did leave one more question.

  “How did they find out? Do you think someone I texted spilled the beans?” Derek asked, the thought clamping down on his heart like a vice.

  “Maybe,” Tanja said, putting more doubt into that single word than he’d ever have thought possible. “But someone might have just seen it on your phone while you were texting, you know how perceptive people are nowadays. Or someone who knew you were going for a legendary [Class] realized that you’d started going to dungeons to level and put two and two together. It’s also theoretically possible someone bugged the phone of someone you texted.”

  “You don’t really think …” Derek trailed off. That last idea was terrifying.

  “No,” she shook her head. “I will check, but I doubt it’ll go anywhere; people know how bad an idea that would be.”

  He winced. Derek remembered that, typically, people had referred to Isaac as having been “paranoid but right.” Had that been something specific to his older brother, was it a Thoma family trait, or the inevitable result of power and fame?

  Even as Tanja showed him where to find the shower, that last question continued to rattle around his mind. Was that really how things went once you did something impressive?

  This time, the “unfortunate attention” hadn’t actually been anything bad; it had just seemed that way due to an uncharacteristic moment of airheadedness from Viktoria, but those few seconds before he’d realized had been some of the most terrifying of his life!

  Then again, while he couldn’t think of anything that would let him avoid the issue here on Earth, there was a reason why he was quickly calming down that had nothing to do with the shower washing away the ash.

  Because he’d be leaving as soon as he could. And not just Earth, not just the solar system, but the entirety of the so-called core worlds, none of which were actually built up to the point to actually deserve such a lofty title at the present, and then earn his spurs out there.

  Yeah, leaving was starting to feel more and more like something he’d have to do so soon-ish, rather than a plan for the distant future …

  Derek turned off the shower, dried himself off with a quick burst of hellfire, carefully controlled to avoid affecting anything save the water on his skin, and pulled some spare clothes out of his storage ring.

  His combat outfit might have been designed to be as comfortable as possible, but here was a world of difference between something being designed for a specific purpose and “comfort” entering the designer’s mind about five seconds before the whole thing was finished, and something purpose-built to feel nice.

  Of course, a shirt and sweatpants were hardly “high fashion,” but after the day he’d had, especially considering his sisters’ shenanigans, anyone who might complain would just have to deal!

  Although … shit. Ye-in was coming. That meant dressing properly.

  But then again, he had relatively comfortable alternatives: a comfortable pair of black pants and a white t-shirt.

  So he quickly changed into those and headed out to meet his sisters, who then led him towards the roof.

  Only for, suddenly, something to nudge his hand from the side, from his blindspot, something wet and decidedly not normal …

  “Fuck,” Derek yelped and leaped away, twisting in midair to find a goddam leopard had snuck up to him … and that his sisters weren’t concerned in the least.

  In fact … yep, they were petting it.

  “Sorry, I thought you knew about Artemis,” Tanja said, while scratching the big cat under the chin.

  And now he remembered. The leopard was the mascot of the academy, created by some kind of summoning ritual that meant that she was actually suitable for being made into a pet, though according to certain rumors, she was still very much a cat, with all the chair stealing, object knocking over, and napping in inconvenient spots that implied.

  “I do,” he finally said. “But if someone sneaks up on me …”

  He trailed off, and Viktoria winced.

  Derek carefully reached towards the big cat’s nose and let her catch his scent, then reached out to pat her head.

  “You know, it’s a miracle she hasn’t been spoiled rotten yet,” Tanja said. “A hundred years’ worth of students treating her like a queen, and yet somehow, she’s still behaving like just a regular cat.”

  “Regular cats behave like humans should be worshipping the ground they walk on,” Derek pointed out. “Not sure how complimentary that description is.”

  A good five minutes later, they finally started moving once again, but Artemis decided to follow them.

  “Do not feed her from the table,” Tanja said, uncharacteristically stern. “Leaving our food alone is one of the only firm boundaries she keeps.”

  Derek snorted. So much for good behavior …

  And then they stepped out onto the roof of the academy, which was half rooftop terrace, half big cat playpen, with a large banner that read “Congratulations!” strung between two poles.

  “You did it!” Ye-in exclaimed as she glomped onto him for a brief moment, then released him only to grab his shoulders instead. “So, when are you heading out into space?”

  “As soon as I can,” he admitted. “So it’ll probably take a bit.”

  She grinned back at him. “Let me know, we can finally go exploring together.”

  Oh yes, they had decided to do that, hadn’t they? He couldn’t wait …

  Though the moment she let go, that seemed to have been the starting shot for everyone else to start congratulating him, and a few more hugs later, he found himself sitting at the dinner table, heavily laden with, uh, just about everything.

  And the very instant the last person sat down, Derek dug in, suddenly ravenous, finding himself too busy eating for proper conversation.

  The rest of the evening wound up being rather short, though, him being too tired for proper socializing.