Vastor and Rudd were deemed too old for the role, plus their love for ancient magical bloodlines was well known. It made them even more undesirable than they already were, even as simple Professors.

Their ties with many of the families implicated with the scandal made their positions precarious at best.

Manohar was considered a visionary in the healing hearts, a true genius, or, to put it in less kind words, a complete nutjob. He was fickle and unreliable, not to mention his biography was full of social blunders to the point of being universally considered an etiquette book about how not to behave.

He resented the Crown judgment, but only until his first visit to Marth's new office. Just seeing how busy his schedule was and the amount of paperwork being Headmaster involved, Manohar was tempted to taking another "vacation."

The Crown had no time to waste with him, so the literally chained Manohar to the academy, just to stay safe.

Professor Wanemyre was among the mentally and physically scarred. Regrowing her arm was easy, but the memories of all Nalear had made her do almost destroyed her. She was forced to take a sabbatical, receiving the best care and counseling the Griffon Kingdom could offer.

***

Lith moved with his whole family to the Ernas Household again. Even Rena and her husband were forced to relocate. Lith wouldn't let his sister and niece be further than his arm's reach.

Yurial's loss wasn't devastating for him as losing Protector was. They had known each other for barely a year and their relations.h.i.+p had been shallow until the fourth year's second exam.

Still, Yurial was the first man Lith was almost ready to call a friend, someone he went through thick and thin together. Lith wasn't responsible in any way for his death and not being present when it happened made it easier for him to feel detached.

At least until Archmage Deirus went to visit him. Lith's first impulse was to kick the man in the groin and beat him to death. An impulse he quickly suppressed. Velan Deirus was guilty of being an uncaring father, but nothing more.

Lith knew that just like after Protector's disappearance, his first instinct was to find someone to put the blame on. The visit was very brief. Lith could control his violent impulses, but his eyes were filled with scorn and reproach.

Archmage Deirus couldn't stand those eyes. They were identical to those that pierced his soul every time he was in front of a mirror. He remained only the time necessary to give Lith a small package.

It was full of notebooks filled with Yurial's handwriting. They contained all the knowledge he had acquired about the impossible arrays, the results of his experiments, and his suggestions about how to further the research.

Deirus knew who to give them because on the first page of each of them was written in big letters: "For Lith". He had found them once he opened his son's dimensional amulet after recovering his body.

Velan had also found Yurial's diaries, discovering how painful his existence had been, how neglected he had felt. How despite having found a better family within the academy walls rather than inside his own Household, Yurial was still ready to perform his duty.

Yurial's love for his father and his people was greater than everything life had put him through. Velan Deirus cried a lot reading his son's most private thoughts, finding himself more monstrous than any of those involved in Yurial's death.

He had nurtured a future leader, a great mage, but at the same time, he had shown no care for the man destined to bear those pompous t.i.tles. Velan realized to have killed his own son multiple times over the years, always putting his own interests over Yurial's well being.

After Velan left, Lith made one of the biggest mistakes in his life. He put the notebooks inside Soluspedia, accessing at all of them at once. In between of his research notes, Yurial had also written all the things that he wanted to share with Lith.

All the thoughts they never had the time to talk about because of the academy. Reading how Yurial had always considered him like a big brother and a true friend, ripped Lith's soul to shreds. It made him understand how precious was their bond.

He had moved to the Ernas household only because he knew that to overcome the grief before the academy started again, he needed all the help his family could give him. A n.o.ble household was the safest and most comfortable place for his purpose.

Also, Phloria needed him. Lith would never leave her alone while she was facing something even worse than Carl's death. At least Carl had died by the hand of a stranger, when Lith was already a grown, bitter, cold hearted man.

Phloria was ridden by the guilt of having indirectly caused Yurial's death, of having killed mind controlled students to defend her family. Friya was in an almost identical situation. The blood on Phloria's hands was the same that was on hers.

She had mindlessly obeyed to ease her own conscience. It was because of her incompetence that saving Jirni took so long, causing Yurial's demise as well as that of many others.

She had seen Lith healing much worse wounds in much less time. During Balkor's attack, he even treated Yurial and Phloria at the same time.

'How could I bear my second place so proudly? Yurial was right, we are a fraud. I don't deserve my ranking just like I don't deserve my friends. I'm an utter failure, I should have been the one dying.' Were the thoughts haunting her.

Actually, her second place was fully deserved. Friya's talent for healing magic was on par with Lith's. She just wasn't an Awakened.

Quylla's life was still hanging on a thread. She was unable to eat, puking almost as soon as she ingested any kind of food. Someone had always to be by her side, to make sure she didn't harm herself.

She would cry until exhaustion made her faint, unable to speak a word most of the time. Potions and the sharing of life force were the only things keeping her alive. At night, she would sleep with Orion and Jirni by her side.

It was the only moment she managed to truly rest, free from fits of hysteria.

At his arrival, Lith thought nothing of them. To him, they were just Phloria's accessories, something he would worry about in his spare time. Yurial's words changed his mind.

Maybe they were nothing to him, but the opposite wasn't necessarily true. Lith had already lost an opportunity because, after the second exam, he had simply promoted his companions from strangers to fish in a tank.

He never treated them as persons, only as something to feed and watch from time to time. A living screensaver, less than pets. As much as Lith found it unbelievable, there were actually people that really cared for him outside of his family.

Yet he would never be able to recognize them if he didn't give them at least a chance before discarding them like trash.

Yurial's death showed him that life was too short to worry about outliving those who would die of old age. They were the lucky ones.