When Ang and his classmates returned to the academy, it was already afternoon. Their mentor, Nicholas, headed straight for the dean's office to report on the results of their months-long study tour. The others returned to their dormitories, eager to see the friends they had missed during their long absence. Ang entered his own dormitory and found everything exactly as it had been when he left. The familiar surroundings put his mind at ease.
The next day, Ang went to class as usual. Although he had been absent for a month, the teachers clearly already knew about his situation—after all, he had been away on a study tour with his mentor, so missing classes was understandable. Ang's magic instructors warmly welcomed his return, and one of them even specifically mentioned in class how important study-tour experience was to learning magic.
That afternoon, Gao An, Angeli, and several friends hurried over after hearing that Ang had returned. They gathered at a restaurant near the academy, eating and chatting together. Having gone so long without Akreli's food, Ang found it especially enjoyable. Gao An spoke first, teasing, "Ang, your winter tour vacation was ridiculously long. We didn't see you for four months—we thought something had happened to you. Thank goodness you're all right. Tell us about it already. You were gone so long, something interesting must have happened, right?"
Ang smiled, picked up his utensils, and spoke as he ate. "Everything actually went pretty smoothly. I was just traveling and studying with my mentor. It wasn't supposed to take so long, but we ran into a fight between lord-level Magical Beasts in the Santa Cruz Rainforest. We nearly didn't make it back, and that delayed us quite a bit. Otherwise, we'd have returned long ago."
The moment Angeli heard the words "Lord-level