"You're back."
Yugito Nii's eyes did shift when she saw Kaede, but she was someone who had seen her share of major scenes. What difficult missions had she not carried out? Her control over her expression was impeccable.
With just those simple words, one could feel the grandeur and composure in her tone. It was as though two old friends who had not met for years had run into each other on the street and exchanged a casual greeting. It seemed utterly calm, yet both of them already understood what the other meant.
Moriyue raised his head and looked into Yugito Nii's eyes. Those amber-like, crystalline eyes held none of the coldness she showed others—only relief and reassurance.
"It's good that you came back alive."
"I'm not that easy to kill, Teach... Teacher Yugito. Although we didn't make it to the end of this exam, I don't think I disgraced you."
The two greeted each other like old friends, leaving Kazeki and the others, who had just been arguing, somewhat at a loss.
"Whether you passed the exam isn't important. What we need to deal with now is this little girl's situation."
Yugito Nii had actually expected this outcome. After all, she knew quite well the strength Moriyue had displayed before. In her estimation, Moriyue should have barely passed several rounds before ultimately losing to the other examinees due to his insufficient foundation. That was fine too—it would count as valuable training for him.
"Teacher...? You're Moriyue's teacher? Then you must be really strong..."
Kaede scratched her head and looked at Yugito Nii, who seemed both cool and dashing. For some reason, she felt a strangely familiar presence from her, but that feeling was too mysterious for her to know whether it was merely an illusion.
Since Kaede had already