Half an hour later, Lakshman stood at the front gates leading to the Astral Academy. It had taken him that long to get there when it was actually ten minutes’ walk away from the castle due to having to shake off his escorts. Zen wanted to have several guards escort him despite Lakshman telling him repeatedly not to worry. This ended up causing Lakshman to blindsiding them with a flash of light and using Phoenix Portal to arrive at Dominic’s home, which made him take nearly fifteen minutes to walk to the Astral Academy.

“That took longer than it should,” he muttered to himself by heaving a sigh.

“That’s what happens when your subordinates are overprotective of their lord,” said Stuart with a chuckle.

In response, Lakshman shook his head and said, “This is too much. I’m not a baby, sheesh!”

“Yes. I never needed an escort or anything remotely close wherever I went!” Asura said inside his mind.

“That’s because most of our men held you with fear and wouldn’t dare to go along,” thought his current-self wryly, which made Asura click his tongue with annoyance.

Then he focused once again at the closed gates leading to the Astral Academy and decided aloud, “I better get going.”

He stepped towards the entrance and was met with two guards who were there to check and verify the visitors. They looked bored and unenergetic with their job, but the moment Lakshman’s identity was revealed, they became so attentive that one would think that their previous stupor was a lie.

“You may enter, sir!” They said, looking worried with sweat drops forming on their faces filled with concern.

Lakshman thanked them and smiled, although the men were even more scared than before. Inwardly sighing, he entered the premises and made his way towards the main entrance. On his way, he saw to the right the male dormitory that he used to stay in and once again, was hit by a rush of memories of the time he spent there studying. In his memories, he remembered fondly of a ghost that haunted that place and he became good friends with her before she finally passed on.

“I was sad that I might not be able to get to experience this again but… who would’ve thought this day would come?” He spoke to himself without expecting a reply to come.

A reply did come from Stuart, who asked, “You’re speaking in riddles. First of all, what are you doing here? What’s your plan?”

“Read my mind and find out for yourself,” his friend replied with a cheeky grin.

“I would if I could but as you can see… Deceased Spirits don’t have that ability… unfortunately,” responded Stuart with a sigh, which earned a chuckle from his friend. “Still, it’s obvious you’re here to meet that girl, right?”

“Right,” assented Lakshman with a smile. “It’s about time we got acquainted,” and he headed to meet with the principal of the academy.

Upon arriving at the front desk, her requested a meeting with her if she was free, and he was promptly directed to go meet her. As it turned out, the principal was waiting for him expectantly upon receiving word of his arrival from the guards.

The principal, whose name was Carmela Chaikin, greeted him with a glass of water ready for him with a cup of tea ready for her. By now, she was used to the kind of drinks he preferred and so arranged for it without waiting to ask of him.

It was while drinking the glass of water that Lakshman finally noticed how the woman he knew from over twelve-years-ago appeared to have gotten older. There were wrinkles forming on her face, and she looked much older than he last remembered her. It was this small realisation that made him become aware of the time that had passed since the first time he entered this office.

“You’ve gotten old,” he commented reflexively.

“That’s rude to say to a woman,” she remarked with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t your parents tell you such things?”

“They did. Sorry,” he apologised with a small smile on his face. “It just felt… like a while since I first came here.”

“Yes. It certainly has been a while,” she commented wryly with a serene smile. “You came in here with Felix’s recommendation for joining after getting caught up in a hairy situation when you trespassed on our ladies having a private shower in the forest.”

“That was…” he began hesitantly, smiling sheepishly at the embarrassing thing he had caught up with on his first day of arriving at the Astral Academy. “I didn’t mean to do that. I just went exploring around and followed the spirits and then… well… we both know what happened next.”

She nodded with a smile as she remembered the girls freaking out and becoming scared when she came to find that several assailants were taken down with ease by a teenager. At that time, she marvelled at how strong the young man was without realising that he was the Phoenix Titan she was meeting for the first time which she leant a bit later.

“Yes, and then when we put you to a test you destroyed the target, the barrier and the perimeter wall of the arena. You even destroyed the sword we let you borrow. It took quite a while to fix the damages,” she said, looking sternly at him.

“Oh? You did that on your first day of attending the academy?” Stuart asked from beside him with surprise.

“Well, it was a test, wasn’t it? It was a no brainer for me to not hold back so I just used all I got,” he told her with a smile while avoiding making eye contact with his childhood friend.

“Really?” Stuart asked doubtfully. “I get the feeling it was something else that persuaded you to use your full force.”

This made Lakshman smile wryly as he knew his friend was not wrong. The truth of the matter was that he was not sure whether to use his full strength or not since he had always refrained from displaying his full strength. However, his promise with Stuart to always go all out turned into the deciding factor in making him exert his full might when he swung his sword, destroying everything in the process and exceeding their expectations.

“So, what brings you here today?” She asked him finally after sipping her tea. “Is it to give another speech to the people, or a visit since you’ve finally returned from wherever you might’ve disappeared to?”

He smiled at her sly humour and appreciated for not pressing him to find out where he was exactly. That was what he liked about her; she would only care about useful information and would not care one bit about unnecessary things.

So, he explained his desire to meet with one of the female students attending the academy and named that person to be Lina Pricemark. The principal, Carmela, was at first surprised by his unusual request but nodded in agreement and stated that she will have someone escort her to meet with him.

“Thank you,” he said appreciatively with a smile. “In that case, please have her meet me at the garden.”

“The garden?” She asked curiously. “Why there of all places? Why not here?”

“Sorry but it’s got to be private,” he told her apologetically.

She looked at him with a intrigued look on her face before sighing and saying, “Alright. Do what suits you best.”

“Thank you for understanding,” he told her with a smile and rose to his feet.

After bidding her farewell, he left the room and wandered around the building before exiting the main entrance and heading over to the garden. It was a place that was maintained greatly with flowers of different kind growing, which gave a feeling of peace and harmony about the place.

“So, this is the garden,” said Stuart as he glanced around. “It’s cool but why meet her here?”

“Mmm. No reason in particular,” said Lakshman after a moment of silence with a shrug of his shoulders. Then he sat down on the edge of a wall before stating, “This is the place where Venezuela confessed to me.”

“W-What?!” Stuart exclaimed, turning to face him with a shocked look on his face. “Vena professed her love for you here? Really?”

“Not exactly her love but… she did confess,” admitted Lakshman with a wry smile.

He thought back to the time when he was just walking back to his dormitory when she suddenly came up from behind and proclaimed him to be the Phoenix Titan. At that time, he had been going without identifying himself due to not wanting to garner unwanted attention as he wanted to focus on his studies. So, he was utterly bewildered when she proceeded to confess her love for him although it turned out she wanted his help with a matter related to her being married off to the Mardana Kingdom’s prince at that time. Still, he remembered this place fondly as the first time their paths crossed and felt at peace due to all the greenery.

Lakshman sat there for an unknown number of minutes before he heard the bell ring in the distance, signalling the end of the classes. Still, he sat and waited for the person he wanted to meet to arrive there and it was another unknown number of minutes before he heard the sound of footsteps heading his way.

He turned to look in the direction the footsteps were coming from and saw four people coming towards them, two of them being his sisters.

“Annayya?” Priya asked upon reaching him with a quizzical look on her face. “What are you doing here? Wait. Were you the one that asked the principal to bring Lina here?”

“That’s right,” he replied with a smile and looked at the young girl.

She was looking at him with a slight concern on her face, but he detected no trace of fear or worry. Her current expression was that of someone filled with curiosity about the person in front of her and why she was called there in the first place, especially when her clear blue eyes were gazing at him with coolness.

“As I thought, it really is her,” he thought to himself with a smile at finally seeing her in the flesh. Then he turned to gaze towards the male dormitory in the distance and thought, “It really is like a memory reunion isn’t it, Spectra?”