Yarin's POV:
What should life be like at sixteen?
Undoubtedly, it should involve going to school.
"Although we've publicly announced that you've gone to study in Europe, you haven't learned anything these past few years, so going to high school might be challenging. Besides, the first year of high school is almost over now, dear, and both your father and I think it's better for you to stay home for some homeschooling," my mom said.
"It's also an excellent opportunity for you to have Cynthia as a companion; she can teach you when you have questions."
Cynthia immediately grinned and said, "Then you should call me 'teacher,' kid."
"Forget it," I replied, rolling my eyes.
In any case, I would begin my homeschooling at home. This was quite good; homeschooling was much faster than regular school, and apart from not making any friends, everything else was fine.
It had been a month since I woke up, and life was gradually returning to normal. One day, I received a text message.
"I heard you've returned from studying abroad, Yarin. How's life?"
No sender's name, just a number, but I immediately guessed who it was - Lily! It had to be Lily!
I almost wanted to reply to her immediately, tell her that I was doing well, ask her how she was doing, if she'd faced any dangers out there, if she'd been mistreated, and if she wanted to come back to the werewolf pack to visit for a few days, I could be her guide.
But after typing out a long message, my finger hovered over the send button, hesitating.
Looking at the chat history, it was mostly Lily talking to herself. She had been trying to contact me with this new number since my second year of slumber, probably when she had already established herself in the human world.
Although she hadn't received any response from me, she continued sending messages. They weren't very frequent, but they never stopped. Until a year later, perhaps she thought I would rather not be in contact anymore, so the messages gradually became less frequent, and a year later, they stopped entirely.
Her messages were like any conversation between friends, mostly about interesting or astonishing things she had encountered in the human world, photos of the scenery, and her joy at making new friends.
But I hadn't seen any of this and couldn't respond. In the end, that enthusiastic flame slowly extinguished in the cold silence.
Until now, when news of my 'return from studying abroad' had spread throughout the werewolf pack through news, newspapers, and online platforms, she cautiously sent a polite message.
I had made her sad.
I wanted to reply immediately and explain everything to her, but I couldn't say anything. My experiences during my slumber had to be kept strictly confidential, not a word could leak out, especially given today's pervasive and invasive hacking technologies.
Once Lily knew the truth, the danger would spread from me to her, just like what happened to Lady Charlies and Eden.
So, I had to remain silent about the past, pretending I had spent a few years studying in Europe.
"I'm doing fine, just been studying in Europe all this time, a quiet and uneventful life," I tried to remedy the situation. "Although, you know how those strict and old-fashioned boarding schools are. So many rules, these past few years, I haven't even seen the shadow of electronic devices, let alone the internet. When I first came out of school, I felt like a cave-dweller, not knowing anything.
"My social media accounts were frozen for a long time; they just got unfrozen yesterday."
After sending that, I added another sentence but quickly felt like I was overdoing it, hoping that Lily wouldn't become suspicious.
However, Lily seemed to have no doubts and simply said, "I'm glad you're free from school now. Are you planning to return to life with the werewolf pack?"
"Yes, I'm temporarily getting homeschooling at home. Some parts of the human curriculum don't align with the werewolf pack's, like history and such."
We chatted awkwardly like this for a while, and Lily mentioned that she had to go to work, and the conversation ended.
I felt a bit disheartened.
After all these years and such a long hiatus in communication, had we really become strangers?
I wondered if Lily had a stable job or did odd jobs. The royal family had expanded its industries in the human world over the years, so maybe I could provide her with some help...
As I thought about it, my mood improved. As long as we could stay in touch, there would be a day when we could mend our friendship and make it as strong as before!
In these years, Heller and Cynthia often stayed at Lady Charlie's estate for extended periods, sometimes bringing Eden with them. Eden and Autumn were inseparable, so Autumn occasionally came to the palace as a guest.
Autumn always seemed to find out every bit of gossip from school that none of us knew, like now when she found out who the new combat class instructor at Sivir Academy, Professor of Combat, would be.
"I heard he comes from a family with quite a social standing in the area. Both his parents come from noble backgrounds, and he's the heir to one of those families," Autumn said excitedly. "He joined the military quite early and is already a second lieutenant at a young age, just in his twenties!"