Vana's POV9 months later I got off the train with my suitcase rolling on the ground, lifting my hands up in the air as the sun beamed above me. It’s been six months since the last time I was in Auregon. It’s been nine months since the Case of the Serpent and Scorpion came to an end. Many things happened in the past nine months. Many to be even count in my hands. I don’t even know where to start. After Chairman Zerondale’s arrest, he was jailed in the palace dungeons and was investigated for nearly a whole month by the royal investigators. He was put in trial the following month after the investigation, with all the charges we filed to him. It took almost two months for all his crimes to be verdicted, and in the end, he was sentenced to death. Lifetime of servitude or liftetime in prison wasn’t enough of a verdict for all

Vana's POV“I do. I plan to return to Ashern after I graduate. I also plan to publicly leave the Shadows and remain its member in the dark. Then, I’ll open my own detective agency—” “You’re opening your own agency!” Jerome exclaimed, slamming his hands on the table, which startled me. “Seriously?” “Y-yes?” I stammered, bewildered. “Something wrong with it?” “Not really, but you’re going to do that alone?” Jerome scowled. “No, why do you think I’m telling it to you?”“It’s not what I think, is it?” “More or less. It’s what I need your opinion—or your answer, in this case. I can’t do it alone, and that’s a fact. That’s why, if you would like, I would like to have a partnersh