As the weeks passed, Jun and her friends grew and learned. After introducing Shiori as her familiar, Arwen's training sessions began to focus more coordinated teamwork between Jun and the others, though it was clear that he still prioritized individual strength. Every weekend Arwen assigned new bounties with the expectation that they be completed before the start of the next week. Just like with their first bounty, many were iron ranked bounties that nearly killed them, though the levels from such experiences saw each of them rapidly grow in strength. Aya was the first to break through to Iron rank, having already been at the peak of Bronze after the goblin mage. Cian and Keira followed close behind, while Michael broke through a week later.
All except for Jun who lagged behind the others, having only gained a handful of levels across weeks of training and iron ranked bounties with her team. As the nights grew longer and the days colder, their training changed with Arwen assigning them individual Iron ranked bounties to be completed alone, claiming that such work would assist all of them in growing stronger and preparing for the final exam of the term. Indeed, taking on Iron bounties solo was far harder for Jun even with Shiori accompanying her, since without anyone else around Shiori took to making Jun do the majority of the work. However, despite taking on Iron ranked bounties solo, it seemed every one of Jun's assigned bounties was another deeply unpleasant and poorly compensated task that did little to advance her level.
A solo hunt to clean out a pack of sewer rats of unusual size was Iron ranked in difficulty not for the size of the reward nor the threat of the sewer rats, but due to the dangers of a series of enclosed winding tunnels filled with decomposing waste and trash, made worse by no adventurers taking on the task for over a year. The job had been frustrating and the reward lackluster, though the experience had given her several levels and more creative ways to use her spells in tight spaces. Her snares proved especially useful as she used them like snakes to fit through tight spaces she couldn't fit into herself and Shiori refused to go into out of principle, and allowed her to thoroughly clean out the hidden rat nests before the city's waste system became a constant source of monsters. The small handful of silvers from the bounty had been spent before Jun ever got home as she went to Grandma Deedee's bathhouse and didn't leave until she'd gotten the smell out of her hair and thoroughly scrubbed every inch of her body.
Gathering herbs from the mountains had come with pay linked only to the amount of herbs recovered, but a late fall frost killed most of the bounty plants. Luckily the mountains around the city had few monsters or threats so it had been more of an extended hike with her Master as she searched for plants, which was relaxing and refreshing, though the alchemist who'd commissioned the bounty had been displeased that she'd only barely met the minimum bounty amount and had docked her reward due to "substandard quality."
Another bounty to provide emergency support and cleanup after a warehouse fire had been specifically set aside for her, her focus on barriers proving useful to contain and defend against a series of malfunctioning defensive wards and alchemical reagents that had grown unstable from the fire. The reward for that work had been substantial, though Arwen accompanied her directly as an escort and to help disarm the wards, thus entitling him to a full half of the reward even though she'd ultimately done most of the work. Hours spent in the burned wreck of a warehouse had been valuable training for using her barriers to counter environmental dangers including a freezing late autumn rain but losing half her pay to her advisor had been frustrating. To make matters worse, another handful of silver had been spent at Grandma Deedee's bathhouse getting the smell of smoke and alchemical reagents out of her hair and relaxing after having to spend several hours listening to her frustrating advisor.
Her last solo Iron bounty though was the most frustrating, where she was to provide private training support for the scion of a noble house. The offered reward had been a substantial ten gold for a single day's training, and best of all Arwen had been indisposed that day so he wouldn't be able to claim the advisor's cut. The bounty asked for a defense focused sparring partner. Jun's barriers and snares combined with her moderate physical stats made her the perfect choice according to Arwen, and even Shiori had begrudgingly agreed that sparring with someone new in a controlled environment would be good training for her,
Jun had practically skipped on her way to the estate in the Noble's Quarter with Shiori by her side and introduced herself to the estate's guards. She'd been quickly hurried along to meet with a servant to the family then directed to a private training courtyard where the noble scion, an 17 year old named Chanter, was already training under the watchful eye of another Gold ranked IAG member. The training and sparring went well enough, and she'd even learned a few new tricks from the veteran adventurer even though her purpose was mainly to serve as a training partner for the nobleman. Unfortunately, that was where the positives ended. After their training was complete, Chanter invited Jun to join the nobleman for a late lunch after the trainer left, and she'd agreed without thinking.
The servants brought them to a private room to serve lunch and drinks, but things took a turn when they left and locked the doors, leaving her and Shiori alone with Chanter. That was when he made his move, using a movement and grapple technique that they'd just learned to pin her against the wall and go in for a kiss.
After months of bounties, practice fighting, and lessons from Shiori and her friends, Jun's instincts and reflexes were well honed. Even as she saw Shiori starting to float up in the area behind him, an ominous black ball manifesting, Jun cast a barrier between her face and his and lashed out, sending the disgusting boy flying across the room to slam against the wall. Chanter survived, barely, and Jun talked Shiori out of finishing him off, thinking that servants would soon come running at her scream and the sound of crashing furniture, but it turned out that the room had been protected by a low grade privacy and sound canceling enchantment. Jun had been forced to break down the locked door to summon help for the nobleman.
Luckily for him the family had a healer on staff that was able to save his life, but once he'd wakened the nobleman claimed that Jun attacked him unprovoked, and the family's guards attempted to arrest her. Jun was able to get them to let her go after she showed them the bruises on her wrists and how the door had been locked from the outside, but that wasn't the end of it. By the time she'd gotten back to the guild to turn in the bounty, an attorney for the family had already shown up and rescinded the bounty while filing a complaint claiming that Jun assaulted Chanter causing grievous injury. Since the other IAG member had left before and Arwen hadn't been in attendance to witness the incident, it was considered Jun's word against that of a noble family, and Jun was suspended from the guild pending an investigation.
Things grew worse by the time she got back to the Academy campus, as she returned to her room to find an official notice of inquiry informing her that she was suspended from the Academy pending investigation of a complaint filed by Chanter's family against her. After a week of suspension, Jun received another letter from the Registrar informing her of a an official disciplinary hearing about the investigation.
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She'd attended the hearing with Sara, Cecilia, Aya, Corin, Gareth, Lane, and Lane's father Lord Firewalker, who was in the city on a vacation to visit his son. It had just seemed like a friendly show of support at first, but when Sean announced that the Academy's investigators had found Jun guilty and she was being expelled, Lord Firewalker spoke up. The Firewalkers turned out not just to be a mage family, but court mages in service to Gareth's Father, the Northern Duke, and Lord Firewalker himself was the Duke's primary advisor and attorney. Lord Firewalker immediately stood to represent Jun and protested the investigation, providing a letter signed by Duke Ursus of the Western Duchy that impartial investigators would arrive to conduct an independent investigation, and that a magistrate of the Duchy would be taking over the matter.
Just a day later an airship flying the flag of the Northern Duchy arrived in the city and a squad of investigators made up of personal guards from both Duke Brightmane of the North and Duke Ursus of the West showed up with a writ of authority and forced Sean to pause the hearing until their investigation was complete. The Platinum ranked guards soon sent the city into chaos as they investigated everything about Chanter's family and Jun herself. Jun had been worried that their investigation would find that the kingdom had no record of her, but Gareth, Lane, and Lord Firewalker put her mind at ease there, assuring her that she'd officially been registered as a citizen and subject of the Northern Duchy, just in case.
Their investigations soon proved to be more fruitful than anyone could imagine when Lord Firewalker submitted a pile of documents and evidence that not only cleared Jun of the supposed assault but revealed the depths of the complaining family's corruption, including that they'd taken advantage of other low level IAG members and Academy students. Their downfall was swift, as the Mayor General of the city himself led in a platoon of guards to arrest them, and they were imprisoned and stripped of their titles. Despite trying to assault and take advantage of her, Chanter was cleared of the corruption charges, though the investigators found him guilty of several counts of harassment, assault, and blackmail. Given that he was relatively young however, Chanter avoided imprisonment by agreeing to serve in the Duchy's army for a period of 100 years, while his parents and extended family guilty of corruption were executed, their former holdings and possessions seized by Duke Ursus.
As for Jun, the IAG and the Academy both lifted her suspensions, with the IAG belatedly issuing the bounty reward as an apology. Sean closed the Academy complaint gainst Jun and apologized as well, though she could tell he only did it begrudgingly.
Even though Sean seemed to get away from putting her through hell on behalf of the corrupt nobles, karma seemed to strike when the ceiling above Sean's desk gave way and a stinking pile of rotting dead rats fell on top of him in the middle of his apology. Jun, Shiori, and Lane's father avoided the filth with a reflexively cast defensive barrier, though Jun's spell hadn't done anything for the smell and they'd quickly been dismissed. Somehow, knowledge of the incident quickly spread around campus and graffiti of Sean with a rat's tail began to appear all over, with flyers of the caricature even spreading throughout the city. Someone had even somehow broken into Sean's office and affixed an enchanted banner of the caricature to his wall, and the Administrative building had to be closed for repairs and cleaning.
Jun never found out how that all came about, just that her roommates, Gareth, Lane, and Corin had disappeared for a few days in the middle of the hearing. While her friends were gone the city guard had gotten anonymous tips that led to several warehouses full of illicit goods being seized, a popular gambling den in the Noble Quarter burned to the ground, and Gareth's older brother and his family's knights captured a gang of slavers that worked for one of the slave lords of the Empire of Flesh.
After being acquitted Jun was able to return to her classes and resume taking bounties from the IAG. Though she was glad to rejoin her team, it also meant being back under Arwen's thumb and he seemed to enjoy referring to her as a "sneaky little mouse." The two weeks that she'd been suspended Jun had spent her free time with Shiori learning more magic and pursuing her cultivation path, and rejoined feeling stronger and better than ever, but for some reason those same weeks hadn't been kind to their advisor. She was shocked and secretly enjoyed seeing that the elf had grown noticeably more haggard since she'd last seen him, his clothes seemingly struggling to stay together and dark bags under his eyes. His pointed ears even seemed to droop a bit, and his hair that had seemed glossy and thick when they'd first met was limp and thinning.
As the first snow of winter fell, Jun, Shiori, and Aya trudged their way to the usual courtyard to meet with Arwen and the rest of their team. Jun had finally reached level 99, the peak of Bronze rank, narrowing the gap between herself and her teammates whose leveling had all slowed rapidly.
"Welcome back little mouse, congratulations on escaping the trap," Arwen said with a humorless smile as Jun, Shiori, and Aya walked into the training courtyard together, his eyes bloodshot with heavy bags under them. Jun simply frowned and nodded before going off to the side to catch up with Aya while waiting for the rest of their team to arrive. A short few minutes later Michael was the last to arrive, nodding at Jun in welcome as he moved to join the rest of them as Arwen closed the door and moved to address the students.
"Today, we will be discussing the final exam for this term, While most of you have reached Iron rank, some have slacked off" he said, his eyes landing on Jun and Shiori. "Regardless, if you have failed to prepare yourself properly, that is your problem, both individually, and as a team, for in two weeks you will be going on a multi day expedition into the Forest to cull goblins."
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