That night, Lotus was busy filing through the herbs in her room when she noticed a strange white glow in the distance within the forest of dead trees that surrounded the back of the Ramshackle dorm. She frowned and sent her energy in the direction quickly to find a few people in the ring of dead trees.
The energy around them were familiar as she could recognize the overwhelmingly strong energy from them as they call out another energy. She grimaced and muttered, "Five Nascent Souls and One Ensoulment..."
These people were at least two to three grades above her and she could tell that they were all at their peak. She sneered and a dark glint appeared in her eyes as she got up to give a pretty purple crystal flower some water, "You've given me a VIP treatment, your majesty. However, only a fool can call upon another fool that's dumber than them..."
The next day, there was a knock on the front door to which Ace yawned and struggled to get up, "Who comes pounding at the door this early..."
It was then that there was a loud crash in the lounge that startled Ace while dust comes trickly down from the ceiling of Lotus's room. With a little on top of Ace's head, the guy jumped up with a start, "Gehh! This place is so rundown that dust comes falling at the smallest shake!"
Having already checked, Lotus sighed, "Who else do you think it is? It's probably Deuce."
"What?" Ace jolted with a sour look on his face, "Geh... the guy probably heard the commotion. I hear you! I'm coming so stop hitting the door!"
Tossing the cat Grim onto the floor, Ace flew out from the covers and into the halls as Lotus quickly took this chance to use a little magic on herself with a mischievous smirk. When she walked into the halls, she was just in time to see Ace open the door to his classmate, Deuce, who walked into the dusty and disordered Foyer. The guy folded his arm and looked at the orange head young man with a sigh of exasperation, "So you did come here."
"Ugh..." Ace grimaced with a raised brow, "It really is Deuce..."
"I heard what happened from the other residents. You got collared after you stole the dorm leader's tart..." The guy noted as he stared at Ace's collar shaking his head, "You are a complete idiot."
"Shut up!" Ace scowled, "I don't wanna hear that from you!"
Despite folding his arms in defiance, he hesitated before questioning nervously, "By the way, was he still mad?"
"Not really." Deuce responded bluntly, "He looked a little irritated at some guys who were late for the morning roll call, but three people met the same fate as you."
"He hasn't calmed down at all!" Ace pointed out in bewilderment, "He's definitely pissed!"
"Wow." Lotus smirked, "He must really love tarts, then."
"I don't know about that." Deuce responded with a sigh, "He's not in a good mood anyway."
Lotus thought for a bit before noting to herself how young the boy looked in her eyes that day. If he's still made enough to be like this after that, then the chances are he's not very different from a five-hundred-year-old spirit or fairy...
Actually, it should be a thirteen-year-old human boy, right?
Lotus thought for a bit before deciding that she should let the jugs of Chysansumth tea chill for a little longer. She wore a small smile after realizing that there had been children in this school as well.
Lotus turned to Yuu and stated, "We should get ready for class. I'll go bring Grim out.
"Thanks..." Yuu yawned as he went back up to get ready.
"Huh?" Ace looked to Lotus as he saw her turn back to her room.
"What?" Lotus looked back sensing his eyes on her.
Surprised, Ace looked away with a nervous frown, "N-Nothing. I was just wondering. You were studying the entire night. Aren't you tired?"
"Quite the opposite actually." She responded with a shrug.
"Reading the entire night?!" Deuce stared at her in bewilderment as she walked away and he pulled Ace aside, "Hey, you sure that he was reading the entire night?!"
Ace nodded his head, "I know or otherwise Grim would've kicked up a fuss if he was forced to move or anything. The floor was still dusty too, you know!"
"That's..." Deuce was at a loss for words as the two stared back at her direction as she pulled out a nearly awaken cat with a basket of some sort of puffy pancakes in hand.
She handed it to Ace and said, "You guys haven't ate yet, right? We don't really have time for breakfast, so this will have to do."
Ace stared at her in bewilderment as he hesitatingly stared at the food, "We can eat this?"
"Does it really look inedible?" She stared back at them with a frown.
"Lotus, are you in charge of the meals here in ramshackle Dorm?" Deuce stared at her in confusion to which she simply responded, "Not really. However, because we need Grim to focus on his studies and Yuu is always cleaning up the dorm, I ended up taking care of the food rather often. This is something I whipped up with some beans, potatoes, and flour yesterday."
"Great..." Ace sighed as he bit into the pancakes, "Where were you when I was hungry last night?"
"Haha..." Lotus laughed, "Didn't you come over to the dorm last night yourself?"
"Shut up..." Ace grumbled as he continued to chew at the flaked pastry.
Lotus sighed, "Just come over to our dorm if you get hungry next time. Don't expect me to make you food when you're supposed to be having lunch though. I'm not willing to become anyone's private chef, especially not this little guy."
As she gestured to Grim grumbling away about canned tuna while munching on the pastry, Yuu overheard their talk as he came down fixing his tie and chuckled nervously, "Ah, right. Grim tried to make Lotus his personal chef and missed out on dinner later on."
"Seriously..." Ace mumbled nervously.
Yuu nodded quietly as he secretly glanced over to Lotus once more before they walked out the door and left the basket behind.
Once out of the dorm, Grim began in a loud voice, "Hey, hey! Outta my way~! The Great Grim is making his way as a student of Night Raven College!"
Walking through the path with the statues again, Lotus smirked as she watched Grim from the sidelines making a fool of himself again and showing off his gem to Ace, "Look at my collar. Unlike the lame thing around your neck, mine is very stylish. On top of that, you can't use magic, correct? You'd make a really good janitor today. Nyaha! I feel good!"
Yuu shook his head with a sigh, "You won't let the stuff yesterday go..."
With a shrug, Lotus sighed, "Let it go, Ace. You don't have your magic back yet."
Ace tightened his fist and scowled, "Grrrrgh... I'll remember this for when I get my magic back!"
Deuce shook his head in exasperation and reminded the cat, "The headmaster just told us yesterday to not make another scene..."
"Nevertheless," Deuce looked to Ace firmly, "you're going to have problems in class with your magic sealed. Have you thought about apologizing to Dorm Leader Rosehearts and having him remove it?"
"Crap." Ace scowled nervously, "This won't go well at all!"
Grim thought for a bit before responding, "Since we just had breakfast, we've still got time before class and I'm curious about the other dorms. Let's go observe Ace's apology."
"He did tell us to go with him when we talked about it last night." Lotus reminded the orange hair guy.
Ace, nervous and embarrassed with the collar around his neck, shouted, "This isn't a show! Screw this!"
Lotus smirked as she watched their friend's struggle of futility while they brought him into the building to the hall of mirrors and entered one of the mirrors behind an archway with the emblem of a hearts symbol with a rose and crown on top of the heart. Around the mirror was red and brown mushrooms she had never seen before and the metal rim of the mirror was covered in metal cards with a single shape of clover, diamonds, spade, and hearts. Lotus frowned as she recalled the dream and remained silent as she walked through the dark mirror under the light of two red crown lanterns on the side of the walls and using a stone structure of a book on the ground as their steps.
Before them was a large stone path with red rose flowers and bushes that were shaped in hearts along the side. An elegant metal lamppost with the flag of ared and black heart symbol topped with a crown and a ribbon stating the dorm's name fluttered gently with the breeze in the garden as Lotus and the other four walked in from the mirror. A large red and white building with hearts and diamond windows sat away from them as the place looked to have been designed after a medieval castle she had seen from this world's books. A fountain sat before the building within the red heart of red stone.
Seeing this, Grim was the first to sing out his praises, "This is gorgeous! It couldn't be more different from ours!"
"Don't compare it to ours." Lotus patted Yuu's shoulder, "If you think too much about it, nothing but negativity will come to mind. We can't have that happen to us students right now."
Yuu nodded in understanding and smiled, "You're right. Let's not get distracted from our studies. Also, ours is still in development!"
Lotus nodded with a grin having heard the boy's response.
"Come on." Deuce called out as he began to lead them, "Let's head through the rose maze first."
"The rose maze was emulated after the rose maze which the Queen of Hearts lived in, right?" Lotus questioned.
"That's right." Deuce responded seeing that Ace was in no mood to respond, "The entire dorm is emulated after her."
As they walked in, she saw that there were roses that aren't completely red and some were even white. Red paint and its pails were stacked on the floor and ladders going up to the plants sat next to the bushes. She frowned in confusion and thought carefully.
The Red Queen is no longer around, so why are they still painting the roses red?
She recalled what Riddle had stated back at the ceremonial hall and felt a sneaking suspicion in her chest. She shook her head. Even if it were true, what's the use of correcting something that's been seen as law now.
"Crap, crap. I've gotta get these roses painted."
"Oh, somebody is here." Grim pointed out.
"Swearing early in the morning too, if I might add." Lotus chuckled when she heard this with a smirk.
"Oh! Watch out!" Another orange hair guy with his hair partially tied back called out in surprise, "Any paint splatters and my head is gone."
On the young man's face was a small diamond shape right under his eye in red.
Yuu raised in a brow in confusion, "I feel like I've seen this before?"
The student looked down from his ladder and saw the three newcomers. Curious, he asked, "Hm? Do you all need something?"
"What are you doing with that?" Ace questioned in confusion as he saw the pail in the man's hand.
"He's painting the roses red?" Lotus spoke up for him in her own confusion.
"Yup!" The guy nodded, "Exactly as he said. I'm painting the roses red as you can see."
Deuce looked up in bewilderment, "Eh? Why would you do that?"
"Hm..." The man smirked when he saw the surprised reaction of the boys, "Your fresh reaction is so cute! Now that I took a good look at you, you're the freshmen that busted the 10 million madol Chandelier yesterday."
We're gonna hear about the chandelier until the day we graduate..." Ace groaned.
He turned to Ace and pointed out with a wide smile, "And, you're the one who added on more punishment by stealing the dorm leader's tart last night! I feel so lucky getting to meet the notorious newcomers first thing in the morning. Hey, hey, hey, hey! Let's take a selfie!"
He jumped off from the ladder and whipped out his magic smartphone from his pocket and posed in front of them which basically made it so that his head and shoulder was within the frame with the four of them. However, before he could snap, Lotus had snuck out from the frame with a smirk and used her ability briefly. Right now, she was not in the mood to start taking pictures after what happened yesterday.
"Yay!"
Snap.
Lotus smirked with a laugh, "I see word spreads around fast! That's right. We ended up breaking the chandelier in the cafeteria."
"L-Lotus!" Ace stammered in bewilderment.
The three looked to her in shock. Does this guy have no sense of shame?!
"Woah! You're a blunt one, aren't you?" The guy stated with a wide nervous smile.
"What's the use of beating around the bush when it comes to this?" Lotus sighed feigning exasperation.
The guy laughed, "That's true. Then, can I put this on Magicame? Tell me your names so I can put it in tags."
"I'm Deuce Spade." Deuce responded.
"Ace."
"Grim and his henchmen!" Grim called out from below with a proud smile.
"There. Uploaded!" The guy responded and put away his phone before looking to them with an idea in mind, "Ah, I'm your upperclassmen, Third year, Cater Daimond."