"You're the guy from a couple days ago!" Riddle stated with wide eyes.
Peony nodded her head with a wide smile, "That's right. I see your mind hasn't deteriorated, at least."
"What do you mean?" Riddle looked to her in confusion.
"I guess you can't feel it." Peony responded, "The headmaster said that you've overblotted."
"O-Overblotted..." Riddle's eyes widen in shock when he heard this, "Oh no... Everyone is still there!"
Peony nodded, "They're working very hard, you know. Ace and the others."
"Those freshmen?" Riddle looked to her in confusion.
She nodded, "They're trying to bring you back and Trey is helping them."
"Trey..." Riddle pursed his lips into a frown, "I..."
"I've heard a conversation with Trey the day before the battle." She answered, "That he couldn't bare to stop you because of what you've been through. He was very worried about you but was hesitating rather he should step in and correct you or not all this time because of what you've been through with your mother."
Riddle sighed and shook his head with a grimace, "That... That idiot..."
Peony smiled, "Ace and his friends heard about it too, but they also found fault in him just like you said. They've lectured him about it yesterday before the headmaster brought up the idea of a battle over the position. Ace doesn't care about the position, but it seems he does care about how you're handling the situation with the punishments."
Riddle thought for a bit before responding, "How... do you know so much?"
"I've been around." She answered and pointed to the kirin, "Because this child is very worried about you after you saved him."
"Child?" He turned to the kirin in confusion, "You're that creature that was with Cater..."
"Yes." Little Jun nodded happily nudging the student with his snout, "I've been given the name Little Jun! Mistress said that you're my friend because you helped save me!"
"Gah." Riddle tried to push him away gently as Little Jun demanded for head scratches.
"Are you okay now?" Little Jun asked nervously.
Peony laughed, "He's been watching you from afar, especially more so today. He's been worried about you ever since then."
"This creature is..." Riddle frowned, "What is this creature? I-I mean, Little Jun... Is it the one the dark mirror has been protecting?"
"Who knows?" Peony smirked and said, "Little Jun is a Kirin. A noble creature that is the symbol of an emperor's powers. To the royal family, they are the ones that selects the next emperor. It was a surprise for me when I found that it had been born on the dorm grounds."
Riddle choked himself as he stared to her in bewilderment, "Wh-What?!"
"It's true." Peony said with a smile, "Little Jun's mother was forcefully brought into the forest behind the rose maze with a couple people setting to do something evil to the dorm. Because his mother was bound by contract with the wrong person who wanted to do harm, she didn't make it when we had to bring him down."
"What do you mean?" Riddle looked to her in bewilderment, "You mean the barrier was protecting the students from getting killed?!"
Peony nodded, "What they're looking for is enough to starve the entire population of living beings if fallen into the wrong hands. They'll do anything for it and their first suspect is Nights Raven College. Problem is nobody knew that such a thing existed till now."
She continued, "The reason I'm telling you this is because you're the dorm leader and everyone still looks up to you."
"That's..." Riddle hesitated.
"They still do." Peony responded, "If you take the right actions and apologize to them to make up for it. You might not have realized you went too far, but that doesn't mean you can't learn from your mistakes. What you have is something the Queen of Hearts never had."
"The Queen of Hearts?" Riddle looked to her in bewilderment, "You know the Queen of Hearts?"
Peony shook her head, "I don't. But, I do know that, during her reign, she had made a mistake just as you had and punished three cards for painting the wrong color because she liked the color white, but they painted red. She had them executed when a young girl objected just as Ace had, and called the queen a pompous tyrant. She was so mad that she ordered the execution of the girl over something the cards wanted to do to make her happy."
"That's..." Riddle's eyes widen in bewilderment, "I've never heard about that!"
Peony nodded, "You wouldn't because it was the only flaw she had. You have something she didn't have. You have someone who was there to stop you and correct you. She didn't. Like how you said earlier, she thought she, as queen, was correct. No one came to stop her. Everyone followed her words. I don't know what happened later to the little girl or the queen. All I know was that the Queen never caught her cause she fled. However, Ace didn't run. He came back to point out your flaw where the Queen never had anyone to do that for her as she upheld discipline and rules."
She sighed, "If Ace never came back..."
Riddle grimaced, "I would've continued collaring everyone and Trey wouldn't stop me until it was too late..."
"Maybe?" Peony looked to him in surprise.
Quite harsh on yourself, don't you think?
Riddle sighed nervously as he patted Little Jun's head, "Once I get back I have a lot of things I want to saw to Trey... and... I owe an apology to everyone, especially Ace... But, what about Little Jun's mother? How was he born in our dormitory of all places?!"
Peony laughed before she sighed and said with a sad smile, "When a beast from his place makes a contract with a human, the contract bounds the beast's life with the human for life. Revoking it is equivalent to death. However, the contract can also be unfair to the beasts. If they die, their contractor won't follow them to death, but, if the contractor died, so would the beast. Unable to do anything, she followed the assassins into the forest where she passed because her contractor was killed to protect the students before they could launch an attack on the dorm to search. When it was over, we found Little Jun next to his mother. She gave her last to make sure that he came into the world, at least."
Surprised, Riddle looked to her with a frown, "So, that's why you came to the dorm that night with him."
"Yes." Peony sighed, "Apologies for performing gruesome tasks in your dormitory. It had to be done since they were willing to put their lives on the line to kill."
Riddle bit back a shudder and stared at her sternly with a firm frown as usual, "Enough. What's done is done... As long as the students are safe, that's what matters the most."
Peony chuckled, "Glad you're back to normal. Still, I wonder... Why didn't you leave the house? Is a biological mother who treats children like that very important?"
"What?" Riddle scowled as he glared at her with dark eyes, "Of course, I understand my mother isn't the best parent now, but she's always putting in the effort to make me better. Of course, she is strict and I don't see her as a better of a mother now, but she's still the person who birthed me and raised me with blood, sweat, and tears. Because I was young, I relied on her and her rules because I thought she was correct to raise me in this manner."
Riddle paused before he sighed, "She... I don't know why she did what she did to me. But, I don't believe she never loved me in the least. If not, she wouldn't have singlehandedly educated me with such a tight schedule."
Peony looked to him curiously, "Is that what it means to be a mother or a father? To raise their children in blood, sweat, and tears?"
Riddle sighed shaking his head, "I-I don't know. But... this is what I think my mother feel towards me. Of course, I still have to talk to her more... and hear her reason for everything she did for me... Why? Why did she do that?"
Caught in his own emotions again, the firm look slowly vanished form his face as Peony took Riddle's hand and helped him up onto Little Jun's back while saying to him with a sigh, "You're a very kind person, Riddle. Most would've left their family behind by now when they had the chance if they were you..."
Without the gravity, it was easier to carry the student out of the darkness and into the light as she said, "You have a long process ahead of you. Apologizing to everyone, but, at least, you're not alone. So, stop making Little Jun worry about you. You're one of the first friends he's accepted. Being accepted by a kirin is still a big thing, so you should be proud of that since it means that he's seen something in you that most probably hasn't."
It must've also been the reason why the animals came to find you first too...
With that, she's stuffed a red pill into his hands before Little Jun could bring him into the light, "Take this after you get out. It'll help get the flow of magic in you to regenerate and move again sooner."
After saying this, she added, "As long as you're safe, Ace, Deuce, and Little Jun won't be sad either..."
"Huh?"
Before he could ask, Little Jun continued to bring him into the light as Peony noticed the darkness below howled in anger. She scowled and flicked her red sleeve in fury, "Scram!"
Having sent a powerful strength towards it, the being shuddered and slinked back into the depth as the surrounding became lighter. She breathed a sigh of relief before leaving the darkness with Little Jun.
When she awoke, Lotus found herself leaned up against a tree and Little Jun having returned to her ring. She looked around to find Yuu breathing a sigh of relief with Grim in tears when they saw her open her eyes.
"You're finally awake! WAhhhh!!!" Grim bawled which was so unlike him.
Yuu wore a smile of relief as he sighed, "We found you passed out beside the bush after the battle was over."
"Riddle!"
Lotus looked up in bewilderment before stammering out a lie, "That's right! I threw a needle and slipped... Ouch... my head..."
Pretending to be hurt, Lotus acted as though everything had yet to be settled when she saw everyone was still crowding in the garden around Riddle who was still passed out in Trey's arms.
Lotus got up slowly before walking over to them just in time to see the boy snap his eyes wide open in surprise.
"Huhhh, his eyes opened!" Ace said in relief but a frown decorated his face.
Cater sighed in relief and collapsed onto the ground, "For real, we were agnozing over whether you'd wake up or not..."
Still in a daze and tired from the use of so much magic, Riddle tried to clear his head as he sat up slowly, "Huff... Huff... What... did I...?"
Crowley, having already returned sighed in relief and tearful wide smile, "I'm so glad. He came back to his senses and Mister Xue is alright."
"There's no need to think about it now." Trey told Riddle in relief, "Just sleep."
"Ah, ah, ah." Ace groaned, "Of course, he goes beserk after getting a little mad if you're coddling him all the time! The garden is a disaster and we were in big trouble!"
"It was a crazy situation." Deuce and Lotus nodded in agreement.
"Seriously." Grim frowned in dismay, "Bottling up all your stress isn't admirable."
Riddle grumbled slowly and hesitantly, "I... really wanted to eat that mont blanc."
"Wha?" Ace's eyes widen in surprise when he heard this.
"The roses are fine white, and the flamingos are fine being pink." Riddle continued unceasingly like a dam breaking open, "I like putting honey in my tea more than sugar cubes and I like milk tea more than lemon tea. I want to chat with everyone while we eat..."
"Riddle..." Trey looked to him in surprise.
The young student was fighting back tears as he continued, "I wanted to spend more time with Trey and everyone else..."
In the end, he couldn't hold back and finally started crying.
"I can't believe..." Cater's eyes widen in bewilderment, "that Riddle is sobbing like a baby..."
"S-s-stop that!" Ace said in a hushed voice in bewilderment, "You're not forgiven just because you're crying!"
Deuce sighed shaking his head, "You really refuse to read the mood..."
Though tired, Lotus smiled, "Finally, he's back to normal..."
"I'm sorry too." Trey said with a sigh and a guilt-ridden face, "Even though I knew you were suffering, I pretended not to notice."
Riddle was still trying to wipe away his tears and stop crying as Trey continued, "So, I'm going to say it now. Riddle, your way of doing things is wrong. You have to properly apologize to everyone."
Within the tears, Riddle said aloud in a squeaky voice, "Uh... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...!"
"There is something I wanted to say to you if you apologized for everything that's happened..." Ace responded bluntly before he scowled and shouted aloud, "WORDS CAN'T FIX THIS MESS! I'M NOT JUST GONNA FORGIVE YOU LIKE THAT!!!"