Lotus suddenly busted out laughing the moment she heard this much to Yuu's bewilderment.
"Eeeeh?!" Cater stared at him in disbelief, "You're going to say that right now?!"
"Why wouldn't I!" Ace shouted as he pointed out, "After everything we've been through the wringer? And, he still threw away the mont blanc we put all that time and effort into making? I'm not gonna let him off with a tear filled apology."
Grim folded his arms as he said in dismay, "This guy holds a grudge worse than I do."
Gasping for air, Lotus wiped away her tears and chuckled, "Hahaha!!! That's just like Ace..."
"Then..." Riddle whimpered, "What should I..."
Ace thought for a bit then said aloud as he thought, "My birthday isn't for a while."
"Huh?" Deuce raised a brow in bewilderment, "What are you getting..."
"So, I demand we have a Revenge Unbirthday Party." Ace demanded firmly, "We didn't even get to take part in the last one. And, this time, you have to make the tart. Ah, no getting help from Trey, either! Do it yourself! If you do that..."
Ace nodded in affirmation, "Then, there's nothing I won't forgive."
"Even though you got help yourself..." Yuu pointed out with a sigh of exasperation.
"Shut up, peanut gallery!" Ace hissed under his breath before turning back to Riddle and said firmly, "You got it?"
Riddle sniffled but nodded his head, "Yeah, I got it."
The headmaster nodded in satisfaction as a tearful smile lingered on his face, "Yes, yes, this is the beauty of compromise. Then, the issue is settled."
"Well then, we should probably get started on cleaning up the garden!" Cater spoke up with a wide energetic smile much to Lotus's surprise, "Our photogenic garden is in ruins... I'm so sad."
Reluctantly, Trey got up and said, "I'll help you out."
"Trey, you carry Riddle to the infirmary." Cater informed him in a hushed voice much to Lotus's surprise, "He did overblot. He should be looked at by the nurse just to be safe."
"Mister Diamond is right." Crowley responded firmly with a nod, "I shall escort you there."
"Alright." Trey nodded in relief, "Thank you very much."
Yuu turned to Lotus and said, "You should go there too. Have them check on your head to see if there's any other damage."
Lotus nodded, "Got it, Prefect."
She then followed Crowley and Riddle piggyback riding on Trey's back in silence as they left the room. Once out, they were bombarded by many students that Crowley had to order them at the top of his voice to let out a path instead.
Lotus, not wanting to gather more attention out of annoyance, used her ability to slink away after the three. When she reappeared, she made sure to stay behind the headmaster pretending to not have been noticed before keeping an eye on the students around them. Some were clueless while others were surprised to see their dorm leader out in tears. Thankfully, the staff were around to keep the situation under control or who would've known what they would try next after the previous egg toss.
When they reached the infirmary, the place was empty beside the nurse, thankfully. She waited as she watched the nurse took a quick look at Riddle first before checking her out. Since overblot was serious, they had a look at him first before coming over to her. Then, she stayed around with an icepack to the head for a bit except she secretly melted it with her energy. Instead, she took out her book and began to read again.
Ignoring her behavior, Trey talked things out with the headmaster regarding the incident as though he was the guardian while Riddle laid back on the infirmary bed he had been brought to. With the curtains pulled over, he laid on there for a while before feeling something cold in his palm and looked down to find the red round pill in his hand. His eyes widen in bewilderment as he began to remember the conversation. Still a little dazed, he stared at it in confusion as the images flashed back to him.
"A Kirin..." Riddle whispered.
He had never heard of such a creature before. That small white horse with the tail of a long reptile and long mane. It had only been a couple days ago when it was small enough to struggle in Carter's grasp. Now it was big enough to run about and ask to be spoiled. Just what was going on in campus?
Though he was given a pill, he was still very suspicious of it. Why would she believe that he would consume it just because she said to?
The pill seemed rather hard to which he frowned. Was she trying to kill him by having him swallow such a large pill in the first place?
Upon further inspection, he came to realize that there was a strange image of a drawing on it that he couldn't tell what it was. Perhaps a writing?
But what is this bitter but frangrant smell? He could tell that it was bitter, but the aftermath of it was almost naturally sweet...
Suddenly, the pill hopped out of his palm and flew into his mouth much to his surprise. His teeth bit down on it in a futile attempt to prevent it from going to as the pill cracked revealing a stream of bitterness in his mouth. He gagged as the bits went down his windpipe as just Trey came back and was surprised to see him gagging.
"Riddle?!" The student panicked.
The nurse had gone to talk to the headmaster over his condition leaving Trey in the room with Riddle and Lotus.
"Lotus!" Trey called out in a hurry.
"Yeah?" She popped her head out behind her curtain and saw the dorm leader stop him quickly.
"I-It's fine. I think." Riddle responded quickly, "I just need water."
"O-o-okay." Trey responded in a fluster and quickly got him a plastic cup of water.
Downing the cup with a bitter look, Riddle scowled, "That was horrible..."
Lotus raised a brow, "You okay there?"
"Y-yes." Riddle responded nervously, "I think... Hm?"
He could feel a strange wave of energy return to him as his head became a little clearer. He raised a brow.
"Riddle, what happened just now?" Trey questioned in confusion.
"W-Well..." He hesitated before recounting what had happened in the dream he had and the strange pill.
Feigning a shocked, Lotus stared at him in bewilderment, "And the pill just flew out of your hand and forced you to eat it?!"
Riddle nodded to which Trey questioned calmly, "How are you feeling?"
"To be honest, much better." He responded and touched his temple, "My head is a lot clearer now and I don't feel as tired."
"We should ask the nurse to check on you..." Trey frowned and shook his head, "Actually, would the nurse believe our explanation?"
Riddle responded after some thought, "Just say that I'm feeling a lot better now and would like to return to rest in the dorm. He'd most likely return to check on my condition before I take leave."
Hearing this, Lotus raised a brow with a mischievous feeling on her lips and asked aloud, "I thought I smelled something familiar. Can you tell me what the pill looked like?"
"Hm?" He turned to her curiously, "Why do you want to know?"
"I don't know..." She smirked, "Cause I'm curious?"
Hearing her explanation, Trey and Riddle heaved a sigh as Trey muttered in annoyance, "You totally resemble him... perhaps..."
"It was shiny and red, like a red marble." Riddle answered, "It was the size of half a thumb. The pill itself was bitter and there was a strange language on it."
"A strange character?" Lotus raised a brow.
"A rice symbol with the day symbol underneath another character..." Riddle took a piece of paper from the table and a pencil before retracing the symbol from his memory.
Not bad.
Lotus bit back a smirk. This guy's memory is pretty good.
After looking at it, Lotus stared at it and back to him in confusion, "And you said that this was the character on the pill?"
"Have you seen it before?" Riddle looked to her with a look of surprise.
"Yes." Lotus responded much to their bewilderment.
"EH?!"
They stared at her in disbelief. Lotus explained bluntly as she took out the pencil to complete the drawing of the pill, "The character itself means energy. Based on the description you described it to be, it's a pill to restore internal energy within the body and uncloud the mind. Pills like these are usually the size of have a thumb and, because they are made from herbs, they are bitter the majority of the time. What you had was an energy pill that does just as I said? However, I surprised you had one in your possession this entire time."
Lotus smirked, "You said it was shiny?"
Riddle stared at her in confusion as she continued, "In my hometown, the manufacture of pills are a skill that only professionals that practice making it can make properly within furnaces. If not produced correctly the magic used to create it would be enough to explode the furnace if the creator isn't very skilled. They take hours to make and based on its shine and fragrance you can determine the quality of it. The higher the quality the better the effect."
She looked to him feigning a look of jealousy and awe, "Based on how fragrant that smell was and the effect of it, I'd take it that the pill was, from low rank of one to the existing high rank of ten, at least rank five. What a surprise that someone was willing to give you something so low..."
"Great." Riddle sighed as he frowned at her, "So, what does that mean?"
Lotus smirked wider making Riddle realize the error in his decision to ask.
"It means..." Lotus chuckled, "You were given and had eaten a pill worth at least seventy-five thousand madols."
"What?!"
Lotus laughed, "Too bad I wasn't there to see it. Since I left the town and they've disappeared, I haven't seen a pill for over ten years now."
"What makes something so small so expensive?!" Riddle stared at her in disbelief.
This time, Lotus frowned and said solemnly, "Because the people who make it are different from regular wizards. They don't use their magic to cast magic like you do. They use it to manipulate their environment such as plants, energy, and their own bodies. the furnace used to make pills are also created by blacksmith that could focus on creating it without rest from days to weeks making the whole process very intense. Breaking a concentration is riskier than failure in pill making and could take their life."
Realizing she had spoken a little off topic, she quickly added, "Thanks to the dangers and their condition, the people hides themselves away from society. While blacksmith uses magic from within the bloodstream, the creation of pills could take the same amount of time. The people need to keep a fire going at the exact temperature for days and process while forming the pill entirely with magic from their bodies. They do this for hours. The herbs used for it are also hard to come by and are entirely raised by themselves."
Despite her long explanation, Riddle didn't buy much of it at all and raised a brow with a smirk, "If that's true then why are you here? You said you came from such a hiddle place. They wouldn't leave a leak out."
Lotus smirked, "I was rejected by society and ran for my life."
"Rejected?" Trey raised a brow.
Lotus sighed and sighed with a look of irritation, "Yup. I don't have magic in me remember? I can't even absorb the magic in the air like they can. The term used in the town for people like me is waste. So, I was tossed aside by my family since I was of no benefit."
"Isn't that...?" Trey looked to her in disbelief.
Lotus smirked, "The town has very old views of seeing their children like objects they could use similar to money. But, my biological family didn't know that I stole books from their library so I started making potions for a living and landed myself here after running away. Partway through though, I threw back the books so they really have no reason to come after me..."
She smirked, "But, I did copy down the thirty-five books I stole so there was basically no problem for me."
"Hah..." Riddle smirked in disbelief upon the lies spouted from her mouth.
Lotus chuckled, "I thought you might not believe me."
She threw her book to him, "Here. Take a look."
The cover of book was paper and blue, but inside was filled with black calligraphy writing marks to which the meaning of the words slowly flowed into Riddle's head much to his bewilderment, "Wh-What? Revitalization pill, Ice Flower... What are these and the ridiculous herbs?!"
"You can understand them?" Lotus looked to him in bewilderment.
"Riddle?" Trey looked to him in concern, "I... Can't understand a word of it."
"What do you mean?" Riddle stared to them in bewilderment, "I can read it perfectly fine... Actually, I've never seen these characters before, but the meaning just appears in my head."
He turned to her with a ferocious gaze, "What's going on?"
Lotus raised a brow and flipped through her book before finding the page, "Perhaps she tempered with the pill before you took it. There's a herb that can automatically help a person learn language easily as long as they carefully measure the amount of liquid from the plant's roots to coat the pills. I think you had that..."
The flower on the page was that of a brown lily with green leaves. Lotus sighed, "Great. The plant is found on the cliffside somewhere and is called the Zhi Lily. It's rare so the value of that pill just went up higher."
"Um..." Trey looked to her with a little apprehension, "How..."
"It blooms once every five hundred years." Lotus grumbled as she laid her back on her bed, "Does that give you a good idea of the price?"
"Have you seen it before?" Riddle challenged with a smirk.
To be honest, both of them felt as though every word spewed out of her mouth were jokes and lies in their ears as they listen to her ramble. Having gotten tired of it, Riddle went in for the challenge.
"Right there." Lotus pulled out the white paper bookmark much to their bewilderment, "My mother stole one from our store when I wasn't born yet and made a bookmark out of it in secret for me. Can't say what happened to her later, though."
"Um..."
Sure enough, between the two plastic sheets were a paper with brown and green crushed pigments on it. The fragrant still leaked as if it had only been freshly crushed and greatly reminded Riddle of the pill he had earlier.
They looked to her speechlessly having lost their words.
Lotus smirked, "What? Believe me now a little?"