"What was that?" Deuce questioned in confusion.
"It sounded like someone was coughing just now..." Grim noted curiously.
"Seriously?" Yuu looked to them in confusion, "Wouldn't that be really bad?"
"That's weird..." Lotus raised a brow when she looked down on her dish, "My tart is gone? Maybe Grim took it?"
"Huh?" Grim shook his head and scowled, "Why would I steal it?! I'd have told you if I was going to take it."
"That's true." Lotus nodded feigning confusion as she smirked when a resident rushed out in shock.
"D-D-Dorm leader!"
"Hm?" Riddle looked to him with a raised brow.
Curiously, Cater went over to ask privately what was going on when the guy blurted out, "The roses we painted turned back to white!"
"What?!"
From their cries, Riddle stood up with a firm look and turned to the resident and stated, "Show me."
"Y-Yes, dorm leader!"
Curious, everyone got up and followed the dorm leader till they were near the corner of the rose maze. Lotus watched feigning curiosity when they saw the roses having turned a shade of white.
"This!" Riddle looked to the group in confusion, "Who was the ones who painted these parts?"
There was a moment of silence when a small group of freshmen and upperclassmen walked up shivering.
"W-We did." An upperclassmen answered, "But, I swear we didn't do anything to the roses but paint them red!"
"We really didn't!" A freshman nodded frantically with a pale face.
Riddle looked to the roses and the paint on the ground before nodding his head, "I believe you."
Breathing a sigh of relief, they nodded gratefully.
Ace grumbled, "Seriously?! What happened? I saw them paint this side just before the party started too. Who painted them white again?!"
"D-d-dorm leader!" Another resident called out, "I witnessed the flowers on the other side shake the paint off!!!"
"Hurry!" Riddle called out and they quickly ran to the other side to find that the flowers had not only shaken off the paint but had also curled back into a closed bulb!
"What is going on?" Riddle grumbled in confusion and slight irritation, "I personally witnessed the students paint the roses on this side of the maze."
This time, Lotus frowned. She walked over to the white rose bulb and touched it gently with her finger. It was shivering. She scowled when she felt the cold petals in her palm. Yuu saw this with a look of confusion. When they were on that side, Lotus was rather calm, but, now that they reached here, a terrifying look of anger had taken over her calm and playful look.
Trey, having taken a closer look frowned, "Riddle, this side of the roses are closed and shivering, unlike the other side."
"They are..." Riddle nodded in agreement after close inspection, "Almost as though they were scared of something..."
Lotus narrowed her eyes in deep thought before she used her ability to hide herself quietly and slipping her original feminine voice to Riddle's mind through the imprint, "Riddle."
The dorm leader jumped and looked around in surprise before asking Trey, "Trey, do you hear something?"
Trey looked back to Riddle with deep confusion, "Hear something? No..."
Riddle thought for a bit as a voice continued, "I can feel what's going on around you. Return to what you were doing and come back fifteen minutes later. I'll probably be able to figure out what's going on by then."
Riddle's eyes widen in bewilderment before he frowned and thought, "So, you know what's going on?"
"I think so." Lotus responded telepathically, "First, go back. You're the only person the students will listen to right now. It'll be safer to have them return to whatever activity you were doing and don't let them out here for fifteen minutes. If something happens to them, not even my head would get the Dark Mirror off my back."
Riddle sighed and shook his head before turning to the others, "It's probably something magic related. Let's first return to the party. We'll come back fifteen minutes later. If things still are the same, then we'll start investigating."
The students were stunned when they heard this, but none were willing to go against the dorm leader and all trusted his judgement. They nodded and returned to the party as Lotus used magic to fake a silent replacement before staying.
When they were gone, she revealed herself again and turned to the flowers. She scowled and said with narrowed eyes that radiated with swirling gold within her pupil, "By my order, I command you to speak. Spirit of the roses, what is going on? Don't hesitate or involve those humans. I do not have the time to deal with trivial matters."
Releasing her energy to trickle down to every rose plants in the maze, the plants shuddered in shock and horror as they realized instantly recognized her energy. They froze in fear then bowed their heads sounding to her obediently, "Yes, your highness. We pay our respects to our queen."
Looking to the bushes firmly, Lotus nodded her head as one of them continued politely with hidden excitement in their voice, "In regards to your highness's inquiry, there had been a figure entering the rose maze as of late and sprinkling a solution into our roots. It makes out body freeze and we do not like the feel of the cold paint on our bodies. If it displeases you, please forgive us for our selfishness!"
"Is it selfish to shake off the paint just because you're cold?" Lotus responded shaking her head, "You've done well all these years for the residents of this dorm and allow them to follow their customs. What you've done today is not your fault. However, who was the one who did this to you? Why have you not kicked them out?"
"In response to your highness," The bush answered, "We are forbidden from attacking the intruder and barely lacks the qi to do so. We are too weak against them."
"Who forbids you from acting in self-defense?"
"It was one of the flowers that once occupied this dorm." The rose answered, "A talking orchid that could speak with the humans and deceive them. Under his powers, we are unable to fight back against another human."
"So, the intruder was a human." Lotus nodded, "Explain to me more about that orchid and what he did to you."
According to the roses, the orchid had not only sealed away the flowers' right to self defense itself but also tricked the magicians to place a seal on them to restrict their magic. It was only thirty years after the Royal Sword Academy started winning against the school that the orchid's deception discovered and they were forced to dispose of him. However, the seal remained and so did his influence. Lotus scowled, "What impudence... I leave and the orchids decide it was their time to reign supreme? How childish. Enough with this."
She flicked her wrists and pulled out two bottle of revitality liquid then poured it onto the roots stating, "Pass this around and let everyone absorb a bit of it. However, when you do, don't bloom just yet. Instead..."
After speaking her plan to the flowers, they bowed their heads and hurriedly did as she told them to do. Then, she overrode the beginning gold core energy of the orchid with her advanced version of it breaking the seal as she ordered, "From now on, you are to protect the students of this dorm from outside attacks. However, wishes the death of the students here are not welcomed within these grounds. Also, you are not allowed to unleash your abilities onto the students and their guests. Do not disrupt the activities of the residents here. As the guardian of this dorm, I hope to see you continue to display your kindness as you have been doing so all these years. Also, whoever tries to harm you and are from outside are not welcomed here. You may kick them out, including outside students. If they are residents here, you may move them to the entrance of the maze."
"Understood." The roses responded having lost their shiver and regained their energy, which they called Qi in her world.
It was a few minutes later that the others returned that Lotus used her ability to disappear and reappear besides them. Riddle frowned when he saw that all the flowers were still a white bud and tried to call out Peony in his head but with no response. He sighed and was about to give out an order when he noticed the white buds began to open on their own like a wave and began to emerge into a shade of red beautifully as if it had drunk a bottle of red ink as the rose went through the second bloom from white to red.
Shocked, Riddle and the other students were left speechless as Cater had barely been able to video it all down halfway through the first bloom. When it was over, Cater finally sighed in disappointment, "Wawawa!"
"What?" Lotus questioned with a raised brow.
"Woah?!" Cater nearly jumped as Lotus laughed aloud.
As she thought this, she watched the stunned expressions of their faces from the corner of her eyes as Grim cried out with glittering eyes, "That was so pretty."
Yuu nodded with his breath taken away by the sight, "It's so breathtaking..."
In her mind using all three impacts, she sent out a sound of relief and said to them, "It was a little irritating, but I finally sorted out what the problem was."
Cater jumped up in bewilderment as Trey glanced over to Riddle only to find the dorm leader not very surprised to hear her voice.
"So, that was it..." Trey whispered quietly to himself with a wide smile.
"Well..." Lotus said to Riddle telepathically, "To be honest, I wanted to make it less troublesome, but... I apologize for the mess I brought to your territory and Happy Unbirthday... King of Heartslabyul."
Hearing this, Riddle was a little taken aback before he nodded quietly before saying aloud, "Looks like I was right... With this, we can go back to the party..."
He seemed to be in a hurry as he walked back to the tables. Trey and Cater wore a wide snickering smile as Lotus glanced over to dorm leader from the side and saw slight red ears and a small blush which others could hardly pick up if they hadn't approached him closer. Lotus raised a brow feigning confusion as a wide mischievous smile later played on her lips stifling back a giggle.
Haha... That's so cute!
After the party, Lotus brought Grim and Yuu back to return to his studies when she noticed other students getting rather hyped and jogging around the campus grounds. Curious, she looked around before recalling that there should've been some sort of sports event going on soon. It was the weekend, so there was no school making it a perfect time to do whatever they wanted. Lotus, however, still had some stuff to go through and help Grim with his studies.
"I still can't believe we didn't catch the guy who did it." Ace grumbled.
"Sure, but the roses all turned back to red in the end." Deuce responded, "So, isn't it fine?"
Ace and Deuce, who followed them, could stop talking about the prank Lotus had pulled as many speculated that it was the student from the Royal Sword Academy. However, Riddle didn't say anything as he only sighed shaking his head and said to everyone that it was just a prank pulled by a student outside of the dorm.
With that, nobody questioned the incident further. She had already brought sent a branch gifted to her by the roses to the ring to be planted around the mansion.
Hearing the bickering and chatter of the four, she could feel a warmth in her chest as she walked alongside them at her own pace with a smile on her face.
This wasn't all that bad, after all. This magic school place...
As long as she have these memories with her...
Suddenly, there was a strange coldness that overtook the warmth in her chest as she froze in bewilderment as a sharp pain ran along her stomach. She frowned before quickly pulling out a purple pill from her ring. She was about to put it into her mouth when Ace called out to her, "Lotus? What's up?"
She looked over and saw the four looking back to her. She plastered a smile on her face and threw the purple pill into her mouth, "Nom... Nothing. Just felt like having sweets after the tart experience."
"You didn't even have a tart..." Ace pointed out with a grumble before his eyes lit up, "Wait a minute! If you knew that dorm leader was gonna mess up on the tart when didn't you let us know at least?!"
"Ah..."
Feeling much better, Lotus didn't have the time to register her thoughts when Ace growled and glared at her with angry eyes, "You... I'm not gonna let you off either! No way! I'm gonna have you have a taste of my punch at least once before I'm satisfied!"
Ace began to chase after Lotus to which she responded feigning to be weak as she ran off dodging his punches sidestepping each step like a breeze.
"Wah..." Grim looked to her in awe, "Nice dodge! But, the tart wasn't really that bad..."
Lotus thought for a bit as she continued to instinctively move away from Ace's fist with ease.
Perhaps...
This wasn't so bad after all...
For now, she can enjoy this...
To enjoy the moment.