His ears perked up as she continued, "When I came to this school, I didn't plan to come across you or your mother. However, while studying, I found that a bunch of bad guys had entered the school grounds to hurt everyone in this school. That's why I went out to Heartslabyul's dorm to stop them from trying to hurt Riddle and the other students, but I didn't realize they're plan when I arrived."
She breathed a sigh as she shook her head and continued, "The bad guys the group sent to hurt them was beast tamer. Not the kind Yuu is, but one that tames beasts before cultivators make contracts. Have Xiao Li taught you about contracts?"
Little Jun nodded, "A Beast tamer tames the beasts so that, when the cultivator makes the contract, they won't be hit with the backlash of the untamed energy of beasts. Then, when a contract is formed, we protect our contractor with our lives or we'd die with them."
Lotus nodded, "That's right. Because taming beasts requires a beast tamer, they make a lot of money from their profession. However, not every beast tamers are good people, Little Jun. They can be two-faced and make themselves look like good people but treat you badly. That's why you have to be careful in the future and stay with those who really care about you."
"I understand." Little Jun answered firmly.
"Sadly," Lotus continued, "the bad guy planned to use a Mythical beast to go wild on the dorm. The beast they planned to use at the time was your mother, a violet Kirin. One of the guys with them was a beast tamer and had caught your mother."
Little Jun's ears perked up in bewilderment when he heard this, "Mother was caught by the bad guys?! Then..."
Lotus shook her head, "Even if I caught the guy alive, I can't guarantee that I can break the contract."
Her words brought deep disappointment as he nodded, "Breaking the contract is equivalent to breaking a law of Heaven and Earth. Both contractor and beast would die by lightning for breaking the contract."
Lotus nodded firmly, "However, I was surprised after I killed off the contractor. I didn't know your mother was pregnant with you. She hid the evidence very well when she attacked me upon orders. I believe she was hiding you ever since she was caught and contracted to the very end. I never knew about you till everything was over. Your mother used the last of her strength to bring you to this world and that's when I found you next to your mother."
"But, Master..." Little Jun grumbled in confusion, "Master wouldn't hurt Little Jun..."
Lotus nodded, "If I had known a way to save your mother, I would've from the start. The most I can do is reduce the injuries on her and focus solely on her contractor. That's why..."
She shook her head with a sigh, "I wanted to bring you back to where your mother came from and find out if you have any relatives, but..."
Lotus grumbled in exasperation, "While I was knocked out and Riddle found us, you had somehow consumed a small portion of my blood and forced a contract instead..."
"Eh?"
Little Jun looked to her in bewilderment, "I... forced a contract?"
Lotus nodded, "That's right. The requirement for a beast to force a contract upon the contractor is the blood of the contractor and absorb a portion of the energy from their soul. That's why..."
She looked to him nervously, "Little Jun... What were you doing while I was out of it?"
"U-um..." Little Jun shuddered nervously in deep thought before speaking a loud, "I... I was just a little thirsty and cold... So, I went something warm on my mouth... Oh..."
Lotus shook her head with a sigh, "So that was it... That makes a lot of sense now..."
"Oops..."
Lotus tapped his forehead and said firmly, "It doesn't matter. What's done is done. I still need to bring you to find your relatives. They won't be happy that we have a contract, but you still need to know where you come from at least. Unless... you don't want to?"
Little Jun thought for a bit before responding, "I want to. But..."
He hesitated, "I still want to stay with Big Sister..."
Lotus nodded, "I understand. If you still want to stay with me after we find your family, you can stay with me. If you want to return, I'll find a way to break the contract."
"You can do that?" Little Jun looked to her in awe.
Lotus nodded, "The worlds are wide and the history long. I'll have to get stronger and travel for a long time before I can find a way, but there has to be a way for sure. I can't save your mother, but that doesn't mean you should follow her. However, I need to get stronger and return to our world. This world you're born in is not your origin, Little Jun. Your mother was brought here from another world. The world we came from. We'll find out answers there."
"I'll go with you, then!"
Lotus laughed and tapped his head with her knuckles, "Isn't that obvious? But, we need to be in this world a little longer. I still have to get stronger and find a way back. There are also bad people still in this school and we have to stop them."
"Okay." Little Jun nodded, "I'll help too!"
Lotus explained, "You can start by continuing your studies. I can't always continue protecting us. I'll need your help in the near future just like before and the people are getting stronger. We have to be stronger than them."
"All right!"
The heavy mood from earlier was quickly erased by the cheery neighs of Little Jun as he hurried back to his studies.
"Don't rush too much lest you reach a dead-end in your cultivation!" Lotus reminded him as he disappeared to the gates.
"Yes!"
Lotus shook her head and sighed in exasperation as she slumped back down on her chair. Ying Hui drifted in after seeing Little Jun make a run for it again.
"I really made trouble for you this time..." Ying Hui whispered guilty, "If I just rephrased that carefully..."
Lotus shook her head, "The situation with his mother should be mentioned sooner or later. I figured he was too confused to understand what had happened back then. Letting him understand that now is important. However, next time, watch your words around Little Jun. He's young and still rather reckless. He's going to live a sheltered life in here for the majority of his childhood. We'll have to expose him outside after he's strong enough to take on human form, but that won't be for a while. You can apologize to Little Jun later. Do not worry. He's a kind child. Just needs a little guidance."
Lotus sighed and got up, "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up before it's morning outside of the ring. It's been a while since I last slept."
"Understood." Ying Hui bowed her head feeling a little bit better.
"Now, can you and Xiao Li tell me about the other matters before I go rest?"
.....
When she woke up, she got ready for class and left her ring storage before heading out the door. As she followed Grim and Yuu to the cafeteria for breakfast, Lotus overheard how Yuu had met with Malleus during his walk. However, having never been to this world, he doesn't understand the significance much less who it was he had conversed with.
"Weeh." Grim looked to him in bewilderment, "A weirdo with horns on his head. What's his name?"
"He told me to call him whatever I want." Yuu responded.
"Then, what do you want to call him?" Lotus asked raising a brow.
"Hmm," Grim hummed a loud decisively, "Then... How about 'Tsunotaro'?"
"That might make him mad..." Yuu said curiously.
Lotus laughed as she recalled her conversation with him yesterday, "I don't think so. Not if he let you decide the name for him."
"You know the guy?" Yuu looked to her curiously, "Who is he?"
Lotus shrugged with a smirk, "If he doesn't want you to know then I won't tell."
As if not seeing him pout, Grim spoke up with a smirk, "If Tsunotary is a student here, we'll probably run into him at some point. You gotta introduce me. I've never seen a human with horns!"
"G'mornin', Prefect!" Cater called out with a wide smile.
"Ah, good morning!" Yuu looked up with a smile.
"Good morning!" Lotus smirked.
Riddle nodded and raised a brow when his eyes were on Yuu, "Hm. Your tie is a little off. Following the rules starts with your attire. Or else your residents will never listen to you."
Riddle paused in thought before continuing, "Although, I guess it's not as bad for you two being the only ones."
He reached out and helped Yuu fix his tie. Riddle nodded in satisfaction after fixing the tie properly albeit it wasn't into a ribbon like his, "Alright, there you go."
"Ace and Deuce aren't with you?" Grim looked around curiously.
Lotus shook her head with a small smile before turning to them, "It is rather unusual that they aren't the first ones here, though."
"In accordance with Laws of the Queen of Hearts; Number 249, they are currently feeding the flamingoes dressed in pink." Riddle explained, "By the way..."
Riddle glanced over to Lotus with a frown, "there was another accident last night."
Lotus nodded her head with a sigh as Grim cried out nervously, "Ffgna?! Really?"
"According to the portrait that witnessed it, the victim was a 2nd year from Scarabia Dorm." Cater explained, "Jamil Viper. It apparently happened in the kitchen."
"These portraits are like security cameras..." Lotus spoke up curiously having recalled the functions of those cameras in stores before.
"That's the dorm with the marron and yellow armbands." Yuu recalled having heard the distinction of dorms by the color of the armbands.
It was only their dorm that doesn't have an armband.
"Since it's still breakfast time, they're probably in the cafeteria." Riddle spoke up firmly, "they're probably in the cafeteria. Let's check."
Lotus nodded, "I have something to do, so I'll see you two in class, Yuu, Grim."
Riddle looked to her curiously before shaking his head in disappointment, "Very well."
"See you in a bit then." Yuu said with a nod, "And watch out from the culprit."
"Got it." Lotus responded with a light wave.
Intrigued, Riddle glanced over to Cater who caught this in surprise and sighed in exasperation but with a smile, "Understood..."
.....
Lotus was walking through the halls of the school as she walked over to the hall of mirrors where she used her ability secretly and entered the Savanaclaw dorm.
Once again the warm breeze of the dorm grounds hit her flicking her ponytail back as she came to the view of the dusty landscape. Seeing that everything was well, she hurried forward to find a plant of some sort after swallowing another throat constricting pill. As she went ahead further from the dorm, she received a notification from her phone and opened it to find Cater's message.
"You knew it was Ruggie the whole time?"
Ah, it looks like they found out...
And, it hadn't even been more than fifteen minutes.