"That's right."
She responded back to the guy through the message and continued...
"Did the last victim tipped you about unique magic?"
"That's right."
The message responded rather quick. She wondered the face of the two after discovering it. Another message came in.
"Why do you think Leona would abandon Ruggie?"
Lotus looked back to the cliffside dorm to which she sighed and shook her head. Finally, she returned a text.
"Because the guy can't get his priorities correctly. Yesterday was proof of that and today's incident only means that he has gotten more stubborn about protecting his pride."
"So blunt!"
Reading the message with the shocked emoji, Lotus smirked and fought back a chuckle after reading the message. This upperclassmen of hers are so funny sometimes. Why can't she be blunt? It was the truth. Leona has lost all his senses just to protect his pride. She texted back.
"After losing the last two games to Diasomnia dorm, Leona must be at his wits end wanting to crush them once and for all. Doing that, his thoughts took the wrong turn and began implicating other players that could interfere with his plans. The player candidates with the most potential."
"Where are you now?"
"Can't say. However, I need to go quiet for about half an hour. Whatever you do, don't reach out to Ruggie."
"Oops..."
Lotus stopped in her tracks and frowned when she saw the text. She sighed and texted back.
"Too late?"
She suddenly heard a rustling and frowned before turning to her phone and moved her finger.
"Shoot. Gotta go. Don't let Grim do anything stupid if you can. He can be very reckless as you've seen."
Lotus didn't see the response as she hurried into the shade after switching her phone to silent. Hiding in the shadow, she could see a familiar figure walk out of the dorm to head off for the mirror entrance when it froze and scowled before turning around.
Lotus frowned and watched quietly when she saw that it was Leona. The guy stared in her direction with a flickering tail before he lunged toward her!
She smirked and moved away quickly from his grasp. Unlike Ace and Deuce, the dorm leader of Savanaclaw was swift and more fierce as he didn't stop to look before lunging in her direction. She quickly produced a bottle of perfume and splashed it onto him.
Surprised by the appearance of liquid, he braced himself for the impact. He grimaced as the liquid splashed all over him covering him in a strong scent of jasmine. Lotus smirked and hurried away quickly making her getaway for the outside of the dorm as she could hear the cursing of the scheming cat.
Away from the dorm, the land was flat and the air was humid and warm. She looked around till she found what she was looking for.
A yellow hibiscus with a black center.
"Found it." She beathed quietly.
She smiled in relief and began circulating energy with it as she touched the dirt ground feeling the soft earth under her fingertips. Sharing thoughts with it, she looked to the flower with a raised brow, "Niersi Lily?"
According to the flower, it was a flower that have absorbed the color of the three changes of the day. The petals could become a calm blue in the morning, the vibrant radiance of red and orange in the afternoon, and black with iridescent white specks in the night. That was when Lotus understood. Unlike the hibiscus that could tell here who came by recently, it would be better to ask this flower instead.
However, Niersi Lily is widely sought after in her past life. The fact that one still lives to this day piqued her interests. With this in mind, she looked around once more to find that nobody else was around, much less that scheming little cat. She smirked, thanked the flower, and got up to return to the class and start the day.
After drinking the remedy to the pill, she left the dormitory and the hall of mirrors before checking on her phone. To her surprise, Cater had sent a few messages while she was out. She sighed and calculated the number of canned tuna she would have to deduct from their own cat.
.....
That afternoon during club hours, Lotus was leading the horses back to the stalls with Silver, a Diasomnia student and bodyguard of Malleus. The guy has chin-length silver hair, purple eyes and always has the top button of his shirt unbuttoned. As for how she could pay attention to this small detail...
Compared to his colleague called Sebak who is her classmate, Silver was more composed and a little less strict than Sebak who always looked like he was trying to keep everything in line, including every small detail on himself. Both are Malleus's bodyguard and, despite being more laidback than the other, Silver is still rather strict on himself at times.
However, there was one major fault that she really disliked about this guy. It wasn't just about his appearance but also his attitude that really annoyed her. Whereas Sebak was fun to watch, Silver was just annoying to her eyes!
Everytime they work together, she can't help but want to glare at him! Yet, this guy knows only how to irritate her more by returning the glance!
For some reason, Silver could feel a shiver down his back as he looked back to find who it was that was glaring at him. He knew that there was eyes on him shortly after the start of the new term. Before it wasn't certain if his assumption was right, but he had a sneaking suspicion that his guess was on the spot. However, when he looked around, he saw that Lotus was busy locking the stalls. He frowned before turning back to the white horse before him.
After she was done, Lotus felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find that it was Riddle. The dorm leader said with a raised brow. She smiled with a nod, "Dorm Leader Riddle, is there something you require?"
Riddle looked to her in confusion before he nodded, "Right, actually I have something to discuss with you. It's about the insect repellant you given me the other day-!"
Lotus's eyes widen in bewilderment before she said hurriedly, "H-How about we talk about this somewhere else?"
Riddle raised a brow in surprise, "Is... something the matter?"
Lotus glanced around and could feel a different set of eyes on her. She shuddered when she saw that it was that silver hair student from Pomefiore dorm who was with the injured candidate that day. She wore a small smile and said, "Well, I was feeling a little hungry so I was thinking of heading to the cafeteria to make some food. You want to grab a sample later?"
Riddle had seen where her eyes shifted and narrowed his eyes in confusion but decided not to call out the student. After all, he wasn't their dorm leader seeing the armband on the guy. He shook his head with a sigh. It's always the first years that somehow get themselves into some many troublesome situations. Despite his exasperation, Riddle said, "Then, I'll come and take a look..."
"Great!" Lotus wore a small smile and walked out of the room.
Riddle followed after her with a frown.
After leaving the place as they headed for the cafeteria near the classroom buildings, Lotus sighed in relief as she said, "Thank you very much for following along with my suggestions."
Riddle shook his head with a frown, "Just what did you get yourself into this time?"
"Me?" Lotus raised a brow.
"Don't avoid the topic." Riddle said bluntly with a frown.
Lotus sighed in exasperation, "It's really not my fault."
"What do you mean?"
A few days ago, the Prefect and I were asking a Pomefiore student about the injury he sustained and I saw the burn on his hand so I handed him an ointment cream I was using for burns. The next thing I knew, a whole bunch of students from that dorm came looking for me. If I knew this would happen I would've just given him the aloe instead."
Riddle sighed, "Isn't that still your fault for sharing your secret away?"
"It's really not my fault!" Lotus pouted slightly in grief, "It's the other product's fault for not making something better than mine!"
"Seriously..." Riddle stared at her stunned and at a loss for words.
This was the first time, he's ever seen her say something shamelessly with ease. She was actually blaming the company instead?!
Riddle sighed shaking his head in disbelief, "Where's the logic in this...?"
Lotus sighed, "I mean, everything I used was from attainable herbs in the forest near my home. There wasn't anything rare or uncommon about them. Just manual effort. How was I supposed to know that it was better than the one those devices in the company made? They even used so much time and effort to make it while the one I created was from studies alone. Wouldn't it be their fault for not studying the herbs as a whole instead? They should start from there instead."
Riddle bit back another sigh worried that he might sigh to much for one day and only grumbled, "You..."
Despite his exasperation and disbelief, he can't help but pull a smile when he heard her words. It was really humorous when he thought of it. Riddle said with a smirk, "Then, why not make your own pharmacy in the future. With so much business, I'm sure you'll be able start a small business."
"Business?" Lotus raised a brow in deep thought before nodding her head, "That sounds... interesting..."
Riddle shook his head with a small smile before a thought brought back the seriousness on his face, "Anyway, your prefect and I decided to call off the search for the culprit."
"I figured." Lotus nodded with a sigh before responding with a look of concern, "Cater told me everything over the phone. Just be careful not to overuse your magic. To think all of this would happen, while I was hunting for a spider."
"A-a spider?" Riddle frowned and narrowed his eyes.
Lotus nodded, "I saw one last night while strolling with the prefect. The prefect didn't saw it though. I saw another one this morning. I'll tell you about it over the phone."
Riddle raised a brow, "Is that really all right?"
Lotus looked to him in confusion before she nodded as the meaning hit her, "Ah, yeah. They aren't too familiar with our technology."
Hearing this, Riddle nodded, "All right. Then..."
By now, they had reached the kitchen as Lotus smiled, "I'll make you and senpais some snacks. I don't know much about the rules of your dorm, so I'll make it so you can save it for later too if you don't want to have it right away."
"You were serious about it?" Riddle looked to her in surprise.
Lotus nodded, "Of course. Grim always tries to empty out the kitchen during dinner, so I ended up asking the staff to let me cook for Grim and Prefect instead. Since he's a cat, there's some things I want him to avoid eating... Before he kicks up with unneeded energy again..."
Riddle could pick up the meaning behind her words and nodded in agreement as he sighed, "Sounds like you have your hands full too."
Lotus wore a small smile as they entered the kitchen, "I guess. But, you and the other dorm leaders have to watch over the new freshmen too. Grim is already enough for Prefect and I to keep an eye on. After all, he would try to escape his studies to get cans of tuna from my room. If we're not careful, he might become too full to study later on."
Riddle entered the room and watched her cook once more as she easily picked out the ingredients she had stored in the fridge. When she was done and packed up the food for Riddle to take back, the dorm leader looked to her curiously, "That reminds me. The books you brought to me the other day were really... interesting."
"Is that so?" Lotus raised a brow, "I was thinking you probably wouldn't understand them too well."
"It took a while." Riddle responded with a frown, "However, the other day, Cater and Trey was helping me when Cater looked over my shoulder and could understand the words written on my paper."