Lotus knew that Crystal would be gentle with the youngling as she could feel the butterfly understood what position the kirin held between them. With a short order, she had summoned the rest of the butterflies into Lotus's ring where Xiao Li brought them to a wide field of flowers. Seeing their new home, the butterfly was quite please with the abundance of Qi, or energy, in the air and the abundance of flowers for them to gather nectar from.
Lotus knew that the butterflies were different from normal butterflies. Aside from the scales that could be grown back, they had wings that would occasionally be replaced like the skin of reptiles. So, she didn't put down the offer after hearing the butterfly propose to hand her the remains of the scales and silk. Though most butterflies used chrysalis during metamorphosis, Crystal and her kind uses the silvery silk as their cocoon instead. When woven by them, it comes out light, durable and waterproof. To make it better was it that could be dyed to whatever color is needed, but due to the waterproof characteristic, this could last from weeks to months.
However, Lotus wasn't new to this and have been using dyes during the start of her rule in the previous life. Flowers, fruits, leaves, she had been using them all to produce her desired color. Since her rebirth, she has taught Xiao Li and Ying Hui how to make the colors and they have been experimenting since then.
After sorting out everything, she applied the antidote to the wound and wrapped it up. She grimaced in pain when she accidentally touched the wound. She was seriously too reckless. She has accumulated more serious injuries in these last two months than she had in a year before arriving to the school!
With this, she would have to sit out on the participation for the game regardless and that wasn't fun, but she can't have them catch her so easily and make Yuu and Grim sad. Ace and Deuce would be annoyed with her if they found out she's been doing stuff behind their backs too.
She sighed and left her ring to clean up the rest of the dust and washed off the nectar of the Zhi lilies before tossing away the stone. After doing so, Lotus went ahead and made her way back to the entrance when she heard something rustle in the corner. She scowled and lept up into the darkness with her ability on.
"Nothing?" A familiar voice spoke up.
It was the elder man from before.
"No." the same man from before responded, "However, my spiders said that there were signs of struggle in the area..."
"And?"
"And..." The man hesitated nervously, "The stone last showed that someone had obtained a kirin and it had killed her..."
"Useless!"
"Gah!"
She remained quiet as she listened on from behind a rock as she heard the guy fall to the ground.
"You should be grateful that I let you live this long if not for your spiders."
The younger man spoke up, "P-Please give me two more days! My spiders found that there will be an event in the next two days. A well-known country has been invited to attend and they would be bringing their young prince who's still a child. I've found a reliable person to trust on this and they said as long as I kill the young prince and pin the blame on the king's younger brother. He'd help us with the chaos. Once I kill him, everything would be in chaos and we could come as go as we like."
The older man was silent before he snorted, "Fine... Two more days. Take someone with you, this time. If you fail again, I'll kill you instead! Hmph!"
With that, Lotus heard the man walk away before the other did the same.
Lotus, however, frowned and stayed in her spot. A young prince...
The first person she thought was Leona who was the prince of Sunset Savannah, if she remembered correctly...
But, they said that the young prince was still just a child. If they cause chaos here on the school grounds, Savanaclaw would have a huge hit to their reputation, and not just them, but Night Raven College as well!
She frowned and decided it would be time to go into politics and the first person that crossed her mind was only a single scheming cat. Lotus sighed before walking out from her hiding spot and splashed water over the splash of blood on the soil.
She reached the dorm where she saw that the lights were closed but the barrier was still unharmed. Quietly, she strengthened the barrier with a few more additional changes then used the repellant around the entrance inside and outside.
After leaving the dorm behind, she headed straight for her dorm and slipped into the room through her window. After watering the purple flower she had grown since before her arrival to the dorm and its bloom shortly after on the day of her arrival. The seven crystal purple petals glowed a beautiful color that shone in the night and glittered under the sun. She had yet to learn what sort of species it was, but she had to agree with her mother that it was beautiful. Lotus would like to see if become a fairy one day, but it was a flower of this world so it probably isn't as simple as it had been for them in her world.
.....
The next day during lunch, Ace and Deuce was surprised when Yuu brought up that he and Grim needed to study during lunch hence they brought their notebooks with them. Ace questioned in confusion, "What? Grim is actually volunteering to study?"
Lotus raised a brow but didn't say anything as she continued to dig into her pasta that Deuce recommended her to try since she kept having sandwiches. Yuu sighed, "Last night, Grim fell asleep while studying on the bed. He forgot we had a test later today and has to study."
"He should've started his studies three days ago." Deuce noted as he put down his notebook, "I made some notes. You can take a look."
Grim and Yuu peered over and they grumbled, "Dude, you've even put in Lucius meowing in the entire dialogues."
Lucius is Professor Trein's familiar cat that often accompanies the professor in every session, especially in the subject of foreign language where Lucius plays an active role talking with the students in cat language.
Lotus raised a brow and looked through Deuce's notes curiously before looking to Deuce and said bluntly, "Some of these information aren't very important and are less likely to appear on exams. If you look here..."
Lotus pointed it to the parts where Deuce copied down Lucius meows and continued, "These are just Lucius's comments on the topic Mister Trein lectured to us about. From how I remember the last few quizzes and tests, he doesn't bring that up. Rather, focus on the books and the details he gives explaining the topic."
Deuce looked to the points that she marked in pencil with a nod, "I see... That'd help me during the test."
Lotus nodded, "The test he's going to give out today probably centers around the development of staffs and scepter. You should be familiar with the Queen of Hearts and a few other important figures in the Great Seven. They used such tools as well. I believe Mister Trein would bring up at least one or two of the figures on the test. they should be easy points, so don't get them wrong, Grim. Or I'll deduct a can of tuna from you."
"F-fgna!" Grim nodded his head vigorously, "G-Got it! I got it! Just please don't deduct anymore of my canned tuna..."
Deuce and Ace looked on the notebook curiously as Ace said in disbelief, "D-Deuce's notes actually became neater! This is a miracle..."
Deuce glanced over to her in bewilderment, "Once midterms come around we'll know who's getting first place."
Lotus raised a brow in confusion, "First place? I'm not going to aim for that."
"Hah!" Ace smirked, "Yeah, I mean, it's pretty hard to get even into the top fifty-!"
"I'm aiming for third."
"Pfft!"
As Ace accidentally sputtered on his drink, Lotus's words broke a look of disbelief upon them as Grim grumbled with teary eyes, "That might actually be possible, though."
"Yeah, but why third place?" Deuce raised a brow in confusion.
"Exactly!" Ace wiped his face and glared at her, "We work so hard to get better grades and here you are aiming for third when you could've gotten first! Come on, where does that put us at?"
Lotus shrugged, "Well, I like challenges. And... Cause I feel like getting third place."
"You seriously have bad tastes..." Ace grumbled staring at her with a deadpanned manner and slight irritation, "Isn't that just bullying those that doesn't have such good grades?"
Lotus shrugged, "I've continued to study everyday and even helped Grim and Prefect. The way I achieve things is my own choice anyway. Besides, in the end, I'm still studying for the tests. So, I'm not breaking any rules."
"Dang it..." Ace grumbled, "I'd like to be in your position and get into the top fifty. Hell, even first place!"
Deuce shook his head with a sigh, "Me too..."
Lotus smirked as she watched them dispair. In truth, part of her wanted to do this to mess with them too, but she really need to help Grim study. She turned to Grim with a wide sneer, "Now that I'm organizing Deuce's notes, you better listen in carefully and not get below an 80... you hear me, Grim? Prefect's grades are also riding on your shoulders..."
"Y-Yes, sir!" Grim shuddered in horror when he heard her words.
Ace sighed with a grumble, "Ahah... Grim sure as it difficult with mother Lotus. It must be nice that the headmaster let you have a separate grade sheet in subject where you don't need to use magic."
Lotus sighed in exasperation, " Grim always does well in athletics anyway. Also, do I look like a girl to you, Ace?"
Ace was about to rebuke when he saw the mischievous sneer on Lotus's face. He froze and grumbled sheepishly, "As if!"
Lotus raised a brow feeling a little disappointed and more in annoyance but raised a brow while feigning a sputtering laugh, "Really? I kept getting told that I looked rather feminine. Glad that not everyone thinks that way."
Ace couldn't really tell her that she really does look like one even if he wanted to. Not with that foreshadowing smile of hers. If that happens, he'd rather be painting the flamingoes in Deuce's pink leopard print pants instead! It was like going against his dorm leader's collar all over again!
By the end of lunch, Deuce had gotten a clearer mind for their next class while Ace and Grim struggle to keep everything in their head with Ace not even sure how he gotten himself roped into studying with them in the first place!
.....
That night, Lotus received a surprise text message from Riddle as she was getting ready for her trip to Savanaclaw that night!
"Let the Prefect know that everything has been prepared for tomorrow. Also, be careful, Lotus. Trey told me that you might not be participating the games tomorrow with Grim."
Lotus laughed a huff as she sat back down on her bed with her phone in hand, "Hah. So, Trey noticed. That guy really has the best observation skills of the dorm. Might as well tell the truth."
Lotus texted the message back.
"Yeah. I accidentally hurt my shoulder while trying to catch Grim last night. Don't tell Grim or Prefect, though. They can get really concerned about me. So, I'll stay on the sidelines for now and feign nausea from tomorrow's incident."
It hadn't been less then five minutes when she got a reply back, "You should be more careful and rest up, then. After the games, there will be the tests. Our freshmen has been complaining how it's been a waste that you should aim for third place."
Lotus smirked and responded, "I appreciate your concern, dorm leader Riddle. I'll turn in early tonight. Ace and Deuce haven't been very happy since I told them that, but I like a challenge. If I say I want to get third place, then I'll go get third place. However, you have the tests and a game coming up, yourself. Don't worry about me. Can't have you doing poorly because of me, can I? You're not trying to guilt trip me later, right?"
She put her first smiley emoji with the tongue stuck out next to the text as she sent it out.
Finally, she added another text, "Night!"
With that, she stuffed her phone away after turning on the silent mode and snuck out again after letting Grim and the Prefect know that she was turning in early because she stayed up too late the past few nights and not to disturb her. Her concern was for naught as she knew Grim had used up too much stress with his tests that day trying to score higher and save his precious ration of can tuna.