Chapter 49 - The Plan

Lotus nodded, "I do. In the next few hours, there will be a tournament of a magic sport. However, there will be many spectators both commoners and royalties. What concerns me is a young prince they are aiming for. The child's uncle is a student at the dorm. If the child is harmed, it won't just be the dorm getting their reputation hit again."

The fairy nodded, "This academy and the student would also face problems."

Lotus smiled, "So I was right. You're here to watch over the residents of this dorm."

The fairy dismissed her words as she stated, "I've made an agreement to watch over the safety of the residents. However, I do not interfere with their personal affairs. Their affairs have nothing to do with me. This time, the trouble also involves with a resident coincidentally. If not, I would not have raised a hand."

Lotus nodded with a knowing smile as she folded her arms lazily over her chest, "Yes, yes. I'm grateful for your offer to help."

Though feeling slightly annoyed with the girl's conceited attitude, the fairy flicked her sleeves and picked up a starry color lily from the field and handed it to her, "Take this and listen well..."

.....

That morning, Lotus heard a loud knock on the door and left her room after double-checking the ring on her finger. Sending her energy out, she noticed that it was Jack. With a raised brow, Lotus rushed to the door and opened it. The guy was in his athletics uniform and covered in sweat. Lotus raised a brow and quickly let him in, "Jack? Good morning. You're here to check on the prefect?"

The wolf guy nodded, "Ah, I came in the middle of my morning run."

"No one else knows you're here?" She looked to him in surprise.

Jack answered bluntly, "Only someone from Pomefiore dorm. Today's the magical shift tournament. I can't let the prefect oversleep."

Lotus nodded with a sigh, "I'll show you to his room."

As they walked up the steps, she said with a smile, "Looks like you've taken the antidote, after all."

Jack raised a brow, "I thought you didn't care if I take it or not..."

Lotus shrugged, "I don't."

"Then why bring it up?"

Lotus sneered, "I was curious if you'll actually take it or not."

Jack shook his head in annoyance as she brought him to the door. Lotus then left to her room and prepared some of the things she had made the night before in the ring.

.....

At the side street near the stadium, numerous stalls have been set up with strange potions, items and food stalls all over. Because the tournament would be taking place at the Savanaclaw dorm's field, there has been a magic tool set up at the entrance of the stadium that would ring the directly to the Savanaclaw's magift stadium.

"Fffnaaah!" Grim cheered at the sights and smells of the stalls, "There's so many things to eat! Churros, fried cake, and there's smoked chicken, too!"

"Tch~." Ace groaned, "In the end, I didn't get picked..."

"Same..." Deuce muttered in disappointment.

"There's always next year." Yuu reminded them with a small smile.

Deuce nodded firmly and looked up with more determination, "But we've got an important job to do today. We've gotta focus on that."

"You're right." Ace nodded with a new smile, "We'll give it our all."

As today was an event for the dorms, they were obligated to wear their dorm uniform that they wore to their dorm's tea party. Ace wore a white shirt, with a diamond-patterned, red vest covering it while Deuce's cest was black. Over the vest, he wears a blazer that the others in his dorm wear. With it, he has a black and yellow ribbon around his waist, and red and white high tops. He also has the white trousers. It was almost exactly the same for Deuce apart from the black vest.

As for her and the prefect, they had the same outfit that they've worn to classes. Lotus sighed and patted Grim's head, "You can have some after the game. However, you can't have everything here. There's always next year too."

"Seriously?!" Grim looked up to her with a wide smile and cheered, "Yahoo! I'm gonna have a victory feast!"

Lotus shook her head in exasperation, "He didn't hear me again, did he?"

"He'll come to his senses when the games are over." Yuu reassured her as he shook his head in defeat.

"What's that takoyaki thing?" Grim stared at one of the stalls in awe, "I wanna eat everything!"

"Eat. It. Later!" Ace hauled Grim by the ribbon with great force, "We have to go!"

"I'll be going to the audience and help the others escort the audience later." Lotus said, "You and Grim be careful. Since Ace and Deuce are around, there's not much for me to worry about."

"What?!" Grim scowled, "What about me? I can use magic too!"

Lotus flicked him on the head, "It'll be difficult if it's just by yourself. Don't forget you're still a freshman too. It'll be better for us to stick together in groups till we get stronger."

Deuce nodded, "Lotus does have a point..."

"Dang it..." Grim muttered and folded his arms in annoyance.

"I'll get you the takoyaki after the games are over." Lotus responded and patted Grim on the head.

"And that Yakisoba noodle! Candy apples and..."

"Yes, yes..." Ace grumbled as he dragged Grim away to their spot.

Lotus then walked away with a smile after waving to Grim and the group.

"Be careful!" Yuu called out.

Lotus disappeared into the crowd as she used her ability.

"Eh... Ahem!" She could hear the announcer's voice on the speakers, "Welcome to the Night Raven College Inter-Dorm Magical Shift Tournament!"

Hearing this, Lotus lept over the stalls and continued to make a dash into the stadium where she was brought to the spectators seats.

"We apologize for the long wait. It is finally time to welcome our competitors to the field!"

The audience cheered from their seats with hats, banners, ribbons, and so on accessories. There was spectators on all sides leaving hardly any room for others to take a seat. There was so many people! It was like that time she had attended her sister's dance performance!

As the announcer went on to introducing the dorms, Lotus noticed the black uniform similar to the ones Sebak and Silver wore with the black cap on their heads. She went on to find the child when an idea hit her. She stopped in her tracks and sent out her butterflies disguised as monarchs. Not even ten minutes had passed when one of the butterflies reported back to Crystal.

It would seem that Leona has already made his first move.

The ground suddenly shook as the many people suddenly began charging from the interior stadium to the outside of the stadium. Suddenly, screams filled the air as the thundering sounds of feet rushed down the aisles to the side of the stadium where the students were awaiting their entrance into the stadium from the side mirrors.

It was a good thing Lotus had hidden herself in the corner of the spectators' bench.

"Oh no?!" The announcer cried in bewilderment, "What exactly is happening here?! The audience have started running headlong down the street and dragging others into their charge! Calm down, everyone! Please calm yourselves!"

"Spotted the person using the magic." The butterfly responded, "He's finally starting to get tired, but he's gotten very weak."

Lotus nodded, "Good. Keep watch on him. Let me know if anyone unusual comes close to him. Let me know as soon as he uses his magic after this. We can't let a second overblot occur."

"Yes, sir." The butterfly responded.

"The panicked audience is heading straight for the Diasomnia team!" The audience continued and panicked, "Get out of the way, everyone! Please get away!!"

Despite Ruggie no longer using his magic, the audience was still in a panic and continued to run. Lotus scowled and called out to Crystal nervously, "Still no sign of a lion eared and tail child?"

"My apologies, sir." Crystal responded hesitantly.

"Just keep looking." Lotus ordered, "Especially amongst the stampede."

"Found him!" Crystal called out, "One of my people found him! However, his hair color is a little lighter than the dorm leader. Oh, wait. A tall man has came to his side and called him... Cheka. Yes, his name is Cheka! But, the stampede of people hasn't stopped!"

"Lead the two out of the stampede!" Lotus ordered.

There was cries from the students side as Lotus frowned and released her ability to help the audience file out of the spectators' seats. It was then that she came across a familiar figure trying to sneak away from the spectators seat. She grimaced and slipped away into the crowd before using her ability. She swiftly stalked the man as a familiar voice entered her head, "Master, a man and woman in blue clothing has appeared and safely helped us escort the two out of the path."

"Good." Lotus breathed in a small breath however that was stopped short.

"They're both in a type of clothing similar to ours." Crystal responded.

Lotus frowned, "Keep an eye on the two groups."

"Yes, sir."

As Lotus stalked the man outside of the stadium, she noticed him jump up into a tree. Lotus narrowed her eyes and followed after him as he led them to the forest behind the dorm. Lotus smirked and threw a white stone on the ground.

"Wha-?!"

It was then that a deep purple fog began to drift in the wood forest before her trapping the guy in it. She thought for a bit before turning to leave. She rushed back through the trees to return to the stadium. Rushing through the abandoned stalls, she quickly turned off her ability and hurried back when someone grabbed her arm. She spun around and found that it was a tall man with a blue robe, white belt, long black hair tied back into a ponytail like hers, and a pair of brown eyes.

"Where are you going?" The man asked.

Lotus frowned, "To the stadium, there's not much time left."

"Left till what?" The man asked with a raised brow as he strengthened his hold on her.

Mid level gold cultivator.

Lotus could see his level right away. She was quite impressed that this guy can reach this far at probably before the age of twenty. However, she easily brushed him off and used her ability to hide herself before rushing back to the stadium when she saw that the Savanaclaw members had their necks locked to a collar and the figure she had saw with the purple and black hair came in the green and black uniform. It would seem that he came as Malleus representative. Recalling that it was the guy back at the ceremony on the first day of school and Riddle's texts, this should be Lilia,the vice-dorm leader of Diasomnia.

The plan had been to let Riddle get in contact with Malleus and come up with an act. They would pretend that they would fall for Leona's trick and get run over by a stampede Ruggie would pull off with his magic, "Laugh With Me". Then, have Cater utilize his magic to disguise his clones as the Diasomnia students. If his other selves were the ones getting trampled over, everything would be fine since there was no backlashes and the Diasomnia students would finding a hiding place till the event was over where Riddle, Lilia, and the Prefect would pull away the second cover over Savanaclaw's eyes to reveal they were the one that had gotten fooled instead. This was suppose to be the plan before they would capture Leona and the others, but Lotus felt that something was off with the dorm leader the night before. As if he was rather stressed before he made that call.

This led her to keep a closer watch on them worried that there would be a second Overblot.

However, something was wrong. There was a strange shift in the air as everyone stared at Leona who was tightly grasping Ruggie's arm as the poor hyena guy was dangling in the air in pain from the hard pressure of the hand on his arm. The ground shook as everything around them began to turn into sand dragging the Savanaclaw members down into a quicksand. There was sand particles kicked up into the air as Lotus scowled and looked to Leona. She was too late!

The guy really lost it!