Lotus was very confused. Humans were one thing, but magicians and those whom she had interacted with were another. She just wasn't sure how she feels about it. However, no matter how much she pondered over it, she just wasn't sure at all. Just what does she think of the people before her?
"I..." Lotus hesitated in confusion, "don't hate you guys or anyone in the school..."
Riddle and the others could easily detect the note of confusion in her eyes to which Riddle nodded, "I see... Anyway, you said you were weaker than them?"
He changed the topic so as to give more time for her to ponder over the idea later if she could. Yet, he and the others were relieved to know that she didn't decide to give a straight up lie so as to betray their expectations later. Sometimes the quickest answer is the quickest lie.
Lotus nodded deciding to set it aside for later as they expected, "That's right. Let's see... If you have me and their leader face off, I'd be at a disadvantage."
"But why did they bring a little girl with them?" Cater pondered with great worry and sighed, "I can't really do anything against girls..."
"Hm?" Lotus raised a brow curiously.
"Really?" Trey raised a brow in surprise, "I'd never thought about that before."
"Because there's no other girls here besides the portraits and Peony." Cater reasoned nervously and sighed, "You could say it was the result of having three older sisters and me being the youngest. Boohoo..."
"So, that's why you didn't go near Peony before..." Riddle muttered in surprise.
Peony raised a brow, "Ah... Three older sisters... I once had a younger sister a long time ago... It was just the four of us back then, but she didn't have any cultivation skills so she often had to retreat behind us till she had to leave..."
Peony sighed, "Well, don't try to pity the girl too much or it can kill you in the future. The fact that she's favored by the master should have some reason."
"She did refer to the leader as master." Cater recalled curiously, "He didn't do some illegal human trafficking, did he?"
Lotus shrugged, "It's illegal, but human trafficking from where we came from are common and not illegal in our society. So, that possibility... is very likely."
Riddle scowled, "How did a little girl get herself into the underworld so quickly..."
Lotus sighed, "It's not that difficult. Her parents can choose to sell her for money, she could sell herself for money, or she was kidnapped and sold for money. In the end, it's all about money or she was straight up kidnapped. However, this is different..."
"Oh?" Riddle raised a brow, "How so?"
"Master is how you refer to your teachers. So, basically they are master and pupil and it seems she may be his favored one, so he's acting more biased towards her." Lotus explained.
Cater sighed in exasperation, "I thought so..."
Lotus nodded, "Also, she's not a little girl."
"Eh?" They looked to her in confusion as Riddle simply raised a brow.
"Her body is that of a twelve year old, but you shouldn't let that fool you. We have a flesh age and bone age." Lotus explained, "When someone starts cultivating, they would generally live longer than the others and age a lot slower the stronger they get. So, what you see is her flesh age which is twelve, but her bone age depicts her real age and that twenty."
"Eh?!" Cater's eyes shot wide open when he heard this.
Riddle hummed in thought with a hand on his chin, "I feel like I've heard of those terms before... Ah, that's right!"
He looked up in surprise, "It was in a medical book that Lotus gave me!"
Peony sighed, "Of course, it was that guy... Anyway, I can see that the girl is around the higher levels of Nascent soul, so she should be entering Ensoulment stage soon."
"That's seven stages..." Riddle grumbled.
Lotus nodded, "Since I can't feel her master's power, that only means he's stronger than me. Generally, we can only feel the level of those lower than ourselves. It's difficult to feel those higher than us. But, I think her teacher shouldn't be too far ahead anyway..."
"So..." Cater hesitated nervously, "If we let our guard down..."
"You'd be dead before you even knew you died." Lotus finished bluntly.
"Geh..." Cater grumbled in disappointment.
"However..." Lotus began with a sigh, "If you ever do come across them... You can say that they don't know how magic works."
"So, you're saying we can use that to our advantage to defend ourselves." Riddle clarified to his understanding.
"Magic has no level like Cultivators do. It all depends on how much mana you have in your body and the blot you produce." Lotus explained, "If cultivators use so much of these mana, we'd die because we live off of mana as you do food."
Riddle frowned, "I heard cultivators don't need to eat or sleep once they start learning."
Lotus nodded, "We don't. But that doesn't mean we don't do those things at all. For us, it's similar to entertainment into our lives. So, we do have restaurants and all since some of the people aren't cultivators. We only sleep when we lack internal energy."
"No need to eat or sleep and a long life as long as you practice..." Cater grumbled nervously, "Are you guys basically immortals?!"
"That's what I heard many are referred to as." Riddle agreed with a nod, "Immortals."
Lotus shrugged as she chewed on another seed, "Even if we are immortals, we have our weaknesses and can still die, so to you we are immortals, but, to other cultivators, we are similar to average people. We just age much slower than the average people. For example, if I fight that man in black with just brute strength and internal energy head to head, I'd be killed almost instantly."
Riddle thought for a bit before nodding his head, "I get it now. But, how can we ensure that your plan works?"
Lotus smirked, "You'll just have to wait and see besides..."
Lotus sighed as Riddle noticed her look of disappointment.
"I'll have to keep an eye on the Savanaclaw, especially their dorm leader." Lotus explained, "They're not fools, especially when it comes to their territory. They should've realized that intruders have crossed into their territories by now."
"Then isn't this bad?" Cater frowned.
Lotus nodded, "I'll have to start making an array to keep everyone inside, but it's difficult... For better or worse that the majority of the dorm leaders aren't easy to fool..."
Riddle sneered proudly, "Are you trying to compliment all the dorm leaders now?"
Cater sighed, "Well, aside from our dorm leader, we also have another causing everyone some trouble."
Hearing this, Riddle nodded in agreement rather sulkily, "Ah... You mean, Azul..."
Lotus shrugged, "Those guys did sign a contract without thinking of the consequences... They should just take this as a lesson to be more responsible and study themselves."
That or think a little bit more before striking the deal...
Riddle sighed, "There's just another problem... Kalim..."
"Kalim?" Lotus raised a brow, "You mean the dorm leader of Scarabia, right?"
"Yup." Cater nodded.
"He might not be as aware of the situation." Riddle muttered nervously.
"Not him." Lotus nodded in agreement, "But, I don't think it would've gotten past his vice-dorm leader."
"Now that you mention it..." Trey nodded in agreement, "You could be right about that."
Lotus added, "I'm planning to investigate the place during the winter break anyway. Right now, I'm keeping a look out in Octavinelle since I heard that the dorm leader and vice-dorm leader has been staying over at the ramshackle dorm as of late. Looks like the supervisor has made a contract with the dorm leader of Octavinelle, so they're staying over at Savanaclaw's dorm for now."
"Eh? How did you know that?" Cater looked to her in surprise.
Lotus smirked, "If you want to not let other people take advantage of you, you should know what goes on around you, right? I just found some interesting rumor that I decided to investigate so I don't end up missing a student into the enemy's grasps."
"I see..." Riddle nodded in approval.
.....
Suddenly, Lotus opened her eyes and found herself awoken by Ying Hui for class. Lotus had yet to tell the others a little more about the array, but it would seem that time was up.
.....
The days certainly went by fast. It hadn't even been long before it was already the third day. Lotus walked out of her room and found Azul and the others walking out of the dorms. Lotus raised a brow as she noticed Azul being in a fairly happy mood as he was the first to return to his dorm.
"Ah, Angler fish is awake." Floyd looked over and saw her with a smile, "Good morning."
"Angler fish?" Lotus raised a brow, "Well, good morning, I guess... Are you going to stop them again?"
"Yup!" Floyd responded with a bright smile, "Do you wanna join?"
Lotus shook her head, "I did say I'd stay out of this, after all. But..."
Lotus glanced back at the door with a frown, "Do be careful..."
"Hm?" Jade raised a brow as he heard her words.
"There's been a few cases of overblot as of late..." Lotus reminded them with a frown, "And I just saw that the gem on Azul's pen isn't as shiny anymore..."
"Seriously?" Floyd raised a brow curiously, "Heh..."
Lotus thought for a bit before shaking her head with a sigh of exasperation, "Nevermind... I'm probably just being paranoid right now, anyway... I'm going to the cafeteria, then. See ya!"
She then left the dorms for the cafeteria. The twins looked to each other curiously as Jade asked his brother, "Have you seen Azul's magical pen lately?"
"Not really." Floyd responded with a smirk, "I'm not always around him like you are. Wouldn't you know since you're around him more than me as the vice-dorm leader?"
Jade sighed with a nod, "That's true... I'll just have to take a look later... Then, again..."
He smirked as well, "It seems someone else is rather observant of him more than we are..."
"Huh?" Floyd sneered, "No way... Should we follow Angler Fish? I don't wanna..."
"Let's just follow Azul instead." Jade continued, "It's not interesting following after someone like Lotus."