It wasn't long before Lotus found herself in her soul realm again that she went ahead to the pond where she found Cater trying to figure out how to peel lotus seeds from the pods as soon as he noticed her, he said nearly teary eyed, "Peony! H-Help..."
Before him was a very hungry Little Jun who seemed to have taken a break from his cultivation for the day. Lotus raised a brow and turned to Trey and Riddle who was rather curious about the young horse. Lotus watched curiously as she noticed that the pod had a purple hue rather than a green hue and Cater was having difficulties trying to open it. Lotus took it from his hands carefully and inspected it as Cater began, "The thing was so hard I had difficulties opening it, you see."
Lotus spied on the numerous green pods on the ground next to him as she looked upon the young kirin with a mischevious smirk on her face, "How has your studies been going, Little Jun? From the looks of it, you must've come by for a while now."
"Yup!" Little Jun responded with a smile of sharp teeth which made Cater shudder, "I've learned how to manipulate soul realm and how to repair soul realm too!"
Ah, so it was like that...
Tilting her head, she smiled, "So, that must mean, you've reached Level five by now, correct?"
"Eh?" Little Jun raised a brow curiously, "But, Level five is when you have the option to turn yourself into a human form for few minutes at a time, right? I can't do that yet, Big Sister."
"That's right..." Lotus scowled with a dissatisfied frown and smacked him on the head with the pod surprising them all, "In the future, whatever you want you have to work for it! You can't always rely on everyone around you to do it for you. Even if we will be around you, you have to be able to do it on your own. What you want has to be done by yourself. If you want Lotus seeds, you have to peel it for yourself. If you want to become stronger than others, you have to learn more and train more. Teamwork is one thing, but, if you're unable to support your team because you're weak, how will you help those around you? It's fine if others are willing to do it for you, but don't always take things around us for granted. If something is important to you, you have to be strong to protect them with your own power too."
"Ow..." Little Jun whimpered with ears pulled back slightly, "I understand..."
"Also," Lotus sighed, "It's okay to play little tricks on people, but don't play pranks on your friends too much. There's a limit to how much someone can handle."
"Okay..."
"Eh?" Cater looked to him in surprise.
"Pranks?" Riddle narrowed his eyes in suspicions.
Lotus sighed, "I'll let it slide this time, but, next time, I'll have you memorize scriptures if you do this again."
Little Jun nodded and went back to hide behind some long grass, which he tried to follow the idea that 'if I can't see me, then they can't see me' type of thinking. Lotus turned back to the others and sighed before cupping her fist before them in a respectful manner, "Little Jun is at the age of thinking to play little tricks with the others. Please excuse him for his behaviour, Cater. He really meant no harm. I'll return with him later and properly educate him on his behaviour."
"Eh..." Cater was a little taken aback once he heard her apologies.
"It's all right." Riddle responded with a sigh of exasperation, "As long as you properly correct his behaviour later, then we have no problems."
"Right." Lotus nodded and turned to Cater, "Before you misunderstood, Little Jun would not whimsically cause harm on others unless they purposely harm him. He is a kirin and it is true he has the ability to harm others, but he comes from a line that makes it a taboo for him to recklessly attack humans on purpose."
"Eh?" Cater looked to her in surprise, "A taboo."
Lotus nodded, "Kirins have the ability to carry the messages of the heavens and decide the next ruler of the mortals, but they still have their limitations and Little Jun's ancestor can not recklessly attack humans. It is against the laws that runs in their blood. Breaking the law on purpose could create self-harm on themselves. It's similar to how cannibalism amongst humans could harm and alter the structure of the human body over long periods of time. For Kirins, it occurs in a flash and I'd rather not go into details about it. Just keep in mind that Little Jun can not harm you. Moreover, he has no intention of harming those he sees as friends or allies."
"Then, you mean we're friends or allies in his perspective." Trey clarified curiously.
Lotus nodded, "When you save the both of us a few months back, he remembers Cater and Riddle during that newborn state aside from me and regards you has friends in his eyes."
Cater nodded nervously, "So, that's it... I was wondering why he was stuck to me so close..."
"Right..." Lotus responded with a dry smile on her face, "Anyway, does anyone knew what happened to the dorm leader of Octavinelle? I'm pretty sure it was him who overblotted this time."
"You knew about it?" Riddle raised a brow.
Lotus sighed, "I was there to try and prevent it, but I couldn't suppress the dark energy from his body during the process when he lost control of his senses."
"Seriously..." Cater gulped, "Boy, are we lucky to have brought dorm leader Riddle back when we did..."
"All I can say is this..." Lotus grumbled, "Once you fall into the state of overblot, there's a limited amount of time before you succumb and cease to stand amongst us in this world. Instead, your overblot shadow would continue to linger around regardless of what occurred to your body. The strength of the shadow reflects how strong you are as a person then multiply that by a couple more folds according to how strong your negative emotions were."
"How do you know this?" Riddle raised a brow.
"I came across a few freshmen in the abandoned Dwarf's Mine when I saw one." Lotus answered.
"Eh?" Cater raised a brow, "Dwarf's mine... Didn't the last person who went there was..."
"Ace and Deuce." Trey concurred with a frown.
"You sure of this?" Riddle frowned with great concern as soon as he heard this with his eyes narrowed.
Lotus nodded, "Because I heard the cat say this when they managed to escape the first time they encountered the shadow of one of the miners that have passed. 'Wouldn't it be more lame to be expelled from school on the first day you started school?' So, I can assume they were freshmen who went there. I was on a mission by the Dark Mirror when I came across them. There was some situations going on in the Mine so I was there doing some investigations when I came across them. They dealt with the overblot of the miner on their own. Since they kept calling it a monster, I'm guessing they don't know anything about overblot."
"Wait, how did you know it was a miner that overblotted?" Trey questioned curiously.
"Because," She responded, "the figure was similar to one of the dwarf miner in an old photo in the abandoned home outside of the mines. Since they were all short but had beards, I assumed they were all dwarfs who once worked in the mines there. When they left, there had been a dispute or argument because the table still had an imprint of the bottom of a fist and it was small like a child. I saw those freshmen enter the home after I did, so I snuck out after they entered and followed them to the mines."
While Riddle was lost in thought, Trey and Cater was rather shocked to hear of this as Cater muttered, "So, it wasn't their first time taking care of an overblot."
"It was probably after our problem, that they learned of this matter and became more aware of this." Trey nodded with a frown, "I probably should check with them to make sure they were all right."
"It's fine." Riddle huffed, "Since Ace was well enough to be hungry and steal tarts that night, he should be fine."
Cater laughed, "That's true."
"We had a good tea party after that for the first time in a long time, didn't we?" Trey said with a wide smile.
Riddle nodded trying not to smile too wide, "It was a nice tea party."
It would seem someone is not honest about himself. Lotus smiled.
Lotus smiled before examining the lotus pod in her hand and smiled before handing it over to Cater, "Before I forget, take this with you. An apology for the prank our family's child caused for you."
"Eh?" Cater looked to the pod in confusion, "This..."
Lotus smiled and placed the pod into his palm, "You're still in danger of those guys in the mirror. Though I've taken care of one of them, there's still a few more left I'd rather not let anything happen to you three while I'm not there and do remember to follow the new rule your school teachers handed out this past week or so."
"Huh?" Cater looked at her in confusion with a few questions in mind but unsure of which to ask first.
Lotus smiled before leaving the group, "There's someone I have to check on, so I'll take my leave for now."
She looked to Riddle curiously having noticed that he had yet to give her an answer before turning around and walking away through the bushes then vanishing.
"Is she checking on Leona, now?" Cater questioned curiously.
"If I'm right." Riddle frowned upon realization, "It must be Azul, now... She did say she tried to suppress the energy in him and that would require her to send her mana into his body most likely."
"Eh?!" Cater looked to him in disbelief.