"Finally, it's over today!"
Ruggie grumbled after placing a few madols into his pink warthog piggy back and leaned back in his chair after stashing it away. He breathed a sigh of exasperation and muttered under his breath in dismay as he recalled the huge crowd that afternoon to evening. With Halloween week close to drawing into a close, he heard that there would be something they could do to fix the problem, but he could only hope it all works out in the end anyway.
"And we have to get stuff together to chase those magicam monsters out..." Ruggie sighed again, "So many problems..."
It was then that he noticed something white move outside of his window.
"Huh?" He got up and looked over to the window curiously, "Was something there?"
"Wahhhhh!"
.....
"You were lucky to have survived the fall..." Lotus shook her head and sighed as she bandaged the shoulder of the freshman with the cheetah ears, "And you didn't give your freshman a concussion."
"Yeah..." Ruggie sighed with the bandage around his head and scowled, "But, I gave myself one!"
"But vice dorm leader rarely ever messes up..." The cheetah freshman said curiously rather than angrily.
"I'm telling you I saw something out the window, but slipped." Ruggie insisted in exasperation, "If I knew that I wouldn't be putting my hands on the edge..."
"We still have to push out those magicam monsters tomorrow..." The other cheetah groaned as he thought about his injured arm.
"What bad luck..." Ruggie shook his head and sighed in dismay, "We have to be there to give a hand too if we want it to be successful..."
According to Riddle during their conversation the night after she had visited the lilies, the dorms would pull off a "test of courage" in order to chase off these magicam crazy people, whom would even break laws for the best pictures to gain more and more of these "Likes" votes from their viewers and are referred to as "Magicam Monsters" by Cater. So, everyone is putting their all into scaring away the monsters at night, but, to do that, they'll need to move around a lot and these two are injured. Lotus thought for a bit before she sighed and pulled out her porcelain vial the size of her palm.
Two pills plopped out onto her palm, "Take these. They'll lessen the pain later on. Better than pain killers."
Ruggie looked to her in confusion, "Uh..."
"It's approved by the nurse if that's what you want to know." Lotus responded with a scowl, "Since you guys will be pushing out those magicam monsters, we can't have the two of you be running around while under pain. I can't have them ruin all of the books in the library, so the fewer there are on campus altogether, the better. They're medicinal pills I've coated with honey to help against the bitter taste. Swallow it if you can't handle the bitterness. Having it with water would lessen the potency of the pill."
"Uh... It's not that bitter, then?" The cheetah student said curiously.
"That's what you're worried about?" Ruggie said with a sigh before picking one up for examination, "It smells a little familiar..."
The other picked it up and plopped it into his mouth. It was strangely very sweet at first on his tongue till he chewed it causing an explosion of bitterness in his mouth. He cringed and was about to open his mouth.
"These things aren't easy to make and we don't have pain killers at the moment. Do you want to stay in pain for the rest of the week or taste momentary bitterness?" Lotus said bluntly.
The student froze in place and was forced to swallow the pill in his mouth before gasping for breath with his tongue sticking out. Cruel! This guy was just way too cruel forcing him to eat something so suspicious!
However, Lotus wasn't worried in the least and knew what he was thinking with a small huff. It was him who still chose to swallow it in the end, after all.
"He actually swallowed it..." Ruggie stared at his resident with a look of surprise, "and he's all right, it seems? Hm?"
"Huh?" The cheetah guy looked to his arm curiously before saying in amazement, "I-I don't feel the pain in my arm anymore!"
"Geh! It worked that fast?!" Ruggie stared at them in disbelief.
Watching the cheetah prod his arm in a daze, Lotus pouted, "What? You thought they were actually poison? Do you have any idea how much trouble I'd be in if I poison a fellow student? Also, stop picking on your injury already! The pains the one that's gone, not the injury! Believe me when I say that nurse won't be happy to see you return more than necessary if you are the cause of any long-term injury. I learned that first-hand."
"Ah... Right..." Ruggie wore a dry smile, "According to some students, you actually got the nurse annoyed once because you kept getting injured... We get it. But, how did you get such a weird medicine?"
"It's not that weird." Lotus responded with a frown, "This is something I learned from the east and it takes days to make because I also need to dry out some of the herbs. I also used the dandelions outside to make the agent that would paste the mixture together. Just because people regards them as weeds in their garden, doesn't mean they don't have their use, but you don't want to grab the ones with spikes. They'll give you stomach aches and really are weeds."
"D-dandelions?" The student stammered in bewilderment.
Lotus nodded, "They're edible. They're just so common that people disregard its uses. From tea to meals and medicine, they can be used. If flowers can become poison, then there are flowers that can be used as medicine. Ruggie-senpai should have a vast knowledge of these things, correct?"
"Eh?" Ruggie looked to her in surprise as he also downed that medicine and could feel its effects, "Th-That's true, but how?"
"Because it's one of your abilities that helped you get this far." Lotus responded, "I don't know how you came upon this knowledge, but you must've known about it. Dandelion has vitamins similar to vegetables and potassium much like bananas do. It's best to talk with a specialist regarding other flowers, but it should be known that dandelions are the safest flower to consume as long as you wash it well."
"As expected...' The freshman sighed, "Lotus really does know a lot of stuff that he's even become the nurse's student assistant..."
Lotus shrugged, "They're stuff ingrained in me so I can survive too. You two just be careful. You can take off the bandages tomorrow but don't use it too much in practice. I really don't need to see you return with a sprain by tomorrow from your morning magift practice and you two don't want it to hinder your practice more than necessary, correct?"
"I'll keep an eye and be careful." Ruggie responded for them with a quick and dry smile feeling as though he really shouldn't agitate Lotus further on instinct and he had often trusted his guts, "You should go back to the dorm quickly before it hits twelve, Zack."
"I understand." He nodded and quickly left the room, "See you later in class, Lotus!"
With him gone, Ruggie raised a brow, "He warmed up really fast. Anyway, how did you know I knew that dandelions were edible? I don't remember anyone other than Rook talking about it."
"It was a guess." Lotus responded bluntly as she put away the bandages, "Your character and speech made it easy to assume you had a difficult time growing up. You wouldn't have such speed and smooth speech to this degree if it hadn't started at such a young age repetitively meaning you relied on it."
Lotus sat down on a stool with a heavy sigh, "Just like the way I had to rely on my knowledge to survive, this is something you heavily relied on to survive. The result of something improving from the will to survive can even surpass something that is improved by just a vague strong will because to survive is the will to live, the strongest one. Your movements at Mostro Lounge was one example of your capabilities."
"Yeah, but it's not something I always use." Ruggie pointed out with a scowl feeling rather offended.
Lotus nodded with a sigh, "Isn't that why you're here? Because you know it's not the best thing to rely on to live well. A proper job and good pay, so you can live well and less risks. The fact that you're here to live better because you know the higher risks of living like that is already admirable. I wish you the best of luck. After all, luck is also a skill in life."
"Okay?" Ruggie responded rather in confusion and a little nervous.
After leaving the room, Ruggie breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered his ears nervously, "What the hell? Did he always have that weird vibe?"
He had interacted with Lotus a few times before, but he never felt as uncomfortable talking with the guy as he did now! Just what did this mean?
Ruggie shook his head with a sigh and grumbled, "Just what am I thinking? How could there be any meaning?"
However he continued in thought and confusion, "But, there's quite a few times that instinct is much more reliable than reason. But, why him?"