From the phone the video began with an advertisement with a narrator as a cute young man with short black hair stood before the screen surrounded by a forest. He wears a black sailor hat with red lining and bow patterns on top of it. He wears Royal Sword Academy's coat uniform. Underneath the coat is a sweater with the top part mostly in blue and the lower part in yellow. Patterns of squirrels + snowflakes in white and apple seeds in red can be seen on the sweater. Underneath the sweater itself is a shirt in a white-blue check patterns, and on the collar of said shirt has a red bowtie on it. Both collar of the RSA coat are decorated, the left collar has what seems to be Neige's magic gem while the right collar has 2 pins, each depicting 2 small birds.
Seeing his appearance, she was instantly reminded of the magic mirror's image from a couple nights ago. The anger from behind that young girl was oblivious to perfectly portrayed the current theme that was going on here. Seeing this, she can't help but glance over to Rook briefly as the narration began, "The most important thing is a light, powder-snow softness and to protect your delicate skin from UV damage."
Lotus watched as the boy brought out a strange container of lotion and said with a wide smile, "This magical sunscreen will make your wish come true."
"Felicite Cosmetics Precious Protection Base."
"Hey, come here." The boy reached out his hand to the screen with a bright and cheery smile.
"Oh yeah, I heard that the guy in the ad here, Neige, is gonna be in VDC too." Ace brought up as he muttered in hesitation, "Cater also mentioned that Neige is also the hottest celeb on Magicam right now."
Jamil thought calculatively with a frown, "Hmm. He'll probably earn a lot of votes at VDC."
"He's the representative from Royal Sword Academy." Rook noted.
"So that makes him the rival of us from Night Raven College." Kalim said an enthusiastic smile.
"That's right. Saying that our path to victory doesn't exist without taking him down is not an exaggeration. However…" Rook smile wide at the thought of competing against such a person that he began with his drama and nostalgic expression, "Ahhh. His rose-red lips, shiny ebony hair, and precious smile would win over anyone. As a rival, he is truly beaute!"
"Hm…" She frowned, "He does have a cute look… However..."
"We can't lose." Yuu said with a driven expression.
"My tuna can treasure trove dream is on the line for this competition, y'know!" Grim pointed out firmly, "We're taking home the win!"
"Looks like you still only think of your belly." Lotus sneered.
"Sh-Shut up!" Grim huffed and looked away hiding his obvious embarrassment, "I gotta eat too, ya'know!"
"All right, Lotus, Grim. Knock it off." Yuu said with a small chuckle.
"Everyone, enough with the mindless chatter, pay attention to the dance video!" Vil said in a loud voice to bring their attention to him before whispering to himself as he stepped away from them, "This time for sure. I will not lose to you."
His voice was so quiet that no one should be able to hear him, but it was different for her and Rook for they were both special in many ways including a strong set of senses. Each word that was whispered under his breath was simply as clear as day to them.
…..
In the lounge, Lotus was finally getting the chance to rest up and warming herself up. After the last few incidents of her collapse, she had been scolded by Yuu shortly after her return. It wasn't any different from the last time after she found that Rook and the others were staying in their dorm as a training camp. She had wanted to go and study in her room but quickly found the temperature to rapidly decrease enough to make her worry of Yuu's concerns. Ever since she's been placed into a family with Yuu and Grim. Yuu has been growing more and more attentive of her. He still doesn't question her whereabouts the way her mother and father does, but he does worry when she seems to be freezing to the touch from just her palm and often wonder why her temperature would be so low. It would be better if he didn't always check her palm so often otherwise it would only give herself away. However, he can be quite insistent at times, which creates nothing but trouble. However, just as she entered the lounge, she noticed a familiar figure sitting on one of the old sofas with a phone in hand and frowned.
"Mira, Mira on the phone." Vil began as he called out.
"Yes. What are you searching for?" The mechanical voice responded devoid of any emotions.
"At this moment, who is the most beautiful one of all?" Vil questioned.
"Searching the web for the account with the most mentions of 'beautiful'..." The machine responded, "Results: Neige LeBlanche."
There was a long moment of silence as the machine responded, "Would you like to share your search results online?"
"Just you watch. You won't be able to rest on your laurels for much longer." Vil scowled at the answer of the machine.
"Is that it?" Lotus gave out a small sigh and shook her head.
Vil turn his head around in bewilderment at that sight of the guy and frowned, "How long have you been here?"
"I'd say about a good five minutes." Lotus responded unabashedly.
"Then, you heard everything." Vil responded with a huff of dismay, "I didn't take you for an eavesdropper as well."
"Really?" Lotus shrugged, "I didn't really have to eavesdrop to connect your behaviour with what your phone has been responding with. Besides, I need this room too. After all, my room is starting to get a little chilly."
"Well, this dorm is run down despite its appearance."
"You're the one that didn't go against what the headmaster decided. So, can you really complain?" Lotus shrugged.
"You mean to tell me that you didn't pick this dorm yourself?" Vil raised a brow.
"Of course not." Lotus shrugged, "I only wanted to go where the supervisor was. I didn't say anything about what dorm I wanted to go to. Still, for it to have only been inhabiting ghosts for so long. It isn't all that bad. Beats sitting out in the cold and harsh elements."
"A freshman, like you, aren't afraid of talking against a dorm leader…" Vil sighed, "It only goes to show that the supervisor isn't strict enough."
"Does it seem so?" Lotus raised a brow and thought to herself carefully, "It doesn't seem that way. The last thing I want to do is go against the supervisor. He was such a small puppy at the orientation, but who knew that he could start barking at such a young phase. Now, he's gotten a hold of the dorm like he owns the place second to the headmaster. As expected though, only the supervisor can watch over the dorm leaders…"
As she said this with a sigh and plopped down on the sofa away from him, she took out the book and began to read. Vil didn't have time to register his thoughts when he noticed the porcelain tea set before her steam with warm tea as she sat by the fireplace. Seeing her ignore his presence that he's placed in the room, Vil was rather intrigued that this potato chose not to acknowledge his presence.
To be so daring and shameless at such a young age. He couldn't understand why the headmaster agreed to allowing Yuu be the supervisor instead of her. She wasn't afraid to fight against him and she was much more firm than Yuu was. Her stride held more pride and unwavering behaviour than the current supervisor. The headmaster wouldn't hesitate to make her a dorm leader or even the supervisor, if so.
Suddenly, before he could continue this train of thoughts, a heavy atmosphere weighed down on him out of nowhere as Lotus's voice appeared, "Would you like to be the first to try to do something against brother Yuu?"
However, as soon as he turned around, he could see that Lotus was still busy reading her book of strange character. Yet, he could still feel his palm rather moist with sweat the moment he touched his forehead. He hadn't been moving much, but the fast pace in his chest was enough to make him realize that whatever just happened didn't happen for no reason. He wanted to dismiss what had just occurred, but, at the same time, he also knew better than to test it out. If those words were true then it was clear that he had been threatened.
He frowned in bewilderment before quickly recomposing himself and frowned. Was she someone that couldn't be rivaled against? No, she's just a student here. The only thing he needs to be wary of is plotting against him and he has no reason to do this. In this world, only Niege is his only rival unfortunately.
However, from afar, he had already noticed her skin being rather pale but clean and unblemished and a full head of dark black hair. Her appearance reminded him of his arch-nemesis. Yet, there was still one thing that stood out amongst these simple, yet pristine features and that was her purple eyes. there was something off about them. Amongst all of it, why was it that her eyes looked dead to him?