"That's some ambitious ideas you have there." Ruggie responded with a sigh, "You know, you talk a lot when you're talking to others."
"Better than just trying to talk to myself." Lotus sneered after hearing this.
"Ugh... Fine. It's not like it's a bad thing though." He said with a grumble, "Here, the lettuce is sliced. Huh, you make a lot of fancy food for lunch and dinner, but you end up wanting to make a dish with this much lettuce?"
"It's gonna be all right, though." Lotus shrugged, "I'll have to throw the others into a fertilizer and what not if there's too much anyway."
"You're joking right?!" Ruggie looked to us in disbelief, "You're just gonna scrap all the other portions when they're still good?! That's just plain wasteful!"
Lotus complained, "But, there won't be enough mouths to stuff at this rate."
Ruggie sighed in disappointment and responded, "Then, how about you hand them to me if you're gonna dispose of them anyway?"
"That'd be great!" Lotus sighed in relief, "Then, let's finish the rest of the meal while the duck is roasting."
"Still..." Ruggie hesitated, "Why so many meat dishes...?"
"I don't know." Lotus shrugged, "Maybe if you can come up with an answer why so many bulky guys require so much protein and carbs, then I can give you the answer? I'm gonna dice the greens now. You take care of dicing up the onion and garlic."
"Onions, so many wild herbs and vegetables..." Ruggie hesitated as he could feel an impending dread over him, "What are you planning this time?"
"Planning to make lunch for everyone." She responded, "If you keep quiet about it, I'll hand you half of the other duck I'm roasting in the oven."
"Onions and garlic? You got it!" Ruggie replied instantly as he raced away to his side of the table.
.....
After having 'stuffed' Ruggie with the extra food, Lotus sent Ruggie to carry the luggage. Ruggie brought the group's lunch over to the Pomefiore dorm. As expected, Grim was the only one that stuffed his face full of the food as Yuu looked around curiously, "Where is Lotus?"
"He said that he had to take care of something outside again." Ruggie responded before eating his lunch with gusto, "He won't be back till tomorrow."
"Again, then..." Yuu muttered curiously in deep thoughts before nodding his head, "Thanks!"
Outside of the window, Lotus have switched into her black attire and watched the group go back to their practice only to huff a small laughter upon seeing Leona balancing vases of water from head to shoulder along with Kalim and Jamil. All of them whipped into shape by Vil. Seeing the other two working so hard together despite Jamil's annoyance was somehow a relief to her. As for Leona...
It was nice to see him receive the water treatment after having been dumped into the water herself. Yet...
Despite the smiling faces and enthused reaction, the cold did not fade from her chest. Why?
Maybe if she asked Yuu later, he would understand the reason for this? With that thought, she turned around and lept from the window into the forest.
It was a nice forest. Calm breeze, warm air and the fragrance of apples. However, as she went closer into the depth of the forest of apple trees, she noticed the faint stench of rot that made her wrinkle her nose.
Rotting flesh!
She hurried into the depth of the forest just in time to hear the sound of a thud of something heavy onto the ground.
She used her abilities just in time to see a small girl throw out her pink sharp edged umbrella at a large white peacock covered with burns!
Lotus reached out and grabbed a hold of the umbrella just as it was about to reach the peacock and played with it as she sighed, "Such a dangerous looking umbrella. You do realize that you can't bring weapons into a school without authorized permission, you know? I even had to get my authorized permission from four other guardians with status equal to that of the first headmaster. I wonder what should I do with someone that has weapons without permission? Hm..."
Seeing the child before him glance at him, the peacock huffed and shouted angrily, "Urgh... Don't let her off so easily. It's fine if she was just a normal cultivator, but she's actually an evil cultivator! If we let her go now, she'll massacre all the students here as they planned! People from that world who comes into this law abiding world for evil purposes will ensure death of their targets rather than torture!"
Oh? So, she's an evil cultivator now?
"Who are you?! Give me back my umbrella!" The red girl demanded angrily.
"Oh? But, I'm afraid that I can't do that. After all, anything with a sharp edge can be counted as a weapon. Bringing them onto campus is a violation to the rules." Lotus responded with a wide smirk on her face, "I'm afraid that something like this would have to be dealt by me in the end."
"As the fifth guardian and Guardian of Pomefiore dorm's little realm, I grant Peony Hui, student from Ramshackle dorm, the one time permission to wipe out the threat on my territory!" The peacock cried out angrily, "And do it before this evil cultivator dares to lay a hand on my students!"
"So, you're the god damned child of the Hui family!" The child cursed at her angrily and sneered, "Heh! So, it turns out that the Hui family was so unfortunate that they gave birth to a baby girl. Guess I'll do them a favor by making their parentless child a part of my cultivation process, then!"
She reached out and with a swift move forced her umbrella back into her small hand. She shot a wave of dark aura at her to which Lotus simply moved aside and dodged it. Lotus sighed in disappointment. If her master was also this arrogant and willful, then it wouldn't be that much of a problem to bring him down too.
"Lucky dodge!" The child sneered and teleported over to her side, "Die!"
The girl splashed a black liquid to which Lotus quickly used her magic to splash them back at the girl. The pain of her own poison sent a wave of pain at her as she screamed in pain.
"What's the rush?" Lotus sighed in dismay, "Has nobody taught you that a lady ought to introduce herself first before engaging into a conversation? I have yet to scold you for harming Pomefiore's guardian and you've already started jumping around. Seems like you even brought your toys along too. So ill-mannered."
"You, bitc-!"
There was a loud slap as the girl fell back and looked up in bewilderment at her.
"Y-you... you dare slap me?!" She pointed at her with a look of incredulous disbelief.
"And for that, I should." Lotus responded in an aloof manner, "Why give me such an accusing glare? You should be thanking me instead. After all, I am simply teaching you manners. Now..."
Lotus sneered, "Doesn't this seem rather familiar, milady? Perhaps it's just me sensing a brief moment of dejavu?"
"Shut up!" The girl screeched at her and a wave of corroding mana seeped out from her body!
Seeing this, Lotus furrowed into a frown as the girl got up with an angry look across her face and screamed, "Die, die... Go die for me!"
The black haze reached out to her and nearly reached her had the peacock Guardian not flapped his wings summoning wind to blow it back at her causing her to scream and struggle to fight back against the haze!
He grimaced, "This is...!"
"Corrupted qi!"
Lotus and the peacock shared a glance in alarm upon realizing the gravity of what they are dealing with.
She quickly put the girl aside and hurriedly went to see the injuries dealt to the guardian. His beautiful and flowing feather is now covered in his own blood and some had decayed from the cursed poison. His wing socket is also out of place as well. To create such a force with a dislocated wing...
"Don't move your wing for a while." She responded quickly.
"I know what needs to be done, girl, but this child..."
Being knowledgeable in medicine and poison, he isn't stupid. It looks like this girl isn't weak, after all. Just stupid. She should treat him quickly!
Through the searing pain, the girl could feel the skin melting from her face and her body as though it was being torn away. She could barely see the two quietly discuss from afar in a fit of scorching anger. They dare to ignore her too!
"The situation has changed..." The peacock grimaced in disgust, "Peony Hui."
"Present." Lotus responded firmly as she wanted to roll her eyes.
The peacock hesitated greatly before he scowled, "Heed my orders. As one of the seven guardians of the seven dorms of Night Raven College, I, Kang Ru, order you, a cultivator and magic student of this school, to exterminate this villain before it can take the lives of everyone on this island!"
"Understood!" Lotus nodded her head and noticed something flew out from the acidic haze. She quickly jumped away as the ground before her melted away.
The girl screamed, "Die! Die! Die!"
Why in the world was this girl going crazy?! All she did was take her umbrella!