"You don't remember?" Vil stared at her with a shocked expression before he shook his head, "Nevermind. I need to go eva-"
As though he had bit his own tongue, he felt a slight pain on his tongue and was unable to say the words much less turn around with the intention to evacuate the students from the dorm. It must've been the spell! He was bound by the spell!
"You-!" Vil turned to her with a look of irritation across his face.
"Go ahead and try telling everyone to evacuate or reveal my presence." Lotus rolled her eyes before she began struggling to move her knee.
"It'll be all right. I'd already set up a barrier around the dorm and entrance before I got into the fray." Lotus responded as she sat on the side of the bed examining her poisoned knee aching with her move seemingly rather impressed and annoyed, "This girl is not that bad. To think she managed to poison me."
"Poison?" Vil froze and frowned as he turned on the nearby light and began to examine her knee.
The moment he touched her knee, Lotus nearly jumped out of her seat!
Against her cold skin, his touch was warm and seemingly light against her calf, which gave her a jolt of surprise. He immediately grabbed a hold of her injured leg as he grumbled, "Stop moving! The nurse is out for the night and... Anyway, you're stuck with me tonight. You better not kick me in the face while I'm trying to help you here."
She bore a twitching dry smile upon hearing him say this.
In the face? Hah! Weak! She'd rather kick him in the crotch instead! How dare this man touch her leg of all places with his bare hands when he's not even a physician?!
Despite this, it would be bad for her if he ended up kicking a fuss while big brother Yuu and Grim are in this dorm with him. Thinking this, she reluctantly stayed still in her seat.
Vil had been staring at her with furrowed brows as he hesitated to continue examining the knee. After some thoughts, he shrugged in defeat and sighed as he warned her again, "Don't... Just don't move. Got it?"
Lotus didn't say anything after this and Vil shook his head in dismay. It was as he thought. Women have very complicated behaviors...
He touched her calf again as Lotus fought back the great urge to just do as she wanted, which was to kick the nearest thing to her: his ugly face.
Focused solely on the injury of her knee, he brought out a pail from a wardrobe that was left for the purpose of alchemy and some water from the dorm's bathtub. He got to work and began to wipe away the poison with one of the clean rags. However, he was shocked to find that the rags soon melted away as though it had came in touch with a powerful acid!
He looked to her with a look of concern after quickly tossing the rag into a glass beaker. In the past, he had accidentally gotten acid on his leg while filming a scene on set. He was quickly rushed to the hospital and recovered, but he recalled the searing pain he felt as the acid ate away at his skin. His skin was saved all because of a healer, but magic can not patch the memory of the pain. Lotus sat before him seemingly not influenced under the same searing pain that he had been under. Did it not hurt her as much as it did for him back then?
Vil sighed with furrowed brow and a worry look on his face, "You really haven't changed one bit..."
Hearing this, Lotus looked up curiously, "You said that again... Have we really met before? I don't remember, though... Since when did we met?"
Vil turned to her and stared at her carefully before he responded, "I guess you won't remember something that happened within a few weeks. If you want to listen, then sit still and don't move."
Hearing this, Lotus was reluctant to comply, but her curiosity eventually got the better of her. After all, who wouldn't want to know the personal past of such an arrogant person? This could give her some juicy gossip too!
He recalled the time when he was ten. It had only been a couple short years after he moved into Jack's neighborhood and he was still struggling to interact with the other children who always bullied him after seeing him act as the villain in many of the movies they watched. During that time, Jack was the only one who took his side and those children were getting more violent as they were entering the teenage phase and throwing tantrums. That day, he was returning from school when the same gang came to bully him on the way home. Jack jumped in to stop them, but one of them suddenly whipped out a taser! No matter how strong Jack was getting, he was still a child, just like he was! How can they handle being tazed by a tazer at such a young age?!
It was during that time that a young girl with flaming red hair jumped in taking the brunt of the tazing and gave that bully a good punch as she scolded him angrily, "Aren't you all big boys?! Big boys shouldn't go hurting a girl, much less someone who hasn't done any harm to you! Wouldn't that make you the bad guys? Hmph! How ironic!"
"S-Shut up! Or I'll correct you too!" That boy hollered at her.
"Hah? Then, go ahead! I'm not afraid of some tazer!" That girl snapped back at him fearlessly, "You even dare go taze a young girl and in public! Do you even want your face anymore? Shameless!"
"What are you doing supporting the villain? Can't you see that he's evil?" One of the boys pointed at her.
"Evil? What is this? A storybook?! What do you even know about good or evil?!" She rebuked with a frown, "What right do you have to brand other children evil? Is it evil to role play a character without harming others or disrupting their lives? Is it evil to want to live normally after a job well done? Did they even stole your belongings or hurt you? I don't see anything evil here. I just see someone stuck in too deep in their fantasies!"
Her loud voice caught the attention of everyone around them with such an arrogant stance as she stood as though the tazer didn't do much to her. The boys became traumatized of her and her deep violet eyes staring them down like bugs. Never had they been scolded or intimidated by someone, much less a girl, they called out on! The boys were then pulled away by a police man who rushed to the scene after a passerby quickly called the police. Low and behold, the group was taken in by one of the boy's father who the very policeman and was thoroughly unimpressed by the scene. Especially after noticing the burn scar on her cheek. The police man got his son and forced him to apologize to Jack and Vil with him before driving the three kids back to their homes.
Vil and Jack quickly took the girl back to Jack's place where his home was. His parents were shocked and horrified upon seeing her injury and hearing what had happened. They were very grateful to her for protecting them and treated her. Jack's father then called her guardian and went on to angrily discussing how he must sue the boy with the tazer and put in a word with those parents.
When they discussed with her, they learned that she was new to the city and was there on vacation with relatives. They worked on the assignments and played games together at Jack's home until it was dark and they went back home. Apparently, after that, the boys' guardians and parents had came to apologize to them and Maisey after she left.
Since then, it was peaceful for a long time and they played together often. That was until one of the boy's older brother returned home. The brother already bore great infamy in the neighborhood as he was someone who was lawless and shameless in his actions and choices. After an argument prior, the brother had vanished from the city as bits and pieces of dark news returned from neighbors. Since his return, one of the boys did not join with his friends walking back home from school but was picked up by his parents immediately after school.
It was then that something happened when Jack saw a child in tatters being dragged away by that brother. Despite knowing the difference in strength, the wolf beastman still jumped in to save the kid, but he was quickly kicked away.
"According to Jack, the guy can cast awful spells that nearly harmed him, but, once again, he was saved by you." Vil explained, "The brother got away with the kid, but you went chasing after them leaving Jack with the old couple from the nearby bakery. After that, there was news that the child was kidnapped from another country and the brother was part of a gang that demanded a large amount of ransom from the kid's parents. The gang was apprehended and the kid was able to return home, but you never returned and your guardian also vanished to gather your family to search for you."
"Then, you and Jack went to search for me that night I went missing." Lotus pieced together in confusion as she shook her head in seemingly deep thoughts, "I do recall visiting Pyroxene when I was a child, but I don't recall having met other children."
"That can't be..." Vil shook his head with a frown, "Purple eyes are common, but, aside of faes, only you would have this color of hair."
But, she only revealed her real appearance briefly to catch him off guard! Ugh. To think this would backfire this badly...