CHAPTER XIII

Margot was just preparing to deliver a decisive blow with a dagger when she suddenly heard a deafening explosion. The door shattered into thousands of pieces, and in a matter of seconds, black smoke engulfed everything around. When it cleared, a middle-aged man in a business suit appeared from the doorway. His head was decorated with curved horns, and a cheerful smile shone on his face. Lulu followed him in.

"It's been a long time since I've lit up like this!" The male demon laughed and immediately turned to the tentacle-gripper: "Hey, freak! It's time to die!"

The creature with many whitish tentacles turned around and began to carefully study the guest with its single eye. tentacle-gripper couldn't speak and probably didn't understand a lot of things, but he clearly didn't like the man in the suit's treatment. There was a hiss, then the whitish appendages of the monster turned purple. The demonic creature was ready to fight to the death.

Margot began to back away, as now a dangerous opponent was against her. It was a powerful horned demon, the ruler of time and space itself, who could easily defeat her summoned pet and deal with her at the same time. Taking advantage of the turmoil and the portal stored in her "pocket", Margot chose to leave the battlefield and hide in the endless labyrinths of the academy.

Meanwhile, the male demon started beating the one-eyed creature. He tore out the tentacles of the creature by the roots and threw them on the floor like something disgusting. The tentacled cat roared and tried to resist, but he could not do anything with the horned opponent, as he was superior in strength.

"Sophie, how are you?" Lulu ran up to the mentor, who was finally able to free herself and get to her feet.

"You're just in time," she smiled and noticed that her assistant had her right eye closed.

"Lulu, please tell me that your eye is fine!" Sophie said, startled.

"She did it of her own free will! After all, her mentor is a complete fool," the demon rudely answered for the student, along the way, putting an end to the suffering of the one-eyed creature with a kick.

"How dare you talk to me like that!" Sophie was indignant.

"I have every right since Lulu freed me. You're not my mistress anymore," the man chuckled.

"Bonbon? But…" Sophie tried to resist.

The demon let out a terrifying roar:

"I'm not Bonbon! My name is Barbatos! Remember that!" he bared his teeth in the manner of a hungry wolf, and then, licking his lips with his tongue, added: "Protect Lulu, as she is a tasty morsel for my relatives. And now it's time for me to return to my world. Farewell."

Barbatos bowed politely and disappeared as if he had never existed at all. Sophie clasped her assistant's head and said reproachfully:

"Lulu, what have you done?"

"I wanted to save you!" she answered resolutely. "That's why I sacrificed my eye to free Bonbon."

The mentor lowered her head and began to cry softly. Through her tears she said:

"Why… I'm not worthy of it…"

"I love you!" Lulu hugged her potions teacher tightly. "And I'm ready to sacrifice everything so that we can be together."

And, probably, this moment would have been very successful for a romantic kiss followed by a love scene, but everything was broken by Mrs. Krivda.

"Ah, there you are!" Her booming voice rang out, which made Lulu and Sophie jump.

"I'll explain everything!" Lulu panicked.

"Yes, I'm listening to you carefully," the head of the academy crossed her arms over her chest.

"Where should I start?" she tried to collect her thoughts. Droplets of blood were occasionally squeezed out of her right eye, which was covered by the lid, and it was possible to guess from the trembling cheek that she was in sharp pain.

"I think we should start with the fact that you gave your eye to a demon," sighed Mrs. Krivda. "You should go to the infirmary."

"Are prisoners allowed to go to the infirmary?" Lulu was surprised.

"Prisoners?" the elderly woman thought. "Who said that you are to blame for something? The demon, let's say, deceived you. And Sophie... was the victim of a conspiracy."

"But we..." said Lulu hesitantly. "I…"

Krivda shook her head:

"And who would have thought that Margot faked her own death to do evil in our academy. And now march to Helga!"

Lulu bowed politely and went to the exit when she suddenly stopped and took a button out of her pocket.

"What is it?" the head of the academy was surprised, having received an unusual thing from a student.

"It's a vampire copycat button. I found her at the scene of the accident," Lulu replied and, bowing once more, ran out of the room.

Sophie tried to remain silent, but when she was left alone with Krivda, she still had to start a conversation:

"Mrs. Krivda, I am ready to be punished."

The old witch put the button in the pocket of her robe and finally turned her attention to the alchemy teacher:

"I still couldn't figure out who you look so much like, and now everything has fallen into place."

"Yes, I am Elizabeth's sister and Count Alex's daughter," Sophie said without regret.

Krivda came up to her and put her hand on her shoulder:

"I'm sorry for your grief, but that's no excuse for what you did to Lulu. "

"Yes, I'm sorry about what happened my fault..."

"Therefore, your punishment will be ..." Krivda switched to a whisper as if she was afraid that someone could overhear them.

* * *

As a result, all the blame was shifted to the shoulders of the escaped Margot. The inquisitor was pleased, as he did not have to stay too long in the gloomy walls of the Witch Academy, and for catching a demon-worshipping witch red-handed, he was promised a promotion. Taking testimony and concocting a "case" in a hurry, he personally caught the witch and sent her to prison.

After that, life at the academy began to improve, and soon the joyful laughter of students, loud conversations, and whispers on tests began to sound there again. Lulu had to spend a lot of time in the infirmary, because in addition to the eye, the demon sucked a decent amount of vitality out of her, disrupting the work of several organs: and the most important of them was the heart.

"How is my eternal patient feeling?" Helga asked a question every morning.

"It's fine," Lulu answered and always wondered. "When will I be released?"

"When you finally recover!" each time the "Angel" in a white coat answered.

Lulu didn't like being in the infirmary, as she wanted to get back to her usual life as soon as possible and, of course, continue her studies with Sophie. The mentor visited her assistant every day and helped her pass the time.

"What are we going to talk about today?" Lulu smiled at the sight of her beloved.

"I don't know. Maybe you want to hear a funny story about a forget-me-not potion?" Sophie suggested.

She could not get used to the fact that her assistant now had only one eye, and the other was covered with a white bandage.

"Sophie, stop looking at my eye!" Lulu pointedly turned away from her.

"I'm sorry," Sophie sighed.

"No need to apologize. I did it on my own, so this is my problem!" Lulu insisted.

"No. This is our problem," Sophie began to climb onto the bed.

"Just don't do it here, or Helga may see us," a blush appeared on Lulu's face, but before she could finish, she felt the gentle touch of Sophie's lips on her lips.

"Mm-hmm. It's your own fault," Sophie said through the kiss. "I've missed your blood so much, and yet…"

She paused and licked Lulu's lips with her tongue:

"I really, really want you."

"You can't!" Lulu pushed Sophie away from her. "When I get out of here, then you will do it. Now I have to rest and recuperate."

"Lulu, you are such a disease," she returned to the chair.

"You're the same. Better tell me why, when we first met, you were sitting in the toilet and crying?"

"You see," she began. "At that time, I had to pass an interview with Mrs. Krivda, since she had not yet hired me definitively. And to get rid of the worries, I prepared a soothing potion."

"I guess the potion was too strong," Lulu chuckled.

"Yes, I overdid the ingredients a little and, after drinking the drug, caused myself a real tearful depression," Sophie nodded. "Well, then you appeared."

"This is fate!"

"Yes... fate," Sophie agreed with her.

They had a nice conversation with each other until Helga ran into the room. Ignoring them, she began to search frantically for something. She went through every closet, every drawer, and every corner of the infirmary as if she didn't have much time.

"Can I help you?" Sophie suggested.

"Thank you, no need. Something happened to Glum!" Helga said.

"Was the snake-bitten again, or maybe the fire-lizard fried his buttock?" Lulu giggled.

"Very funny," Helga didn't appreciate her joke. "A person is suffering there, and you are being sarcastic here."

"He's not a human, he's a goblin," Sophie corrected.

"That's right, but Glum is a teacher and has the right to help."

When Helga collected everything she needed, she flew out of the infirmary like a bullet and went to the scene of the accident. Sophie followed her, promising Lulu to come back soon and tell her the story of saving the grumpy goblin. Sophie and Helga arrived at the room where animals from all over the world were kept in cages - it was a real collection. The owner himself was lying on the floor. Next to him were Mrs. Krivda and Cassandra, who watched with interest as white foam flowed out of Glum's mouth.

Helga gasped and ran up to him:

"I saw for myself that he was still alive. What happened?

"Oh, he became very ill as soon as you went to the infirmary for medicines," the head of the academy spread her hands.

"Yes, Glum has clearly become very ill," Cassandra agreed with her. "Now we still have to look for a poisonous creature that escaped from that cage over there. "

And indeed, there was an empty cage nearby with the bars spread apart, through which, apparently, the dangerous animal got out. Sophie didn't go into details, but only stood aside and watched Helga try to save the goblin's life.

"How so?!" The "Angel" blurted out. "Why doesn't the antidote work?!"

Glum never came to his senses, soon he became completely gray and cold. His soul finally left this world, leaving the academy without a teacher on magical creatures. Mrs. Krivda, it seems, did not really grieve about this. She just put one hand on Helga's shoulder and said softly:

"Don't worry. You did everything you could. And he still chose to die... so it was fated."

Krivda once again cast a meek glance at Glum and wandered towards the exit. Cassandra hurried after her. Sophie went to the goblin's body and decided to take a look at it. Glum was wearing a greasy suit made of gray fabric with a warm lining. And surprisingly, one button was missing, and the others depicted the heads of snakes.

Sophie thought about it:

"Did that button belong to Glum? And this means that he is the imitator. But why would he do that?"

Mrs. Krivda clearly knew about this, as she received the button from Lulu. It turns out that she excellently played her role as a casual witness and, possibly, a murderer. Having come to this conclusion, Sophie immediately put these bad thoughts aside:

"I'd better not poke my nose where I shouldn't."

* * *

Sooner or later, Lulu was released from the infirmary. And the very first night, she took her violin and went to the mentor's room, as the music hall was walled up. Lulu was not particularly upset about this, because now she could spend all her free time with her beloved.

"Are you sure you want to play the violin because you just checked out today?" Sophie asked her.

"Sophie, stop feeling sorry for me. I am in my prime!" Lulu said enthusiastically.

"Well, I'm ready to listen to you even for an eternity!" Sophie nodded.

Despite the small size of the room, Lulu still managed to move from side to side and spin while playing the violin. Sophie, with her arms wrapped around her legs, sat on the bed and listened to the wonderful melodies with fascination. It seemed that time itself stopped at that moment, allowing the two girls to spend as many moments with each other as they wanted. The music made Sophie's heart beat with joy. Finally, she found the man she had been dreaming about all her life. The one and only love. She wanted to interrupt Lulu, snuggle up to her, and get a piece of happiness.

The idyll was interrupted by someone clapping their hands. Lulu and Sophie suddenly woke up from their dreams and turned their eyes towards the ceiling. There, a demon named Barbatos or, more simply, Bonbon hung in the air by the will of unknown forces.

"You are really meant for each other," a smile shone on his face from ear to ear.

"Bon... Barbatos, what are you doing here?" Sophie jumped out of bed.

"Aren't you glad to see me anymore? Oh, yes, I'm not your servant anymore."

"Bonbon, would you like some tea?" Lulu suggested.

"What a cute creature," he licked his lips with his tongue. "I took away your eye, drank the life force, and you offer me tea. Oh, Lulu…"

"Then tell me, why did you come?" Sophie interrupted him.

"I decided to inform you that a certain person has begun to open the gate," said Barbatos. "And soon it will be very hot here."

"Elizabeth has decided to doom our world to destruction again?!" Sophie raised her tone.

"Who knows. But that's your problem, not mine."

"Stop!" Sophie tried to reach him, but it was too late. He disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"Oh, I didn't have time," Sophie said sadly. "A little more, and I could have caught him."

"So what do we do now?" Lulu asked a good question, the answer to which, alas, is in a completely different story.