Prison Massacre

Lotus sighed, "Like parent, like child... The two for you are too strong... Switch too weak or did you try to flip it?"

"The switch was too weak." Malleus responded with a look of surprise.

"Right..." Lotus nodded, "Looks like I'll need to speak with the princess about this, but she won't arrive for another few days."

"The fairy queen is already here, but the princess isn't?" Lilia raised a brow.

Lotus nodded, "She arrived, but something happened in one of the dorms, so she's running on an errand. We just came back earlier."

"Does she know about our attempt at stealing the stone?" Silver raised a brow.

"Since she said she's looking forward to the school's reaction, then she should have a good guess about it. She should also be well aware of the stone's function." Lilia responded.

Lotus sighed, "Something isn't right, so she's gone to investigate the situation, but she needed passage into one of the dorms, so I had to go escort her."

"Is it serious?" Lilia hesitated unfazed that Lotus had gone missing.

"This..." Lotus sighed, "I can not say."

Hearing her response, Malleus frowned, "It's not good for a girl to enter a boy's school, much less the dorm... If it's not personal, we can go take care of it for him."

"It's personal..." Lotus responded shaking her head in disappointment.

"I see..." Lilia sighed and turned to Sebek, "Sebek, can you go fetch the first aid kit? It would seem that Lotus forgot it."

"Yes sir!" Sebek responded and rushed out the door.

"Huh... Looks like your senses isn't lacking at all." Lotus noted as soon as he left.

"I see..." Silver frowned as it dawned on him.

"Which dorm is it?" Malleus asked with a frown.

"Pomefiore." Lotus responded, "Had it not been for one of the staffs hidden then, we would not have made it back in one piece."

"They're still there?" Lilia questioned with a frown.

She shook her head, "The princess finally removed them from the premises. However, we are not out of the woods yet."

"Let her know that, if the gala doesn't go well, the world will be in trouble." Malleus responded firmly.

Hearing his strict warning, Lotus sighed, "Right... No wonder she didn't restrict me from sharing it with you..."

"You mean..." Silver looked to her with a curiosity expression.

Lotus frowned, "The queen... has been cursed by someone taken over from mana akin to blot. That person is far beyond saving by this point, but the curse they placed is too dangerous to even execute a death penalty on the spot."

"This..." Silver was at a loss of words by this point as the room has gone cold.

Lotus continued, "It would seem a portal opened up from within the school and it allowed intruders to enter the school and hide in the dorms. The princess finished capturing a few already at the order of the king and Briar valley's queen. Seems like they knew she wouldn't stay still. However, one of them was a young girl who had just gone beyond the point of saving. The plan was to create chaos in the dorm and use it to leave the school grounds. However, it wasn't without wringing the students dry of their blood. The culprit is from our hometown too and they say cannibalism of any form can lead to a crazed state consumed by mana akin to blot. The girl was long crazy by the time we arrived, and the staff allowed us to finish her. As for who the staff is... I'm not allowed to say their position or name in a sense. But, her life now ties with the queen. So, to break it, I'll need a few herbs to refine a pill. The princess will then eat it and use her abilities to break it. It would be nice if we have the king come break it himself, but he's not familiar with the functions and formation of the curse. Well, the incident left us injured, so we'll be consuming medicine until I can move around without limping. Hopefully, we find the herbs before the final day of the last gala theme. If not, that stone won't be leaving her head in another few weeks or years. The curse can make one slowly grow obsessive over objects or people for unknown reasons. So, even if we take the stone back..."

"The queen will take it back again." Lilia concluded with a frown.

Lotus nodded, "If the curse wasn't so strong that it can affect her mind, perhaps she could've done something about that herself, but even just tackling the curse full on is like tackling a cold that can counter attack. The princess does not want to take the risk of endangering the queen further so taking down the culprit was needed to find the way to undo the curse or break it. Unfortunately, that girl is too crazy to the point that she threatened to harm the queen for her blood. Well, the princess got so upset that she broke the girl's mind. As if it wasn't already gone to begin with..."

"Will the king of faeland and her majesty accept this, though?" Lilia hesitated, "The methods she executed sounds too cruel and require permission.

"Apparently they wouldn't, but it's pretty clear that these people from our place seemed to put things to the extreme. To end the world, the girl wanted to torture and kill the queen to stop spring from arriving ever. However, if we left her alive, she can just absorb blot after blot and then break free from her confines. Wasn't there an incident back in Briar Valley in regards to one of their highly praised prisons for security? The one that killed fifty percent of the population in that prison, including staff members? The culprit to that was someone from our birthplace sent to assassinate the princess from a comeback. After that incident, the princess got furious that she sent him back after breaking his ability to use magic or to speak anymore profanity to the royal families."

"That's ridiculous!" Sebek shouted in disbelief.

"I remember..." Malleus frowned much to Sebek's surprise, "That person appeared before us once cursing at grandmother. I was simply shocked he could still speak after all the injuries and blood loss he sustained. The next time he appeared, he had lost his tongue and his will after being apprehended by Sebek's grandfather."

"Sebek's grandfather swore that it was not his doing and the queen and nobles didn't question anymore after that. We suspected that it was because they knew the culprit, but didn't say." Lilia raised a brow and frowned, "So it was the princess? Back then she would've been no more than ten years of age."

Lotus sighed, "That's her and that's our world. Nip the problem at the source of the bud or dismember it until it can't do harm anymore. Those assassins seem to know the princess and her background. According to her, they have no connection to one another. Perhaps you can squeeze some information out of her when you meet her, but I'd rather not get involved now that I'm not part of that social society anymore. Her caretaker did tell me that, as soon as the guy threatened to take the lives of the fairies and faes for dark magic, his tongue was the first to go scaring the wits out of him. After that, the princess did not leave her kingdom for a few months till she was prompted to go visit Rose Queendom with the Briar Valley Queen. I remember watching the King's retainer struggling to drag her out of the kingdom with magic. But according to the fairy, it was more of a struggle for her to leave the kingdom than the castle. As for why... Her mind is too complicated for me to understand. The fairy queen was more eager to keep her by her side since her state of mind was anything but stable after that incident, but it seems the king managed to persuade his queen otherwise."

"Is that community so barbaric that it would put the princess on edge and start a blood bath like that?" Lilia hummed in deep thoughts.

"From my experience, assassins aren't uncommon occupation in the community. All of them are highly skilled and brutally trained to kill deserters. The people have a huge sense of pride to them and, when they want revenge, they do it where it hurts the most. Only the lucky ones might get to live after that incident but other have chosen to take their own lives. I believe it was the same for the man who can't use magic anymore. The princess believed that he prided his power above all else as high standard, so she crushed his abilities to use magic and ability to speak along with it. I don't know how the princess understood the community, but her decisions would be along the lines of those with higher standings than others since they like to silence their enemies and pawns when hiding something. A ruthless method but said better than getting killed by them later and testing loyalty. Either way, thanks to the girl's curse, the princess can't exactly execute her."

For now, Lotus can't exactly kill her anyway. Without the necessary spiritual energy, she can't help break the curse. Unfortunately, those powers had been used to protect Riddle's group and the others who overblotted. Now she doesn't have the power to enter a new rank of power. Instead, she decided to use this chance to improve her own skills and gain experience.

Lotus sighed, "To think I'd come across a person who broke a taboo of drinking blood in Pomefiore after the costume they used for Halloween... If only they'd dress up as pumpkins or something instead."

"Haha... As funny as that sounds, I'm more impressed by how well you're holding up despite the amount of blood you've lost." Lilia wore a small smile on his face.

"From what you said, you hurt your knee?" Ren concluded.

Surprised to suddenly hear his voice, Silver looked over to him curiously.

Lotus wore a strained smile feeling a little guilty for unknown reasons, "Not bad. You're not wrong. I got poisoned on my knee. I've only treated the poison, but I did bound the wound. I've suspected Lilia would find out, but not you, Ren. Looks like Sebek and Silver taught you pretty well."