Strawberry Tart

After a while, she could hear Riddle calling out, "You're slacking! It needs to be a deeper red without flaw!"

"Y-Yes!" Deuce's voice called out.

"He's as strict as ever!" Ace grumbled in shock, "I thought he'd eased up a bit!"

"This is just the kind of character he is." Cater said with a smirk.

She looked over and saw the dorm leader standing there with a smirk played on his face, "If you're going to do it, it should be perfect."

He chuckled as if recalling something, "To have a good party, I won't hold back... hehe..."

Welp. At least, he's happy. Lotus nodded with a smile and returned to "painting" the flowers.

By the time she was finished on her side, she returned to the group to find them surrounded on the last bush as Riddle took up his gold staff with the ruby top and aimed his magic on the white roses changing all of them into red instantly surprising Ace.

"Okay, that does it." Riddle nodded in satisfaction.

"Amazing," Ace looked to him in shock, "he finished it in the blink of an eye!"

"Dorm Head sure is amazing..." Deuce said in admiration, "They're already red."

Impressed, Lotus clapped with an awe look on her face as she walked over to see the bush of red flowers, "Impressive!"

"Riddle is really good at practical use of magic~!" Cater explained.

"Nice work, Riddle." Trey responded with a wide smile.

"This takes care of preparation." Riddle stood triumphantly, "Let the Unbirthday Party begin!"

After taking a seat and having some tea, Lotus inquired a bit about the tea being used with Trey when Ace spoke up with a wide smile, "So, how did you apology tart came along?"

I-I bake it, don't worry." Riddle responded slightly taken aback and pulled out the box tart he had Trey helped him carry out earlier, "This. I made this strawberry tart."

Unboxing the pastry, Lotus was surprised to find a sparkly strawberry tart. Lotus smiled wryly. It was really too bad...

Trey nodded his approval, "Hmm, hmm. The shape needs a little work but you did well coating the strawberries in nappage to bring out their shine."

Trey smiled, "This is great work for your first time."

"Ah, there it is." Ace sighed in exasperation, "Trey's dotting attitude. Well, let's give it a try."

"I wanna take a pic of this ultra rare tart so hold off on cutting it!" Cater responded quickly taking the picture with his phone, "... Okay!"

Ace shook his head with a laugh, "He never changes either... Let's dig in!"

Taking the piece, they took a bit of it with a fork. Lotus smirked.

Suddenly, everyone's eyes widen in bewilderment and realization.

"This tart is...." Trey and Cater said in unison after swallowing the bite.

"Salty!!!"

Sure enough, everyone cried out in shock as Riddle looked to them in bewilderment, "What?!"

"What the?!" Ace shouted in bewilderment, "It's like eating the ocean! What the hell did you put in this?!"

"I followed the rules strictly when getting supplies and during baking. There shouldn't be anything wron-." He froze upon realization, "Ah! Is it perhaps because I added oyster sauce?"

Deuce coughed to clear his throat of the salty tart as he stared at Riddle in disbelief, "Are you referring to Clover's joke about the walrus seal of approval?"

"But, Trey used to say that all good tarts have it even if it's not in the recipe," Riddle responded with a look of confusion, "as a secret ingredient..."

"Blegh," Ace gagged, "there's no way! If you think about it for a moment, you'd realize!"

"You fell for it too..." Yuu said aloud with a small laugh.

"But, this goes beyond secret ingredient." Cater pointed out in disbelief, "How much did you add?"

"N-No one will divulge their trade secrets, you know?" Riddle responded nervously before giving in, "So, I couldn't precisely figure out how much to add..."

Lotus smiled when she saw Riddle turn to her with a look of confusion having seen that she hadn't reacted like they had despite having a bit of it. She gestured a zipper over her lips and smirked, "My lips are sealed."

"Ah!" Ace pointed to her wide eyes in disbelief, "Lotus, you only have the strawberries?! Don't tell me..."

"Lotus was there making dinner in the kitchen while I was baking..." Riddle explained with a slight tint of red before pouting his lips childishly, "If you knew it was a joke, you should've stopped me..."

Lotus chuckled, "Well, I thought it'd be a good show to watch later, so why should I spoil the fun?"

Riddle sighed, "And after you had fun watching me eat sour things yesterday... That's a little sick, don't you think?"

Lotus laughed but didn't respond. Ace whined, "You should've stopped him, Lotus... Traitor..."

He sighed and continued, "I agree with Dorm Leader. You have a sick sense of fun..."

It was then that Trey bursted out laughing.

"Pfft, ahaha! I never thought there would be someone who took that joke seriously... Ahahaha!" Trey laughed.

Thinking of this, the blush of Riddle's face disappeared as the dorm leader laughed as well, "Aha, hahaha, so true. I'm so dumb... Ahahah!"

Deuce laughed once he calmed down a bit, "Haha, it's so bad it makes you laugh."

Ace nodded with a wide smile, "Well, we just have to laugh it off. Haha!"

"But, now I think it's good in its own way." Grim noted curiously after taking another small bite of the cream.

"Because the taste is similar to that of canned tuna." Lotus responded with a smirk after taking a tiny dab of the cream, "Tuna and Oyster are both from the ocean."

"Oh... That's right!"

"Well, I get you there." Cater responded with a smirk, "It's not as bad as you think."

"Daimond-sempai, your palette is just as crazy as Grim's!" Deuce shouted with a stunned expression.

"No no, I wouldn't say that." Cater responded rejecting the claim instantly.

Hearing this, Lotus raised a brow and touched her chin in thought, "Could it be, Cater-sempai, do you...Hm..."

"That's right, Lotus." Trey nodded with a smile and said to Cater with a smile, "This tart is good because it isn't sweet, right?"

"Eh?"

Cater looked to him in surprise.

"Cater, you hate sweets." Trey pointed out with an easy smile.

"Is that true?" Yuu said with a look of surprise, "But, didn't you come to try the mont blanc?"

Lotus smiled, "Didn't you guys told me that he was the one who brought up Trey's unique magic?"

"Y-Yeah..." Grim nodded in confusion.

"Huh?! Eh, eh..." Cater looked between the two of them in confusion with a slightly troubled look on his face, "Trey, why do you know? And, Lotus, you guessed it so quickly?! I've never told anyone about my aversion to sweets."

"It's just like Lotus said," Trey pointed out with a smile, "whenever we eat cake you bring my 'Doodle Suit' up and change the flavor. You never show it on your face, but I just had this feeling you don't like sweets."

"Ah..." Cater breathed a sigh in defeat, "I've been found out? So embarrassing..."

He then continued to proceed to scold Trey, "Trey, like the stuff with Riddle, but your habit of 'I noticed but didn't say anything' is not good. Also, Lotus, how did you guess to quickly? Trey has been with us for two years, but you've only just arrived this year."

Lotus smirked, "I've had to hand out potions to people that needs help. I can tell just by the behavior of the person and if their action has a motive. It's strange that you didn't even try the mont blanc but proceeded to change the flavor before eating. So, I had a sneaking suspicion if it wasn't just a one-time thing you do once in a while."

Cater grumbled in defeat, "Ah... You really are the worst, Lotus, and you're only a freshman with no magic..."

Yuu sighed in exasperation, "I should've known that you were a prankster..."

Lotus sneered, "What? Impressed now? Isn't it only just the beginning?"

"By the god..."

As Yuu groaned, Trey laughed, "Anyway, I'll cook up some quiche for the next Unbirthday Party."

"I appreciate that." Cater responded gladly in relief before quickly adding, "Make it just as photogenic as cake, okay?"

"Quiche?" Lotus raised a brow and turned to Yuu, "That's a quiche?"

"Dude, come on!" Ace stared at her as if she was a rare species, "Sure, you've never had a fruit tart, but you've never seen a quiche?"

Remembering what Lotus had told him, Riddle began to conclude that Lotus might've really came from a place far away from modern civilization and spoke up, "A quiche is like a tart with a savory crust. But instead of a sweet filling, an egg mixture with bite-sized vegetable as the filling and based in an oven. Occassionally, there'd also be pieces of ham as well."

"Then, it's like a savory egg tart!" Lotus looked to him upon realization, "That's certainly another way to have a tart."

"Egg tart?" Trey looked to her in bewilderment, "Isn't that an eastern pastry with a puffy crust?"

Before Lotus could respond, there was a loud humming as a person with purple hair and cat eats wearing a white sweater, purple shirt underneath, and jeans suddenly appeared munching on some muffins with pink frosting, "Humm, hmm, hmm. Trey's sweets are always purr-fect. Nom, munch munch."

Oh, it's that that cat guy with the earrings from outside the rose maze the other day. Che'nya, was it?

"Che'nya!" Riddle jumped up in surprise, "What're you doing here?!"

"Hm?" Che'nya looked up to the dorm leader with a raised brow and swallowed the muffin, "I came to celebrate the Unbirthday Party. Congrats, Riddle."

"The Unbirthday Party is a Heartslabyul tradition. You don't have anything to do with it, don't you?"

"Neither do those guys, right?" Che'nya laughed with a wide smirk as he pointed to Lotus and the two of them from Ranshackle Dorm.

"Ah, you!" Grim cried out in bewilderment, "You're the guy from before with the cat puns! Oh, right, what dorm are you from?"

"Che'nya isn't even a student here to begin with." Trey explained, "He's from Night Raven College's long standing rival, Royal Sword Academy."

"What?!" Deuce jumped up in surprise, "He goes to a different school?!"

"Freaking Royal Sword Academy?!" Ace stated in disbelief.

"So there's other schools of magic." Yuu noted in surprise.

Lotus nodded, "Royal Sword Academy is the current top school of magic."

"Did they just say Royal Sword Academy?!"

"One of those stuck up assholes is here?!"

"What?! Where! We'll toss them out!!"

"Ah." Lotus looked up to see the students jump up out of their seats, "Here it comes."

After grabbing a slice of the tart, Che'nya looked up in surprise, "Oops! Well, I got my tart so it's time for meow to go home. Hum hmm hmmm."

"Ah, he got away!"

"After him!"

"They got murderous all of the sudden." Grim said with a look of confusion.

"Students from Night Raven College turn hostile towards Royal Sword Academy with high probability." Riddle explained in exasperation as Trey rubbed his temple.

"After losing for 100 years, you can't blame them..." Trey explained with a sigh.

Lotus laughed, "That's one thing that's hard to correct with such a good reason. The rivalry isn't all that bad."

"Now, now!" Cater called out bringing the students back, "No more gloomy talk! We're celebrating! Let's enjoy our Unbirthday Party today!"

"Nyaha!" Grim cheered, "I'm gonna eat until I burst! Happy Unbirthday Party!"

As the party went on, Lotus noticed a movement from the corner of her eyes. It wasn't really a movement perse, but something that blocked the visual of students moving back to their seat. A tall figure in the same checkered uniform with blond hair and a diamond mark on his face. Lotus didn't say anything as she watched the guy sip away on the tea having not moved out of his seat.

"Lotus? Lotus!"

Lotus looked to Yuu in surprise, "Yeah?"

"What's up?" Ace looked up in confusion, "You didn't sleep well or anything? All you do is study all day."

"Well, you know." Lotus responded with a smirk, "I have to keep up with class."

"Oh?" Riddle looked to her with a raised brow and a frown of disapproval, "By staying past your curfew?"

"Ah, right!" Ace turned to the upperclassmen and smirked, "You have to listen to this! Lotus, he..."

As he went on to explaining the deal she had made with the headmaster, Cater wore a small smile and said, "Nice... So, you got permission from the headmaster to stay past the curfew. Wah... It's no wonder you are so tired."

Trey nodded and warned, "Try not to stay up too late."

"I understand, Senpai." She responded with a firm nod.

"That reminds me..." Cater looked to her curiously, "How old are you, Lotus?"

"Eh?" Yuu looked up in bewilderment.

"Me?" Lotus raised a brow, "Fifteen."

"Eh?!"

They looked to her in bewilderment. Ace cried out, "You're kidding?!"

Trey stared at her in confusion, "You're a year younger than when Riddle first entered the school, then..."

Riddle looked to her in suspicion, "Could it be that you skipped a lot of grades too?"

Lotus shook her head, "Nah. I taught myself to read and write, then I started working in a library by the recommendation of a kind employer who took pity on me."

"But didn't you have a guardian?" Trey said in confusion.

"Yeah." Lotus nodded with a sigh, "But she doesn't really have the time to teach me everyday and I need to set out on my own eventually, so I began teaching myself. Learning another language is really difficult. It was only last summer when a teacher recommended me to go to school here and I had to get a lot of stuff set up for me to start school. I don't know a lot of stuff here and this is the first time I've been to a school before."

"No way..." Cater stared at her in awe, "So, this is the first time you've been to school?!"

Lotus nodded, "The headmaster was nice and let me stay since I came since the staff that recommended me held a good position, so he couldn't have me leave school as easily either, even if he wanted to."

Riddle looked to her curiously. Though he was a little surprised to find that someone with such a poor background could homeschool themself and get enroll into the school by luck, he wasn't jealous or disturbed by that. Instead, it was the idea of how she entered the school that worried him. This boy was definitely not simple and it wasn't like he didn't notice how the guy was staring over at one of his dorm's new freshmen residents. However, he knew that she wouldn't leak out information about herself and choose to keep his silence as well.

Instead of investigating her openly, he just said, "Well, don't stay up too late or you could get yourself kicked back out."

"Yes, sir!" She responded with a smirk.

It was then that Lotus heard a loud fit of cough as Riddle raised a brow.

Well, it was about time...