Array Masters

"The ghosts!" Yuu cried out victoriously.

"Eeh?" Crowley looked to them in surprise, "You're going to enter the ghosts as the other players?!"

"They said they were pretty good back in the day so this is great!" Grim cheered, "I'll go get them! Yahooo! I'm gonna be on TV~!"

Jack shook his head in bewilderment as he watched Grim dash off without a trace left, "Does anything go... Can ghosts even play properly?"

Lotus smiled, "As long as they're from our dorm, it wouldn't be a problem, now would it?"

"I think it's fine?" Ace smirked, "The prefect may be playing but he can't use magic."

"I realized I'm going to be on TV and now I'm nervous..." Deuce spoke up nervously.

Lotus laughed, "Aren't everyone just ducklings watching you and not understanding anything? There's hardly anything to worry about."

"Let's head back to the stadium..." Crowley announced with a smile, "But before that. Everyone, did somebody see a black rock drop somewhere around here?"

"Eh?" Ace raised a brow, "Black rock?"

"Did you drop something, Headmaster?" Deuce raised a brow in confusion.

"No..." Crowley shook his head, "If you don't see it then it's fine. Let's hurry to the coliseum."

Lotus frowned with a raised brow when she heard this, "A black rock... Why does that sound familiar?"

"Lotus-?"

Yuu was about to call out to her when Jack spoke up, "Prefect. Let's go."

"Right..." Yuu smiled when he recalled the games, "Off to the Magical Shift Tournament!"

Lotus knew that Yuu had called her over, but she had other plans. She said to him, "I'll head on over to the spectators seats after I get my injury fixed."

"Better sooner." Trey pointed out with a look of concern.

"It's bleeding!" Cater pointed out in bewilderment, "Like a lot."

Lotus saw that her silver ribbon had already been tarnished red and frowned as she sighed, "I'll go get it stitched up first."

Leona raised a brow, "That's a deep wound."

Lotus shook her head, "I got clumsy and slipped on sand. It's been a while since I walked on sand. I'll just be more careful next time."

"And despite that, you still stuck a needle in my arm." Leona grumbled.

"I still have the other hand." Lotus smirked and waved at them with her left hand, "If I rely everything on my dominant hand, I wouldn't have gotten this far now, would I?"

"You..." Jack watched her in bewilderment, "You weren't even using your dominant hand? Hah!"

Lotus sighed, "That being said, I'll probably have to keep the needles away from public uses. My mother wouldn't be too happy if she learned about this."

"You shouldn't have brought them out, then..." Yuu said nervously, "Your mother probably won't be too happy to hear that you've used them on a student."

"Nah..." Lotus disagreed.

"Huh?"

They looked to her in confusion as she continued, "She'd probably be annoyed that other people would complain that I'm not allowed to use them. She knows I don't take these things outside of emergency situations anyway. She made this pretty clear with the staff who recommended me."

"Uh..." Ace said in confusion, "Okay... Just how much has your parent gone to spoil you? No, seriously..."

Riddle cleared his throat, "For now, you should head to the infirmary first."

Yuu seemed a little trouble to which Lotus responded with a smile, 'I'll be back in time to see you and Grim play. Probably part way into the game."

Yuu nodded, "Just be careful."

Cater sighed with a nod, "I'll have the other me go with him."

Lotus smiled, "Thanks."

She left the group as Cater conveniently used his magic, though Carter was secretly reluctant to do so after last times incident. He'll be honest. He finds her very terrifying without others around.

.....

Lotus hadn't even gone out of the courtyard yet when Carter spoke up with an unusually serious face, "So, you've been found?"

"Was found you mean." Lotus shook his head with a sigh, "Sadly, the girl was a real fool."

"What do you mean?" Carter raised a brow.

"I snuck around some dorms the other day and came across a rather good opportunity." Lotus explained.

"Opportunity?" Carter raised a brow.

Lotus nodded, "It a turn we used to refer to fortunate event, such as when a person comes across a chance and found dragon egg in a dark forest full of herbs. We like to refer to those as opportunity. An event that lets us get stronger. I just happened to come across one and just brushed past danger while doing so."

"You said there was a girl?" Cater looked to her in bewilderment, "But how can that be?! The school is a magic school too, you know? They have their defenses."

"I heard you've started learning to read the language out of the blue the other day with Riddle." Lotus pointed out, "Have you seen the context of Spatial Arrays yet?"

"Spatial Arrays?" Cater raised a brow.

Lotus nodded, "The people from my hometown aren't normal for more than one reason. Like how not everyone can become a magician, only certain people are born capable to take on certain jobs. For example, Alchemist. Even if you were able to memorize ten thousand herbs and identify them, If you can't use fire magic at the very least, it's all useless. It's the same with Blacksmith. You have to be born with the requirements to do so."

"Harsh..." Cater said nervously.

Lotus nodded, "Spatial Arrays have a different requirement. Interpretation of space. Even if the person becomes a cultivator, they need someone to teach them Spatial Arrays or have the texts to learn it. Then, there's the understanding of space. Everyone's understanding of space is very random. It could range from as small as a thimble to as large as the world itself. It's said, the larger a person can comprehend space, the more they are capable of accomplishing."

Lotus looked to the hall and thought for a bit before responding, "The owner of the book on herbs that Riddle has... He was an Array master..."

Lotus recalled Xiao Li's words and said, "I was told that when he first started cultivating he could already comprehend the space of a quarter of the classroom and he was already considered to be a rare talent around our age. Those guys got here because they had an array master with them to create a teleportation passage into the school. That silly girl confirmed everything too."

"Great..." Cater sighed, "There's a girl in the school... It's going to be hard for some of the guys to act, then. Why do I have to do the job every time?"

Lotus shook her head with a frown, "She's gone."

"Eh?" Cater's eyes widen in surprise.

"She was pushed back forcefully and couldn't fight back. So, she killed herself." Lotus responded.

"What?!" Cater looked to her in bewilderment, "But... I thought you can't use magic."

"Oh, it wasn't me, by the way." Lotus responded, "Haven't you wondered why the dorms could exist and the students living there had no problems? Apparently, someone had them agree to protect the dorms and the students a long time ago. That's what I came across in the Savanaclaw dorm."

"What?"

"She was pushed back by Ivory Soul Butterflies." Lotus answered as she continued walking down the empty hall, "I believe Riddle should've gotten that far by now. Try go and ask him about it. I'll give you a quick heads up... They're very toxic."

"Then, aren't we in trouble?"

Lotus raised a brow, "Nope. Quite the opposite. They've sworn to protect the students and swearing it is a very dangerous thing to do. They'll die by lightning if they go against their promise."

"Wah..." Cater grumbled, "That almost sounds unreal..."

Lotus shrugged, "Either way, those butterflies pushed to the limit and she was so frustrated that she couldn't contract them that she killed herself. Crazy..."

Cater frowned, "Then, how did you get by?"

Lotus sighed, "Who do you think I am here in school? They can't harm me and I was injured by the woman's weapon. Of course, they wouldn't have let her live or left her ghost roam this world for it. They hold a grudge far worse than Grim and Ace combined, if you piss them off."

"Haha..." Cater wore small smile.

Lotus sighed, "The hard part now was to convince them to give a hand."

"Huh?" Cater raised a brow.

"Didn't you hear the sound after Leona returned to normal?"

Cater thought for a bit before his face grew pale, "You mean..."

Lotus nodded, "Cultivators don't have an overblot stage. They only know of beasts, celestials and demons. One look at Leona's overblot stage and the first thing that comes to their mind is a demon, so they'll strike when they find a weakness. I had the butterflies give me a hand to use a barrier around the tournament the night before the event."

She sighed, "Well, it seems it was worth five of the pills I brought with me... Getting assistance from someone as studious as them was not easy. Not to mention, no magic... More importantly, I've gotten the butterflies to cooperate, but that doesn't mean they'll interfere further. As long as the students they are in charge of are in danger, they would come, but they won't if they believe you're capable of defending yourselves. Otherwise, how would you grow? They won't interfere with personal matters or internal strife either."

"Che..." Cater smirked, "So cold..."

Lotus smirked, "Believe me, Cater. You don't want those guardians to breathe down on the students' necks. They'll remain there as long as the dorms exists anyway. Still, I wonder who it was that made them agree to do this sort of job."

Cater wasn't sure how to respond either as they entered the infirmary.

.....

Luckily, she made it back just as Grim and the group's game were starting. Standing just behind the Savanaclaw group, she could see the game from a closer perspective. It was unusual to see them ride brooms outside of athletics course. Rather, it was unusual to see people ride brooms from the beginning. In her world, they often ride on swords or beasts or just fly by themselves. It was never with a broom, but perhaps there was that one unique individual.

It was pretty new to see Ruggie hanging upside down shooting fireballs as the Savanaclaw student riding the broom weaved through the air after Ace and the others. She'll be honest. Though it was rather weird, it was actually pretty fun to see as Ace and the other continue to struggle against Leona's team. It was a very silly but good game.

Lotus watched the game curiously the entire half hour and, just as they were about to get their disk stolen again, she noticed that they didn't do so. Lotus pondered curiously as she watched Leona and the others score their first goal before she smirked, "Ah, so that's it..."

"Alright!" Ace shouted, "Our first goal!"

Lotus shook her head with a sigh, "I'm going to the infirmary."

"Huh?" The Savanaclaw member that was tasked to supervise her raised a brow, "The game isn't over yet."

Lotus smiled, "I already know who will win. Please let your dorm leader know I'll have our cat keep training his magic till he doesn't make another mistake."

"Huh?"

Lotus waved, "Thanks for letting me watch from there. I need to prepare to treat the prefect now."

Sure enough, it hadn't even been five minutes after she left that Ace and Deuce carried out the Prefect. Lotus shook her head with a sigh.

"Ah, Lotus!" Ace called out in bewilderment, "Where were you?"

Lotus laughed, "I was behind the Savanaclaw's group watching the game. To be able to score a goal from them is pretty impressive. Though you guys still messed up at the end. Come on, let's go to the infirmary."

"You knew this would happen?!" Deuce exclaimed in awe, "Amazing..."

"Dang it..." Ace cried out in disbelief, "You mean, you knew we would lose from the beginning?!"

"Haha..." Lotus chuckled, "I just didn't expect you'd get a single score from the dorm with the best chances."

"Ha! Beat that!" Grim sneered with a puffed chest.

"You're one to talk after knocking out Yuu..." Ace pointed out with a frown.

"F-Fgnaaa..."