Don't Drink It!

"Inherited their spirits?" Little Jun looked to her in confusion.

Lotus nodded, "When reincarnating, a soul will go through the processes of reincarnation before being reborn into a new vessel with a different spirit and a fate will be bestowed upon them by the heavens. However, this generation is special. Seven great magicians and figures of seven different eras have had their fate and spiritual powers bestowed upon seven new souls of this generation. Those that surrounded these people were also reborn anew with a different soul, but the same fate and same spirit. What the mirror showed Big Brother Yuu is the fate of those people and their flaws. The Beautiful Queen and her beautiful step-daughter, the hunter that betrayed the Queen for the princess's safety, the seven dwarves that took in the discarded princess, and... the artificial spirit of the poison apple that placed the princess into an eternal slumber... Big Brother Yuu... Grim..."

Reciting all of these now, she knew that Yuu plays a big role as the one having been summoned into this world of magic with no magic himself. She sighed heavily, "Those who are hailed as heroes are those who make great sacrifices and happiness in life and death... Since Grim is tied to Yuu, he will naturally have to make a big sacrifice as well..."

Seeing her so distraught by this, Little Jun cried out, "Don't worry! I'm sure that you three will come up with something by then, They do have you by their side too, remember?!"

"That's true..." Lotus nodded softly with a wide smile before she muttered to herself, "I wonder... if my presence also have something to do for him in this world...?"

Suddenly, she noticed something squirming a little beside her feet and remembered about this woman!

"Ah, right! I forgot!" She gasped in shock before fishing out the porcelain vial, "I need to reward her! Hm... Hey, Little Jun! Do you want a pet mouse? I wanna test out this new concoction I made."

"Really?" Little Jun pondered curiously, "I've never had a pet mouse before. Sure! Why not?"

"Okay."

With that, the woman gave a voiceless scream as her body creaked and shrank painfully along with her bones before she slowly became a tiny black mouse. The mouse looked up with tiny beady black eyes in horror as it tried to squeal, but was unable to.

"Ah, I forgot to undo the accuppuncture..." Lotus said in bewilderment before she shrugged with a heavy sigh, "Oh well, sorry about this, Little Jun."

"It's fine. I still want to play with it!" Little Jun pranced around with a wide grin on his face.

"Very well." Lotus shrugged, "But, remember not to kill it yet. I may need to show it to others later on or even have to use it."

"Huh? But I thought that it was mine?" Little Jun muttered in dismay when he heard this.

"Naturally, it's yours, but I still have use for it first. What's mine is naturally yours as well. The same goes for everyone else, but Xiao Li, Ying Hui, and I will naturally have to place restriction on things otherwise, it won't be fun anymore. Also, you and everyone else are sensible enough to know what not to do without me saying it, right?"

"Hmph..." Little Jun grumbled as he sat down, "Fine... I wasn't all that eager for a pet anyway!"

As Little Jun pouted, Crystal suddenly responded, "Master, the one called Vil is on the move."

"Okay!" Lotus nodded and threw the mouse into her spatial ring.

As she rushed out of the array she had created thereby dismantling it with her spiritual energy, she quickly rushed back to the stadium as she muttered, "Crystal, where is Big Brother Yuu and Grim now?"

"They're being led by the young master of the Al Asim household." Crystal responded, "And, they're going after him."

"Okay. Stay in the ring. I don't want to take any risks."

"Yes, master."

With that, Crystal hurried back into her ring as Lotus used her ability and hurried back into the stadium to find the waiting room. As it was almost time for the competition to begin, there were a lot of people around. Lotus frowned, "Where's Jamil?"

"He's gone to find a way to escort everyone off of the premises."

Lotus nodded, "So, he could already tell. If he can tell, then something is really off with Vil. He must've left an obvious clue. Get into contact with the young lord of the Valley of Thorns."

"Yes!"

Having returned from putting the mouse into a cage in his room, Little Jun came back and questioned nervously, "But will he make it in time?"

"Of course not." Lotus responded blatantly, "That's excatly what I'm planning too. If he's anything like her, then he'll arrive here on his own and late too. Also, it's perfect considering that I already owe that idiot a favor anyway. At least, I won't expose a completely embarassing side of him to Malleus of all people."

"Lotus really hate Vil's guts, huh?" Little Jun muttered in exasperation.

"Of course." Lotus sighed.

"But didn't the two of you came to a mutual agreement after that shower incident?" Xiao Li muttered in dismay, "You know... they one where you switched the pipe layout between the second floor toilet and the shower? That one with the very narrow miss and only resulted with Vil waking the first floor up along with Grim?"

"Ah..." Lotus grumbled as if pouting, "That I can apologize for. Since what Big Brother Yuu said was true in that I had gone too far... But, that only means that I can't go too far with pranks. He didn't say that I can't play them anymore. I just need to be more careful in my selection. Still, I don't understand how he figured out it was me behind that mess..."

Hearing this, Xiao Li heaved a heavy sigh before curling up into the corner as he remembered that horrible aftermath of the scary and awkward silence that hung in the air of the lounge room with just Yuu and Lotus before the hour lecture begin. Lotus was right in that Yuu indeed has potential. He's even grown bold enough to scold his master of all people!

Running through the halls, it wasn't long before she arrived upon a confusing scene as Vil and Niege were standing in front of Niege's waiting room as he passes his apple juice to Rook.

"Thank you. Now you need to hurry of to the stage, Neige." Rook said as his smiling face quickly changed to one of unfamiliar stern look, "And you must not come back here."

"Huh?" Niege looked to him in confusion and shock, "But why…"

"NOW RUN! HURRY AND GO! GO!" Rook shouted at him.

"A-Alright!" Niege turned around and rushes off in confusion.

"Ah…" Vil scowled as he turned to Rook in anger, "Rook…"

"Mmm… The sweet and vibrant aroma of apples." Rook feigned ignorance and opened the bottle of apple juice, "The image of a bright-red apple that you'd just want to bite into comes to mind. Epel's hometown produced a truly wonderful product. I'm going to drink every last drop, Roi du Poison."

"Ah…!" Vil's eyes widen in horror when he saw this.

"DON'T DRINK IT, ROOK!!!!"

There was a sudden movement as the apple juice in Rook's hands was knocked to the ground surprising Rook as it shattered, "Roi d'or! What are you doing here? Yuu and Grim are here too. Lotus?"

"Kalim, why'd you knock that glass bottle right out of Rook's hands like that?!" Grim cried out in bewilderment.

Having jumped out in the nick of time, Kalim gasped for air as he managed to muttered in relief, "I-I made it in time!"

Seeing the group of people before his, the frown on Vil's face grew uglier as he scowled in bewilderment, "Why are you all…"

"Ffgna?! The apple juice that spilled all over the floor is starting to bubble and turn a poisonous green color, y'know!" Grim cried out in horror.

"This juice had a curse put on it by Vil's unique magic, didn't it?" Kalim questioned Rook calmly despite the current situation.

"What now?!" Grim shouted in disbelief and horror.

"He tried to curse his rival?" Yuu said in bewilderment, "So, he cursed the apple juice to do that?!"

Kalim nodded and explained, "I got a really bad feeling when I saw your expression after we watched Neige's rehearsal. It looked eerily similar to the face Jamil made during the break right before he went berserk."

There was a long pause of silence before he turned to Rook with a scowl, "Rook. Why did you try to drink it? I'm sure you knew that you wouldn't be all fine and dandy if you drank that…"

"Because I wanted to trust you. You, who works more earnestly than anyone else and is always aiming for even greater heights." Rook responded unabashedly, "And trust that you would never do anything foolish that would tarnish your beauty. But at the same time, if you really had put a curse on that apple juice, then I wanted to try it. The taste of a poisonous fruit from one who is driven mad by their fixation on beauty."