A New Task

The student looked down on her in bewilderment as he reached out a hand, "Apologies. Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah." She responded and took his hand, "It was my fault for rushing. Sorry about that."

He sighed in exasperation but smiled, "It's fine. Be more careful next time."

Lotus nodded with a smile, "I will. "

"As long as you know." He nodded, "This is the second time you've ran into me if I remember correctly."

"Yup!" She smirked, "It was really a surprise."

"You're Lotus?" The student questioned her curiously.

"That's right." Lotus confirmed, "You're Ren, right? I've seen you at the ceremony a few weeks ago."

Ren laughed, "Yes. That would be me. It would seem everyone recognizes me thanks to that incident."

Lotus smiled, "Nah. After the incident that happened after?"

"Oh?" Ren raised a brow in confusion, "Then, how did you recognized me?"

"That's-" Her eyes widen upon realization, "Ah, right! I need to get back to the dorm! Apologies, Ren. Let's talk again next time!"

"A-all right?" Ren looked to her in confusion as she hurried off through the halls.

He looked to his hand again in confusion. For some reason, the feeling felt a little...

No, that was probably his imagination.

"What's wrong, Ebonvile?"

Ren turned around with a start, "Oh! Greetings, dorm leader. It was nothing just now."

Malleus looked down the hallway with a raised brow as he noted, "It's that student again."

"A student caught your eye?"

A young boy with a similar uniform appeared beside Malleus. He has pale skin and short dark hair with pink streaks that sticks out at the sides, large dark red eyes, and pointed ears like Malleus. In his dorm uniform, he has green eyeshadow and wears a black and green hat with horns, a white shirt with a black tie, and a large black and green coat that falls off his shoulders. He wears a pair of black gloves, and there are straps around his shoulders. The boy looked down the hall as well as he smirked, "I believe that was the other student without magic from Ramshackle dorm."

Ren raised a brow but nodded, "It is, Lilia-senpai. I've bumped into him twice already."

"Oh?" Lilia tapped his chin with a look of curiosity, "Unlike the supervisor, this one is a little more energetic, huh?"

Malleus smiled, "He really likes to move about."

Feeling a little nervous, Ren decided to change the topic to something else that caught his curiosity, "Dorm leader Malleus and Vice dorm leader Lilia-senpai, are you heading for the board meeting? They..."

He hesitated nervously, "They remembered this time... right?"

Hearing this, Lilia sighed in exasperation making the point across easily without needing to explain it further. Hearing this, Ren frowned, "This..."

"It's all right, Ebonvile." Malleus said firmly and smiled, "I appreciate the concern. Perhaps another time."

Ren wasn't too thrilled to hear this but he wasn't going to complain about it if the dorm leader wasn't willing to either. Lilia looked to Ren and smiled, "You should go focus on your studies. The Magift tournament will be starting again, this year. It wouldn't be good for you if you didn't appear there or scored high on the exam, wouldn't it?"

Ren nodded firmly, "I understand, Lilia-senpai. Then, I shall take my leave."

He gave a brief bow before returning to the hall of mirrors. Once gone, Lilia looked to his direction with a smirk, "Sometimes, I wonder if he should be in the other dorms or not."

Malleus nodded, "Ren Ebonvile of the Ebonvile family..."

When she returned to the dorm after class three days later, she found the headmaster had just left the dorm and was now at the entrance.

"Oh, Mister Xue!" The headmaster said in surprise, "I see you're back."

"Greetings, headmaster!" Lotus responded with a wide smile, "You came to see the supervisor just now?"

The headmaster nodded, "I had a request to make of your supervisor today."

"Of Yuu?" Lotus raised a brow in surprise.

Crowley nodded, "You could ask him for the details. If you could, watch over them as you've been doing so far. I've heard about your reflexes the other day from Ashton."

"Then, this time is a little dangerous..." Lotus assumed with a nod, "I can't us magic, but I'll watch over them carefully, sir."

Crowley smiled, "Good. I knew I could leave the matter to you three."

Lotus laughed, "I doubt you're letting them attend school here for free, so they'll be taking a lot of tasks under you. The least I can do is watch over them."

Crowley nodded, "Then, I'll be leaving the two to you."

"Understood, sir."

After seeing the headmaster off, she returned to the dorm and found the two in the lounge. Yuu was busy contemplating about somethings in his mind as Grim was busy moving the disk meant for the Magical Shift games with his magic. Curious, she asked, "I saw the headmaster leave the dorm saying that he left you with a task. What is it about?"

"Ah, Lotus." Yuu looked to her with a small smile, "It's like this. The headmaster wants us to look into the case of the injured students."

Lotus nodded, "So, he's finally reached out to us."

"Eh?" Grim looked to her in surprise just as the disk lost his magic influence on it and was about to fall on his head.

Lotus grabbed it swiftly before it could happen and said, "I've noticed a few students have been visiting the infirmary quite often as of late. All of which kept asking if it would be possible to heal up before the tournament. Normally, you'd think of it as being a careless accident, but stuff like that only happens once or twice a day at most. By now, there should be suspicions of such a case."

"What do you mean?" Yuu looked to her in confusion before his eyes widen, "You don't mean..."

Lotus nodded, "We have someone who wants to temper with the competition to their favor or someone who's against the games just as much."

"No way..." Yuu grimaced.

Grim scowled, "That's just being unfair!"

Lotus sighed, "That's right, but there are people who are willing to go this far just for a game. However, it's all fun and games until someone accidentally loses their lives."

Yuu shuddered, "Then, we have to stop them quickly!"

Lotus nodded, "Then, where should we start first, Prefect?"

Yuu thought for a bit, "Let's start with the students. They should know what happened earlier."

She could see that Yuu could still retain a calm mind as she watched Yuu take Grim with him out the dorm as she followed behind.

"You're coming along too?" Grim looked to her curiously.

Lotus nodded, "Of course. I'm curious to see how the two of you would solve this."

Yuu looked to her in confusion, "You don't really have to bother yourself-"

Lotus chuckled, "Oh, but I want to. Moreover, We have to keep watch on Grim since he's doing this for a chance to play magift live, right?"

"Fgna?! How did you know?" Grim looked to her in bewilderment.

Lotus chuckled, "I don't. But, it was a good guess you could say."

Yuu laughed, "As I thought, nothing gets past you, Lotus."

"You can count on me if something bad happens to you two."

"Hm?" Grim frowned, "Then, why didn't you help me get a spot in the game?"

"Hm?" Lotus raised a brow and sneered, "Because it wasn't anything bad."

"How was it not anything bad?!"

Lotus laughed as Grim was filled with outrage. Yuu could only sigh in exasperation upon the sight of the two.

They spent the entire day interrogating the students to which had left one of them annoyed. It was after a challenge between magic that Lotus finally stepped in and calmly gave an explanation to calm down the other side. It would seem that, at the point, Grim had shown the extent of his magic which had improved greatly since then as she was able to gather the information from the student. Lotus had noticed the ribbon on the arm that dictates the dorm they were from.

As per usual, Pomefiore really does have a sense of pride, or maybe it was just that student?

To appease the other side, she handed him a lotion she had made and the recipe for it in hopes that he gets better as that particular student had burnt his hand when handling the pot for potions and accidentally toppled it over the counter during class. However, little did she know, she would soon come to regret that decision the following days after handing it out to them.

After returning to the dorm, Grim finally sighed wearily, "I can't see anyone we talked to as anything other than clumsy. Do we still have to think these weren't accidents?"

There was a buzz on their new buzzer as Grim looked over to the door from the foyer, "Hm? Who's there?"

"Yooo!" Ace grinned as Yuu opened the door, "Oh, Grim, you look better."

"Ugh, it's just you." Grim groaned in annoyance, "Listen, I'm pretty busy right now so I don't have time to hang out."

"Busy?" Ace raised a brow when he noticed Lotus pinch Grim's flame ears in a scolding manner, "You're not gonna finish the homework?"

Yuu sighed in exasperation as Lotus went to bring out the snacks she had saved up in her room for visitors.

"Hmmm." Ace nodded in understanding, "People getting injured suspiciously, huh."

"But while we were listening to them." Grim added, "it just sounded like they were being clumsy or getting caught up in the excitement for the tournament."

There was a bang on the door to which Lotus looked up with a frown and quietly sent her energy out.

"Who could that be?" Ace raised a brow after putting down the mooncake in his hand.

To her surprise, it turned out to be Deuce. She frowned and set the sweets down before going to the door.

"Thanks, Lotus!" Deuce hurried in and head straight for the lounge where he burst through the door, "Ace! This is bad!"

"Huh?" Ace raised a brow, "What's got your panties in a bunch..."

"Clover got hurt falling down the stairs!" Deuce cried out in bewilderment.

"Wha-?!"

All three of them looked to him in bewilderment.

"Ffgna!" Grim cried out in surprise, "You can't mean that unflappable Trey?"

Lotus narrowed his eyes in a frown.

"I can't really picture him being clumsy." Yuu frowned and looked to Lotus.

Lotus nodded, "With how much he does as the vice dorm leader, it's impossible for him to mess something up if let to him."

"You're right." Ace nodded with a frown, "Trey isn't the kind of guy to just trip over nothing."

"Let's go ask him what happened!" Grim suggested.

Lotus nodded with a sigh, "Right. I'll go grab some snacks from my room."

"Huh?" Grim raised a brow, "But, it's not like we're going to be hungry."

"You idiot!" Lotus flicked his forehead, "Don't think of just yourself when it comes to food. Trey is injured. We should at least bring him something to him. I just hope he isn't seriously injured..."

"O-Oh..."

When she was gone, Deuce sighed, "It seems that Lotus can show some worry after all..."

"I don't know." Yuu frowned in confusion, "Lately, he's been showing Grim manners. I believe he's trying to instill a little bit of it in him."

Ace raised a brow, "Heh... So, just another case of mother Lotus..."

Yuu and Grim nodded with a sigh. Yuu added, "Though that being said, he's more convinced that Grim might turn this into something only he could benefit from."

"Seriously?!" Grim scowled, "Of course not! I'm taking my lessons very seriously!"

"Really?" Ace sneered, "Then was he pleased with your sixty in the last quiz?"

Holding back tears, Grim shuddered, "Th-That was just a fluke! It was just a fluke!"

Deuce sighed, "At least, he didn't decide to spank you like a mother would."

"Hell no!" Grim cried out.

"Hell no... what?"

Grim froze in place and slowly turned his head around to find Lotus at the door way with a small box of fruits under her arm and a small sneer on her face. Unconsciously, Ace and Grim both gulped back what they wanted to say when they saw her as Deuce and Yuu could only sigh as the latter shook his head in dismay.