Couldn't Help But Feel That It's A Little Late

Lotus left the dorm shortly after leaving the jade in Azul's care. Surprisingly, Azul placed another

magic over the safe after hearing what Lotus had said. When she was gone, Floyd spoke up curiously, "Say, why did you accept the stone from him~?"

Azul hummed in thought, "Did you see it, Jade?"

Jade nodded, "I'll look into the materials used for the box."

Azul looked to the gold key in his hand and brushed the tiny, red jewel with a frown, "So, this is how he has been able to make his potions without magic..."

"Huh?" Floyd raised a brow in confusion.

"This red jewel is capable of producing and manipulating magic." Azul responded, "He wouldn't need magic to use magic for potions when it's needed. However, something like this would be very, very valuable and are rare. Yet, he had a tiny piece of it on this key. Question is how did he come across one of these."

Jade was left silent for a bit as his brother seemed to grow a little more interested in the things that Lotus pulls, but he didn't feel motivated to keep an eye on her, especially not after the last time with the students incident in the dorm rooms.

.....

The next day had been normal after she had her appointment with the nurse and returned to her dorm with some snacks she had made ahead of time. That afternoon, Lotus was struggling to maintain her smile with Silver in the room. Thankfully, they weren't alone as Lilia and Sebak were around as well. Lilia was the first to speak up after a sip of the bitter tea, "Ah! That's right."

He smiled and turned to her, "I just realized this when we were preparing to celebrate the Halloween, but I remembered your candy artwork that you said was a dragon from your hometown's culture."

"Lilia-senpai?" Silver questioned curiously.

"You..." Lilia tilted his head curiously, "You're from the east, aren't you?"

Lotus raised a brow, "The East?"

"Now that you mentioned it." Silver raised a brow, "Malleus seemed to have mentioned it the other day. How he recalled having seen the culture of the eastern side and found an eastern dragon of different structure that had no wings."

"It's true that the eastern side of the world has such a god figure." Lotus admitted, "I also believe that my origin are somewhere around there too."

"The country has a serious aspect towards their studies and often strive for perfection from my perspective." Lilia said curiously, "As if their lives depended on it."

Lotus nodded, "Your studies is what determines how you'll live in the future outside of your background. In the past, it is also what will change your status from a farmer to an official. So, we take our studies seriously, however, studies aren't the only thing that can help you live a better life. There are many other aspects, but studies is the most important because that's the only thing we can manipulate to change our prospect in the future. So a lot studies like their life depends on it. It's pretty common."

"Hehe..." Lilia smirked, "Is that why you and the prefect has been getting the other student to study."

Lotus shrugged, "It's just me. After all, this is also for his own benefit to be more knowledgeable on magic if he wants to live up to his dream. Aside from that the exams are over for now, so there's no more pressure on his back aside from his grades."

"But you said you were in an orphanage in the Land of Pyroxene." Sebak corrected with a cocky smirk, "It looks like you have a bit of a mix up the story here."

Silver looked to him with a start, "Sebak, that-!"

Lilia sighed, "I'm sorry about that. It seems Sebak is rather elated by the food you've brought out today."

Lotus laughed, "Haha! It's fine. Instead, I'm rather surprised that I would have a little fan amongst the Diasomnia dorm."

"Geh-!" Sebak nearly choked on his drink in bewilderment when he heard her words, "I am not you 'little fan'!"

Lotus continued regardless, "My birth family are nomads from the east that embraces rural living rather than modern times from my understanding at the time. They often get away from society as much as they can. As result, my mother was one of the few concubines of my biological father. Since I couldn't use magic, I wasn't well-liked by the rest of my family. So, I ran away from home shortly after my mother passed from cancer. We were close to Pyroxene at the time, so I thought I could go hide in a store somewhere, but I didn't expect to get caught and sent to an orphanage by the people there."

"Strange." Silver raised a brow, "They didn't check your background?"

Lotus shook her head, "We don't have something like that. It was only after I got to the Land of Pyroxene that I got my identification registered. To be honest, they could've easily cured my mother's illness if they reached outside of their society, but they didn't want anything to do with outside society. So, I ran away from and after secretly stealing some of my family's books and plagerized them onto my own papers."

"I assume that is one of them." Lilia pointed to the book in her lap she had placed down just earlier, "May I have a look?"

Lotus easily handed the book to him and shrugged, "Sure."

Lilia took the paperback book in his hand and flipped through it. He raised a brow when he noticed the figures of body and points but was surprisingly puzzled by the words. He raised a brow, "Strange... I only a little bit of the characters here."

"Can Lilia-senpai read these Chinese characters?" Lotus questioned with a raised brow.

"Chinese?" Lilia raised a brow.

Lotus nodded, "These are Chinese characters. Those three characters on the front page translates to Zi Wu Xian, which means meridians. The book is about herbal eastern medicine and medical knowledge. Becuase we don't have anything to check the health of a patient, we can only rely on the wrist to check for pulse and other symptoms. The diet and habits of the patients are also very important."

"Since you know this much, why are you attending school here?" Silver asked in confusion.

"There are little to zero knowledge on potions." Lotus answered, "Since leaving the orphanage with my foster mother, I was taught how to make potions with and without magic and worked part time with other humans."

"Hm," Lilia gave her back the book, "So, that means your mother isn't human?"

Lilia nodded, "She and my foster family aren't humans. She only heard about my circumstances and took pity on me, then she adopted me. Since I told them I had no intention to return at all, they've sent me all over the place just so I can figure out which society I want to live in after I move out. So, I'll have to go back living with humans after graduation again."

"That sounds interesting." Silver muttered curiously.

"Hmph." Sebak huffed, "Everything here all seems fishy to me!"

Lotus chuckled teasingly, "Hehe... But only the meatball here is made of fish, you know."

"Ah, so that's what it was." Lilia smiled as revelation suddenly dawned upon him out of nowhere.

"That's not the point!" Sebak grumbled in exasperation, "Though... the meatball was good..."

Silver shook his head with a shrug having seen a similar cycle before.

"I'm here because my employer wants to hire me to make potions for him in the future, but I've never gone to school before or have any sort of degree. Therefore, he said that if I could get into any highschool and study there, then I could work for him. In exchange, he'd pay for my tuition though my pay later would be less for five years due to this. Then, I ended up finding someone who recommended me to Night Raven College." Lotus explained before sipping her tea, "Thanks to his position, not even the headmaster would send me out even when I don't have magic."

"Someone that important..." Silver raised a brow in confusion, "That even the headmaster can't do anything..."

Lilia's smile disappeared when he heard this. The short student wasn't alarmed or upset in the least. However, a thought flashed in the back of his head when he heard of this, but it had left him puzzled.

Someone higher than the headmaster...

Could it be...?

"So, I'm here to study potions." Lotus finished.

"Now that you said it..." Silver noted curiously, "I heard you ran into some trouble during the finals."

Lotus nodded with a sigh, "Some people from the Savanaclaw dorm called me out for cheating, so I had to redo the test all over again before the results came out."

"Hah!" Sebak smirked.

"Before the results." Lilia reminded him, "It means to say the scores he received during that day was the result of his retake."

"Wh-What?" Sebak's eyes widen in bewilderment as he was taken aback by the clarification in disbelief.

Lotus nodded, "It took more time for the teachers to make another exam for me and Mister Trein was not happy at all."

"Now that you mentioned it." Lilia raised a brow, "Even when Mister Crewel was happy, Mister Trein seemed rather grumpy the entire day. What happened?"

"Ah..." Lotus raised a brow, "He wasn't happy with my scores."

"What do you mean?" Silver raised a brow in confusion causing Lotus to be close to ready to sucker punch him in the face or even thrown him into the hundred year old apple tree in the school's courtyard if she hadn't reigned himself in.

Luckly, she chose to sit next to Sebak and Lilia or a snap of a finger could've easily fatally injured him before his family.

However, she answered feigning a smile, "He said I could've taken the time to look back and that I didn't put my all into this test. Though, I did put my all to reach my desirable score."

"Um..." Silver and Sebak was left in confusion as Lilia shook his head with a smile and a sigh.

"Was there a specific reason you must receive this outcome?" Lilia asked curiously.

"You could say that." Lotus gave a wide smirk.

"Oh dear..." Lilia shook his head feeling rather humorous at the moment and said, "Please keep it to a moderate level. Our teachers are not like our colleagues and we don't want to overwhelm them with crazy stunts we pull on each other."

Lotus nodded with a sigh, "I understand, senpai. The nurse is already 'worried' that I keep taking the bandages from his shelf until recently too."

With the two knights lost in confusion, Lilia hummed curiously, "Would you really listen to your senior, though?"

"Of course, senpai." Lotus responded with a smile, "If I was given an inch, I'd graciously take the inch, but I'd never take a foot for granted."

Lilia was uncertain, but her words made him feel a little reassured she won't try to make a bigger stunt in the future, except he couldn't help but feel that he may have been a little late.