Did I treat you too harshly or too well?

"That child..." Zhang Yong stammered nervously, "is a prince?!"

Lotus nodded, "His uncle attends this school as the student. that day was a game tournament for him, so the child wants to take this chance to see his uncle play. The entire family was invited in fact. The child came with his parents who are brother and sister-in-law to the uncle."

"But, the stampede nearly..." Zhang Li responded curiously having connected the dots between the uncle and the guy who overblotted alongside the mastermind of the stampede.

"It wasn't his intention." Lotus responded with a sigh, "Though I doubt he wasn't told by his family by now about his miscalculations. As much as he doesn't like the child that clings to him all day, I'm pretty sure he isn't willing to take a life away. He was aiming for another dorm, after all. At least, he'll take more precautions or the consequence would come back to bite him."

"But, how do you know..." Zhang Yong responded nervously.

Lotus began inserting a little energy into the item, "When you see him, you'll understand why..."

Lotus continued the previous topic, "With the problem of overblot, researchers have started finding ways to lower the chances of overblotting. That's where those writing utensils with the gem come into play. They are called magical pens, but what's more important is the magic crystal adorned on them. They would help process mana much more easily. However, the mental state of the magician is also important when casting magic."

Zhang Li looked to Lotus in surprise, "You mean, the mental state void of negative emotions is important to the increase and decrease of blot too..."

Smart. Lotus nodded pushing the thought to herself as she continued, "At the time, that student had already started to use a good amount of magic and was not in the state to take notice of the blot he had produced. That's what the gem could do for them. The accumulated blot is displayed within the jewel tainting it like ink. When overblot occurs, the entire gem turns black with radiating with the aura."

"Then we just need to break the-"

"Breaking the stone won't fix the problem." Lotus responded, "In the end, you would still have an overblot student rampaging on school grounds without a stone and I bet they would be on a shorter journey to the end."

"O-oh..." Zhang Yong retracted his words quickly.

Lotus continued, "Acupuncture won't solve the problem either."

"Acupuncture?" Zhang Li raised a brow, "What is acupuncture?"

"You know, when you treat people using needles."

"Needles?" Zhang Li turned to her brother who shook his head as well.

"But I do recall Master using needles on the man's arm..." Zhang Yong responded, "It had rendered the student's arm useless till she pulled it out."

"Really?!" Zhang Li's eyes shone with awe, "I wanna see! Was this how you cured those students down in the Octabi... That dorm?"

Focused solely on the adjustments of her work, she responded, "That's right. Only for the more serious conditions. You'd be surprised to learn that I had to wait till some were stunned unconscious to start on them because they had a fear of needles. I didn't think that phobia existed till now..."

Well, they did have vaccines here that are delivered through needles carefully and meticulously designed for the sole purpose of inserting or extracting fluids through the body. She may as well, just leave it there...

"But, Master, will they really not tattle on you?" Zhang Yong questioned with a look of confusion.

Lotus nodded, "They won't. I made certain of that with them before I left. Besides, the acupuncturist they brought out agreed with me on this move."

"As expected." Zhang Li smirked, "Master is really talented!"

Seeing his younger sister act like a little girl, Zhang Yong wanted to reprimand her again, but he didn't want to do so before their master and interrupt her...

What was she doing?

A few minutes ago, she had been dissecting spider and now she was fiddling with the silver bangles in her hands before turning to the two, "Zhang Yong, Zhang Li, come over here for a bit."

"Okay!" Zhang Li came forward becoming a little more excited after hearing Lotus's unusual talents with sparkling eyes.

She was right! This was way better than staying with those stuffy noble women her late aunt had served under! Well, except for being stuck in her room. She really hoped this would be worth it!

The two went forward obediently, while Zhang Li almost too eagerly.

Lotus turned around and pulled up their sleeves before fastening the silver armament on their arms. Zhang Li was surprised by the sudden movement and almost lept away when she recalled that it was an order from Lotus who was actually a woman. Uncomfortably, she watched her fasten something warm onto her arm as she glanced at it. Her eyes widen in bewilderment, "This is..."

Lotus shrugged, "Just something I put together with a gem. I pulled it out from the ring and put it together. This can protect you from attacks up to Advanced Nihility level."

"Against Advanced Nihility level?!" Zhang Yong stared at her in bewilderment, "That'd make this a grade 3 weapon at least!"

Lotus shrugged, "I guess..."

Zhang Li gasped, "But, why would her father..."

She shook her head dismissing the thoughts and jumped to hug Lotus, "Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Xiao Li would follow Master everywhere without hesitation from now on!"

"Uh... Okay?" Lotus raised a brow in confusion as she wondered why some level three weapon she was practicing on would make them this cheerful...

.....

The next week was rather peaceful as Lotus finally decided to take a nap telling Ying Hui to wake her up once it was morning. The days were crammed with study and classes as she also had to help Deuce and the others study too. It was apparent that Deuce had not take his classes serious in the past, so he was struggling now that he was attending school once more. Looks like karma got him hard this time as Lotus took a lot of time helping him with the others. However, he and Ace wasn't alone and the seniors in their dorms was helping them too before the upcoming tea party next weekend.

"What are you doing?"

Hearing a familiar voice, Lotus snapped her eyes widen open and found herself looking up to a very familiar face. She looked to him in bewilderment as she could feel the cloth of her dress fluttering and the wind blew past them.

"Riddle?" Lotus looked to him in confusion as she saw the guy was standing just above her looking down on her with a look of confusion.

She sat up and saw that she was indeed in her dress again and looked around. Their surroundings were rather unusual. There was tall mountain peaks with lush green sprouting from them. the peaks were so high that it had reached the clouds as the white stream like clouds flowed around the peaks like slow pacing river. a waterfall poured in a distance creating the nostalgic sound she had been fond of listening to and a large pond laid out before her filled with lilies of many different colors.

As expected, the place was new to her.

She and Riddle was under a sturdy peach tree covered with pale pink blossoms on the branches. She brushed off the petals from her dress and turned to him, "I was supposed to be sleeping..."

She looked around curiously before muttering to herself, "Strange... just where exactly are we?"

"You don't know either?" Riddle looked to her in confusion, "I was sleeping in my room too, but then I found myself here shortly after."

"I wonder if Little Jun can hear me..." Lotus questioned curiously before calling out over the edge, "Little Jun!!! Little Jun!!!"

Right now, they were just on one of the peaks of the many mountains in the area. The temperature wasn't cold despite the altitude. Moreover, it was rather pleasant. It was then that there was a loud cry and something diving in the air at full force, "Big Sister!!!"

The guy was hardly so small that Lotus had to carry him anymore. In fact, it'd be more precise to say that this little guy has grown so big that he was like a teenage horse by now reaching just above her head. However, that had been a few days ago and he has yet to continue his growth spurt since then.

The silly guy charged at them and literally lost his control when he tried to land on the waters. Instead, the poor guy crashed into the pond!

"Wah!"

With a swift motion, Lotus easily pulled Riddle away from the splash just in the nick of time. Lotus shook her head in bewilderment and the two returned as she could see the horse head poke out from the waters with ears tipped forward before pulling back with a loud snort as he called out innocent rushing out from the waters with lilypads on his strong broad back, "I-It was an accident! I swear, big sister! Wahh!!!"

If a horse could shed tears, he'd be bawling his eyes out right now as he shivered, "I-It was an accident!!!"

Lotus sighed and scolded the youngling, "Enough! Enough! Why are you crying?! You make it sound like I beat you with an iron cane for misbehaving! Jeez... How old are you still bawling your eyes out? Did I treat you too harshly or too well that you can't even stand a single scolding?"

With the kirin in a sniffling mess, Riddle found the young one in a rather pitiful state and said in exasperation while pouting as he knew he was being ignored and made to watch this scene, "Shouldn't we dry him off first? He'll catch a cold if we don't dry him off..."

Lotus sighed, "Fine."

She pulled out towels from her ring and began to dry the young kirin off after he shook the excess water off. Luckily for her, Riddle pitched into help as Lotus began, "So, Little Jun... Where are we?"