He Already Knew

Vil walked in first to enter before Rook carried Lotus in. He carried her up the flight of stairs hurriedly to the second floor before pushing the door open. He hurried in and closed the door behind him before placing Lotus onto her bed and removing her scarf and mit. However, the moment he got to her shoes, he paused and looked out the windows with narrow eyes. However, there was nothing outside. With that, he quietly backed away and turned to check her forehead. However, it was cold...

"Mn..." Lotus grimaced and curled up on her bed in pain, "Mh... Mo... Li..."

Removing his hand, he frowned, "La vache... so cold..."

"So, you think it's unusual too..."

Rook turned around and was not surprised to come across Yuu waiting at the open door. He was leaning against the door frame with his arms folded tightly together as he frowned upon seeing the two while feeling rather upset and cautious seeing the scene before him for some unknown reason.

"Was he always like this?" Rook asked him in confusion.

Yuu nodded with a sigh as he walked over to take off her shoes and tuck her in, "After you found her collapsed outside of the dorm, I've been keeping tabs on his condition with help from one of his friends. His temperature have always been cold during these times. However, he didn't have problems in the past. The nurse brought a doctor in a few days ago. However, they can't figure out what was wrong with him."

"Why didn't you try to hold him back from leaving in the night as his dorm leader?"

Yuu shook his head, "I tried to, but..."

"But?" Rook raised a brow.

"For some reason, he's too driven. I'm not strong enough to keep him here." Yuu responded with a heavy sigh, "As you've seen, he's gone somewhere once again and didn't come till late."

"He's always gone at night?" Rook raised a brow at the news of this.

Yuu nodded, "Then, he would pretend that nothing was wrong the next day. He's clearly hiding something, but he just won't tell me anything."

"He's always out?"

"Almost every night." Yuu frowned and glanced to the window, "I would then always find something out of place the next day... I'll check on him again in a couple hours."

Hearing this, Rook remained silent in deep thoughts. After making sure she was all right, Yuu hesitantly left the room with Rook and he returned to his room. Rook, on the other hand returned to the lounge where he found Vil writing out his schedule and plans.

"How was he?"

"According to Trickster Yuu, he should be all right." Rook responded as he sat down on the other sofa.

"The supervisor?" Vil looked up in surprise, "So, he still went there in the end."

Rook nodded, "He knew that this would happen."

"He knew?" Vil raised a brow.

"I'm afraid this isn't the first time he's gone out at night." Rook responded with rare look of seriousness on his face, "Trickster Yuu has had his eyes on him even closer than Grim."

Vil frowned when he heard this, "Is it bad?"

Rook shook his head, "We don't know. But he's worried... again."

Vil thought for a bit when he heard this, "Always gone at night. Never wanting to worry Yuu... He's clearly trying to do something behind everyone's back, but... the rule is that nobody is allowed to leave their dorms after midnight... Those who did are instantly caught... How did he...?"

"Should we do take action?"

Vil shook his head, "There's no meaning behind it. Not to mention, he also refuses to help me train the group. Just leave him be."

.....

It was the day of the festival as Lotus sat silently at the top of the dorm building. Since she wasn't allowed to do much around that time. Lotus watched curiously as the people began to gather. It was then that something small landed on her shoulder as Lotus turned her head and smiled, "What did mother say?"

The bird chirped as Lotus softly smiled, "I have much to owe mother this time. I just hope I don't ruin the last moment of this year's banquet."

The bird chirped again.

She sighed, "I know. My words was never pretty to begin with sadly. If I did, maybe others would get along with me better outside of the kingdom, but..."

She thought carefully as she patted the little bird's head, "Father, mother and everyone else in the forest is all I need to trust in... I don't need to believe in another person unless I want to."

Chili chirped as she turned to the brightly colored scene below, "The cultural festival is what it's loosely called. I forgot what the original name was called, but I don't really need it. From what I heard, it's just to exchange cultures and show what the students have come up with. I'm sure it will be fun."

Lotus watched the scenery before her carefully. The trees weren't completely in full bloom yet, but the scene was still tranquil. The flowers that floated onto the place from some of the bloom trees made her wonder if they had planted some sort of fruit trees around. Fruit trees had always been her favorite type of plants. During the beginning of the empire of nature fairies, they were the ones who shed the most effort in providing for the kingdom who had yet to begin cultivation. They were the first set of cultivators she had raised.

She remembered at the time when she had only just managed to create a single peak for a haven that she came upon her first set of fairies whom she had raised like her own children. The first set off blossoms was so fleeting and she remembered how they cried in horror when they saw the flowers losing their petals the next couple of weeks. At that time, she had already gone through the cycle of flowering herself, she had already known that this would happen at some point.

Lotus heaved a heavy sigh and responded, "At that time, I could neither laugh, much less shed a single tear. All I could do was give an annual festival in their name and efforts and to explain the result to them to assure them..."

Neither laugh nor cry...

That day everything has became red. It was pink at first and then white. Just a little pink and white floating across the skies, but it wasn't long before they were all stained...

She breathed a small sigh and muttered softly under her breath, "So much red..."

"Lotus! Dang it... Where did that guy run off to this time?"

Lotus raised a brow and looked down to find Yuu looking all over the place for her outside. Seeing this, she sighed and hopped off the roof landing onto a tree and leaping off. Grim was the first to notice her having leaped out of the tree as he cried, "Fgna! You were up in the tree?"

Lotus nodded with a wide smile, "I think it's because the weather has become warmer. I only dared to climb the windows before, but now I have enough energy to climb a tree!"

Seeing her leap off a tree, Yuu hurried over and scolded her, "You should still be more careful. How about we check with the nurse later today?"

"Eh? But, I feel fine. I've checked..." Lotus responded pouting as she did so.

Yuu sighed in exasperation and pinched her ear, "You know I wouldn't have to do this if you just tell me honestly instead of hiding so much. Now I can only ask the nurse to confirm it for me."

"Ugh..." Lotus grumbled in defeat when she heard this. However, a part of her was slightly shocked. Mostly because she didn't expect him to say the first sentence before. Did he already catch on?

"Hey!" Ace called out after seeing the two, "We're all ready to get going! You guys remember to come back before 12 pm!"

"We got it!" Grim called out as he watched the group leave.

Hearing this, Lotus watched the group leave curiously.

"So, they're going to prepare now..."

Yuu nodded, "Come on. Let's go to the nurse one more time before we join them."

Lotus sighed and reluctantly followed after Yuu afraid that her departure this time will do more than just intimidate him this time.

After being dragged by Yuu to the nurse and being given the clear that she could roam around the festival, Lotus was brought to the path to the stadium.

"Whoa! Check it out! There's a whole bunch of food stalls up in here, y'know!" Grim gazed at each and every stalls enthusiastically.

She raised a brow curiously, "Aren't we here a little early?"

"As the manager, I wanna go check out the stage first." Yuu explained.

"Hey, Lotus! Get me one of those big fish pieces!" Grim tugged on her leg pants with a domineering smile.

However, it was unfortunate for him that she wasn't someone that he could push around as his minion. Instead she picked him up like a child and said with a wide smile, "We need to go see the Purple Stage before getting a bite. Right, Yuu?"

"That's right." Yuu nodded with a wide smile.

"Whaaat? Why are you suddenly taking this manager thing so seriously?" Grim cried out in dismay and pointed to the stands enthusiatically, "Funnel cake! Hot dogs! There's even takoyaki!"