"We came all this way to monitor Azul but..."
Y/N snickered and bumped her shoulder with Jack's, making the much larger wolf stumble a bit in shock. He was surprised at how much strength the young woman packed, especially since at first glance, he would have thought her to be more interested in the many volumes within the library. Not that he had a problem with the way that she seemed to find joy in teasing him.
"I didn't think you would be one to skip class," Y/N joked. She turned to the boy on her other side. "Or you for that matter, Yuu. You seem so eager to go and study." No one felt like pointing out the fact that Y/N was being sarcastic. Yuu often found himself struggling to pull himself out of bed in the mornings.
Yuu shrugged and threw an arm around Y/N's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "Well, at least now I get to spend more time with you, N/N." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and Y/N struggled with the rosy heat threatening her s/c skin.
"This was a direct order from the headmaster," Jack mused, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sure he'll see cutting class as part of it. That and I'm tired of this losing streak."
Y/N smirked. "Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night, wolf boy."
"If you're gonna find the secret to Azul's strength, I wanna know too."
. . .
The three intrepid spies slipped into a lecture hall, quietly mingling amongst the students who were sitting in their seats. Azul was standing in his seat near the front, singing beautiful notes.
Y/N smiled as she heard the boy sing, listening to the way that the lyrics to the song slipped off his tongue as effortlessly as a siren's song.
"I admit that in the past I've been a nasty. They weren't kidding when they called me well, a witch. But you'll find that nowadays I've mended all my ways, repented, seen the light, and made a switch. True? Yes."
Azul cast a glance around the room. Yuu and Jack both ducked down, though Y/N was so entranced by his voice that she found it hard to look away. The Octavinelle leader smirked when he saw her standing at the back of the room. He had wondered how long it would take for them to come and seek him out.
"And I, fortunately, know a little magic. It's a talent that I always have possessed. And dear lady, please don't laugh, I use it on behalf of the miserable, lonely, and depressed." He took a step forward, leaving his desk, and slowly walking toward Y/N.
"Poor unfortunate souls. In pain, in need. This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl, and do I help them? Yes, indeed."
As the two boys noticed Azul getting closer to where they were hiding and scurried off, leaving Y/N to fend for herself in her daze like state. Everyone else in the room was curious as to what was happening. They had never seen someone react like this to Azul's singing. Yes, it was beautiful, but enchanting enough to render someone speechless and almost hypnotised was another matter.
"Those poor unfortunate souls. So sad, so true. They come flocking to my cauldron crying, "Spells, Azul, please!" And I help them! Yes, I do."
Azul finally reached the back row of tables where Y/N was standing and reached out a graceful hand, running it through her hair.
"Now it's happened once or twice, someone couldn't pay the prince, and I'm afraid I had to rake'em 'cross the coals. Yes, I've had the odd complaint, but on the whole, I've been a saint. To those poor unfortunate souls!"
Azul leaned closer to the girl, smirking as he saw her eyes glaze over with magic. Few people knew that he had been born a siren. As a young octopus, you never would have guessed, but yes, he was a siren, able to ensnare the senses of any he wished.
From the corner of the room, Jack and Yuu watched the interaction between the two.
"That guy's got a pretty good singing voice," Jack muttered, his hands forming fists on the ground.
"What is he doing to Y/N," Yuu hissed, glaring at the purple-haired boy.
Suddenly, Y/N seemed to regain some of her senses, though her eyes were still glazed over, and she took a step forward. It seemed as though she was asleep.
Azul stumbled back a bit, shocked that the girl was able to rival him for a hypnotic voice. He glanced around at the boys in the room, his eyes widening when he realised that everyone in the room was now staring at the girl.
She took another step forward, forcing Azul to back up again. Though he was more conscious than he thought he would be, he was surprised at how... he was unable to look away. It seemed as if the ocean waves were lurking within the depths of Y/N's eyes, and as her voice floated around his ears, leaving gentle kisses in the wind as she sang, he found himself getting sleepier and sleepier with each passing moment.
"Yuu!"
Jack shook Yuu's body and managed to snap the boy out of his daze. He had wrapped his scarf around his ears to block out the sound of Y/N's haunting voice and he ripped Yuu's tie from around his neck. He quickly tied it around the boy's ears.
"Jack," Yuu asked, shaking his head. "What happened?"
Jack pointed to where Y/N was slowly forcing Azul down the steps, back toward his desk at the front.
"She's a siren," Jack wrote on a spare piece of paper. "She's got all the boys under her spell!"
Yuu's eyes widened at the mention of sirens. There were two types of sirens back where he came from. Sirens that were half bird and half woman, and sirens that were half woman and half fish. He knew more about the latter. Half-fish women who used their beautiful voices to lure sailors to their death and drown them amongst the rocks.
"What do we do," Yuu wrote on the paper.
"Let's get her out of here. Azul enchanted her first, so maybe if we get her far enough away, she'll snap out of it."
. . .
"What happened?"
Y/N was sitting on a bench outside of the music room, holding her head in her hands. It felt like a raging thunderstorm was occurring in her head, throwing her mind about on torrential waves and winds.
Neither Jack nor Yuu said anything about Y/N's haunting capabilities.
"You got tired and passed out," Yuu said, wrapping his arms around Y/N. "Are you feeling okay?"
Y/N nodded and slowly got to her feet. "Just a bit of a headache."
"Well take it easy, okay? We don't need you passing out again."
. . .
Azul's second class was Animal Language Arts. Yuu and Jack were a little hesitant about letting Y/N into the same room as Azul after what had just happened but decided to let her in so that they wouldn't cause her to worry about what they were keeping from her. In a silent agreement between the two of them, the two boys decided to not tell Y/N about what had happened in the lecture hall.
Y/N cocked her head and frowned, watching as Azul attempted to communicate with Lucius, who was sitting on Trein's desk, looking somewhat irritated.
Whatever Azul said to Lucius seemed to annoy the cat, and he swished his tail in a sophisticated yet arrogant manner.
"I see," Azul hummed, standing tall once again. "According to Lucius, the last treat Mr Trein gave him was three hours ago."
Y/N frowned and turned to Jack. "Did you get any of that?"
"No way."
"As expected from you, Ashengrotto. That is correct." Trein seemed pleased enough, but he still wore the same annoyed face that he always did.
"So he can understand animal language and also speak it himself," Jack muttered, watching as Azul returned to his seat.
. . .
Azul's third period was alchemy. Y/N, Yuu, and Jack didn't want to risk being seen by Azul again, so they remained outside of the classroom, listening through an open window near Azul's workbench, and hiding in some flower bushes. Y/N lost track of how many times she had to brush a stray bug away.
"A beluga's tooth, sturgeon eggs, aurora moth scales, and mermaid tears."
Y/N listened as Azul added the ingredients required to his cauldron.
"Add in the extract from one hundred and twenty kinds of medicinal herbs blended together..."
There was a loud poof from inside and the spies looked up to see a large purple cloud explode from the window above their heads.
"And it's complete," Azul declared. "If you drink this potion it will be possible to change part of your body into another animal!"
Y/N couldn't resist and peeked over the windowsill, watching as Azul bottled the potion. The boy handed it over to Crewel.
"Good boy! This level of concoction is something you'll see at the end of your third year." Crewel turned to the rest of the students in the room and help up the potion that Azul had brewed. "You other puppies would do well to watch and learn from Ashengrotto. And though she is not here, it would also do you well to observe Miss Artem."
From his pocket, Crewel pulled out another teal potion in a small vial and held it up for the class to see. Y/N recognised it as one that she had brewed a few days before during potions. She had finished her assignment early and Crewel had permitted her to experiment a little bit.
"He can also put together difficult potions... perfectly," Jack muttered.
. . .
Finally, it was lunch, and Y/N nearly threw herself onto one of the benches, feeling exhausted from all the walking that they had done to try and spy on the head of Octavinelle. Her feet ached terribly and she somewhat wished that someone would carry her back to her dorm. She didn't quite feel like walking or following Azul around for the rest of the day.
She glanced over to the cafeteria counter where Jack, Yuu, and Azul were all getting their food.
"For lunch today..." Azul said, tapping his chin. "I'll have the squid ink pasta. Oh, can't forget to have some vegetables. Eating only carbs will make my diet very unbalanced..." He took the food from the counter and put it on his plate, heading to the table next to Y/N's, where the Leech twins were waiting for him.
Y/N put her head down on the table and shut her eyes, feeling extremely tired, but before she zoned out from the conversation, she heard Azul mutter, "More importantly, I'll gain weight..."
Y/N frowned and lifted her head from the table, watching as Azul took his seat, seemingly oblivious to where she sat. Why was he so worried about his weight? And why did he seem so sad now that he had mentioned his weight?
Jack and Yuu joined her a moment later, Yuu sliding into the seat next to her, while Jack sat down across from her. The tired feeling returned and Y/N slumped over, leaning her head on Yuu's shoulder.
"Azul really seems like a flawless honour student," Jack muttered, poking at his food.
Deuce, Grim, and Ace suddenly came over, falling into the seats next to their friends and dropping their heads onto the table within seconds.
"I'm dead tired from being pushed around by Azul," Grim huffed.
Ace snagged a chip from Jack's plate. "He's been making me run around cleaning Octavinelle, waiting tables at the lounge, and buying supplies."
Y/N shrugged. "Seems like the usual job to me, Ace."
"He made me work at six this morning," Deuce complained.
"I have to work at Mostro Lounge again today."
"What did Riddle say," Y/N asked, turning to Deuce. He was slouched over the table and she placed a hand on his shoulder, rubbing it softly.
"He said, 'Entering a contract with Azul? It should be off with your head'. He got angry and made me write a written apology..."
"And we look dumb since we can't take the anemones off," Grim moaned.
Y/N felt a little sympathy for the trio, but she couldn't help but feel that they deserved what they got. Jack seemed to be of a similar mindset.
"Hmph," he huffed, moving his food further away from Ace. "Lay in the bed you made."
Yuu seemed more inclined to help the boys. "We have to do something, Y/N. They're gonna crash at this point."
Y/N sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Fine. We can try and help them."
A/N: It has taken me so long to update this book and I am so sorry, but I am finally back! I hope you enjoy the update! There will be another one coming out tomorrow, and if there are any other stories that you want me to update just let me know either by commenting or dm. Thank you to everyone who has supported this book, it means a lot to me!