On the Wednesday before winter break, Susan decided to invite me to Night Raven College to sell sandwiches again.
However this time she wanted to sell them after school, and try out different times and see what works best for everybody.
She talked about how profitable teenagers are as we rode up the hill in the late afternoon, and we gave Sam a greeting before entering the campus.
The setting up was done fairly quickly, and as the final bell rang, people began to trickle into the cafeteria.
I found this time around more favourable since the crowd was a lot more controlled— probably because everyone was tired from their classes. Honestly, I could relate.
I hit some numbers into the till and faced my current customer. "That will be 17.50..." I trailed off and gave the student a closer look. "Oh, hi Jack."
Jack's ear flicked. "...You're the person from the Magift Tournament. (Y/N), right?"
I nodded with a smile. "That's me. How are you doing?"
"Not bad," He said, pulling out his wallet to pay. As we continued to talk, a familiar voice rang through the hall.
"Heya, Jack! Whatcha getting?" Ruggie said, running up and nudging the wolf beastman.
"Just some sandwiches," Jack said, handing me the money. "And if you want to buy something, you should go to the back of the line."
"Cut me some slack here," Ruggie sighed, and faced me. "And I didn't know we sold sandwiches at the school."
I shook my head as I have Jack his change. "I'm just helping Susan out with her business, so technically it's not Chicken Breast that profits from this. Though I do get paid."
He hummed thoughtfully and threw a few sandwiches onto the counter. "I see. Well, I'm getting these."
I raised a brow. "You're not slick, you kno—"
I was interrupted by some students' screams, and I quickly turned my head to face the source. Jack and Ruggie seemed to jump in surprise as well as students began to run out of the cafeteria.
"Get out of this area at once!" A ghost bellowed, shooting magic at the students. "This is going to be the princess's wedding hall! So scram!"
I yelped as a blast of water magic hit the table the sandwiches were placed on, causing them to all fall onto the ground.
Susan clicked her tongue, and began gathering the boxes. "I'll gather our goods! Hon, could you fend them off for a moment?"
"Can do," I said, throwing a glance at my magestone ring. There were only specks of black on it, so I could assume that I had around three spells before it would get completely tainted.
I noticed a beam of fire magic coming towards the cash register, and I threw my hand over the table to counter it with a blast of water.
I felt my hand throb as the fire fizzled away, and Ruggie sent me a glare.
"(Y/N)," He said warningly.
I groaned, rubbing my hand to get the prickly sensation away. "I know, I know."
Jack looked at our interaction with confusion. "I didn't know you were close."
"We're not," Ruggie said, deflecting an attack with wind magic.
"We're actually married."
Ruggie lightly pushed me away. "Shut the hell up and get packing!"
I snickered and quickly turned around to help Susan with the boxes. Thankfully there wasn't much to carry, and we were running out of the dining hall within a minute.
Susan started having hip pains so she was carried by Jack, which left me with the two boxes.
"Hand me a box," Ruggie said.
"Thanks, but I'm good," I said with a laugh. "They're are pretty light."
He glanced ahead before stating, "I saw you chuck the entire cash register in there."
"Yeah? As I said, pretty light."
As Ruggie gave me an unreadable look, I noticed Jack looking around strangely.
"Jack? Is anything wrong?" I asked.
"Do you guys smell that?" He said, furrowing his brows. "I think it's blot."
Ruggie and I exchanged a look and weighed our options on how to answer. We seemed to have a similar conclusion in mind— gaslight and gatekeep.
"What? You're crazy." Ruggie laughed unconvincingly.
I cleared my throat. "We'll... fill you in later. Let's just get to the field for now."
Jack seemed to be satisfied enough with our answer, and we continued our trip to the field. As we made our way through the school, we ran into other groups of ghosts, which Ruggie fended off well enough for us to change our route. We also noticed other groups of students making their way out of the main building and onto the field.
I put down the boxes on a nice grassy area and rolled my shoulder. "Damn, it's been a while since I ran like that."
"I'll see if anyone knows what's going on," Ruggie said, putting his arms behind his head.
"Same," I nodded, then noticed a certain redhead on the field. "Oh, isn't that Riddle?" He seemed to be exchanging farewells with to two other students, who began to walk away.
Ruggie frowned. "You know everyone from NRC, don't you? Anyway, see ya later!"
Jack seemed to have found his own group of friends to talk with, so I quickly told Susan that I would find out what's going on and made my way towards the Heartslabyul Housewarden.
"Hey Riddle!" I said, from behind him, gaining a surprised look.
His eyes seemed to soften. "(Y/N). It's been a while."
"Sure has been." I sighed. "Do you know what's happening? We were attacked by ghosts in the cafeteria."
"I'm afraid I don't know," He said with the shake of his head. "I was in the auditorium with some other Housewardens, and we too were attacked by ghosts. I apologize for this chaos occurring on a day you visit."
"Don't worry about it," I said with a wave. "It wasn't something in your control."
He chuckled. "I suppose that's true."
A different voice yelled from farther away. "Hey, ain't that (Y/N)?"
I turned to see Ace, Deuce and Yuu all walking in our direction. I noticed a grey cat walking beside them, and some bandages wrapped around Yuu's head.
"Hey guys," I said with a wave. "Yuu, are you okay from the overblot?"
"Who the heck are you?" Grim asked, but was silenced by a nudge from Yuu.
She shrugged. "Tis but a flesh wound."
"And three broken ribs," Ace muttered under his breath, and winced when he was elbowed by Yuu. "Hey! Uncalled for!"
She ignored him completely. "(Y/N), this is Grim. Grim, this is (Y/N)."
"Oh, the one that sells the sandwiches!" He exclaimed while drooling. "Human, give me a freebie sometime!"
I snorted. "You'll have to go through Susan for that."
Riddle cleared his throat, then faced the junior students. "Do any of you know what's happening with the ghosts? By a look at the field, we could assume that the entire student body's been kicked out."
Yuu nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, it's a crazy story though. I think Ortho will explain it in a few minutes— he's with Crowley right now."
"Ortho?" I repeated, and racked my memory. "Ah, you mean Idia's..." Now that I thought of it, I never asked what Ortho was to Idia.
"You know too many people here," Ace said, "You should just enroll already."
"I like being alive, thank you."
A sudden firework in the air made us jump, and we turned around to face the source.
Ortho floated down onto the ground, landing beside a startled Crowley. The headmaster quickly gathered himself from the loud noise and began his announcement.
"Everyone! I understand your current confusion and despair, but worry not, for I have the explanation!" He said. "The ghosts who have wreaked havoc in our campus are the retainers of the Ghost Bride— the phantom of a princess of a kingdom from long ago. She dreamed of marrying her perfect prince, but tragically passed away before it came true."
Crowley dramatically wiped his tears with a handkerchief, but because he was wearing a mask he awkwardly dabbed the area around his eyes.
He continued, "She comes to Twisted Wonderland around this time of the year, searching for her perfect prince— and for a long time I believed her quest would be completely futile!"
The man visibly jumped as he met Yuu's exasperated glare, and he cleared his throat.
"Her qualifications were as following; 'at least 180cm tall, with an air of nonchalance! Healthy, lustrous skin! Lidded eyes, and a charming smile! Bright, shimmering hair! Lips so arresting that you just have to kiss them!'. As I said before, they sound utterly outrageous."
I tried to think of anyone who would fit the description. It certainly wouldn't be the twins, and Ruggie wouldn't make the height... "Huh, maybe Idia would fit that description?"
Yuu looked at me with wide eyes, then laughed. "You'll be surprised."
"And last night..." Crowley trailed off in his speech to create suspense, "Idia Shroud had been kidnapped by the princess!"
The entire field fell into silence for a few moments, until Riddle spoke up.
"I see. So Idia happens to be the 'perfect prince' she has been searching for..."
Ace snorted, then bursted into laughter. "Ha ha ha! No way! Idia's the perfect prince?!"
A few others in the crowd began to laugh and chatter among themselves too.
Cater, who stood not far from us, also laughed. "Bridey sure knows how to pick em!"
"Dude, I'm actually so smart." I said, "I should be given a prize for guessing right."
"Wait, so the ghosts kicked us out because they're going to have a wedding in the school?" Deuce asked.
"Yeah, I would not want to be married on campus of all places," Yuu said. "I'd rather get married in a Walmart parking lot."
"...What's a Walmart?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Students, this is not a laughing matter!" Crowley yelled over the laughter. "Clearly, none of you understand the severity of Idia's situation."
"What's the matter? That's quite the scowl you've got there, Headmage." I heard a voice laugh in the crowd.
Crowley frowned. "To marry a ghost means that you bind yourself to someone who's already dead. Hence, if Idia married her... his soul will leave his body, and he will depart to the afterlife!"
The crowd fell back into silence for a second, before everyone yelled a collective "what?!".
"My brother's... going to turn into a ghost?!" Ortho exclaimed. "Headmage, you have to save him!"
'Oh, so they're brothers.' I thought, but quickly shook the discovery to the back of my mind. 'No— first, freak out over Idia potentially dying! Oh shit!'
"But of course," Crowley said, preening his feathered cape. "With a fellow classmate's life at stake, I'm sure the kind souls here would be more than grateful to lend a hand..."
A solid chorus of "no"'s came from the crowd.
"Yeah, no. No way." Ace deadpanned, and even Riddle seemed to shake his head at Crowley's suggestion.
"Wow, what perfect harmony." Yuu said, looking bored.
"But why?" Ortho said, "You could almost help!"
I sighed, glancing at my blackened nails. "I would, but I'm not the most magically able right now."
Riddle glanced at my hand. "Your magestone..."
"Yeah, I've always been quick to gain blot." I said in a hushed voice. "But it's been getting worse lately."
"If you overblot, I'm tearing you to shreds." Yuu said with a deadpan.
I snorted. "Funnily enough, Leona told me the same thing."
Ortho's voice rang over the murmurs from the gathered students. "Fine, if you won't help, I'll save brother myself!"
He turned towards the building and raised his arms. A bright blue light began to glow from the palm of his hands. "Running simulation of Idia Shroud Rescue. Priority: shortest time to achieve objective. Simulation completed successfully. Commencing live operation."
Ortho's hands shined brighter than before, and a whirring sound was heard from his arms as the wind blew around him. "Charging technomagnetic energy. Target: Night Raven College, main building. Technomagnetic beam firing in five, four, three..."
"Stop right there!" Crowley shouted, causing the light to fade from Ortho's palms and the wind to calm down around them.
"Were you truly about to vaporize our historic building?! I forbid you firing that beam!"
I heard Yuu curse under her breath. "Should've let him do it." At that point, I couldn't tell if her hatred to the school was a joke or not.
"But I don't have any other option!" Ortho protested.
Crowley faced the crowd of students with a glare. "As for the rest of you— are you certain you wish to stick to your initial answer?!"
Ace crossed his arms with a huff. "So what if we do? Don't bother threatening me, cause—"
We all jumped in surprise as Crowley leapt from the higher ground down to the center of our circle. A camera and microphone magically appeared in his hands.
"Why look, there's a Night Raven College student now!" He exclaimed in a falsely high voice. "Hello there, I'm a reporter from Sage News! You attend NRC, correct?"
Ace sweatdropped and took a step back from the mic. "Huh? What're you doing?"
"Is it true that ghosts took over your campus?" Crowley continued his act, "Give us an honest answer! A student was kidnapped as well, yes? And you abandoned him when he needed you most— isn't that right?!"
"(Y/N), wanna grab some ice cream at Sam's shop?" Yuu asked, blatantly ignoring the strange scene in front of us.
Grim beamed up at her. "I want some too!"
"Sure thing, Grim." She said, and snickered devilishly. "I have the Headmage's card, after all."
I took a moment to process the rapid change in events. "Sure, I'll grab some ice cream. But are we going to leave Ace like that?"
The student was still being harassed by the headmaster, except the cameras started to flash brightly even under the beaming sunset.
Yuu snorted at the sight. "Yeah, Crowley's always like tha—"
"QUIT IT!" Ace yelled, smacking the camera away.
The camera and microphone disappeared with a poof, and Crowley turned to face the crowd of flabbergasted students.
"If Shroud never returns, I can assure you that the press will be crawling all over our campus day and night, hounding you with questions!" Crowley stated, putting his hands on his hips. "I, bring the considerate person I am, have no desire seeing my students run ragged with fear and anxiety!"
"...Isn't he a Great Mage?" I asked Yuu in a hushed tone. "Can't he rescue his student himself?"
"He'd put on a bikini and dance for the school before considering doing any work himself," Yuu shook her head. "Though that idea isn't too far off either."
I blinked. "Damn, I'm really not going to enroll here."
"Some of the teachers are cool though," She tried to justify.
Ortho's voice played over our conversation. "If you won't help, I'll hack the TV stations and remove any censoring from your faces on TV!" He yelled. "And I'll make sure to add a ticker that reads: 'Backstabbing Student'!"
"Wow," I said. "He sounds just like his brother."
"I suspect the Headmage would be held responsible if a scandal broke out," Riddle said while adjusting the collar of his sleeve. "He'd have the most to lose."
Deuce darted his eyes around nervously. "Yeah, but it'd still be bad for us. My mom would cry if she saw me on TV news like that..."
There were some murmurs in agreement from the crowd of students.
"Then we have reached our consensus!" Crowley said with a joyful clap of his hands. "We'll all work together to rescue poor Shroud from the Ghost Bride! Ah, how fortunate I am to have such a kindhearted student body!"
"That's the fakest smile I've ever seen!" Grim said with a frown.
"Ice cream time," Yuu sang, grabbing Ace and Deuce's hands and dragging them away from the crowd.
"H-huh? Where are we going?" Deuce asked.
Grim cheered. "We're grabbing ice cream!"
As we walked away, I sent a hesitant glance back at the circle of students. I shook my head after some contemplation. 'I'm sure they'll save him somehow.'
I turned to Yuu. "So, where's Sam's shop?"
LETS FUCKING GO
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