~ * ~
"And that's it for the morning," (Y/N) finished the last round of kicks for her usual morning training as she stretched her arms.
A loud knock echoed, then causing her to turn at the direction of the sound.
Walking over to the foyer, she then was greeted with Ace and Deuce at the entrance. To be more specific, the blue-haired male was explaining the situation in Heartslabyul and calling the other male an idiot.
"Oh," Deuce blushes, embarrassed that he had just noticed the (h/c) girl at the other side of the room.
"Good morning, prefect."
"Good morning," the (e/c) girl shyly greeted back.
"Wow, you're only greeting him? You're cruel," the red-eyed male said.
"G-good morning to you too, Ace."
Shoot, I already handled one boy in the dorm. Now, I have two of them! I know Deuce said that he would help me with my studies but I didn't expect this! She mentally exclaimed, while thinking of some way on how to carry on with the conversation.
"So, um, (Y/N), I was thinking that we can all walk to the academy to get to class together." The male with blue eyes suggested.
"Really? As in, all of us go at the same time?" The girl asked for confirmation, getting a little more nervous, but she was also happy with the invitation.
"Y-yeah," the blue-haired male shyly confirmed.
"Oh, well, sure," the (e/c) girl agreed with a meek smile.
"I'll cook for you too then."
+ + +
"Hey, hey! Outta my way~! The Great Grim is making his way as a student of Night Raven College at last!" Grim boasted loudly in Main Street (resulting to (Y/N) telling him to tone it down) and grinned at Ace.
"Look at my collar. Unlike the lame thing just around your neck, mine is very stylish! On top of that, at the moment, you can't use magic, right?"
"You'd make a really good janitor today! Nyaha! I feel good!" he laughed.
"Don't start, Grim," (Y/N) sighed.
"I'll remember this by the time I get my magic back!" The male with the collar around his neck glared as Deuce crossed his arms and reprimanded him next.
"The headmaster just told us not to repeat the same thing yesterday. Nevertheless, you are going to have problems in class with your magic sealed."
"Did you think ever think about apologizing to Dorm Leader Rosehearts?"
"Crap! This won't go well at all!" The ginger then put a hand behind his head, scratching it before turning to the non-magic user.
"Oh yeah, (Y/N), you have that mission to fall in love, right?" He asked, receiving a shy nod from the girl at the reminder of her first odd task.
"Yes, what about it?"
"Be careful with the guys you're with, prefect." Deuce warned the (h/c) girl.
"Like the headmaster said, the guys in this academy are a greedy bunch, so someone could swoop in and even claim you as theirs," Ace agreed.
"I'll be careful," (Y/N) assured the two. "Besides, I am not letting anyone "claim" me when they're not even the one I love."
"Atta girl," the ginger-haired male approved.
"We've still got time before class, and I wanna know more about the other dorms. We're going to observe your apology, Ace!" The creature said, enthusiastic.
"I'm not some exhibit! Screw this!"
+ + +
As the group headed to the Heartslabyul dormitory using the mirror for it, they were all finally at the entrance.
"This is gorgeous! It couldn't be more different than ours!" Grim marveled.
"Ours is still in development." (Y/N) sighed, honestly, the great difference was depressing for the girl.
Even so, the monster's words were not a lie.
The dormitory building was that of a red and white castle as a stone pavement was found in between the rose trees. A lamp post was at the (h/c) girl's side with the Heartslabyul flag on it. Finally, in the middle of it all, was a small fountain.
As the four walked around the maze of Heartslabyul, they all spotted an orange-haired male with his back turned who was. . . strangely painting the roses red.
"Crap, crap, I've gotta get these roses painted," the male muttered.
"Oh, somebody is here." Grim pointed out loud.
"Oh, watch out. Any paint splatters and my head will be off."
"Is this deja vu?" The (h/c) girl asked herself in recall of her strange dream last night.
This did not go unheard by the male as he faced the group with his green eyes.
"Hm? Do you all need something?"
"What are you doing with that?" Ace asked.
"This? As you can see, I'm painting the roses red!"
"Eh? Why would you?" Deuce followed.
The green-eyed male hums, amused. "Your reactions are fresh, so cute!"
"Now that I take a good look at you, all of you are the freshmen that busted the one billion madol chandelier yesterday!"
The reminder sent a wave of embarrassment on the four.
"We're gonna hear about the chandelier incident until we graduate," the ginger sulked.
The magicless being bit her lip at the ginger's words at the end. Yes, he was someone (Y/N) considered a great person in the academy. Even so, she still could not see herself staying in the school for that long.
I miss mom, I miss dad. She thought but still kept a straight face.
Deuce, who also took note of the words of his fellow dorm member's at the end, gave her a look to assure her.
Touched by the action, she smiled at him as the third year's voice calling out Ace brought the two out of their silent exchange.
"And you're the one who added on more punishment by stealing the dorm leader's tart last night! I feel so lucky getting to meet the notorious newcomers first thing in the morning!"
As if that was not enough, the green-eyed male then took a look at the (h/c) girl as he smiled and whipped out his phone.
"To think there's really the cute magicless girl in here now too!" He added, the comment causing the girl to truthfully, internally malfunction at that.
Did he just call me cute? He isn't trying anything, and he was just cheerful earlier. Am I supposed to thank him? Someone, help me! She mentally exclaimed.
"Hey, hey, hey, let's take a selfie! Yaaay!" The cheerful male suggested, positioning his phone as he walked over to the group, to the girl in particular as he took the photo before anyone could react.
"Can I put this on Magicame? Tell me your names in order for me to put you in tags."
"I'm Deuce Spade."
"Ace."
"Grim and my hench-"
"(Y/N) (L/N)," she interrupts, embarrassed.
The orange-haired male tapped the phone's screen as he put it down with a pleased smile.
"Upload finished! Ah, I'm Cater Diamond, one of your senpais, third year, Cater Diamond. Call me Cater, Cay is fine too. Nice to meetcha~!"
"Nice to meet you, Cater-senpai." The (h/c) girl gave the male a shy smile as he smiled back.
"Good to see you finally talking to me," Cater laughed before giving her a wink.
"Hello, cutie~!"
A red blush formed on the girl's cheeks at that.
"Ah, you must be the supervisor of Ramshackle that I heard about! Good on you, living in that place! Really, it's so dark, and you can't get good Magicame just by being in there. You have my sympathy."
"This guy is really running his mouth." Grim could not help but frown at that as Cater's eyes then widened.
"Ah, I don't have time for any small talk! The party is in two days. I don't wanna lose my head for getting late."
For being late too? (Y/N) grimaced.
"Hey, you guys, will you help paint the roses?"
"But why are you doing something so weird?" Ace asked.
"Red roses at a party are the most photogenic! Well, I guess that's the case. For the croquet match, there's also the task of changing the flamingos' colors that I have to do, so I'm busy with all this work."
"You're changing flamingos' colors? Your chores are so weird," the monster commented.
"So the tart that Ace ate was going to be used to the dorm leader's birthday party," Deuce said.
"That's why he was so mad. . ."
"Nope, that's not it." The third year disagreed.
"It's not?! Then whose birthday party is it?" Ace asks, surprised with the rest of the first years.
"It's not anyone's birthday. The day after tomorrow is our dorm's traditional "Unbirthday Party." A day that's not anyone's birthday and picked at random is when we have a tea party."
"The heck is that?!"
"Later, worry about the reason later! All that's needed is to make the roses red!" Cater brushed off with one wave of his hand.
"Deuce, Grim, you two can do it with magic. Ace and supervisor, since you can't use magic, you both can have some paint." He said, giving the girl a bucket of paint with the paintbrushes.
As he did so, he felt his fingers graze the girl's which caused her to be slightly bashful at that.
"Oh my, are you flustered, kouhai~?" The green-eyed male teased as (Y/N) turns away, embarrassed.
"L-let's just paint the roses, senpai."
"Oi, Cater-senpai, don't flirt with her." Ace gave him a warning look with Deuce.
"Sorry, sorry, let's get to it then!" The orange-haired male laughed as they all began to paint.
"Red! Red! There!" The blue-haired male chanted to himself, only for him to turn the roses blue when he had cast his magic as he loudly exclaimed.
"It turned blue!"
"Change color. . ." Grim muttered under his breath as he calls out, determined. "Take that!"
That is, until the roses were lit with blue flames.
"Gyaa! The roses are on fire!" He shrieked as the girl told him to put out his flames for the second time.
"You guys are more awful at this than I thought." The orange-haired male commented.
I feel bad but at least we didn't have to pay for any of the damages with the roses, the girl thought.
After a few roses have been turned blue and burned, the green-eyed male luckily dismissed both of them. Still, the non-magic user was hoping for damages to not happen any further.
"Aren't the roses fine being white? They're pretty," the red-eyed male frowned.
"This is our tradition." Cater explained before he then continued, "And we use flamingos in seven different colors for croquet with hedgehogs as the balls."
"But y'know, the spring garden concert of the flowers uses white roses, that's an important point too."
"Those are all strange rules!" Grim deadpanned.
"They say these rules were all decided by the Queen of Hearts from the Great Seven. Riddle is particularly passionate about following the rules even compared to other strict dorm leaders."
"I won't deny he goes too far sometimes though." He added and with that particular comment, (Y/N) took a look at the collar around Ace, silently agreeing.
"That's right, I don't have time for this." The red-eyed male set aside his paintbrush. "I want to talk to the dorm leader, is he inside?"
"Hm? I think there's still time before he leaves. By the way, Ace the tart thief, did you also bring an apology tart?" The third year asked, though the (h/c) girl was beginning to feel unsettled.
"Ah? No, I came first thing here so I'm empty handed. . ." The ginger-haired male scratched his head.
"Oh no, is that so?" The green-eyed male said, slowly taking out his magical pen.
"Since you're going against the Laws of the Queen of Hearts, Number 53: "One must always return what they stole", I can't let you in the dorm."
"Haa? The hell is that?" The ginger stared at Cater in disbelief.
"I'll lose my head too if I knowingly let you in despite disobeying the rules. I feel bad, but you need to go before Riddle notices."
Definitely too extreme! The non-magic user thought, not liking where this is heading.
"Whoa, his face got serious! Guys, help me out!" Ace called out to the first years.
"Why should I?" Deuce frowned.
"Please, I can't use magic right now--"
"There's no need for the use of magic. We can leave by ourselves." (Y/N) quickly interfered, bowing to her senior as she looked at the other three.
"You heard him, let's leave." She said, gesturing for them to follow her with Cater following from behind.
"Now, go get a tart then try again! Bye bye!" The said male waved.
When the first years have finally made their way out, Ace began to complain.
"What's his problem? On top of that, we seriously got kicked out to the gate without a tart? We didn't have anything to begin with! He just wanted us to paint the d*mn roses!"
"He's a shrewd one." Grim crossed his paws.
"Then, we just have to bring a tart and try again. We can go after--" Deuce suddenly gasped.
"Crap!"
"What's wrong?" The magicless being asks, worried.
"This is bad, the warning bell already rang! We're all going to be late!"
"Fungah! My shining school life is going to be ruined on day one!" The monster fussed as he looked at the rest of the group.
"Let's get a move on!"
"What class are you two in? You're first years, right?" The ginger-haired male asked.
"The headmaster told us class 1-A!" Grim answered.
"Wow, we're in the same class," Deuce smiled. "First period is Potions."
The creature cheered, "Sounds like fun!"
"I can't use magic, so I wonder how this'll go. . ." The red-eyed male trailed off.
"We're in the same boat." (Y/N) said as an attempt to assure him that he is not the only one.
"Let's go or we'll be late!"