She hummed, "Yeah. Give it a week. Sorry, Ruggie, but can you send these letters to a Scarabia student with a monkey familiar and then go back to Savanaclaw? I doubt things would run so smoothly forever if both of you aren't there."
She pulled out a letter and handed it to him. She then added a few bamboo barbecue she roasted prior, "Take these barbeque chicken I made as payment. When you come back next time, I'll cook up something as payment instead… something you can also pack if you want. I've already seen the number of containers you have during lunch…"
"Really? All right! That saves all the explanations!" Ruggie wore a big smile and dashed full speed to the hall of mirrors.
Once gone, she turned to Jack, "It'd be weird to say we're friends when you don't remember me… I'm Lotus."
"You smell like Peony though…" Jack tilted his head in confusion.
"Hm… if it's her, then I do work for a fairy princess and the fairies…" Lotus hummed curiously, "But, you had an accident. You ended up drinking a potion and you turned to being small again."
"Being small again?"
"Since you're eight, it's been seven years since you were eight." She replied, "You've grown up and became bigger, but… you accidentally drank something weird and became small again."
"So, I'm actually supposed to be bigger?" Jack shivered nervously but kept a firm face with glittery eyes of excitement.
" You don't remember anything about being big, so you will have to wait. Don't worry to much about it if you don't understand. Just remember you're a student of this school, but until you become big again, you can just rest here and don't worry too much if you're confused."
"O-oh… Okay…" Jack hesitated.
Leona huffed, "He's weak."
"Not anything different from cubs." She scoffed, "So what happened?"
"The guy was practicing at the club when that freak dropped a potion from the window." Leona grumbled bitterly, "The freshman was right above me when it happened."
"Freak, huh? You mean, Rook." She sighed, "He probably let the imagination get the better of him and made the potion too strong. Jack won't remember being over 8 years old until the antidote is made this time."
"Yeah, so he's staying here." Leona stated bluntly.
"The answer was so obvious, you didn't even needed to state it." She laughed, "Though I wonder how the you plan to best the students next year without him. Then again… it's a year apart and it's not like I'LL do anything in your absence."
Leona scoffed, "I'd like to see you try."
"I just did." She smirked, "Thank you for dropping him by here. I believe I've already paid you this morning as well. See you tomorrow."
She said this and closed the door behind her shutting him out but he quickly managed to grab her wrist with a smirk as he said, "You're forgetting something. I'm also a guardian."
Lotus feigned a sigh and she noticed he wasn't letting her go! She paused and shook her head, "Fine…"
With that, Leona managed to get into the dorm much to her dismay. She spent the day teaching Cheka the types of edible and inedible plants. He was curious at first, until discovering the salad next to his soup contained some of the herbs he didn't particularly like. Yuu and Grim, who had returned with Rollo, watched curiously as Grim scowled, "Hey! How come Leona didn't get a bowl of salad?!"
Leona yawned as he finished the last of his hamburger, "Quiet down. Herbivore should stick to plants. Carnivores don't eat it."
"… vulgur…" Rollo muttered quietly to himself with a handkerchief over his mouth.
Lotus smirked and Leona scoffed, "Unfortunately, it seems my words are worse than your acting."
Cheka looked to her curiously as Trey and Jamil struggled to come up with a way to stop them from fighting. If Jamil had known this would happen, he would have excused himself from the table earlier! Azul was also simply watching on curiously as though he was observing his prey.
"What's a carnivore?" Cheka tilted his head curiously.
"That's a type of animal that only eats meat." She replied, "Dogs, cats, and lions are carnivores. They don't eat plants. But herbivores are animals who only eat plants, like cows, kangaroos and tortoises."
"Then, do I only eat meat?" Cheka hummed, "Will I become stronger than Unca?!"
"It won't be good for your stomach bugs if you only eat meat and no veggies." She added, "Besides, unlike you, I still had to hide the veggies in the hamburgers for him. So Cheka is also pretty amazing."
Jack cleared his throat with a big smile, "Pfft, ahem… My mom said if I can eat my veggies without putting them in the hamburgers, then I'm growing up!"
"Hey…" Leona growled.
It spooked Jack but not Cheka who wanted to sit next to Leona and innocently spoke up, "Don't worry, Unca! I'll eat all of the veggies for you!"
"Grrr…" Leona gave her a glare which didn't phase him as she only smiled and drank the tea. She patted it a couple times before she sipped from it again. However, the others were struggling not to crack up!
Grim sighed, "All right, you guys. Quit fighting already! Hey, henchman number two! Get me seconds! … Please."
Hearing him say this meekly, Rollo raised a brow as Lotus got him another serving.
As of late, she's had to do the cooking for the dorm when a new student came. It was probably because it wasn't a common practice back home, but she's find it actually quite calm except for the occasional screaming of the kids running around. She finished her meal and sat by the lounge after placing her plate in the sink. The kids followed suit as if waiting for the chance to sneak out from behind her and play out of sight. Aside from Jack and Cheka, the other three weren't quite as playful and would rather do their own thing. Quite a number of times already, she's pulled Trey away from the sink as he was now too short to reach over the counter. Then there was Azul who she tossed aside to babysit Cheka and keep him from getting into trouble. It seemed he was satisfied with that.
There was a loud crash followed by a scream, "THE GLASS FIGURINE! What have you done?!"
Okay, guess not.
She opened the door to find Cheka looking ready to bawl and Azul left aghast. Jamil looked equally stunned as he was the first to notice her return, "Th-this is-!"
She put Trey down and hummed, "What happened here?"
"I-I'm SO SORRY!!! WAHHHHHH!"
The others covered the ears as Lotus turned to Jack and could see he was also quite shaken but tried not to tuck in his tail. While petting Cheka's head, she beckoned Jack over, "I'm not going to lecture anyone. But I do need to know what happened, so we can try to fix this. Jack, can you tell me what happened?"
"W-W-We wanted to see what was on the table, but that kid wouldn't let us see it. H-H-He pushed me down and then Cheka picked up the thing on the table. The kid got mad and pushed Cheka down." Jack hesitated with his ears clearly folded back and tail quivering.
"All right…" She hummed as she realized what must've happened when she saw the figurine she had placed on the table was the victim of the chaos. Shattered in pieces on the ground, the glass figurine now looked like dust.
"So… how do you plan to pay for the figurine, Cephalo-punk?" Leona scoffed.
"My word, your highness!" Neji hurried in a panic.
"I'm sorry… Hic…. The glass thing…" Cheka finally managed to calm his sobs when faced with his caretaker.
"Oh… Could that have been the glass figurine from before?" Neji noted in confusion, "The payment…"
Lotus sighed with a look of disbelief, "Is this all we're crying about?"
She picked up the magic crystal she used to "practice magic" and used it to sweep all of the pieces off the floor with ease, "There's nothing to cry over it. It was simply just a practice."
"Practice?"
Lotus smiled and pulled out a seed from her bag, "I recently got this from the fairies. It's a Crystal seed that reacts to magic. Leona."
He grumbled, "No."
"I haven't even said anything yet." She scoffed and took his hand before placing the seed onto his palm, "Send some of your mana into the seed. Like crafting a flower out of clay."
"Ugh…" He scowled but still got to work and the seed to began to move like a blob of water before slowly taking shape into a clumsily crafted lion with a head almost twice as big as its body.
However, it entertained Cheka enough that he stopped crying and was staring at the lion blob in awe, "It's a lion! Right, Unca?! It's a lion!"
"Quite a strange looking one." Neji smirked.
"Whatever…" He was about to toss the crystal away but Lotus took it from his hand and smiled.
She took the magic crystal in her hand and began to carefully mold the figurine in her palm with ease. Pushing it in and smoothing the lumpy edges until the shape of the regal lion became clear for everyone to see. Everyone looked at it in awe as she laughed, "It's a material still in testing phase, but I was asked to make something from this."
She handed the crystal to Leona before turning to Cheka with a surprised look, "But to think Cheka was about to break it…"
"Is there a problem?" Neji raised a brow.
"By any chance… Did he awaken his magic?" She raised a brow.
"It was not confirmed if he can use magic." Neji replied with a look of surprise.
"Magicians awaken their magic on their own most of the time. Without the aid of another magician." Rollo stepped into the room with a frown.
"Oh, Rollo? I'm going to assume the loud sounds led you here." She hummed.
"Naturally." He sighed, "So what happened now?"
Lotus swiftly explained everything that happened before demonstrating it with a lion sculpture and had Leona try to break it with his strength and the hard floor, however, the figuring did not break and only nearly dented the floor. She handed Leona another crystal, "Try putting in as much mana as you can."
The seed began to morph and it grew to the size of a door before shattering into pieces much like the figurine. She explained, "The crystal is nearly indestructible against almost all the elements except for excessive mana. The sculpture was set to a certain form and cooled so it could harden. The only way to break it, is to input so much mana that it can't contain it anymore. That small figurine was shattered by Cheka. I believe he is capable of using magic without realizing it."
"Can he use magic?" Neji noted with a look of surprise.
"Who knows…" Leona grumbled.
"Hm…" She smiled and went to her closet before pulling out a magift disk, "Cheka, can you see what this is?"
"It's a magift disk!!!" His eyes lit up in awe once he saw this.
"Good." She smiled, "Now imagine. This disk floating in the air."
"Hm…"
He stared at it for five minutes but failed to make the disk float. Lotus laughed, "Then how about this? Imagine this disk flying out of my hand and straight at your Uncle."
"Yeah!" He hyped himself up as the disk now shot out itself straight for Leona's face making him nearly step back in shock! However, the disk was easily caught by her as she stopped the disk with a hand.
She wore a dry smile, "Looks like you got another task on your hand, sir."
"It would seem so. I will have to seek out the royal tutors once I return to Afterglow Savannah." Neji pushed his glasses back in place.
"But I wanna play magift with Unca!" Cheka cried out, "A-And, and… and…"
Lotus swiftly brought a trash bag before Cheka who emptied out the lunch they just had. Lotus sighed, "Cheka, look at me."
"Hm?" He looked up as Neji wiped away the last bit of saliva off the child's face with a wet cloth.
"Imagine this carefully…"
She had him cup his hands and she poured water from a water bottle into his hands, "Imagine all of this water is your magic. It is warm like the sun and cool like the rain after a hot sunny day."
"Like when I nap with Unca under the sun or when I help mama water the flowers?"
"Yes." She smiled and the others watched on curiously, "Now you don't want all of that water spilling out right? So you have to keep you hands together as tight as you can until you're sure there is no more water leaking."
He did just that and hesitated, "Like that?"
"Good. Now… imagine the same thing in you. All of this magic is leaving your body. To stop them from leaving, imagine you are trying to keep the magic in you like you are keeping the water from leaking."
It didn't take long for Cheka's complexion to quickly recover as Neji's eyes widen in disbelief, "Well, I'll be…"
Lotus hummed, "It looks like the nature in Cheka's magic might be similar to Leona's. It can affect his surroundings. Perhaps it will be better if Leona taught him how to utilize mana after he gets his license. Cheka's mana is just as good as a young adult's… But he lacks control and understanding of his own magic. If this continues unchecked, he could end up making his surroundings experience being right next to the stove to touching fire. Then he could collapse. I'll leave this matter with you."
She stretched and turned to the kids, "Good work, Cheka. If Mister Neji allows it, you can stay here for a while. I'm going to wash the dishes than prepare your snacks. Go play in the lounge where everyone can see you."
"I'll have to ask his majesty…" Neji hesitated.
"Okay!" Cheka leapt onto his feet and grasped Leona's hand, "Unca! Unca! Can you show me how to play magift now?!"
"Not right now." Lotus laughed as Cheka clung to his leg, "If you do that, you will vomit up your snacks next. Also, you need to wait until someone teaches you how to use magic. Playing with magic is like playing with fire. It's too dangerous to use it without an adult."
"Oh… Okay…" Cheka grumbled with disappointment.
"Why not go play in the lounge?" Yuu's voice spoke up.
She looked back to see his dry smile. She laughed, "Can't focus?"
"Pretty much." He replied honestly.
"We're going to study with Ace and Deuce today." Grim grumbled.
"I got it."
"About the mail." Rollo handed her a letter.
There was the digit of her family. She raised a brow and opened it up before frowning at the contents.
"What's wrong?" He hummed curiously.
"The princess is invited to a red carpet event in Shaftlands." She scowled before adding with dismay, "As the new headmage…"
"Do headmages leave for such events?" Rollo frowned.
"Nope." She sighed and tossed the paper aside, "But it is an invitation from them, so she cant say no…"
Suddenly an idea came to mind as she smirked, "Right?"
Uh oh…
Rollo's frown deepened as he heard this. He's known well enough by now that she is a crazy woman rather than a shrewd one. Just with a smile, he knew she was plotting something. He's already seen it time and again here anyway.
"Should I attend as well?" Rollo suggested.
"No. You have a reason for being here, if I recall correctly. Those two would either starve or lose all of our money if I just let them be." She reminded him.
"Hey! That's not true! We're plenty responsible!" Grim rebuked.
"Care to explain how you lost our dorm for three days when the midterms were barely over?" She pointed out with a laugh.
"That's only because Azul tricked us!" Grim hissed.
Yuu laughed as he picked grim up, "All right now. Let's not fight. Right now we should hurry to Heartslabyul. Lotus, give me a call if you need any help."
"I will…"