Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the hallway of Auradon Preparatory, a third-year student with pale skin and bright blue, fire-like hair was being dragged by a younger student with a similar appearance. Ortho Shroud counted this as a win to make his introverted older brother give him a tour before the first day of school, all it took were teary puppy eyes and threats of skipping the boss raids on the weekend.

“There is an online map of the school. Why do you even need to go and see a bunch of people squash in rooms?” Idia whined, pulling his hood further down to avoid eye contact with other students passing by.

“Because I don’t want to spend time playing video games in the dorm room. We do that all the time at home,” Ortho answered. He was just so excited for the first time being away from home for a long period of time. This would be his first step to independence and actual social life. Another unspoken reason was that he knew his nii-chan needed more social interactions; it would be good for him to open up with others rather than just his family.

“Besides, we will be in a different year so we won't always have time to hang out together. It would be nice if we could have some sibling time before school starts.”

Glared back at his nii-chan, Ortho knew those were the right words to say. Idia seemed to finally find the motivation to lead the tour, they were walking through the hallway while Idia explained what each room was for. They stopped in front of a laboratory.

“This is the science club, this club includes different aspects such as engineering, alchemy —” Idia was introducing the club when someone called him.

“Mr. Shroud! What a rare sight! Are you reconsidering joining the club?” A man wearing a red long coat walked toward them while waving his hand. He had healthy tan skin and black long hair tied in a ponytail, and his eyes were a bright amethyst color. The most noticeable feature of him was his ears, they were long and pierced with multiple golden earrings. He must be a fae, He looks like he is in his early twenties but you never really know with their species , Ortho thought.

“Professor, no offense, but I have said no since my first year. What makes you think it would change now?” Idia pouted, he didn’t sutter so he must be familiar with the man. 

“Well~, I thought you would like me enough to join since I gave you permission to take my class remotely.” The man shrugged.

The man then looked at him with a friendly smile and raised his hand. “You must be his sibling. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Aster Eldershine but you can call me Professor Aster. I teach Rune for the second and third year.”

Ortho shook his hand, “Nice to meet you, my name is Ortho Shroud, you can just call me Ortho cause there will be two of us from now on.”

“Okay, Ortho. Do both of you want to look around the club? For a moment, we have some older students’ projects that they just set up.” Professor Aster suggested.

“Maybe you would be interested in joining,” He looked at Otho. “I have tried to convince your brother for two whole years but he prefers to work in his dorm room and use the lab in the unholy hours of the night.” The Professor signed.

“I just don’t want people to mess around with my things.” Idia defended.

They looked around for a little bit. A club member asked Idia’s opinion on his project and they ended up in an argument about cooling sensors. For an introvert, Idia was passionate when it came to his crafts. Ortho took that as a signal to wander around and see other projects. He stopped in front of a pyramid-shaped device, it looked like some kind of magi-tech. There was a handwritten paper next to it:

‘ Project #n: Enhancing Magic Device - In theory, to cast a powerful spell, a mage needs a significant amount of magic energy. In situations where the mage doesn’t have enough magic, the spell would fail. It makes me wonder if I use an outside source of magic energy, could I compensate for the amount of magic energy that is required to cast the spell or at least enhance simple spells for better results.’

Curiously, he held the device to observe it better.

The things that happened next could only be described as a chain of disasters. From the other side of the lab, somebody’s inventor exploded which startled him, causing him to drop the device. The device started making weird noises and energy sparks came out of it. Ortho was panicking, he debated whether he should pretend he had nothing to do with the broken device or try to fix this somehow. However, before he could decide on what to do, Professor Aster, who just noticed his situation, rushed to him and pulled him back. A white beam came out from the device and hit both of them. Then it was darkness.

In his dream, Ortho walked toward a mirror and stepped into a black carriage.

“I better hurry up and find that uniform before someone spots me…” A growl voice that came from outside …the door? 

Where am I? Ortho slowly waking up. There was no light so he searched around with his hands. He was in a closet of some sort.

“Urgggh... This lid weighs a ton!” The voice continued. Ortho tried to calm himself and push his body forward. I need to get out of this thing , he thought.

“Try this on for size! Mya-ha!” Suddenly, the lid of the box was blown up by a flash of blue flame. Ortho lost his balance and fell out. 

“THUD!” An object fell along with him, and the sound of metal hitting the marble floor woke him up a bit. Quickly observing his surroundings, Ortho found himself in a room filled with flowing coffins.

What happened? I don’t recognize this place. He thought. His eyes landed on the pyramid device that was in the coffin with him. The beam light from the device hit me, and I was …transported to this place?

“Now to grab the goods...What?! You ain't supposed to be awake!” A talking cat creature with a very familiar shade of blue fire shouted at him.

Ortho considered himself an animal person, he loved pet videos, and games with cute mascots and owned many plushies. However, this situation was so bizarre that it made the cat a lot more creepy than it was.

“Um…nice kitty, can you tell me where we are?”

“KITTY?! How DARE YOU! I am no weakling kitty! I'm Grim, sorcerer extraordinaire!” Grim yelled.

“Tch. Whatever. You...human! Just gimme your uniform, and be quick about it!” Great, now he is being robbed by a cat a third of his size. Ortho realized he was wearing a long dark robe that he did not remember putting on.

“Hurry up, if you don't...you're gonna regret it!” Grim barked at him, ready to attack.

Ortho needed to get out of here. He needed to find nii-chan, the Professor, or just any negotiable humanoid being. Made up his mind, he dashed to his right where the pyramid-shaped device lay, and barely dodged a fireball. He grabbed the device and ran out the door.

As Ortho ran through the dark hallway, more and more questions popped up in his head. The moonlight gave him little comfort about his situation. Why is it nighttime already? A fireball missed him an arm to the left. Damn it! I have to lose that cat somehow.

He ducked into a room. Judging from the shelves filled with books, it was a library of some sort. Breathing heavily, Ortho leaned to one of the tables.

“This is a nightmare,” he whispered. Ortho then looked at the device in his hand. “You’re an idiot Ortho.” If he hadn’t touched other people's stuff, he wouldn’t have ended up in this situation. Before he could spend more time blaming himself, a shadow seemed to catch up to him.

“Foolish human! Did you really think you could slip away from ME? Now, unless you wanna get burned to a crisp, take off that—”

“CRACK!” A whip interrupted Grim’s monologue.

“Me-YEOW! That hurt! What gives?” The cat yelled.

“Consider it tough love.” A strange man appeared and came toward them. He was dressed in an extravagant outfit with some kind of bird theme going on. His golden eyes behind his black mask gave Ortho a chill.

“Ah, I've found you at last~…May I ask what you are planning to do with the lamp?” The bird man pointed at the lamp that Ortho grabbed from the table.

Keeping eye contact with the man, Ortho slowly put the lamp back on the table. “Nothing.” he lied, he was gonna smash the lamp at Grim if the man hadn’t interfered.

“Never mind then, I trust you're one of this year's new students?” The man said. “My, were you ever eager to make your debut.”

Student? Am I still in Auradon Preparatory? Why does the architecture look nothing like the Auradon Prep that he has seen?  

Bird-man pointed at Grim “And bringing a poorly trained familiar with you? That is a clear violation of the school's rules.”

“He is NOT my cat.” Ortho said, but his voice lost to Grim’s yell, “As if I'd serve some lowly human! Now lemme go!”

“Yes, yes. Rebellious familiars always say that. Do be quiet for a bit, won't you?”

“Again, he is not my fa—”

“Dear me. Of all the students I've dealt with, you're the first with enough temerity to open their own gate and step out of it. Does the very notion of patience elude you?” The bird man cut him out. Ortho hair was flicking with red. Calm down, he has information that I don’t, I need to get answers from him.

“What gate? I was in a coffin.” He asked.

“You awakened in a room full of gates, did you not? All of the students here at the campus arrived by passing through such gates.”

“So those coffins are like...gateways?” Is this like a Goth fashion kind of thing?

“Yes, The design is intended to symbolize a parting with your former world and a rebirth into a new one.” The Bird-man answered. “But now is not the time for such a prattle. Your orientation has already begun. Let us return to the Mirror Chamber.” He hurriedly walked in a direction with Grim still tied by his whip.

Ortho hesitated. The bird-man was suspicious as hell but he didn’t have any better choice. He turned and followed the man.

“Wait! Can you tell me one thing: Where am I?” Ortho asked.

“Hm? Have you not fully regained consciousness? The time-space teleportation must have added to your memories…” Bird-man mumbled. 

So there was some type of teleportation spell involved. How far was I teleported? I need to contact my family. Wait…MY PHONE. Ortho immediately searched around his clothes for his stuff.

“Well, these things happen, I suppose. I shall explain it to you while we walk. Truly, my magnanimity is boundless.” The bird-man continued.

“Ahem!” Ortho’s head snapped at the man. The cough interrupted his search for the phone.

“This is Night Raven College. It is an institution for students the world over who demonstrate a rare aptitude for magic. It is the most prestigious academy of its sort in all of Twisted Wonderland. And I am Dire Crowley. Having been entrusted with its care by the chairman, I serve as headmage.”

Night Raven College? Twisted Wonderland? I never heard of these places. “I’m sorry but there must be a misunderstanding. I’m enrolled into Auradon -”

“Now, let us attend your orientation.” The bird-man, headmage Crowley, ignored him.

Ortho opened his mouth to talk back but his hand touched a cool metal object in the gown’s inner pocket. Thank the King of the Underworld! 

He pulled out his black-blue phone. His smile immediately dropped when he saw the ‘No Signal’ symbol. Hades, why do you abandon me?

Chapter Text

Compared to humans, Aster Eldershine has lived a long life. At the age of 225, he had traveled to many regions. He was an adventurer, a scholar, a Rune Master, and in recent decades, a teacher at Auradon Prep. That was to say, Aster has been in strange situations, but to be kidnapped by a cult was the first.

Aster gazed at the rows of people wearing fancy dark robes. He just stepped out of a coffin and currently stands on a small stage. In front of him was a body length mirror. The face in the mirror looked at him with no emotion.

“Come to the front and state your name.” It said to him.

Aster really didn’t want to speak up in front of an unknown organization, but he needed more information before accidentally signing a magical contract. “Excuse me, I don’t think I'm supposed to be here. Can I talk to your person in charge?” He asked politely.

“Can you hurry up? We’re behind schedule. If you have questions, it’s better to stay back for the headmage than wasting everyone’s time.” A redhead boy in the front round said impatiently.

“Speaking of the headmage, does anyone know where he went? He disappeared midway through the ceremony…” The blonde boy asked. Aster swore he recognized the guy from somewhere.

“Some headmage he is.” A voice came from a floating tablet.

“Maybe he had a tummy ache?” A boy with red eyes said.

“Just hurry up and say your name. It’s not a rocket spell.” A tall beastman yawned.

Student? Headmage? So this is a mage school. Aster wanted to ask more but he couldn’t afford to let these people get mad at him. He took a deep breath and faced the mirror.

“My name is Aster Eldershine.”

“The nature of your soul is…unclear to me.” The mirror said. Aster frowned, he could tell from the gasp and confusing noise, the mirror wasn’t supposed to say that. “I sense enlighten magic and knowledge from your soul. However, your roots are planted in another soil, you are not supposed to be here.” That doesn’t sound good , Aster thought.

More mumblings from the students. Before Aster could say anything else, the door of the ceremony room was slammed open.

“I've arrived!” A man with a crow mask entered the room. Following him was a tied-up animal and a person dressed in the same ceremony robe.

“I was searching for the new student who'd failed to show up for orientation.” He said.

“Headmage Crowley, we have a situation.” The redhead spoke.

“Later, Mr. Rosehearts.” He waved dismissively at the boy. “Now, you are the only one who has yet to be assigned a dorm. Step up to the Dark Mirror, and be quick about it. I'll watch your weasel.” The headmage pushed the other student. 

Aster stepped back to leave room for the student. His eyes met the people under the cloak and there was recognition from both of them.

“Professor Aster -” Before Ortho could finish the sentence. Aster put his index finger on his lip to signal him to be quiet.

He whispered, “Just go with it, we'll talk later.”

Ortho nodded back in uncertainty. Despite meeting him just early today, Ortho seemed to be relieved to see a familiar face.

“State your name.” The mirror asked again.

“Ortho Shroud.” The boy answered. Maybe it was just his imagination but Aster heard confusing noises from the front row.

“The nature of your soul is…unclear to me.” The mirror said. Aster furrowed his brow.

“What did you just say?” The headmage asked.

“I sense burning magic from this soul. However, the roots are planted in another soil, he is not supposed to be here.”

“How interesting, the mirror said the same thing to the previous student.” A boy with glasses said.

“These are 2 of them? This is absurd! The student selection process has not erred once in its century of existence! How could this have happened?” The headmage went on rambling about how impossible this situation was. Aster tuned him out.

He thought about the sentences. Obviously, Ortho and him were not supposed to be here but how did they come here?

The last thing Aster remembered was that he was searching around the science club for the big noise, and then he saw Ortho - his student’s younger brother, standing near an unstable source of energy. There was a bright light and Aster was intended to pull the boy out of the way using his Signature Spell… Hold on a minute! Something clicked in Aster’s mind.

“ME! Let ME have this student's seat!” A shout cut his thought. The tied up animal has got out. Aster moved close to Ortho. He would research later, he had to prioritize his student safety.

“Not so fast, you hyperactive weasel!” The headmage yelled.

“That human can’t go here so let me take his place! Look, I'll show how great my magic is! My spells’re the cat's meow!”

The cat started to blast fire spells everywhere. Aster immediately stood in front of Ortho.

“Ortho, stand behind me!” He said.

“Professor, do you know what happened? Where is this place?” 

“I have a few guesses, but I need more information.” Aster tried to reassure Ortho with a small smile. “Don’t worry. We will figure it out and get you back to your brother.”

“AHHHHH! HELP! I'm on fire over here!” Someone yelled.

Aster looked back at the ceremony room. In just mere minutes, there were fires everywhere and people were screaming. He had to casted a water spell on the student whose gown was on fire. Two people were chasing after the creature to stop its rampage.

“Off With Your Head!” The redhead student managed to catch the cat with what Aster assumed was his Signature Spell.

“The Queen of Heart's Rule 23: "One must never bring a cat to a formal affair. Your very presence here is a violation of order. You will vacate these premises immediately.” He said.

“But I ain't a cat either! Don't try to collar me! I'll burn it right off! Huh...? Wh-what gives? My fire ain't workin'!” The creature tried to break out the collar and failed.

After a moment, the situation seemed to settle down, the headmage pointed at Ortho, “Was I not clear that you are expected to take responsibility for your familiar? Now discipline your -”

“IT ISN’T MINE! I tried to tell you many times and you just ignored me!” Ortho finally snapped. There was red flame leaking out from his hood.

“Oh...Is that so? *Ahem* Then I shall have it expelled from campus. I shall even spare it from being served as dinner.” Do people eat sentient animals here? “My, but I AM kind. ...Someone take this away, please.”

The creature protested but was dragged out by the same two students. Aster was curious about the creature but now it wasn’t the time.

“Ortho, are you alright?” The flame-hair boy nodded at him, “I’m fine. Grim missed all the spells.” Who’s Grim?... Never mind, it’s not important now.

While they tried to figure out what’s going on, Crowley had ordered the Housewardens to bring their students back to the dorms.

The headmage turned to them “Well, Mr. Shroud and um…” 

“Aster Eldershine.”

“Mr. Eldershine. This is a most unfortunate turn of events. I'm afraid that there was a misunderstanding, both of you will not be attending Night Raven Collage after all. But worry not. The Dark Mirror will see you safely home. Now, step into the gate, and visualize the place where you came.” The headmage said to them. 

Thanks, Ancients! That would make things so much easier. Aster innerly cheered. “We would like that, thank you.”

Apparently, he celebrated too soon because reality slapped him right in the face. The mirror couldn’t find their places.

“There is no place in this world where these souls belong. None.” The Dark Mirror said.

“How can that be? My, but today is a veritable cavalcade of impossible phenomena!” Crowley cried.

“...”

“This has never happened throughout my long tenure. I must confess that I am at something of a loss. Tell me: From what land do you hail?”

“Me and Ortho were at Auradon Preparatory in the United Kingdoms of Auradon.” He answered. His dread grew when Crowley made a confused face. There wasn’t much they could do with such little information. Aster and Ortho decided to take up the headmage’s suggestion to look up their origins in the library.

“It will be fine.” He told Ortho. But honestly, he didn’t have much faith in his own words. 

Chapter Text

“Just as I'd suspected. Nothing. Not only is your homeland not listed on any map from any point in history. Now, are you QUITE sure that you come from such a place? That wasn't some sort of lie or jape?”

“I assure you that everything I told you was completely honest.” Professor Aster said while looking at the big map on the table. “...Although, I can’t say that I recognize this map.”

Ortho, Aster, and Crowley were in the library that he had hid from Grim. Now, Ortho wasn’t the best at geography but he had to agree with Professor Aster. The map just didn’t look right to him, the shape of the continents was kinda the same as he remembered, and he recognized some places like Briar Valley, Sunshine Lands, and Coral Sea…but

“The continents are correct. However, the details are different.” Aster pointed at Queendom of Roses. “Auradon was founded over a century ago. There was a battle between two queens which split Queendom of Roses into Auradon and two other countries.”

Ortho's eyes widen, “What is the current year?” He asked Crowley.

“It’s September, 20XX.”

So not time travel then. Wait a minute! The only other possibility is-

“This could be a different dimension,” Aster confirmed his fear.

“WHAT?! NO! I can’t be isekai-ed. It’s for losers with underwhelming lives. I didn’t even get hit by a truck!” Both the adults gave him confused looks, but he didn’t care.

Ortho was freaking out for real this time. This is horrible! He has school tomorrow. What would his parents think if he skipped the first day of school? No, screw that! Nii-chan saw him disappear, he’s gonna flip the whole campus upside down! Not with his noodle arms of course, but he would build a mega suit and-.

“Ortho! Calm down.” Aster’s voice snapped him back to reality. He signed and put a hand on Ortho’s shoulder, “I’m sorry, but can you tell me the last thing you remember? It can help us find a way back.”

Ortho blinked at him slowly. Okay Ortho, he’s right you need to calm down and figure out how to return to nii-chan. He told the Professor what happened with the Enhancing Magic Device, he suspected that the device played an important role in teleporting them here. Ortho took out the pyramid devices that he kept in his robe and gave it to Aster. 

Professor Aster examined the device for a bit, before sharing his conclusion.

“I have a theory. I think I was the one who teleported us here.” He said.

“What? But I was the one who broke the device?”

“Yeah, but I was the one who casted the teleport spell on both of us. Let me explain.” He took out the magic pen clipped on his belt, “My Signature Spell ‘Blink' is like a more convenient teleport spell.” He then proceeded to demonstrate by using it to teleport himself to the library door and back.

“It allowed me to teleport myself with chosen objects and people. It has its limit though. Based on the distance, and how heavy I carry, it will affect the accuracy of the spell. I usually stick within 50 meters range” Aster pointed at the device, “When I used ‘Blink’, I intended to teleport us to the other side of the room. However, if this device did what you said it did, there was a high chance that the device had messed up my spell and we teleported too far.” Ortho would argue that another dimension wasn’t just ‘too far’, but he awarded it’s still mainly his fault.

“My my~ Such an intriguing story.” Oh, they forgot about the bird-man.

“Do you have anything to prove that you are from another dimension? some form of identification, a driver's license perhaps? Or even a...shoe?” Crowley asked them.

Ortho took out his phone. His wallet was back in his dorm room with unpacked suitcases. There weren’t many things on his phone that he could use to prove his identity, so he ended up showing Crowley a photo of him and his brother standing in front of Auradon Prep which they sent to his parents this morning. Other photos he had were from all the time he went to conventions with his brother and a lot of animal memes. On the other hand, Professor Aster had both his phone and wallet, so he gave Crowley his ID cards, Auradon currency, and graduation photos that he had taken with his old students.

“Well, from what I can tell, these things have too many details to be fake. However, the golden question is what to do with you two? I can’t have non-students run around my school.”

“The most reasonable solution is that I will figure out how to fix this device, and then use ‘Blink’ to return us home,” Aster answered.

“But how long will it take? I can see that Mr. Eldershine here is a talented mage with years of experience. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can fix this thing in a day or two.” Crowley told them. And Aster had to agree with him since he didn’t say anything.

“And yet, as an educator, I am loath to abandon young people without a cent to their name, or any ID. Truly, my grace is boundless.” The bird-man seemed to make up his mind on something. “There is a vacant building on this campus. It was used as a dorm a long time ago. With proper cleaning, it should be habitable enough. Out of the profound kindness of my heart, I will allow you to live there for the time being.”

Ortho made eye contact with Aster, and the older man nodded at him. They didn’t have many options, and camping outdoors was not his thing. They collected their things and followed the headmage. From the way that Professor Aster walked between Ortho and bird-man, it seemed that the fae was still suspicious of Crowley. To be honest, this was a terrible situation but he was glad that the professor was there. The older man was responsible and cared about his students from what he could tell.

Mom, Dad, nii-chan…wait for me. I will return to you guys.

Chapter Text

“Here we are. Welcome to Ramshackle Dorm.” Crowley posed like a showman introducing a performance. Except that instead of a flashy show, they were standing in front of an abandoned dorm surrounded by a dead garden.

Yep…This is it. The bird-man is planning to dispose of both of them and hide their bodies in a haunting house. Ortho looked at the old, rundown building that looked like it could collapse at any moment. His foot made contact with the wooden floor and the ‘Crenk’ sound just didn’t help reduce the pressure on his nerves.

“You can’t be serious. You want us to stay…here?” This place was just straight up a dumpster. In fact, Ortho reconsidered between staying outside and getting attacked by a wild animal in his sleep, or staying indoors and having the building fall on him. Mind you, both choices were equally horrible.

“Maybe it will look better inside.” Professor Aster said with a crooked smile. Ortho didn’t know why the man bothered to lie, maybe he thought it was a bad idea to insult the building in front of Crowley, or he was just trying to act optimistic for his student’s sake. Crowley continued with a smiley attitude.

“That’s the spirit, Mr Eldershine. Isn't it delightful? Right, scoot inside now. There you go.” The headmage made a mistake by opening the door a bit too quickly. The front door collapsed and three of them received faces full of dust.

Ortho didn’t have a lot of expectations so he wasn’t really surprised with the dorm condition. There was dust everywhere. The furniture was still somewhat intact but damaged and neglected.

“...It sure has character.” Aster coughed.

“This should keep the elements at bay for the time being. Now, I will find you some household and hygienic items for your stay. Do try to find some way to keep yourself busy. But don't let me catch you wandering the campus! Ta!” The headmage walked through the front door, well, more like walking on it since it was still lying on the floor.

“...So what do we do now?” Ortho asked when it was just him and Professor Aster.

“I suppose for now, we should see if the light system still works, and start to clean up a bit.” Ortho wanted to start working on finding a way back immediately but it was dark and they needed somewhere to sit in order to fix the device.

The Professor moved to a broken window, “I will open the windows and use wind spells to clean off the dust. Ortho, can you find me some cleaning supplies?” For some reason, the bird-man hadn’t taken their magic pens that came with the robes so Ortho hoped the cleaning process wouldn’t be too bad. He nodded to the request and went to the hallway. He opened a few doors in the hope of seeing a broom or something but he didn’t have much luck. Traveling further to the house, he suddenly stopped when he heard a laugh.

“Yee hee hee... Bwa ha ha ha ha ha.” Oh, my Hades! I knew this place was haunted. Ortho took out the magic pen on his belt. He searched around until his glare landed on a white transparent figure.

“We haven't had visitors in ages! Oh, I'm just itchin' for new friends! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!” The ghost laughed at him. Ortho’s face paled (well paler than he was), he clutched on his magic pen and pointed at the ghost.

“S..STAY AWAY FROM ME! IF NOT I WILL BLAST YOU!” Damn it! He doesn’t sound threatening enough with the stuttering.

“Aww! But we just want a new ghost to play with! All the people who used to live here got scared of us and ran away. What do you say, buddy?”

“NOPE! I’m good.” He said before blasting a magic energy toward the ghost. The spell hit the ghost's shoulder.

“Ouch! That hurt!” The ghost yelped. Ha! Take that! Ortho had pride in his skill in shooting games.

Right at that moment, 2 other ghosts appeared. 

“Fuufu! What we have here!”

“A new friend!”

Oh no! I’m out numbers. I need to retreat and go back to Professor Aster. Making up his mind, Ortho ran back to the lounge with three ghosts tailing him.

“Ho ho! Where’re you going~?”

“Hey! Stay with us.”

“One of us. One of us…”

“PROFESSOR ASTER!!” He yelled. In the living room, the fae was busy himself with dusting the floor. Aster startled and snapped at him. Realizing the situation, Aster hurriedly ran toward him and put on a magic defense shield.

Facing the ghosts. Aster raised his pen and poured his magic into it. The red magic energy lights up the tip of his pen.

“I don't know who you are! But if you try to harm my student I won’t hesitate to crush you.” Aster said with an icy voice. Gone was the friendly educator with a light smile on his lips, the fae was not gonna let any of his students get hurt while he was there.

“Booo~ we just want to meet new residents.”

“Yup! And see if they want to join us in the afterlife. He he~”

“I’m sorry to intrude on your place but we were placed here by Headmage Crowley. If you have any arrangements you should talk to him. However, this is a warning, touch my student and I will hurt you.” Aster said.

The room lit up with the light from the magic pen, and the Professor was ready to attack the ghosts with a powerful spell. The tension grew before the thin ghost signed.

“...Puu. You’re no fun. We just want to prank you guys.”

“What the heck!? What in the world makes you think chasing people and threatening them to turn into ghosts is fun?” Ortho definitely wasn’t laughing. This day was awful and he just wanted to have a moment of peace.

“Well~ It’s funny to us.” Another ghost said amusingly.

Ortho suppressed the urge to hiss at the chubby ghost and just glared at him instead. Aster signed and continued to talk to the ghosts. Things calmed down after that, the ghosts said they were just playing around because there hadn’t been many people around the dorm. Oh… I wonder why, Ortho thought sarcastically.

The ghosts introduced by their names were Andrew, Ben, and Colin. They then help the new residents to find the light switches and a closet with cleaning supplies. Aster taught Ortho a simple cleaning spell but after nearly blowing out the window, he decided to stick with a duster for now because the building was wretched enough. The Rune professor carved something on the brooms, they came to life and started to clean the place.

Ortho felt a few raindrops landed on his face. He asked if the fae could do something to the leaks.

“The building it’s old. I don’t think it would be a good idea to stretch the materials. Let’s just go with buckets for now.”

After placing the buckets, both of them sit down on the couch. They didn’t talk for a few minutes. Trying to arrange their thoughts and let the situation sink in. Ortho was listening to the rain and the sweeping sound of the brooms down the hallway when Aster asked him about the device.

“Ortho, can you take out the device? I need to look at it.” He nodded, and handed the fae the pyramid shaped object. The professor then proceeded to separate the device into different parts. Ortho observed the process and tried his best to understand it. He wished his nii-chan was here, the genius of S.T.Y.X. would know what to do.

Aster then held a round object that was placed in the device core. The object was damaged, and there was probably a sort of melting reaction that happened.

“It’s a magic stone.” The Professor said.

Ortho thought about it and asked, “Do you think it was the outside source of magic energy that the creator mentioned?”

“I think so. There are Runes on the stone which I presume is to direct the magic energy in a certain way that could enhance a spell. However, the stone reached its melting point when it’s active so I can’t figure out the Runes carved on it.” Aster said. He put down the stone and pointed at the mechanical part of the device. “Fortunately for us, the rest of the device only has small damages. Therefore, there are only 2 things that I have to research: how to recapitulate the energy core and how to locate our dimension.”

“Okay…How can I help?” Ortho received a questioning look from the professor. He felt a bit hurt, he wasn’t a "promising prodigy" like his brother but he could help. He had to because it was his fault that they ended up here. Their conversation temporarily ended when the sound of footsteps appeared.

“Good evening~. In another gesture of my immense kindness, I have brought you dinners.” Crowley was back carrying multiple bags.

“I see you guys cleaned this room. Doesn't this place look nice~.” He placed the bags on the coffee table. Ortho wanted to scream at the man about this dump, about the ghost, but he was too tired to care.

However, as the nice and mature person he was, Aster thanked the bird-man and told him about the situation with the ghosts. The headmage just laughed and said he forgot to tell them. Who forgot something like the building is haunted? Seriously, Ortho couldn’t stand this giant bird. Unknown to his inner thought, the two adults continued their discussion.

“Let me be clear! Even though you were selected by the Dark Mirror. You desire to go back to your world, but you need to fix the device first, right?” Aster nodded.

“Now, allow me to explain. It was the Dark Mirror that transported you here. Therefore this school does bear some responsibility for your well-being. So I will allow you to remain in this dorm, free of charge. However, you will need to pay for your own food, clothing, and incidentals. As to how you will do so, Mr. Eldershine here is a teacher, right?” The headmage smiled at them.

“Yes, I am. I teach The principles of Rune, and Advanced Rune courses back in Auradon Prep.” Aster answered, he straightened his back and seemed proud of his job.

“Well, we have a Rune teacher in Night Raven College, but we could use another teaching assistant. Your job will be including assisting the professors, grading assignments, being a substitute teacher when needed, *mumble* and doing my paperwork *mumble*.”

Ortho couldn’t help but raise his brow, “What was the last one?” 

“And tutor students.” Yeah, that definitely is not what you said.

Aster spent a minute thinking about the offer, but they were really at a disadvantage of not having proper IDs, and resources at the moment so he accepted.

“Wonderful! I will prepare the document by tomorrow.” Crowley said before turning to Ortho, “As for this young man over here-”.

Professor Aster cut the headmage, “Actually, I have a request. Ortho is a soon-to-be freshman at Auradon Prep in the Mage program. Is it possible for him to attend Night Raven College?”

“Wait! What?” Ortho didn’t want to go to this school. He wanted to go home as soon as possible.

On the other hand, Crowley found this request interesting. “May I ask why you think Mr.Shourd should attend NRC?”

“Yeah! What’s the deal? I don’t want to go here. We need to focus on fixing the device and find a way back.” What is Professor Aster thinking? Wasting time with school right now wasn’t Ortho’s priority.

“Ortho…” Aster put a hand on his shoulder. “I believe you’re brilliant and we can work together to fix this. But we could be here for a while and I don’t want you behind your school work when we get back. Moreover, you’re a first-year student who hasn't learned advanced magic yet so if you want to help me fix the device, you need to learn more.” So he thought Ortho was an inexperienced child who couldn’t help much. It was kinda true but still hurt his pride a bit.

Sensing his trouble thoughts, the older man continued. “There is also another reason. I want you to learn about the magic system of this world, it could work differently and that could affect our journey to go back to our world.”

“...Fine.” What else could he say? Aster did sound reasonable.

“In that case, I don’t see why not. Mr. Shroud was chosen by the Dark Mirror and has the potential to become a great Mage.” The headmage looked pleased with his decision. “As a magnificent headmage of this facility, I accept your request. Welcome to Night Raven College, Ortho Shroud.”

The bird-man left shortly after that, and promised to visit them in the morning with the paperwork. They ate their dinner in silence, and decided to go to bed. The animated cleaning supplies did a decent job but Ortho thought the sheet and the curtain needed a good wash. Aster handed him a bag of personal items and wished him goodnight.

“Things will be fine, Ortho.” Aster smiled slightly.

I’m not a child, I don’t need you to comfort me. Why don’t you hate me? I was the reason we suck here.

“Goodnight.” That was what he said instead.

Chapter Text

“Hee hee hee~ Wakey wakey, the sun is up~.”

“Mmm…Nngh…just a few minutes, nii-chan…” That was strange. Usually, Idia was the one woken up by him, his older brother was a night owl due to his game addictions…Unless it wasn’t Nii-chan. Ortho’s eyes snapped open and he nearly flung himself out of the bed.

Three ghosts from last night floating near his bed with an amusing attitude. “You don’t want to be late for school now do you, sleepy princess~?” said the skinny ghost whose name was… Andrew? Right?

“You should wash your face, you don’t want to be seen looking dead on your feet ~ho ho~.”

“Hee he~!”

Feeling his face and hair burned up from being annoyed and embarrassed. Ortho threw his pillow at them, which unsurprisingly passed right through them. The trio laughed at his tactic.

“Don’t you guys know manners? It’s rude to enter people's rooms without permission.” Normally, Ortho didn’t have anything against morning but yesterday was anything but normal. He believed he deserved to be cranky.

“Now~ now~ don’t be mad? We just wanted to check on our new roommates.”

“Also Aster told us to tell you to get ready. He just went out with the headmage and will be back soon.”

The ghost left his room laughing after that. In a few minutes, Ortho found himself looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. His signature short flaming hair reflected soft blue light on his face. Combining with the natural Shroud’s blue lip and eyeliner only made his face look like a cold marble statue. The one new feature was the eyebags.

I look so tired that I can rival nii-chan.

At least this wretched building had a functional plumbing system. Ortho washed his face with cold water and brushed his teeth. He was still wearing the ceremony robe from last night but Crowley did promise new uniforms for him today.

When he came to the lounge, Crowley and Aster were already there discussing the professor’s employee contract. Upon seeing him, Aster stopped and greeted him.

“Good morning, Ortho. How’s your sleep?”

“...I slept fine.”  The older man didn’t call out his lie, anyone could see he looked dead tired. Anyone but the bird-man, who was blind or just simply didn’t care.

“I am delighted to hear that you've adjusted so well, despite being sent to another world!” Crowley said cheerfully. “Now, moving on, let us discuss your attendant in NRC, Mr. Shroud.”

The headmage handed him a big bag and a paper folder. “Your uniforms are in the bag. In the folder, there is your class schedule, a student ID, a meal card, a rule book, and a list of learning material you can receive in the library.” Putting the bag down, Ortho opened the folder and saw his picture. When did he take this?

“Remember to bring your magic pen. A great mage is always ready for any situation.” Crowley continued, “Now, me and Mr. Eldershine will head to the teachers’ office. Have a great first day, Shroud.” The headmage did a 180-degree turn, flipped his cape dramatically, and walked away. Ortho was a little cringed with his action. 

Aster hurriedly collected his paper and followed the man. Before departing, the fae told him, “I left your breakfast on the kitchen counter. We’ll meet after classes end. Have fun-” Aster tried to tell him more but the man was out the door so Ortho couldn’t hear him.

Changing into his uniform, Ortho made sure to clip his magic pen into the front pocket.The uniform was a 3-pieces suit with black trousers, black jacket, and a grey vest. He struggled with putting up his tie and accidentally tied it in a knot. He didn’t have the privilege to access the internet right now so he decided to leave it as it was.

Entering the kitchen, he saw Aster had left him an egg sandwich with a box of apple juice. While munching on the sandwich, he couldn’t help but open his phone. His last message with his brother was a sad teary cat meme reacting to Idia’s failed gacha pulls. He then tried to send nii-chan a message but all he received was a notification of ‘failed server’. Ortho signed and looked up at the ceiling.

I'm really stuck here, aren’t I? He felt sad and couldn’t help but be self-pitied… But moping around won’t change anything. I have to work and find the way back. Professor Aster was right. I’m still a freshman, I have to try my best to learn more about magic to fix the device. 

With new found motivation, Ortho walked out the Ramshackle dorm and pulled out his schedule. The map in the rule book and his class schedule led him through the main street and toward the main building.

There were seven statues on the main street. The rule book referenced them as the Great Seven so Ortho believed those were some important figures. Not paying attention, he almost didn’t notice a fur ball jumped out in front of him.

“GRAAR! YOU! The fire head boy! Give me your uniform !” Ortho jumped back. In front of him was Grim, the cat creature that nearly burned down the Mirror Chamber.

“Hah? I thought they threw you out?”

“No gate can keep the Great Grim from his destiny of becoming the number one mage. Enough talking, give me your uniform.”

Ortho might have run away last night because he had been freaking out about the teleporting situation. He had his magic pen now so there was just no way he would let a cat look down on him. 

“Sorry, Grim. But I’m officially a student of NRC, so~ I think I will keep my clothes.” He smirked at the feline.

“BUT…But the mirror said you couldn’t-”

Ortho shrugged, “I don’t know. Bring it to the headmage.”

Grim seemed to be disheartened about it. His ears flat down made him look like a wet cat. Okay, now I feel bad. Why do I feel I just kicked a puppy, Ortho thought. He debated what to say before ending up asking the cat.

“...So why do you want to go to this school so bad?” 

Grim looked at him with a surprising face. The cat didn’t think anyone would ask him that. “Isn't it obvious? I was born to do this! I'm a magical prodigy who's got the makin's to become one of the greatest mages who ever lived!” 

The cat's voice became more quiet, remembering some distant memory. “So I've been waitin' and waitin' for that black carriage to come for me. And yet…”

“Hrmph! That Dark Mirror's got no eye for talent!” The cat puffed up his chest proudly, “That's why I took the initiative and came here myself.”

What a story, Ortho could understand not waiting for an opportunity but creating one instead. However, it wasn’t like he could do anything about Grim’s situation. Maybe…I can offer to teach him about my classes. Suddenly, a laugh cut out his thought.

“Pfff~ Ha ha ha ha! This is hilarious." From behind a statue, a redheaded student with a painted red heart walked toward them. 

“Even if you said all that sobby tale, it won’t change the fact that some piddling weasel like you will never be able to attend this school. Only actual talented mages are chosen by the Dark Mirror.” The guy then smirked mockingly at Grim, “You should stop wasting your time and give up.”

He then looked at Ortho, “And you! You aren't even supposed to be here, and the mirror failed to choose you a dorm. That was LAME! I heard you have to stay at the abandoned building. Ah ha ha ha~”

What the fuck? Who goes around and insults people he doesn't know? I will be impressed If he does this often and his face is somehow still intact.

“Um…Who are you exactly?” Ortho felt offended but he was also confused. Like seriously, do real life teenagers actually talk like a secondary villain NPC?

The redhead managed to stop his laugh to answer him, “M’name is Ace. Anyway, I just thought I'd tease you a bit. And man am I glad I did. It's been a blast!”

He whipped his non-existent tear and gave Grim a final insult. “Bye, weasel~! Unlike you, I actually have classes to get to.”

Ace then turned his back to them and headed to class. Ortho felt heat waves rising next to him, but…he wasn't really in the mood to warn the redhead. The guy had it coming.

“Myuh-uh! You ain't walkin' away from me that easy! Myaaaaah!” Grim launched a fireball that nearly hit Ace if he didn’t hear the yell.

“Whoa! Hey! What’s ya deal?!”

“No one makes fun of Grim, Master of Fire! I'm gonna make that explodey-head of yours explode all over again!” 

“Explodey-head?! Oh! That’s it! You wanna talk about hair, huh? I'm gonna shave you like a toy poodle!” Ace took out his pen and threw a wind spell.

The fight quickly escalated and attracted a bunch of students. People surrounded them forming a fight ring. Ortho found himself stepping back to the crowd who excitedly chanted “Fight! Fight!”

An unexpected turn of event, that ended the fight, took form in a burned-up statue. Five minutes into the fight, Ace accidentally redirected Grim’s fire spell and it hit the statue of the Red Queen. The crowd gasped and our culprits tried to flee the crime scene. Ortho repeated, ‘tried’ was the key word.

“What is going on here? Cease this at once!” The headmage appeared alongside Professor Aster. The students hurriedly dismissed themselves at the sight of authority. Except for two of course. Ace and Grim were captured by Crowley while Ortho walked to Aster and waited by his side.

“How you've charred one of the Great Seven statutes?! It's almost as though you WANT to be expelled! And YOU!” He pointed at Grim, “We kicked you out of the campus. How did you get in?”

Grim struggled to get out the whip. “Graah! You can’t keep the Great Grim away! Foolish human!! Ach!”

Aster stepped in to calm the situation. “Sir, I think you should figure out what happened and go from there. And…maybe don’t tie the student with a whip, we will get complaints.”

“Very well! Shroud, may you explain what happened?”

Glared at the troubled duo, Ortho made eye contact with Ace who looked at him pleasingly. He gave the redhead a cheerful smile full of sharp teeth and proceeded to explain the story in a way that painted Ace in a worse light than Grim. Yes, he was that petty.

“This will not do. You! State your name and grade.”

“Ace Trappola... Freshman.” 

“Then listen well, Trappola. And you too, Grim. As punishment for today's infractions, you are hereby ordered to wash a hundred windows!”

“Whaaat? I have to do all that?!” Ace whined.

“Myah?! You can’t punish me! I’m not a student.” Grim yelled. Ortho had to agree with Grim, Crowley didn’t have any authority over the cat.

“You aren’t, but you want to be one, right?” The cat's eyes were lightened up with that sentence. What is the bird-man trying to achieve with this?

"Being a mage requires responsibility and hard-work so if you can prove yourself. Being an amazing headmage, I can consider your possibility to attend this school.” That was surprising. Ortho wouldn’t say he knew Crowley but something told him, he wasn’t the kind of person who offers things without a proper price.

However, Grim was excited about this offer. “Wait! I will do it! Then you have to admit my magic potential.”

“Excellent choice. Shroud here will supervise both of you finishing your punishment.” Hold on. What was that?

“Why me? I have better things to do than watching these big heads.”

The bird-man just told him in a sing-song voice. “Well~ You should have stopped them since you were here at the beginning. So you bear a part of the fault.” What kind of logic is that? “However, I can ask Mr. Eldershine if you don’t want to.”

Ortho bit his bottom lip. He didn’t want to supervise those two but he definitely didn't want to bother Aster more than he already was. The Professor had to work on too many things to take care of their situation.

“I can-.” 

“I’ll do it. I’ll watch them.” Ortho cut Aster before he could say more than two words.

“I know you would agree~ The punishment will start at the cafeteria after class. Make sure both of them present on time. Also you will be responsible for watching Grim from this moment until the punishment is over.” Crowley gave him the whip that tied up Grim. Ace was fortunately released from it.

“...Okay.” Took a deep breath, Ortho accepted his fate. If I don't do this, he will throw Grim to Aster.

“Glad we can solve this. Now go on, don’t be late for your class.”

“Sir, can I ask the actual reason why you let Grim on the school property?” Aster asked the headmage while they were walking back to the headmage’s office.

Crowley hummed. “Such a sharp mind, Eldershine. Mainly because I need someone to keep an eye on Grim. The creature has broken into our school twice. There is a high chance that it will find a way back and continue to destroy more properties if I just simply throw it out. Until we can find a way to stop that, we have to keep it somewhere we can see. Ain’t I such a brilliant strategist?”

“But Ortho’s only a freshman. Grim can be too much for him to handle” Aster didn’t have a good feeling about this. He would have to check Ortho later.

“Don’t worry. I have everything under control. Let’s grab some coffee on our way~.” 

Chapter Text

‘Class: 1-A

Student Number: 13’ - That was printed on his schedule.

In the hallway of NRC, students were whispering and sneakily glaring at an unusual sight. A student with flame-like blue hair dragged a cat who struggled to get away from him. Ortho wasn’t a people person, he didn’t really appreciate being stared at like a circus. However, the whole being thrown into another dimension made him feel numb, and couldn’t bother to react to strangers’ opinions. 

Humans' adaptation skills are such amazing things, aren't they?

“Unhand me! The Great Grim won’t be treated like this. Agh!” Rolling his eyes, Ortho held the cat up by his scruff and looked straight at him in the eyes.

“Would you stop this? Don’t make this difficult for both of us. I thought you had agreed to the punishment?”

The cat wiggled his body but couldn't do much due to being tied up. “I did! But you can’t treat me like this.”

“If I untied you, I would still need to have you in my sight. Crowley made me responsible for you so I can’t risk you running around and causing more problems.”

“Humm!” The cat made a grumpy face but eventually gave up wiggling. Ortho sighed and chose to hold the cat with his left arm because he couldn’t waste time dragging the stubborn cat. The Class 1-A sign was just right in front of him. Stepping into the classroom, the first thing that caught his eyes was a familiar redhead.

“Oh, heck no!” Ortho couldn’t help but swear. 

“...Fuck.” That was Ace.

“Hey! That’s explodey-head-Mgh” Used his hand to cover Grim’s mouth, Ortho then whispered to the cat. “Please don’t pick another fight. I will tell Crowley to throw you in a soup if you do.”

For the sake of his mind (and others), he sat far away from Ace. There was an awkward tension between them, but both students decided to ignore each other for now. The room started to fill in but people tended to avoid the cat monster so by association, Ortho.

Waiting for the class to start, Ortho didn’t notice a boy with blue hair took a seat next to him.

“Is that the cat from yesterday's ceremony?”

Ortho startled and turned to his left, facing a boy with a spade painted on his face. He wore the same red armband as Ace but he seemed to take the formal dress codes more seriously. Ortho shrugged and pointed his thumb at Grim.

“This is Grim. Headmage Crowley makes me babysit him.”

“Hey! I ain’t a stupid baby! The Great Grim is on a journey of becoming the best mage ever!”

“Bla bla bla… Heard you the first ten times. Can you be quiet?” Ortho glared at the cat.

The other guy blinked a few times and seemed to not know how to continue the conversation. After a long minute, he held out his right hand.

“Huh…Um! My name is Deuce Spade. I’m from Heartslabyul dorm. Nice to meet you.” The guy was a bit stiff but Ortho believed it was just the first school day anxiety.

“Ortho Shroud. Nice to meet you too.” Ortho shaked the guy's hand. At least there are some decent people in this school, he thought.

The bell rang, and a tall handsome man walked in. His hair is split at the side, with the longer section colored white and the shorter section black. He didn’t wear a uniform but a tuxedo with a thick, black-and-white furry coat. The older man definitely wasn’t a student so that must be the homeroom teacher.

Suddenly, the man stopped at his table. He looked at Grim for a bit then moved his grey eyes to the flame-haired boy. “Hm, that's quite the unusual coat of fur. However, can I ask what is this situation?”

Ortho felt uncomfortable being the center of attention. But he still tried to make eye contact with the man to not be deemed rude.

“Um, Sir! Headmage Crowley told me to keep an eye on him. I also have to make sure he receives his punishment after class.”

The man raised his brow, “Very well. I see Crowley leaving his weapon with you so it must be true.” Is the whip Crowley’s signature weapon or something? “Now settle down puppies. The class is about to start.”

The professor stepped to the pulpit and introduced himself. “My name is Divus Crewel. You may call me Master Crewel. I’m your new homeroom teacher and your Alchemy professor. Today, for homeroom we’re going to go through some basic information about the school in general, academic resources and what to expect in my class.” Ortho wasn’t sure about the ‘Master’ thing but this sounded okay for the first class.

“After that I will beat the names and distinguishing characteristics of one hundred herbs and poisons into your tiny brains. The mycelia are another matter. But eventually, I'm hopeful you'll be able to take a walk without putting anything poisonous into your gaping maws. For now, I realize you have all the self-control of voracious hounds. But I will not abide a single student failing this class. Expect to be drilled accordingly.” Hades! Talk about intense. I underestimated the NRC. This could be a challenge, Ortho thought to himself.

“Huh...So... does anyone know what a mycelia is?” And boys~ Does Deuce look lost.

Grim mumbled, “All I care about is how to tell the yummy plants from the yucky ones.”

Overall, the class was fine. It was the first day after all. The professor focused more on things like finding study materials, submitting assignments correctly, and basic academic stuff. The same things happened with other classes of the day.

Deuce took the classes pretty seriously, wrote down every word that the teachers said. For Ortho, the whole real school experience was still new to him so he was kinda excited. He noted down what he thought was important information, and made sure to keep Grim in his sight. Luckily, the cat just whined about how boring the classes were and then took a nap somewhen during the History class of Professor Trein.

“Maan… When do we get to the classes where we blow stuff up with magic?”

Grim complained on their way to lunch. To be honest, Ortho was unsure what to say about his experience. This was his first time going to a school. Before this, he had been taught by tutors and only joined a few online classes.

“You don’t have the right to complain, Grim. You slept through most of the classes… Besides, I don’t think they will teach spells first. ‘Understand theory before practice’ kind of thing.”

“But those were boring. If I become a student, no way am I puttin' up with this boring routine day in and day out.” Grim pouted.

“What did you expect? Becoming a great mage isn’t exactly fun and games. You have to work hard and study a lot.” Ortho followed the crowd of students to the cafeteria. Feeling curious eyes on him, Ortho was hesitant to go in. He really didn’t want people looking at them while eating. He also had to untie Grim for lunch because no way he fed the cat himself, he valued his fingers too much.

Made up his mind. Ortho ducked into an empty corner holding the cat. He put Grim down on the floor and started to negotiate.

“Here's the deal. I will untie you and get your lunch but you have to promise not to run away from me.” Grim squinted his eyes and looked at another way.

Ortho signed, “Come on… You hear Crowley, right? You have to finish the punishment if you want to become a student. Why do you have to make it hard for both of us?”

“... I’ll stay here for the price of a can of tuna.”

Ortho clicked his tongue. I have to ask Professor Aster later, but if this makes my job easier then so be it.

“Deal.” He removed the whip and untied the cat. “Stay here. I’ll bring your lunch and we can eat somewhere else. I don’t trust you to be near that many students.” Ortho shouldn’t put that much trust in Grim but the cat had calmed down a bit and he hadn’t tried to run away since the first period.

Ortho went to the cafeteria and waited in line. People still occasionally looked at him but without Grim, they were less intense.

“Ortho. There you are.” He turned to the familiar voice and met with soft purple eyes. Aster was heading toward him.

“Professor Aster. It’s good to see you.” Ortho smiled lightly and gave the fae a light bow.

“You know what. Call me Aster, I'm just a teaching assistant here. Actually, I’m looking for you. Did the situation with Grim go well?”

“Oh… It’s fine. I just told him to wait outside and I would go to get our lunches.” Wait..Is Aster going to think he was irresponsible? “But I swear, he agreed to say still and-” Ortho was talking a bit too fast and defensive but Aster raised his hand to stop him.

“It’s fine. I believe you know what you’re doing. Do you mind if we have lunch together? I want to hear about your first day of school.”

“Um… no, that would be great.”

They grabbed beef bread, a ham and cheese sandwich, and some rice balls. Ortho remembered to ask the staff ghost for a can of tuna. The ghost wanted to welcome Aster as the new school staff so they gave them a discount.

Ortho was relieved to see Grim still at the corner where he left the cat. Three of them ended up sitting on an empty bench outside the courtyard. Grim happily munched on bread and his can of tuna.

“How were your classes?” The fae asked.

“It’s fine. I didn’t really know what to expect. Everything is new to me.” Ortho took a bite off a salmon rice ball.

“Meet any new friends?”

He tilted his head and thought a bit, “Well… I talked to a guy in my class. Oh wait! Can you believe it? Ace - the guy that burned the statue, is in my class. I had to hold Grim back and…-”

The conversation continued pretty naturally after that. They went back and forth about their day. Sometimes, Grim chirped in and complained about the classes. Near the end of lunchtime. Aster bid him goodbye and said,

“I’ll go to the office now. Seeing that you have Grim under control, I will bring back the whip to Crowley.” The TA rolled up the whip. “After school ends, I have to go to the town for some business. I will come back pretty late so I won’t be able to supervise the punishment with you. Will you be fine, Ortho?”

“I’m fine. How hard can it be? I just need to watch them.”

“Very well. See you later at the dorm.” Aster took off and they went their separate ways.

There was only one more class until they had to meet up at the cafeteria and start cleaning the windows. Grim was still by his side so Ortho felt he at least finished 50% of the task. Whether he could convince the cat to do the punishment is another story but he would figure it out on the way.

When the last class was dismissed, Ortho grabbed the cat and collected his things. All to do now is make sure Ace and Grim go to the cafeteria and start scrubbing. Come to think about Ace, the guy got pretty quiet in the last period. The flame-hair boy searched for the redhead but he seemed to disappear from the classroom. Maybe he’s heading to the cafeteria early?... Who am I kidding? That jerk probably baited the first chance he got.

“Deuce! Did you see a redhead with a heart on his left eye?” Ortho asked the guy sitting next to him.

“Hm? Oh! I saw him go that way.” The student pointed to a direction opposite the cafeteria.

Ortho’s hair sparked red. “Tch! He’s trying to skip the punishment! Come on! We have to stop him.”

“Myaaah! How dare he leave us with a hundred windows! Let’s chase him down!” Grim jumped down the table to chase after Ace. Ortho followed the cat. And because Deuce had thought Ortho had been talking to him, he also ran with them.

“Wait! Why’re we chasing him?”

“He’s trying to get out of Headmage’s punishment,” Ortho answered. The last bell had passed not long ago so they quickly caught the redhead.

“AHA! GOTCHA, PUNK!” Grim yelled. That was a mistake cause Ace now noticed them and started speeding up.

“Fuck! They saw me!”

Grim continued to yell at Ace. “Stop right there, explodey-head! You aren’t getting' out of this!”

“Who in their right mind would ever stop?! Bye, losers! Have fun cleaning the windows.”

Ortho gritted his teeth. He pulled out his magic pen and created an ice wall to block the hallway. The redhead almost slammed at it but managed to bolt to the other way.

“Outta my way!” Ace pushed through a bunch of students.

“How to stop him? Should I freeze his legs? Or bind them with a rope? Or maybe I could…” Deuce was mumbling but Ortho didn’t have enough patience at the moment. 

“Stop thinking! Just do something!” Ortho tried to cast another ice spell but there were too many people in the way.

“Huh...Right! Something! Ah…I summon thee...something heavy!”

“THUD!” A giant cauldron appeared out of nowhere and fell on Ace. 

“Bwaaah?! Wha?! A freaking pot?!” Ace yelled from under the cauldron.

Grim started to laugh at the redhead’s misfortune. Ortho left out a couple of short breaths from all the running. The Shroud wasn’t famous for their athletic ability anyway.

“Owwww! What are you bothering me for? You guys coulda just banged out the work yourself!” Ace whined, still crushed under the heavy object.

Ortho felt his eye twitching. “You and Grim were the ones who charred the Queen of Hearts statue. Do you think you can get out of this easily?”

Deuce gasped at Ace. “You damaged a statue of the Great Seven?! No wonder he flew off the handle at you! How could you get in trouble on the very first day?!”

“Oh, shut up. Who are you, anyway?”

“My name is Deuce. Deuce Spade. Don't you remember your own classmate? You…uh.”

“You don't remember my name either, do you?”

“That's not the point! You shouldn't try to shirk an order from the headmage!”

Ace wanted to respond to that but Ortho decided to speak up.

“Ace, you know the headmage told me to supervise both of you right? I can just tell him that you didn’t show up and you would get in more trouble.” He raised his eyebrow and looked at the redhead like he was an idiot.

“...Yeah, yeah, message received... Fine, let's bang out the windows already. Huh…? Where is the furball?”

Ortho blinked and quickly turned his head around looking for Grim. He spotted the cat who was quite far from them.

“Ah ha ha ha! I'll let you handle the rest! See ya, suckers!” The cat laughed at them and ran further away.

“...” Ortho was shocked, speechless, you name it. The betrayal was deeper than the time nii-chan had given him a skip card and a +4 two times in a row. Those emotions washed away quickly and Oh Hades! he was pissed.

“He ran off! Hey flame head!-” Ace called out to Ortho but stopped when he saw his hair turning red. Deuce was also blizzard by this transition. However, Ortho didn’t care about their reaction. Grabbing Ace by his shirt, he dragged the redhead with him.

“You’re coming with me. We’re gonna catch that stupid cat.” Ortho said.

“Wha?! Slow down man! Juice! Help me with this.”

“My name is Deuce! With a D!”

“Whatever! Just come with us!”

Three of them chased Grim all the way to the cafeteria. They cast different spells but the cat was small and slippy.

“Grim! Stop this nonsense! Don’t you want to go to NRC?” Ortho hoped he could reason with the cat.

“Heh heh heh! I’m too great for this cleaning job! Catch me if you can! Heh heh heh~” Grim botched up the wall and somehow ended up climbing onto the chandelier. He smirked at the students below and laughed at them.

Deuce yelped, “That’s not fair! I haven't really learned flight magic yet…”

“Tch! How can we get him down?” Ortho mumbled to himself. Before he could come up with a solution. Deuce had this ‘brilliant’ idea and proceeded to lift Ace up the ground.

“O- Oh, hey! Stop! What are you doing?!” Ace cried.

“I'm going to launch you. Make sure to grab him tight. And…GO!” Deuce told the redhead like that was the most normal thing in the world.

What’s in the Underworld? Is he crazy?

“NO! DON’T-” Ortho tried to stop the guy but it was too late. Deuce threw Ace onto the chandelier.

“BWAAAAAAAH!”

“MYAAAAAAAAH?!”

“THUMP!” The chandelier fell under all the force. Ace did catch Grim, though Ortho believed they had a bigger problem now. Too stunned to speak anything, Ortho facepalmed and slowly sat down at one of the tables.

*Cough* *Hack*” I cannot believe you just did that!” Ace glared at the idiot that had launched him on a fucking chandelier.

“Oh, right! I probably should have come up with a way to soften your landing after you caught him…” Deuce calmly said.

“That’s not the FUCKING POINT! You complete and total moron! If the headmage finds out about this-”

“If I find out about... what, dear Ace?” The headmage appeared with all his dramatic slow walk. Where have you been? We have chased the cat for half an hour and you show up now?? Ortho couldn't believe this man. 

“Ah! Headmage Crowley...!” Ace yelped.

“YOU. THREE. AGAIN. What have you done this time?! Do you know the value of this chandelier? Enough. All of you are expelled.” The students were shocked at Crowley’s decision.

“Whaaaaaaaat?!” They shouted at the same time.

“I didn’t do anything. It’s not fair.” Ortho couldn’t help to defend himself. He hadn’t been involved with burning the statue nor had he done anything that broke the chandelier.

“Shroud, you’re responsible for Grim and supervise their punishment. Therefore, I would say you’re as guilty as they are.” Ortho bit his lip and stared at the bird-man. Is he serious? He forced me to do this and act surprised when I can’t do shit about these troublemakers.

“Headmage, please! Give me a second chance! I can't get expelled from this school! I need to be here!” Deuce pleased.

Crowley shook his head. “You can only blame yourself for your own foolish behavior.”

“I'll pay for the damages! However much it costs!” Deuce continued.

Crowley went on about the history of the chandelier. Apparently, it was a historical artifact that had been there since the founding of NRC. If they wanted to repay the damage, it would cost up to a billion thaumarks. For obvious reasons, Ortho couldn’t pay it and judging from the pale faces of the other, neither could they.

“B-But I'm sure with your magical talent, sir, you could snap your fingers and fix it right up!” Ace tried to butter up the bird-man to get out of this situation.

“Even magic has its limits. Furthermore, its magestone - the figurative heart of any magical artifact - is cracked. A magestone cannot easily be replaced… Unless?” Crowley stopped and held his chin. Grabbing at the first chance to redeem himself, Deuce hurriedly asked the bird-man.

“Sir! Is there something I can do to fix this?”

“Ah…! There may be one tiny sliver of chance to repair this chandelier.” The students peeked up.

“The magestone that powered this chandelier was mined from the Dwarfs' Mine. If you can acquire a magestone with the same properties, it may be possible to repair it.” 

“Then I'll go find a magestone!...With your permission, sir!”

“I should caution you that I cannot promise there yet remain magestones to find. The mines were closed quite some time ago. It is quite likely that all of the magestones have already been mined.” Those words came from the man who had forgotten to warn them about the haunted dorm. There must be some serious reason why the mines were abandoned, Ortho thought skeptically.

Even though Ortho didn’t want to go to this college at first. He had promised Aster that he would stay to learn and help fix the enhanced device. What would the fae say if he failed on the first day?

Three of them decided to take up the chance to find a magestone. Crowley gave them a deadline of the next morning and told them to use one of the gates in the Mirror Chamber to travel to the Mines. After the man left, Ortho helped Ace out of the broken chandelier.

*Sigh* “Fine, then. Let's get this whole thing done with.” The redhead complained.

Ortho was about to tell Ace that he was responsible for this mess but right at that moment, he noticed something.

“Guys… Where is Grim?”

The cat was gone.

Chapter Text

The woods were quiet. Too quiet if you asked Ortho. The sun had set not long ago, the whole forest was slowly falling into a pit black darkness. There were a few signs that said ‘Dangerous area’ and ‘Stay away’, so they were probably going in the right direction.

“So this is the Dwarfs' Mine… Hard to imagine this place used to be a heyday mine” Surprisingly, Deuce was the one that broke the silence between three students.

“This place gives me a creep,” Otho said.

“Are you scared~ Do the flamy boy need to hold hands?” Ace teased him. However, Ortho had been in a bad mood since this morning so he snapped back.

“Ace, if something jumps at us right now, I won’t hesitate to push you toward it. Shut up and be useful for once.” His hair flinched red.

The red-haired was a bit pushed back by his tongue but decided not to step on the land mine. “... Jeez… Don’t need to be grumpy. Oh, look! I can see a house. Let's check it out.”

They walked toward an old cottage. The house was small and there wasn't any light coming from it. So Ortho thought there could be a high chance it was abandoned at the same time as the mines. The one leading the group - Deuce knocked on the door.

“Hellooo? Is anybody home...? Must be empty. It looks like it's been abandoned.” The door wasn’t locked so the blue hair opened it easily.

Inside the cottage were dusty. The most noticeable thing was the furniture which was on a smaller scale than average.

“These desks and chairs are tiny. Are they for children? One, two... Seven! It's like a clown car in here.” Ace had his arms behind his head and walked around amusingly looking at different stuff.

“It’s called the Dwarfs' Mine, there must have been dwarfs working here.” Ortho channeled his magic and used his pen as a flashlight, the light was weak but it would do the job. This is like investigating games. Maybe I can find clues that help us find a magestone… Oh no! What if I have to fight a boss? I love adventure games but this is real life, I don’t have extra lives. I have to return home and-. Ortho opened a drawer, there was some yellowish paper. He stopped his inner monologue and spread it out on the table.

Lucky for him, it was the map of the mines. The miners even marked which area had what type of gemstone. He called two other boys and showed them.

“This is great! We can start looking for a gemstone now.” Deuce cheered.

“Let’s grab some tools and head out.” Ace walked toward the wall that hung hammers and mining picks. Ortho folded the map and looked around for anything useful. He found an old lamp with a candle inside. Ace laughed at him when he showed it.

“Ha ha ha! You are literally a human torch. Why would we need a lamp?”

Rolling his eyes, Ortho answered. “My head isn’t that bright! Besides, it’s better to have more than one source of light. Now can any of you light it up?”

Ace shook his head, “Nope, haven’t learned fire spells yet.”

“Me neither. Can you do it Ortho?” Deuce asked.

Ortho bit his lip. “I can try. Fire spells aren’t my strength. Yeah yeah, I know it’s kinda ironic, but for some reason, I’m much better at water and ice.” He cast a spell and it ended up creating only a spark of flame on the tip of his pen.

“Maybe if we find something to kindle a fire… ”, Deuce offered.

“What’s about Ortho’s hair? Can we-”. “No, Ace. You can’t use my hair. It isn't an actual fire.” Ortho cut Ace out before he could finish his stupid suggestion.

Suddenly, a fireball hit the lamp and lit up the candle which startled the students.

“Pfff~ Look like you’re in need of my awesome fire magic” The source of the magic flame was the beast that ditched them when the chandelier had broken. Grim sat on a short chair and folded his tiny arms.

“Grim!” Ortho was still pissed at the cat. He had told Aster that he could handle Grim, and he had tried to be nice with him only to be left with a mess.

“How long have you been tailing us?” Deuce questioned the cat.

“That doesn't matter. Take me into the mine with ya. And I might provide a little service if you do.”

“... What’s the catch?” Ortho knew Grim for a day but that was enough for him to understand his personality.

“I want a magestone as the payment. Ya’never know. The Great Grim could use a strong magic stone to become the best mage in Twisted Wonderland.” Grim smirked at them. So the cat heard what the headmage said and followed us through the mirror.

“... Why don’t you go by yourself? This could be your chance to prove yourself since you blew up the last one with the whole running from the punishment.” Ortho asked the cat mockingly. To be honest, he didn’t think Crowley would follow through with his promise to accept Grim as a student. The headmage probably just wanted some free services. However, in the end, Grim disappeared, and Ortho ended up being blamed. He wasn’t gonna be a bigger person and forgive the cat beast.

“I-I-It’s not like I was too scared to go into the dark alone!” Grim stuttered.

“No thanks. We don’t need you.” Ortho turned his back to the cat and walked out. “Ace, Deuce. Let’s go.”

“Huh? Okay…” Deuce was confused but still followed him. Ace just shrugged and did the same.

“Wait! What? You can’t go without me.” Grim shouted at him.

Ortho rolled his eyes and glared at the cat. “Look! I don’t have time for your childish tactics.” Grim looked hurt by his words but Ortho couldn’t help himself. 

“Maybe Ace was right. You just aren’t cut out to be a mage. Seeing that you always run away at a slight inconvenience.” With those words, Ortho walked away leaving the speechless cat.

Ace and Deuce walked beside him in silence. He ignored their staring and took out the map.

“That was kinda harsh,” Deuce said, holding the lamp for him to read.

“... Maybe. Turn this way.” Ortho tried to change the subject. He knew Grim had a somewhat childish mentality of a kid and he probably didn't understand humans. But Ortho was angry, he could have lost his chance of researching a way to go home.

On the other hand, Ace shrugged and talked like he wasn’t one of the reasons they ended up with this mess. “Someone has to burst his bubble. But~ we could use a meat shield if things went wrong.”

“Then you go and talk to him. I don’t care.” Ortho continued to walk forward. Ace probably thought it wasn't worth the effort to recruit the cat so he just stuck with the group.

They stopped in front of a cave with wooden signs surrounding it. There was a track leading inside so they followed it. From what Ortho could tell, the mines were pretty empty. They searched for what was like half an hour but all that they could find was a bunch of useless rocks. They even followed the marks on the map but still no luck.

“Maybe there really aren’t any left.” Ace signed while throwing a rock he just dug out.

“Search even harder!” Deuce told him. Ace seemed to start irritating with the blue-haired.

“Could you stop ordering me around? We wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t thrown me at the fucking chandelier.”

Is he seriously blaming others? The nerve of this jerk! Ortho felt his hair burn red with anger, he couldn’t help but chip in “Really Ace! You are the one who burned the statue and tried to ditch cleaning a hundred windows.”

“The furball started the fight with me first!” Ace shot back.

“You were insulting him and egging him on!” Ortho stopped searching and stood face-to-face with the redhead. His hair was flaming red now. A bright orange color lit up the cave. 

“Well, you were in charge of Grim and you let him run away!”

“You-.”

“GUYS! We're in real hot water, remember?! If we don't come back with a magestone by morning, we're all being expelled!” Deuce interrupted their fight.

“...”

“...”

“... You’re right. We need to focus.” Ortho said after a long silence. He took a deep breath and his hair slowly returned to the familiar blue shade.

Ace mumbled something about not ordering him around but Ortho ignored him. 

“He’s coming.” An unfamiliar voice spoke up suddenly. Three students snapped their heads to the voice and saw a white shadow.

“AHHH!” They yelled seeing a ghost appear out of nowhere. Ortho and Ace found themselves hiding behind Deuce who despite his shaking frame stood strongly at the front.

The ghost didn’t even acknowledge their reactions. They just looked at them deadpan and repeated, “He’s coming… He’s coming for the stones.”

“...Um…Hi? Who is coming?” Ortho leaned his body from Deuce to talk to the ghost, but they ignored them and floated through a wall.

“... Yeah, That’s definitely not suspicious at all.” Ace sarcastically said. Despite the unusual counterpart, they continued searching for a magestone.

They were walking further to the next mark on the map when they heard a strange noise.

“...iiivvv... ...oooouuu…”

“Huh?!”

“...neeevvvaaa... ...iiivvv... ...ooouuu…”

“Wh-where's that comin' from?” Ace asked.

“Sounds like... it's getting closer…” Deuce told the group.

“Something big and… heavy…” Ortho commented. He could hear a dragging sound on the rock floor.

A big shadow was moving toward them so they ducked to another path. Three students held their breath and tried to not make a sound when they saw a giant form of a monster. It’s holding an oil lamp, and a mining pick but the most eye-catching feature was its head which was made of a glass bottle filled with black ink.

Ortho’s eyes widen, The black blot… It can’t be… A PHANTOM?

“Stooonesss... ...nevvva give stooonesss...!” The monster slowly walked away from them.

“... Wait a minute! Did it just say stones? So there ARE still magestones here! Let’s go” Deuce stood up and prepared to chase after the phantom.

“What?! Are you outta your mind?” Ace yelled at the blue-haired student.

However, Deuce was set on getting the stone. “The monster must be guarding the mage stones. And we need one or we'll get expelled! I'm going in!”

“Wait! You can’t go at it alone! We need a plan or something.” Ortho held Deuce back by his arm. 

Ace looked at them like they were some lunatics. “No way we can beat that thing! Let’s turn back! This isn’t worth risking our lives.”

Deuce snapped at the redhead. “Oh YEAH?! Fine, go back to your coop, you big chicken!” He then pulled his arm from Ortho’s grip and ran to the monster.

“Hey monster! Let’s fight 1 on 1! If I win, I’m taking the magestones.”

Deuce!!! What the heck are you doing? This isn’t ‘Street Fighter’. The phantom can’t comprehend what you’re saying. Ortho paled when the phantom noticed Deuce.

The blue-haired student jumped out of the way to avoid an attack. He must have noticed one of the weaknesses of phantoms, they were big, and strong but slow and easily a huge target. However, the missed attack hit the wall behind and caused the cave to become unstable. The wooden bars holding the mines up were old and there was a high chance the whole roof would collapse on them.

“Shit! Let’s get out of here!” Ace told the flame-haired boy and started heading out. Ortho bit his bottom lip and decided to do the only right thing.

…

“Deuce!” He bolted to the fight.

“Wha?! Ortho-”

“No way I leave him here!”

Ortho created ice spears to hit the phantom and successfully grabbed its attention off Deuce. The giant changed direction and swung its pick at him. Before he could cast an ice wall, a strong wind blasted the monster back. Ortho blinked and saw Ace running toward him.

“Aw, crap! I barely make it! Not on my watch! Heeyah!”

“Rrroooarrrgh!” The monster shouted. Deuce managed to regroup with them when a sparkle from deep in the cave lit up.

“Did something sparkle behind the monster?” Ortho spoke up.

Deuce also noticed it, “Could that have been a magestone?!”

“GWAAAAAAAH! Nooo giiive yooouuu stooooooone!” The phantom continued swinging at them and the cave began shaking.

“We need to retreat! like NOW!” Ortho yelled. They turned around and ran straight to the exit. During the run, a rock was about to fall on Ortho. However, no one could have guessed that a fireball would blast it away. Feeling dust fell on him, Ortho was shocked. He didn’t think he would meet the cat beast again. Running along them in four legs was Grim, who was clearly terrified at the giant monster, but for some reason still showed up and defended them.

“I-I’m not a scaredy cat! The Great Grim just saved you! You have to admit my potential to become a mage.”

“Less talking, more running!” Ace shouted.

“GRRRAAAWRRR!”

“Did we lose it?” Ortho decided he had enough exercise for a whole month. No wonder nii-chan hated P.E so much.

“I think so?” Deuce breathed heavily.

They were outside of the mines and at the start of the woods. The phantom didn’t chase after them so four of them stopped and had a break.

Now an important question is …

“So Grim… Why did you follow us?” Ortho asked the cat. He thought he had offended him and had been really surprised when Grim had shown up.

“Huh?! Don’t you suppose to thank me and tell me how amazing I am?” The cat folded his arms and made a grumpy face at him.

Ortho just rolled his eyes, and continued to question him. “Yeah, thanks. So what do you want?”

Grim was silent for a bit before speaking up. “...I thought about what you said. If I don’t run away anymore. Do you think I could become a mage?”

So he wanted to prove himself, Ortho felt a bit guilty about his early conversation with the cat. 

“Why does it matter what I think? You can think for yourself.” That was what he answered.

“Well, then I wanted to bring a magestone back and prove my potential.” Grim puffed his chest and proudly spoke up about his solution.

All three students looked at the cat and then at each other. Unsure what was the right thing to say.

“... Moving on. What was that thing? The headmage didn’t say there'd be anything like that!” Ace changed the conversation back to the main problem. Crowley had forgotten to tell Aster and Ortho about the haunted dorm so he wouldn’t be surprised if the bird-man also forgot about this.

“That was reckless Deuce. We need a proper plan if we want to take down the phantom.”

Ace looked at the flame-haired boy and gasped. “Do you know what that big monster is? And more important are you fucking lost your marbles?!” 

“But the magestone is right there?! Of course, we have to go back.” Deuce said as if it was an obvious thing to do.

Ortho signed, “Ace, if you don’t want to do this I won’t force you. I know it’ll be dangerous but…” He looked at Grim and made up his mind. “I also have something to prove myself and I need to stay at NRC.” He will show Aster he can handle himself and help with the research.

Deuce nodded at him, “So do I! I'd rather die than get expelled from Night Raven!”

“...Ugh… Well, it probably wouldn’t come to that.” Ortho sweatdropped.

“... Have fun dying then. I’m out.”

“Yeah~ You should. I mean you have suitcases to pack, right?” Ortho said to the redhead. Immediately, Ace stopped his step.  

Grim smirked and poured more oil into the fire. “Getting expelled on your first day of school is so lame~.”

That seemed to hit him hard, Ace ground his teeth and yelled back. “UGH! Fine! Let's just get this over with, then. All right, campfire. What's the plan?”

Ortho smiled at the group, showing his sharp teeth. “I have an idea.”

Chapter Text

The loud rumbling noise echoed through the mines. A giant creature roared while chasing after two people.

“H-hey, monster! I'm uh... I-I'm over here!” Grim yelled back at the phantom.

“Grrraaawrrr! BEGOOOOONE!” It swung the pick but missed the cat.

“Hey! Ugly! Come at me!” Running next to the gray cat was Ace. He was casting wind spells and made sure the monster kept its distance. There wasn’t enough force in the spell but it sure kept the phantom following them.

“He's coming!'” Grim threw a fireball.

“Grrurgh? Thieeef thiiis waaay tooooo... Neeevvva giiive stooones! Neeevvvaaa!”

“We are almost there! Let's lure him as far from the cave as we can.” Ace yelled and another blast of wind hit the giant monster.

Behind a tree, Ortho held the magic pen to his chest. Good! Ace and Grim have successfully lured the phantom out of the cave and to the ambush spot. I can’t mess this up. Took a deep breath, he jumped out from his hiding spot, and cast an ice spell. The spell hit the legs of the phantom and trapped it to the ground.

“Now! Deuce!” He shouted.

“Just stay calm, aim carefully... and pull out the biggest, heaviest thing I can think of… Get 'em, cauldron!” Falling from the sky were a dozen cauldrons of different sizes. Those made direct contact with the glass head of the phantom. A crack appeared and black blot leaked out from it.

“Quick! Hit it with all you got!” Ortho told the group.

“I got this! One extra-large gust of wind, comin' up!” Ace and Grim combined their wind and fire magic to create a storm of fire that covered the phantom completely. Deuce continued to throw giant cauldrons at the monsters. And Ortho used pure void magic blasts to hit the crack on its head.

It took them a lot of effort but eventually, the glass bottle broke and the phantom came crashing down. Ortho held his breath and carefully moved closer to check the giant monster. It lay on the ground, black ink spread everywhere but it looked dead enough for him.

“Is it... over?” Ace asked him.

Ortho nodded, “There is no way it could come back from this.”

“... We won? We did it!” Grim cheered.

They were soon to join the cat and started cheering too. Ortho gave Grim a high-five and received a pat on the back from Deuce.

“Nothing brings people together like shared adversity, right?” He said.

Deuce gave him a look, “Uh... I don't think that had anything to do with it.”

Meanwhile Ace laughed at his words, “Yeah! Spare us the clichés, Ortho!”

Grim pointed at himself. “There's no "together" here! We won 'cause of me! This is all from me bein' a magical genius!”

Rolling his eyes, Ortho humored the cat. “Sure you are~ Definitely not because I managed to make a group of high egos work together.”

“Yeah, yeah, lessons were learned, et cetera. Can we just go home already? I'm wiped.” Ace complained.

Raising his eyebrow at the redhead, Ortho asked him. “Don’t you forget something?”

Going down from the adrenaline rush, Deuce was the one who remembered their main goal, “The magestone! We need to get it to the headmage! Let’s go back to the cave!” He started to lead them back to the mines.

Ortho was following him when he noticed Grim’s strange action. The cat was sniffing around looking for something.

“Grim? What’re you doing?” He asked.

*Sniff* *Sniff* “I smell something delicious!” The cat held a shiny rock. “What IS this? It smells amazing!”

Ortho seriously questioned the cat’s taste but then again Grim wasn’t a human. “Isn’t that just falling out from the phantom? I don’t think you should touch it.”

Ace chipped in, “Listen to Ortho. Leave it!”

Grim ignored them and continued to sniff the rock like it was freshly baked. “Must be some kinda fancy monster candy that it was hidin' from us! If this tastes half as good as it smells…” *Chomp* He swallowed it whole.

Ortho yelled at Grim, “Oh Hades! Bad cat!! Spit it out!”

“MYAAAH!”

“Are you okay?!” Deuce asked the cat.

“That's what you get for eating trash!” Ace shared no concern.

“Oooooogh... Urrrgggh... That... was AMAZING!” Grim shouted.

“What?!” The students were surprised.

“Rich in flavor and full-bodied... Like sweet, fragrant flowers burstin' into bloom on my tongue. A whole field of 'em! Right in my mouth!” Grim praised the rock that he had picked from the ground as he had just eaten a meal at a 5-stars restaurant.

“Ew! That was disgusting!” Ortho made a face at the cat’s action.

After making a fuss about Grim’s monstrous taste, they went back on track. The mines were a mess with falling rock and bars, but fortunately, they were able to find the way to the magestone.

The magestone was glowing with multiple colors and it was as big as an ostrich egg. There were some smaller ones surrounding it and Ortho immediately thought about the magestone core of the enhanced device.

I can use this to replace the broken core.

The rest of the group didn’t really pay attention to the smaller gems so Ortho silently put those magestones into his jacket. He felt a bit bad but he needed these more than them.

Four of them were walking to the headmage's office when they heard some argument coming from it.

“I can’t —- You did what?!”

“Eldershine calm down! I have - Oh! There they are!”

In the office, Aster slammed both his hands on the main desk and looked furiously. The headmage was happy to see them so their arrival must have stopped him getting yelled at. Shame. Should have waited outside.

“You’re back. Where have you been?” Crowley asked as if he wasn’t the one who had sent them on a life-threatening quest.

“... We went to get the magestone?” Deuce held out the huge gem.

“Pardon?! You're telling me you actually went to the Dwarfs' Mine in search of a magestone?” Why do you act surprised? You literally told us to!

“I didn't expect that you'd seriously do it. And never in my wildest imaginings did I think you would actually return with a magestone! And here I spent all evening preparing your expulsion documents.”

Unbelievable, Ortho felt his eye twitching with this man's thinking process. Who even guided them on how to go to the Dwarfs' Mine if he didn’t expect them to do so.

Noticing the smallest member in the room, Crowley tilted his head at Grim. “And why is the beast still here?”

Grim then proudly told his achievement to the bird-man. “I was there the whole time. The only reason they could defeat the scary monster and retreat the stone was because of me!”

Aster was startled at this new information and fussed over Ortho. “A monster?! What happened? Did you kids get hurt?”

Crowley, on the other hand, was curious about this. “Huh?... ‘Monster’ you said? Would you kindly relate this story in full?”

They then proceed to tell the two adults about their little adventure to find the magestone and defeat a phantom. At the end of the story, Aster had his hand on his tempers and looked defeated.

“Ortho… You should have waited for me to come with you. That was dangerous.”

Ortho avoided making eye contact with the fae, “... Yeah? But we did it. Didn’t we?” He knew he sounded immature right now but he could handle himself without bothering Aster.

“Oh, gracious... Ohhh... Ohhhhhhhh!” *Sobbing* Gross! Why does the bird-man get all emotional?

“In all the decades I've worked at this school… The day has finally come when the students of Night Raven College have joined hands together to defeat a common foe!”

“You’re crying because… we know teamwork? Isn’t this a school?” Ortho was confused, nii-chan always complained about his team in classes so I thought it’s a common thing.

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one disgusted by the headmage’s action. “Okay, one, can you not use the word ‘joined hands’? And two, exactly HOW old are you, headmage?” Ace was also weirded out by this situation.

“At this moment, I am moved beyond words. This incident has proven my hopes were justified. Ortho, my doubts are allayed! For you... You possess the talents of a beastmaster!”

“...”

“...”

“… What is that exactly?” No one said anything so they probably don’t know what Crowley is yapping about either.

The headmage explained to them. “Night Raven students have all been selected by the Dark Mirror for their exceptional talent and potential. But great talent begets great pride and big egos. Most are so self-reliant and self-centered that they never even consider cooperating with others.”

“I can’t tell if you are praising your students or insulting them.” Aster folded his arms and signed at the headmage.

“But you, Ortho Shroud, you were able to convince them to work together for a common goal. Your talent is necessary for the future of this school. My educator's intuition tells me so.” You have that? “Shroud, Trappola, Spade - I hereby revoke your pending expulsions!”

“As for you, Grim...Your actions today have made it clear that you possess sufficient talent to become a mage. I am granting you the qualifications necessary to attend Night Raven College!”

“What?!” Everyone (except Aster) yelled. This was a surprising turn of events. Don’t get him wrong, Ortho appreciated Grim’s help. But for Grim to be able to attend as a student, Hm… Did Crowley hit his head?

“Of course. This is extraordinarily kind of me. However, there are two conditions. One, there must be no further incidents like the ones that occurred today. And two,” He looked at Ortho.

“As you can plainly see, Grim remains oblivious to the customs of human society. So he will need someone to guide him.” Oh no! “Mr. Shroud, as the head of Ramshackle Dorm. Will you accept Grim as a member of your dorm and teach him?”

“Hah? Wait! You want me to be in charge of him again? After today’s disaster? And what do you mean by the head of Ramshackle Dorm? Aster is right here.”

“Well~ I would say that the events that happened today have proved your leadership. And for the dorm prefect position, Mr. Eldershine isn’t a student so you’re the only choice.” Crowley answered him in a sing-song tone.

Ortho was hesitant and Grim was giving him big teary eyes. He felt a little bad about the things he had said to the cat when he was mad. But he also didn’t think he should have this much responsibility… But Grim has come all the way to prove himself. The least I can do is give him a chance.

Ortho signed and accepted his fate. “Welcome to Ramshackle… I guess?”

“Myah... Myah..., I... I finally… MYAAAAAH! I FINALLY DID IT!” Grim was overwhelming with joy.

Before they were dismissed, Crowley gave Grim the same magestone on students’ pens. Because the cat didn’t have thumbs to hold a pen, he got a cute magestone collar instead.

Ortho was walking alongside Aster, and the new member of his dorm. Grim was skipping and jumping happily, while the others were walking in silence.

“Are you mad at me?” Ortho broke the quiet atmosphere.

Aster snapped his head at him, “No! I’m just worried. Technically, I’m your temporary guardian so it’s my job to make sure you’re safe.”

Ortho bit his lip, “I don’t ask you to. Shouldn't you hate me? I’m the reason we’re here!”

“... Ortho… I would never blame you for that. It was an accident.”

“...”

“In fact, shouldn’t you be the one who blames me since it was my magic?”

“... It’s not the same.”

“Why it’s not?”

“...”

Aster signed, “I’m sorry you feel that way. But trust me on this. Bad things happen and blaming yourself won’t make it better.”

He continued, “I want you to understand that you’re not a burden and you can come to me if you need help. Okay?”

Ortho blinked off a couple of tears. “... Okay.”

“C'mon, Ortho, long ears! Why are you so slow?” Grim shouted back at them.

“Don’t call Aster that! It’s rude!... Why are you running in front of us? You don’t even know where the dorm is.” Ortho ran up to the cat while Aster shook his head and mumbled ‘young people’.

The dorm was less dusty than when Ortho left it this morning so the cleaning tools had done a pretty good job. He pointed at a few colorful paper bags on the coffee table and asked Aster.

“I didn’t see those this morning. Did you get them?”

“I did. That’s the reason I went to the town this afternoon.” The fae walked to the bags and started to sort them out. “Oh! This one is your dinner and tuna cans, I saw you had gotten Grim tuna so I bought some in case you needed to bribe him to do the punishment. Grim! You can have this for dinner.” Grim jumped at Aster and snatched the can. He opened it and ate loudly with little care of surroundings.

“I also got your these.” Aster handed him a blue bag and looked at him expectantly. Ortho blinked slowly and looked inside. There were a few T-shirts, sweatpants, and a new jacket.

“... Thank you… But how do you have money for these?”

Aster avoided his questionable stare but later gave in. “You need to know it was my decision, okay? I sold some of my jewelry. But the ones I had on myself weren’t anything important, so don't worry about it.”

Didn’t know what to say. Ortho observed the fae. The golden earrings had disappeared and he did feel sad about it. However, he knew Aster wouldn’t do something unnecessary, if he thought they needed these more then there wasn’t any point in playing the whole ‘Thanks, but I can’t’.

“I also got something.” Ortho pulled out the magestones. “ I got these from the mines and wondered if we could use them for the energy core?”

Aster received the gems and observed them carefully. “These are amazing quality, Ortho! We could progress faster with these. Thank you!”

Ortho blushed with all the praise and mumbled, “It’s nothing.”

Aster left for his room but Ortho and Grim stayed in the living room and finished their dinners. Before heading to bed, Ortho told Grim.

“Feel free to sleep in any room besides mine and Aster’s. And beware of the ghosts, they like to prank people.” 

“What?! There are ghosts here?”

“Yeah- but you’ll get used to them eventually.”

“N-N-No wait! The great Grim will sleep in your room and protect you from the ghosts.” Who protects who? Grim put on a brave face but he was shaking.

“... Fine, just get in.”

Chapter Text

“BAM! BAM! BAM!...” The loud noises woke him up. The flame-haired rose like a zombie and squeezed his eyes. It was still extremely dark with moonlight shining through his room.  The first thing Ortho did was to check his phone. Staring at the bright 1:14 on the screen, he had the urge to drag somebody to the Underworld for what they had done to his sleep.

“Myaaah… Ma… five more min- Gah! What’s it?!” A fur ball was moving in the corner of his eyes. Grim was also woken up by the loud banging.

Ortho shrugged and answered the cat. “Don’t know. But I swear on Hades if the person wakes us up for some brainless reason, I will hex them.”

“Maybe it’s the ghosts?” Grim asked, covering himself under a blanket. 

Only one way to find out, Ortho annoyingly stepped out of bed and headed to the door. *Yawn* “The quicker we figure it out, the sooner we go back to bed. Come on, Grim.”

Bringing his magic pen to cast a light spell, he tried to listen and search for the noise. It was coming from the front of the house. Someone is knocking on the front door? In the middle of the night?

“Ortho?” He and Grim yelped and jumped up. They quickly turned around but relaxed when they saw a familiar face. It seemed like Aster had awakened as well, and the fae just turned on the light switch in the living room. “Do you know what’s going on?” The older man asked him.

He shook his head, “No idea. But I think we've got a visitor.”

“Hum…” Aster then walked fast to the entry hall and knocked back on the front door. “Hello? Who is it?”

“It's me, Ace! Just let me in, all right?” Aster looked at Ortho, the teen was as confused as him. Ortho shrugged to the fae but still walked up and opened the door anyway. It was in fact, the redhead that he just said goodbye to a couple of hours ago. Ace still wore his uniform but on his neck…

“Ace? It's the middle of the night! B-bwah! That collar!” Grim spoke up. Huh? Grim knows what it is?

“I can't go back to Heartslabyul House. I'm joining your dorm. For good.” … Wait! What? Why? I have so many questions but the most important thing right now is…

“What in the Underworld?! It’s too early for your bullshit, Ace.” He really wanted to go back to bed.

Before they could get into an argument about Ace’s unconsidered action. Aster suggested, “Why don’t we sit down for this? I will make some tea and we can figure things out.”

“Thank you!-”, “He doesn't deserve tea!” Ace and Ortho spoke up at the same time. Despite Ortho’s grumpiness, they still ended up in the lounge with four mugs filled with hot water and cheap tea bags.

Sitting on an armchair, Aster blew his tea before asking the redhead. “Your name is Ace, right? Do you mind telling us about your situation?”

“Yeah! What’s the deal with the collar?” Ortho asked, slipping his tea.

Grim raised his tiny arm, “Oh! It's the same one that psycho stuck on me at orientation! What'd you do to get shackled with that?”

Oh? Really? I kinda remember some students threw Grim out. I didn’t really pay attention because everything was so chaotic in the ceremony. Ortho thought for a moment.

Ace turned serious all suddenly, “... I ate a tart.”

Ortho raised his brow and waited for more details, but that was it. “You... ate a tart?”

So the reason why Ace showed up at their dorm at the unholy hour of the night was that he had a piece of tart - A tart that belonged to his housewarden, who then caught him red-handed, and punished him with his signature spell.

The three listeners had different things to say about Ace’s situation.

“Sounds to me that the two of you need to talk it out first.” The only responsible adult in the room advised Ace.

“So... The point is you're both terrible?” Grim said.

“It’s clearly your fault.” Ortho would hate it if people touched his hidden snacks.

Ace looked at him offendly like he expected Ortho to be on his side. “You don't think that it's insane for my magic to get sealed away for eating ONE slice of tart?! For a mage, that's like having your arms and legs bound and shackled! And there were three whole tarts! THREE! It's not like he could eat 'em all himself! C'mon, you KNOW this is messed up!”

The flame-haired just shrugged, “Maybe?... But it’s not like he can seal it forever. He probably wants to teach you a lesson or something.”

“Why’re you defending him?!! And here I thought we had a connection.” Ace whined at him.

The next person who commented about Ace’s situation was Grim. “I mean, if there were three of 'em, they were probably for a party. Maybe it was someone's birthday or somethin'? Look at that! I'm, like, a master detective too! Pfff~.”

Ace seemed to think about the Grim’s words. “A birthday party, huh...?”

Ortho yawned and checked his phone, “Did you even apologize?”

“Man… Why’re you so cruel? I thought you'd be more sympathetic! I'm a victim of the housewarden's tyranny here!”

“You woke me up and expect me to comfort you? Yeah~ not gonna happen!”

Aster stopped their childish argument, “We can’t do anything right now. Let’s get some sleep. And tomorrow, Ace can go and apologize.”

Ace pouted at the fae, “Can’t you do something about this? You are a teacher, right?” 

“A teaching assistant. And I can’t. According to the rule, the housewarden has the right to punish the students in their dorm.”

“That sucks… Fine. I guess that I should apologize.” Ace then looked at Ortho with pleading eyes, “Anyway, you got a place for me to crash tonight?”

“I think the cleaners have finished with the ground floor? Ortho? Do you mind showing him the way?” Aster asked his student.

Ortho was just happy that he could go back to bed soon, “Follow me.” *Yawn*

Going down the hallway with Grim and Ace in toil, Ortho pointed at a door. “You can use this room. Goodnight.”

“Okay. Thanks.” The redhead opened the door and stopped, “... What’s the heck?”

“What? Is it the ghosts?” Ortho walked to Ace’s side and looked into the room.

“No? Wait?! Ghost?” He ignored Ace and pushed him to the side. Having a full view of the bedroom, he witnessed an uncanny scene. The animated cleaning supplies were standing inside the room, silently and slowly turning to face them, not that they had faces but it felt like it.

“...” I’m too tired for this.

“... Um, we have a guest… May he use this room?” Fortunately for Ortho, no horrific element happened. The cleaning tools simply jumped out the room and moved back to the closet at the end of the hallway.

“What the fuck-”, “Don’t question it. Goodnight!” He cut Ace out. Ortho continued to ignore Ace’s confused face and went back to his room. In less than a minute, his face hit the pillow and he was out.

In the morning, Ortho woke up to his phone’s alarm. After waking the cat, he changed to his uniform. Before putting on the formal jacket, he thought about the jacket that Aster had given him yesterday. He had seen students wearing hoodies and other jackets with their dorm colors, and Aster’s jacket did look more comfortable than the uniform. I just wear the uniform for now, I will check the rules later.

When Ortho and Grim went to the kitchen, at the counter were Ace and surprisingly Deuce. In the kitchen, Aster was making pancakes before greeting them. Ortho nodded at the fae and Grim immediately dashed to a plate of pancake. Ortho took a seat next to the redhead and listened to their conversation.

“I figured you’d bother Ortho,” Deuce told Ace. There were plates of half-eaten pancakes in front of them so they must have been here for a while.

“Ugh. Give me a break.”

“I can’t believe you ate the housewarden's tart. You really are an idiot, Ace.”

“Oh, shut up! Mister. I throw you at the chandelier! Anyway, uh... Is he still mad?”

“Not at all. Maybe a touch irritated if anything. A few of our dormmates overslept this morning… But only three of 'em got your treatment.”

Ortho poured honey on his pancake, and commented on that, “Hades! All that for oversleeping? Your housewarden is on a rampage.”

“I told you so! He’s a tyranny!” Ace yelled at the flaming-haired.

Finally, Aster sat down with a plate of pancakes of his own. The fae told Ace, “So when do you plan to go back to the dorm and apologise to your dorm leader?”

Ace signed, “I will go before the school starts.”

“I will go with him, to make sure he wouldn’t offend the housewarden more than he did.”

“... You have that little faith in me?”

While two of the Heartslabyl students bickering, Grim finished the last bite and licked the plate clean. “I’m full~ Ya know, we still have some time to kill before class starts. And I am kinda curious about the other dorms. Guess I'll go along and scope out the place while you make do with the groveling.”

Deuce thought about it and said, “I guess it’s fine. There isn’t any rule that says we can’t have visitors. What about you, Ortho?”

To be honest, Ortho was also curious about different dorms in general. And he also had to keep an eye on Grim so…

“Sure, why not? I don’t have anything better to do.”

The freshman quickly finished their breakfast and helped clean up the dishes. They then thanked Aster and headed to the Hall of Mirrors.

Chapter Text

Stepping out the mirror, Ortho couldn’t help but be amazed by the beauty of Heartslabyl dorm. Everything screamed fairytale, from the vast red castle, and the rose bushes on the sides of the brick road to the fountain in the middle of the front yard.

“Dang, this place is swank! This is nothing like our dumps of a dorm.” Grim said. And sadly, Ortho had to agree with him because Ramshackle lived up to its name being a strong wind away from collapsing.

“So this is the dorm based on the Queen of Hearts?” Ortho still knew nothing about this lady except for being one of the Great Seven, but he would pretend like he did. Being a clueless dimensional traveler wasn’t something you should be labeled with unless you wanted trouble.

“Who is the Queen of Hearts?” Grim asked.

“You don’t know who she is? Did you live under a rock or something?” Ace mocked the cat. Nope, I did live underwater though, Ortho thought.

The redhead proceeded to tell Grim (and Ortho, who pretended he was interested more in the roses) about the Queen who was (in-)famous for strict rules and beheading people. That was the reason why their dorm also had a long list of rules that its students were expected to abide by.

Walking through the rose maze, they caught a strange sight of a student who was painting the roses red. Ortho asked the duo.

“Why is he coloring the roses? Is this a thing in your dorm or something?”

“I have no idea. Let’s ask him.” Ace said.

They approached the student, he seemed to be older than us. Could he be our senpai? Ortho observed the new redhead.

The new guy noticed them and asked if they needed something. Ace started a conversation with him and soon their group went back and forth with the new guy. The older guy’s name was Cater Diamond, a junior. He had a weird way of talking by adding multiple internet slang in his speech and was pretty obsessed with his phone. An extrovert all the way, aka nii-chan worst nightmare.

Cater recognized them as the people who had broken the chandelier and almost gotten expelled for it.

“And you!” Cater pointed at Ace, “You're the one who ate the housewarden's tart that same night! You guys are THE hot topic around campus! I've gotta get in on this fleeting fame. I'm just gonna grab a selfie real quick… *Snap* It's cool if I post this on Magicam, right? Gimme your names so I can tag you.”

“I'm Deuce Spade.”

“Ace.”

“I’m Grim, and that's my henchman, Ortho.”

“Don’t listen to Grim’s nonsense. I’m Ortho Shroud.” Cater gave him a long look and smiled at him.

“Shroud~ you said? I didn’t know Idia has another relative study here. But he isn’t very talkative. Shame~ He didn't let anyone take his photos. With such a unique visual, he could have so many followers.” Nii-chan posing his face on social media? Yeah right! He wouldn't do that even being held at gunpoint… Wait, IDIA?!!

“Wait! You know my brother?” Ortho hurriedly asked the senior. He couldn’t help but grab at the smallest chance of seeing his family.

“Yes?... He’s also a junior here. Shouldn’t you know that if you’re his brother?” Cater raised his brow at him but quickly turned back to his phone.

Yes, his nii-chan is a junior,... but not in NRC, he is back in Auradon Prep and probably is freaking out about his missing younger brother.

… So that means he talked about this world ‘Idia’.

Disappointed with his realization, he just said, “It’s… complicated.”

Cater didn’t comment on his weird reaction, “Hum~ And uploaded! Sweet… Wait! Gah, what am I doing? I don't have time to chat! The party's tomorrow. If we're not ready, it's "off with my head"! Hey, you kids wanna help me paint some roses?”

“Yeah, uh... Why are you doing that exactly?” Ace repeated his question.

Apparently, Cater was painting the roses to prepare for something called an Unbirthday party. For unknown reasons, Heartslabyl had rules about painting roses and … flamingos? for this traditional event.

“That sounds ridiculous.” Ortho committed because of what else he could say about the totally unnecessary duties.

“Have I heard that before?~ So are you gonna help out with magic or what? I need these roses to be red. Like, yesterday. Oh, but Ace is on magical house arrest, so you better stick to paint.”

“Recolor the roses with magic…” Deuce considered helping the senior

“Can't say I've ever done this before,” Grim admitted.

Ortho pulled out his phone and checked the time, “I can help but we need to leave at 10’ before the first period’.” It’s not a big deal and… maybe I can ask Cater about ‘Idia’ later.

“Nice! And just relax. You got this! But maybe do it before I lose my head? K-thanx!” Cater said to the group of freshmen.

Ace grabbed a red paint bucket while the rest of them split out and went to different unpainted bushes. 

Changing the color of things is simple if you understand the science behind it. Like any kind of magic, the mages were required to visualize a spell clearly to successfully cast it. The more complex and extensive magic, the more practice and understanding needed to perform it. Sometimes, emotions and instincts can also affect the spells. Take Ortho’s fire magic for example, he understood how fire works and how it is made but to him, the fire wasn’t a destructive force nor a tool. Fire reminded him of when he hugged nii-chan from the back or when his parents patted his head. Fire reminded him of warmth and due to his family's unique feature, he always felt like he could touch fire without burning himself. Therefore, his fire spell was weak, because he didn’t imagine enough about how hot and powerful the flame needed to be.

Going back to changing colors, the reason why the human brain sees the colors is because the color light we see is reflected back to our eyes, and the objects absorb the other lights. So theoretically, Ortho had to change the reflected color light of the roses. And that was what he did, he visualized the red shade and cast a spell on the roses. Like watercolor on blank paper, the red slowly spread through the rose. He smiled at the result.

“Red... Red... BAM! Wh-whoa! It turned blue?!”

“Change, o foul color! Change! AHA! BWAH! The rose caught on fire!”

Taking his eyes off his rose bush, Ortho turned his head over his friends. The blue-haired was having trouble changing the roses into the right color, while Grim nearly destroyed a bush if not for Cater stopping him.

“Wow. You're even less competent than I thought.” The upperclassman grimaced at them, before turning to Ortho. “But that looks great, Ortho! Keep going!”

Ace boringly finished painting another rose, “Yo, maybe you should just leave the roses white! They look perfectly pretty 'n stuff to me.”

“It's a matter of tradition. You can't have an unbirthday party without the roses being red. And you can't play croquet without seven-colored flamingos as mallets and a hedgehog for a ball. Oh, but of course, the roses need to be white when the garden flowers put on their spring concert. That's absolutely crucial.” Cater said.

“Not even one of the rules makes sense.” Ortho couldn’t help but comment.

Grim also agreed with him, “Yeah! Your rules are completely insane!”

Cater shrugged like it was no big deal, “They say the Queen of Hearts made up these rules herself - she was one of the Great Seven, you know. And Riddle is all about tradition. Probably more than previous housewardens, T-B-H. I'll admit that he's, well... a bit extra.”

Ace threw back his brush into the can of red paint. “Yeah, no kidding. I don’t have time for this nonsense. Is Riddle here? I gotta talk to him.”

“Maybe~. Did you bring an apology tart to replace the one you ate?” Cater asked him in a teasing voice.

Ace was surprised, “Uh, no...? I came here first thing in the morning!”

“Ah ah ah… That could be a problem. Have you forgotten rule 53? ‘Stolen items must be replaced.’ If you're not in compliance, I can't let you in.” The junior said. At this point, the other three also stopped painting the roses and watching the two redheads.

Ace started to look annoyed, “Are you serious?!”

Cater's smile didn’t even twitch, “All dorm residents must obey the rules. If I let you slide, it would be off with my head next! I hate to say it, Ace, but I'm gonna need you to leave before Riddle spots you. Thanks for the help though!”

Wait a minute… “Did you just use us to do your chores?” Ortho asked.

“Now now~ Let’s not go around and accuse your senpai, okay? You guys do this voluntarily. Now! Up you go.” Cater pointed his magic pen at them.

“Shit! This guy is for real. You guys, do something!” Ace cried at them.

Deuce gave the redhead a look, “Why should WE do anything?”

“Too late, guys! Watch out!” Ortho yelled at the duo.

Before they could reach an agreement, Cater threw a Void spell at them. Their group, besides Ace, started fighting back with their familiar spells. However, every time they thought they had hit the upperclassman, he quickly bounced back to the fight. None of their spells managed to keep him down for long, so Ortho needed to think a different way before they got their butt kicked.

The flaming-haired’s eyes landed on the rose bushes, a light bulb lit up on his head. “Grim! Fire at that spot!” He pointed at a space near a rose bush.

“Got it! Take that! Myyyaa!”

“Wha?! No! Not the roses!” Cater panicked seeing the fire slowly expand to the newly painted roses, and rushed in to save it.

Nice! He is distracted now, “Let’s get out of here!”

“Wait! But I need to see the housewarden?” Ace asked.

“Later! That won’t hold Cater for long! And more people could be coming.” Following Ortho, their group of four rushed back to the Mirror Hall.

They breathed heavily the moment they stepped out of the mirror.

“I can’t believe that guy!” Ace spoke up about their situation.

“We hit him over and over, but he just kept coming. Maybe he was using some kind of illusion magic?” Deuce looked at Ortho as if he had the answer but the other boy only shook his head.

“Maybe? I don’t know. Things happened too fast.”

Ace continued his complaining, “So lemme get this straight: we walked in there, totally tartless, but this dude still made us do that whole song and dance before throwing us out? He just wanted to make us paint his stupid roses!”

Grim growled, “He played us like a bunch of fools.”

Ortho signed, “At least we knew the way for you to apologize to Riddle.”

Deuce nodded, “I guess we'll just have to get an apology tart and come back. Maybe after class, we can- Oh no!”

Ortho looked at Deuce in confusion before realization hit him, “What?!... Oh no! The first bell!”

“We're gonna be late for class!” Deuce ran to their class direction.

“Myah! I don't wanna get a blemish on the first day of my glorious Night Raven education! Let’s go henchmans!”

“Not your henchman!” Ortho yelled at the cat while hurriedly following Deuce.

Ace shouted at them, “Less talking, more running! Prof. Crewel will skin us if we’re late for Potion!”

Chapter Text

“We haven’t used any magic all day. For a magic academy feels a lot like a lame, ordinary school.” Ace complained to the boy next to him after they just finished twenty laps.

“All we did was listen and read in the previous classes.” Deuce slowed down his speed.

“At least the collar won't be much of a problem after all. Are you with me on that, Ortho? ...Hm?” Ace shook his head around looking for the flame-haired before seeing him at the end of the running group. Ortho was breathing heavily and the sweat on his pale skin made him look sickly.

Coach Vargas was giving a ‘motivating’ speech, “Come on, Shroud! Try harder or you will stay after for special lessons with your brother!”

Ace massaged his legs, “Ortho’s brother? Didn’t Cater also mention him?”

“I think so? From his reaction, it seems like a private matter. Let’s avoid mentioning it to him.” Deuce said.

Grim finished the laps and ran up to them on four legs, “Explain to me the appeal of runnin' around in circles! Do I look like a hamster?”

“At least you did better than Ortho. The guy is literally dying.” The redhead smirked at the last boy who completed the laps.

“Ahhh…! This is pure torture!” The flame-haired boy whined with each heavy breath.

“Oh, my Seven! You’re so bad at this! I’ve never seen anyone need tutoring for P.E. class!” Ace laughed at him.

“Stop it- Pff! It’s not funny to mock your classmate -...He he!” Deuce tried to be a better person but failed and laughed with the redhead.

Ortho’s hair flicked with a bit of pink and red, “S-shut up! No one in my family is good with sports, alright?!”

“Next up! Give me a hundred push-ups!” Coach Vargas yelled at the students, who groaned. Ortho looked done with everything.

“Just finish me now.” Ortho was walking through the cafeteria while feeling every muscle in his body screaming in pain.

Deuce handed him a food tray, “It wasn’t that bad.”

Ortho pouted at him, “Jocks like you won’t understand my suffering!”

“Woo! Hurry up! *drool* They got some good-lookin' grub!” Grim wasted no time rushing to the food sections. “Look how fluffy those omelets are! Ooh, grilled chicken! And a bacon-and-egg tart!”

Ace grabbed the cat before he could throw himself into the tray of bacon, “Shhh! You’re making a scene! Where was this energy in classes today?”

Grim didn’t even pay attention to the redhead, “Ortho! Grab me the grilled chicken! There's only one left! And an omelet too. And that jelly-filled bread. Just fill your whole tray with 'em! Oh, this looks good-! OW!” The cat accidentally bumped into a blonde student.

“Hey! Watch where you're goin'! M-my carbonara! You broke the yolk!” The blonde yelled at them.

A brunette in his group said, “Whoa, that's messed up! Pokin' the egg is the best part! You better make this right, pal!”

The student nodded, “I'm gonna need that grilled chicken of yours as compensation.”

Grim hissed at the student, “Myah?! No way! Hands off the bird, chump! I need my meat because I am HANGRY!”

The brunette friend seemed annoyed by Grim’s attitude, “Hey! That's no way to speak to an upperclassman! Catch me outside and I'll teach you some respect!”

Deuce tried to de-escalate the situation, “Um, excuse me, sir, but it said in the handbook that fighting with magic was prohibited…”

Ortho made a frown. Did they just pick a fight in the middle of the cafeteria? And nobody reacted to it? People treated this like it happens everyday. The freshman observed other students who gave them a glance but shrugged and went back to their meals. Some took out their phones and started recording them.

The fight between their groups ended when a ghost staff came and told them to move out of the way for other students. Before leaving, the other group flipped them off and Ortho had to hold Grim back from throwing a fireball at them.

“Stop causing more trouble! You don’t want things to end up like yesterday.” Ortho warned the cat.

Ace rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Can we just get some lunch already? I’m so starving that I'm about to collapse.”

*Sigh* “I can't believe this. Textbook bullies at an academy that's supposed to be famous for producing exceptional mages…” Deuce expressed his disappointment about the school. 

Ortho didn’t know why he was surprised, “I mean Ace is in this school-” 

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ortho gave the redhead an innocent smile like he hadn’t just called him a jerk, “Nothing! I'm just saying that we all have met Crowley, right? It isn’t that unbelievable that he has no control over the students.”

They settled at a table in the middle left. From their seats, they could see all the cafeteria started filling up with students with different colored vests. Ortho took a bite from his omelet while watching the people around him. A question popped up in his mind.

“Hey! So like we have seen your dorm, but do you guys know about the others? Are they that much different from each other?” The flame-haired asked.

Suddenly a new voice answered from behind him, “I'm sure you're familiar with the statues of the Great Seven? Night Raven College has a dorm themed after each one.” Cater appeared and very naturally took a seat at their table.

Ace yelped, “Bwah! You again!”

“You tricked us into paintin' those dumb roses!” Grim pointed accusingly at the newcomer.

Cater simply smiled and held both his hands up, “Woa, woa! "Tricked" is such an ugly word. Do you think I wanted to spend MY morning painting roses? It's dorm policy! I was just following orders.”

Ortho rolled his eyes, “Oh please. Then you should have kicked us out the moment we stepped into the garden.”

Cater pretended that he was hurt by his words, “Mini Shroud, I only wanted to know more about my beloved underclassmen! Here, I'm just a friendly mentor figure!” The junior winked at him. How dramatic can this guy be? Ortho thought while cutting into his omelet.

“Ah ha ha. That's how Cater shows he cares.” Another guy with green hair and a mark on his left cheek came to their table. Red vest - so another one from Heartslabyul.

“And who are you?” Ace raised his brow at the new guy.

“Ah, I should introduce myself. The name's Trey. Trey Clover. I'm a junior at Heartslabyul, like Cater here.” The green-haired said before making eye contact with Ortho, “And you must be Ortho Shroud, the new prefect from that dump of a- ah, I mean, the "rustic dorm". I heard the whole story from Cater. Thanks for looking out for our boys yesterday.”

Ortho shrugged, not really offended by his words, “It’s called the Ramshackle dorm so that description isn’t far off.”

Ace still gazed at Trey, “I don't recall inviting you to sit with us…”

Cater waved his hand, “Hey now, we're all from the same dorm, right? Let's try to get along. Here, gimme your digits.”

“My what?” Ortho tilted his head.

“Your phone number, silly!”

Ortho took out his phone but soon realized that he didn’t know his number still worked in this world, “Umm… My phone has been acting up recently. I haven’t had time to get it fixed yet.” Ortho avoided eye contact and tried to play out his excuse.

Cater gasped dramatically, “For real? I can’t imagine a day without mine. I know a few places where you can get it fixed for a cheap price. You also can hunt down someone from Ignihyde to help you, but they’re rarely spotted outside of their dorm. Or~ if you’re thinking about an update, How about a phone-shopping date with your beloved Cay-cay?” Ortho had to move his upper body to the left to avoid having Cater’s face right up his nose. Personal spaceman!

Luckily, Trey had some common sense, and called out his friend's tactic, “Cater. You're freaking out the freshmen. Maybe take it down a notch?”

“Ha! Sorry! I can get a little extra sometimes. What were we talking about... The dorms, yeah? Ah, what fun to mentor new students! Go ahead, A-M-A.” Ortho let out a breath with Cater’s face moving away from him.

Ace was still suspicious of the newcomers, “You’re gonna give us free information just like that? And it isn’t a trick?” 

Trey smiled at him, “It’s not as if those are big secrets. You’ll get the hang of how each dorm navigates around NRC after a few weeks.”

On the other hand, Deuce took an interest in this topic. “I would like to hear more about other dorms. However, can you talk more about our dorm first? Especially the whole deal about ‘Queen of Hearts rules’.”

“I'm sure you're familiar with the legendary Queen of Hearts already? She had to rule over a kingdom of weirdos, and did it by emphasizing order and making strict rules.” Trey explained.

“Our dorm, Heartslabyul, is an homage to her. By tradition, we wear armbands with the red and black of the Queen's dress. And we live by the rules she created.” Cater added.

“Even if the rules are ridiculous?” Ortho asked, he thought about roses paintings, flamingos, and something with the hedgehogs. Those rules were so random and plainly useless.

“Yup!” Cater popped the ‘p’ at the end before continuing. "Now, the degree to which we adhere to the rules depends on the sitting housewarden. Past wardens have been much more lax.”

Trey pushed his glasses, “Riddle though? He doesn’t mess around. Basically, you could say that we're honoring that tradition to the utmost extent possible.”

Ace dropped his head on the table, “Bleah. Just my luck…”

Grim seemed bored with all the rules talk, “Enough of your weird dorm! I want to hear about the others!”

The green-haired junior then proceeded to explain about the dorms that were based on each of the Great Seven. Ortho didn’t realize any of the names besides the king of the underworld, so this could be a great chance for him to learn about this world. 

“All those names are way too long! How's anyone supposed to remember 'em?” The cat complained, and Ortho found himself agreeing with Grim. Those names were long and too pretentious for his taste. The Cater just laughed at them, and told them to get used to it.

Ortho then asked the junior, “How exactly does the Mirror pick a dorm for us? I’m sorry but the strictness of the Queen of Hearts or the diligence of the king of the underworld, bla bla… just make no sense to me.”

“A great question! Let’s just say that you’re chosen into a dorm based on the essence of your being. As a result, each dorm ends up with a distinct sort of... flavor.” Trey answered him.

While the freshman thought about what he said, Trey searched around before pointing at a student.

“For example, look at that guy.” The guy that Trey was pointing at, had pointy dog ears, a long fluffy tail, and was built like a fridge.

“That rough-and-tumble vibe he's got has Savanaclaw House written all over it.” Trey explained to them.

“No doubt. That dorm is full of scrappy guys who are into, like, working out and fighting. How should I describe the vibe...? Macho dudes? Gruff big brothers? Something along those lines. The black and gold armband is another giveaway.” After listening to Cater’s further details, Ortho decided to stay away from this dorm as far as possible. It will be troublesome if they cause problems for me,... Definitely not because I don’t think I can win. Nope, not at all, I can defend myself. Ortho took a look at the beastman’s muscle arms, and calculated his chance of winning in a fit fight. It was very low.

They moved onto the next table where a few students with the grey and purple armbands, sitting there. “Here we have Octavinelle. And the student sitting at the table in front of him has a red and gold armband—Scarabia colors.”

“Those dorms are for the smart students. They're always neck-and-neck in the academic rankings. Ah, but the current housewarden of Scarabia doesn't seem to be all that great of a student…” Then how did he get picked? Ortho thought.

“Ha. Cater. Let's get back on topic. You see the flashy one with the purple and red armband? Those are Pomefiore colors.” Ortho turned his head and saw a lavender-haired student reading a book. Immediately, Ortho’s mind jumped back to all the Shoujo mangas, and Otome games that his nii-chan bought for ‘researching’. The student looked exactly like one of the cute main characters who eventually ended up with a harem of insufferable love interests. 

Ortho wasn’t the only one who noticed their appearance. Grim also praised the student’s look, “Whoa! The girl with the potion books, I really like her!”

Deuce scratched his head, “What's she doing in a boys' school?!”

Wait a minute! “... This is a boys’ school?” The word came out of Ortho’s mouth, and he realized he messed up. Auradon Prep was a co-educational school, so he had assumed NRC was also one. And for the reason why he hadn't noticed about the overwhelming number of male students until now. Let’s just say being thrown into a different environment (or in this case, dimension) still made him nervous about looking at strangers.

Ace “You three are such morons. There aren't girls officially enrolled here.” Ignoring Grim and Deuce, the redhead then stared at the flame-haired. “Why are you surprised about that? Shouldn’t you know this before going here?”

Fuck! I need an excuse that won’t make me look like someone who lives under a rock, or worse, like an alien. Ortho had to come up with something, and fast.

“I forgot.” Hades! That’s the dumbest thing I could have said.

“... You forgot?” Ace repeated, and Ortho nodded at him calmly. However, on the inside, the flame-haired wanted to knock himself out to get out of this situation.

Fortunately for him, Ace decided to drop it. “I swear to the Seven that your head is on the cloud most of the time, instead of ya know, on fire.”

Rude! But I got away with it, so I won this round. Ortho bit the straw of his juice box, and turned away from Ace to avoid being asked more questions. While turning his head, Ortho accidentally made eye contact with the lavender-haired student, who noticed all the noises from their table. Feeling embarrassed because they had been rudely discussing others' appearances. Ortho quickly stared back at his food tray, his hair flinched with pink sparks.

Cater saw this and took out his phone. “Mini Shroud! I don’t know that your hair can change color. That’s so fab~. Can I post a picture of you?”

“Um…-“ Before he could politely refuse. Deuce jumped in their conversation. “Excuse me. I don’t think Ortho like that. Can you delete the photo?”

“Yeah! No one wants to be marched around like a parade.” Ace also backed him up.

Ortho blinked at their actions. This is new, he thought.

Before this, his nii-chan was the one who looked out for him, but Idia wasn’t the bravest person. As much as Ortho loved him, he admitted that his older brother had crippling social anxiety, and usually ended up as a puddle mess when talking to strangers. However, there had been times when Idia stood up for him. Last year, Ortho had visited Auradon for their annual festival, and he had accidentally damaged some of his redemption tickets so he couldn’t exchange them for the prize he had wanted. Idia had called out the worker and proceeded to win almost all the prizes in stock. We got scolded for wasting money, but it was so fun… I miss him so much. Ortho pinched himself to wake up from the memory.

“-if she's two-dimensional!” Ace shouted. What are they talking about? She? 2D? Maths?

“Come on, man. Who cares how many dimensions she's got! Anyway, they take vanity pretty seriously at Pomefiore. It's basically a dorm full of models. Their housewarden has 5,000,000 followers on Magicam.” Cater shoved his phone into their face. On the screen was an account of Vil Schoenheit. Ortho gasped at the redhead.

“Is that the famous actor!?”

Trey laughed at his wide-eyed expression, “The same one. But I’m warning you, they're not all just pretty faces. The students at Pomefiore are among the best at potions and casting curses.”

“Heh heh. True dat.” Cater brought back his phone, “Next, we have Ignihyde... Their armbands are blue and black, but I don't see any around here. They tend not to be the most outgoing of students. I don't have a single friend from that dorm. They're kind of the polar opposite of us sunny, fun-loving Heartslabyuls.”

“So they're gloomy and miserable?” Grim asked.

Trey put up his hands, “Hey, no need to put it like that! They just have a reputation for being quiet and serious, is all. That dorm tends to attract magical-energy engineers and students who are good with tech.” The last sentence piqued Ortho’s interest. He looked up and saw Trey smiling at him.

“Maybe Ortho here can tell you more about it? Idia Shroud is the Ignihyde housewarden after all.”

“Really! Why don’t you tell me henchman? We can go and steal- I mean see their stuff.” Grim asked the flame-haired with excitement.

“... Perhaps later.” Ortho couldn’t even imagine how this world Idia wouldl react to him.

Thankfully, Deuce moved their conversation on to the final dorm.

“Diasomnia House is, hm... Ah, look over there.” Cater pointed at the table near the window. “Those guys in the special seating area. You can tell from the neon green and black armbands. They're basically campus celebrities. The vibe they give off makes it real hard for regular schmucks like us to even approach them. And their housewarden is that times a thousand.”

“There's a little kid in that group!” Ace pointed out.

Trey shook his head, “Ah, we do get some child prodigies here. But that guy there is no kid. He's a junior like us. Name's-”

“Lilia. Lilia Vanrouge.” A Diasomnia student appeared behind them suddenly.

Everyone at their table jumped up surprisingly.

“Wha? How? Didn’t you just-” I swear the guy was at least 50 meters away from us.

The newcomer gave them a ‘friendly’ smile, “I understand my apparent age interests you? As this bespectacled fellow accurately noted… Despite my fresh-faced, boyish good looks, it would be inaccurate to call me a ‘child’.” His voice was deep which completely contrasted with the baby face, and short stature.

“You need not gawk at us from afar. You may feel free to speak with us directly. We are schoolmates, are we not? All of us at Diasomnia House welcome you without reservation.” Their group followed Lilia’s direction and met eyes with a mint-haired student. The tall guy had the biggest frown Ortho had ever seen.

“No offense, but those guys over there aren't exactly rolling out the red carpet in terms of approachability…” Deuce said to the newcomer.

The older student chuckled at his comment, “Sebek can be intense around new people.” Ortho turned back to the guy, he was gazing at them as if they owed him money or something.

Lilia then smiled at the flame-haired boy, “Forgive me for appearing above you during your meal. But I do hope the new housewarden can send my welcome to his dorm mate. It was a surprise to see an Eldershine outside of Briar Valley.”

“Huh? You mean Aster?” Lilia nodded at him.

Does Aster come from Briar Valley? He is a fae though. “Sure! I’ll transfer your welcome.” Ortho said politely.

After that, the Diasomnia junior said his goodbye and returned to his table.

The one who spoke up first was his fellow redhead - Ace, “Okay… That was weird!”

Trey assured them that those were just Diasomnia House’s ‘flavor’. Apparently, the students in that house were extremely talented at magic, but they usually had quite unique personalities. The junior also mentioned a powerful mage named Malleus Draconia. One of the five best mages? I don’t remember we have that in my world. How do they even scale that?

That summed up their crash course about the dorms. Ace then compared and complained about his dorm treatment, “Powerful mage or not. At least he isn’t a rule obsessive tyrant! Our housewarden literally collared me for eating one slice of tart! How’s that fair?!”

“... I’m a ‘rule obsessive tyrant’, you’re saying?” Ortho turned his head to the new voice and nearly choked on his lunch. Standing behind them was the Heartslabyul’s housewarden. However, being as idiot as he was, Ace continued his rambling unaware of his surroundings.

“You bet it is. Riddle's just a petty tyrant who leans into the whole "rules" schtick as a pretext to keep everyone under his puny thum- Ouch! What is that for?!” Ace yelped and started rubbing his waist where Ortho hit hard with his elbow.

Deuce whispered yelling at the redhead, “Ace! Shh! Behind you!”

Ace raised his brow, but still turned his back. The guy immediately jumped up from his seat.

“Bwah?! Housewarden!”

Chapter Text

The Heartslabyul housewarden wasn’t impressed with Ace’s plea to remove the collar. In fact, he began to criticize their whole group of freshmen because of the disaster that happened on the first day. Because of Ace’s bad mouth, Riddle kept the collar until the freshman reflected upon his crimes.

Riddle then took out a pocket watch, “Now, if you've finished your meal, you should quit gossiping and prepare for your next class. Rule 271 is quite clear: "One must leave the table within fifteen minutes of completing their lunch." He glared at everyone at their table, “You DO understand what happens to rulebreakers, I trust?”

Ace mumbled, “Ughh… More insane rules…”

Riddle snapped the pocket watch with a loud *CLICK*. “I believe you mean to say, ‘Yes, Housewarden’."

“Yes, Housewarden!” The Heartslabyul’s students unanimously said.

“Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them,” Trey said to Riddle.

Riddle nodded at the junior, “Hmm. As vice housewarden, I trust you'll avoid any further indiscreet conversation. Now, as per rule 339… ‘The post-meal beverage is lemon tea with two sugar cubes.’ Thus, I must go to acquire my sugar cubes. Farewell. Don't even get me started on their violation of running out of sugar cubes...!” They watched as the housewarden headed in the kitchen’s direction.

Ortho spoke up after Riddle was far away from the hearing range, “Your housewarden is… how to put it politely…-”

“Terrifying?” Cater asked.

“Has serious issues?” Grim added.

“Hey, don't disrespect him!” Deuce yelled at them and then whispered, “He’s still here, you know!”

Ortho thought for a moment to find the right word, “… I would say he’s quite a perfectionist.”

Grim tilted his little head, “What is a perfectionist?”

“Someone who wants everything to be perfect, and demands the highest standard for everything,” Ortho answered while finishing his juice box.

Ace dropped his head back on the table, “I don’t care about him being a perfect-something. He can’t expect us to follow those stupid rules to the T.”

The juniors looked at each other, and Trey decided to speak up. “I know he can come off a bit harsh, but he's not a bad guy. Everything he does, he does because he thinks it'll improve the dorm.”

Before Ortho could ask them if they really believed that? A shout from another side of the room grabbed their attention.

“Off With Your Head!” It was Riddle putting a collar on another Heartslabyul student.

“AH! I’m sorry! I don’t mean to break the rule!” The poor guy was about to cry.

“Rule 186, ‘Never eat a hamburger on Tuesday.’ I don’t care if you’re intentional or not. The one who breaks the Queen's rules must be punished. If you don’t want to be beheaded, learn the rules and do better.” The redhead then left the cafeteria with his sugar cubes, leaving the collared student on the ground.

“...”

“... You were saying?” Ortho turned back to the green-haired upperclassman.

Trey pushed up his glasses to avoid their judging eyes, “As long as you are following the rules, Riddle isn't so scary.”

That was easier said than done, these rules were so random, and from what he had heard there were literally hundreds of them. The punishment was also harsh for a mage, being locked away from your magic ability.

“Speaking of which - are you still not gonna let me into the dorm until I buy a tart, Cater?” Ace asked the junior.

“Don't @ me, but... yeah. That's rule 53, so my hands are tied. Also, Riddle always looks forward to having the first slice of a tart. So if you want him to forgive you, you had better bring a whole tart!”

“Seriously? I don’t have enough money for a whole tart!”

At this point, Trey offered the ginger a solution. Ace would have to help gather chestnuts in the garden, in exchange, Trey would give him a chestnut tart.

Ace complained about the offer, “Like that's any less of a hassle. But... fine. How many do you need?” 

“Well, it's for the Unbirthday party, so... Probably two or three hundred?”

“Did you say HUNDRED?!” The freshman yelled.

“And they're all gonna need to be boiled, shelled, and pureed,” Trey added, seemed amusingly.

“Alright, I'm gonna head out.” Grim was the first one to speak up.

“I'm leaving too.” Deuce stood up.

“Have fun~ Ace.” Ortho collected his tray.

“You heartless bastards!” Ace pointed accusingly at them.

However, the juniors managed to convince them to help with the reward of fresh chestnut tarts. Being the gluttonous beast he was, Grim was bribed immediately. Ortho wasn’t that interested but he needed to keep an eye on Grim and it would be nice if he could bring some back for Aster. Finally, Deuce also joined in because he didn’t want to be excused.

They went to the wood behind campus after the last period. Not having many chances to interact with nature, Ortho walked around like an excited child in an amusement park. The weather was transferring to autumn so it was kinda cool and windy but also had enough sunlight to light up the whole forest. 

“Ortho! We’re leaving you if you don’t hurry up!” Ortho snapped his head away from a red mushroom and ran back to the group.

“Oops! Sorry, there wasn’t any forest where I lived. So you know where we are going?”

Ace pointed in a direction, “I asked the gardeners. The chestnuts are somewhere over there.”

Soon, they came to an area that had many spiky balls lying on the ground. Ortho stared at them in confusion, but before he could open his mouth and expose himself as a ‘clueless city boy’. Grim jumped to the spiky balls and got spikes on his paws.

“Whoa! There really are a ton of chestnuts just lying around. I'm gonna be livin' large on chestnut tarts! Mmm! Let's get grabbin'- YOWCH!”

So these are chestnuts? It sure looks different from how I imagined it. There are so many spikes. Where is the brown shell part? Ortho continued to be amazed by nature.

A hand slapped lightly on the flame-haired left cheek. “Stop zoning out! Do you hear what we’re talking about? Let’s get something to pick these up.” Cupping his face, Ortho pouted at Ace.

They headed back to the botanical garden. The place was huge with different areas, from tropical zones, highland simulation, and even greenhouses with special conditions. To speed up the process, their group decided to split up to find a groundskeeper. Following the straight path, Ortho and Grim were wandering through rows of tropical trees when they heard a grump.

“Did you say something?” Ortho asked the cat.

Grim shook his head but a deep voice spoke up, “Hey! You got some nerve steppin' on my tail and just walkin' away!”

Ortho turned his head to the voice and saw a beastman wearing a yellow vest.

“Hey! You got some nerve steppin' on my tail and just walkin' away!” Oh shit! It wasn’t a hose that I stepped on? This is bad! And the color of the vest means that the guy from the house has a violent reputation. Ortho bit his lip, watching the pissed-off beastman walk toward them.

Grim didn’t seem to be aware of their situation,  “Are you the groundskeeper? Not sure you oughta be talkin' to students that way, pal.” 

Ortho wanted to kick the cat like a football, “Shut it Grim!”. He then turned to the beastman, “I’m sorry! It wasn’t our intention. We just want to find a worker to ask for some tools.”

The beastman looked down on him. His gaze was lazily and unimpressed. “Do I look like I care about your reason? You stepped on my tail, woke me up from a good nap, and expected to walk away just like that?”

Ortho mumbled back in a small voice, “Maybe… You shouldn’t sleep here on the path…?”

“What?!” The beastman bared his teeth.

“Uh…” Ortho was ready to grab his stupid cat and run for their lives. However, the next move surprised them, the beastman sniffed Ortho.

“... You even smell like him. However, compared to that wet opossum, you almost take longer to fake your own death.”

“... Thank you? I guess?”

*Tch*, “Don’t think your family would always be here to help you out. Do something like this again and it will cost you a couple of teeth.” Ortho and Grim gulped quickly and nodded their heads.

“Leona! There you are!” The Savanaclaw student gazed at them one last time, before turning to the newcomer.

“Ugh... Stop yelling Ruggie. You’re giving me a headache…”

“Leona! Professor Trein told me you skipped his class. You've already had to repeat one year. If you get held back again, we'll be in the same grade!”

“Oh, put a sock in it already. I'm tired of all yer yappin’.”

“Look, you think I like always being on your case? C'mon, man. You act like it'd be hard for you. You could skate through life if you'd just TRY. Come on! Let's go!” The smaller beastman continued his nagging.

Leaon rolled his eyes and gave the freshmen one last warning. “Stay out of my territory, herbivores! If you know what is good for you.”

The Savanaclaw students then walked out of the garden, leaving the underclassmen speechless.

“Myah! What is up with this nutso?” Grim complained after they got out of the other’s sight.

Ortho was more curious about another thing that he had said. What does he mean about ‘my family’? Does he actually know about the Shroud’s business?

They ended up not finding anything and had to regroup with Ace and Deuce. Luckily, the other two had managed to borrow some baskets and tongs.

Deuce handed them the tools and asked, “What in the world happened to you two?”

“Do you know that cats are territory creatures?” Deuce blinked at Ortho’s question and shook his head. 

“Well, we walked into a very big and angry one,” Ortho said as he received a tong.

“More angry than Grim?” Ace chipped in.

Ortho looked over at the cat creature who started yelling at a chestnut because its spikes pinch him. “... No. But definitely more intimidate.”

It was late into the afternoon when the four of them hauled bags of chestnuts back to the school’s kitchen. Trey was already in the kitchen and was arranging different kitchen tools.

“Welcome back. Looks like you got plenty!” The senior opened a bag to check. “These’re huge too.”

“Alright!” Grim jumped up excitingly, “Now you can hurry up and make us some massive tarts!”

Trey smirked at them, “Then what are you guys waiting for? These aren’t gonna peel themselves.”

A few small knives with a curved metal blade were handed to the freshmen by the green-haired.

“Wait! We have to peel all of these...?” Deuce gestured to huge bags of chestnuts. “Ugh… This just never ends.”

“Yeah, yeah, stop whining. We've come this far. We're not giving up now!” Ace curved up his sleeves.

Ortho gazed at the pointed spikes of the chestnuts, “Senpai, you don’t happen to know any spell for this, do you?”

Trey chuckled and pushed up his glasses. “Nice try, but sometimes in life, we can’t cut corners. Now chop chop.” 

There goes the easy way. The flame-haired signed and took the knife from the senior.

After hours of peeling chestnuts, Ortho rubbed his soared wrists while the rest of the freshmen whined about the amount of work.

Trey congratulated them. “Nice work, guys. For the final step, I just need to add butter and sugar to the chestnut paste, and my secret ingredient - a sensible splash of oyster sauce!” 

“Oyster sauce?!” Deuce and Ace shouted.

“What’s Oyster sauce?” Ortho tilted his head.

“You don’t know?” Deuce asked him.

Ace grabbed Ortho’s shoulder and said in a mocking tone. “Oh Sevens, why are you so clueless about these normal things? I bet you probably never stepped foot in a kitchen, ain’t cha?” 

Ortho pushed Ace away, “O-of course I did.” The flame-haired, in fact, had never stepped into a kitchen until he got into NRC.

Trey saw his defending state and joined in bullying him, “Then Ortho, what do you think about Oyster sauce in tart? Personally, I love how the umami of the oysters gives the cream a deep, savory flavor.”

Ortho who didn’t even know what Oyster sauce or chestnut tart was supposed to taste like. “Well- um… It’s… enhanced the flavor?” He gritted out the words.

“Is that a question?” Trey smiled teasingly at him.

Seeing his underclassman struggling to answer, Trey couldn’t stop his laugh. “Pfft... Ah ha ha ha! I'm totally lying! No one in their right mind would put oyster sauce into a pastry.”

“What!?” The freshmen screamed together.

“Why yo- I mean I totally saw through it.” Ace said while trying to pretend he didn’t get fooled.

“Really? I was so convinced.” Deuce said.

“Hum…” Ortho covered his face with both hands. His hair sparked a little pink due to the embarrassment.

“Let that be a lesson to you. Don't believe everything you hear. Remember to your brain next time.” Trey moved on to put the chestnut into a bowl. “Next, I'll put in the cream… Oh!”

“What's wrong?” Ace asked.

“You guys gathered so many chestnuts that we may have overdone it with the chestnut paste. I don't think we have enough cream to mix in.” Trey said. “Someone needs to go to the store to grab more.”

“I'll go. Do they sell it at the school store?” Deuce volunteered.

“You’d be surprised. They sell pretty much everything, so... probably. Can I have you pick me up a few other things? Nothing much… I just need two cartons of milk, two packs of eggs, some muffin cups, five cans of fruit…” Trey listed out a long list of ingredients.

“Woa woa- Hold on! I don't think I'll be able to carry all that back. Can anyone come with me?” Deuce struggled to write down the list.

Come to think about it, I’ve never been there. Ortho raised his hand, “I’ll go with you… And Grim, too.”

The flame-haired grabbed the cat’s nap to stop him from diving into the chestnut bowl.

“Ack! Let me go! My nuts!”

The store was on the other side of the main campus. Ortho didn’t expect to see a cottage with red brick walls and a sign spelled ‘Mister S's Mystery Shop’. He thought it would be something like those huge supermarkets that he had seen in films.

Despite the unimpressive outside, the store inside was filled with so many colorful and interesting things.

“Hello, can I get some he- Whoa. This shop is wild. They have crystal skulls, grimoires, taxidermied... Uh, I don't even know what animal that is!” Deuce soon became sidetracked from their mission.

Ortho was in no better position to judge him, “Charmed amulets, Diamond coral, and a limited edition Ultimate Prime figure from the collection 20XX! What’s this place?!” The flame-haired was in awe walking around the aisles with excitement.

*THUMP* A noise caught his attention from another side of the room. Ortho only managed to see a flash of a tall figure jumping behind the counter.

Before he could investigate, someone blocked his way.

“Myah!” Grim startled and climbed up to hide behind Ortho.

A man appeared out of nowhere and took off his hat to greet them. “Greetings, my stray imps, How are you today? Welcome to Mr. Sam's Mystery Shop. What among my humble selection interests you?” 

The man, who probably was Mr. Sam, pulled out random items and started pitching them. “A charm from a secluded land? The mummified remains of an ancient king? A cursed tarot card?”

“Oh no, thanks. I think I just saw something behind-” Ortho’s sentence got cut out.

“Little imp, I assure you that there’s nothing behind the counter.”

“... Right.” But I didn’t even mention the counter and I definitely saw someone jump behind it. Ortho thought.

“Um, hi, we wanted to buy all the items on this list.” Deuce came to them, waving a piece of paper.

“Ring up two cans of tuna while you're at it!” Grim added.

“No, Grim. We're not here for tuna.” Ortho said.

Deuce whispered to them, “Do you think he even stocks normal groceries?” Ortho shrugged. His eyes lingered on the space behind the counter but made no move to check it.

This weird shop indeed had the things they needed which was a surprise. Sam tried to sell them discounts on flying saucers to carry the bag but they declined.

After they departed, the shop owner turned around and said out loud to the back of the shop.

“As much as I appreciate you as my regular customer. I would like to suggest that you don’t use my place to escape your problems.” Sam said to the person hiding behind the counter.

“Instead, I would suggest this type of invisible potion. Only 40000 Thaumark for one bottle, if you buy ten, it’s 39999. What a steal, am I right?”

Standing up from the counter was an older student. His long hair flicked up with bright blue flame and his pale face showed many complex emotions. Idia tried to control his anxiety and tuned out Sam’s usual sale-pitching.

“... No, thanks. I should go…” The third-yearer pulled up his hood to hide his face.

“What about your new manga and snacks?” Sam called out to the student but he only received a *Slam* sound from the door.

Ortho left out heavy breaths as he carried multiple bags.

“Whoa, you’re so weak, henchman,” Grim said.

“Shut up! You are only carrying a carton of cream.” Ortho pointed out, but Grim was the size of a small dog so there wasn’t much he could work on.

“Hmph. Ortho, looks like you got the bag with all the cans. That must be heavy. Let me take that one. I've got a little trick for carrying heavy bags.” Deuce offered his help and Ortho happily let him take over.

“Thanks. You’re quite good at this.” Ortho told Deuce when he saw the guy carrying the heavy bags with no issue.

“Yeah. My mom always used to stock up at sales, and the bags would get ridiculously heavy. I was the only man in the house, so I got to do all the heavy lifting, and- Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to monopolize the conversation.”

“It’s fine. It's nice of you to help out around the household.” Ortho commented.

“... It wasn't like that. The truth is, I- Owww!” Deuce yelped because someone bumped into him. Ortho tried to reach out to steady him but that couldn’t stop the egg bag from being dropped.

“Myah! The eggs!” Grim yelled at the group of students who bumped into them. 

One of those guys screamed back, “Why don't you watch where you're- Hey! You're the jerks who broke the egg yolk on my carbonara!” Turned out they were the guys that had tried to pick a fight with them at lunch and they seemed to have full intention to try again.

A guy swung his fist but was blocked by Deuce. Ortho looked over and saw the plumbing veins on his friend’s forehead.

Deuce’s face made an angry fowl and was ready to jump to those guys like a wild animal. “You're the ones who darted out at us from around a corner! And you picked a fight with us at lunch over an egg that you were still totally able to eat! And moreover. You. Destroyed. Six. Of. OUR. Eggs.”

“Yeah! You tell him Deuce!” Grim shouted.

Grim! Stop encouraging him! Should I de-escalate the situation?... Ortho thought before glancing at the blue-haired man and saw his hands curled into fists. So I have to stop Deuce who roars like a dog or attacks a group of upperclassmen… 

Ortho dropped the bags carefully and pulled out his magic pen. Violent it is.

A fight blew up and they quickly overwhelmed the other group with Ortho’s ice magic and Grim’s fire. In Deuce’s case, the guy decided to take them with bare hands, and for some reason, it actually worked.

A guy received a full-blown fist on his face, decided it wasn’t worth it, and ran off with his group. Deuce angrily screamed at their curling tails.

“Next time you eat an egg, you better apologize a hundred times, you buncha chumps!”

“... Yeesh! Relax, dude.” Ortho raised his brow at the sudden change in Deuce’s personality. “What’s with the delinquent act?”

*Pant* *Pant* Deuce breathed heavily. The blue-haired then sharply turned at him, Ortho flinched at his reaction. 

“URK! I did it again, didn't I...? ARGH! I was dead-set on becoming an honor student this time, too!” Deuce put both hands on his head and rubbed it with frustration.

“Huh?” Ortho and Grim spoke up at the same time.

Deuce told them about his time in middle school. How he had been into fights, cutting classes, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and being a total disappointment to his mother.

“I’ve promised to myself that this time, I'd become an honor student - someone she could be proud of. And I already messed it all up!” Deuce groaned.

Ortho and Grim looked at each other. The flame-haired walked up to put a hand on Deuce’s shoulder.

“Come on, those guys started it. Besides, it was kinda cool of you to stand up to those jerks.” Ortho told blue-haired.

“Yeah! Ain’t putting up with jerks is what honor students do?” Grim said.

“You guys… think so?” Deuce started tearing up.

“You’re like one of those bad boys that sheltered puppies when it’s raining. It’s a cliche trope but personally, I enjoy it.” Ortho told him.

“I don’t really get what you’re saying, but I did give an umbrella for a kitten once.” Deuce whipped his red nose with his sleeves. “Well… At least now I just hope those chicks can rest in peace.” The blue-haired pointed at the broken eggs.

“... Deuce, those eggs are unfertilized. They never gonna hatch in the first place.” Ortho then saw his friend’s eyes pop open.

“Wha- WHAAAAAT?! Are you kidding me?!”