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It has been a horrible schoolyear in Night Raven College, with the disturbingly high number of overblot incidents of seven. To raise the students’ spirits, the headmaster has tasked the housewardens with organizing a parade on the last day of school. For this purpose, they are having a meeting to come up with a plan for the event.
“So, this is the fabled housewarden meeting. I finally made it to one”, declares Malleus, housewarden of Diasomnia dorm.
“Yeah, the last meeting of many during the last years. You don’t need to be proud of doing too little too late”, comments Leona, housewarden of Savanaclaw dorm.
“Alright, since we’re all here, we can begin with suggestions for the theme of the parade”, says Vil, housewarden of Pomefiore dorm, before Leona and Malleus get into an argument.
Azul, housewarden of Octavinelle dorm raises his hand: “What about a Great Seven theme? Our school heroes are a big reason why students are proud to attend here.”
But a voice disagrees: “I have a bad feeling about that.” – This is Yuu, prefect of Ramshackle dorm. “In my visions, I see a clear connection between the Great Seven and the overblot disasters. They appear like bad omens in my dreams and the overblot monsters always resemble them somewhat, I think… But perhaps that’s silly of me-“
“No, your visions are an important clue, just like all the other parallels between the overblots”, means Idia, housewarden of Ignihyde dorm. “Looking at the history of the Great Seven, they were in similar situations as us, who overblotted, at some point in their lives, but they have always chosen to do the right and good thing, while we gave in to our inner darkness. It happened way too often to be a coincidence. Even if we don’t see yet, how heroic guys, who have been dead for ages, could have a bad magical influence on us now, it is possible that perhaps – that’s just my theory – it was their inner darkness that was sealed away ages ago that resurfaced and merged with ours, with the compatibility making this possible or at least easier.”
“Now that you say that”, says Yuu, “I remember that in my dreams the Great Seven actually also do the wrong thing!”
“Huh!? And you only mention that now? That's another indication!”, exclaims Idia. “That history was altered a long time ago, but now whatever cheat-skill-magic has suppressed the darkness, the blot, is weakened and history tries to correct itself!”
“That is… preposterous. You are saying that the Great Seven were truly not great!”, complains Azul. “It makes way more sense to think that there is someone actively sabotaging us today – a terrorist, who has it out for our school!”
“Suspecting the Great Seven to be involved in the phenomenon is indeed a bold statement”, says Malleus, “but I have faith in those who suggested it, so I would not want to disregard this concern. If we truly want to do everything we could to prevent another overblot, we should heed every warning.”
“I have an idea what we could do as theme of the parade instead”, suggests Kalim, housewarden of Scarabia dorm. “An elephant parade: The most high-ranking person rides on a decorated elephant and everyone else follows.”
“Hell no, the highest-ranking in this school is Crowley and we are not gonna make him the main character in the parade!”, refuses Leona and all the others have to agree with that position.
With how bad the head mage is at his job, he really doesn’t deserve to be in the spotlight like this. Especially not when considering how much the guy enjoys being in the spotlight.
“Perhaps we could do a musical theme”, means Vil. “We could form a marching band of willing students and let them play some easy melodies on easy instruments, like flutes.”
“Oh, that is a good proposal”, agrees Riddle, housewarden of Heartslabyul dorm. “We even have a wind instrument club at school, it is one of our eldest clubs actually, but it currently does not have many members. However, we can still cooperate with them to lead the marching band, organize the music pieces and teach the basics of the flute to those who want to join the band. I assume they would be happy to help and present their club and their music to the whole school.”
“It is indeed a good proposal”, says Malleus and Kalim agrees “Yes, it sounds fun!”, but Azul means: “I don’t know, aren’t just some guys going around with flutes a bit lame? I feel like we could make a stronger theme, perhaps by adding a delicacy for the students to indulge in while they celebrate completing the school year…”
“Tea!” exclaims Riddle. “With an esteemed delicacy like tea the event will not have a mundanity issue! The parade of tea and flutes. It sounds good, right?”
It is not surprising that this suggestion comes from him, with his home country and dorm having a big tea culture.
The adapted proposal is ready for the vote and everyone supports the idea. And so the theme of the parade is decided.
In the following days, the preparations start. The wind instrument club is eager to participate, but with a very stressful school year going into the final testing phase, not many students are willing to learn playing the flute a bit to strengthen their numbers. Some students, including Deuce and Grim, have to prioritize studying for the final exams over learning to play flute for the parade, lacking the ability to manage both at once. To make up for this, Kalim, Riddle, Vil and Malleus decide to join the marching band themselves and peer pressure the other housewardens, Yuu and some more friends to join as well.
Trey volunteers to run a little cake stand at the starting point of the parade, which Azul votes against, because he doesn’t want any competition to his own snack stand, which is also going to be there, but he gets overruled by the others.
Another proposal from him, that gets accepted this time, is when Azul offers to help Riddle with some of his work for the parade. Riddle means that, while he had refuses help from Azul during the organisation of the Voice and Dance Championship earlier this year, they have become friends since then, and so he is ready to work together with him now. Azul cringes at the comment about friendship, but doesn’t protest against it.
The garment design club makes beautiful individual outfits for everyone who participates, as they usually do for school events based on the theme and as usual, they don’t get much recognition for their work, most people just taking the fancy new outfits for granted. In this case, the members of the marching band and the waiters trailing behind them with tablets loaded with tea, serving some to the people on the side-lines have the same mixed theme that combines an almost military marching band uniform concept with the frills, bows and patterns of a more playful old-fashioned tea party concept.
On the day of the parade, it looks spectacular as it moves around the campus. It also sounds lovely, as a simple melody resounds from the flutes. And the tea, offered in various sorts, makes the experience complete with a delicious smell and taste.
The weather is good, the students are enjoying themselves and Crowley is satisfied until the students start to play and sing a song that celebrates the end of school and freedom from studying and teachers, at which he frowns, while the mood in the crowd only improves, and by a lot.
Yuu is feeling a bit down at the beginning of the day, because they can’t return home for summer break, with a way back to their own world still not found. But over the course of the parade, some of the friends they have made over the school year invite them – and Grim, because where Yuu goes, Grim goes as well – to visit them during summer break and so Yuu and Grim can look forward to a summer of traveling to see more of the world and spending time with their friends at the end of the parade.
As the parade continues on its way, a few notes get missed and a bit of tea gets spilt, but these little imperfections are no problem. In a fun event, the pressure to get everything perfect isn’t that high.
The school year ends without any more drama on a high note and with cheering and applause for the marching band. The parade was such a success, that it goes on to become an annual event at Night Raven College.