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"This is the second test you have failed, Kingscholar. One more failing grade and you will be forced to repeat your third year!"
As the headmage rambled on, Leona's headache only grew. It was just 2 weeks prior when he had to save the world from that radish sprout, isn't there some type of mandatory break?
"Alas, as I am as benevolent as they come, I have conquered a foolproof and reliable plan for you, Kingscholar!" Crowley's booming voice snapped Leona out of his thoughts, his eyebrow raised at this 'reliable' plan.
Leona scoffed and leaned his hair against the back of the chair he was on, signaling Crowley to continue. "I've decided, the only way to turn your grades around is to get you a few tutors, and luckily I've found just the pack!"
Okay, not as demanding as he thought it would be, he could easily skip most of these lessons or pay the suckers willing to teach him a thaumark or two to skip his lessons.
—
Which wasn't the case, unfortunately. Leona was sure the three bunch in front of him could hear how loud his headache pounded against his head.
Leona was face-to-face with possibly the worst people he would have chosen to tutor him: Malleus Draconia (aka, the lizard), Lilia Vanrouge (who Leona will never forgive for ragebaiting him) and Vil Schoenheit, the prissy princess that walked around with his head held so high he might've looked like he was praying to the sevens.
Leona wasn't sure what that damned crow was on about, but he remembers the gist of it. Lilia would be tutoring him in history, Malleus would be keeping his flight scores top notch, and Vil would revise Potions with him.
Monday (history)
Today, it was History with Lilia.
Leona had to give Lilia credit, as, somehow, Lilia has managed to make the most boring subject of all sound even more boring.
"Now, I must tell you about this, the textbook is all wrong here! The war happened on the east side of Briar Valley, not the west! Although,
my compass wasn't working right that day..maybe it was the west.."
That caught Leona's attention. "Hah! care to repeat that?" Lilia's eyes widened a bit before he wore the most shit-eating grin of all time
"Oh well, never you mind, Kingscholar!"
"Lilia."
That only fueled Lilia's teasing.
"The hell you mean you were there?"
"Oh, look at the time, now! I must get going!"
Leona's glare burned holes into Lilia's eyes.
"But...I may as well spare you a few minutes to talk about my oh-so, interesting past!"
Leona had always thought that bat talks too much like Kifaji, whether on purpose or not.
"So, what, you're like secretly way older than the rest of us, huh? But you still look 17, ya oughta give Vil your skincare routine, ya know." That last part had a chuckle escape Lilia's grinning face
"How old do you think I am, Kingscholar?" Lilia eagerly asked, resting his elbows on the desk and his face is in his hands, the history textbook long forgotten.
"Somethin' like a hundred? A hundred n' fifty?" Leona's flattering guesses humored Lilia.
"700 actually, but pretty close!"
The library shook as Leona's cackles bellowed through, turning the heads of many Octavinelle and Scarabia students, even two ever-so familiar Heartslabyuul first years huddled together hunched over a textbook.
Once Leona has gathered himself though, he couldn't stop his mind from comparing Vil's withering form after saving their fellow housewarden, Idia shroud, to the local Diasomnia bat over 700 years old who didn't look a day over 18.
"So what, is that what all fae look like around the 700-year mark?" Leona teased to the old fae.
-
It was only when Ruggie stopped by to give Leona his lunch when Leona remembered his spelldrive practice later on in the day. Tutoring with Lilia has gone surprisingly well, the bat may have forgotten some of his experiences, but their textbook had turned out to include all kinds of 'historical errors' as Lilia had called it.
If only he didn't have that damn lizard as a tutor.
Wednesday (Potions)
Atleast Leona had some type of background with Vil, they'd grown close around their first year but slowly drifted as they grew focused towards being housewardens for their respected dorms.
It was no suprise, though, when the first thing Vil did when he saw the oversized cat was criticise his carelessness.
"You know, Leona, you really ought to put some work into caring about your uniform, I could spot those wrinkles from a mile away." Vil's nose crinkled as he pressed his mouth into a fine line.
Leona smirked, now he remembers the joy of teasing the Pomefiore housewarden.
"Oh? Am I too untidy for your likeness, my queen?" Leona sneered, though his smile quickly vanished when he spotted a bob swaying behind one of the pillars. He grabbed Vil's wrist and led him to one of the cauldrons, whichever was furthest away from that Pomefiore hunter.
Vil pulled his hand back—despite Leona making sure not to grab on too tight—a slight blush crowding his cheeks, he demanded "Would you care to explain why you just did that?"
"Your retainer was followin' us around." Vil relaxed his eyebrows and let out a small sigh. "Please do ignore Rook, there's a high chance he'll follow us around anyway, best not to make it too much of a problem. Now, how educated are you with Potions?"
—
Vil had never been more stressed out, it was almost as if Leona was deliberately mixing the solution 4 and a quarter times anti-clockwise instead of clockwise! You'd expect a royalty to take things more seriously, but clearly, this overgrown cat found something humourous in the way Vil would try to calm himself before he would accidentally paralyze Leona with his signature spell.
"Honestly, Leona, Have you used a cauldron before? You'd best be aware of the outcomes you'd get if you messed even one little thing up." Scolded Vil as he handed him a Lantern Blossom, supposedly a dangerous but rare type of plant that grew in the botanical gardens.
"Now, when you apply Blossoms, you ought to use this—" Vil handed him what looked like a small butter knife "—to cut each leaf into diagonal squares. 4mm wide and 3mm tall. Give me the excess pieces when you're done, as they are very valuable as potent poisons.
Oh, and, I don't believe i have to tell you, but do be careful, that specific blade can cut through even bone."
Leona scoffed, no way in sevens would he measure each cut of leaf, luckily for him, Vil was distracted looking for some Leaping Macarons, in hopes of increasing Leona's focus or his own, Leona didn't know. But that granted him the opportunity to quickly and carelessly cut the leaves into whatever shape he wanted, and throw them into the cauldron before Vil would notice.
As soon as Vil turned around, and saw that Leona was already mixing the solution in the cauldron, his eyes widened a bit. "You're done, Leona? Well, that was quick. I do hope you followed my instructions thoroughly. Though, I guess we will see after this one last step."
Vil exited the classroom, presumably getting the last ingredient, allowing Leona some time to finally rest—which was quickly taken away when a familiar blonde hunter suddenly whistled from beside him. Leona wondered how he couldn't hear Rook coming in, but was quickly taken out of his thoughts when the creep started spouting out nonsense.
"Oh! What beauté! The Roi du Poison and Roi du Lion conversing with one another so casually! Ah how my heart blooms at the thought!"
Rook had that unnerving smile of his on again, analysing all of what Leona did, whilst Leona tried his hardest to ignore the raging romanticizer near him.
Luckily, Vil soon came back with a vial of purple liquid, seeing Rook parade around Leona prompted a sigh out of Vil, as he whispered something that was inaudible to even Leona, causing Rook to give that creepy smile of his and leave the room (allegedly).
Leona nudged his head at the purple vial in Vil's hand, not bothered enough to verbally ask.
"Oh, this? Well, this is the expected outcome of what we are making today." Vil cleared his throat. "I gave the same assignment to the prefect, Yuu, and they have managed to replicate it perfectly, I brought this vial to compare our results today to Yuu's."
Leona gave a sneer. "So, where's this last ingredient? Thought you were gettin' it." Vil gave him a confused but stern look before replying. "I wouldn't be as reckless enough as to forget an ingredient, Leona."
Vil opened up a different vial, this one a bit clear. "Now, if you had done most of everything correctly, this would turn to a silk smooth and metallic purple."
Vil slowly dumped the entire vial in, quickly, the solution began bubbling, and before anyone could react, an explosion of smoke hit both Vil and Leona, causing them to stumble back and fall, Vil landing on Leona as he coughed.
"Oh!! L-Leona— what?!
What'd you mess up?!"
As Vil got off of Leona and stared him down, it only took a few seconds of them staring at eachother before they both broke into laughter.
"O-Oh, leona ,hihihihi!! you've got the solution all over your face!" Vil managed in between giggles.
Leona cackled looking at Vil's powdery face, now littered with what resembled baking powder.
And as Leona and Vil laughed together, a certain Hunter of Love and Trickster were peeking through the doors, watching the lovebirds.
Friday (flight)
Leona woke up in a sour mood, already calculating the means he would go to to ignore the lizard.
He'd go to all his classes, and won't even skip lunch, sitting at the first year's table as an excuse to stray away from Malleus. This would spark confusion within Jack and Epel, Jack wondering why his housewarden was sitting with them and Epel wondering why Leona decided to wake up early today.
Then, just before lunch ended, he'd ask Epel to meet up after school for extra spelldrive practice, this would take place at 30 minutes before his tutoring with Malleus and 30 minutes after, to assure that Malleus won't wait for him.
It was a seamless plan, or so the lion thought.
Halfway through spelldrive practice with Epel, the sky turned a dark grey color and thunder began to fill the skies. Leona quickly gathered the brooms and Epel under the bleachers, though his mood worsened when he noticed a familiar smell behind him.
"Kingscholar." Bellowed Malleus Draconia from behind Leona, startling Epel in the process. Malleus glared at Leona, and Leona glared back, failing to notice as Epel slowly escaped through the mirror back to Pomefiore, anyone would be able to tell he'd rather deal with Vil than with Malleus.
"Lizard." Hissed Leona from under his breath, sevens how Leona hated Malleus' ability to teleport anywhere.
Malleus suddenly grabbed onto Leona's arm, and before Leona could retaliate, he felt a swoosh of air around him, and—lest his eyes decieve him—he had just teleported! When he looked around again, the sky was clear and they were in the middle of the spelldrive field, both housewardens holding a broom in their hand.
Malleus cleared his throat. "Now.. uh-, let's start. I will go by the presumption that you lack many a skill in Flight lessons, Kingscholar. Now, please, do watch and learn." Malleus soared so high into the sky one could mistake his retreating figure for a bird.
As Malleus slowly lowered his broom, Leona watched with nay interest and the sudden 'unexplainable' urge to punch that damned lizard prince in the face.
"Well? Get on going then, Kingscholar. I am told your lifespan is short of a century's. We must not waste time like this." Teased Malleus with a sly smile on his face shortly before he felt the tap of a broom on his head, and before he could reply, he watched as Leona flew up at sn impressive speed, not reaching as high as Malleus, but enough to get him a passing grade.
"If you have all this skill, I do wonder why you are failing. I saw a passing grade when I watched your performance." Commented Malleus as he watched Leona lower his broom.
"Simple: I don't like effort. Don't overthink it, Lizard." Replied Leona, throwing his broom over to the piles of brooms scattered next to the bleachers and already heading to his room, when Malleus' voice stopped him in his tracks
"Wait. Kingscholar." Leona turned around lazily, signaling Malleus to continue.
"I..I enjoyed your performance, I do not jest when i proclaim that. I hope you can continue to soar high, Kingscholar."
Leona was silent for a moment, before a sly smirk made it's way onto his face and he put his hand on his hip.
"You're not too bad yourself, Lizard, though I'm better anyway ..."
Leona hesitated before continuing.
"And.. goodnight lizard."
That night, Lilia could swear he saw Malleus leaving Savanaclaw with the biggest smile on his face, which stayed that way for the night, whilst Sebek would yell across the Diasomnia lounge, untrustworthy of the human(?) that got to experience his liege's presence.