NOTES:

ANOTHER CONFUSING CHAPTER IM SO SORRY

After a Century, the Housewarden meeting situation is going to fade out for a little bit and afterwards, TART MAKING SHENANIGANS + Deuces Egg related existential crisis

Yay!

Also IK the Ceremony is kinda out of the blue, but realistically, I feel like they would have some sort of inaugural tradition, so thats why I wrote it in, but Its going to happen later on since Heartstabyl has barely started an we're checks my non existent watch 50,000 words in.

The theme of this fic is realism and realisticness in an isekai, so I wanted to portray things I feel like would occur, but go unmentioned or would be logically skipped ingame for screen time / plot/ book time purposes,
hence why Estelle / Ophelia wouldn't know about it before hand

I've added, and deviated from hell of alot of the main things plot, and I write so many words and I've been building up so much, so thank you to everyone who has been patiently waiting for me to actually start getting into the Heartstabyl collective mental breakdown, after th𝒊𝒔, IT BEGINS!

I PROMISE THIS TIME!!!

(Also, I do not speak French, nor do I pretend to, and used a online Translator and dictionary to write for a certain character.
I may or may not have discovered how fun it is to add long french phrases to random sentences
Be prepared.)

———————————-

It was a terrible idea from the start

Now trapped in a cauldron being carried off to her doom with her friends yelling at eachother to move to make room and to be let out, she regretted letting them "help her avoid the inauguration ceremony"

Cue the record scratch, everyone.

———————————————-

"When we were trying to find you, I found this room, maybe you can hide there. I also know of another one too!"

Once again, the quad and cats (plus raccoon) grouping made their way through the catacombs, now being able to see them in some form of light.

Dust drowned the stone tiles, brimstone walls covered in ivy sparing only torches unlit as their shadows passed by. Marks of flame, scratching and stains of...well, they all decided quietly not to think about what it could be as they made their way down flights of stairs, chains rattling from above at their every movement.

Blue and Magenta glows casted them light, Grims ears mixed with the magenta from her charm, and the scene pulled together by Vyrs flashlight.

In short, it looked like something out of a horror movie set.

"Does the room in question happen to open with a pressure plate?"

𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒏𝒐

"Uh, yes and no?"

Peeking up, the hanging cages and rusted chains offered no solace to her fears.

"The pressure plate only opened once, when we were looking for you, but the lever works most of the time!"

"Lever?"

"Yea, its a secret room I used to use.
My dad used to teach here every now and then, thats how I know about the catacombs in the first place. I used to sneak down here sometimes after stealing alchemy equipment to run tests."

Ace swatted at a cobweb from behind them, nearly wacking Deuce in the face with it.

"So you were an Alchemy geek since the dawn of time. How did you even get away with stealing high class materials? Parent being the teacher privileges?"

"Uh, no. My dad used to a knight, so he taught lessons on Self Defense. Since they usually took place after most Alchemy classes, one lockpick and I was in. My dad working here had nothing to do with it. I mean, not working here any more obviously. He's been dealing with some...issues in my village."

....𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒔, 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒊𝒕

"Theres this magic moon and sun thing could help end it , but its locked up by some other ..uh..magical barrier..thing? and the qualifications they made for someone to be given it are near impossible. Actually, thats part of the reason why-"

A loud rumble caught everyone off guard, barely keeping balance as everything seemed to shake from below them.

"MYEH?!!? THE WALLS ARE TRYIN TO KILL US!"

In an effort to stabilize themselves, the seven members of the group, including familar, faecat and direbeast hybrid, all pushed themself against the wall, only for Deuce to seemingly go flying through a door right before the quaking stopped.

"Crap!"

"Deuce! You ok!?!"

"I think I fell into something!"

Grabbing Vyrs flashlight, now slightly cracked, she found an opened wood door, and one Deuce Spade trapped in a cauldron.

"Man, whats with you and the cauldrons?"

"Ace, not the time."

"MYAHAHA, you got yourself trapped in a cauldron!!!"

——

After several failed attempts, it seemed with the way he had fallen, the bluette was completely stuck in there, and now Ace was too, as he had fallen in trying to pull Deuce out, to his dismay, and Grims glee, only to be forced into the cauldron by Ace as revenge for mocking their suffering.

They had discovered the room they were in was a old storage room, with cauldrons, alchemy supplies and machine scraps, likely from Ignihyde  (the last two of which Vyr promptly pocketed into his already overfilled bag with the help of Onyx) aswell as brooms galore. 

The only solution Ophelia and Vyr could come up with was, sadly, to find help from a teacher or upperclassman.

As is always with this damned school, it didn't go anywhere near to plan.

———

"Ok, so...anything you want to talk about?"

"I have a few, okay thats a lie, alot of questions for you. First off , whats your real name?"

Jade eyes widened as she nearly dropped the candle she was holding, its glow barely assisting that of his flashlight

𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻

"How did you know Ophelia wasn't my real name?!"

"Oh, It just seemed kinda obvious."

Biting her lip a bit, she looked to her newly acquired companion skeptically.

𝑶𝒌, 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒕. 

𝑯𝒆'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒕, 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒇𝒇, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑽𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕, 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒔

𝑾𝒉𝒐𝒔 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝑹𝒂𝒑𝒖𝒏𝒛𝒆𝒍, 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏? 

𝑶𝒌, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒚𝒍𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆.

𝑺𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝒊𝒕, 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒎.

"My real name is Estelle, it means Star, I think?"

Something she couldn't pinpoint passed over his eyes, expression unreadable in the dim light.

"Star...?"

The faded silence cut out quickly, the echoing sound of footsteps approaching.

Her charm casted a smile, stripes and two glowing yellow eyes onto the wall.

High- level Danger.

𝑶𝒉 𝑭𝑼𝑪𝑲

"Shit Shit Shit, c'mon!"

"Wait, Hold on! What does the glowing mean?"

"It means we're in high level danger, so move your ass! Knight to C-"

𝑺𝑯𝑰𝑻! 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏?!

Grabbing his gloved wrist in a mad dash, she ran in the direction next to the one they came through , only to hear more footsteps approaching from that direction and a fourth aswell.

"We're surrounded, back to the room!"

"I have the smoke bomb I made in the cafeteria still, we can use that to buy time!"

"If two of the four are who I think they are, that won't do much. Eels eyesight isn't their strongsuit, its their sense of smell!
But throw it anyway, just incase!"

Ducking into the room as Vyr chucked three now erupting smoke bombs into three of the four entrances, she searched for a hiding spot, but could only think of one.

"Get into a cauldron!"

"What?!"

"Just-!"

Opening one at random, Ophelia shoved both her and her fellow brunette into it and slide the cap on, only to hear an "ow" , "MYEH?!" and "what the fuck!"

"Of all like, 40 Cauldrons in this room, you had to pick ours?"

"Why did you move it?! You were closer to the entrance last we checked!"

"The idea was to tip it over so we could squeeze out, but it didn't really work..."

"For the record, it was your idea, not mine—HEY! Watch the collar!"

"Everyone in this cauldron needs to shut up."

"Well we're all shut in to the cauldron now thanks to you, Ms Seer."

"Would you stop calling me that?!"

"Not until you prove me wrong—Thats my thigh, Deuce! Hands off!"

"Sorry, I thought it was your leg and I was trying to move it of MY lap—Hey! Who just kicked my stomach!"

"Watch the bag! I don't want anything to break!"

"I can't see nothin! Henchman, where are ya?"

"Ow! Thats my hand Grim! Shires already on my head, so just sit on my shoulder if you can."

"I can't believe 4 people, 2 cats and a raccoon are stuck in a single cauldron right now. This has to be a record."

"Anyone else feel like their about to pass out or is that just me?"

"If I could knock myself out right now, I would."

"Ophelia, what the hell happened out there?!"

"Oh, you know, a high level danger alert from the charm, and the fact we were surrounded by 4 unknown individuals."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yup, sorry Deuce, its the end of the line for us."

"Dude, you do not need to be so morbid about it"

"Uh..guys, I hate to say this, but if some of the stuff in my bag breaks, we might die in several different ways, ranging from immediate to extremely agonizing."

"Vyr, what on hell do you have in there?!"

"EVERYONE SHUT IT! I think I heard something!"

As the very squished occupants of the pot finally quieted, the sound of the door clicking open followed soon after, along with four sets of footsteps coming in.

"And you're certain she ran in here?"

"Oui, with a Monsieur well versed in the Alchemical arts, the beauté of a bombes fumigènes proves as such."

"Its just a room fulla cauldrons, I don't see nothin or smell nothin but rusty old pots."

"That is likely what they wish for you to perceive it as, not everything is as it seems to someone who's strongest sense is nullified."

𝑺𝑶𝑵 𝑶𝑭 𝑨 𝑩𝑰𝑻𝑪𝑯

𝑶𝒌, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌!!

𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝑳𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒂.

𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒅
𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑱𝒂𝒅𝒆

𝑨𝒏𝒅.. 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒔, 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇, 𝑯𝒆'𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏.

"I suppose we'll just have to check the pots one by one then."

Metal clanks and moving scrapes amped her sound of her drumming heart, tuned together with the cluster of the groups near nauseous looking expressions, eyes widened, each holding hands over their mouths, and Che'nya holding his paws over Grims.

"Come out, Come out, wherever you are, little fishies! I promise I won't squeeze ya too much if we don't find you first!"

A knock came from above, once, twice, then a third time. The top began to move, and a single set of blood red eyes peeked in, met her own, and simply winked as the cover was placed back on.

"Oh my, not in this one either.."

𝑰𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒔??

Trying to listen to where each set of footsteps moved was the best she could keep doing, hoping Lilias lie wouldn't be caught on to as she heard the quad move around the room.

"Hmm, she wasn't in here after all, perhaps we should check another location then?"

"Non, I still sense her presence, she is within these walls. L'un d'entre nous ment, it seems."

"Huh? I don't speak whatever that is. Could ya say it normally, please?"

"One of us is lying, Monsieur Spontané "

𝑶𝑯 𝑭𝑼𝑪𝑲

Curling into a near ball like shape, trying to squish her head behind Aces torso so she couldn't see the top of the cauldron, scratching her neck on his collar as she did her best not to scream in terror right then and there, the echos of footsteps came closer, accompanied by a humming.

𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒐

𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒏 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕? 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑼𝒏𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒈𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆

𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒃𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒔.

𝑰'𝒎 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅, 𝑰𝒎 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅

𝑫𝒂𝒎𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑨𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕.

Squeezing her eyes shut, the sound of the lid moving open made her stomach feel as if she was plummeting down into an abyss. She didn't even have the mental strength to bring herself to look up from her weird spot halfway behind Ace.

"Found you, Mademoiselle."

—————-

Cue the Record Scratch once more, and we are back to the present

She could only imagine them being carried in a fashion similar to the dancing coffin bearers.

Three times had Floyd poked his head in to scare them all, and once had he poked her on the top of the head like a kid to a fish in a glass tank, earning a terrified squeak from her, to his amusement.

However, it came free with a flip off from Ace, a yell to back off from Deuce, confused noises from Vyr, a scratch from Grim, and a loud hissing from Shire (Che'nya), which seemingly soured the eels mood, to their relief this time around.

He had given her the nickname of
"Yadokari-Chan" for whatever reason.
Until she could look it up later, the meaning was unknown to her. He had also called them a "Shoal of fishies" once, Jade also comparing their squished togetherness in their iron cell to barnacles or a can of sardines.

Rook had talked on and on about something with Lilia and Jade none of them could understand, to the point Vyr pulled out a magnet from his never ending bag space to hold the lid of the cauldron shut, just so they could get some quiet to deregulate a bit.

Only a few minutes later, Ace piped up with a drawn out sigh.

"Ok, so we've been basically kidnapped, what do we do now?"

"I say we beat the snot outta these guys!"

"Ok, so no. Anyone that isn't Grim?"

"Maybe we can try to talk to the one that let us go the first time?"

"Thats too risky, we'd be practically snitching on them, Deuce. Vyr?"

"It would take me a minute and a half to make a flash bang, but I might accidentally set us all on fire since the oxygen in here is pretty condensed."

"Hell no on that. Since Ophelias two feet from self destructing, we can't ask little miss psychic for advice. That means all our ideas are shit, thats great to know. "

A sudden movement from above caught her attention as the cauldrons lid moved on its own, anda small gloved hand reached out from above, holding a slip of paper.
As the other 4 seemed preoccupied in either yelling at eachother to move, or getting squished, she prayed it was what she thought it was, and grabbed the small parchment.

Reading it was no easy task, given the lighting and how ancient the handwriting seemed.

The meeting no longer takes place today.

They have come to escort you to Pomfieore for fitting and a trip to purchase your and another students wardrobe, and will be postponed til the weeks end should you not arrive within the hour.

A little bat told me you have already made arrangements for other activities, so if you have the means to free yourselves, I am willing to tell a fib in your favor.

Consider it my thanks for inviting your horned acquaintance to the ceremonial.  He was quite joyous about it, Pity it had to be rescheduled.
Do invite him again if you can.  :)

L.V

𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆....

Shifting away from Aces back, Ophelia did her best to sit upright as she pulled the Fae Charm into her palm.

"I've got an idea, but you guys better keep this a secret. Knight to C7! "

"Wha-"

The charm on her hoodie rapidly glowed to the brightest she'd seen it, the stomach swooping sensation of being teleported came and went, followed by the feeling of falling, to the pain of her body to wood collision, and the sound of the others also becoming good friends with the floor.

Rubbing the back of her neck, slightly sore from the way she landed, she lifted her head only to meet Aces suspicious glare.

"You have so much explaining to do."

"Not right now I don't, we have chestnuts to pick."

———————

Meanwhile
—————————

"Thats the plan, and the backup plan? Isn't that a bit too risky? Besides, even if she's seen this before, however she did, we're still risking lives if this backfires."

"I'm with Trey on this one.
Chenyan, babes, I know your whole brand is doing things odd and cryptically, but this is kinda too much odd and cryptic, like, life risking levels of cryptic and odd,,literally."

Floating barely above the counter, doodling in flour, the Cheshire grinned in return, a sign his companions had long since learned could mean either mischief, confidence, deceit, or something beyond what the eye could see.

"She knows what to do when the time comes.
She tends to be a natural leader of the litter, and purractically his opposite when it comes to rules made from nonsense, so the match might catch too quick, and it's better to be safe the pawrry, as she would say."

"I haven't met her, but I doubt she would add the paw pun in that sentence."

"Maybe, Maybe nya-ot. You never know..."

——————————-

—————————-
NOTES:

Ok, confusing chapter again (SORRY!!)

But now we've finally reached tart time, so the main plot can begin (god I deviated so much, forgive me)

Again, if anyone sees a mistranslation in Rooks French, let me know so I can fix it!

Again, thank you to those who stuck with me this long, your patience and determination are admirable.

TO TARTS (Finally!)