Chapter 19

Words: 2149

"And who are you?" Ace asked the green haired boy, who was standing next to Cater.

"Ah, I should introduce myself. The name's Trey. Trey Clover. I'm a junior at Heartslabyul, like Cater here. And you must be Y/n and Yuu, the new prefect and vice from that dump of a - ah, I mean, the "rustic" dorm." He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

You squinted your eyes at him, but didn't say anything and just let him continue.

"I heard the whole story from Cater. Thanks for looking out for our boys yesterday." Trey smiled at you and sat down to your left. Cater almost jumping for the spot on your right.

Ace sighed, and side-eyed the two juniors. "I don't recall inviting you to sit with us..."

Cater chuckled and pulled out the rectangular device again. "Hey now, we're all from the same dorm, right? Let's try to get along. Here, gimme your digits."

You tilted your head. "Digits...?"

"Yeah, like your phone number hon." Cater smiled.

"I don't have a smartphone." Yuu said.

"What's a smartphone?"

"Eh?" Cater looked at Yuu for not having one, and then flipped his head at lightning speed to look at you. "EHH?!"

The rest turned to you aswell. "You don't know what a smartphone is?" Ace asked with a rather sympathetic look.

"No? Is it some kind of technology? We don't really have tech in Sumeru. Mostly in Fontaine, but that's around it. They recently designed this thing called a camera, it's really cool." You explained, slightly shying away at their looks.

"They just made camera's in your world? Man... no wonder you don't know. Don't worry, Cay-Cay will give you some lessons as soon as I'm free! And I'll even take you and Yuu to buy one! I know a place that sells the latest models cheap. How about you two and I go on a phone-shopping date?"

Trey snickered, but cut his friend off. "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." Cater placed his phone face down on the table.

"Yeah." Ace was glaring daggers at Cater, and so was Deuce. Only the navy haired was a bit more subtle about it. 

"Before you get into the other dorms, I wouldn't mind learning a bit more about ours. Like, what's the deal with all this "Queen of Hearts rule number whatever" junk?" The ginger continued.

"I'm sure you're familiar with the legendary Queen of Hears aleady? She had to rule over a kingdom of weirdos, and did it by emphasizing order and making strict rules." Trey said before taking a bite out of his food.

"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 leaned his elbow on the table, and rested his face in his palm.

Grim huffed from your lap. "Pfft. Can you make me any more bored?"

Cater flicked Grim's forehead. "Now, the degree to which we adhere to the rules depends on the sitting housewarden. Past wardens have been much more lax."

Trey nodded at his fellow junior's words. "Riddle though? He doesn't mess around. Basically, you could say that we're honoring that tradition to the utmost extent possible."

"Bleah. Just my luck..." Ace took a bite of his sandwhich with a sad frown etched upon his face.

Grim looked up from the meal he was devouring, and turned to Trey. "So what are the other dorms like, then?"

Trey pushed up his glasses. "As Cater mentioned earlier, the dorms of this school are themed after the Great Seven. We have our dorm, Heartslabyul, modeled after the strictness of the Queen of Hearts. To run down the rest for you, we have... 

~☆Savanaclaw, based on the presistent spirit of the Kinf of Beasts.

~☆Octavinelle, based on the benelovent heart of the Sea Witch.

~☆Scarabia, based on the mindful personality of the Sorcerer of the Sands.

~☆Pomefiore, based on the tenacity of the Fairest Queen.

~☆Ignihyde, based on the diligence of the King of the Underworld.

And finally...

~☆Diasomnia, based on the noble spirit of the Thorn Fairy."

"That's a lot to take in." Yuu muttered, and you nodded.

"I can remember the names, but not the things they're based on."

Grim was clearly not agreeing with you. "All those names are way too long! How's anyone supposed to remember 'em?"

Cater laughed. "Ah ha ha! Well, you get the idea, want to or not, you'll learn them soon enough."

Trey slapped Cater's hand, who was trying to snatch one of his biscuits. "At orientation, the Dark Mirror picks a dorm for you based on the essence of your being. As a result, each drom ends up with a distinct sort of... flavor, we'll call it."

"That is soooo true. I totes see it." Cater finally managed to get the biscuit from Trey and happily munched on it.

""Flavor," huh...?" Deuce seemed slightly confused. And so were you.

"For example..." Trey glanced around the cafeteria before pointing at a guy with white hair and wolf ears. "Look at that guy."

"He has dog ears?!" Yuu looked surprised.

You slowly turned your head at him. "One, he's a wolf. Two, why are you so surprised? Am I not here?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot for a moment." You rolled your eyes at Yuu. "What type of beastman even are you?"

You were about to answer, but were cut off by Trey who continued what he was saying. "That rough-and-tumble vibe he's got has Savanaclaw House written all over it."

"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."

Grim climbed up by your arm to look around the cafeteria. "Huh. All right, so what about that guy with the grey and purple cord wrapped around his arm?"

Trey turned his head to look at the boy aswell. "He's gotta be from Octavinelle House. And the student sitting at the table in front of him has a red and gold armband - scarabia colors."

You remember the two from the orientation. The boy from Octavinelle you believed to be Azul, he was supposed to be helping Riddle catch Grim. And the other got his butt set on fire.

"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..."

Ace leaned backwards. "And here Cater goes, off on some tangent."

"Ha. You learn fast. Let's get back on topic." Trey chuckled and pointed at the next student.

"You see the flashy one with the purple and red armband? Those  are Pomefiore colors." He pointed at a smaller boy with mid-length light lavender hair and light blue eyes, and a guy with a bad bob and a big hat.

"Whoa! The girl with the potion books, I really like her!" Grim said like a total creep.

"What's she doing in a boys' school?!" Deuce looked towards the lavender haired boy.

"You two are such morons. There aren't any girls officially enrolled here." Ace grumbled at the two.

"Besides Y/n." He added after noticing you looking at him.

"WHAAAT?!" Grim and Deuce shouted in while flipping they're heads to the boy again.

The blue eyed boy looked over for a moment because of the yelling, but turned away again.

Cater cupped his right hand to his mouth, and leaned towards the boys on the other side of the table. "Speaking of girls, there's a portrait in the west hall who's a real beauty. Name's Rosaria. If you'd like to meet her, I'd be happy to introduce you. Maybe we can set something up? Although we already have another beauty right here." The green eyed boy wrapped an arm around your shoulder.

"A painting? Hard pass! I don't care how cute she is if she's two-dimensional!" Ace deadpanned at Cater.

"Come on man, who cares how many dimensions? Anyway, they take vanity pretty seriously at Pomefiore. It's basically a dorm full of models." Cater smiled and nudged you a little again.

"Their Housewarden has 5,000,000 followers on Magicam."

You had no idea what that ment, but it must've been a good thing, seeing how Cater looked impressed.

"Hey now, they're not all just pretty faces." Trey stopped Cater's rambling.

"The students at Pomefiore are among the best at potions and casting curses."

"Heh heh. True dat. 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. Even I don't have a single friend from that dorm. They're kind of the opposite of us sunny fun-loving Heartslabyuls" Cater sighed in disappointment.

"So they're gloomy and miserable? Like Y/n when she first got here?" Grim said casually. You grabbed him and placed him with Yuu on the other side of the table with a frown.

Trey held back a snicker. "Hey, no need to put it like that! They just have a reputation for being quite and serious, is all."

"Yeah, so exactly like Y/n then! Why are you glaring at me?!" Grim tried to climb back to your side of the table.

Trey decided to ignore him and went on. "That dorm tends to attract magical-energy engineers and students who are good with tech.

Deuce nodded along. "And that just leaves... Diahonyalara, was it?"

Ace side-eyed him. "You were off to a good start, and then you rammed right into the guardrails. It's "Diasornia.""

"Ace... It's "Diasomnia." Not "Diasornia."" You face palmed.

Deuce snapped back at Ace. "I know that! I just misspoke, all right?"

Cater was glancing around. "Diasomnia house is, him..."

He pointed at a group sitting together. "Ah, look over there. 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."

In the group there was a tired looking boy with silver hair, a boy with light green eyes, and a short guy with black and pink hair, two small strands of his hair were turned upright making them look like small horns.

"There's a little kid in that group!"

"Ace are you a moron aswell?" You asked.

"Ah, we do get some child prodogies here." Trey peaked over aswell to see who Ace was talking about. "But that guy there is no kid. He's a junior like us. Name's-"

"Lilia. Lilia Vanrouge."

The boy appeared upside between Ace and Deuce's heads, making them both jump up in fright.

Yuu, Trey, Cater and Grim all flinched aswell, while you looked at him calmly.

He turned the right side up, and stood himself back down on the ground with a smile.

Grim had a hand on his hearts. "H-he just teleported!" 

"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."

""Fresh-faced." He says..." Trey mumbled silently.

"You need not gawk at us from afar. You may feel free to speak to us directly. We are schoolmates, are we not? All of us at Diasomnia House welcome you without reservation."

The others at the Diasomnia table looked your way, but didn't seem to welcoming.

Deuce noticed this and spoke up again. "And yet, those guys over there aren't  exactly rolling out the red carpet in terms of approachability..."

Lilia chuckled and made a small bow. "Forbive me for appearing above you during your meal. I do hope we can speak again."

Lilia then dissappeared and appeared back at his own table.

Ace leaned towards the middle of the table, and spoke as quiet as he could. "Their table has got to be over twenty yards away from ours. And theyoverheard our conversation? That's WAY creepy!"

Trey regained himself, and closed his gaping mouth. "Well... Diasomnia House does have a bit of a reputation for having lots of special students. Some of them are extremely talented at magic. Their Housewarden, Malleus Draconia, is considered to be one of the five best mages in the world."

Cater nodded aggresively "Malleus is reeeeeal bad news. Though I suppose same could be said of our own dear Housewarden."

Ace shot up and a frown stretched on his face. "No kidding! He collared me for eating one slice of tart! All his rule obsession is outta control!" 

You were about to say something when a certain puff of red hair appeared behind Ace. "My "rule obsession" is "outta control," is it?"

"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 thumb!" Ace continued loudly, not noticing the boy behind him.

Deuce was staring at Ace with wide eyes, pointing behind him. "Ace! Behind you!"

Ace finally turned around and almost jumped up in shock. "Bwah?! Housewarden!"

✿༺ 𝓈𝑒𝒸𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓈! ༻✿

✿༺ You think Diasomnia is pretty cool.
✿༺ Yuu still wants to know what type of beastman you are.
✿༺ Cater found Grim's comment about you being gloomy and miserable extremely funny.

·.★·.·'¯'·.·★.·

A/n: Have a longer chapter bc I didn't know how to stop this one midway! 5K special with another chapter soon I think, but first I'm sleeping. Almost 2am for me right now, so I don't think it will be long till next chap! Hope where ever you are, you have a nice sleep! <3
-Kitz/Yumeko