Far Too Expensive

"Eh?" Cater looked to Lotus in bewilderment, "Is... Is he at it again?"

Riddle cleared his throat, "What do you want to gain from opening these pods?"

"Oh, that's right!" Lotus perked up upon realization before turning to them with a witty fox-like smile, "I just want one seed of each pod so I can go home and try to grow them in an artificial environment!"

"That's it?" Trey looked to her in bewilderment.

"'That's it?'" Lotus sighed in exasperation, "These things are far too expensive, you know? One seed would be enough to buy ten mansions while the Drunken Jade Lotus is priceless as it is. I may have to owe you more, even work under you."

Riddle raised a brow curiously when he heard her words, "Work under us? Hmph, we have no need for something like slavery. However, your proposal sounds tempting... How about this?"

"Hm?" Lotus looked to Riddle curiously.

"We'll hand over a seed of each pod to you if you can open these pods and promise that you'll help Peony get rid of these intruders." Riddle said.

"Eh?" Cater looked up in surprise, "So have him work under Peony? Won't he be in danger?"

"It'd all be meaningless if the worst comes to him, so I take it that you will treat your life preciously?" Riddle glared down on her with a scowl as he recalled those times he's overheard the fool having injured himself over and over again while feeling quite certain that it was for something they're quite familiar with by now.

"Yes, sir!" Lotus smirked naively.

Trey quickly whispered something to Riddle to which the younger raised a brow and nodded before saying to Lotus with a satisfied smile, "Apparently, you've also been tutoring one of our residents for a while now. I guess it is all right to also let you off from further task. As long as the students are safe, that's all that matters."

"Okay!" Lotus nodded with a wide smile.

"Speaking of which..." Cater spoke up curiously, "Will you be returning home during Winter break?"

"Nope!" Lotus responded obediently, "I've already told my family I'd be absent for the whole four years while I'm here, unless they come to visit me!"

"Seriously?!" Cater's eyes widen in disbelief.

Trey sighed, "Well, it all works out anyway."

Riddle nodded with a sigh, "As long as the school doesn't burn down while we are gone..."

"What would you do?" Lotus questioned curiously, "Peony said that this can't be shared with the headmaster either, unless it was the dark mirror."

Riddle sighed, "We'll talk about it another time. For now, you can return and break this open during your science club with Trey, right?"

Trey nodded with a sigh, "It would have to be secretly, but all right. I'll come up with something..."

Riddle nodded back, "Let me know if Cater or I can be of help. It won't be a simple matter fooling the supervisor of the club."

"Don't worry." Trey responded, "I think it'll work well."

Riddle handed Trey his lotus pod much to Lotus's disappointment before she agreed to met the vice-dorm leader at the laboratory during club.

.....

That night, Lotus returned into her ring where she was instantly met by the pouting face of Xiao Li who hurried to her excitedly, "This is great, Master! We can start to grow these lotuses ourselves like this!"

Lotus flicked his forehead with a smirk, "Look at you so excited. I'm guessing we can grow the lotuses here, after all?"

"Of course!" Xiao Li responded with a wide smile, "We have a large plot of land and many tall mountains."

Lotus smirked before she sighed, "I wonder if mother gave me the name Lotus for a reason. Also, do you know what it was that in my energy? If I didn't feel it shift, I wouldn't have known that those pods were of great value before I handed them over to Riddle and the others."

Xiao Li sighed and shook his head, "First, you make the two first years some strong defensive equipment and drew powerful engravings on it. Then, you went on and gave the dorm some priceless herbs! Do they even how many good things you keep giving them? And, it's not just them. You even gave away the poison herb in the kitchen to the Scarabia dorm!"

After hearing him nag, Lotus waved it off as she walked into her studies, "It doesn't matter what i do with my stuff, right?"

"But you haven't took it yet." Xiao Li pointed out nervously.

"It doesn't matter if I need to have touched it or not. As long as I found it and it has no name, then it's mine." Lotus declared with a smile, "Who I give it to is decided by me."

Xiao Li shook his head in exasperation when he heard the shameless declaration of his master. However, it didn't surprise him in the least. His master has always been a selfish character, after all. It's not that other can make her move, but that she would only move if she chooses to. Even during the finals, she chose to retake the finals when she could've piled up the evidence of the seniors' tempering from the beginning. However, she continued to play around with them until the students dare to claim her of cheating and her answer to why she didn't report it...

"Because I haven't had enough fun yet!" She had whined at the time like a child that had just found a new toy.

In the end, she played a few pranks on those seniors and others who gave a hand to them to the point where they finally received suspension for a few weeks after attempting to frame her for cheating. She hadn't even reported them for sabotaging the test scores because it wasn't enough for her.

Luckily, they had yet to attempt to disturb her studies or she would've lost her patience and ended it all right then and there with just a click of the button. She hadn't even revealed to the culprits that she has the proof of it on her phone and Xiao Li wasn't certain if he should thank Cater for teaching her how to function around the phone or regret that he did since she has even started learning to hack from a student in Ignihyde dorm, the dorm known for their technological achievements and the dorm of neets as they say. All she did was accidentally send the message to the wrong person and came across another shut-in from the dorm.

Lotus's luck was just far too terrifying...

She opened another book and sat around the table reminding Xiao Li of her efforts in her studies. Even if she didn't have to take the classes seriously, she still went on to study for her classes and her studies as a cultivator leaving her little time for rest. As a result she would often sleep for short periods of time in her ring knowing of the risk that she may oversleep should her body find itself too taxed from the constant effort she puts into her studies and experiments.

However, he also knew that her body as a culativator makes it difficult for her to adapt to life as a normal person who needs food and water daily. Sleep isn't strongly required either and Lotus had always known how to study on her own so school wasn't necessarily required as much. All she needed was her books and cultivator professors. However, none of them were cultivators. The students of this school are all magicians and fighting using magic, especially to the death, is strongly prohibited in this society.

The strongest person isn't someone who's a cultivator, but a magician. Moreover, there are no levels to magic, just knowledge and how much mana their body can hold or process. Something like this can make any cultivator feel sluggish, so he can see why she went ahead and used her abilities on the enemy cultivators. They are her only chance of testing her strength against the people from their world.

The girl before him is also rather mysterious and secretive. No, rather, she's too studious in a manner that nobody can break her concentration, unless she had planned for it or there was a good reason to do so. Today, she had shocked her school mates again, which worried him that they might try to look into her background. He sighed in exasperation as he came upon the conclusion that caring for a daughter of a fairy queen really isn't easy at all. She can't act really spoiled many times, or even shameless, while other times she can display her care for others through her actions. The school and her friends will really have a tough time in the future.

Xiao Li quietly left the room remembering to call upon her when day comes as he recalled her question about the energy in her. Perhaps it would be best to do some research again? He hadn't heard of a human being able to sense the energy of lotus plants without any equipment or physique. This princess can be really worrisome...