A Greater Presence

Naturally, she knew that the two weren't trying to do anything bad, so she didn't thought of punishing them. However, if they were to be curious with everyone like this, then it could become a problem, especially for someone as young as Little Jun who has yet to understand right from wrong. Xiao Li is quiet and aloof looking until he opens his mouth and starts spouting complaints. Then, we have a sensible Ying Hui until you get her mad and annoyed that she starts losing her senses and began to resort to violence. The only one that is wise enough and has enough senses is Crystal. However, the queen of butterflies are so busy that it rarely gets the chance to watch over the little kirin's progress...

Unless...

While coming to a conclusion, Xiao Li pouted, "It wasn't my idea! L-Little Jun was here first and I-I just came to see what he was doing-!"

"That's not true!" The little kirin cried out.

"I sensed the two of you out here since I brought Zhang Li in..." Lotus stated deadpanned with a firm frown. At first, she had been speechless after hearing the little spirit take advantage of the young infant.

Hearing this, the two finally quieted down nervously. Since she knew that they had been there from the beginning, then it was obvious that she knew everything from the beginning! The two grew a little nervous since those that comes into the spatial rings knew of her like the elder sister of the group. No matter how much older the others are compared to her or how much weaker she is compared to them, they don't regret giving her the authority as she is very organized and knowledgeable. As for suppressing her, she always had this aura about that makes it difficult to suppress.

"Enough." Lotus scolded the two, "If you do this again, you won't get pills the next time I make something good."

"W-We understand..." The two kids responded with guilt.

If they had known this would happen, they shouldn't have let their curiosity took control and remained focus on their own businesses!

.....

After returning to the room, very little time had passed. She magically changed back into her pajamas and opened the window to allow a little red bird into the room. However, upon the sight of the little bird, she raised a brow and picked it up gingerly, "Who are you?"

It was at this moment that the door opened. She turned around to the sound of firm footsteps and saw that it was two familiar-looking people. Lotus smiled at the two visitors, though a little reluctant, and responded, "Good afternoon, Silver, Lilia."

"Oh! You're awake." Lilia looked over to her with a look of surprise.

"Haha..." Lotus wore a wide and polite smile, "Should I not have been? The Diasomnia have been kind. After some time, I would naturally start to recover. It shouldn't be long before I need to return to the nurse's office and resume work again."

"Oh, are you the student assistant that the headmaster talked about?" Silver looked to her in surprise.

Lilia laughed, "Surprised? The news have been all over that the nurse finally took in an assistant amongst the students and he would be staying in the school over the winter holidays. That student had been Lotus."

"So, that's why you asked if Sebek regretted it or not." Silver muttered in confusion.

"Huh? Sebek?" Lotus raised a brow in confusion, "Did something happen between us again?"

"Hm? You mean you forgot?" Lilia looked to her in surprise.

Lotus immediately contacted to Xiao Li who responded immediately, "During your absence, Zhang Li got into an argument with Sebek. The contents..."

.....

"Hmph! It's unbelieveable how weak you humans are! Just a little fall and you hurt yourself to this extent? Don't tell me you are just making use of the Young Master's position as the dorm leader?!"

As per usual, Sebek seemed to be in a disgruntled mood when seeing her in the bed doing nothing but read those weird books of chicken scratches. However, rather than sharing it with his friends, he was unable to hold it in seeing how weak the silly kid had become and ended up scolding her with accusations.

He already disliked the fact that Ren was able to convince the dorm leader and vice-dorm leader to let her stay and, if it weren't for the fact that Ren was from a noble family, he was certain Malleus wouldn't have to accept Ren's request even if he had to!

Zhang Li raised a brow in confusion with a deep headache as she muttered, "Apologies, but can you lower your voice? Loud sounds often give me the headaches lately..."

"What was that?!" Sebek shouted in disbelief.

"Agh..." Zhang Li groaned and covered her ears quickly with a shudder, "Quiet down..."

Even if she was suppose to be faking her injury and pretend to have caught a fever, she decided to take a poison she concocted that gave her the same symptoms as a high fever would, so the pain in her ears were real followed by the headache. Her head pounded and she glared at the young fae with an angry scowl, "If you don't like me that much, then don't come to find me. You had the choice to not come into the room at all, too... Do you purposely want me to pass out from pain instead? Would you be satisfied, then?!"

"You...!"

"Sebek, stop!"

It was then that the door opened and Silver stepped inside with Lilia in tow. Normally, Silver could've just left the brute be, but, just from hearing his temper from his voice, he knew that he wouldn't be able to pull Sebek out of the room by himself and hurried to the lounge where Lilia was. The two quickly pulled him out before Sebek could start a fight against her. However, as Sebek left andn didn't struggle, he couldn't help but feel a shudder as he saw the pained glare coming from the previously calm girl. Where was that fragile boy that was stuck in bed from the fever? That weak boy and that laughing boy was nowhere to be seen before him as he left the door. Instead, it was a boy with the eyes of a greater presence before him!

Is this really the Lotus that he knew of?

.....

"After an arguement between the two of you, you slept for two nights and a day with a really high fever." Silver explained in confusion, "Since then... Sebek have been really... quiet..."

Hearing this, Lotus breathed a small sigh of exasperation. After the story from the two sides, it was clear that Zhang Li overstepped her boundary. She had used poison to feign her illness and injury, but, in the fit of her pain, she was unable to contain herself properly into her mold and snapped at Malleus's guard. Now, the guy was unusually quiet and she doesn't know what is going on in his mind now. But it was clear that this silence isn't normal.

She frowned, "This... is bad... Just what was it that I said..."

"You really don't remember?" Lilia looked to her with a troubled expression.

"I don't." Lotus sighed in disappointment, "But, I'll go over and apologize to him. Whatever I said obviously affected him badly for him to be this quiet... Now that you mention it, I thought it was strange how it felt like I slept so warmly. To think I passed out from the fever..."

"You should wait till the fever passes." Silver advised.

Lotus nodded, "It would be bad if others catch it from me. Then, I'll go see him after I recover."

"What about the pain?" Lilia asked.

Lotus shook her head, "It's subsided a lot. More importantly, would you happen to know of the contents of what I said to Sebek? You said that Silver brought you here at the last minute after hearing our argument, but I couldn't even remember him being in this room during that time or whatever happened that day. It must've been very important to him since he started acting differently."

"Well..." Silver began, "I heard him complain to you, but he started to accuse you of a couple of things, such as accusing you of making use of Ren's connections and Lord Malleus's position."

"That was rather uncalled suspicion for, but he serves under Malleus. So, it should be a naturaly reaction coming from him..." Lotus grumbled feigning a look of trouble, "To think the pain blinded me that much that I probably lashed out at him or said something insulting... I didn't end up threatening him, did I?"

Lilia shook his head sadly, "I'm afraid that was the case. By the time we barged in, you had already threatened him to back off with your health. I had a brief look at your ears with a tool from the nurse's office and found that your ears were infected and sore. As a result..."

"As a result, Sebek's loud voice must've brought greater pain in my ears and my headache must've worsened." Lotus muttered with a frown.

Silver nodded, "All you talked about was the pain during the argument. Ren came to check on you several times while you were asleep. He could've brought this incident to Lord Malleus, but-"

Lotus shook her head, "This is only a child's conflict between me and Sebek. I agree that Ren shouldn't bring up this personal matter with Malleus."

"Nah, he found out." Lilia replied with a wide smirk on his face.