Everyone Is To Blame

Riddle looked to her in disbelief before he shook his head and nodded. He had already known that Lotus was blunt with her words too. As long as she said she won't do anything, then she won't do anything. If she said she's going to jump off the roof, then she'll jump off the roof. That's why he knew that, if she doesn't want to into the dorm, then she won't go into the dorm...

He's going to need Trey and Cater's help to see if they can persuade him to get her to go instead.

"Also," Lotus grumbled as she scrolled through her phone, "Almost everyone in the room was to blame for making him upset. Including himself."

"Eh?"

Lotus threw her phone over to Riddle as he barely caught it and saw a list of people on the screen. The year has even been dated back nearly a few years back to when he was still a toddler.

"Vil and Neige have always been either neck-to-neck or tied for so many years. After seeing what happened today and the timing, don't you think that maybe Vil has a competitive relationship against Neige?"

"A competitive relationship?" Riddle thought for a while, "Meaning, they were rivals?"

"Maybe for Vil, Neige was a rival." Lotus explained, "I got some information from students from his school. Neige apparently admires Vil greatly, but those around him are very wary and competitive against him. Even if Neige thinks well of Vil, what does Vil think of all this? Night Raven College is a school of ambitions. Vil being here means he has strong ambitions. Being first shouldn't be an unusual want for him."

"Was it that bad?" Riddle muttered in surprise.

Lotus sighed, "Since you mentioned, Vil, I started looking into his background. Riddle, did you know that all of the roles Vil has ever played since young had all been villains?"

"Villains?" Riddle said in surprise, "You mean he's never played the hero even once?"

Lotus nodded, "The record is completely different for Niege though. He's played the protagonist so many times since young. It's hard to count too. Basically, what you've stumbled upon is a one-sided rivalry between two celebrities. Today's meeting only made things worse because the Valley of Thorns isn't a place that uses electronics on a daily basis. However, aside from Azul and Idia, no one else should know much about the celebrities, but even Lilia knows about Neige but not Vil. What you saw today was Vil feeling the pressure to surpass and his jealousy against Niege."

"Does Niege knows?"

Lotus frowned as she recalled the smiling face of the boy as he continued to clean the laundry of the other smaller students. She shook her head, "I doubt it. In fact, he looks up to Vil, but Vil isn't all that fazed by it. However, I doubt Vil doesn't know what Niege goes through to achieve his current reputation. There's a saying, after all. No one knows you better than your enemy."

"The VDC is coming up." Riddle muttered with a frown.

Lotus shook her head, "And with it comes a large number of people."

"Can we calm Vil before then?" Riddle grumbled in hesitation before then.

"Not so easily." Lotus shook her head, "The difference between him and everyone else here is that Vil and Niege are neck to neck in terms of popularity. This means there's a chance that he can overcome Niege at any moment as long as he plays his cards right. Leona's ambition to be king was crushed by his brother and nephew and Lilia pointing out the reason why he can't even compete is due to his flaws being left uncorrected dealt a blow on him. Azul was gaining total monopolization when Leona stripped it all away from him in a single night and the efforts he placed to keep his contracts safe. Jamil was his pains from years of suppression of his talents and abilities. Everyone, including yourself, was suffering for so long under your own circumstances and used so much magic to carry these out that you ended up overblotting. Changing all of you would be near impossible had you not overblotted. However, for Vil, he could overcome it or fall to his jealousy and rivalry at any point in time."

"So, it's not a very steady bridge to walk across..."

Lotus nodded, "He could fall."

Riddle shook his head and sighed as he looked up to her with a worried glance, "Then, what is your opinion on the matter?"

Lotus thought for a bit, "Vil is very talented with magic too. I don't think his overblot would be weak at all and he's grudge doesn't make it any better. I'm leaning towards that Vil will definitely overblot at any moment in time. Years of grudge in this world is nothing to sneeze at either. That's why him overblotting around the time of the performance is a very likely occurrence."

Riddle frowned, "There would be too many people by the time of the performance."

There was a moment of silence before Lotus held a deep breath and lets it go shaking her head, "Trust in Yuu and your first years then..."

"Eh?"

She turned to him and smiled, "I did a little amateur divining recently and learned that Yuu and Grim was called to this school for a purpose. Seeing that they've encountered all of the overblots in this school. I came to believe that this has something to do with their purpose..."

"So, you think that suppressing the overblots is the reason the supervisor was called into this world?"

Lotus laughed, "Of course. It's not a secret anymore that Yuu came from another world. Perhaps, this is the reason why he suddenly appeared in this world to begin with. Because this world needed his presence. Even if you don't do anything, just you existence can influence others around you. It wouldn't be a surprise if the reason brother Yuu was brought into this world was for this specific reason..."

"Brother?" Riddle raised a brow in confusion.

Lotus nearly bit her tongue when she realized her error and cleared his throat, "Well, in any case, we should prepare for any future overblots. Peony is busy watching over the activities of the school and those guys too. I need to get going now before Grim starts to complain about food and escape his studies again. See ya!"

With that, Lotus jumped off the chair when a sudden pain emerged causing her to crumble onto the ground!

"Lotus?!" Riddle jumped out of his seat in shock and hurried over to her.

Riddle reached out and touched her shoulder before flinching in surprise, "Cold!"

He touched her cheek and could feel the cold temperature coming from her skin.

"His breathing is getting heavier..." Riddle muttered in disbelief as he placed a finger just under her nose, "Maybe he can't breathe? Lotus? Lotus!"

No matter how much he shook her, she wouldn't open her eyes and only continued to shiver in place.

But, she was just fine earlier! How could she suddenly collapse and grow so cold?!

Suddenly, he remembered what Lotus said when she first arrived!

.....

Lotus looked to the windows upon entering his room with Trey, "Huh? You actually open the windows during this time? It's a little cold here, though..."

Trey raised a brow, "Well, you're right and Riddle needs to watch out not to catch a cold."

"I'll be fine." Riddle sighed and shook his head, "The mirror room was too warm anyway."

"Well, I won't try to stay here for long." Lotus nodded with a sigh as she hugged onto the scarf around her neck, "Cater said that you wanted to see me?"

.....

Could it have to do with the cold temperature in the room?!

He recalled that the Lounge had a fireplace going and there was students that were making some plans for the cultural festival. It would be bad if he makes a ruckus now, but, if something happens to Lotus, there's no telling what the intruders will do.

Slamming the windows closed, he pushed her over onto her back and struggled as he threw one arm over the back of his neck awkwardly. He had never carried anyone before. So, just this much took a lot of effort on his small body. Feeling the cold sensation of her body against his the back of his neck and through his gloves, he began to worry that he won't make it, but he has to carry her over to the lounge as quickly as he could!

It was unfortunate that everyone else was either busy with their chores or stayed indoors away from the cold. Trey had club activities and Cater was also too busy helping the students catch up with their lessons that day-

"Cater!" His eyes widened with realization before he swiped out his smartphone and scrolled down to the contact number.

In less than five seconds, Cater picked up, "He-?!"

"Cater, where are you, right now?" Riddle quickly questioned.

"E-eh? The second floor." Cater answered rather taken aback by Riddle's nervous behaviour.

"I need you here right away." Riddle said bluntly, "Lotus needs help."

"What?!"