The Man In Blue

Seeing their enthusiasm and fear, Vil sighed in exasperation, "Why is it that these potatoes are more motivated by fear of him than motivation by me?"

"Because you don't know kids better than I do and these three are very easy to see through than our seniors." Lotus responded bluntly without holding back anything.

"Seriously?!" Ace looked up at him in disbelief and felt rather offended until he saw her unhappy expression on his face. He quickly stuck back his neck feeling really nervous.

After having spent merely ten minutes on each of them including Vil, she turned around and walked over to the door before turning around and warned firmly, "You guys better not do anything stupid again. I'll go report to the dorm leader Riddle that Ace and Deuce got into a scuffle and will be staying in bed for the entire day tomorrow. Just so you know, I'm not going to administer pain killers for you guys no matter how much you ask for it. Giving you painkillers after administering the cream will make the pain much worse on the second day. So, unless there are any other problems, I better not see you in the nurse's office. I'm talking to the two of you, Ace, Deuce."

She sighed wearily as she took a step out the door, "Just why in the world do the two of you keep getting hurt like this..."

After hearing the door close behind her and her walking away, Ace and Deuce breathed a sigh of relief before slumping back down in their seats.

"Fgna..." Grim collapsed in Yuu's arms tearfully, "I thought I was gonna die..."

"You can say that again..." Ace sighed in relief.

"I had no idea that Lotus could be so scary..." Epel responded with a look of surprise.

"Ah..." Deuce breathed a deep breath before responding, "He can be much scarier than this. It's best that you listen to him when he is like this. He can become very scary if he wants to."

"Yeah... That's Mother Lotus for you..." Ace grumbled in defeat, "Deuce, you have him as your free private tutor too, right? Just how more terrifying can he be?"

"Very..." Deuce shuddered, "When we can stay up for the night, he would make me stay up with him and cram till late into the night. Then, he would let me sleep for a few hours before waking me up for class in the morning. If I don't get up, he would flip my mattress over..."

"Flip the mattress over?!" Epel's eyes widen in horror when he heard this.

"Is that so?" Vil raised a brow, "But, I don't see you have have any bruises on you."

"I don't know either." Deuce sighed, "For some reason, I never get any injuries when he does this. However, it became worse after the camp began. Apparently, he and the ghosts managed to gather large amounts of snow and dunk my feet into the bucket."

"I see, but your feet would've been cold after..."

Deuce took off his shoes and pulled out a thin white bundle to their shock.

"A heat pack?!"

Deuce nodded, "Yeah. After Dorm leader Riddle heard about this, he gave him permission. He said that it's fine as long as it doesn't harm my health. Oh, I take these off before I start training or take athletics class. When I'm not, I'm using these and drinking ginger and brown sugar."

"Ah, Jamil and I had that drink too!" Kalim called out in surprise.

Jamil nodded, "Ginger or ginger ale can help warm the throat and the body. With the cold weather, he gave that drink out knowing the properties of the herb."

"I see." Vil nodded in understanding, "The body heats up when moving around when compared to desk work. I also remember seeing this once before. Hmph... With all of this, it's no wonder you call him Mother Lotus."

Vil didn't feel it before, but, after the overblot, he could also sense a strong feeling of fear and intimidation upon seeing her for some reason. He doesn't understand why, but he could feel that Rook's watchful eye on her meant something probably had happened between them. He couldnt' tell if he was fortunate or not to have regained a bit of consciousness in the middle of their battle on the stadium!

.....

As soon as she left the room, she quickly left the waiting room and made her way through the halls when she noticed an unusual presence and raised a brow before quickly concealing her aura. In the distance, Niege and the seven dwarves were making their way back with an elderly man with short white hair, a short beard and gray eyes. He wears blue robes with a long white scarf tied in a knot and a pointy hat with Royal Sword Academy emblem. He walked alongside the group in his blue shoes as their escort. Upon seeing Niege with his hand over his throat and struggling to withhold a cough, Lotus raised a brow in confusion, "Hoppie? Timmy? What...?"

"Ah, Lotus!" Hoppie smiled in relief upon seeing her, "Would you happen to have any medicine on you?"

"Hoppie!" Granz scowled at him.

"Medicine?" Lotus looked to him in surprise before she frowned with a look of strong concern, "I do have some light medication on me, but I can't just administer them recklessly. What's wrong? It looks like Niege is having some throat problems."

"He was put in a trance and sang for a very long time and dancing too." Timmy cried out hurriedly in tears.

Lotus's eyes widen in bewilderment, "I've heard about it from a passerby, but he's been doing that for this long?!"

Dominic nodded, "That's right. Do you have any medication on you to help?"

"I can hand out some cough drops to help with the pain in the throat." Lotus responded and took out some cough drops from her pockets, "This is what I give the NRC tribe during their training. But, only take one. If the pain is still unbearable, you can take another after two hours. Cough drops are medicine themselves and contain a medicinal drug in them to numb the pain in the throat. So, I don't recommend taking them often. They aren't candies."

"I... I see." Dominic took the cough drops and some herbal pads.

"Dancing around for so long must've left him sore, so I recommend you stick the herbal pads on the sore parts. Aside from that, there's really nothing I can offer at the moment. I can come back with the nurse later or examine him myself, but he is not a student of this school and I don't have the authority to overstep the line since I'm a student as well. Treating minor injuries is the best I can do within my power. If I can, I'd try to offer one of the potions and pills I make here, but those have some strong side effects, so I don't recommend that even if I have the power to give them to you. Stick the pads on the sore joints and muscles and have him take a cough drop. After that, have him rest for a while. This is all I can do for him. Outside from that, he can take a ginger syrup mixture of ginger slices and brown sugar." Lotus explained before looking to Niege, "For now, just rest and don't use your voice, unless you are performing. Then, you can just go and rest up. I know you have to perform later, so this is the best advice I can give you. Aside from that, you should avoid leaving the waiting room until it's time to perform. I suspect that you were probably hypnotized or mind-controlled by someone to be placed under a trance like that. I've seen others control the movements of the user, but it wouldn't be enough to put them into a trance."

"Do you think that it could be those three students?" Dominic questioned cautiously.

Lotus shook her head, "They're buff, but their magic aren't that powerful. If their magic was that useful, they would've already cause more chaos than what happened just now. It's a good thing that they aren't sneaky though. They're too bold and prideful to stoop down to that level. You can look for the perpetrator after the performance. It won't be good if that person tried to do something again if any of you are running around outside... You guys are performing too, right? It can't be that every one of you is his manager."

"Nope." Hop responded with a nod, "We're all performing together."

"I thought that would be the case." Lotus nodded before looking back to Niege again, "Would you like me to find the nurse? It would be a good idea."

Niege shook his head with a strained and wide smile. Disappointed, Lotus nodded, "Okay. I understand. Here is my phone number. If you need anything, let me know immediately."

Niege nodded taking the slip of paper in his hands. He quickly recorded it onto his phone and texted to her, "Thank you!"

Lotus smiled, "It's no problem. Then, I'll take my leave. See ya!"

Walking away, the tall man narrowed his eyes in deep contemplation as he muttered with a look of surprise, "It's rare to find a student this cooperative in this school, like him..."

"Well, he was one of the students that our school recommended this year, but he rejected the offer and went into Night Raven College." Dominic explained.

"Oh?"