A Questionable Hiding Spot

After the 'Spontaneous Stripping' incident, the situation began to spiral out of control for Vanessa. Even the other Butterflies weren't as respectful to her anymore. They of all people could identify weakness, and Vanessa gained another with each passing day.

Her time as the rose of the noble's social circle was coming to a close. The various lies and incidents over the years had started to catch up with her. Competitors were digging them out of the darkness and casting them into the light.

Out of all the lies that she ever told, the biggest was perhaps that she was Daren's fiancé. Vanessa's entire identity had been built on top of that. Their first school year had revealed that Vanessa was never Daren's fiancé, and that he didn't like her at all. People constantly mocked her as a delusional unwanted woman behind her back. Now they would even do that publicly.

Desperate to secure her place and brighten her tarnished reputation, Vanessa stuck with Daren like super glue. All of their noble classmates would surround them to chat, forcing Daren to stay put. His attempts to ditch his stalker met with little success since they had so many classes together. He didn't dare talk with the professors teaching his class. They would just chuckle and let Vanessa continue whatever she was doing.

Daren hated going to class now. He felt like an animal at the zoo or a trophy that Vanessa liked to show off. Chris furiously reported everything to the Forolan family, but the Landrienne family and the other nobles persistently downplayed or refused to acknowledge the situation. The conservative professors did that as well.

Vanessa would only behave around non-conservative professors and Chris. Fortunately, Daren had some sudden reprieves. As Marc strove to rebuild the conservative student faction in his image, he left Daren's monitoring to Vanessa. Daren learned several ways to ditch her, much to Vanessa's annoyance.

With Chris and others keeping the conservative students in line, Daren's days passed by in relative peace. That peace soon came to an end. Many high-ranking faculty members stopped showing up around campus.

Rumors swirled about snow sharks wiping out a village near Forest Waypoint. Most dismissed those rumors as lies. Afterall, snow sharks didn't appear in this area.

As soon as the high-ranking faculty disappeared, many of the specially recruited professors began to behave oddly. Fights broke out more in their classes, and they didn't seem to care about homework. Those professors seemed to be more interested in sneaking around the school than teaching.

After the conservatives calmed down, friction exploded between the progressive and neutral students. This seemed to happen overnight. Chris reluctantly got involved to help calm the raging storm, leaving Daren even more alone than he was before. Each time the factions seemed to be calmed down, they would get riled up again.

Vanessa's attempts grew even more bold and shameless. Most of her restraints had conveniently disappeared. In class, she would constantly try to hold Daren's hand or arm, chat with him during lectures, forcibly borrow his notes and just get way too close. All of Daren's willpower was consumed to not to smash her with a fireball.

His highly persistent stalker would also heavily remind Daren of 'noble etiquette' while they walked about, namely things like carrying her books, opening doors for her and inviting her out to eat. On his dime, of course. A gentleman must always pay for a lady's meal. Unfortunately for Vanessa, she was no lady.

Over time, Daren grew reluctant to report the issue. Reporting it to his uncle did nothing. According to Secretary Laraz, the headmaster was too busy to chat so Daren left a message with the secretary. The headmaster never got back to him.

The only time Daren did try to bring up Vanessa's behavior in class, the professor scolded him for being antisocial and rude towards such a lovely young lady. The professor promptly assigned them a special pair project so that Daren could get to know her better. Daren was essentially forced to take her out on a date.

Those were some of the worst hours of his life. He deeply regretted reaching out to the professor. That date would never have happened if he didn't open his mouth. The stares and whispers of the other students who saw the 'date' still continued well after it was over.

Even today, as Vanessa tugged on his arm and obnoxiously chattered Daren could hear other students whispering about it. As soon as the final class was over, Daren fled the classroom before the other students could react.

He rushed back to the residence hall, only to find several conservative students patrolling the building. Daren found a spot on the grounds and plopped to the ground underneath a willow tree. This whole situation was extremely tiring. He didn't remember the last time that he had free time to himself.

The willow branches slowly parted as footsteps approached. Those footsteps were not Chris's and neither was that mana. Daren prepared to run before he realized who it was. A tall girl with espresso colored hair and a green fluffball on her shoulder peaked inside.

< (￣^￣) > -- See? See? There's the hooman. Under tree. Very weird. --

"Yes, yes. Matcha is a very good gremlin. Here, take a cookie."

o (*^A^*) o -- Yay! *munch* *munch* *munch*--

"Oh. It's just you, Ms. Glowery."

"Mmhmm. I was informed that a student was acting strangely, so I can to check it out. Are you okay? Normally you're in your room, in class or with Headmaster Marin."

Daren settled back down and motioned towards the branches.

"There's no need for you to be concerned. Just close the branches."

Aayla stepped inside and the branches closed behind her. Matcha happily grabbed a cookie then devoured it in an instant. With a full belly, Matcha happily patted her bulging belly and curled up on the soft grass.

"Did something happen with you and Chris? I haven't seen him around lately, and you've been… how do I say this… you've been hanging out with other residents lately."

"That's none of your business."

Aayla sat down and began to stare at Daren. He shifted uncomfortably.

"What? I'm fine. Just go away. I don't want to talk with people right now."

"There's a tiny problem with that," Aayla pointed towards the branches. "One, I'm the head resident advisor. Solving problems between residents is my job. Two, see how the branches haven't opened up? That means Dormi doesn't want either of us to leave yet. So, what's going on?"

Daren sighed. "Fine. My schedule completely changed and now I'm stuck with them in basically all of my classes. They're super annoying and I'm sick of dealing with them. Whenever I go somewhere, someone will always arrive to bother me."

Aayla nodded. She was very familiar with Vanessa and The Butterflies. The complaints related to them seemed to be endless. A wave of pity flashed through her eyes. Vanessa was a difficult girl to deal with. Aayla hasn't even met Vanessa herself yet she dreads dealing with her.

The yawning Matcha caught Aayla's attention. Her eyes lit up. Perhaps she could make a deal that would benefit both of them. A sly smile broke out on her face.

"Say, would you like to get some work that would keep them away from you? Perhaps some office work?"

"Please don't. They can easily get into the office. I'd rather not get trapped in there and have extra residence council work on my plate."

"I was thinking about something a bit different than the usual office work. How would you like to see where the artifact core is?"

Daren's eyes widened in surprise.

"The core? As in the core of the artifact spirit for this residence hall?" His voice faded into a mumble. "I've never seen one in person, even the one at the main house."

"Technically, you probably won't see the core itself. But I can guarantee that no one else will can bother you unless they can get passed Dormi."

Aayla grabbed Daren and snuck around to the side of the dormitory. Dormi opened a set of stairs into the ground. The pair descended below. The tiny pitter patter and chittering noises of gremlins echoed out from the darkness. It had been a while since anyone was down there.

The stairs melted into the ceiling behind them. Daren curiously looked around.

"This place is… the basement?"

"Correct! No prize for you though. We're on the side under the Men's Wing. Most of the storage and laundry facilities are over here. If you go to the end there will be the main entrances and the hallway underneath the Women's Wing.

"No one is allowed down here aside from Nurse Rousse, Deputy Heston and, if necessary, myself. You can spend all the time down here by yourself that you want."

Aayla stopped next to a door. She slowly opened it and let Daren go inside. Daren froze. Several fluffballs stared at him with malicious intentions.