Book 2 - The Usurper from the Wilds: Chapter 6; Housewarden Meeting

The screen turns on as the chapter title plays "Chapter - 6; Housewarden Meeting".

It opens in the Mirror Chamber, as the headmage, Riddle, Leona, Azul, that white haired boy with red eyes, the handsome boy, and the floating tablet are standing around for their meeting.

The headmage opens the meeting by saying "I call to order this meeting of housewardens. Our agenda today concerns the October Spelldrive tournament. Let us begin with the report from the head of the tournament planning committee: Mr. Ashengrotto of Octavinelle house."

Azul then says his part "Greetings. I am Azul Ashengrotto, and it is my honor to lead the planning committee." He's the other boy that helped Riddle out with Grim at orientation. Azul continues "I am pleased to announce that we have fully booked the grounds surrounding the coliseum. All the kiosk space allotted to both internal organizations and external businesses is now full."

The white haired boy with red eyes says "Sweet! This tournament should be a real lively one, then."

Azul simply nodded in response before continuing with his report "All invitations to various royalty have been sent, and public tickets are selling briskly. And, as in past years, we have received numerous requests to cover the event from both television stations and print media."

The white haired and red eyed boy once again speaks up "Sounds like the whole world will be watching. Before I was admitted here, I looked forward to receiving my VIP invitation every year." He then turns to Leona saying "I imagine you got them too, Leona? We might have run into each other at the tournament when we were kids!" But Leona just says "Who knows? And also, who cares?"

The handsome boy also says "This year, I'll have to work extra hard on my makeup to make sure I'm shining like a diamond on the new Ultravision displays. With all the exertion, I'll need to be touching it up constantly!" Riddle sighs at this before stating "...House Pomefiore is the only dorm that regularly calls timeouts to fix their makeup."

The tablet then says "How can you all be so excited to be on TV? Just the idea of it makes me wanna puke."

But Azul fakes a cough bringing the attention back to him as he says "As I was saying." The white haired and red eyed boy apologizes "Oops, sorry!" Before Azul continues "Now, as soon as your dorms' player rosters are settled, I'll need your registration documents. Any dorm that is even a single day late –" As Riddle attempts to finish for him "Will be promptly disqualified, I trust." But Azul shakes his head and says "No. They will be charged a handling fee. Consider it remuneration for rush processing." This surprises Riddle as he says to Azul "What? I don't approve of you changing the rules to allow for policy exceptions!" But the white haired red-eyed boy speaks up "And I couldn't be more grateful for it!" Before laughing wholesomely.

The headmage then speaks up "Let's try to stay on topic." As he had seen what had happened just a few minutes before.

Then trying to entirely bring the conversation back the headmage says "We need to discuss the tournament bracket. I had an idea I'd like to propose." Riddle asks "And that is…?"

The headmage further explains "It concerns the Diasomnia housewarden. I think we should induct Mr. Draconia into the hall of fame to keep him off the field entirely."

The white haired red-eyed boy is surprised as he exclaims "Say whaaat?!" But this annoys Leona as he gets a lot more involved as he asks "What are you on about?"

The headmage explains why now "Ever since Mr. Draconia enrolled here, no dorm has scored even a single point against Diasomnia. Diasomnia regularly scores 100 points per game, with 90% of them being from Mr. Draconia himself."

The white haired red-eyed boy then says "Now that you mention it, when we had to face them last year, it did feel completely futile." The tablet also says something about this "The dude totally breaks the game. It's like he's got cheat codes enabled."

The headmage then says "Amusement is not the only goal of this tournament. Our hope is that spectators the world over will discover talented new mages. However… Recent matches have been ending without anyone, except Mr. Draconia, casting even a single spell. And that includes his own teammates! And that is a less-than-optimal state of affairs."

The tablet says his vote on the idea "I'm all for it. Getting stomped isn't exactly fun for us either."

The headmage then says to Leona "I know many of Savanaclaw House aspire to play in the Spelldrive pro league. Savanaclaw House had never landed in less than third place in the history of this school. And yet in both of the last two years, you've been eliminated in the first round after being matched against Diasomnia House. That's certainly not impressing any recruiters. Thus, this matter of disproportionate performance directly affects your players' future." So Leona sarcastically asks "And you're sayin' you expect us to make fools of ourselves on the field again this year?" Crowley responds "It certainly brings me no pleasure to suggest it."

He then tells them "Regardless, Mr. Draconia has already agreed to be inducted into the hall of fame. All we need now is this committee's approval."

But Leona ends up kinda taking offense to that as he tells Crowley "So you're sayin' we need a handicap. Listen and listen well, Teach… Ain't nothin' I hate more than someone tellin' me "you can't win" before I even begin to fight." Crowley realizes how it could be taken so he tries to fix it saying "No, that is not my intention –" But is interrupted as Leona asks annoyed "Then what is?"

Before going on his own little rant "First of all, Spelldrive ain't a game about power. It's all about what's up HERE,-" as he points to his head for a second before bringing his hand down and continuing "-in your head!"

But the white haired red-eyed boy says "I'm pretty sure my head can't beat Malleus's." But Leona scoffs as he says "I don't doubt that. But mine can. Sure, in a battle of brute force, no one's beatin' him. But in a battle of wits – that's a different story." Azul says "Intriguing…" As Leona continues "The King of Beasts from the Great Seven won his throne through cunning and persistence. You all should be wrackin' your brains, trying to come up with a way to beat that monster! Whichever team figures that out is gonna be sittin' REAL pretty on the world stage. Are you gonna let a once-in-a-lifetime chance like that get yanked out from under you?"

The handsome boy says at that "For once, Leona is making perfect sense. I agree – this plan is utter nonsense. It reeks of some kid of unconscious bias on your part. And I despise that sort of thing." Riddle then also says his point "I am in complete agreement with Housewarden Vil."

Revealing the handsome boy's name is Vil.

As Riddle continues "As one of the foremost mages here, the last thing I want to do is give up without a fight."

Leona smirks as he rhetorically asks "Don't you wanna see that self-important, stuck-up jerk's crestfallen face get broadcast to the whole world? Doesn't the thought of it make you wanna roar?"

Azul chuckles as he says "That would certainly boost the ratings!" The white haired and red eyed boy then says "Well, I certainly don't want to be on the losing side of this." The tablet then asks them "Seriously? I'm the only one who wants him in the hall of fame?"

At that Leona turns to the headmage and smugly tells him "I think we have our answer. The hall of fame idea is officially shut down." The headmage sighs as he says "...Fine, fine."

But puts forth his own conditions on this "But if this year ends up being a repeat of the last two years, he's going in next year for sure." Leona rolls his eyes at that and agrees saying "That's your call."

Now closing out the meeting Azul says "Well, that was the last item on today's agenda. Everyone, remember to submit your registrations." Before quickly and quietly following up with "Not that I would be upset if it were to slip your mind…" Before chuckling.

Vil then asks "Incidentally, where IS Malleus? Did everyone forget to invite him again?" They all call out "Oops!" at that.

It then switches over to a stairway as a Heartslabyul student says "The Spelldrive tournament rosters should be final any day now." And another asks him "Have you come up with any flashy new spells?" The first student answers excitedly "You know it! I already showed one to Professor Crewel and he seemed pretty impressed. I can't wait to show it to Housewar–"

But is cut off as he suddenly falls down the stairs as he screams "BWAAAAAH?!" And ending up lying on the ground from the fall, as he pushed himself up a little he shouted "Gah! That hurt!"

The other student runs up to him shouting questions "Hey! What just happened?! Why'd you tumble down the stairs like that?!"

As he tries to help the first student up, but when the first student puts some pressure on his ankle while trying to stand he yells out "My ankle… It hurts!"

The other student shouts "Oh no!" Before gulping and helping the other not put any more pressure on the ankle as he starts to walk with him saying "We gotta get you to the nurse!"

As a shadowy figure is nearby hiding under the stairs watching this all happen, and presumably the culprit of it. The shadowy figure then laughs almost like a spray bottle before they make their escape.

It then switches over to Yuu for a second as she gets another vision.

It's the exact same thing as the flat red shadowy background, but this time it's yellow and entirely empty, as two drops of black liquid. Or most likely now known as blot drops down onto it, forming a small puddle of blot on the flat yellow background.

As Yuu just then snaps out of it with a concerned Deuce, Grim, and Ace looking at her strangely and worriedly.

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays before it fully turns off.