It was after eight in the evening when Peony made her way back to the school grounds. The setting sun of the school was quite a lovely sight.
Setting sun? She paused in bewilderment as she realized. It was eight in the south of Shaftlands. Shouldn't it be dark by now?!
Feeling a headache coming on, she glared at the direction of the school before hurrying towards the underground waterways. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice echo in the tunnels.
"Have we cleared the area?"
Yuu! She hurried through the tunnels only to come across an extraordinary sight! The tunnels were covered with a layer of brightly lit flowers the color of flames! She breathed in disbelief and awe at the sight as she gasped, "Firelotuses..."
She raised a hand and stated coldly, with a hint of anger, "Part."
The flowers trembled before slowly retracting their vines and roots away to create a path. She quickly made her way through. She pulled out a dreamcatcher charm and took a quick glance at it before making her way to the outer rim of the waterways as she could feel the flowers slowly drain her spiritual energy. There, she found them: the Night Raven College students.
"I've done weeding before, but it still wears me out." Jamil hunched over wearily as Peony rushed over.
"Malleus." She called over to them as she made her way through the flowers.
They looked to her in surprise as Grim tilted his head in confusion, "Who are you?"
Though her hair color had changed, Jamil could still recognize her face as his eyes widened, "You're the dancer. Wait! The fire lotuses!"
"Peony." Malleus raised a brow, "Are you even immune to the flowers?"
"Peony?" Idia muttered with a confused expression. That name sounds very familiar...
Everyone looked to him in surprise. Does he know who this silver-haired person is? The Shut-in Idia?
"Hardly." Peony scowled in annoyance, "Where is that fool?"
"You're probably speaking of Rollo Flamme." Malleus glowered angrily.
"Who else could do something this stupid?" Peony huffed with disdain, "If you got a problem with him, I suggest you wait until I finish picking at his flesh and bone."
Her words brought a shiver down their spines as Jamil was about to speak when Deuce suddenly spoke up, "Um, guys? Professor Trein's still crouching on the ground over here..."
"He is?..." Riddle turned back only to find the professor struggling to stand. He quickly rushed over to his side and offered support, "You're right. Are you okay, Professor?"
"Back's too stiff..." Trein breathed heavily, "Can't get up..."
As Riddle brought him over to a nearby stone bench, Ruggie sighed, "Sheesh, a few weeds and you guys are cryin' uncle? The smallest kids would handle this kinda job back in the slums."
"The condition of the smallest kids' structures cannot be compared with that of an elderly." Peony hushed before quietly forcing the flowers back with a wave and strode over to the professor, "Take this painkiller."
"Thank you." The man took the pills and sighed in relief.
"I'm so worn out I don't even have the energy to get annoyed at your weird weeding flex..." Idia flopped to the ground tiredly.
"I'm with you guys. I used to do weeding all the time in the orchards back home... But these firelotuses have long, strong roots. They ain't no garden-variety weeds." Epel grimaced.
"Indeed they are not. Uprooting even one is an arduous task." Rook shook his head, wiping away the sweat, "You said that people eradicated these plants long ago. How did they achieve that feat?"
"Their methods have not been passed down in our lore." Malleus replied, "But considering how swiftly these flowers multiply, I doubt they did it by picking them one by one."
"To think a plant species could propagate so quickly even down here, with no sunlight. What a bothersome bloom." Riddle grumbled irritably.
"Unfortunately, I can't say the flowers are too pleased with the situation either." Peony huffed, "Their caretaker, Rollo, is supposed to be present to tend to them, or so they say."
"You can understand flora?" Malleus raised a brow.
"Did you think I can only make them bloom?" She scoffed, "Do you truly think it will be a simple matter to order the firelotuses to stand down? The flora listens to me. However, commanding them not to absorb mana is the same as telling a starving child not to touch even a drop of water. The flowers are starving, so they are acting frantic in the search for nutrients."
"Who are you?" Sebek glared at her suspiciously, "The flowers are nothing but insects against us!"
"And I see those insects have already begun terrorizing the city in your absence." She huffed, "As for my name, I am Peony."
"Peony..." Jamil muttered in deep thought before gasping, "You mean, Peony Aine Xue?!"
She glared at Jamil, startling him as she scowled, "Looks like I've become quite well known."
"Who is that again?" Grim frowned in confusion.
"During the last day of the fairy gala, the fairy queen and king officially recognized their adopted human daughter as a member of the royal family, bestowing the name Aine to her." Jamil explained, "Her name was Peony Aine Xue."
"What?!"
"It's just a middle name." Grim looked to her in confusion and disbelief.
"So she is royalty?" Yuu looked to her with a puzzled look.
"The name Aine is normally bestowed upon the next fairy queen." Malleus explained.
She smiled pleasantly as she stated politely, "A name I certainly do not deserve while an explanation that does not need to be explained just as much as you would prefer the world to know the cute little nickname. Right, Tsunotaro?"
With each word irritating him, he sneered, "Jealous? We simply imagined you would prefer an introduction."
"Tsunotaro? How did you know about that?" Grim looked to her in confusion.
"Ah, right." Yuu's eyes lit up upon realization, "Lotus works alongside the fairies and has ties with the royal family. Is he all right?"
Hearing this, Peony chuckled in amusement, "Ah, yes. He's currently gone around sheltering the other magicians. He and my assistant are both very busy at the moment. I can imagine they are also sheltering the fairies as well."
"Malleus also seems familiar with her." Azul looked to him in confusion.
Malleus huffed, "The queen had aided the fairies with her adoption a few years ago. Ever since then, the two families have become close without my knowledge. It was only recently when I learned about it as well."
Silver nodded, "We've only learned about it during the fairy gala. Malleus received an invitation letter to the last day of the event."
"Speaking of invitations, I told you not to look forward to this event, this time. But, you just have to ignore my words, didn't you?" Peony huffed.
"Hmph! I don't see you ignoring your invitation." Malleus pouted with a glare.
"Malleus is... pouting?" Deuce looked up in surprise.
"More importantly, what about your master?" Malleus frowned.
"He'll be all right. The president of the Council of Magic has arrived as soon as I sent word." She sighed in disdain, "More importantly, we need to stop Rollo fast. Master asked that I stop him on his behalf, but kids like him need a good smack from another kid his age to get the senses knocked back in him."
Ruggie shuddered, "She's not really sugarcoating the words, is she?"
"What are you going to do?" Malleus raised a brow.
"I will be cleaning out the junk." Peony huffed, "Follow me. I know the way out of the waterways. Little Jiu."
A blue horse appeared with large scales across his body and two antlers appeared at her call.
"Help me carry their chaperon." She instructed.
"Okay!" A child-like voice responded before kneeling onto the ground.
"Woah!" Epel gasped, "What is that?!"
"A Qilin..." Riddle muttered in surprise before realizing his mistake and stammered, "It was recorded in one of Lotus's books."
Having helped the teacher onto it comfortably, Peony nodded, "That's right. However, he is still barely newborn. We should move as quietly as possible."
Seeing the horse, Jamil frowned as he mumbled under his breath, "Exactly the same..."
As Peony led them away, Grim spoke up, "If you knew about the fairy gala, why not ask the guys to have their party somewhere else? Thanks to them, we nearly froze to death!"
"Hehe!" Peony sneered, "Unfortunately, it is a celebration we look forward to. This year, her majesty painstakingly went through the effort to gather as much supplies as she could just to hold this event. There's no way we would dare tell her of the trouble her efforts had brought upon others."
Malleus explained, "The celebration was meant to be the last time the princess would take part. Thus, they chose the botanical garden as the event site. It was both near humans and a venue for the celebration. Aside from that, the princess was the one who secretly sold the bottle of fairy dust and leaked the venue information during the incident."
"Then, you appeared during the second to last day of the gala." Silver muttered in surprise.
"Yes. My mother was feeling homesick during then. So, I had contacted the king and then left to visit her. The first event left her saddened as soon as it ended. The impression seemed to have made her wish my father was present to celebrate with her. However, he is always busy, especially after our kingdom finally revealed itself to the outside world. So, I had to handle the majority of the documents so that he could hurry to the queen's side." She huffed, "Makes me wonder why I don't have a sibling yet."