Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Third person POV:

You could see a figure resembling a cat with blue flames blazing from his ears standing in front of a glowing mirror, looking annoyed at it. Near him is a bed. Someone was lying on it, sweating and trashing around. The cat seems to be talking to the mirror.

"Can you stop it? We are trying to sleep here. Yuu has enough of these dreams and nightmares that they can’t get a good night of sleep, thanks to you they are getting restless and I am starting to be unable to sleep too!"

The cat looking more angry than annoyed now continues to rant.

"Every time this happens something bad comes. Are you some type of cursed object? Me and my henchman have enough of this! If you aren't going to stop I'm going to burn and break you! The only thing you bring are problems."

He looks into the mirror. This scenario has been happening for a few weeks but like every other time nothing changed so he continues.

"You are completely useless and just stop this!"

The only thing that changed is that now the other person named Yuu starts to shake and breath heavily. Completely done with the mirror the cat for the first time does what he says and angrily tries to burn it, but with no avail. Yuu seeming to be unable to wake up just continues to sleep, trapped in their dream. So the cat now tries to break it but the moment his paws touch the surface of the mirror he seems to get slowly swallowed by the thing. Now panicky screaming out for help but Yuu is still asleep and the ghosts who reside here are nowhere to be seen. A voice suddenly speaks up.

"Useless? And only bring problems? Are you talking about yourself dear Grim? I'm just doing what my purpose in this world's story is."

Where did that come from?““ Grim looks around to find the voice and then at the mirror.

" Story? what are you talking about? And what type of purpose are you talking about? Giving people nightmares? And who do you think you are to talk to me like this!"

The voice from the mirror ignores him. The voice is now the one that sounds annoyed.

"I don’t really care about you. I could ignore you until now but really? trying to destroy me? even I have some limits. You Grim have from my point of view done your job and are not needed anymore. Even if you have another purpose here, I'm done with you."

Grim struggles to get free but to no avail. The mirror proceeds.

"Still, I'm not allowed to harm you... But sending you somewhere else will work for me... Didn't someone say that they need a person for...? Aaha that can work, they are going to be thankful and I won't have to see you. Be happy that it's nearly identical to this story. You may not be completely lost there. Hope to never see you again. Bye-Bye!"

The mirror sounded happy and Grim ,struggling to no avail screams for help but is unable to free himself, he gets swallowed whole. His screams cut off.

.

.

Grim POV:

Where am I?!? I was just in Ramshackle dorm. What did that mirror do?! Looking around me I saw nothing but endless darkness. I tried to use my magic but it didn’t work, so i started to walk ahead, this place seemed to be endless. Suddenly I hear a sound and in front of me appeared a loading screen.

Loading....

• Welcome to the reception hall. I am your new system that will be helping you in this world

"Ehh? What? Did the Ignihyde dorm head do this?"

• No he did not

"If not then who?"

There was no answer.

"How did I get here?"

• You managed to annoy a mirror that wanted you to be gone

"...."

Looking at the screen it has a menu and language settings, everything else has locks on them.

• At the moment you're unable to use most things, but over time you can unlock them

"I don't care about that. I want to go back! Let me go!"

• I apologise, but I'm unable to grant that request

"Whee? I'm not requesting anything I am ordering it!"

• Do you want to start the story now?

• -YES - - NO-

"What do you mean start the story? I want to go back?"

• You don't want to start the story now? Okey, if you want to start the story just call me

Suddenly the screen disappeared and I was left alone again. Angrily I started to walk, just a little bit scared to be alone again, with the only light coming from my fire that I have on my ears. I kept slowly going and just hoping to find an exit for this place.

.

.

Some time later...

"System?"

• Do you want to start the story now?

"I. want. to. be. let. out!"

• Request not granted

.

.

After a few hours of begging and arguing...

• Preparation time has ended. the story will now automatically start

"WHAT?!! WHAT do you mean the story is starting automatically!?"

Grim looks at the countdown that had started in front of him.

• 13...

• 12...

• 11....

• Changes on host are starting

"Stop it!! I don´t want anything to be starting or changing!"

• 10...

• 9...

• Activating modules

"STOP!"

• 8....

• 7..

• 6..

• checking for any last updates...

"Abort this!"

• 5...

• 4..

• Loading......

"P-please stop I just want to go home..."

• 3...

• 2..

• 1....

• Loading complete

A big match bigger screen appeared with the title:

Twisted Wonderland

A mirror was in front of me and my whole body hurt suddenly. It was like I was on fire and not just my ears. Everything burnt. I felt ants crawling on me. Then the mirror starts to talk and I'm pretty sure something in my body cracked.

“You gotta be kidding me. What's with this mirrors these days? Do they hate me? Because I'm starting to hate them“

~Ah, my lovely Lord,

My noble and beautiful flower of evil,

“Beautiful flower of evil?“* Did the mirror just get closer or did I get closer to it?

You are the most beautiful, number one in this world.*.*

Mirror, mirror on the wall,

who’s the most…

“Wait is that galloping? Why do I hear horses... Didn't Yuu say something about this once...?"

For thee, guided by the Mirror of Darkness,

Follow thy hearts desire

and take the hand of the one reflected in the mirror.

I am not taking anyone's hand if it's not my way home."- I tried to say, but my voice seemed to have given up. I was leaning over. My body slowly also giving up. From the mirror emerged a hand."

Flames that turn even stars into ashes,

Ice that imprison even time,

Great trees that swallow even the sky,

“My head is going to explode. Can't this thing just let me go in peace?“

Don’t be afraid of the power of darkness,

Come now, show your power.

“Oh, I’ll show you my power the moment I stop dying here and my magic begins to function!“ Light arises out of the mirror and the arm grabs me and forcefully drags me in. “Not again. Did I declare some war against them? Or is it pull Grim day?“ I am yet again unable to free myself, but this time because of pain, I get dragged in. I was pulled more and more from the place I came in. I felt completely drained.

For me. For them. For you.

“I think i’m losing my consciousness.“

There’s only little time left for us.

“Little time left for us? I think you mean little time left for me because I'm dying here. Nyaa, I didn't even have time to be done eating my last tuna can and....I'll never be able to see Yuu and the others again...“  Whatever you think I'm not crying. I'm not.....

Do not let go of that hand,

at all costs~

“Not like I have any option here“ Slowly being consumed by darkness, I passed out. The last thing to hear was the gallop of horses.

Chapter Text

Grim POV:

'I'm stuck' was the first thing that I thought after waking up. This time I was in some thigh place it was highly uncomfortable. 'Am I in a box?' My body felt weird too  bud that wasn't the problem here at the moment. It was pitch dark and I couldn't move anywhere. I tried to use my fire magic but like before with no avail. Every time I tried to use some type of magic an icon would show up whit the text:

• You don't have a high enough level for this

Or

• You didn't unlock this. Please use your points to unlock.

With no luck I tried to use my non-existing strength. I stared to kick and pound all over the place but nothing moved even a inch, my calls for help weren't going anywhere too. I started to breathe heavily this was even worse than before at least I could move there. The “very helpful“ system didn't answer it only showed what I can't do it wouldn't reply or react to anything else. Now I started to shake. 'I hate being on my own. I want Yuu. Suddenly one part of this box or whatever this is began to open, not even waiting a second I forcefully opened it fully. Just moments later I was on the floor.

"So this is from were the sounds were coming from. Huh..."

"Headmaster didn't you say that the freshmen's can't wake up until you open their Gate?"

"Is this going to be a problem that we will have to solve? I don't want to be here longer than needed..."

"Oh? Anything important to do other than sleeping? Hmm?"

"You two, stop bickering like little kids just for a moment."

"..."

"coughing Its true you shouldn't be awake.... I would ask how you did this but... looking at you... you don't seem to have take waking up on your own inside the Gate well... So how..."

The moment I heard them speak I found their voices very familiar. I looked up and saw 6 of the 7 Housewardens and the headmaster. The Headmaster was standing by the Gate that I was in a few minutes ago, he seemed to be thinking, not breaking eye contact with me and never looking away. The Scarabia dormhead was standing near him smiling like always. Next to him was the Pomefiore dormhead looking at me with a judging look. Octavinelle and Savanaclaw dormheads are having a staring contest or planning each other's dead but I'm not sure. Heartslabyul dormhead looks like he is trying to figure me out. Ignihnyde’s tablet is trying to turn invisible. The Diasomnia dormhead forgotten like always. Then the Headmaster spoke up suddenly.

"Could you say your name and what happened?"

'What? Why are they acting like they don't know me? And... why can't I remember their names?'

"Are you going to continue lying on the floor? Your robes are getting even more dirty. *mumbles* Your skin and hair care are ruined enough already..."

'I heard that! But what was that about my skin and hair care? My fur is perfect all the time, and what robes is he talking about? Yuu never allows me to wear theirs, always going about how it's to big for me...' a sad expression crept onto my face when I started to think about my henchman.

"You should respect the things that the school gives, some can just dream to be here and wear this. Stand up!"

The moment that the Heartslabyul dormhead said his command I tried to stand up as fast as possible.

"Wow ! they’re new and are already listen to you."

"You already got this one under your control it seems."

Ignoring them I tried to stand up slowly but 3 things happened.

1. The moment I tried to get on my legs, my legs and arms dedicated to say bye and I gave the floor a high five with my face.
2. The pain from the 'lobby' came back.
3. I saw human hand in front of my face which was mine, it shouldn't be a human hand but a paw.

Then I realized that it's not the only part that changed. My other paw? Hands? Were human looking and when I looked back I saw that my legs were the same. I was now baffled, uneasy, and disorientated. Without warning, I was pulled up on my feet.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Does he look alright for you?"

"No, not even a bit. I just wanted to ask. It's polite."

When the two let go of me I nearly fell down again but this time the headmaster managed to catch me. Dazed from all this I answered the questions.

"It’s me... Grim. I'm not sure what's going on or what happened... I am.. Feeling fine..?"

Now everyone gave me a pointed look of disbelief. I could even feel it from the tablet.

"Grim was it? Right please go with one of the housewardens. After we end the ceremony I want to talk to you okey?"

"Wh-"

"Splendid. Can one of you be kind enough to bring him there? Thanks"

"I-"

"The others continue with me."

He left before I could say something and forgetting that I'm unable to stand on my own, luckily I managed to support myself with the Gate that I came out of.  A thought came to me 'Okey... why. am. I. at the start of the school year?! Oh and why the duck am I a human!?!' This robes were the ones that they wore at the entering ceremony I wasn't allowed, and now for some reason I was wearing them. Then I got angry. 'Oy! am I allowed to be a student now because I'm human? This is disastrous!' The housewardens were staring at each other intensely at the moment. 'I really need to go to Ramshackle and demand an answer from the mirror.  Not to go on some type of ceremony, even less on one i were before.' Wanting to get away from here as fast as possible I spoke up.

"I can handle going on my own. There's no need for someone to go with me."

Now they were looking at me again.

"You don't even know the location. and let’s not forget about your inability to stand, let alone walk on your own."

Stubbornly I moved away from the Gate that I was leaning on but Mr. Sunshine grabbed me before I could do more.

"I can accompany you to the chamber."

I tried to free myself but he literally just picked me up and started to walk away. 'What does the snake feed him? I'm pretty sure someone with his stature shouldn't be able to lift me that easy... and now I'm hungry.'

.

.

'System!'

• Yes?

'What's going on?'

• Could you pronounce the question more direct?

'First of all is this some type of time travel magic?'

• No it's not.

'And what is this place then if not the past?'

• This is not the story from were you came from. In this story Yuu never came too Night Raven College.

'Yuu never came into this world?'

• Oh, no that's not what I said. Yuu is in Twisted Wonderland, they just never ended up here. They are somewhere else.

'That doesn't explain why I'm here!'

• Let's just say that without them here this place will go pretty much into ruins. Some students would end up hurt or worse dead. Even though that the main story of this world isn't playing out here people who go to this school are still important for it. Without them this worlds structure and balance would be destroyed. Afterwards, everything else would go to Ruin.

'What does that have to do with me?'

• You are here to make sure that nobody dies so that the story can continue.

'Hee? Do I look like I want to do this? Do I even look like a good option for you? Can’t I just leave? Just let me go back. Don't you have a person to do this? It's weird to take someone from another world.'

• Do you think we’re dumb? We had a person for this! There was... how to say this a small accident... and we were unable to find a replacement here in such a short notice. You were the only candidate at the moment.

'Accident? What type of accident? You know what I don't want to know, just send me back!'

• If you want to go back you have to help us. Then we'll show you a way.

'Oh, if you want my help why can't I remember their names? I know my versions of them. And what good are you for if my magic isn't even working with you?'

• We had to block some stuff to make sure that the track of the storyline will continue. It's not easy to synchronize you with this place. Something's got accidentally lost and trust us, with our help your abilities will soon be better here than they were in your old world.

'How can my abilities get much more better here than in my world? That doesn't make sense'

• Get points and unlock stuff or go into the shop and buy something. the shop and other things will open after the ceremony ends, I don't want anything on fire the first day. I heard about what you did in yours.

'H-hey!'

• By the way you really should answer.

'Eh? wh-'

Suddenly someone started to shake me.

"Are you OK? You haven't been answering me for some time."

"I-i'm sorry I was thinking and didn't hear you."

"That's no problem, you must be not feeling too well from waking up looked up in a coffin, being unable to leave. It must have been horrible."

"Yeah... I wouldn't want to repeat that."

"Oh yeah... by the way I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Kalim, the Housewarden of Scarabia. It's nice to meet you."

As he said his name, an information sheet appeared next to him. 'What is this for? I can't really do anything with this.'

Kalim Al-Asim

Friendship level: 0 (you are strangers to each other)

Level: 48

Age: 17

Birthday: June 25

Height: 168 cm

Homeland: Scalding Sands

Position: Housewarden of Scarabia

Signature spell:  Oasis Maker - It can summon a large amount of fresh water with only a small amount of magic and effort on his part.

- other informations are locked at the moment, you have to get to know the character or find out stuff other ways –

" It's nice to meet you too... I'm Grim."

"I know, you introduce yourself before to the headmaster, don’t you remember?"

"Y-yeah I remember."

• Juhu! You met and had your first real conversation with someone. You got 10 points

'So that's a way to get points'

Now that I looked around I saw that we were already in the ceremony hall. It seems that we were now waiting for the others to come. I was thinking about taking a little nap to calm down but...

• have a discussion with Kalim to get 5 points

'I hope the points are worth it. It won't hurt to talk to him regardless' I turned around and started to talk to him. After I said the first words, he picked and lead the whole conversation.

Chapter Text

Kalim and I were talking,or rather he was talking for around 15 minutes. He seemed to be thrilled. Then people started to come in.

"It looks like the ceremony is about to start. I should go back to the others. Are you okay with walking on your own?"

"I will manage. Thank you."

"Just ask if you have any problem. I would love to help you."

"No! really there is no need."

"Mhm! It was nice to talk to you. You should visit me sometime. It would be great. I could even introduce you to Jamil!"

He sounded very happy. Then he started to talk very excitedly.

"You know what would be even better? If you ended up in my dorm. Then we could see each other all the time. I hope you will. It would be great to have a new friend. I am sure Jamil will agree."

When he stoped talking Kalim went to the side were the other housewardens stood. When everyone arrived in the room the ceremony began.

.

.

In some way it was interesting to be part of the ceremony. The last time I took part I wasn’t really a wanted guest. But still…

'This is so boring... I thought it would be more interesting and exciting.'

In many ways I didn't want to be here, not just because of boredom. I wasn't concentrating the most of the part. The only people that I really noticed were the counterparts of my henchman's friends.

Lost in my thoughts, I nearly didn't hear me being called to the front. I slowly went up to the front. Nearly more than once I trip. *'I really hate this body.'* I could hear people around me chuckling at my misery.

When I was in front of the mirror, I was face to face with a mask that was inside it. It looked at me with a bored expression the same way I felt.

"State your name."

"Grim..."

"The shape of your soul is...

....

...."

I could see how the mirror's look turned more interested.

"Hmm. So that's how it is...

The dorm is Ramshackle."

There was dead silence. They all had a shocked and confused expression. Then suddenly, the whispering started.

"I never heard about that dorm. Does it even exist?"

"Ramshackle... Ramshackle… Never heard of it."

"Is the Mirror broken?"

"I believe I heard about it somewhere. But where?.."

"I know it's the closed down dorm. I don't really know anything else about it. My brother once talked about it."

The whispering continued. I looked at the housewarden's. They too had a confused expression. 'I forgot about that. Ramshackle isn't really a dorm.' That headmaster was still standing for a few minutes, just frozen in place, then as if woken up from death, he run up to me and the mirror.

"I apologize, but that must be a mistake. Ramshackle has been closed down for a long time."

The mirror looks lifelessly at the headmaster now.

"I'm not repeating myself. This is the last one, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Goodnight. We’ll see each other hopefully just next year. Don't call me if it's not important."

"..."

I nearly laughed.'pfft. Now you see how it feels to be cut off.'

"Okay okay good...mmm. Housewardens please take the students that were assigned to your dorm. I'm going to be kind enough to deal with this one."

The housewardens nodded and went to take the students. 'The ceremony was so boring. The last one was more exciting. Maybe because I was there for just a few minutes.'

I see Kalim waving to me. He too looked confused about this situation. He seems to want to talk to me, but decided not and went to do his job. The headmaster was staring at me intensively.

"Follow me. I will be kind enough to escort you to your dorm. For I am so gracious ."

'That's something only you believe.'

"It looks like the mirror made the decision, and we can't change that at the moment. Either way I want to talk to you, about what happened before. So come."

He grabbed my hand and dragged me away.

• Great (^-^) You've survived the ceremony without any catastrophes. I really thought you would destroy something.

'What does this thing believe I am, a walking catastrophe?'

• For managing this you get 25 points and yes I believe so.

We walked a few minutes away from everyone else. When there was no one to see or hear, he stopped dragging me. He turned around and looked at me.

"It seems that there are going to be complications with you. First of all, could you explain to me how you woke up in the Gate without me opening it? If you know something?"

"I just woke up in there."

"Just woke up?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm in the wrong place. Like a hundred percent."

"What do you mean, at the wrong place?"

'Finally, he listens.' "True to say I-"

I started to cough. I put my hand in front of my mouth. When I stopped coughing. I looked at my hand and saw blood at them.

'Wh-'

• I apologize for not warning you about this. I didn't have the time.

'What is this?! Warning me about what!? Why am I coughing blood!?? Is this your fault??'

• You see....

'What should I see???'

• This is a precaution to make sure that you don't say anything about the other world. There won't be any problems if you don't talk about it.

When I looked at the Headmaster I saw that he was stretching his hand trying to giving me a tissue. I took it and I wiped away the blood as fast as I could.

"Do you need to go to the nurse's office?"

"No! I-i." I made a pause. "I think.... think this is a side effect of waking up in the Gate."

"It may be better to take a look..."

"NO! I... I really think there is no need"

"Hmm Okay. It seems we should talk about this on another date. If something like this happens again, tell me or a teacher."

"Yeah... sure..."

"Good. The second problem could be….. you see… How to explain... The dormitory that you were assigned to... Is.. Is a little bit... Lets just say it has not been used for some time. So it's not really in its former glory. Just come, you will see. As kind as I am I will escort you there."

Some time later I was in front of Ramshackle now. 'I forgot how rundown this place really was.'

"As you can see, this place is a little bit old, but it has its own charm."

'Charm my ass. Can we just go inside? The rain and wind are annoying. My ear fire will go out at this rate.' I was trying to protect my ears and everything else with my hoodie from the robe, but it wasn't working out in my benefit. The headmaster looked at me intensely, waiting for an answer.

"What do you think?"

"This place is too much for the great me. Maybe a little less of this charm would be helpful."

"Mhn really? Please come inside."

I run or rather I moved my legs as fast as I could. Doing my best to not fall. 'Why? Why am I a human? This is horrible! I don't believe I will get used to this.'

When we finally came in, I looked around. Everywhere had a layer of dust that looked like snow. The pictures were hung up in various directions, some were on the floor. Books and other stuff were lying on the floor too. The wallpaper was falling apart. The spider webs were nice decorations for this place, they were really completing the room. 'Lovely... I completely forgot how this place looked like... I really need to find out how long this dorm wasn't used and why.'

"Staying here will at least keep you out of the rain. I'm going to pick up your stuff and bring them here. They should have been already delivered here but... it seems because this place wasn't used for some time the transport could have caused problems... I will bring some supplies too. I am sure. If you clean up this place a little bit, you should be able to sleep here."

"Mmm. Is this school going to repair the dorm? Since I'm here now and a student.."

I looked at him. 'I really, reaaally don't want to clean up this place or repair it. That's the school's job even more the headmaster’s. This is school territory he is meant to take care of. I think that’s what he's paid for. What type of person would let somebody stay here?'

He seemed to be nervous and slowly backed away from me to the door.

"You see it really makes no sense to repair a whole building just for one person. This could be very short-term, just temporary. Maybe just until the mirror does decide to move you somewhere else. If not, we could ask to the housewardens if there there’s free rooms available. It would be very lonely to be here on your own after all. I'll be back..."

"Hey don't leave! I'm not done!"

I tried to stop him from leaving, but he was already outside before I could do anything.

Then at that moment water started to drip on me from above. I looked angrily up. *'I freaking forgot about this.'* A screen appeared in front of me again.

• You just managed to get to your living quarters, you unlocked the map. To open the map more, you have to explore or merge it with others. If you your your points you can unlock other staff on the map.

A map was now there but just the Ramshackle common room was there, everything else was black.

• You will able to use your fire again too if you use 30 points.

The moment they say that I clicked at it and used the points without thinking. Then I tried to use it and it worked. I happily played with it a bit.

• Please be careful. I can block it if I believe that it's too dangerous for you or the others.

I glared at the screen.

• The shop is unlocked now too. If you want to look into it-

I didn't listen to it any more and run as fast as I could up the stairs into the room where I and Yuu live in my world. I wanted to talk to talk to the mirror. It may not be the same one from my world, but it must have the same abilities. I hoped for myself. When I reached the room, I saw that it was identical to the one when I and my henchman were here for the first time. Just with one tiny difference, the mirror was missing.

'This has to be a joke. I know i didn't want to see the mirror anymore, but that didn't mean I want to be sent somewhere else where the mirror isn't here or doesn't even exist.'

I went back into the common room, not wanting to be there without Yuu. I felt terribly lonely. When I entered the common room, I saw the Ramshackle Ghosts floating around. 'Just my luck. I really don't want to deal with them.' I tried to leave before they see me but... my legs stopped cooperating with me again and I fell on my butt and a loud thud was heard. The ghost snapped their head in my direction and are now looking at me.

• Surprise mission starts now. Calm down the ghosts in any possible way. For this you get 20 points....

The ghosts started to circle around me coming closer to me by every minute. I wanted to start throwing fire at them but....

• Please don't burn this place down.

My fire stopped working.

'Didn't you just say in any possible way?!'

• I said calm them down not burn them down.

I was frantically looking around, trying to find out what to do, but then the ghosts started to speak up.

"We haven't had visitors in ages! Oh, I'm just itching for new friends! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"All the people who used to live here got scared of us and sadly ran away. "

"We just want a new ghost to play with! What do you say, buddy? Mhmm? "

"I-i… ehmm…"

'What should I do!?'

Chapter Text

'This thing is becoming really annoying. How am I meant to calm them down?'

One of them appeared right in front of me as I was thinking. It was the small one. I couldn't help it but shout out from the fear.

"Ahh! Stop it! C-"

I tried to say his name accidentally.The moment I did I started to cough out blood again.'This is becoming a real problem.' But for some reason he listened to me when I told him to stop. He Stopped attacking me, the others stopped too. The three were staring at me now. They were the ones to look frightened now. 'What's up with them? They never care about what I say or do, even in my world. They just stop bothering me when Yuu stops them.' They started blabbering over each other in a worried tone.

"Are you OK? Are you really dying?"

"If yes, then stop please. We didn't really mean that you join us. Not that I dislike you! It's just that we don't want to be anyone's cause of dead..."

"We are really just joking around. We don't mean it seriously."

They were frantically looking at each other. Seemingly trying to repair the situation somehow.

"What should we do in this situation? I don't remember what to do."

They seem to be trying to help me. But without much luck. Thanks to their lack of knowledge. I was looking at them with disbelief. 'Is scaring other people really what they're calling jokes? No wonder that no one comes here anymore.' The ghosts seem to have slowly gotten a hold of themselves and stopped panicking.

"Do you need help to get up?"

One of them asked, now thinking clearer. I just started at them.

"Maybe he got a concussion?"

"From falling on his ass?"

"Yes?"

They had a thinking expression. Seemingly being deep in thought.

"Who even is he? And why is he here? Everyone in this school knows not to trespass onto our ground."

"Maybe he is a freshman. he does have the ceremony robe."

"Why would a freshman be here? The ceremony just ended. They should be now at their dorms. I believe we should call someone? He could have sneaked away. It wouldn't be the first time that a freshman did it for fun or attention?"

I spoke up angrily.

"I didn't sneak in!"

"Then why are you here?"

"This is my dorm!"

They all looked shocked.

"Really!?"

"This, this... is Great!"

"We didn't have any new Ramshackle students for a long time. I thought we would not get any more students ever again."

They all seemed to be happy. One of them even made a loop in the air. 'Why are they so happy about this?' Then I heard a dink and a screen appeared in front of me.

• Surprise mission -Calm down the ghosts in any possible way.- Was completed. for this you get your promised 20 points. Your fire will work again too.

I breathed out. 'I don't know what's going on with the ghosts, but this must mean that they won't throw stuff at me anymore.'

• A new main mission was opened to repair Ramshackle up so that it doesn't rain inside the kitchen, halls and Lounge. Not to forget the room you would sleep for 150 points.

I nearly choked. 'Is this thing trying to kill me? Or is it trying some form of torture?'

Suddenly, the tallest ghost picked me up and put me on the couch. He was looking over me, checking if I have any injuries from the stuff that they had thrown at me.

"Thanks for the help?"

They were now all by the couch right in front of me. They all were smiling.

"Mmm. No problem? This was somehow our fault."

"Not really. This is... a personal medical issue in a way."

"Sooo Are you really a new member for our dorm?"

"Yes? That’s what I just said."

They were just staring at me now directly. With a look that I couldn't describe. They weren't even moving. It was somehow unsettling.

"Do you guys have any tissues?"

As if broken from a curse, they started to move again. They vanished into another room. Not wanting to be here any longer and deal with this situation, I tried to leave but without success. The moment I was finally by the door, they came back. I was pick upped again and dumped on the couch. One of them started to clean the blood of me with the tissue.

"Why were you trying to leave?"

"I am getting uncomfortable at the moment."

"Why would you even want to leave? This is a nice place."

"..."

A picture fell from the wall behind. 'are they serious?'

"Why are you guys so happy about me being a Ramshackle student?"

"The school doesn't want to do anything with this building anymore. So there is a threat that they will demolish this place or give it to another dorm who will pay for it on its own."

"But now that there is a student they can't do that... I think. "

"That means that we can stay here too!"

"Oh... Good for you guys... That explains your reaction... a bit."

The ghosts suddenly looked at the door.

"Looks like we have to leave. Bye!"

They all vanished. The next moment, the door opened, and the headmaster entered. He went to me, looking a bit distressed.

"There was no stuff for you that I found, no luggage, bags, boxes, nothing... "

"I don-"

"They might have gotten lost or are coming late.... But fear not, they will be found! And since I am so gracious, I brought some substitute stuff. I brought a school uniform and some clothes. I don't know if they will fit. But they should work."

He shoved a bag into my hand.

"I brought some food and cleaning supplies too."

The stuff appeared right next to me.

"I will come tomorrow and show you the way to the school building."

He left, he just left, not giving me a chance to say anything. I looked into the food bag but to my shock there was no tuna. Then the screen appeared again.

• 2 Tuna cans will be given as a bonus reward for this mission.

So I picked some fruits and in pure pain went to start the mission. 'System? Do you have anything in this shop that could help me with this?'

• You can buy the handyman skill for 25 points.
• With this, you can speed up the process and it will give you some knowledge about how to repair and the maintenance of the building.

'Of all things I could get...'

• It would be the most suitable skill for you at the moment. Would you like to have this skill?

'Yeah... sure...'

• You gained the handyman skill. it is at level 1 at the moment.

.

.

An eternity later I repaired the leaks. It still wasn't perfect but at least it doesn't rain inside the Lounge, kitchen, halls and Yuu’s and- I mean my room.  I was tired. After I ate my tuna cans, I went into…. my... room. I couldn't stay there. It felt lonely, empty. I fell asleep in the Lounge on the couch.

Chapter Text

I heard something slamming into the ground. Startled, I woke up. I sat up and looked dazed around me. I saw next to me our lovely ghosts with a bag in their hand while the content is on the floor. They were staring at me. 'Nope.'  I didn't want to deal with this and just laid down again, closing my eyes, trying to fall asleep again.

"hey... Hey... HEY! Don't you have to wake up for school?"

"Uhhh... "

"Laze about too long and you'll never wake up again. "

"Just like us! Eee heehee!"

"Myah?!"

I was suddenly on the ground. Now, not having any option, I stood up. I looked in the direction were the stuff that they took out of the bags were. There was clothes lying around it. It was an old school uniform. There was a cape and hat to similar with what the ghosts are wearing. They seem to have prepared them for me.

"Thanks for the help..."

"No problem we're your dorm mates after all."

"We're going now, bye. Don't want to be here when the headmaster comes after all."

"Have a good day! Don't get expelled on your first day."

I picked the outfit up and dressed myself into them. They didn't really fit me. Some parts where too big, some were too small. I didn't really know how I looked in them, probably really stupid, because I really had enough with mirrors and didn't want to deal with them anymore so i'm not going to use them by choice. I was still thinking about the way to go home, but at the moment it seems that it is impossible.

Being more calm than yesterday, I decided to look into the shop to see what the system has. I've got a bit curious. There are various things in there when I looked. There is a skill section, a magic section and various objects for sell. 'I... I should have looked into this yesterday. That would have made stuff easier for me.'

• You should have listened to me (¬_¬). But I understand that has been somehow hard for yesterday. I hope you will have a better day today (^.^).

'You're awake?'

• Yes. Either way. At the moment, your main quest is to enter the school and befriend and talk to some people. At the end of the day you'll get the amount of points calculated on how successful you were.

I nodded. Then something catches my interest in the skill sets. It was the cooking and baking skills. I went into the kitchen and looked at the stuff that I had.I still had one tuna can which I was eating now. The other things that I had must be somehow prepared, and I didn't know how to do that.

At home I wasn't even allowed to touch anything without Yuu there after the fire incident in the kitchen that I caused. I still believe they overreacted. I don't care what the others said, it's not like I wanted to burn the kitchen down.

Nonetheless, I listened and didn't enter the room without Yuu even if I was hungry. Trust me, Yuu really protects their territory when it comes to the kitchen, they show a side that.... Lets just say you should listen when it comes to this. You don't want to see what happens when you don't.

But now it seems that he has to do this on his own. Even if he doesn't want and doesn't know how to. 'At least I won’t get in trouble with Yuu here... I wish I would though... I miss Yuu... and maybe the others too...'

So in the end I decided to buy both of the skills for 60 points. I was a bit hesitant because of what happens when the Information was dumped into my head yesterday, trust me it hurts. I felt as if my skull was getting ripped apart and then someone else arranged it from the inside. My handyman skill got onto level 6 and in every level, I got some new information.

The second thing was that every time that I tried to use the new knowledge form skill, I went in some type of third person mod and couldn't control myself until the action was complete. It didn't activate on its own, it just happened when I wanted to use it, luckly I found out that I could break that action too. I just had to ask the system or concentrate hard. I was in shock when it happened the first time and started to panic, but the system answered me and broke the action up. After I know how to do a specific action completely on my own, it stopped and I was allowed to do in on my own.

But still I want to eat soo... skill it is. In a few minutes, more than a hundred of different recipes were bombarded into my head. 'Ooh... Why did nobody tell me before that I need to stop using fire for speeding up the cooking and baking process... or did Yuu mention something about this?' I was holding my head in pain. Before I even could think of trying to do something with my new skill set, a voice spoke from behind me. It was the headmaster.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"Do you want a monologue? About how “great“ I slept?"

He didn't answer me, he was just gazing at me. It seems that he did just now catch on how I looked inside the clothing that I wear. I heard him whisper.

"I know to ignore the height of a person because it doesn't detriment their age, but what if the carriage accidentally send me a child? It's not like I have his age anywhere in the documents to check... maybe... maybe... no let's not think about this now..."

He looks at me again and shakes his head. As if trying to not even think about the trouble that this could cause.

"Let's move on now. I'm going to show you the way to the school building."

He started dragging me to campus. After a few minutes he started to talk.

"I just remembered. I wanted to tell you something. This morning, we finally got some information about your missing stuff that wasn't delivered and I found your documents."

I looked at him, confused. 'He shouldn't have found anything? I don't have any stuff... I have been pretty much a monster until now, if my memory serves me right, so I didn't really need anything... second of all, how could he even have any information if I wasn't even here until yesterday? Do I even exist here?'

"To tell you the truth. I have been a little bit on the edge about yesterday's situation. So after I left you I went to my office and tried to find out what happened with your stuff. I tried to find your file but I couldn't. I tried to find some of your papers, any type of registration. I tried to find anything about you... I started to think about calling some authority figures..."

'Am I going to get in some type of trouble?...'

"But then finally I found some of your documents from the hospital. There isn't much in there, despite that it is enough to explain... you... and I found out what happened to your suitcase. Its seem your gate wasn't the only thing that had a malfunction. Unluckily for you, most of it was destroyed but some of your stuff was able to be saved, but..."

He kept on talking.'Why would there be anything about me? I have been thrown here and became human just yesterday...'

• You have been merged into this world. You are now part of its story too. We had to create information about you that would somehow explain your existence and a reason why you don't have any family record or school record before this without getting you in some type of legal trouble. By the way, when someone asks just say you have amnesia and woke up from a coma last week, ok? Thanks. (^̮^)

'...what?'

• As I just told you. You legally exist here now. So there will be nothing suspicious about you being here. You were found a year ago somewhere in the Queendom of Roses with a head injury and other injuries on your body. The transformation process was tougher than we assumed. The people that found you brought you to the hospital. The only thing they could find out about you is your name. The hospital and police have a few theories on how you got there. One of them is that you got abducted because of your unusual appearance. Most probably because of your fire ears and tail. But you managed to run away. However something happened that caused your head injury. That's your story from this point on forwards.

'...'

"-im. Grim! Are you even listen to me? I just said that the stuff that was able to be saved were delivered to your room."

Startled, I stared at him. He was giving me something, he put it into my hands.

"Here, I believe you will need this in the future."

It was my bow tie, but the gemstone was missing. I nearly panicked, but then I saw it in the headmaster's other hand a pen upholding my gemstone. I snatched my bow tie and pen out of his hand.

"Careful! I understand that you're excited about getting your pen. I apologized for not be able to give you this sooner. I don't know why, but the gem was inside the bow tie. I was kindly enough to repair it. But I have to ask have used the gem before?"

"Yes?"

"Haven't you been told when you got it about what happens when someone overuses his magic? The consequences?"

"I.. know..."

"I don't know if I should believe you. Do you know how many black spots there were? I hope you will be more careful in the future. For your own and others sake. Do you understand?"

"Loud and clear.."

The headmaster breathed out.

"Secondly, because of your incident that happened on the gate, the teachers were told to look out for any issues..." He mumbled: "The housewardens couldn't stay quiet about this. I had everything under control..."

Not being aware of my surroundings for a few minutes I just noticed now that we are on the main street by the statues of the seven.

"I'm going to leave you be now. You should be able to go get around on your own now. Here's your schedule. Bye!"

I was left alone. In total confusion about what I was just told by the system and everything else. 'A year ago? I am already a year here?...' I don't know how to react to this. I was just clutching my tie and pen.

Chapter Text

"Why are you standing in the middle of the road?"

Startled, I quickly looked behind me. There in front of me stood a familiar ginger head with a heart mark. Never in life I believed i would be happy to see him. My emotions were completely scattered. I tried to hug him.

"H-hey! What are you doing!?"

The person jumped away from me before I could get too close. 'OH... I forgot that we haven't meet here...it’s just….i hate being alone….  He was staring at me now with a doubtful expression. Still, he went quickly back to showing off his energetic smile.

"Do we know each other?"

"I- no you just look like someone familiar to me... sorry..."

"Hah! It's nothing. Name's Ace. I'm a first year student here, as of... today! Pleased to meetcha! How can I call you?"

"I'm Grim... It's.... nice to meet you too..."

I turned around and decided the best action for the moment is to ignore him. I don't really want to repeat our last first meeting. So I was staring awkwardly at the statues now. I didn't know which way to go to the classes.

"Ahh you're the boy from the orientation, that was sorted in a non existent dorm aren't you?" Ace said with a smile, seemingly having an idea that he thinks it’s funny. Then he looked into the direction of the statues that i was looking at. "Hmm. Are you interested in the statues of the seven?"

Ace walked up and was standing next to me now. For some reason, he is trying to start a conversation. He was looking at me, waiting for an answer. ´I don't think he will leave before I give an answer... So I should talk to him, it would be easier... but just so that he will leave! Not because I don't really want to be alone here!´

"Y-yeah? These... are the statues of the Great Seven after all.... the dormitories here were modeled after them.... ehm..." I didn't really know what to say.

• Special interaction activated

´Wha? What do you mean by special interaction?´ The system didn't answer me, seemingly ignoring my question.

He suddenly snatched my tie and pen away from me. I tried to grab them back, but he was holding them so that I couldn't reach them.

"How much do you know about them? Hmm? Tell me something. Toddlers shouldn't be here. I'm afraid that you will not manage it here. Like c'mon, you seem to already miss your home. I am interested about what you know. If you tell me something about them I will give them back. Because i'm pretty sure toddlers like you should be still in kindergarten, just starting to learn this and not in an academy like NRC. So let's start with her. Show me that you can do the minimum. Take it as a test to find out if you should go home or not."

He was smiling at me, waiting for my answer. I looked at the statue that he was pointing at. I was ignoring what he just said me to do I still tried to get my stuff back by force. It wasn't really working, he just seemed amused by me he. It was obvious that he was trying to not laugh. ´Agrr Trust me I want to leave. Can't this thing just send me be back home and get someone else to do this. I don’t want to deal with this things´ This guy always knows how to push my buttons even if he doesn't know me. I was angry and ready to use my fire again but you guys my already know what happened.

• You activated a special interaction. This moment is important for further association. It's recommended to handle this with no violence after all. Do you want to repeat what happened the last time? In your old world that you won't go back to?

´You- you...´

• What? do you want to use your fire again? Do it. I am not stopping you this time. After all. All that could happen is that you may somehow and up getting expelled and afterwards. You don't have anywhere else to go. What would you do? You sure as hell won't be send back. Your only real job is to make sure that the people that were meant to overblot won't. The reason why I am here is to help you do your job and as a bonus, help you to have a good life here.

´J-just send me home. You don't seem to be happy to have me here. Isn't it better to just attach yourself to someone from this world? Y-you know what would be even better? Just change it so that the overblots don't happen or cause anyone's dead. You said that you are making me part of this world, so you could not do that and just change it so it won't cause trouble for this world.It does seem as if you have some manipulation power or so...´

• Believe me, if I would be able to do that, then you wouldn't be even here to begin with. I am able to add some things that are related to you, but only because you aren't from this world. I am unable to remove the stuff that's already part of this place. You being unable to remember the names of the people wasn't meant to happen. That was an accident. To say the true. The other things are meant to just help you adjust

´I don't want to adjust. I want to go back.´

• But why? You have a shop here where you can buy things to make it easier for you. Either way, the people are pretty much the same like from your original world. You can take this as a new chance of life. This time you are fully a student of NRC. Didn't you always wish that? To become a great mage? A prodigy? You are either way unable to go back. I'm unable to send you there. Even if I was allowed or wanted to. And you don't have the ability for that.

´Yes, I always wanted to become a great mage. That's true, but not here. I miss Yuu and MY friends... my family... I don't want to be on my own again... I just want to be back... It's just my second day here and i’m already done. '

• What do you mean, be on your own?.... So how I understand it you just want friends and family... You can just have them here too? What’s the problem with that?

I was ready to literally scream at the system. I didn't care that I was in the open where everyone could see or hear me. However, someone grabbed me by my shoulder.

"H-hey c'mon don't cry. I'm sorry for taking your stuff. Just stop. This is getting uncomfortable. Here you can have it back."

I was staring tensely at the ground. Just now did I realize that I was crying. Something was being pushed into my hand. I looked up and saw Ace uncomfortably looking around us. I did it too and saw by passers staring at us. I took my stuff and tried to wipe my face so that the tears would go away.

"Don't do that. You will just look even worse. I don't want people to think that I'm bullying you in any way. I'm just joking around."

He grasped one of my hands and started to lead me somewhere else. He seems to be trying to leave the situation as fast as he can.

"C'mon, let's leave. I will show you the restroom. You can wash your face there. Trust me, it will work better."

This time I was too distraught to even try to do something. So I was dragged away again, against my will.´I will go back. I don't care if this thing believes that I am unable to leave.´

.

.

We were in an area that I didn't know. ´Pretty sure that I never went this way....´ We stopped walking and were now in front of a door.

"Here we are. These are the restrooms for this area. You can do the rest on your own."

He pointed at the door. I didn't move.

"Aren't you going in? There's sinks inside..."

I stared at him.

"What? I showed you where the restrooms are and I don't need to use them, so you can go on your own. I am done here."

I just continued standing there. He looked at me with an uncertain look.

"Why aren't you going in? Do you know what a restroom is?"

The last part said with a joking tone. He seems to be trying to make a joke, but I glared at him and angrily said.

"I know what a restroom is! I just don't like using public ones."

"Why not ? These are from the school. They should be well cared here. Do you know what type of people come to this school? Some of them could create problems for the school, if the hygiene isn’t maintained."

"Humans always feel uncomfortable when I enter."

"But... you are a human? Why would anyone be uncomfortable?"

´Oh... I forgot about that...´ then I muttered.

"I never needed to use a restroom or a bathroom in places like this either way. Why would I need to use it now? I can clean myself on my own. Why would you bring me to a restroom? It's just my face. Using my tongue is better than splashing water either way."

He was staring at me. Then he took a deep breath.

"Why would you use your tongue to clean yourself? Beastmen don't really do that... they don't really think of it as a natural thing for them."

He was deep in though.

"I remember learning about Beastmen... wasn't this part of unhuman treatment of Beastmen and dehumanization in history...?"

"Why are you looking at me like that? What wrong with the way I clean myself?"

"You clean... your full body like this?"

"Yeah? Sometimes? How else would I do it? Nobody ever told me that it's wrong?…. I really don't like how you look at me.... that gaze somehow became worse..."

Ace seemed troubled. He seemed to be scanning me up and down.

"You do know that, that isn't normal? Beastman don't start doing that automatically on their own... Just if they don't have any other option... or are forced... it's ehmm… not in... how to say... their animal side just doesn't provide this type of instinct, even if your animal side is a cat. It’s just not..."

Realization hit me. ´I... keep forgetting that I have human body parts now that make me a Beastman... and not some type of monster cat.... this is getting more uncomfortable by every minute and I don't even know what type of misunderstanding Ace has here with me.... How do I clear this up....?´ I just speak out.

"I don’t know what you're thinking, but I believe there is an misunderstanding going on in your head."

"..." He was studying me again. Then he opened his mouth.

"You do know that being over taken that much by your animal side is not normal? Or to be treated like you’re not a human because of your animal side?"

"I-.. don't know much about Beastmens. About instincts or what you said about history and the... I just wasn't taught that okay? Why do you know this stuff? I don't think you have the need to learn this?"

"History, some stuff is taught there in school and the bonus stuff... let's say that the teachers had it for me... you just once accidentally destroy the teacher’s room... and some of their stuff... and you are forced to take bonus classes...But! this isn't about me! Why do you not know about this stuff? Every Bestman shoudl learn about this stuff in every country... It's a must..... It’s one of the big laws that the royal family of Sunset Savanna established a long time ago. Other countries accepted it in the past mainly because they didn’t wanted to start a war. If you weren’t taught that... Should I call a teacher?"

´How am I going to explain that I wasn't a Bestman for that long? This is just the second day for me... I have to go with the amnesia story, don't I? I don't know how else... It's more believable than telling him that I am from another world and was turned into a human... I don't want to end up in a mental clinic too.... I am sure that I won't find a way home there...´

"You see... I don't remember much I.. eh have amnesia... You understand?"

"Oh... amnesia... that explains your lack of knowledge and some other things, but still... you wouldn't be doing this if it's not something from your past.... like I said this isn't an instinct or something that Beastmen start doing on their own..."

We were now staring at each other and not moving from our spots.

"I am going to show you how to use a sink. We can continue on with this talk later..."

"Wait? What? I know how to use a sink? I-"

I was complaining while being dragged into the restroom. My complaints were ignored.

Chapter Text

Ace POV from the last chapter, beginning at the start of the day by the statues of the great seven:

'I can't believe it's the first day of school and I have to go hungry. Because some upperclassmen took my breakfast, because of some absurd rule 180? What were they even talking about? They looked like they were stopping me from doing some forbidden summoning ritual that would end with everyone dead or magic loose. What rule forbids someone from eating a jam sandwich with a coffee in the morning? What type of maniac would even create such a meaningless rule?' I thought while walking from my dorm irritated.

Then I smiled I was now in front of the stature of the Queen of Hearts. 'He, at least it's great that I ended up in the same dorm in which my brother was. He always told me that it's the best dorm around.' I looked around. 'But still, did they have to ruin my breakfast? Now I'm hungry. I didn't have the time to eat or even take something else. They just started talking about some rules and that I should be cautious of the houswarden. Or else it's off with your head? Who even say something like that? are they saying he is going to kill me? What normal person would get angry about a person eating even if it is in a rule book? Such a rule doesn't even make a bit of sense!'

As I was ready to leave to go to class I saw somebody standing and blocking the pathway. In the middle of the road was standing a small child looking a bit lost. The kid was wearing clothes that looked pretty old and didn't fit him, the clothing looked randomly meshed up from different pieces of attiring, some parts too big or too long. ''Wait... that's the boy that was sorted into the non existing dormitory. He does stand out with his fire ears. They weren't on fire yesterday, or were they...?' I pondered trying to remember.

'I wonder what he's up to... What was his name again? Maybe talking to him could cheer me up a bit. I could play a little joke on him.' I considered and then started to smile, making a decision.

I walked up to him from behind and speaked up, smiling the whole time "Why are you standing in the middle of the road?"

The boy turned around looking startled, then a look of recognition appeared in his face, looking hopeful too. His ears weren't burning anymore with the blue flames. 'Seems like the fire isn't always there. I wonder how that works.' He suddenly moved forward seemingly trying to touch me.

"H-hey!? What are you doing!?" I uttered out confused as I jumped a bit away from him. The boy now looked embarrassed and something else that I couldn't read into. 'Okay, that didn't start how I wanted... but it is a bit funny how embarrassed he got' I quickly went back to showing off an energetic smile 'I'm sure that I can still pull something.'

We introduced ourselves to each other. Grim was seemingly trying his best to ignore me. Not getting much reaction from him I decided to take his magic pen, for some reason there was a ribbon with it too. Grim was slowly getting frustrated. Trying to rile him up more I started saying random things to make him angry. He was getting more worked up, jumping trying to take them back from me.  'Pfft, his expression is everything that I could wish for and the way he is trying to take his stuff looks like a small kitten that's playing with a teasing stick.'

"Hey, c'mon react! Grim?" I said, "Emm... are you still in there?" I started to wave my hand in front of his face. Still no reaction. Luckily People walked around us and ignored our presence. Then out of nowhere Grim started to cry. 'Oh, you gotta be kidding me. This is genuinely not what I wanted to happen. I just wanted to anger him a little.'

"H-hey c'mon don't cry. I'm sorry for taking your stuff. Just stop. This is getting uncomfortable. Here you can have it back." I said after some time, now grasping his shoulder in the hope of a reaction. I was shoving his stuff into his hand.

I breathed out in relief after he finally took his stuff and came back to the land of living. I was getting more nervous because after he began to cry people started to stare at us. Grim started to wipe his face with his hands, seemingly just now realizing that he was crying. He was attempting his best to change his sad expression to a blank one. His face just started to look worse after he started to rub the tears away with his hands . 'Yup, this is going horrible. Damnit, now I am feeling bad.'

"Don't do that. You will just look even worse. I don't want people to think that I'm bullying you in any way. I'm just joking around." I took one of his hands, dragging him away, doing my best to leave from prying eyes.

"C'mon, let's leave. I will show you the restroom. You can wash your face there. Trust me, it will work better." The kid- I mean Grim didn't say anything and went along with me, evidently thinking of something else again. 'I hope he won´t start crying again.'

'Finally here! this guy nearly fell 4 times, does he not know how to walk?' I thought in relief as I finally saw the restroom. "Here we are. These are the restrooms for this area. You can do the rest on your own." Grim just continued not moving. We were now in front of the restrooms, awkwardly standing there.

I pointed at the door baffled. "Aren't you going in? There are sinks inside..." Grim was now staring at me.  'Why is he just staring at me? Does he want me to do something?'

"What? I showed you where the restrooms are and I don't need to use them, so you can go on your own. I am done here." Grim still didn't move. 'I frankly don't know what he wants. He acts like he never used a restroom or bathroom. What's up with that?'

"Why aren't you going in? Do you know what a restroom is?" I asked jokingly hoping that he finally leaves so that this uncomfortable moment would end.

Grim glared at me angrily and stated "I know what a restroom is! I just don't like using public ones."

'Is he really not entering because he doesn't like public ones? Maybe he is afraid that it's unhygienic, some places do have questionable care about such places but this is a prestigious academy with very important people going here, they wouldn’t let something like this slide.... school image and all that too... tho He does look really uncomfortable about this...' I considered it.

In the end I stated "Why not ? These are from the school. They should be well cared here. Do you know what type of people come to this school? Some of them could create problems for the school, if the hygiene isn’t maintained."

"Humans always feel uncomfortable when I enter." Grim was now glancing to the side not wanting to look at me.

"But... you are a human? Why would anyone be uncomfortable?"

Grim muttered something that I couldn't hear and said in a serious but quiet tone. "I never needed to use a restroom or a bathroom in places like this either way. Why would I need to use it now? I can clean myself on my own. Why would you bring me to a restroom? It's just my face. Using my tongue is better than splashing water either way."

I was now just staring at him 'I should have gone straight to class... is he being serious about using his tongue?' Grim was scowling at me, not changing his statement. 'Yep, it seems he is... Oh for the great seven don't tell me that is how he always cleans himself like that?! Yucks! Beastmen hate doing such things... others do in general do joke about their animal side and instincts but many things are just myths like them eating each other or them doing everything like their animal side.'

After some time I took a deep breath and said "Why would you use your tongue to clean yourself? Beastmen don't really do that... they don't really think of it as a natural thing for them."

I started to think out loud "I remember learning about Beastmen... wasn't this part of unhuman treatment of Beastmen and dehumanization in history...?". 'The royal family in Sunset Savanna made several declarations about it... many new laws and regulations were created for the protection and equality of humanoids, mainly thanks to the Great Seven.'

"Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong with the way I clean myself?" Grim was acting defensive now.

'...lovely'. "You clean... your whole body like this?"

"Yeah? Sometimes? How else would I do it? Nobody ever told me that it's wrong? I really don't like how you look at me....", 'Who raised that guy? Does he believe this is normal?' "That gaze somehow became worse..."

I was scanning Grim up and down. 'He is rather small... he has trouble walking, it looks as if he never walked before... and doesn't seem to think of himself as a human... there are places and people who treat beastmen, merfolk or human as slaves... and I did hear about incidents where beastmen were captured and treated like pets or stock....' I was feeling troubled, very troubled 'I might be overthinking this... but...'

"You do know that, that isn't normal? Beastman don't start doing that automatically on their own... Just if they don't have any other option... or are forced... it's ehmm… not in... how to say... their animal side just doesn't provide this type of instinct, even if your animal side is a cat. It just not..." I  said trying to sound as gentle as possible.

Grim was now looking very uncomfortable, "I don't know what you're thinking, but I believe there is a misunderstanding going on in your head." he said.

I was studying him again "You do know that being overtaken that much by your animal side is not normal? Or to be treated like you’re not a human because of your animal side?" I voiced, trying to get now more information to know what to believe.

"I-.. don't know much about Beastmens. About instincts or what’s said about history and the... I just wasn't taught that okay? Why do you know this stuff? I don't think you have the need to learn this?" Grim said very defensively.

"History, some stuff is taught there in school and the bonus stuff... let's say that the teachers had it for me... you just once accidentally destroy the teacher's room... and some of their stuff... and you are forced to take bonus classes...", 'I know they were trying to fail me! Nobody can say something else, they were too hyperfocused on me!... I am getting off track...'"But! this isn't about me! Why do you not know about this stuff? Every Beastman should learn about this stuff in every country... It's a must..... It’s one of the big laws that the royal family of Sunset Savanna established a long time ago. Other countries accepted it in the past mainly because they didn't want to start a war. If you weren’t taught that... Should I call a teacher?"

"You see... I don't remember much I.. eh have amnesia... You understand?" Grim muttered out.

"Oh... amnesia... that explains your lack of knowledge and some other things, but still... you wouldn't be doing this if it's not something from your past.... like I said this isn't an instinct or something that Beastmen start doing on their own..."

We were now staring at each other and not moving from our spots.  'I know that he isn't telling me something... and what person approved him to go to school? Shouldn't he have been retaught or taught some basic knowledge and-' I looked at his shaking legs that had trouble standing and thought about what I have seen with him walking in overall, 'made sure that he knew how to move?! I for sure can't leave him alone now.'

"I am going to show you how to use a sink. We can continue on with this talk later..."

"Wait? What? I know how to use a sink?! I-"

I dragged him off into the restroom while he was complaining 'I am going to make sure that he will be okay and find out what's up with him.' I decided for myself and him.

Grim POV after being forced into the restroom:

We were inside the restroom for a few minutes. Ace asked about some stuff but over time he became a bit bored, I protested, not wanting to get cold water on me. So he decided that the fastest and best way to get me to use the sink is to just get the water running and then to just splash it on me with his wind magic.

"Why would you do that? I'm completely wet now!" I said in horror. Doing anything to get it of me.

I was standing in the middle of the room like a wet cat ready to murder someone. 'I am going to destroy him.' I was clutching my hand.

"Hey! Not my fault that you don't want to do this on your own. We came here to clean your face and now it's done. We don't have endless time. Classes will start soon." Ace exclaimed.

"I am completely soaked in water! How should I go anywhere like this?" I said angrily.

Ace just lifted his pen and pointed it at me. Muttering something under his breath quickly.

"NO! Don't use any of your magic at me anymore!"

He didn't listen to me and made a big wind, using it to dry me. Now I'm dry, but I look like I fought with a dryer that came to life and I lost against it.

"See? already done. Fast and effective. It wasn't that hard, was it?" He was smiling and you can literally see light in his eyes. It was obvious that he was amused by the situation.

"Why would you do that?!"

He shrugged. "Class starts in a few minutes. We don't have the time for this."

"Whaa? Already?! When does it start? How much time do I have?!"

"In around 10 minutes. So, which class are you in?" He asked with a bright smile. "I hope we're in the same one."

"Why should I tell you that?" I turned around, ready to leave.

"Do you know where your class is, or do you have a map of the school?" He said. I stopped walking. "Either way, why would you not tell me? I find out either way sooner or later."

"Well, I don't remember the way..." I looked onto the floor. "1-A..."

I muttered out after realizing that I don't know the way around the school on my own and didn't get any type of map. Not used going on my own around the school.

"Great! We are in the same class. Follow me."

This time he didn't start dragging me. I really didn't want to go with him at the moment, but lacking any other option I went.

"So... Why are you 'helping' me?" I asked distrustfully. "I'm not getting fooled by your nice act again. So why?"

"What do you mean? Why not? Who wouldn't help their helpless and confused classmate?"

He looked at me with a calm and happy face. I'm not trusting anything that he is saying or doing. 'He dislikes doing things that don’t give anything back. I don't believe that he would do something for someone that he doesn't know. The system did tel that people are nearly identical to their counterparts from home. So at this point in the school year he sure as hell wouldn't to this.' I thought, feeling nervous. 'Only if he really gets something out of this or if it’s for some joke.'

"You seem interesting ..." I could hear him speak in an undertone but the next part I couldn’t catch. "and I feel a bit sorry for you...  I want to know what happened " Then he spoke up quickly. which I could hear "As a bonus. I'm pretty sure something exciting will happen around you. Just trust me, when did I ever do anything to you that could have a negative impact? We have only know each other just for few minutes, you can't just rule me out."

I sigh and started to walk after him. 'Ignoring everything that he said in his sentences. I really don't want any type of his excitement... I don't want to deal with stuff like Yuu... It's too much and not my thing. Yuu tents to be to nice and forgiving sometimes.'* We were now in front of the classroom. 'I hope this will end up fast. So that I can start to search a way back as soon as possible.'

• Your first class is about to start (^_-). I hope you're excited for the future outcomes. as well as enjoying a thrilling time (^_^)

'I think I just cursed myself.'' I thought unhappy and then I realized that the system is back again. Not having missed It much.

When I entered the classroom, I saw that most people were already sitting in place. I looked around for a free place to sit. 'Maybe I should sit down with someone that I don't know. I don't really want to sit with him.' I thought while looking at Ace who was next to me the whole time.

I started to walk to a free seat. When Ace spoke up from behind me. "I see some free seats where we could sit down."

"Why do you think I would like to sit with you? Just stop annoying me and leave me alone." I answered him, getting distracted not looking where I was walking. ''I just want to get rid of him. I don’t want a cheap copy of someone from home following me. I wonder what they are doing, do they miss me? Do they even care that I am missing or are they happy that I am gone and can't ruin things for them...? I was slowly getting lost in my thoughts, getting more depressed with every second that passed until I bumped into someone and I fell down on the floor.

"Oy! Look, were you goi- ehhm."

The person stopped himself from continuing and looked at me. I looked up and saw a another very familiar face. With dark navy blue hair, bright cyan eyes and over his right eye is a black mark shaped like a spade symbol.

After a bit of staring I could see him mutter something under his breath. After he did that, he seemed to have appeased himself.

He awkwardly gives me his arm to me helping me up. "What I meant to say is..." before he could end his sentence the teacher entered.

Chapter Text

'I hate this seating arrangement with all my soul.'  That was what ran through my head as I was stuck between Ace and spade boy.  'That was one of the last places I wanted to end up at, but here I am.'  The moment that the teacher entered the classroom Mr. Ex-delinquent dragged me with him next to the seat where he was and Ace invited himself to sit down next to me, so now I was stuck between them.

The teacher who entered was Professor Crewel, he looked every single one of us up and down. His eyes locked for a few seconds longer at my figure than at the others. He looks at me like he would love to drag me away and do everything that he could to fix whatever I have done to myself, if it even is fixable. Crewel thoughts  ''Who allowed that pup to walk around like that? do they hate him? Wait... ohh… that's the pup that I wanted to see. The one that we talked about in the meeting this morning... the headmage allowed him to walk around like this... I am going to have a long talk about this with him. But most importantly the pups now. I’ll deal with everything else after this.

Everyone was dead silent the whole time, not wanting to mess up their first introduction to a teacher. When he was done looking around he spoke up: "So pups," Professor Crewel began, "I believe it's time for an introduction. I am Divus Crewel, or as you are going to call me from now on, Master Crewel. From today on, you are going to be my new homeroom class." Crewel now gives the class a stern look, "I expect from everyone from this day on some standards, some of you look like they came from the gutter." His gaze swept over the class, and then he looked at me again. "Some more than others. Do make sure that you arrive properly groomed."

'I feel like his attacking me. Most of this isn't even my fault...' went through my head as I was sitting in my ill-fitting outfit that didn't really fit me and looking like I went through a hurricane. 'Thanks to Ace for the second part and the headmaster for the first, he could have minimally tried to find something else... the ghosts were more helpful, they have at least helped me by preparing the uniform... Even the ghosts had been more helpful than the living beings here.'  I was looking at my hands. 'Worst part of all of this I have a humanoid body now. I really don’ť know what to do with this form.'  I thought feeling a bit uncomfortable but I continued listening to Crewel either way.

"Not to be forgotten, all of you better be on your best behavior. I hope you all manage to be some good pups for your own good and health. Tomorrow, when the lessons start I will tell you all more about my class and what I expect from you in it. Now to the school, there are some rules that every single one of you should know..." Professor Crewel continued to talk with a threatening underline in it but I spaced out at this point and didn't listen to him anymore.

The majority of the class was listening to everything that Professor Crewel said with full attention, but some were whispering to each other and having hushed conversations.

I  myself wished to just leave this place until I realized something.  'Wait a second if I remember right the first time Professor Crewel appeared was the second day of school, even for the others not just me and Yuu. The first day was just time for the students to get to know each other and for them to explore the school. Why did that change? The cursed system told me that this word is the same as mine. Was it lying?'

• First of all I'm not cursed. Cursed stuff are a bad omen and I'm the best thing that anyone could have ever wished for. Second-

'Just my luck...' I thought annoyed. 'Now not only the teacher is monologuing me into boredom but now this thing too...'

• Second! Don't interrupt me. I wasn't lying about this world being nearly the same as yours, it has the same concept from what I was told and saw on the surface from the main script, the stuff before Yuu came to your story is the same. I'm not sure about every small detail though...

'Before Yuu came? And what do you mean by what you were just told and saw on the surface!?'

• Yes the past before they came, that stuff should be the same in what I know... there could be some differences... Now because they didn't end up here on the ceremony day the story starts to differ. Because they didn’t end up in NRC. That creates changes, not forgetting you are here now, like this. From this point on forward or rather since you came things are going to change. You are going to have a fun time I believe.

'Hump your a real jokester. The only time I am going to have fun here is when I find a way home and laugh at your… face? Screen? Whatever, and leave. Then I will find that mirror and destroy it. OH and trust me I am going to enjoy it.'  I thought with an excited gleam .

"Grim? Are you still listening? This is getting boring." Ace whispered to me. I nearly didn't hear him, a bit too engulfed in the conversation with the system. When I looked at Ace, he seemed to be bored. Spade boy glared at him having heard him, Ace glared at him back. "Hey, don’t glare at me, I’m not even talking to you."

"Then stop interrupting. you are-"

They both were now squabbling over my head.  '... how did I end up here again? Oh yeah that ducking mirror.'  I thought sarcastically.  'One thing I will make sure is that it will not be in one piece anymore. System you're still here? I'm bored. I really would do anything else then thing now.'

The system didn't answer but the screen with the menu appeared in front of me.  *'Looks like I have to look at this. It could perhaps help me with stuff.'*  I checked around me and saw that my lovely two seating partners were still arguing and Professor Crewel still talking about the school rules. 'Nothing better to do either way. The relationship icon first maybe?'

Relationship -students:

Kalim Al-Asim (new updates)

Ace Trappola   (new updates)

Spade boy - Mr. Ex-delinquent  (new updates)

...(more)

Relationship - staff:

Dire Crowley (new updates)

(Master) Divus Crewel (new updates)

...(more)

'Okay, it seems like the people that I don´t know are saved by nicknames... so no help at all, first it makes me forget everyone's name on accident and now it won't tell me what they are. Does this thing likes to annoy me? And why did this thing put master in front of Crewel's name I hate calling him Master Crewel...'  I stared at it annoyed and flustered.  'So which one should I look at? I know Kalim the longest in this place so him first?'

Kalim Al-Asim

Friendship level : 2 (you are now acquaintances,) you gain 20 points for hitting levels 1 and 2 in friendship for the first time. you have 10 friendship points for the next level you need 50- 10/500

Level : 48

Age : 17

Birthday : June 25

Height : 168 cm

Homeland: Scalding Sands

Position : Housewarden of Scarabia, Eldest son of the Al-Asim family

Signature spell : Oasis Maker - It can summon a large amount of fresh water with only a small amount of magic and effort on his part.

'So I am level 2 in friendship here and I get more points too... ah! there is more stuff when I scroll down now.'

Likes

- ...

Dislikes :

- ...

Personality

- cheerful
- talkative
- positive
- ....

Background :

- He comes from a family of a long line of merchants. Which is a wealthy and prestigious family.
- He has several siblings around 30
- He is the eldest son
- ...

Others

- Thinks of Jamil as his best friend. Seems to idolize him.
- ...

Character mission:

- Visit him in the Scarabia dorm *You will gain 25 points for this and a gift. You gain some friendship points too.
- Introduce yourself or let yourself be introduced to Jamil A new real relationship. More friendship points. You can gain a gift.
- ...

'What can I even do with this information? Does it have any use?'

• Most of all it's here to help and remind you to talk to people around you. It helps with remembering any information that is gathered about a person at any time. It will be here even if you forget something or want to check and if you do missions you can gain stuff.

'Oh, but does it always appear like this? It would be tedious to stroll to all this information all the time.'

• Just ask for the exact information that you want, it will appear.

'Mhm, any fast way to gain info without having to do all the talking?'

• Scroll down a bit more .
  Other pieces of information are locked at the moment, you have to get to know the character or find out stuff other ways. You can buy some information for around 10 000 points or more

'You and this thing are trying to rob me. Are you being serious?'

• You can gain advice and aid on how to get information for points or other stuff.

'Why do you not just give some for free?'

• Why don't you just talk to people? That's for free.

'I'm not making connections here. I'm leaving as fast as I can. Even if you don't want to help me I sure can use whatever I can... I will find a way to use this or something else to get home...'  I was starting to get sad again.

• You are unable to leave this story as I already said. But if it gets you moving go try. I gave you some advice for now, and just so you know you should go back to listening to the people around you so that you can react to them. You shout to try to do better than this and not ignore everything around you. This is weird from an outside perspective, for them you are just staring into nothingness and not reacting to anything.

The character sheet suddenly vanished from in front of me just as the notification ended and I looked up surprised. I saw that Ace was gazing at me with concern and Spade's face too. Though it seemed that Professor Crewel was ending his speech.

"That would be all that I will say for today. You all can leave and look around the school grounds for now. Do not enter the restricted areas! You all have received some maps and on our school app is a map of the school too. But the maps you got at your dorms are more detailed and have specific information for you. I will give everyone their schedule as they leave the class." As he was done speaking the other students were ready and eager to live.

"Oh. Great it's finally done..." I mumbled under my bread. Before I could move Ace spoke up "Are you okay? you haven't reacted for some time after the teacher started to speak. You went completely still and just stared into nothingness... You were completely out of it." Spade added, "We tried to make you react by calling your name or tapping on your shouter but you just wouldn't react..." Both of them sounded worried and really  concerned now.

'They were talking to me and trying to make me react?... I really need to get my stuff together.'  I was frustrated about my perception. "Ahh sorry... I am just a bit out of it still from yesterday. It's nothing... no need to be worried." I said trying to sound fine.

"Hey! I-i just want you to know that I'm not worried," Ace said as he defended himself while gesturing wildly with his hands. "It just looks weird to sit next to someone who looks completely out of it. This is not helping your appearance at all. You look like-" Before Ace could finish his sentence, Spade jumped into the conversation to apologize for his behavior from earlier, before class started. Cutting Ace off before he most likely would have insulted me somehow. "I don't want to interrupt whatever is going on here," he began,  'Then why are you even talking now.'   I thought annoyed by all of this "but I wanted to apologize for shouting at you earlier. I shouldn't have reacted that way when you bumped into me." Spade ended his apology awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's nothing... I think I should leave now." I quickly stood up and attempted to walk away. The moment I stood up though I realized that we three were the only students left in the classroom and we and the professor were the only ones left. Everyone else escaped the second that they were allowed, running out like dogs who were finally let out to go on a walk.

I realized now that Professor Crewel was walking to me and the two annoyances.  'We haven't done anything, have we...? I don't have time to be in trouble now.'  I thought to myself a bit muddled about him going to us. 'Maybe he just wants to kick us out so that he too can finally leave. I can only hope...'  Was what went through my head as he came to us, the two annoyances on my side see the professor coming to us. They were still standing beside me, ’surprisingly ' silently watching the professor approaching us.

"I believe the one in the middle is Grim?" Crewel said as he was approaching us and as the nice lovely pals that Ace and Spade are they stayed still, they are seeming to get nervous for some reason, as if we’re in some trouble. They pushed me forward causing nearly for me to fall and Ace answered for me. "Yup, this is Grim. Why are you asking teach?"

The professor briefly stared at Ace and then said. "I hope you remember what I have requested at the beginning of my lesson and I hope you two don't push everyone like this around and act so disrespectful. So?"

Ace looked down at the ground, "... No master Crewel I don't push others around." He was looking embarrassed, probably because of the master part. Deuce too seemed embarrassed while saying "Sorry Master..."

"Good to know that you pups can minimally hear. Now first of all- " Crewel give us our schedules, "Secondly I want to inform you Grim that you have to go to the infirmary to talk with the nurse, about I believe you know what."

"Is it about what happened yesterday? If yes then that's noth-"

"That's not a decision for you to make!" Said Crewel seriously.

"But-" I tried to protest

"Like I said that's not a decision for you to make. Now come here."

"What?-" Before I could do anything Professor Crewel grabbed me and started to make some measurements. "I will try to make some adjustments to your uniform... and..." Crewel was seemingly building some plan while doing this.

Spade was standing awkwardly by the side as Crewel was taking my measurements. Ace was slowly sneaking to the door.

"You two go escort him to the infirmary, I have the feeling he won't go there on his own, I would go with him if I could but I have to prepare my class for tomorrow. I will try to give you your uniform tomorrow pup. And some advice for self-care it seems..." He said the last sentence silently

Spade shook his head in agreement "Yes Prof- I mean Master!" he held my arm, peaking me up. I tried to get myself free. Ace joined us two not having managed to escape beforehand.

"Sooo... Wait what's your name?" Ace asked Spade  face.

"My name is Deuce. Deuce Spade." 'Finally I know his name again!' "Don't you remember? I literally told you that while we were... talking... Uhm.."

"You don't remember my name either, do you?" Ace said with a smirk.

"That's not the point! Let's just accompany...  Uhm… Gill?..." Deuce frustratedly said "Okay you know who. Like Professor Crewel ordered us. And don't even think of sneaking away! Like you did in the classroom!"

"Yeah, yeah, message received... Fine, let's just go. Huh...?"

"What is it?" asked Deuce.

"Grim is gone!"

"Wait? What?!"

The two were looking at each other. Ace said doubtfully, "Maybe went to the infirmary on his own?" Deuce just stared at Ace with disbelief in his face. "Yeah.. that's not likely." They were looking around themselfs hoping to see Grim.

Then they heard a crash and a scream of rage "This cursed legs! I hate them!"

"It seems we found him let's go Juice!"

"My name isn't "Juice". It's Deuce! With a D!"

"No time for this let's go! Before he leaves the spot!"

They ran to the place from where the shout came. When they entered the hallway in which Grim was they could see him entering another hallway.

.

---

.

A few minutes later... (Third POV)

"YOU. THREE. What have you done?!" Screamed the headmage, outraged.

We can see three boys standing in front of a broken door.

"One positive, thing it's not the chandelier in the cafeteria..." Whispered Grim under his bread, but Crowley heard him

"Oh trust me if it was the chandelier I would have kicked you three out and expelled you."

" Whaaaaat !" Screamed Deuce and Ace.

"Don't scream! I would have done this if it was the chandelier. But still, there was a small magestone stone used even in this door. I will be writing you three up and sending a bill to your parents! For the damage!"

Chapter Text

A few minutes later... (Third POV)

"YOU. THREE. What have you done?!" Screamed the headmage, outraged.

We can see three boys standing in front of a broken door.

"One positive thing, it's not the chandelier in the cafeteria..." Grim whispered under his breath, but the headmage heard him

"Oh trust me if it was the chandelier, I would have kicked you three out and expelled you."

"Whaaaaat!?" screamed Deuce and Ace out.

'This can’t be for real.' Ace thought in shock

Deuce thought of his mom's might-be reaction when hearing of this 'My mom would be so disappointed.' That was what Deuce thought, painfully.

"Don't scream ! I would have done this if it was the chandelier. But still, there was a small magestone used in this door. I will be writing you three up and sending a bill to your parents! For the damage!" Was what the headmage said. He was ready to leave. "I am going to my office to write the letter to your parents now! And send them the bill!"

'Hmm, this isn't as horrible as last time. I think this is okay. I wonder who he will try to contact when he realizes that I don't have any relative.' Not really caring about the situation for his side, the light doubt went through Grim's head, 'I don't believe the others are happy thought... I wonder why, it is not like we are getting expelled? Isn't it worse to get expelled? This seems to be better?'

Deuce quickly went after the headmage, he was begging, trying to get the him to stop "Headmage, please! Give me a chance! Please don't write my mom a letter! I need to have a free school record! Please! I-I am trying to be an honor student. Th-this-" Deuce started to stutter in distress.

The Headmage stopped walking and turned around to give every single one of us a stern look, 'Huh, he can look surprisingly serious even if he has that stupid mask on. Wait.... You gotta to be kidding me I don't even remember his name. C'mon! The system did fry every single name out of my mind of the students and teachers and blocked every other name from outside of that so that I am unable to say them.' and then the headmage whose NAME I have FORGOTTEN stated seriously "Then blame yourself for your own foolish behavior. If you don’t want to get in trouble then why even cause such damage?"

Deuce continued to try to persuade the headmage "I'll pay for the damages! However much it costs!" Ace was still shell-shocked.

The headmage explained. "This door is no mere light cost. It is a magical door after all. Sure this door can be replaced because it is not a historical artefact of the school, or created for us by a legendary artificer, which luckily for you, it was not. It might seem like any other door, but it has a magestone in it because it's meant to protect the library from any fire or magical accidents." I looked at the door that was on the ground broken into pieces and the small magestone. 'I have to say that whoever made this must have scammed the school with this door.'

The headmage continued to rant. "I don´t even know how you- how did you first years managed to destroy it?! What did you guys do? How did you manage to do this!? The only way to do this is to somehow perfectly hit the magestone and shatter it into pieces. Which... I don't know how it could happen, this door was magically protected and the magestone was powering it all. Just how?"

Ace scratched the back of his head and started trying explain, laughing nervously. "ahaha... Sooo you see..."

.

.

How the door got broken...

'Did I get rid of them?' Was what Grim asked himself when he entered yet another hallway after hiding in a cabinet. 'How do I get out of this school? I just want to get into Ramshackle and hide- I mean find a way home.'

"Gil- I mean Grim! Come back here there is no reason to hide!" Shouted Deuce and Ace shouted right after "Just come back! The nurse is not going to hurt you! It's going to be fine. They aren't going to be scary! I think..."

The two teenagers turned to look at each other while walking. "You believe he is scared?" Deuce asked and Ace just answered concerned. "Why else would he run and hide?" Deuce thought for a bit. "Okay... true but still there is no reason to run away? I know that people can be scared off going to check-ups... still, couldn’t he have just told the professor that he doesn't feel like going today?"

"Were you not listening when they were talking? the kid tried to protest but the teacher ordered him to go. There must be a reason why he was told to go there. C'mon you have seen him." Ace said in a worried tone.

"True... He does look like a mess and was completely out of it... he seems to have a big trouble walking or moving too..."

"Mhm... Yes, it seems like he isn't used to walking... or as if he has never walked on his feet before... “ Ace mumbled under his breath. Deuce didn't hear him thought, he was concentrating on a shadow that he saw by the door and ran towards it.

Ace screamed from behind him. "Hey wait for me!" He runs after Deuce.

'Agh, they found me!' Grim was standing star-struck looking around himself. 'What should I do. I don't have the nerve to go to the nurse. Whatshould i even say when they start to ask any questions! I did start to cough blood in front of the Headmage and Housewardens after all'

"Grim!/Stand still!" Ace and Deuce yelled at the same time.

"Myaa! No, I am not going to the nurse!" Grim saw a door that was wide open near him. 'There! I could hide and if i’m lucky I could lock them out too.' I drove out to the door nearly falling yet again. Luckily i manage to hold myself by the handle.

"Stop! Don't even think of running away and hiding again! He is going to lock the door if we don't do something fast! I haven't really learned any magic that could speed me up... What could I summon to stop him from closing the door...? Hmmm... Oh! That's it!"

'Nope-no don't tell me that he's going to-' Grim tried to hurriedly shut the door while Ace looked at Deuce with a raised eyebrow "Did you come up with somethi- Oh, hey! Stop! What are you doing?! Why are you pointing your pen at me?!" Ace shrieked the last part out.

"Because I'm going to launch you." Deuce answered while concentrating.

Ace found himself being lifted up by Deuce against his will. "Aaah- Are you kidding me?! Bwaaah! Put me down! Seriously, do not launch me! Abort! ABORT!" he cried out frantically while fidgeting around trying to save himself and stop Deuce from throwing him.

"Just make sure to grab him tight. I've got him in my sights, and... Go!" Deuce launched Ace towards Grim, who was taken aback by the situation. Grim just looked at the situation in horror having a flashback of what happened in his world '-he threw Ace like my Deuce from home.' just like this in full speed Ace was flying towards me, the door was nearly closed. 'Why is this door so heavy? Why does nothing ever work how I want?'

Ace was screaming in horror "BWAAAAAAAH!" and Grim answered with his own scream "MYAAAAAAAAH?!"

First, there was a hard crashing sound. Then a breaking and shattering noise could be heard.

"Agh! Oww... I cannot believe you just did that!" Ace was holding his hand and lying on the floor. "Why did you believe this was good idea?"

"Myaaah..." Grim was down on the ground, luckily he wasn't hurt by the broken door, somehow. He still hit the floor hard though. "I am seeing flying tuna... mmm... nam... I want to eat..."

"Oh, right! I probably should have come up with a way to soften your landing after you caught him..." Deuce stated thoughtfully, not looking at Ace, staring at the door that he broke by throwing Ace.

"You complete and total moron!" Ace shouted at Deuce, he was not happy, he was getting himself up from the floor. "We got Grim, but we broke a door! School property! If someone finds out about this-" He trailed off, feeling a sense of dread.

"If someone found out about... what, dear student?" The headmage appears from halfway next to them.

Deuce and Ace jumped at the same time in unison. Grim was shakingly trying to stand up.

"Ah! Headmage...!" Ace tried to block the view from the headmage so that he didn't see the door that they had broken. It didn't really work and the headmage saw the pieces that were lying around. Deuce put Grim onto his feet and was holding him by the arm so that he wouldn't fall down or try to make a run for it.

And that was the moment when he shouted. "YOU. THREE. What have you done?!" Screamed the headmage, outraged.

.

.

Now:

"...." Ace was now silent after telling the story of how this all happened. Deuce was silent too, he chipet into the story a few times to give some more details. Grim was trying to free himself from Deuce's dead grip the whole time, but to no avail.

"..." There was a long, awkward silent.

The headmage shook his head "Why-I... That would minimally explain how you guys managed to break the door. The door protection magic activates when it's closed. I will need to figure out who left it open. People are meant to always close it after leaving or entering the room."

"Does that mean we are not at fault?" Deuce asked in the hope that he wouldn't get in trouble.

The headmage gave Deuce a look of frustration "You threw your classmate with full intention at the door. I don't even know why you thought that was a good idea and the damage was done by you three! None of you are even meant to be here! This area was closed 30 minutes ago."

"B-But I'm sure with your magical talent, sir, you could snap your fingers and fix it right up!" Ace said anxious.

"Even magic has its limits. Furthermore, it’s magestone - the figurative heart of any magical artifact - is cracked. A magestone cannot be easily replaced. You’re lucky thought, that it isn't a big one or one with overly big magical ability."

"This is bad..." Ace was falling in dismay and despair and Deuce wasn’t any better. "What am I going to do?! How am I going to explain this to my mother...?" Grim was watching the two and their reactions the whole time. '... I know that they are not my Ace or Deuce from home... but still... I don't like seeing them like this... I...'

The headmage then suddenly stated "Ah...! But there may be one way. One tiny sliver of a chance to repair this situation and make me not inform anyone about this."

"There is?!" The two were listening to what the headmage was saying with full attention. 'He's going to tell us about the mine again... Isn't he?'

"There is a Mine in which you may find a magstone, from the Dwarfs' Mine. If you can acquire a magestone I will pardon you three and not tell a soul about this, after all the magestone is the most important and expensive part ." The headmage was sounding happy the whole time as he said that. 'ack I hated when he said that in our world but when we returned he was already done writing the paperwork for the expulsion.'

"Then I'll go find a magestone! With your permission, sir!" Deuce was not letting the change go for him to not get in trouble.

"I should warn you that I cannot promise there yet remain magestones to find. The mines were closed quite some time ago. It is quite likely that all of the magestones have already been mined." Now that Grim was really listening to what he was saying and his tone he could now see that the headmage was saying all this in a joking manner.

The headmage truly believed that they weren't real about this or that they would just back out of it the moment they step into the mirror chamber, because the man, now that he payed attention, wasn't taking any of what Deuce was saying seriously.

Grim looked over to Ace who was weirdly silent now, he seemed to be holding himself weirdly to the side. 'I don't remember him acting like this at home... or was I just knocked out at the time...?' Grim quickly looked back to the interaction between Deuce and the headmaster. 'I don't have time to think about that, I should just say that I accept the punishment so that I won't be forced to go to the mine... That seems too dangerous... Even if those two want to go there they don't know how dangerous that place is... I should stop them too, even if they get written up it still means that they can stay at school... A writer up can't be soo bad...'

Deuce quickly answered tho, before I could even open my mouth! "I will do anything to avoid getting something onto my school record, sir! I really don't want to get my mother into this! Sir!"

The headmaster made a thinking position and acted like he is deciding but if you looked closely at him you could see that he had a small smile on his face and looked amused by Deuce. "Hmmm... Very well, then. I won't send any letter or write a report for a single night. But if you fail to return with a magestone by morning, then it will all get written up and I won't hesitate to send the letters."

Deuce looked very happy and was fiddling around excited. "I understand, sir! Thank you very much for this opportunity!" Grim sight 'Myya… too late to stop him from saying anything... maybe I could convince him not to go if I say that it's dangerous...' Grim looked at Deuce again who had a very determined face, 'Haaah... no I don't think that he will believe me or he just wouldn't listen... Ace... I could if it were just us two, yes but he won't like to look weak and this would theoretically get him out of trouble... ahg... I can still try to say that it's dangerous.'

Grim opened his mouth hoping to stop this adventure before it could even start but yet again one of the others were faster than him.

"Sigh Fine, then. Let's hurry down there, find a magestone, and get this whole thing done with." Ace too was now agreeing with Deuce. They both lunged one of Grim's hands.

"Hey! Don't-" Grim tried to stop them from dragging him into this, thought then at that moment something stopped him from talking and Grim hissed out in anger. In front of him appeared a screen with a notification the others as expected didn't see.

The headmage had already started to walk away when he added of note. "You should be able to reach the Dwarfs' Mine instantly by using one of the gates in the Mirror Chamber."

"Yes sir!" Deuce answered.

Grim at that moment didn't try to fight back when he was dragged away mostly because he couldn’t fight Ace and Deuce, he went limp in defeat. 'Lovely. Looks like I am going to get killed together with them.'  He thought while staring at that what was written at the screen in front of him.

• A mission has appeared: Proceed to the Dwarf Mine! When you get there make sure that the group that goes with you will come back with all the members alive! You are unable to reject this quest.

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Pov Crowley:

Crowley is seen walking down a hallway after he left the first years. He was not angry at them for the door anymore, having becomed amused after talking to them. 'Kids these days seemingly have too much energy and no brain cells. I can't believe that one of them believed that it was a good idea to launch the other at a door... Thought that one seemed very apologetic. But it's clear to me that the moment they enter the mirror chamber they won't go with the plan to go to the Mine. After all who would?'

Crowley smiled under the mask. 'The freshmans this year seems to be an interesting and amusing bunch... with this school that's not surprising. But that kid Grim... there is something out of place with him... I feel troubled about him...'

I stopped walking and stood still thinking deeply. 'Wait... I don't know the names of the other two that were with him... It seems that I will wait for tomorrow and I try to find Grim, they should be with him. They seem like they would stick around him, if not I can just ask him for their names. I don't want to go through all the paperwork again just to find out which of files is theirs. Okay! That’s a plan, and either way I have still a meeting to go to. So I will write the letters tomorrow and the other stuff. Maybe if I feel kind enough I could change the punishment a bit and not write them up, still their respective parent or guardians must be contacted about this.'

I was about to continue walking to the meeting that I was meant to start half an hour ago when another though hit me. 'Grim! I don't have anyone to contact for him! Who am I going to send that part of the bill?! Maybe I should make him do-'

I considered about what to do and went over what happened yesterday.

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I stood in front of a Gate from which a freshman just fell out of. In shock, me and the housewarden's went after the loud sound of pounding and kicking and when we eventually came to the spot from where it came from, we looked at the Gate.

"So this is where the sounds were coming from. Huh..." Mustered Ashengrotto out loud.

The housewarden's started to talk, the only one silent was Shroud. My mind was racing with possibilities of how this could have happened. 'How? Just how did he manage to get out? It's very obvious that he didn't plan for this to happen. This must be someone’s else doind, something that woke him up from the spell that is cast on the student so that they don't wake up before someone opens the Gate...'

One of the housewarden's, Al-Asim, asked confused. "Headmaster, didn't you say that the freshmen's can't wake up until you open their Gate?"

I didn't answer right away. Kingscholar and Schoenheit were bickering with each other, but Rosehearts stopped them from continuing, everyone was still staring at the person that dropped from the Gate. 'That tail and the ears... did blue fire just appeared from his ears? Oh... it's gone again... what kind of beastman is he...?'  I looked to the side and saw that Al-Asim was staring at me, again confused, so I decided to answer and try to get the kid to react to me. "*cough-*It’s true you shouldn't be awake.... I would ask how you did this but... looking at you... you don't seem to have take waking up on your own inside the Gate well... So how...?"

The fallen student looked up and you could see several emotions going through him. The interaction with him was interesting and concerning. Some housewarden´s made some comments but that was expected from them, but the reaction when Rosehearts gave the command for him to stand up and what followed was confusing and concerning for me. The student reacted fast and tried to stand up right away but he was having trouble, then he looked at his hand as if he saw it for the first time and just stared at it. He was shaking. 'Could it be that what woke him up messed with him or hurt him?'

After a few minutes of him not moving from his position. Kingscholar growled, seemingly feeling pity for his fellow beastman, and he Al-Asim went up to help him stand up. Kingscholar doing most of the lifting pulling him up. 'This kid's legs have trouble standing it seems... is it the Gates fault? Malfunction? Can I get sued for this?'

"Are you feeling alright?" Al-Asim asked while holding a concerned smile. 'Even he can see that something is wrong and he is one of the most oblivious people that I know...'

"Does he look alright to you?" Kingscholar said sarcasticly, he was glaring at Al-Asim. 'It looks like he is actually concerned too... Hmm...' . Kingscholar did not leave the side of the small student, who didn’t looked the healthiest at the moment, but I couldn't tell much, because of the robes that were covering him completely, even after he let go of him.

"No, not even a bit. I just wanted to ask. It's polite." Al-Asim was not looking away from the student when answering Kingscholar, not registering the glare.

The student introduced himself and answered Al-Asim question. "It’s me... Grim." 'Grim... So that's his name... though he still looks very confused and he seems scared... his voice sounds very sore, like he hasn't talked for a long time.' "I'm not sure what's going on or what happened..." 'so he doesn't know what happened… and I hoped to get some easy answers. I will have to check the Gate after the ceremony to see if it is malfunctioning' "I am... Feeling fine..?" '... Really? Does he think that we are blind?'

I was staring at him in disbelief at the blatant lie, the others with me were too, even Shroud’s tablet joint. 'I will have to deal with this later. I have a ceremony to go trough...'

"Grim was it? Right, please go with one of the housewardens. After we end the ceremony I want to talk to you okay? Splendid. Can one of you be kind enough to bring him there? Thanks. The others continue with me." I said without taking a breath, turning around and leavingn not waiting for a response. 'I will research this incident afterwards. I can't have the ceremony postponed.'

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At the ceremony:

-”The dorm is Ramshackle."

"..." I stood frozen in my spot, in dead silence like everyone else. 'WHAT?!?'

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Now:

'Yes... that kid might become the biggest headache of the year...' I shook my head and then remebered. '!!! I am late for the meeting!'

Chapter Text

Grim Pov:

• A mission has appeared: Proceed to the Dwarf Mine! When you get there make sure that the group that goes with you will come back with all the members alive! You are unable to reject this quest.

I was frustrated and rereading the mission for the third time since we left. 'What would happen if I just stopped us from going there system?'

• Oh? How would you even stop them? ¯\(ツ)/¯ They seem pretty eager. Hmm?

I looked at the two others that were flanking my sides. Deuce and Ace were squabbling with each other again, though it was very visible that both were determined to get out of trouble, not knowing that they were walking into an even bigger one. 'Yeah... talking wouldn’t work... maybe if I-'

"FINALLY! We’re here!" Deuce exclaimed blissfully.

"We’re already here?" I said surprised. 'Looks like I won't able to plan something else...'

"You know, we would already be here a long time ago if you didn’t walk like a toddler," Ace said with a big smile "but hey, you’re not tripping every three steps anymore soo~ I have to congratulate you ! you’re getting better!" the last part was said in an overly sweet voice. Ace moved over to pat my head. I ducked before he could.

"Myha! Stop it! No need to mock me this much!" I was moving faster now.

"C’mon I’m not mocking you, I was just praising you since you managed to finally walk without full time assistants. Much better than when I met you this morning." Ace stopped trying to pat me but was now chuckling.

We were now standing in front of the mirror which would bring us to the Dwarf Mine.  'Lovely, another mirror...' I felt uneasy looking at it, remembering what happened the last time I entered a mirror. 'Going through one now is going to be a pain... I should try talking them out of this, maybe it will work... if I am lucky.'

"Maaan... looks like It's time to get done with this," Ace stated. Deuce nodded "We should do this as fast as we can. Dark-"

"Wait!" I exclaimed and both of them turned to look at me.

"Ha?/What?" Both voiced at the same time.

"I- em..." They were staring at me intensely, making me even more nervous. "Do you two really think this is a good idea? Could we just-" I was slowly backing away from them and the mirror."-not go? It could be dangerous?"

"We don't have time to be scared! This is a great chance to get us out of trouble! We should use it!" Deuce said.

Ace walked towards me and yanked me back to the mirror. "Yes, don't be like this. If there’s something dangerous there then we could turn back. We can't just back out before finding out if there’s something in the Mine."

Again i looked at the mirror with dread. 'Oh, trust me we are going to find more than what we are looking for.' the thought went through my head, i remembered the blot monster that attacked me and my versions of them when we went to the Dwarf Mine.

Ace saw the look I gave the mirror. "Wait... I think I understand why you don't want to go!"

"You... do...?" I glanced at him perplexed.

"Yeah! You don't have to be scared about mirror travel! If you want you can hold onto me. The first time can be scary if you’re not used to it." Ace said in a reassuring tone. 'What..? How did he come to the conclusion that I am scared of travelling through the mirror? Why is he reassuring me about this?'

"So that's why you don’t want to go." Deuce seemed to be agreeing with Ace's  theory.

"H-hey that's not why!" I was flustered. 'What about my actions would make them believe that I am scared of mirror travel?'

Ace rolled his eyes. "You didn't really protest about going before we were by the mirror and you're staring at it very intensely. No need to be embarrassed about this."

"Nyha! I am not embarrassed! It is not the mirror that I have a problem with!" I shrieked in frustration.

"Suuure..." Ace didn’t believe that. "Hold one of us if you want and let's go." Deuce said getting impatient by the stalling.

"But-" I tried to back away again.

"No buts! Let's go. Dark Mirror! Take us to the Dwarf's Mine!" Deuce took my hand, and Ace, being oh so lovely and supportive, pushed me into the mirror.

• Mission: Proceed to the Dwarf Mine! Has started Make sure that everybody makes it out of there, not forgetting you too. (^_^)/~

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Dwarfs' Mine - Silent Woods

When we ended up on the other side Deuce was still holding me. Ace came from behind me. "See? Fast and easy, it wasn't that bad right?" He said while looking at me.

My legs were shaking, I glared at him. "Hah, yeah one of the best times i’ve ever had." I agreed sarcastically. 'I should have dumped them before they could drag me into the mirror chamber.'

"No need to be so hostile. The longer we just stand here the less time we’ll have." Ace was starting to walk forward, away from the place where we were dropped off. "We should start searching."

"Huh, so this must be the location of the Dwarfs' Mine... Long ago, this mine was flushing with magestones." Deuce said, letting me go while examining our surroundings. I quickly moved away from him

"Yeah, like you said it was once flushing with magestones, but not anymore. Why do you believe that we would find something?" I asked annoyed. "It was abandoned for a reason. There could be something dangerous here!"

"Don't be such a pessimist," Ace said suddenly pointing at something. "Look, I can see a house. Let's see if there are people that could say something about the mine."

"You two will just force me to go if I don't move?" I asked, staying still in annoyance.

"Yup!/Mhm" They answered simultaneously. I sighed and we started to walk in the direction that Ace pointed to. 'Not that this will help us anyway, with what is in the Mine...' I thought reluctantly.

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Dwarfs' Mine - Dwarf Cottage

"Hellooo? Is anybody home...? Must be empty. It looks like it has been abandoned for some time now." Deuce assessed.

"Sure looks like it." I agreed. 'Maybe there is something that could help me here...' I moved more to the center of the room. "There are spider webs everywhere and many things are breaking apart... It's still better than how the Ramshackle Dorm looks."

"Jeez, you’re reeealy unlucky ,did they really make you sleep there? I thought that dorm was left to rot." Ace talked while walking to the table that was by the side.

"Trust me it was..." I said agitated. 'I would prefer living here than there... the rooftop looks more stable than the one at Ramshackle, before I repaired some parts. The headmage sure has a thing of abandoning things...'

Deuce was walking in the direction of the chimney of the Cottage and looking around.

Ace nodded "Oh, I believe you on that, my brother told me some stories of the abandoned dorm." Ace was examining the furniture that was there and jokingly said. "Look how tiny these desks and chairs are. Did children live here? One, two... Seven! It's like a clown car in here"

"When the mine was flourishing, this house must have been a lively place." Deuce stated. Then he looked at Ace. "Your brother was a student at Night Raven College too?"

Ace smiled proudly. "Yup! I have so many stories that he told me about the school!-" Ace continued talking and Deuce listened interested.

I was worried though, about the fact that they would probably continue to investigate the house and want to go into the Mine right after Ace stopped talking about his brother. 'I’m not ready for this, if we, or rather the blot monster finds us I don't believe we would win without Yuu here... we could get horribly lost in the Mines too...' Then I remembered.  'The system store could have something that could help me? umm System? I want to see the store.'

• Sure.

In front of me appeared a screen 'What do we have here... skills?... no there’s nothing useful here for this situation that I could afford... food? for me yes... Mine no...' I continued looking until I found something that could help 'Information? It seems to be something about the Mine and cottage. Maybe that could help?'

• Is this what you want? Are you sure?

'Yup...'

• That would be 50 points. Have fun with that.

The information appeared now unlocked in front of me and I started to read it. I frowned after a while. '50 points and this is all I get? A location for a map and a book that I could find just searching here? You ripped me of again'

• Hey! This isn't the only information that you got!

'Noo it isn't but how would information about what the old residents that lived here did help me? What use does it have for me now?'

• Did you read all of what is written there?

'No.'

"Well, this isn't getting us anywhere. If we're gonna find a magestone, it'll be inside the mine. Let's head inside and take a look." Ace said after he was done talking with Deuce. They were ready to move.

I looked at the staircase. "I will look upstairs before we go there, maybe there’s something that could help us." 'Even if it isn't much there should be a map of the Mine up there so hopefully we won’t get lost if we go there...'

Ace raised his eyebrow and Deuce asked "What would you even find there? This place hasn’t been used for years. Let's not stall and just go."

"I-emm... This place must have been where the miners lived?" I fidgeted around.

"Okay? and?" Deuce asked confused.

"They could have left something?" I said

Ace's eyes light up "You're right. There could be something that the old residents left behind that could be helpful!... hmm." Ace pulled out his phone. "We don't have much time before it gets completely dark though..."

"I think we shouldn't stay here too long, so that we have time to go looking for the magestone." Deuce voiced.

"True eh, but Grim could be right about something that could be useful for us here that was left behind too... let's just look for 10 more minutes, if we don't find anything we leave and go to the Mine. Grim you can go upstairs like you wanted. I’ll look around here again and Juice, you have a look outside!"

"Who made you the boss? But sure I will go outside..." Deuce reluctantly went outside.

I nodded and walked upstairs.

I went to the second floor, the room was covered in dust, there were seven small beds there, every single one had some decoration different from the others. The room was messy, the people who lived here before seemingly left in a hurry and were planning to return but never did that.

There was a big desk on one side of the room filled with books, plates, cups and other stuff. I walked towards it.  'There should be a map right here according the instruction that I got...' I opened one of the drawers and looked through what was in there. 'Finally! There is so much stuff in here.' I happily looked at the map that I finally managed to find. 'There are so many more maps here, even from the woods here and so many other cave systems. These people must have dedicated their whole lives to this.'

• Do you want to combine the maps with your map in your system?

I looked at the maps that I had. 'Will these maps vanish if I do that? What would even be the use of doing that?'

• Nope they would not vanish. Not if you don't want them to, and it would be easier for you to know your own location and you wouldn’t have to guess where you are all the time. :)

'Yeah no I can manage this on my own. I know how to use this.' I looked at the maps again stubbornly trying to read them. 'Where is West again...' I was starting to feel lost.

• Are you sure that you know what you are doing? (＾ｖ＾)

I sigh in defeat. 'Alright... let's merge the maps.'

• Merging has started: 10 %... It will be done in few seconds.

'Looks like I have to wait. What should I do until then?' Then I remembered 'The information mentioned a book... I could take that too...' I looked at the stuff around me. 'I could take some other stuff too... It's not like anyone will miss it... but first the book.' I first went to one of the beds, on the headboard was written Grumpy. I looked around the bed and found the book under the pillow. 'Huh, this looks like a journal... should I even take this? reading it seems excessively disrespectful...' After a bit of pondering I decided to take it with me for now. I looked at the system to check on how the merging is going it was now at 68 %.

I picked some stuff from the desk. 'The candles are nice. The ink and quills could be useful. Where should I put them?'  I looked at a chair that was next to one of the beds and saw a bag on it. 'That works.' I put the stuff in there while sitting down on one of the beds with the word Sleepy on it. 'The pillows and blankets here feel great too... Maybe I could lay down for a few minutes.' I started to close my eyes.

"Grim! Are you done?" Ace shouted from the stairs. "We should go even if we didn't find anything! It looks like it's getting darker outside!"

"Myah, Give me a minute! And I did find something!" I shouted back. "I’ll just take the stuff down." I got out of the bed. 'This blanket and pillow are coming with me!' I stuffed them into the bag. 'I hope the ink won't leek.'

• The merging is done! Hope you will find this helpful.

I ran downstairs nearly bumping into Deuce who was standing in front of the stairs. Startled Deuce turned to look at me. "Be more careful." Ace said worried. "You didn't need to run, you could have fallen down the stairs." Then he shook his head. "So what did you find?"

I happily showed them the maps and proudly said. "Look what I got!" They both got excited. "Nice!/This is great!"

"Looks like this one will get us to the parts where magestones were once mined. This could be our best shoot to find something! We could mine them if needed" Deuce declared happily. "The pickaxe that you found will be helpful for that." Ace added.

"Yup!" I just realized that Deuce had one in his hands, he swung it as a demonstration. Nearly hitting Ace.

"Hey! Don't kill me with this!" Ace screamed out. "Opss..." Deuce awkwardly answered rubbing his neck.

I moved to the door evading Deuce. "I-emm I think we should leave."

Ace nodded and left the Cottage after me, now holding the map, the others I have crammed into the bag, that i put on my my back. Deuce followed right after me.

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Dwarfs' Mine - Mine Entrance

We are now standing in front of the entrance. 'Let's just get this done with...' I thought regretfully.

Ace spoke up. "Hey, Grim?" I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Could you do that fire thing?"

"What?" I asked perplexed.

"The thing where you put your ears on fire?" Ace asked.

"They aren't on fire now?" I put my hands on my ears, just now realizing that there was no fire there.

"Nope? Are they meant to be all the time? Oh, they are again now. Let's go inside!"

Grim took a deep breath, he looked back to where they came from for the last time and then looked at the cave entrance “Alright, let’s go.” he said trying to sound calm while his thoughts were running wild. ‘I hope we’ll make it out alive...’ Was the last thing he thought as they all went inside.

Chapter Text

Third Pov:

• Mission: Proceed to the Dwarf Mine! - You finally made it into the Mine, let's hope that you manage get out of it too

Grim scoffed at the notification that showed up after he and the others entered the mine. The trio that entered has been walking and trying to find the magic stone for several minutes now. Grim was in the middle of the others using his flames as light. Ace was holding the map and more or less taking the lead in the search. Deuce didn't seem to care too much about the fact that Ace was trying to lead. He seemed more anxious about the fact that they weren't having any luck in finding any magestone. They have already searched in two different tunnels trying to find that stone with no luck. Grim helped Ace with the maps, thanks to the system not even needing them but not wanting to explain why he knows the location around the caves. Deuce occasionally commenting about stuff on their path.

"We should hurry up... I think we are losing too much time with how slow you both are." Stated Deuce, anxious and annoyed.

Ace glared at him. "Ohhh I’m sorry for the inconvenience Mr. Spade, it’s just that I AM NOT a specialist on maps and for the name of the Seven! This Mine is a complete maze!" His voice got louder with each word and dripped with annoyance and anger.

Deuce shouted right back. "Don't bring the seven into this! If you have problems with the map then just give it to me!" he tried to take the map from Ace.

Grim Pov:

'Great! they are fighting now, and here I thought this was going well...' Grim thought looking at them in dismay. 'Why can’t I be just lucky now and find a magestone already...?'

• Why don't you go to the one that you found from where you came ? I thought you were smart enough to remember something like that, and you even have a map.

'...one that isn't guarded by an Overblot phantom. One that could easily kill us.' I answered the system in annoyance.

• Okay... I give you that, this makes sense. I thought someone like you would be overconfident. Don't you always repeat like a broken record at home how ‘great´ you are? How you are the best mage with the greatest magic and abilities?

I could feel myself getting more and more worked up and angry. 'I am a great mage! It's just that thanks to somebody my body went through a ‘lovely´ transformation to which I am still not used! And my magic feels like a complete mess to me!' Then I looked at the card soldier duo look that was still bickering with a disappointed look. 'and without my henchman, I am not sure how to handle that. They are the ones who always know how to handle and make others cooperate in situations like this, or any situation really.' I started to think sadly, remembering that Yuu isn't with me. I quickly shock my head 'I need to get my thoughts on something else. Maybe...' I looked at Ace and Deuce who were still arguing. 'No.' Then something came to me into mind. 'Its not like I have anything better to do...' I pulled out the Journal that I had found in the Cottage and opened it.

• Are you going to read it? I thought you believed that it was disrespectful to do that?

'I don't care anymore, I need a distraction or else I am going to go insane here.'

• Insane? not depressed? It seems you thought of someone that would be better left forgotten for now. It will just distract you.

'Don't tell me what to think about. I got a book to read.' I opened the journal at a random side and silently started to read through it:

“It has not been a long time since the kind human child departed from us, leaving with a human male who was some kind of prince of a kingdom. What a chance for someone like that to end up somewhere in the woods where me and my brothers live at... It looked like he was hoping to find something. I can't believe no one else was weirded out, for someone like a prince to be here…. It is questionable... I don't trust that. It can't mean anything good, even though he left with the girl almost right after. (Abandoning us without even turning back after being with us for so long.)”

'This seems interesting, I wonder how the resident ended up with a girl living with them.'

“The others were sad to see the girl leaving. However, the happiness of her being alive was bigger. I... I hope that she is happy with the decision to go with someone that she hasn't known for more than a day, and with a person who would kiss a random stranger at the time believed to be a corpse... in a glass coffin...”

I read through the page having several emotional changes. 'Why? why would someone go for a walk in the forest and after seeing a girl in a coffin go and -Yup let's kiss her!- ? What was the girl thinking when she woke up with a stranger kissing her and got like -Oh sweet you seem nice.- ? Why was she even believed to be dead?'

“Should we have stopped her from going with him or is that normal for humans….? She didn't seem to think anything was wrong with him, on the contrary she was overjoyed with his presence, she randomly decided to clean our house and live with us without much thought too. (Reminder to myself that I should find out some more information about humans). Not forgetting we needed to save her beforehand two times from nearly dying after a stranger gave her something. We even warned her to not do that. The old witch wanted her dead after all, but she hasn't taken that advice... We aren't sure what happened to that woman.”

'...no wonder she ended up in a coffin if she is this trusting.'

“After they left I soon started seeing more people in the forest, the others started to register that some wore uniforms... The others are saying that I should ignore them. For now, I will listen to them and hope that the humans will leave soon and not return. I am going to lay down. I hope that everything calms down.”

'Maybe I should read some of the older ones. Maybe there is more about the girl, she seemed to have appeared in their house one day with someone wanting to kill her. Oh.' As I was still turning the pages without much care a page that I opened had an invitation attached to one side.

'Huh, that's the end of that entry.' I moved to the next pages and had just short entries filed with numbers and short sentences.

We are happy to formally invite you to our wedding.

For Grumpy one of the seven dwarfs.

“An invitation came to all of my brothers and me today. We all realized that it was the girl's handwriting even if it was formally written. My brothers were happy to have got them, and all of them planned to go right away.

I told them that I wasn't going, and they all acted as if I told them that all magic from the world was gone. I don't understand how ignorant they are of our situation, the amount of people that come into our woods has gotten higher every day. I have been counting since the day I have started to find it more suspicious.

The people are being ignorant of the wildlife that lives here and have started to act more aggressively for it not submitting to them. It's clear as day that they are trying to locate something and the only real thing that's here that could interest them is our Mine. The only human that knew anything about that place was the girl. She could have told someone about the Mine.

When I pointed that out to the others, they started to act defensively about her. (Who else could have done that though?) They have not talked to me since the conversation this morning. I went out for a walk to calm down.”

'That all sounds very tense. What happened next?' I looked into the next entry excitedly. 'I feel like I am getting too much into it.'

“I finally talked with the others. They said that they understood why I am so anxious (which I am not). The increase in visitors makes them feel nervous (too). So we came up with a compromise. I and two of the others will stay and watch after the cottage and the Mine while the others go to the wedding and try to find out if the people there have something to do with this or if they know anything (I decided that it would be better not to mention the girl agan).

They are leaving today and we will choose which of them will stay with me. We are looking into some spells too that could help us, even if it's not a thing that we are good at it could still help us, but just in the biggest need if things go really wrong. We hope that we won't need to use it. (My brothers Sleepy and Sneezy are the ones that will stay with me.)”

'I wonder what spell it could be... what kind of spell would be useful. Maybe some cool attack spell that would go BHAM! at any intruders.' I started to think about scenarios and cool spells. I continued reading but the next entry was written in a hurry.

“I knew I was right! There would never be humans here for a good reason or for just a walk! They attacked Sleepy while he was outside resting. They forced him to show them how to get to our Mine. Sneezy saw it and ran to me for help. He told me that it seemed that they weren't planning to allow him to leave afterwards.

We are going to the Mine now if any of you come back and find my book. I am planning to use the spell in the hope of saving Sleepy and nobody would have a reasen to enter the Mines again. I hope everything goes well. I am going where most Magic stones are in hopes of using some of them for the spell. Under no circumstances go there if you’re unable to find me after this. I can't promise survival. On the other side is the map for that section of the Mine.

"Hey, what's that?" Ace suddenly asked standing in front of me. I looked up from the book startled. 'When did they stop arguing?' A hand grabbed the journal and yanked it from my grasp I was moving on to the next page.

"Can you give it back? It's not yours." I said annoyed.

Ace rolled his eyes while looking into the journal. "So you are saying that it's yours?" Deuce spoke from behind him. "In the front is literally written Grummpy’s journal. So as long that that isn't some weird nickname it isn't his for sure. Or is it?" Ace as ever before I could.

"Noo... but even so!" I said flustered.

"Were you going to tell us that there is another map inside here or what?" Ace disclosed somewhat between in frustration and anger. "This maps caption literally has ‘Magic stones location’ written on it. You know? the place that we are trying to find the whole time?"

"Hey! are trying to accuse me of something? I didn't know there was a map in there! I was reading and just got to this part." I started to defend myself.

"Okay, that's not important at the moment. Let's just go there. Ace, do you know-?" Deuce was now in between me and Ace. Speaking in a hurried tone. "Ugh, you’re right. Grim, no need to defend yourself, this all is just stressful." Ace picked the maps that were on the ground and then put them together with the others to create a bigger one.

"When did this happen? Why are all maps on the ground?" I asked confused.

"Well, while you were reading someone's dark thoughts and secrets. I was showcasing Deuce. That I know what I'm doing." Ace said in frustration while giving Deuce a pointed look. Deuce raised his hand in defeat. I heard him mumbleing "I just wanted to try looking at the maps too... You haven't let me even look into them before, and this is taking so long... You are acting as if you are the leader and boss. Just because you have the maps and know how to read them... which isn't exactly a lie."

I decided to ignore Deuce but not disagree with him, but seemingly not just heart him, because Ace was now scowling but he looked exhausted too from how long they had been down in the mines already. He didn't argue this time seemingly to be just done with this adventure. They both seem ready to move and go to the location on the map. I didn't budge from my spot, though.

"Guys, I think we really shouldn't go there we most likely won't be able to find anything either way. Something bad could happen. Maybe we will even die." I said in a deadpan voice. They both turned around to look at me and said simultaneously. "What do you mean by that?!"

"Nice to know that you can hear me... and if you want to know what I mean look at the site before in the journal." Ace looked at the book that he was still holding with unsureness turning to the side before the map and starting to read it Deuce joined from behind his shoulder.

"Okey... This does seem troublesome... and the fact that it is mentioning a spell that would need what seems several magestones, even more, a whole section of it... and if you aren't powerful to control it... that would be a clear dead sentence after it was done." Deuce nodded in agreement about what Ace was saying. "If anything was left behind from the spell or if it was still active... we don't know what type of spell it is either...”

"Do you see what I mean? If we go near that place it's most likely that something bad will happen and I will not risk my tale just for all this! And with how my luck is going lately I'm sure nothing good will come." I say with frustration.

The other two both noded ´Finely they are listening to something that I'm saying. Wishing they have done this before.´ Grim thought grumpily.

Ace put his head into his hands in frustration. "How big is this place even this feels like an endless labyrinth." He looked up from behind, his hands at me again. "Was there anything helpful about the mine in that journal, Grim?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I am not sure. I just read a few sides, and all I can say is that something really bad happened. With the spell or rather curse." I could see the other two getting more anxious after I mentioned the curse. "We could try looking into the journal more or-"

Deuce hit one of the walls trying to get his growing frustration out. "This is just great. First, we get in trouble for accidentally destroying a door-" Ace interrupted him "-which I want to say is totally your fault. I still can't believe you have thrown me like a sack of potatoes." The only thing that He got in response was a glare as Deuce continued his rant, "-but now we seemingly have been wandering in a cursed mineshaft for hours.

Suddenly we heard something from one of the cave tunnels. It sounded like groaning and crying.

"It seems someone has heard you..." I whispered.

All of us turned to the tunnel from where the noise was coming from. The noises were coming slowly closer.

"Any of you two want to look into that? That might be someone that could help us? Heh" Ace asked, but clearly not asking the questions seriously more in a fearsome way but trying to hide it with a joke.

Before anyone else could say something, a creature appeared from the tunnel but did not register us.

The three of us were stunned not sure how to react. 'What is that? Is or rather was that a person?' Was running through all of our minds.

The thing in front of us has the figure of a male human, but the limps twist in a weird, inhuman way. It had pieces of a thorn uniform on. But from random parts of its body crystals were growing, its face was completely covered, and the only parts still visible were the eras and mouth from which grouns were emerging and- "Is that thing crying out for others and help?" I asked out loud not sure if I was hearing right. It was repeatably between grouns whispering it seemed to have heard me. "Is someone here? Did you guys return? You didn't abandon me right? They would never. Is help here? You're here to help us, right. You won't leave us right?~"

It snapped its head in our direction. If it still had his eyes, then It would be clearly staring at us. "You won't leave right?" It repeated smiling at us. "Nobody can leave. Nobody is allowed. Nobody abandoning anyone again. Why even try?" Came another voice from above us. We looked up, and there was another entrance and another creature, This one was similar to the other minimally halfway, the only big difference being that its legs seemed to have completely replaced with spider-like legs out of crystal. The crystal creatures started to move toward us. With sinister smiles. "Why not stay with us? The more the better..."

• New side mission: Will you and the others be able to leave? Penalty for failure: Why not stay forever~ (^-^);

This time, Grim was the one who grabbed the other two and screamed, "I think it's time to leave."

Then we started to run. After a few turns and finally having seemingly lost them. For some reasone they stopped following us after some time

"What was that?!" Exclaimed Deuce.

I looked at him "I think we found out a bit of the curse but what exactly I am not sure..." was all I said in exhaustion.

"Okay no nope, no more. That was freaky. We are leaving. Any objection? No good" Ace said frankly not giving us a chance to speak not like me or Deuce were trying still in shock. Then in despair, he said, "We forgot the maps."

I decided to ignore the other two and end their growing despair for a moment in favour of getting answers. 'System, what in the sevens was that?' I shrieked to the System.

• Didn't this happen in your place too?

'NO! The only other thing than the overbolt monster in the cave were ghosts!'

• ... good news for you there are no ghosts in this place. Take that as free bonus information.

'Wait, did these things replace the ghost? Don't tell me... The ghosts only left us after...' I locked around we are now in the exacted place where…

“.....iiivvv... ...oooouuu…” noise started to pick up again from one of the halls but this one was one that Grim remembered very clearly. 'Fuc-'