❝DÉVOUEMENT❞ ; twst.

✦ chapter forty six.

ೃ༄ "my job is far from over..."
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f/n walked down the main street with the other four diasomnia members as they had their idle chat, each on their way to their assigned rooms. "my room is on the left, i shall take my leave now. if you need anything, feel free to call me." said f/n as she waved goodbye to the four and entered her classroom. f/n walked towards deuce and sat down as she turned her head to look at her friends.

"n/n!" called ace as he tackled her into a hug. f/n's brows furrowed as she looked at ace, "you seem so happy to see me as if we haven't seen each other a few days ago..." deuce waved at f/n with a smile and greeted her back, "nice to see you again, n/n..." f/n nodded as she patted ace's arm, "...you're choking me, ace..." ace's eyes widened as he pulled away, "oops~ sorry!" yuu tilted his head in confusion and said, "you saw each other during the holidays?" deuce nodded as he replied, "f/n was patrolling around our hometown, so we had the chance to meet."

ace nodded as he added, "n/n was so cool in their military uniform~ you should've seen it, yuu!" f/n sighed and playfully punched ace's arm, "you're complimenting me too much." ace grinned as he said, "not my fault that you're amazing~" f/n groaned and ushered him to take a seat, "anyway... what's up? you all seemed concerned before i entered the room." ace glanced at yuu and said, "this guy's been spacing out for a while."

grim walked towards f/n and slumped down on her as he hugged her arm, "he was acting strange since we woke up! it's quite concerning." f/n let grim rest in her arms as she casually scratched the back of his ears before turning to look at yuu, "are you alright, yuu? are you feeling unwell?" yuu pressed his lips together as he hesitated on telling her, "no... it's not that... actually, i just realized something..." f/n raised a brow to urge him to continue, "i... see dreams of the great seven from the mirror in my room..."

f/n's eyes slightly widened as she said, "...dreams of the great seven... what kind of dreams?" yuu looked wary as he replied, "in my dreams, they're a little bit different from what the legends say..." deuce tilted his head as he said, "hm... i remember murmuring one of their names when i fell asleep during a test before, but... it seems like our cases are a bit different." yuu then added, "there's also some guy named 'mickey' with big, round ears inside the mirror, too..." ace looked spooked as he said, "that's scary, dude!!! who the heck is mickey?"

"i don't think they go to this school..." mumbled deuce. "oh, wait... are you talking about that one time you stepped on my tail on your way to the mirror?" asked grim. "if it's not a dream, then maybe it's one of the ghosts?" questioned deuce. grim nodded in agreement as he said, "it's possible considering how much those guys love pranks, yanno?" ace's eyes widened as he looked at yuu, "i know! if that mickey shows up again in the mirror, why don't you try taking a picture of him using the ghost camera the headmaster gave you? that's a magical tool that can snap a pic of anything with a soul, right? pretty sure a ghost is no different!"

"i see! if we have the picture evidence, we can look up who mickey is..." said deuce. "if you meet him, go coax some tuna cans out of him since he made you step on my tail!" exclaimed grim. "and if he doesn't show up, then we can say that yuu's just dreaming~" added ace. f/n was silent the whole time as she thought to herself, 'dreaming of the great seven... different from the legends... seeing mickey from the mirror... somehow, i feel like i'm starting to realize what yuu is here for... is he perhaps the one who can show us the truth? but to what? everything is still a mystery...'

"l/n?"

f/n snapped out of her thoughts as soon as crewel called out her last name. she hastily raised her hand and stuttered, "p-present..." crewel eyed her for a bit before continuing with the attendnce. she had not realize the bell rang since she drowned herself in her own thoughts, and now she suffered the consequences of not paying attention by getting unwanted stares from the rest. after the attedance was crewel announcing the upcoming event, the nationwide magical school joint festival.

crewel had announced that night raven college has become the center of the activities, until he heard grim ask what that was. he let out a sigh and explained what the festival was about. "the joint cultural festival is a chance for all major schools to come and attend a gathering. for two days, we hold competitions to showcase art, music, and even new magical discoveries. it is very much similar to an inter-high, but for cultural arts. our fourth year students are dispatched all over the world to help with research and to train themselves too, and on the day of the festival, the fourth years will be coming back to announce their research."

"oh, yeah... i never paid much attention to it, but we've never met any fourth year students since the entrance ceremony, huh."

"i did know that they were doing research outside the school... we need to show them our gratitude properly."

"oh, yeah, all i've ever seen around the school are third years."

'lilia and malleus are third years... that means i won't see them in the academy next year... silver will be a third year student next year, while sebek and i will be second years...' thought f/n.

crewel then continued his announcement, "the magic ministry, the magical board of education, the magic university, magical corporations, the magical research board, and even celebrities come on the day of the festival to showcase many things. and i have to make sure to groom and prepare you little pups so you won't disgrace us during the cultural festival. now then, that will be all for homeroom. today's lesson will be about defensive magic. come here, you little pups!"

f/n's eyes slightly widened as she grew concerned and thought to herself, 'wait... i might harm professor crewel...' crewel noticed f/n's reaction and said, "don't hold back, l/n. show me what you've got." f/n paused for a moment before nodding and said, "yes, sir!"

...

school has ended for the day and f/n immediately returned to her dormitory, only spotting silver and sebek in the lounge. "...where are the other two?" asked f/n. "we went out to search for young master, but we failed to find him. father is in the dorm leader meeting right now in young master's place," replied silver. "oh, mal should be in the woods behind the campus... there's usually nobody there at this hour, he's probably there to talk a walk..." said f/n as she sat on the couch.

"WE MUST GO CHECK, SILVER!!!" yelled sebek as he grabbed silver by the wrist and walked towards the door, "THANK YOU FOR TELLING US, N/N!!!" and with that, the two disappeared, causing f/n to sigh. "looks like i'm the reason why mal's alone time is ruined... sorry, mal..." mumbled f/n. before she could grab a snack, her vision was blocked by an image of a pen with pomefiore's magical jewel.

the jewel was tainted by blot. however, the stain was small and almost unnoticeable. f/n regained her vision as she let out a gasp, "what... what was that... a sign of another overblot?" she looked around and noticed that she was still alone, "...pomefiore's jewel... is it schoenheit? ...looks like my job is far from over."