Into the World of Twisted Wonderland

🐙The Merchant from the Depths🐙 Chapter 25

When Angel arrived back to the dorm, she was surprised to see Ruggie and Leona staring at Grim and they turned their heads to see the girl walk in. They both smirk at her, making her confused at the look. "Your job for today is to clean Leona's room," Ruggie says.

The order made Angel confused. "I just cleaned his room yesterd-" she looks around, seeing that all her hard work was put into disarray by the main culprit giving her a smirk right now.

"You'd better earn your room and board, herbivores," Leona smirks and the two could only sigh.

"Between Azul bossin' me around at work and Leona doin' it at home, I'm a mess. Uuugh," Grim groans.

"Start by putting all his randomly-discarded clothes into the laundry basket, then clean off his desk," Ruggie says, giving Angel the basket and pointing to the desk. "Accessories go in this drawer. Books go on that shelf. Once the desk is clear, wipe it off with a dustcloth," Ruggie says as he points to the sections of the desk.

"You're not a cub. You should know how to clean up after yourself," Grim mumbles as he walks to the desk.

"Hm?" Leona says as he leans down to look at Grim, making Grim look at him in fear. "Care to run that one by me again?" He threatens.

"Eeep! I-I didn't say nothin'," Grim exclaims as he heads towards the desk. Leona could only watch him, keeping a glare on him for a while before focusing on the girl, who starts picking up the clothes scattered on the floor. How in the world did this mess happen when I just cleaned the room yesterday?! She thinks as she picks up clothes, not noticing that she was being watched by the culprit that caused said mess to be made. I might as well just do it, we do live here under his beck and call temporally.

Leona almost didn't like the fact that someone other than Ruggie cleaned his room, but that was almost. He knew that Angel cleaned his room yesterday, but the thing that didn't sit well with him was that he wasn't able to watch her. Knowing that she cleans Ramshackle Dorm on the regular should at least show that she was good at cleaning, and he admits that his room was clean, cleaner than when Ruggie does it, but the fact that he wasn't able to watch her when she did it made him annoyed. No one to give her various orders of what not to touch and where to place things was made him annoyed, but seeing her put work into something he caused and he wanted made him smirk at the action. He could get used to this. He could make a mess and she would only be at his beck and call whenever he wanted. He smirks at the thought. Her waking him up, cleaning after his messes, following him to make sure he does his work, pleading with him to not cause trouble. It won't be too bad to have rabbit here.

"Okay, I'll start cleanin' the pile of stuff offa this desk," Grim mumbles as he jumps on the desk only to be surprised at the contents on the desk. "Whoa! He left some expensive-lookin' jewelry just lyin' around. And there's his wallet!" He looks around, seeing the various gems and jewels lying around. "W-with this much stuff around, surely he wouldn't notice one little thing goin' missing, right?" He looks around, seeing that Angel was picking up clothes and Leona watching her and Ruggie doing his own thing. Grim smirks. "That's what he gets for not puttin' this stuff under lock and key. Nyeh heh heh..." He carefully picks up a ring and was about to put it in his fur for safe keeping until a hand shot out him, hitting him, making him drop the ring.

"Don't even try it," Ruggie scolds. "That one's mine to nab-uh, I mean, he'd know immediately if something was unaccounted for." Ruggie sighs. "I keep telling you to stop leaving your valuables out in the open, Leona. You're gonna get robbed blind one of these days!"

Leona only sighs, annoyed at the fact that Ruggie interrupted his thoughts. "Ah, shut your trap. What are you, my mom?" Angel could only listen to the conversation as she does her job, seeing that there were more clothes to put in the basket. "So what if my stuff gets stolen, anyway. It's no big deal. I say if someone's got the guts to steal from me, they can go right ahead."

"But it IS a big deal! That's my point!" Ruggie shrugs. "It's all fun and games being rich until the day you suddenly feel the penny drop. They're called 'valuables' for a reason." Ruggie sighs. "This is what drives me nuts about you silver-spoon types..."

At that moment, Angel remembered about the vault in Azul's VIP room and the words Midnight said to her earlier. "Sometimes, what you see with your eyes is the complete opposite of the truth." Angel dropped the basket, making everyone look at her as she smiles, realization in her eyes. "THAT'S IT!" She yells.

The exclamation shocked everyone. "Whoa! What's gotten into you, Angel?" Grim exclaims.

"Oi. Bring the volume down a notch," Leona scolds.

"They're in the vault because they're NOT unbreakable!" Angel excitedly exclaims to the three.

"Huh?" Ruggie looks at her confused.

Leona thinks for a moment, and a smile appears on his face. "Hah...Ha ha ha!" He laughs, falling on the bed. "Of course! I get it now. That's an intriguing line of thinking," he says as he props himself up, looking at Angel.

"Huh? What'd I miss?" Grim asks the two.

"Here, I'll explain..." Leona says as he explains the thought Angel was thinking of. Since Azul said the contracts were unbreakable, why would he need to keep them hidden? If they were unbreakable, he could just leave them anywhere he like, but he can't, making them breakable as long as conditions are met. So where would Azul keep the contracts to prevent them from "breaking"? A secure location that only he could access.

After hearing the explanation, Grim eyes widen in realization. "Ohhhh, I getcha! NOW it makes sense! Now that we've got a weak point to exploit, let's bust into Octavinelle right now!"

"There's just one problem with that," Ruggie speaks up.

"Myah?"

"If Angel's read is right, then the Leech brothers are sure to show up and interfere. Honestly, they're a bigger hurdle to you guys than the vault itself."

"For cryin' out loud..." Grim mumbles. "We're so close, I can almost taste it!"

Angel smirks at Ruggie and Grim. "So if the Leech brothers weren't present..."

Leona sees her smirk. "Hey." He says, getting her attention. "I've got a good idea of where you're going with this, so I'll get this outta the way now...I'm not helping. No way, no how. The last thing I need is to get dragged into someone else's mess. Especially when that cephalon-punk is involved," he glares.

"Same goes for me. Don't even ask," Ruggie shrugs.

"Hmph. You guys're real fairweather friends, y'know that?" Grim comments.

"Grim," Angel says, getting Grim's attention, and motioning him to come to her. "Play along with me on this one," she smiles at him, making him confused. "Don't worry you two," she tells the upperclassmen. "I wouldn't dare ask for your help with this." She smiles at them, leaving them both confused. "Let's go Grim. We have to take these clothes to laundry room, right, Ruggie?"

"Uh, yeah."

"I'll be borrowing Grim for a moment to help. We'll be right back." Angel and Grim leave the room, leaving the upperclassmen confused at the girl's attitude change.

"Hey, Angel, what's all that about?" Grim asks her.

"Grim, I need you to do something that only we can do," She says as she kneels down and whispers into his ear, and Grim starts smirking after a while.

"Myah ha ha! You got it!" Grim says confidently as the two head to the laundry room, plan set in motion.