❝DÉVOUEMENT❞ ; twst.

✦ chapter sixteen.

ೃ༄ "i can't deny that he is quite impressive."
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jack and f/n walked to ramshackle with yuu and sat on the couch in ramshackle's lounge. they started discussing about the current situation and are thinking of ways on how to solve this problem. "so, those guys with anemones on their heads made a contract with azul so they could get a good score on the test. but then, they were deceived... right? it looks like being in the top 50 was the condition of the contract, but with that number of students, it would be impossible for more than half of them to be in the top 50. azul knew this would happen, huh..." said jack. yuu nodded as he said, "yeah, it seems evil..."

jack sighed in frustration as he spoke, "geez. there's no use if you get good grades because of someone else, you know! they just wanted to compete and show off who could score the highest! how idiotic..." f/n nodded in agreement. suddenly, another voice spoke out of nowhere, startling the first years. "it's a shame that most of the students here don't have jack's initiative... if they were all so serious, i wouldn't be having problems~..."

the three turned to look at the newcomer with startled looks. "h-headmaster?! you startled me...!" crowley waved them off and sighed, "i couldn't stop ashengrotto's business again this year." yuu tilted his head in confusion and asked, "headmaster, do you know something?" crowley nodded as he started narrating, "azul ashengrotto. a second year who has since been octavinelle's prefect. just like rosehearts, he's an exceptional second year, however... he is a little— no, he's very problematic."

"problematic? you mean his shady deals? you could've ordered him to stop what he's doing, then?" crowley shook his head at jack's words and added, "it's because i'm a teacher that i cannot do so." jack looked confused as he asked, "what do you mean?" crowley sat on the rocking chair as he continued, "about the test notes that ashengrotto tempts the students with... he does not actually do anything illegal like steal the answers from the teachers. he thoroughly researches all of the past exam questions that night raven college has given for the past 100 years and creates those notes based off them. they are basically crib notes that he has refined by himself with research."

"all the exams for the past 100 years?!"

"that guy's pretty amazing for being able to do all that with his powers."

f/n looked at the two surprised first years and added, "he's quite capable of doing a lot of things. i can't deny that he's quite impressive either." jack nodded before turning back to the headmaster, "wait... is it because it's not cheating that you cannot prohibit him?" crowley nodded with an exasperated sigh, "precisely... from a teacher's standpoint, we cannot exactly prohibit notes that a student has put a tremendous amount of effort in, especially since it is created by legal means."

"and since he was simply being kind and helping his friends with studying..." trailed crowley. "you can't ban it because if you do, it's like you're saying 'don't study' or 'don't ask your friends for help'." finished jack. he growled as he realized how frustrating the entire situation is. crowley nodded in agreement as jack continued, "headmaster, you said you couldn't stop his business again. did the same thing happen last year?" crowley nodded, "indeed. though, the news about his notes wasn’t really wide-spread last year. i thought it wouldn’t turn into quite the problem this year, but... it appears that a rumor spread around campus saying that if students wanted to get a high score, they should come to the mostro lounge."