When Club Is Over

Chapter 3: Perfect?!!

As soon as Azul made it calmly back to the safety of his office, he dropped the facade and showed how rattled he actually was. He pulled out his jewelry inspector and a small ruler to check something, then pulled out a scale from the recesses of his desk. He checked and rechecked the results, even going so far as to write his maths down on a paper. When the results come back the same for the 5th time, Azul pushes himself away from his desk to take a breath and let the awe wash over him.

"How did he even- it's perfectly balanced on all sides! When did he have the time to.." He trails off the rest of his sentence.

Idia had somehow managed to create five perfectly balanced dice, despite not appearing to measure it at all. Azul was hit with a violent flashback to Idia saying how making the dice was, quote, "noob level," which Azul could only take to mean that it was easy. The longer he sat thinking about the dice, the more he could feel... something, welling up inside him. The first part was definitely amazement, after all Idia's dice were amazing, but the second part was something Azul couldn't put his finger on. The feeling made his stomach tingle, and not in a bad way. It was just confusing.

What was even more confusing was the fact that Idia hadn't asked for anything in return, and had almost pushed Azul to take the dice. Azul shakes his head and decides to chalk it up to another odd thing about the Ignihyde housewarden.

Azul stands from his desk and shakes his head to clear his mind. He pushes his hair back from his face, just for the longer strand to fall back. Standing up from his desk, Azul sends a text to Jade to grab something for him as soon as possible. Then he straightens his jacket and opens the door to the V.I.P. room to welcome the first person asking for his help, a Savanaclaw student asking for a potion to make him gain muscles easier and at a faster rate. The transaction was very easy, as the student didn't read any of the fine print before he signed. In fact, he didn't read the contract at all, even interrupting Azul when he tried to explain what the potion would do.

Unable to rise from his chair due to social conventions, Azul has to force himself to watch in horror as the Savanaclaw student chugs the potion that was meant to be sipped slowly over the course of two weeks. The student flexes once, then twice, then leaves the V.I.P. lounge with Azul still stunned. Azul sighs what could quite possibly be the largest sigh to date, surprised and yet grateful at how idiotic some of his schoolmates are.

The floor to ceiling window into the fish tank that connects to the lounge calls out invitingly to Azul, the promise of his octopus pot infiltrating his mind, but he still has a ton of homework that he needs to do, both for his own schoolwork and the various contracts he makes. He needs to study the schoolwork for all the levels, above and below his own. Today he was working on Potionology classes, starting from first year and slowly working his way to third year. The first year Potionology schoolwork was the easiest, mostly because he had already done it last year, but also because it was theoretical for the first semester.

Second year was just the stuff that Azul was working on in class, so he didn't need to work on it now. The third year potionology work was a bit harder, being difficult potions that needed magic to be made properly. Thankfully, Azul only had to study the theoretical today, since he wasn't taking the class yet. Later he would do the potion and test if there was a fool-proof method to complete the potion. Most third years didn't seem Azul's help, but it was always good to practice just in case. The fourth years were hardly ever at school, so Azul doesn't bother making a study guide for them.

After a few hours of homework and studying, Jade knocks on the door. He walks in silently and shuts the door behind him, turning around to face Azul. He holds a small box in his hand, express ordered from the same delivering company that they order their glasses from for the lounge. Azul quickly pushes away his books, making more than enough room for the small box.

He opens the decomposable box reverently, carefully lifting the lid off to reveal a pristine glass display box, enchanted to be finger-print resistant. Azul pulls the box out slowly, making sure he doesn't accidentally scrape it on the walls of the packaging. He holds it up to the light, breathless when he sees the patterns of light swimming through the glass walls, reflecting light upon his face in a rainbow pattern. He sets the display case gently on his desk and reaches into his school bag for his uniform jacket. With gentle touches Azul wraps the jacket around the display box before placing it in his bag. Reflexively, he reaches for his phone to ask Jade or Floyd for their jackets as extra protection but stops himself with the thought of how odd that would be.

After all, it's not like the case is going to be important or anything. No, Azul definitely didn't spend a thousand thaumarks on an enchanted glass box just to display the set of dice Idia gave him. That would not only be completely insane, but also a complete waste of his hard-earned wages from the lounge. He continues this line of thinking until he gets to his dorm room- a single since he's the housewarden, and when the door closes behind him once more he rushes to his desk where he pulls the dice out of a hidden pocket in his pants where they would be safe throughout his work until he could get home.

Azul reaches into his bag for the thick fabric of his school jacket and lifts it out of his bag, checking it to make sure the glass box inside is still in one piece. Satisfied that the spell he paid extra for worked, he placed the makeshift wrapping on his desk next to the dice before unwrapping it like a child on christmas day. The box opened from the top, making it easy for Azul to reach down and place the dice one by one on the platform suspended in the middle of the box. Azul smiles a true smile, pleased to see that the final extra spell he'd paid for worked properly, this one making sure that the dice appeared to be suspended in mid air by, well. By magic.

Azul takes the box in both his hands, gently cupping around it like how one would hold a baby bird. He turns a couple circles in his room before deciding that the best place for this display case is certainly the table next to his bed. Hardly having to move anything, it looks like it has belonged there his whole life.

"That's an odd thing to think about something my clubmate made." He balks at his odd thoughts revolving around his upperclassman's creation, and the man himself. He shakes it off, chalking his uncharacteristic thoughts up to lack of sleep and stress due to his customer earlier consuming the extremely potent potion in one sitting. Thinking about the customer causes a chill to run down his spine, giving him a bad feeling in his gut.

"Oh well, a thought for tomorrow."