Key of Souls: Twisted Wonderland

Chapter 73: School Business

3rd POV

Dawn and Jack were now at the Ramshackle Dorm's lounge after witnessing Azul Ashengrotto making the students who signed his contracts his anemone slaves, and what he and the Leech brothers did to the students who fought against them; Dawn brought some tea for the two of them to have as she sat on the couch.

"Those guys with the anemone on their heads, to get a good test score, they were tricked into forming a contract with Azul... I don't think I got anything wrong.", Jack said as he took a sip of his tea. "The condition was that they had to get into the Top 50 grades, but because there were so many students who made contracts, most of them couldn't make the cut. That's what Azul was aiming for from the start."

"I should've known it was weird for Grim to score above 80...", said Dawn in a deflated tone. As Jack glanced at her, he noticed Dawn had a crestfallen expression on her face as she stared at her cup of tea; he figured she was still upset that Ace, Deuce, and Grim had made contracts behind her back, despite the fact that they were getting help from Dawn with studying and tutoring. Seeing her like this made his heart feel a sharp stab, as he disliked that expression; even though he never joined their study sessions, he could understand why Dawn would feel this way after sparing some of her time to help those guys prepare for the exams. "Kyu...", Perry squeaked sadly as he stroked her cheek to comfort her.

Jack carefully placed his hand on Dawn's shoulder; she noticed the touch and saw the wolf-eared boy giving her a concerned look. "Hey, those guys should've known better; they had someone like you who was willing to help them out when they asked you, and they should have known better than to break your trust like that. They have no one to blame but themselves for cheating like that.", he told her.

"Kyu!", Perry squeaked, agreeing with Jack.

Hearing this made Dawn a little better as she said, "I know, Jack. I'm still shocked about how Ace, Deuce, and Grim went to Azul and signed a contract even though they asked for my help."

Jack let out a small growl the moment he heard Azul's name; he especially remembered how he was looking at Dawn when he took her hand, which left him feeling disgusted. He took a quick breath and calmed himself down to focus on what's important right now. "There's no meaning in using someone else's power to get good grades. Wasting the chance to show off their true power to everyone is what really makes them stupid.", he said. Just as the two teens were thinking about what they could do about this...

"Everyone at this school is self-obsessed like Mr. Howl, it's so troublesome... If they took things seriously, we could avoid hardship for everyone, including myself~"

Both teens and Perry jumped in shock as they now noticed Headmaster Crowley was sitting beside them with a teacup in his hand. "Waah! Headmaster! You scared me!", Jack exclaimed. Dawn spat out tea in shock and choked for a bit as she shouted, "Ever heard of knocking!? How long have you been here for!?" Perry squeaked angrily as he shook his paw, just as shocked as Dawn and Jack were.

Instead of giving her an answer, Crowley took a sip of tea and gave a forlorn expression. "Huuuh... I couldn't put a stop to Mr. Ashengrotto's "business" again this year.", he said as he sighed.

This caught Dawn's attention as she calmed herself down. "What do you mean by 'business'? Headmaster, do you know something?", she asked. 

"Azul Ashengrotto. He is a second-year student who works as the Dorm Head for Ocavinelle. He is an extremely extraordinary student to be the Dorm Head in his second year, like Mr. Rosehearts, but... There are a few, no, a great number of problems.", Crowley explained.

"Problems? Like the scam incident? If that's the case, then as the headmaster, can't you just order him to stop?", asked Jack.

Dawn noted that the Headmaster looked a bit flustered as Jack asked him that question. It did puzzle her as to why Headmaster Crowley didn't try to stop Azul if he knew he was pulling a scheme like this. "The thing is... Precisely, because I am a teacher, I can't prohibit his activities.", said Crowley, regretfully.