Twisted-Wonderland: Our Precious Treasure (Part 1)

(16) TCT: Midnight Hanging

What a tiring day... Ace yawned as he walked to the dorm's kitchen in his pajamas. After meeting with the headmaster and gratefully accepting that his expulsion was rescinded, Ace thought he could get some rest when they reached Heartslabyul. But no!

Their prefect, a small redhead shorter than Ace named Riddle Rosehearts, decided it was a perfect time to give them a lecture about causing trouble on the first day of the semester. It went for hours! If it wasn't because the green-haired senior who told him to continue this in the morning, the prefect probably would do this all night. Ace could guarantee it! Another senior, a blond and possibly good friends with their prefect mention that Ace and Deuce were lucky that their prefect didn't 'drag them to the court'. Ace didn't know what he meant, but it sounded worse than the hours of lecture.

His stomach grumbled again. Ah, right. He missed dinner too. Wonder if there was something to eat in the fridge...

When he opened the door, the light from the fridge shone in front of his face. He saw three wide tarts with golden crusts and slices of strawberries on top of them. "Looks delish~!" he said in awe. He looked around. Nobody was in the kitchen except him. "Ah... I'm sure they don't mind if I take one." He grinned, picking up one of the tarts, and put it on the counter. He picked up a knife and cut a big slice for himself.

"Thanks for the food~" he said before biting onto the sliced tart. His eyes widened. "Whoa, what the heck?!" The sliced strawberry was a bit sour, but a good compliment for the homemade cream cheese and the crunchy graham crackers crust. "It's so good!" he said as he bit onto it again.

"Of course, it would be delicious. After all, anything that Trey makes is bound to be exquisite."

Ace hummed, licking the cream cheese from his lips. "Nah, man, this is something else! It's better than the ones at the shops-"

Wait a minute...

Ace immediately turned around. "Wha– Prefect?!" He dropped his sliced tart, which made Riddle Rosehearts' frown deepened.

"Quite the boldness you have there for touching something that belongs to me, Ace Trappola," he said, putting his foot forward, forcing Ace to step back until he was pressed against the counter. Riddle didn't stop. "And after I decided not to punish you for staying out past the curfew and burning the Queen of Hearts' statue."

He took out his magical pen. A magic circle appeared around the pen and with a flash of light, it turned into a golden staff with a heart and crown at top of it. "Laws of the Queen of Hearts Number #89: One shall not eat tarts prepared for the Queen ahead of her." The heart of the staff started to glow as a magic circle appeared below Riddle's feet and around the heart. "Larceny of the Queen's tarts is a capital crime!" He raised his staff.

"Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait-" Ace never realized the magic circle around his neck.

"[OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!]"

Before Ace could react further, Riddle slammed his staff to the ground, and with a spark of white light, a red-and-white heart-shaped collar snapped around his neck.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

-----

"And that's what happened."

Jonah and Grim stared at him with a pair of deadpan stares. They were all sitting in the lounge of the new-and-improved Ramshackle Dorm which took Ace by surprise. He thought this dorm was supposed to be unlivable. How did Jonah and Grim (though he doubt that Grim helped) manage to clean all of these in one day, without magic nonetheless?