Twisted-Wonderland: Our Precious Treasure (Part 2)

(82) TMotDS: Rebellious Counter!

"Starting today, I will be your master!" The room was filled with gasps and confused murmurs.

"Their what now?" Jack spoke out their confusion. Epel glanced at Jonah. He saw the boy was gripping the counter tightly as if he was trying to crack it.

"You lost a bet against me." Azul tapped his cane and stretched out his other hand, summoning a golden contract with 'Ace Trappola' signed at the bottom. The particular ginger in the front line let out a grunt. "And according to our contract, you all will be working under me as my servants until the day you graduate."

"HOLD IT!" Ace stepped forward. "This is a straight-up fraud!"

Azul hummed. "Ah, even Ace Trappola is here." Jack's sharp eyes noticed the way Azul clutched his cane slightly tighter. The Octavinelle Prefect blinked several times before continuing. "That was quite a rude accusation. I believe that I gave you the perfect test notes just like I promised in our contract. If you follow them, you should've had no problem scoring over 90."

Ace huffed. "Yeah, I did score 92 points. But I didn't know that you'd be giving those notes to all these guys!"

"I second Ace's argument." Deuce stepped next to Ace, crossing his arms in front of his chest as Grim perched on to his shoulder. "Even if we received the notes, there's no way all of us could place in the top 50!"

"If this many people score over 90, then getting 85 is just the same as failing, yanno!" Grim yelled.

Azul shook his head in disappointment. "Are you boys aware of the term 'duty of confidentiality'?" When none of them answered, he continued, "'I want to easily get a high score', 'I don't want my grades to drop', 'I want to spend my time until the test having fun', and so on. The idiots-" He cleared his throat, holding back a chuckle. "No. Everyone who relied on me had their own reasons for doing so, but who made a contract for whatever reasons and under what conditions are all deeply connected to an individual's privacy."

He pushed his glasses, it glinted under the light. "There is no way that I will be talking about someone behind their back, you know? I am a very honest man, after all." The boss grabbed onto the floating golden parchment, showing it to the three students and the others behind him. "There was a stipulation written on page 127 of our contract under the fine print, correct?" He chuckled. "I am just simply upholding that agreement."

Grim's face became pale. "Th-then, what will happen to the fire magic that I gave as collateral?"

"He's right! What about my water magic?"

"Give me back my unique magic!"

"Oh my, oh my, dear customer. Have you all forgotten the terms of the contract?" Azul sighed. He flipped the paper in his hand and cleared his throat. He started to read, "'In return for the notebook to counter the final exams, you shall entrust an ability you take pride into me. If you managed to be in the top 50, then I will return your ability and give you a notebook for every test until you graduate. However, if you are unable to make it into the top 50, then you will become my absolute obedient servant until you graduate'."

Epel gasped. "Is it even possible to take others' abilities?"

Jack growled. "This is intolerable." Jack was about to stand up, but Jonah suddenly grabbed his arm. Jack was way stronger than Jonah, but the way the smaller boy glared at him, made him crouched down again.

"Both of you get out of here." Jonah stood up.

"What? We're not leaving you here," Epel hissed.

"Then stay put. Don't come out even when everything goes wrong." Jonah glanced at him. Shadow from his bangs covered his eyes, making it looked like there was a glint in it. "I don't need both of you to make this even more difficult."