After trying on his uniform, the ghosts found an old leather strap in the dorm's basement and gave it to Yuu, so he could carry the ghost camera with him.

Finally, everyone went to sleep. Grim settled next to Yuu's legs and fell asleep in no time. The young human got to sleep much better than the night before.

"Hurry up and paint the roses red!" Some voices exclaimed insistently. "Quick, quick! Before they wilt!"

Yuu suddenly opened his eyes and found himself standing in what appeared to be a maze of tall green hedges. In front of him were what he recognized as three card-shaped soldiers from the french deck painting some white roses of tall rose bushes shaped like hearts and spades.

In that, Yuu couldn't help but notice his clothes: instead of his white shirt and black pants, he was wearing a blue dress adorned with a white apron and long white stockings along with black shoes. He took a better look at it and found it adorable.

He had only worn a dress twice in his life: at six years old, when he wanted to dress up as a princess like Yukiko to go to an amusement park, and at fifteen at work to replace a coworker during an event.

In his rambling, the scene kept going with the card-soldiers. None of them seemed to notice him.

"Faster, faster! There are some roses that are still not painted!" An ace of clubs urged.

"Are they... painting the roses?" Yuu asked himself. "Why?"

Then appeared a girl with long blond hair who seemed to be twelve years old. She was wearing an outfit very similar to his. Yuu had never seen her, but for some reason he knew that her name was Alice.

"Why are you painting the roses in the garden?" Alice asked the soldiers, who were surprised to see her, so much so that one of them ran his brush full of red paint over the faces of his two coworkers.

"You ask us why?" A two of clubs asked. "To be honest, we planted white roses by mistake."

"And the queen told us they must be red," the ace of clubs added. "If she sees white instead, she will behead us!"

"Goodness..." Alice and Yuu murmured, the girl putting a hand to her neck.

"In order to save ourselves, we are going to paint them red!" exclaimed the three soldiers.

Just when Alice had decided to grab a bucket full of red paint and a paintbrush to help them, Yuu heard the sound of a door-knocking, and the images faded until everything was black again.

"Wait a second!" He said to himself. "What place was that?"

He slowly opened his eyes after hearing the knocks at the entrance to the bedroom for the second time. It had all been a strange dream.

It was still nighttime, he supposed he didn't sleep for more than three hours.

"Hey, Yuu... Someone's knocking on the door..." Grim told him, still half asleep after waking up to the noise. "Is it the ghosts? They don't know when to give up."

Yuu scooped up Grim and walked him down to the front door.

"Who is it?" He asked after the third knock on the door.

"It's me, Ace," said his voice from outside. "Can you let me in for a bit?"

"Ace? What is he doing here at this hour?" Grim asked as Yuu opened the door, and his eyes widened at the sight of him. "Eh!? That collar is...!"

Yuu also recognized it immediately: Ace was wearing the same shackle closed around his neck that the young redhead, Riddle, had put on Grim before. If he remembered correctly, that thing prevented the use of magic...

"I'm never going back to Heartslabyul!" Ace exclaimed furiously. "From now on I'm gonna be a member of this dorm!"

Yuu still had his head a little asleep to react immediately to what he had just announced, but Grim was ahead of him: "What!?"

"Come on, come inside. Let's go to the living room." He offered, fully awake now because of Grim's shriek.

The three of them sat on the sofa, Grim also did on Yuu's lap.

"That collar's the same kind as the one that red-haired upperclassman put on me during the entrance ceremony," Grim recalled. "Why are you wearin' it?"

"I ate a tart," he replied with annoyance.

"Eh? A tart?" Yuu asked, confused, to make sure he had heard correctly. "Only that?"

"Exactly! Only that!" Ace exclaimed again indignantly. "I got hungry, so I went to the dorm's kitchen. The tart was there along with two other whole ones, so... Just as I finished eating the first piece, the dorm leader, Riddle Rosehearts, appeared behind me. He told me that the tarts belonged to him, he lectured me with a rule of 'You shall not eat tarts prepared for the Queen before her', that stealing the queen's tarts is a... 'capital crime'? And... put this collar on me with his magic. Man, it was so uncomfortable!" He exclaimed, remembering the strong feeling of discomfort when he felt the grip on his neck.

"To sum it up, he punished you for eating something that belonged to him," Yuu said.

"Yes, that's what happened."

Grim and Yuu exchanged a silent look of disbelief.

"You've only got yourself to blame," Grim said to Ace, breaking the silence.

"But isn't it overreacting to seal my magic just because I ate his tart?!" He asked angrily. "It's basically the same as tying my arms and legs! Plus, it was three whole tarts! I don't think he can eat them all by himself! There is a limit to how ruthless he can be!"

"Well, something I agree with you is that maybe blocking your magic may have been a little too overboard... " Yuu said.

"Right?!"

"Ah! One second...!" Grim interrupted. "If it was three whole tarts, would they be for somethin' like a party, maybe? A birthday, maybe? I'm so good at deducting!"

"A birthday?" Ace asked crossing his arms, still frowning.

"If that's the case, then it's no wonder he got so angry. Did you apologize for it?" Yuu asked him.

"Uh... I came here straight after that thinking you would agree with me that the leader is a tyrant, Yuu," Ace replied.

"And I agree that he seems kinda a tyrant," Yuu said. "But it's not okay to eat other people's food either, you know?"

"I agree with that," Grim commented.

"You didn't know the tarts were his, so maybe he'll forgive you if you apologize," Yuu continued. "You should try tomorrow."

"Grudges over food are scary," Grim said sternly.

Ace sighed in annoyance. "Okay... I just have to apologize, right? It was you who suggested it, Yuu. So you have to come with me, okay?"

"Of course! Count with me."

Ace calmed down a bit after finishing the conversation. "Well, where can I sleep?" He asked.

"Are you seriously thinking about spending the night here?" Grim asked indignantly. "Aside from our room, all the other ones are messy and dusty. If you want to sleep here, you'll have to clean one yourself."

Ace didn't like the idea very much. "I'm not going to clean up." Then he smiled with a cheerful insistence: "Come on, Yuu. Let me sleep in your room. I'm pretty slim, so I won't take up much space! Please?"

Now it was Yuu's turn to frown, this time awkwardly. Three people in the same bed was going to be difficult. "You can sleep here on the couch." He answered.

Ace clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Greedy," he snapped. "Okay! I'll sleep here all alone on the couch in the living room. Good night!"

And he laid down reluctantly.

Grim quickly got off the couch and Yuu got up. "Wait a minute, don't fall asleep yet," the young human told him as he left the place under the bewildered looks of Ace and Grim.

In a few minutes, he returned with a blanket and pillow. "These are from another room," he explained before dusting them. "It would still be necessary to dust and shake the mattress, but you'll have a room available if you ever want to stay another night... Done! Much better now!"

Smiling with satisfaction, he handed him the pillow and extended the blanket over him.

"Good night, Ace!" He said before picking up Grim and going to his room. "We'll see you tomorrow."

"Sure, good night..." He replied, a bit stunned by the unexpected gesture of kindness.

After curling up on the couch, he felt even worse for teasing him that morning, even if he was already forgiven for it...

The next morning, Yuu was changing into his uniform to go to class when he heard a knock on the door again. The second time made dust fall from the old ceiling.

He heard Ace get up to open it.

"Are you done?" Grim asked, waiting by the door. "Let's see who it is this time."

"Wait a second, I just need to finish the tie..." He said in front of the mirror. "Done! We can go now."

He opened the door to let Grim out. In the distance, they could hear Ace's voice talking to Deuce.

"I don't want to hear that from you!" Ace exclaimed. "By the way, is the dorm leader still mad at me?"

"Not completely," Deuce replied. "But he is irritated and three mates who didn't follow the morning routine met the same fate as you."

"'Not completely' my ass!" Ace exclaimed with horror. "He's totally furious!"

"Good morning guys," Yuu greeted them with Grim walking beside him. "How did you sleep, Ace?"

"Ah, good morning, Yuu, Grim," Deuce greeted them. "I assumed Ace would be here. Sorry if you were disturbed in the middle of the night by his stupidity... How about your arms?"

"I just told you I don't want to hear something like that from you!" Ace exclaimed angrily.

"Don't worry, he didn't bother us. And I'm fine, now they don't ache very much and I was able to sleep well," Yuu assured him. "It's still early, but should we go now?"

Upon reaching the main street of the campus, Grim walked on his two legs with pride: "Hey! Make way, make way! Here walks a student from Night Raven College!" He turned to Ace and held the pendant on his bow. "Look at my collar! Compared to yours it's amazing! You can't use magic anymore, right? I guess you'd be great as a janitor to clean. Ha, ha!" He laughed with a meow. "It feels so good to tell you that!"

It was clear that he was still upset from the teasing of the day before.

"Come on, Grim, he already apologized for it," Yuu chided softly. But he couldn't help but smile at the thought that Ace had received his piece of karma.

Ace grunted in annoyance at Grim's comments. "You better remember this when I get my magic back!"

"The headmaster scolded you for making trouble yesterday, remember?" Deuce told him. "How about you apologize now to leader Rosehearts to take that off you?"

"I'm still not convinced about it!"

"We still have time for our next class," Grim remembered. "I'm also curious about the other dorms, so let's go check them out while we watch Ace apologize!"

"I'm not an exhibition, damn it!" Ace exclaimed.

Yuu didn't say anything about it, but he thought he heard a burst of distant feminine laughter as if it were having fun with Ace's situation. At the same time, he felt a warm sensation on his left shoulder, right where the print was. It was the first calm feeling he felt with it, rather than discomfort or nostalgia, but he shook his head slightly and stopped thinking about it.

They walked to the Mirror Hall, the same place where they met Deuce.

There were many mirrors adorned with characteristics of each dorm, but that day they had to go to a specific one.

Heartslabyul's mirror had many details: it was crowned by the bedroom emblem and two heart-tipped spears, adorned with carved sculptures n the shape of roses and cards from the french deck. Another element that attracted attention was the sculpture of an opened book at the bottom, next to some mushrooms.

Entering through it, they found an atmosphere very opposite to what Grim and Yuu had seen at Night Raven College until then.

The place looked like a huge, elegant garden with well-kept green hedges and rose bushes. A lavish red building and a fountain could be seen in the distance perfectly.

"Wow! What a fancy place!" Grim exclaimed. "It's totally different from our dorm!"

"Come on, Grim. Ours is still in development!" Yuu snapped, managing to hide his disappointment at the comparison.

Despite this, he believed that his sister, whose favorite flowers were roses, and his mother would love the place if they could see it. He really missed Yukiko a lot...

"Oh, no! I must hurry and paint the roses red!" A hasty voice exclaimed.

"Looks like there's someone out there," Grim pointed towards the rose maze before Yuu lifted him onto his shoulders.

The four of them approached the sound of the voice and saw a red-haired student who seemed to be older than them. He had a small red diamond-shaped mark under his right eye.

"Oh, there! If any are any left unpainted, it's off with my head!" he exclaimed again in a hurry.

Remembering the dream, Yuu became familiar with the situation, but he didn't think about it much.

The young student noticed their presence. "Do you need something?" He asked them calmer.

"What are you doing?" Ace asked him.

"As you can see, I'm painting the roses red."

That shocked both Heartslabyul students. "Eh!? Why would you do something like that?" Deuce asked.

The young boy just laughed happily. "Your expressions are so vivid, you look adorable! Now that I see you better, you are the freshmen who caused chaos yesterday and destroyed the chandelier worth billions."

"I think the thing about the chandelier won't be forgotten until we graduate," Ace sighed.

"And you are the little criminal who ate the dorm leader's tart," the young boy replied as he recognized his collar. "How lucky I am to meet the so rumored newbies so early in the morning!"

Then he took his smartphone out, with a silicone casing in the shape of a playing card, with a red diamond with a happy face.

"Hey, hey! Let's take a picture together!" He hastily grouped them together and snapped a selfie. "Yay!"

He showed them the photo: he was the only one smiling, the others were surprised by the sudden action.

"Can I upload this?" He asked while pointing at the screen. "Tell me your names to put hashtags."

"I'm Deuce Spade."

"Ace," he answered with some annoyance.

"I'm Grim. And this one down here is Yuu, my henchman."

"Yuu Oshiro." He frowned a bit and carefully lowered Grim back to the ground. "I told you I'm not your henchman."

The boy wrote the names and a cheerful musical note sounded from his smartphone. "Ok, uploaded." He put it back in his pocket. "Oh, I'm Cater Diamond. I am a third year, so I'm your upperclassman. You can also call me Cay! Nice to meet you!"

In addition to being cheerful and approachable, Cater was quite handsome and seemed to be up with the new trends.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," Yuu said.

"Oh! You are the new prefect of Ramschackle dorm!" Cater recognized him. "I'm surprised you can live in a place like that! It is so dark and it seems like something will suddenly jump out. I'm so sorry for you, man!"

"How inconsiderate," Grim commented annoyed.

Cater seemed to remember something. "Ah! I shouldn't be standing here and talking! The party is in two days, I don't want to lose my head for being late! Hey guys, could you help me with painting the roses?"

"But why are you doing something like that?" Ace asked him.

"Red roses are more photogenic for a party, don't you think? Besides, I also have to paint the flamingos for the croquet tournament, so I'm very busy."

"Painting the flamingos?! That's really weird!" Grim exclaimed.

"So what Ace ate was for the dorm leader's birthday party. Now I understand why he got so angry..." Deuce commented.

"Eh? It's not his birthday," Cater told them, something they weren't expecting.

"It's not?! So whose birthday it is?" Ace asked.

"It's not anyone's birthday," Cater began to explain. "The day after tomorrow is the legendary 'Unbirthday Party' in our dorm. It's a tea party the dorm leader decides to do on a day that doesn't fall on anyone's birthday."

"Why would someone do that!?"

"The explanations will come later! Now you have to help me paint the roses red!" Cater urged cheerfully as he picked up a pair of brushes. "Deuce and Grim, you can paint with magic, right? Ace and Yuu, you can't use magic, so take these brushes!"

Deuce and Grim didn't like the idea very much.

"Do you mean... change the color of roses with magic?" the human asked with concern as he reached for his magical pen.

"I've never done anything like that before," Grim commented without enthusiasm.

"Okay, don't worry! Relax!" Cater tried to encourage them. "We will manage! Let's hurry before the leader punishes us!"

They approached the bushes with more white roses. Cater drew the magic pen from him again.

"Not pink, not green, got it? I'm counting on you to paint them in a pretty red!" he reminded them.

Ace was the one who least wanted to do the activity.

"Ah, we don't have a choice, do we...? We just have to get this over with, right?" he asked in a huff.

On the other hand, Deuce was very determined to do his best, and Grim was convinced that he was fully capable of doing it easily.

"Come on, let's go," Yuu urged and grabbed the nearest paint bucket. He did say much more about it because he was at first disturbed by that sense of deja-vú while painting the roses.

However, he saw in wonder how the white roses turned red in less than a second with Grim's magic from his new magic pendant and the two boys' magic from their magical pens.

He found it funny Ace's annoyed face while manually painting them.

One moment Grim accidentally colored the flowers of an almost finished bush with blue, pink, and green, but Cater fixed them right away by painting them red again, earning the fascination of both Heartslabyul students.

"I want to do magic too," Ace commented with jealousy and weariness.

But things started to get complicated as Deuce and Grim lost their concentration, getting the wrong color or even setting the roses on fire, in Grim's case. Yuu had to move quickly to avoid being hit by the flames a second time.

Fortunately Cater, being the expert third-year student he was, easily fixed those mistakes. "You are way worse than I thought," he commented after quickly putting out the small fire.

"But why can't roses be white?" Ace asked. "They're pretty."

"It's part of the tradition, didn't you know?" Cater explained. "The roses at the Unbirthday Party must be red."

He also commented on other rules such as the color of flamingos and hedgehogs used as balls for the croquet competition, in addition to the fact that the only white rose should be one for the flower concert.

"So many strange rules!" Grim commented.

"These are all rules decided by The Queen of Hearts, one of the Great Seven," Cater continued. "Riddle is a very strict leader and follows her rules to a T. Although I admit that he gets overboard sometimes..."

That last part reminded Ace of the reason for his arrival. "Right, I shouldn't stay here any longer! I need to speak to the dorm leader. Is he inside?"

Cater thought about it for a second. "I think he should be still around here. But tell me, Ace the Tart Thief, did you bring more to make up for it?"

"Eh? I came straight here, so I have nothing."

The cheerful gleam in Cater's eyes turned a bit darker.

"It's that so? Well, according to the Rule of the Queen of Hearts #53: 'You have to replace what you have stolen', I cannot let you back in the dorm." Deuce and Yuu exchanged a confused look.

"Eh!? What the hell!?" Ace asked.

"Does that mean Ace can't go back to his own dorm unless he brings tarts?" Yuu asked with concern.

"You have to follow the rules of this dorm if you're part of it. If I leave it aside, It will be off with my head," he kept smiling, but his eyes narrowed wickedly. "I'm sorry, but I have to make you leave before Riddle notices."

Since he couldn't do any magic, Ace asked his friends for help when he saw Cater taking his magical pen... It didn't take long for them to be pulled out of the labyrinth.

"Very well! Come back when you have a tart!" he said before disappearing behind the hedges. "Bye, bye!"

"But what's wrong with that guy!?" Ace exclaimed angrily when they had gotten far enough away. "I can't go back without a tart? I've been empty-handed since forever, man. He even kicked us out after he made us help with the roses!"

"What a disappointment," Grim commented incredulously.

"Then we'll have to prepare them," Yuu continued.

"Yeah, we can take care of that after class." After saying that, Deuce seemed to remember something. "Ah! Oh, no!" he yelled.

"What's wrong?" Yuu asked startled.

"The school bell has sounded! We will be late for class!"

"Uah!" Grim exclaimed. "I don't want to be late for the first day of my wonderful school life! Let's hurry up!"

"Right, what is your class?" Ace asked them. "You are also in the first year, right?"

"The principal said we're in class 1-A!" Grim replied.

"Well, then we are in the same class!" Deuce said. "We have Magical Alchemy class in the first period."

"Yahoo! That sounds fun!" Grim exclaimed.

"I can't use magic, remember?" Ace commented. "I wonder if I'll be okay..."

Yuu grabbed Grim into his arms and looked at Ace. "If can study here without problem as long as I have Grim by my side, I'm sure that you'll be fine with the magic temporarily blocked. Come on, let's go now."

[Posted in 18/7/2021]