Everywhere in the Academy, the subject was the same: Ezariel. Rumors ran through the castle, and the Black Rose felt proud. The more people talked about them, the more they would be feared. After all, no rumors about the Black Rose were good.

"Ezariel will lead the Black Rose to victory again. This year, Black Rose has a high chance of winning the Annual Competition of Cards,, for the third consecutive year! In addition to that, people are saying that Ezariel injured the princess during this afternoon's activity." the runner's voice echoed through the halls. Annabell rolled her eyes and threw the newspaper away. Anger began to flow through her blood.

Her pale face turned rosy with the heat of anger. She got up from the stretcher and walked towards the window.

"One activity, and everyone is saying he's the great name of the Black Rose. As if he had done something great!"

The biggest reason for the princess's hatred was not even the amount of points or any other reason that people thought.

"He killed Yur!" Annabell had already named the rabbit beast. Her greatest indignation was that Ezariel had killed the rabbit. Part of Annabell's competitiveness also fueled her anger, but she tried to suppress it by putting her motivation in the rabbit.

"Did you give that thing a name?!" Annabell didn't know whose voice it was, but it should have been someone from the White Lotus.

She put her hands on the window and saw Ezariel surrounded by Black Rose members in the middle of the courtyard. Behind the platinum, a vase began to float, and cracks appeared on the wall. Gael widened his eyes and ran to hold the porcelain piece.

Annabell remembered the moment when she had stopped falling into the hole.

The princess was thrown out of the hole and she rolled on the ground. Her open wounds began to burn and her blue dress was completely dirty and torn. Annabell had no desire to get up, and her expression was one of complete irritation.

"If you say anything, I will blow a hole in the ground with your face!" she warned, lifting her face and seeing the convinced smile of the redhead. She preferred Ezariel when he only had the same expression of death and hate. "Don't smile, it's annoying." the princess added.

"I'm sorry, Princess... I had to take the rabbit from you." Ezariel approached the princess confidently, seeking to get closer and closer to her. Annabell made no move to try to move away.

The people around the two took the opposite direction. The closer Ezariel approached the princess, the more they moved away.

"You killed my rabbit!" Annabell accused him.

"I saved your life, you should thank me," Ezariel corrected her.

For everyone there, one thing was certain - if the princess had stayed longer in the presence of that rabbit, she could have been seriously injured. The members of the White Lotus were forced to agree with Ezariel - that rabbit could have killed her.

"This isn't your castle, Princess." Ezariel continued. Whenever he called Annabell a princess, she felt like throwing up. "I don't think your dear subjects have properly explained how things work here.

"I know very well how things work!" Annabell said, feeling completely irritated. In just two days, she had become more frustrated than in her whole life.

"Annabell, that’s enough!" Dominick emerged from the crowd. The princess couldn't quite define what she felt upon seeing him, but the unhappiness on his brown-haired face was clear.

… ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ...

Annabell was jolted out of her thoughts when someone poked her shoulder. She turned and saw Diana, whose expression was frightened. "The glass and the wall," Diana said, and the glass began to crack and pieces of the wall fell to the floor. Annabell quickly moved away from the window. Such a thing had never happened before; she had full control over her abilities. Magic explosions like this were extremely rare, and it didn’t make sense that it was happening. The ward fell silent, and no one dared to speak. The floating vessel was put back in its place. The smell of alcohol grew even stronger, bringing a shock of reality to Annabell. "I lost control... sorry. Can you... leave? Please," Annabell said, her tone insecure. She was trying to figure out how she got into that situation. Even if she didn’t often get irritated, she had never lost control like that before. Platinum-haired sat on the stretcher and pressed the mattress tightly. All his cuts were covered by bandages, and his face was still burning. It was as if someone was poking him all the time, preventing him from healing. Annabell lost herself completely in her thoughts, her gaze completely out of focus. "It wasn’t you," Dominick said as he stood in front of her. "The Academy did it." Annabell didn’t even notice when the man entered the room. He looked at all the windows, and they returned to normal. Annabell didn’t understand how it happened. Her powers didn’t have that dimension, so Dominick’s speech made more sense.

"Nobody knows the reason behind the Academy’s actions. One day they may love you and the next day they may hate you. Living here is completely unpredictable. Today you may have good luck, tomorrow bad luck." Annabell frowned, her eyes wandering all over the infirmary. They hadn’t been at war in years, but it looked like the Academy was like a battlefield. Four dormitories competing all year round, different champions, completely absurd games. Her image of the Academy changed more every day. They didn't know what kind of activities would be exposed, every day was a different surprise from the previous one. It seems like this place is a completely different reality... It’s hard to explain. She still remembered when her brothers had returned, all they spoke of was extremely superficial. They said that the activities were tiring, that the climate of competition was the thing that stood out the most, but they never spoke directly about anything. It was like they didn't even remember it right. "What were my brothers like when they were in their senior year?" Dominick entered high school in her brothers' senior year, and that was his senior year. "They were determined to make the 4-win streak for the Lotus Dormitory. They felt an immense rage towards the Black Rose, they called the Academy "hell on earth" Some people from my year are like that too, or even worse. After they left, I didn’t even recognize them. The first time I talked to them after they left, the two looked like completely different people. They were incredibly calm and talking about proposals to negotiate with the Kingdom of Hearts." Dominick walked away from the princess "When I asked about the game of Find the Flag, they didn't even seem to remember it, it was quite strange." "My brothers have never shown themselves to be this competitive. It's kind of weird that you even say that. I think the worst in the family, in that sense, is me" She shook her head, it was not the time to remember her brothers. When they called, she would ask them "I'll talk to them later. Sometimes, Johnny convinced Mark to surrender to the competition." Annabell kept thinking about it. Even if she told herself that it wasn’t important at the time, she couldn't shake the feeling that her brothers were definitely not competitive. Before joining the Academy, they had talked about trying to meet people from the Kingdom of Hearts and small Kingdoms. She had thought everything had gone well, but the way Dominick spoke was very different. "My brothers never seemed to have the ability to feel anger." She crossed her arms, intrigued by it all.