Post-Epilogue Chapter 20: A Most Sneaky Infiltration of the Most Nefarious Variety

In the early light of a sleepy January morning, Red Lake Elementary was once again alive with the youthful exuberance of children, returning to their daily routine after the holiday break. It was a new year, with the promise of new lessons, new friendships, and new adventures. The crisp winter sunlight streamed through the classroom windows, and the familiar scent of chalk dust and floor wax filled the room. The low murmur of excited chatter, the rustle of backpacks being unzipped, and the occasional squeak of a chair against the linoleum floor created a comforting sonata of a peaceful, ordinary school life.

Yet, for a familiar little group, their seats conspicuously clustered near the back of the classroom, there was an undercurrent of something more than just the usual post-holiday blues. Their conversation was not about the gifts they received or the places they visited, but a shared, secret experience that bound them together in a way their peers could not even begin to comprehend.

"So," Éolienne whispered, leaning forward in his chair, "Has anyone found anything new about the Ivory Prince during the holidays?"

The girls surrounding him shook their heads, causing the young Abyssal to let out a soft, slightly disappointed grunt.

Not long before the winter break, they encountered a strange, otherworldly being, calling himself the 'Elfenbeinprinz', and lots of other words Ollie didn't quite understand. This experience drew them into a brand new mystery, one that seemed to be a secret to even the grand and expansive World of Mystics.

Unknown to the average person, under the surface of this seemingly mundane world churned a turbulent sea of supernatural wonders. Mages and dragons, yokai and monsters, and the many so-called 'Winged Ones' with great mystic ancestries hidden in plain sight were something these children were intimately familiar with. Yet, despite being so deeply involved in this obscure world of esoteric powers, they couldn't find anything definitive about the mysterious boy they encountered.

"I tried asking around, but nobody has ever heard about him," Kóre said, and her identical-looking sibling nodded along.

"Meaning either nobody knows, or they aren't allowed to tell," Pais added, causing Éolienne to scratch the back of his neck with a sense of futility in the air.

Among their group, they all trusted that the Celestial twins would be able to get to the bottom of things, relying on the Elysium's grand reputation of skullduggery and information-gathering, yet even with contacts in high places, they came up empty-handed. And if they couldn't discover anything new, the fact that the rest of them ended up the same wasn't a surprise by any means.

They all felt frustrated. Between their affiliations, they each individually thought they could surely discover something, anything new about the mysterious boy in white, and yet their combined efforts had yielded absolutely nothing.

"We must rely on Ammy-san after all," Ichiko concluded, and nobody had anything to say otherwise. Thus, the conversation died down with a shared sense of quiet disappointment. That is, until Fiia approached their group in a hurry. Her brown hair was tied up in its usual pigtails, and her hazel eyes had an unusual, eager shine to them that the otherwise shy girl rarely displayed.

"Hi, everyone. I was almost late, but you have to listen to this," she whispered urgently, and the kids turned their attention to her with a collective lean. While she was occasionally still a little skittish around the group, their shared experiences had slowly drawn her out of her shell, and lately she's been considerably less guarded around them.

"Hi, Fiia!" Xiao greeted her with a guileless smile, followed by a soft, "We were just talking about how we couldn't find anything new about the you-know-who."

Fiia came to a halt next to the group huddled together and joined the hushed conversation.

"Ah, that's what I wanted to talk about. I found something," she whispered, looking as excited as the kids had ever seen her. From her bag, she produced a worn book and placed it onto the desk in the middle.

It wasn't a schoolbook, or one meant for a child at all. The object she placed on the scarred surface of Éolienne's desk was a thick, heavy rectangle, bound in leather the colour of a dried bloodstain. The hide was cracked and worn smooth along the edges and spine, the kind of wear that spoke not of years, but of centuries. Faint, almost illegible gold tooling traced out a pattern on the cover that might have once been flowers or vines, now so abraded by countless hands that it was little more than a faint imprint.

The actual title was much easier to discern. The cursive letters on the front spelled out, 'The Ancient Mysteries of the Fey Folk' in faded silver ink.

Ichiko let out an impressed, "Whoa?" and poked at the book. "It looks old."

"It is," Fiia confirmed with a satisfied hum, and she gingerly turned the cover over. "It was printed over three hundred years ago."

"Three hundred years? Wow!" Éolienne echoed her, sounding just as impressed as the rest. "Where did you find this?"

Fiia was about to answer reflexively, but then she shuddered and averted her gaze with an evasive, "Y-You know? The library?"

Pais uttered an incredulous,"Truly?" and the girl doubled down.

"Yes, yes. It was in the public library. Where else could I've found it?"

Her insistence left little room for argument, yet the twins still exchanged a knowing look. They knew a lie when they heard one, but they also knew when to push their luck and when not to.

They were right. It wasn't the truth, not even close. The book, in fact, was found within the grand repository of the Critias School of Conjuration, a place she barely managed to enter due to her relation to arch-mage Taika Talvipäivänseisaus, and even then, she could only browse the vast collection of books under her guardian's strict supervision.

Of course, she couldn't tell any of this to her friends. Despite now sharing an astounding secret about the Ivory Prince, the lost kingdoms of the Sonnenwendenkönigreich and the Walpurgisnachtkönigreich, as explained to them by Amelia Rhearn herself, the legendary Conduit of the Grimoire, her relation to the Assembly and the Magi in general was still a secret to the rest. As such, Éolienne and the girls still wholeheartedly believed that Fiia was just a regular, timid human girl who somehow got entangled in their web of magical mysteries.

"We should've thought of that," Xiao mumbled with a hint of frustration. "Should we go to the library together after school and keep looking for more?"

"N-No! I already searched it!" Fiia insisted, and then she quickly turned the heavy book to the table of contents. "And this book already has what we're looking for! See?"

Her small index finger pointed at a specific entry, and the kids huddled even closer to get a better look.

The entry was sandwiched between 'The Courts of Summer and Winter' and 'The Currency of Whispers.' The ink was slightly faded there, but the title was still legible: 'The White Prince of the Sundered Kingdom'.

"Oooh?" Once again, Ichiko let out a quiet gasp and pointed. "White Prince? That must be him, right?"

"Maybe. Ivory is a different word for white, right?" Pais commented.

"And it mentions a kingdom!" Ichiko said with gusto, only for Xiao to ask, "He's a prince, so it would be weird if there wasn't a kingdom, right?"

"That's a logical deduction," Kóre chimed in, trying her best to channel the mannerism of the twins' adoptive father.

While the other children were discussing that, Éolienne was already reaching for the page, his small fingers fumbling with the surprisingly thick, smooth paper.

"It's just a collection of old folk tales and legends," Fiia quietly explained, as if trying to temper their expectations. "But it is very similar to what Miss Amelia told us."

"So that means she didn't make it up," the Celestial girl noted in the same phlegmatic tone, causing everyone to stop scrutinising the book and do it to her instead.

"No one said she made it up," Pais rushed in for the rescue, hastily sputtering, "D-Dad always says it's important to verify everything! Even the things we're told by reliable sources!"

"That's just silly," Ichiko scoffed and crossed her arms. "Why would Amelia-san lie to us?"

"Yeah! It's silly!" Xiao doubled down with her, even adopting the same exact cross-armed posture.

"That wasn't what I meant," Kóre insisted, her detached demeanour cracking under the pressure, but before the discussion got any more heated, Éolienne finally found the correct page and interrupted them all.

"Everyone, look! It's here!"

The others immediately turned their attention back to the heavy, leather-bound book. The pages were of a creamy, vellum-like texture, thick and yet feeling strangely fragile under the fingertips. The letters were in an elegant font reminiscent of handwriting, dark and crisp against the pale background.

They didn't have time to read the text deeply, nor could they do it quickly, considering the antiquated language and the sheer density of the paragraphs. However, they each found something that caught their interest.

"Look! This story has a ruler called 'The Masked Prince'," Éolienne pointed out.

"And this part says there were two courts," Xiao noted while squinting at the text. "One for the day, and one for the night."

"The names used by the Ivory Prince–" Kóre started, only to be interrupted by her sibling.

"And Miss Amelia."

"Yes, her too," the Celestial girl continued on without missing a beat. "They roughly translate to the same."

"And this part," Fiia chimed in, pointing at a paragraph at the bottom of the second page. "It says that Fey magic can only be matched by Fey magic, and normal magic is ineffective against it! That would explain why nobody else has discovered them over the centuries!"

"Yes, but... Fiia-chan?"

"Hm?"

Fiia turned to Ichiko, who then levelled the sudden question of, "What do you mean by 'normal magic'?" at her.

"Um... I-I mean..."

"Hey! Don't bully Fiia!" Éolienne cut in, but Ichiko was adamant.

"No, I mean, I'm not bullying Fiia-chan, I'm just saying that she got used to magic so quickly! She didn't know about it before, right?"

"I-Ichi!" Xiao suddenly grabbed her friend's shoulder and whispered, "We weren't supposed to know about it either!" The asian girl's eyes opened wide when she realised she also made a slip, and she hurriedly insisted, "I-I mean, we didn't know about it, at all! Not at all!"

"Ah! You're right! Uuu..." Ichiko desperately looked left and right, and then abruptly pointed at the boy with the book. "Ollie-kun! Quick! Change the topic!"

"H-How do I do that?"

"Actually," Pais interjected, coming to the rescue once again, "The book here has information that Miss Amelia didn't tell us about."

"It does?" Xiao blurted out, and a few moments later, all of them clustered around the book again, with Pais pointing at a paragraph in the middle of the page.

"This says that the Kingdoms of the Fey were not in this world, but a land that could only be visited when invited by them, through something called a 'Fairly Gate'."

"A gate?" Éolienne echoed the word, and once again, Ichiko's eyes lit up.

"Oooh! I've got it! It must be a portal! Just like the ones–"

"We know nothing about yet, either!" Xiao interrupted her by putting a hand over her mouth.

"It's not a portal," Fiia spoke with sudden authority, and the rest all turned to her, surprised. She seemed to realise she spoke too confidently and hurriedly turned the page with a frantic, "A-Awawa! L-Look, here! There's an illustration!"

Just as she said, there was a simplistic, almost crude drawing of a forest clearing with a ring of strange mushrooms. There was no swirling vortex of light, no shimmering portal of energy. Just a circle of fungi.

"What is this? A fairy ring?" Ollie asked, tilting his head. "I saw one of these in a picture book once. It's where fairies dance, right?"

"Are Fey fairies?" Xiao asked with a head tilt, but before any of them could speculate further, the sliding door of the classroom opened up and in walked a young woman with a French bob haircut and modest clothes.

She greeted the students with a cheerful, "Good morning, children!" and they responded with a practised chorus of, "Good morning, Ms Peachbottom!"

With the teacher here, the group hastily returned to their seats, leaving the book on Éolienne's desk for the time being.

"I hope you all had a wonderful winter break, but it's time to return to the school mindset," she declared as she put her hands to the sides of her face in parallel, like the blinders of a horse, but after a short beat, she let them down and flashed a smile. "But before that, let us welcome a new friend! Please, come in."

Waiting for this cue, the girl outside the door entered the classroom, much to the collective surprise and subsequent curiosity of the students. She was about the same age as the rest of them, wearing her bright red hair in a pair of large twin tails and carrying a chequered school bag on her back. She marched up to the teacher's desk and faced the class, only for her eyes to squint and brows to furrow.

She muttered, "Uu. How does Papa do it?" as she glared intently at the far wall, and after a few short seconds of tense silence, she–

~~~

Ha ha! I did it! Purin really is a genius!

I smile at the little children, and they are looking at me like I'm weird. How rude! But Purin is a gracious person, so Purin won't hold it against them.

"I'm Purin!" I declare with a fist in the air, but everyone's still looking at me funny. Uu. When Ichiko does it, nobody looks at her funny. Ah, speaking of which, she's here, too, so I smile at her. "Hi!"

…

Ah, wait! I wasn't supposed to do that! Purin isn't supposed to know Ichiko yet!

"Hi, Purin-chan!"

Hehe. It's a good thing Ichiko's a good girl, so she waves back at Purin anyway. Now that she's friendly, everyone else is friendly too. Just as planned. Purin is such a genius, sometimes even Purin gets surprised by herself.

"Erm, yes," the teacher says, and then she picks up some papers. "Please welcome Purin... 'Cuu-stard'?" She looks closely at the page, then asks, "The note says that it's supposed to be pronounced in a 'French way'… Did I say that right?"

"Yes!" I tell her with a friendly smile. Purin has to be friendly and make a good first impression.

Purin is a transfer student now, and Elly Mama said that it's very important for a transfer student to make a great impression, because they are super important! Even Judy Mama agreed. Something about moving the plot. Purin is great at that! I've been watching Papa for a long time, so Purin knows everything about plotting, and scheming, and unscrupulous Machiavellian conspiring, too!

The teacher asks, "Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" so Purin steps forward.

"Hi, class! Purin is Purin! I'm from here, but I couldn't come to school before, so I had to learn everything on my own! I live with my Papa, and I'm here to learn to be a productive member of society! I think! I'm good at everything, and like everything, except those round things on the ground that eat dirt and go 'crickety-crickety' with their arms!" I illustrate that with my hands, but the kids laugh at Purin. "It's not funny! I really don't like them! They're the worst!"

"Yes, erm… Thank you." The teacher says and pats Purin on the back. "Let's get you seated, and then you can talk with everyone after home room. How about you sit… there."

Nyuhuhu! Yes. Yeees! The empty seat between Ichiko and Fiia! Purin already memorised everything and knows everyone else's names and the layout of the classroom! It seems convenient that there's an empty seat right there, but little do they know that Purin's Papa already arranged for all of this! Very secretly! Now, I will infiltrate their inner circle and act as an agent of chaos! I'm not entirely sure what that means, but Judy Mama said it was really important, so Purin will do it!

But for now, Puring must remain incognito. Clandestine. Under the cover, so that when they would least expect it, Purin would spring to action and chaos all over them! Very agently! Nyuhuhuhu!

"Thank you, teacher!" I bow to her, like Ichiko always does, and then I go over to the empty desk. Let's see… We have Fiia in front. She's also a very sneaky agent under the cover, like Purin, but she seems nice. Then we have Dango! She's Ichiko's friend and gave lots of pats and scratches to Purin when she was only Pudding-kun, so Purin will give her pats and scratches too! It will lower her guard before Purin’s sudden yet inevitable betrayal! Nyuhuhu.

The yellow twins are over there, and Purin doesn't like them. I saw them play with the crickety-crickety usurper in Papa's office, and that's no good. Oh, and there's Ollie too! Papa likes Ollie, so Purin likes Ollie too, even though he also played with the crickety-crickety, but everyone makes mistakes. He just didn't know better. Purin has a big heart and forgives everyone's sins.

But for now, I must appear harmless. They cannot suspect a thing, and they won't, because Purin is a genius, and Judy Mama taught me everything I need to know about how to remain hidden and inconspicuous! I will bide my time and hide in plain sight and stay hush-hush, and if I do a really good job, then Purin gets to be a magical girl, too! But that's for later. For now, Purin's not magical, only a girl, and wouldn't hurt a fly. Yes. Purin is veeery harmless.

The class is a little boring, but I put up with it while acting like it's really interesting, then when the teacher leaves, everyone comes to Purin. Except they are all Hollow Ones. The ones who haven't been completely filled out yet, and are only coming over because that's what they are supposed to do. They don't really care about Purin, so I don't care about them either, but it would be suspicious if I didn't respond to them, so I listen to what they ask and answer as I practised with Judy Mama.

Yes. Purin must bide her time. Before the time is right to make contact with the targets, and until then, Purin will–

"Hi, Purin-chan!"

Kyaaah! Ichiko made contact! What do I do, what do I do?

"Hi!"

Oh, no! Purin made contact, too!

"Say, Purin-chan? Have we met before?" Ichiko circles Purin, looking curious. She even sniffs the air. "You smell familiar."

Dango comes over and circles Purin from the other direction.

"Does she?"

She also sniffs Purin, and it feels weird.

"Purin doesn't smell!" I tell them. "Papa taught Purin how to clean up every day, and wash her teeth! Look!" I show them by pulling on the side of my mouth. "Shee?"

"Oh, wow! Your teeth are pointy!" Ichiko says loudly and shows off her own teeth. "Lookh! Mihne thoo!"

Her teeth're not that pointy. Only her canines. I think that's what they're called, but those are supposed to be pointy. But maybe not that pointy? Purin is a genius, but she isn’t a teethologist.

"Me too, me too!" Dango girl says with a grin and opens her mouth wide.

"Pointy-teeth gang!" Ichiko exclaims with her arms in the air.

"Pointy-teeth gang!" Dango also exclaims with her arms also in the air.

"Yay! Pointy-teeth gang!" Purin also also exclaims with her arms also also in the air.

…

Oh, no! Purin got caught up in the heat of the moment! That's not very unscrupulous Machiavellian conspiring-y! Not at all! I must think of a way to salvage this situation, quick!

"Um… What are you guys doing?" Purin points at Ollie's desk. Fiia and the yellow twins are there, looking at the book, and now they are looking funny at Purin instead. How rude.

"We're doing research!" Ichiko says, and then Dango tells Purin, "From this really old book!"

"F-From the library!" Fiia says next, hiding behind Ollie's chair.

Hah! Silly Fiia! Purin already knows what it is and where it came from! It was Purin's Papa who made it and put it there for you to find it! Silly Fiia! You are dancing in Purin's palm, like a little fly caught in the spider's web! But since Purin wouldn't hurt a fly, you have nothing to fear. For now. Nyuhuhu!

"Really? That's so interesting! Is it for homework?" I ask because Elly Mama said that the quickest way to befriend someone is to show interest in what they are doing. Since Purin made contact, now I must befriend everyone, so that Purin's sudden and unexpected reveal of evil evilness will be very shocking and dramatic!

"No, it's… something else," the yellow twin that pretends to be a girl says.

"You don't need to worry about it," the other one, who doesn't pretend to be a girl, insists. She's very suspicious. As Judy Mama would say, totally sus, but because Purin is very nice and friendly, Purin will turn a blind eye and pretend she totally isn’t suspicious of the sus girl.

"Oh-kay! Purin won't worry."

They are looking at Purin funny again. Very rude.

"We should probably read this after school," Ollie says and hands the book over to Fiia. Their hands touch, and she looks startled. What's that about? Was Ollie's hand cold? Purin doesn't understand. He looks at Purin and beckons. "Your name is Purin, right? It's a strange name."

"Yeah! It sounds like purin!" Ichiko says even as she pushes me towards Ollie's desk. "I like purin!"

"Do you mean the sweet, or her?" the yellow girl asks, and Ichiko yells, "Yes!"

"If she's named after a dessert, she can't be bad," Dango girl says, and I pretend to agree.

Nyuhuhu. How naive of them. Purin has already lulled them into a false sense of security. Now it's only a question of time before I fully gain their trust, infiltrate their inner circle, and create all kinds of chaos by…

"Ah, wait!" I stop Ichiko from pushing me and go back to my bag. Purin almost forgot about Elly Mama's second technique for making friends! I return to Ollie's desk and put the box from my bag right there. "I brought sweets!"

Ollie asks, "Really?" and I take off the lid.

"Ta-dah! Purin helped make these!"

Purin isn't lying. They were mostly made by Judy Mama and Elly Mama, but Purin really helped. I… like… cracked the eggs. Eggs are hard, so that was the hardest part. Papa even praised Purin for a good job. It was supposed to be my secret weapon for lunch break, but Purin is a flexible tactical genius who can adapt on the fly!

"Wow! Are they really home-made?" Fiia asks. “There are so many different kinds of biscuits…”

"Yes! Go ahead, take some."

"Uuu… I can’t choose…" Dango says as she looks at the insides of the box from left to right. "I want to eat one of each!"

"But then we won’t get to try some of them," Ollie points out, and the others reluctantly agree.

"We have to divide it up, I suppose," the yellow kid who's not-girl says that while eyeing the macarons. Hah! Purin can read you like an open book!

"I want to taste this," the yellow kid who's not-boy picks up that macaron, and it's the only one.

"Kóre! I wanted to try that!"

"What's this called?" Ollie points at the round, black chocolate sweet in the middle of the box.

Fiia perks up and says, "Oh, I recognize that! That's a brunberginsuukot!"

"No, that's obviously a mini angel pie," Ichiko corrects her.

"Brother Naoren brought something similar from Germany once," Dango also adds her own opinion. "I think it was called a schokokuss."

"Which is it, then?" Ollie asks, and the yellow girl says, "I think those are just different names for flodebolle."

"And what is a floo-der-something?" Ichiko asks next, and Purin can't help but feel satisfied.

In a few minutes, Purin already managed to sow conflict and confusion among everyone. Purin seems to be even more of a genius at this than Purin ever thought, and…

"Ichiko! Try this one! It's Purin's favourite gingerbread!"

"Really? Don’t mind if I do!"

"Can I try it too?" Dango asks, and Ichiko breaks the gingerbread house in half with a "Sure!"

…

Where was I? Oh, right. Purin is already creating discord and chaos, and they have no idea! Purin is a sneaky mastermind! Nyuhuhu!

"Purin-chan! Say 'aaah'!"

"Aaah… chomp!"

"Hehe! Purin ate the gingersnap in a snap!"

"Naturally! Now, it's Purin's turn! You say 'aaah'!"

…

Yes. The nefarious infiltration is going swimmingly. Nyuhuhuhu!