Pandy was quietly returned to a very unhappy Thaniel, who had been awakened when Mr. Musgrave knocked on his door. Fortunately, Ms. Wellington and Ms. Davenport had gone to check on the girls, leaving the boys’ supervisor to check on his students alone. The man had seemed tired and out-of-sorts, and hadn’t noticed Pandy’s absence, though Thaniel certainly did. Thus, when Jonah rapped softly on Thaniel’s door, the boy all but threw it open, his pale face already streaked with tears.

  Gathering Pandy into his arms, Thaniel buried his face in her fur, his tears helping to refill her used Corruption Points. Much to Pandy’s frustration, those tears stopped fairly quickly when Jonah expined where and how he’d found Pandy, with Thaniel soon chastising ‘Bunny’ for her escape and the worry she caused him.

  “I’ll help clean up, Mr. Farrier,” Thaniel said, taking a step into the hall. His bare feet looked very small where they protruded from beneath his nightgown, and Jonah shook his head, smiling kindly.

  “No, d, Bunny here didn’t do any damage that can’t be fixed with a few minutes of cleaning.” Jonah’s hand twitched as if he’d pat Thaniel on the head, but he didn’t quite dare to be so familiar with a student who was probably many times his social superior. He tried to look stern, but his face simply wasn’t made for it, so he just looked slightly less jolly. “If she gets out and does the like again, though, I expect there’ll be some consequences. You’re lucky I found her, for that matter. Some of the staff would have taken her to the chancellor, not brought her back to you.”

  Thaniel ducked his head again, fresh tears welling up. “Thank you, Mr. Farrier. Um, my friend says we have chores, an’ sometimes we help in the kitchen. I’ll do a real good job when it’s my turn. I promise!”

  This time Jonah did pat Thaniel’s shoulder gently, before giving a small bow and turning to go. As he did, he said, “I’ll look forward to it, then. Maybe I’ll set aside some carrots for your little friend, too.”

  Thaniel waited until the man was lost in the dimness of the hallway, went back into his room, closed the door, and headed straight for his bed. His eyes were already closing as he said, “No more runnin’ away, Bunny. I was really…worried…” Then he was asleep, and Pandy waited a few minutes before slipping from his embrace and using her teeth to tug his bnket up around his ears, tucking him in as best she could with her paws.

  Her adventure was over, and while it hadn’t gone as well as she’d hoped, it also hadn’t gone as badly as she’d feared. She’d gotten both of the skills she’d wanted, and made the soup, though she didn’t know how well it would work. She also had no idea how she was going to return the pot, because she had no doubt that Jonah or someone would miss it eventually. It really was a nice pot.

  With a soft thump, she hopped down to the floor beside Thaniel’s bed, eyeing the space beneath the bed thoughtfully. The bed was fairly tall, but the pot was big, and even if it would fit, she doubted she’d be able to access the contents while it was under the bed. She gnced up at Thaniel, who still hadn’t stirred, and pictured the pot sitting beside her.

  Of course, it didn’t appear where she’d imagined it. No, it appeared with its rim between her teeth, nearly tipping over to spill its contents on her, since she wasn’t sitting up on her hind legs. She released it quickly, and it rocked in pce only briefly before settling, weighted down by its contents. A bit spshed out, dribbling down over the rim, and Pandy licked it clean.

  It was good! Not delicious, but tasty in a home-cooked meal kind of way. She probably needed more salt or something. Had she even added salt? Now that she thought about it, she probably hadn’t, but the stock must have had some in it, because the fvors of the herbs and vegetables were banced really well. The rice gave it a comforting fvor and texture, too, and she found herself standing on her back paws, head down in the pot, inhaling the first human-type meal she’d had since becoming a rabbit. She hadn’t even realized how much she’d missed eating things other than fruits, vegetables, and pastries.

  You have eaten Cozy Cure! For the next day, all actions will require 10% less Sta???a. Light spells will be doubly effective.

  Pandy stared at the message. That was…almost what she’d expected. Of course, the original game used Stamina, while she used Mana, and the difference was obviously confusing the System. The most important part, though, was the bit about Light spells. In Gacha Love, everyone had different types of magic. What type they had determined the kind of spells they could use, and the elementals they could befriend. She hoped that in order to have stronger Light spells, the eater would also gain more Light magic.

  Would it be enough? She didn’t know. She also didn’t know how she was going to get Thaniel to eat it, but that was a problem for Future Pandy. Admittedly, Future Pandy was actually Tomorrow-Morning Pandy, but that was still a few hours away, and Thaniel definitely wasn’t going to eat cold soup, so Pandy put the pot away in her inventory again.

  She spent the next few hours practicing her skills, reaching level fourteen in Bite and fifteen in Minor Heal. She also tried using Verdant Surge and Vita Herbalis, only to discover that neither of them worked when they had nothing to work on. Which made sense in retrospect, since Minor Heal was the same way, but it was very annoying. Maybe she could convince Thaniel to get a housepnt for her to practice on? With her luck, she’d end up with an Audrey situation on her hands, though, and the pnt would eat her or Thaniel, and possibly take over the school.

  At precisely seven o‘clock, the bell rang, but rather than the gentle chimes Pandy had grown used to over the st two days, this was a cacophonous ringing. Thaniel nearly fell out of bed, tangled up in the bnkets Pandy had so carefully tucked around him. Pandy had to brace herself to hold him back from the edge, finding that eight points of Strength was far more effective at this than three would have been.

  As Thaniel sat up, rubbing his eyes, Pandy had a brilliant idea and Hopped quickly to the door, produced the pot of soup, and then Hopped back, all in the time it took for him to yawn and stretch before looking around blearily. He was up and halfway to the wardrobe by the time his nose twitched, and he turned, eyes nding on the pot.

  “What’s that?” he asked, blinking and staring around as if someone might appear from nowhere and expin. Helpfully, Pandy hopped over to the soup, sniffing it as if she had Never Seen It Before, then licked her lips and acted like she was going to dive in head first. Which she’d already done, but Thaniel would never know that, since she spent the better part of thirty minutes grooming dried soup and bits of rice from her ears after realizing they felt oddly crunchy.

  As she’d hoped, Thaniel moved her away, saying, “No, Bunny, that’s for me!” He picked up the pot of soup and carried it to the little table where the washbasin should have been, if it wasn’t filled with nastiness and currently hidden in Pandy’s inventory.

  Cautiously, the boy sniffed at the soup, and she could see the moment when the scent of the herbs hit his olfactory nerve. Rather than setting the pot down, he gnced around, presumably looking for a utensil, then lifted the whole pot to his lips and took a gulp. That gulp was followed by another, then another, and by the time he set the soup down, its level had been reduced by half. Thaniel pressed his hands to his stomach and said, “I think I’ve had that before. It tastes really familiar.”

  Pandy nodded sagely. Of course it did. In the game, it said that Bastian’s Cozy Cure tasted like something Cra’s mother made for her when she was young, and brought back all kinds of nostalgic feelings. While Thaniel’s mother might not have made something like it, Marta probably had, and it sounded like Thaniel’s mother was a good one, who probably would have spoon-fed her children when they were sick in bed.

  To Pandy’s consternation, however, Thaniel sniffed and wiped at his eye, where a tear glistened. He stared down at the soup for a long moment, then sniffled again and looked around the room. “I want my Mommy,” he finally whispered, and then the tears really began to fall. Pandy hopped over and rubbed her face against his leg until he plopped down beside her, hugging her so tightly that she could barely move enough to lick his cheeks. They sat like that, with Pandy trying to comfort Thaniel, while the boy sobbed inconsobly, until a sharp knock shook the door.

  “Nathaniel?” There was no mistaking Mr. Musgrave’s voice, and Thaniel immediately sat up, releasing Pandy into his p while he tugged at his nightgown.

  “Y-yes, sir?” Thaniel said, his voice rough.

  “It’s your turn in the restroom,” Mr. Musgrave said, obviously choosing to ignore the clear distress in Thaniel’s voice. “In future, the student before you will knock, and you’ll be expected to be ready, clean up quickly, and then let the next boy know it’s his turn. As soon as you’re dressed, you should head to the dining hall.”

  Thaniel picked Pandy up, then stood. “Yes, sir,” Thaniel said, firmer this time. He scrubbed his sleeve across his red-rimmed eyes once more, then set Pandy on the bed. “You stay here,” he told her. “I’ll be right back.”

  Pandy tilted her head to one side, trying to look as innocent as possible, and Thaniel dropped a kiss on her head before hurrying out into the hall. There were several shared bathrooms in the school, and while the students could wash up quickly by using the washbowls that were supposed to be in their rooms, if they needed to do anything more, they had to find an unoccupied restroom.

  Pandy couldn’t do much while Thaniel was gone, at least not without using the CP she’d just regained. She hated seeing Thaniel cry, so she would be gd when she had enough Corruption Points to return to her original pn. She still wanted at least one hundred, and after Thaniel’s crying jag, she was already back up to forty-three. She still had the remnants of the Potion of Blood, too, though she would rather cover herself in honey and Hop into a beehive than drink it. She did use one of her fresh and shiny Corruption Points to Hop up to the washstand and put the rest of the soup back into her Inventory, and by the time Thaniel returned, she was comfortably ensconced on the bed, pretending to sleep.

  There were a surprising number of students in the halls when they headed for breakfast, and for the first time, many of them were other first-years. Most of them were trying to be brave, but some had given up all pretense and were clinging to the adults who’d brought them, wailing that they wanted to go home. Many of those adults looked like they would also like to cry, but others – usually the ones whose children knew such dispys of emotion wouldn’t be tolerated – simply patted their offspring on the head or shoulder and left.

  Servants carried boxes, chests, and suitcases through the entryway, toward the students’ rooms. From what Pandy remembered, only a small number of students would actually live at Falconet, but judging by the number of containers being toted around, she would have guessed that hundreds of children were moving in.

  Still more students were standing in small groups everywhere, chattering to other children as they talked about everything from what they’d done that summer to what they hoped to learn this year. Others stood by the css assignment board, repeating yesterday’s excitement or disappointment on a far rger scale.

  All in all, it was like walking into a completely different pce than the quiet building Thaniel and the others had explored the day before. And while the adults would leave and the boxes would be unpacked, the students would remain, transforming the space into a vibrant, living one.

  The activity came to a crescendo as they entered the dining room, where Thaniel’s eyes immediately went to ‘their’ table, only to find it wasn’t there. Rather than a few scattered tables, the space was packed full, with the oldest students gathered at the tables closest to the doors, forcing the youngest students to move up front, by the teachers.

  The teachers’ table was full as well, with not only the familiar faces, but several new ones. There were young teachers, old teachers, male teachers, female teachers, and teachers who wore hair-styles and jewelry from simple to extravagant. They all sat, watching the students with gazes ranging from indulgent to calcuting, but only one looked pinch-faced and unhappy.

  That one was a woman, not too old at thirty or thirty-five – though she could have been prematurely aged by the squint of her eyes and the downturned corners of her lips – whose dress and bearing was as straight and proper as if she was a clothing mannequin or a dressmakers’ dummy, rather than a living, breathing woman. Her brown hair was done up in a complicated twist, and glittering rubies dangled from her ears.

  The only thing soft about her was her figure, which looked like after she was done terrorizing small children every day, she went home and rewarded herself with écirs and macarons. Beneath the table, her long skirts swept the floor, but were unable to conceal the high-heeled and sharply pointed shoes she wore. Without a doubt, this was the infamous Ms. Wellington.