142 Chapter 142: Planning

And, just like they thought, once they entered, they saw the mess. Usui rubbed his forehead when he saw things laying around, blankets that were thrown away.

The brothers turned towards the giggling voice and moved. As soon as they stopped at the door, they saw the figure whom they were looking for, bouncing on the fluffy bed.

"You never learn, Stella"

Stella looked at them and smiled, "You guys are here"

She stopped her bouncing as she puffed her cheeks, "Finally, why were you guys so late? I was bored, so I was helping myself"

"Yeah, we can see that clearly," Zelal commented looking around the room. The pillows were thrown, feathers were lying around the room. And when she bounced, the feathers bounced along with her, giving the image of a fairy.

Zelal exhaled frustratedly, "How long ago did you come to destroy the room?"

Stella smiled sheepishly, "Ten minutes ago"

They looked at each other and shook their heads as they started cleaning the mess. Stella shrugged before she leaped on the bed, folding her legs and watched them clean.

"What about Zack?"

Stella smiled as she cupped her cheeks and said, " He is asleep. Little Rin wanted to be with him and pushed me out of the room to take some rest."

Then she chuckled, "Maybe Hazel decided on bringing the boy here knowing he would be lonely."

Her statement made Usui freeze for a second before he continued moving things away.

Why wouldn't she know when she had already experienced that loneliness? She craved for a friend of the same age and made huge irreversible mistakes. She must have not wanted Rin to fall into any tempting traps.

His heart winced remembering how careful she was with her brother. Now that he thought about it, Rin was allowed to walk outside the gates without any ten people guarding them. No wonder Hazel is no protective over her brother. She is making sure that he never suffers the way she did and is constantly making him happy.

Usui had also noticed how cheerful and innocent the little boy was. He was oozing with happiness that it was hard not to be happy around him. 

Maybe he was one of the people who helped Hazel step out of the darkness.

Suddenly, he flinched when he heard a groan and looked towards the bed to see Stella rubbing her head. Sighing, he approached her and replaced her hands with his.

"When will you start acting your age?"

Stella stuck her tongue out, "When Loki would take me as his wife."

Zelal snorted, "I don't think he needs a childish wife." Suddenly he ducked to escape the incoming pillow. 

He chuckled, "See just like I said..." He provoked her again, "Childish"

She stood up and was about to run after him when Usui placed both his hands on her shoulders and pushed her to sit back on the bed.

Stella whined, "Zeke..." 

Usui ignored her and said, "What he said is true though... I heard Loki likes mature women."

Stella's eyes widened, "What? Really?"

Usui pursed his lips and nodded.

'Well... I guess so' he thought in his mind. 

'I wish he hates women like Stella though.'

Usui frowned when he thought of that cold faced guy. He seriously didn't want him to be with his loving cousin.

Zelal popped his head back in the room and asked casually, "So, when are we going to discuss what happened in the throne room?"

This time, both of them threw pillows at him, which hit right in his face. 

Zelal complained, "Why did you throw now?"

Stella rolled her eyes as she said, "Why? Don't you like to see us have fun like this?"

"We clearly didn't want to talk about it"

Zelal shaped his mouth into an O as he said, "Oh.." then he knitted his brows and asked, "Why?"

Stella dramatically held her forehead as she wondered out loud, "I wonder how he made Liz fall for him."

Usui smirked and shook his head, "You are wrong, Stella. He hasn't even crossed the stranger barrier with her."

Stella burst into a fit of laughter, "What? Seriously?"

Zelal pursed his lips at his siblings laughing at him. He gritted his teeth hatefully at his brother who was now gloating over the fact that he was somewhere between friends and boyfriend with Hazel.

Stella said, "From the way things go, Zel, don't blame her if she finds another good man"

"Stella !!!! " Zelal shouted alarmed by her words.

She laughed, "I was just telling the truth, my dear brother. Its time you start taking steps for your love life"

Zelal huffed heavily at his siblings.

Stella stopped laughing and looked at Usui who had a small smile on his face. She bit her lip as she thought of what happened before. There was one name that came to her mind, but she hurriedly erased her thoughts as she remembered how those people were rather secluded from everyone.

She was sure Usui also had the same idea. 

Looking at him, she voiced hesitantly, "Maybe -"

She was cut off immediately, as Usui said, "No" 

He looked at her and said, "It's not our place to ask about their secrets. We will know when it's time and whether they want to divulge their secrets."

Stella looked at him and nodded her head. 

'Well as long as it was not them, we wouldn't have any problem.'

....

Royal Mages Academy

"Just what the heck is this?"

Ren yelled all of a sudden inside the Council room.

"Why is Principal Vernon involving all the students for this battle? Doesn't he realize how dangerous it is?"

He looked at everyone who was sitting on their seats calmly and said, "He should have just evacuated everyone from the academy without any prior information."

Hazel leaned on her spinning chair, her fingers playing with a pen as she looked up and said sharply, "Do you really think the students would follow every word blindly? They will soon know the situation and stay back so we might as well tell them beforehand and make preparations accordingly."

Loki suddenly asked, "and what made you think that only the council members are enough for this fight?"

Ren pursed his lips. 

He didn't think they were enough but aren't they supposed to protect the students? So should we push them into danger?

"We need people as much as we can gather to fight against the demons. They would come at us in full strength."

Zeno said calmly, "We are supposed to protect them from danger and not stop them from fighting real battles." 

Loki added, "We will give them a choice to fight and not to. They can act according to what they want but we will only choose people above rank 3 to stay."

Liz shrugged, "If there are students who want to evacuate, then they can just do that. It's better to let everyone know early so we know how many we can depend on."

Hak sighed, "After so many years, the academy is under attack again. I can understand why many would want to evacuate."

Hazel sighed, "We would have to change the shifts. Let's mix up and cover the grounds as much as possible."

She looked at Harold and said, "Let's put up a notice asking for volunteers."

Harold nodded. 

She looked at the rest and said, " We will mix our shifts according to the count of volunteers. If there are many, we can also make them scout the Royal city."

Everyone nodded at her. She stood up and took out a pouch from her coat and said, "Wear these bracelets from today onwards."

Everyone looked at the bracelet which had a crystal on it. 

Liz laughed, "I didn't know Issac could prepare this short in time."

Hazel looked at the confused faces and explained, "The crystal can send us emergency signals when we face danger. So press it, if you guys come across demons and it will notify us immediately of their arrival."

Reyna looked up in surprise, "Are we finally seeing some of your kingdom's special devices?"

Hazel.smiled as she watched everyone take their bracelets. Suddenly she frowned, 'I should have made him take one too'

Loki looked at the bracelet curiously and pressed the crystal. Immediately all the bracelets glowed red making everyone chuckle, "This sure is handy"

"It is no surprise that even though every kingdom know they hold many devices, they don't dare to invade."

Zeno added proudly, "Because they know how formidable the kingdom is."

Jinha leaned forward and smirked, "Imagine how formidable the kingdom would be once she gets married to the prince of Sun kingdom."

Then he widened his eyes in surprise, "Oh my!!"

His actions made everyone laugh making Hazel narrow her eyes at them.

"Since you guys have time for jokes, should I increase your shifts to fill in your free time?"

Everyone widened their eyes before they stood up immediately and rushed out of the room.

Loki calmly stood up and strolled out of the door followed by Zeno and Hak.

Jinha shook his head and said softly, "He will be fine. Don't forget that he is safe within those walls."

Hazel pressed her lips into a thin line and nodded.

'Yeah... he is safe... he will be fine after all Usui and the rest would be there.'