"In the end, they refuse to follow the rule," Riddle sighed, setting his teacup and its saucer on the table. Trey stood in front of his table, nodding at the prefect. The red-haired boy huffed. "Alright then."

Trey stared at the prefect, eyes slightly widened. "What?"

The corner of Riddle's lips curled up. "You sound surprised, Trey," he said, standing up. "This is the perfect opportunity to show them what happens to children who break the rule. They will regret everything they had done."

Cater's breath hitched. He pressed his back against the wall near the prefect's bedroom. His trembling hands were clutching the end of his jacket. This is not real, right? There's just no way Ace and Deuce would dare to challenge Riddle to a decisive match for the seat of the dorm leader, right? They can't be that reckless. Riddle was already powerful back when he challenged him and took his crown, who knows how strong he is now. They wouldn't survive five seconds against the prefect.

The sound of a door opening and closing brought Cater back from his thought. Trey stared at him in concern. "You've heard it?" he asked.

Cater looked down at his shoes. "Are they for real?"

He heard Trey sighed. "I tried to stop them, but there's no changing their mind." The greenette stepped forward, putting a reassuring hand onto Cater's shoulder, somehow managed to ground him. "Let's just hope it doesn't end up causing more trouble."

Cater nodded. "Yeah..."

The news of the duel had spread quickly throughout the whole dorm. The next morning, a crowd had gathered in the Rose Maze, watching the group who was standing in the middle of the area. The headmaster stood between Ace and Deuce on one side and Riddle on the other side.

"The decisive match for the title of the Heartslabyul Prefect will begin shortly," Crowley announced. "The challengers are Ace Trappola and Deuce Spade. Defending his title is the current prefect, Riddle Rosehearts." Crowley turned to Riddle. "In accordance with the rules of this decisive match, please remove the collars to start the duel with no handicaps for both sides."

Riddle huffed, but he still snapped his finger, releasing Ace and Deuce from their collar.

"The damn thing's finally off!" Ace sighed in relief.

"Don't worry, you'll have it back soon enough, so I'd say you best enjoy it while you can," Riddle said with a smirk. "Do you really think that you can solve your problem with this duel?"

Ace frowned at him. "Most definitely."

"We will never challenge you as a joke," Deuce added, cracking his knuckles.

"Unbelievable," Riddle sighed. "Let's get started quickly."

"Riddle~" Cater waved his hand. "What should we do about afternoon tea?"

"That won't problem," he said as he gave him a sideways glance. "The rule state that my afternoon tea always has to be at exactly 4 PM."

"But it's already past 3:30…"

"Do you think I'll be late for anything in my life? I'm pretty sure this will be over quickly." Riddle looked back at his opponents, not realizing the winch from Cater. "As you can see, I don't have enough time. Taking you on one at a time will be troublesome, so come at me, both of you."

"You can do it, Prefect! Put them in their place!" The rest of the Heartslabyul cheered, but Trey just pulled his hat down, somewhat disappointed and embarrassed.

"Ugh, that's so creepy!" Grim groaned from Jonah's shoulder and the boy just had to nod.

"They sure know how to run their mouths…" Deuce whispered to Ace.

"No matter," Ace said, taking out his magical pen. "We can take him down."

Deuce looked more confident and took out his pen as well. "Yes. Let's do it."

Riddle took out his magical pen and quickly summoned his staff with a single wave. "Headmaster, if you will."

Crowley nodded. He took out a small mirror from his pocket. "The match begins after the hand mirror falls to the ground." He raised the mirror high above his head. "Ready…"

He let the mirror slipped from his hand…

*crash*

"FIGHT!"

Riddle slammed his staff onto the ground. All of a sudden, rose bushes started to grow around them, forming a small arena. "We can't let you accidentally ruin the garden or harming people with your wild magic," Riddle said as if that was the fact.

"I'll show you whose wild!" Ace summoned his magic circle. "[Rictusempra]!" He summoned a heavy wave of black-magic straight toward Riddle. The prefect lifted his staff toward Ace, chanting "[Everte Statum]!" and summoning his own black-magic wave, clashing with Ace's. Ace grunted. Riddle's magic was definitely stronger than Ace. He could feel himself being pushed back.

"Ace!" Deuce summoned his magic circle shouting "[Expelliarmus]!" adding more black-magic into Ace's.

But Riddle didn't seem to be bothered by this. "It's not too late to stop, boys."

"The hell we will stop!" Ace screamed. Riddle smirked and added more power to his attack. It proofed to be too much as Riddle only took a step forward and his black-light flowed even stronger, successfully throwing back Ace and Deuce, spinning them in the air. Rose petals flew into the air from the failed magic as Ace was thrown to the ground and Deuce's back hit the thorny arena.

"Ace! Deuce!" Jonah tried to run toward, but Trey held him by the shoulders, stopping him.

"Outsiders aren't allowed to interfere with the duel," he said and Jonah gritted his teeth, only able to watch from the outside.

Ace slowly lifted his trembling body. Dammit... So this is the power of the prefect... That was just a simple magic attack and he already has that much power?

"This is what you get from fight those who are in charge." Riddle stepped forward, walking toward the boys. "Should you give up now, I will lessen your punishment."

"To hell with your punishment!" Ace suddenly shot up and starting to attack Riddle with his wind magic. It was so sudden that even Riddle was surprised and started to block the attacks. Ace started to push Riddle backward, stepping into the center of the arena.

Deuce held his pen high. "[Come forth], [cauldron]!" A magic circle appeared above Riddle and a cauldron suddenly came falling. Riddle pushed back Ace, just in time when he looked up and saw the descending cauldron he jumped out of the way-

"Take this!" Ace used his wind to blow the cauldron toward Riddle. In a tight place, Riddle slammed his staff to the ground, summoning a rose bush to catch the cauldron before it hit him. He then pointed his staff forward, summoning thorny vines, and caught Ace's body. The ginger-head let out a scream when Riddle waved his staff, throwing Ace aside and crashing into Deuce.

"A-Ace..." Deuce groaned, shaking Ace's shoulders. "A-Are you okay?"

Ace slowly picked himself up. "Shit..."

"This will teach you a lesson." Riddle once again summoned his dark magic, "[Alarte Ascendare]!"

Ace's eyes widened, but he was suddenly being pushed back to the ground by Deuce. The blunette stood up, pen held with his two hands, and blasted his own dark magic with a scream of "[EXPELLIARMUS]!" clashing with Riddle.

"Don't..." Deuce growled. Riddle's eyes widened. "DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM AGAIN!" Deuce pushed back, with even more magic than before, steering the power away from them, destroying the wall. Deuce summoned a magic circle in front of him. "[BLAST OFF]! [CAULDRON]!" A cauldron suddenly shot out from it, aiming straight at Riddle. But the vines around Riddle managed to smack it away. Deuce was stubborn though. He started to run away from Ace and shooting cauldrons at Riddle, but the prefect kept defending himself, never once launch a counterattack.

Ace finally stood from the ground. His eyes widened. Riddle was open from behind. Ace held out this wand and chanting, "[Everte Statum]!" A ball of dark-light came out from his pen and shot straight toward Riddle, but a rose bush suddenly materialized behind him. Ace let out a curse.

"So..." Riddle stood up straight again, slowly turned around to face Ace. "You dare to attack me from the back..." With a scream, Riddle slammed his staff to the ground and vines shot up from bellow Ace and Deuce. The two boys were screaming being held up three feet above the ground. Deuce was hanging upside down while Ace was being choked.

"Gck..."

Riddle's smile started to turn mad. "Not so brave now, are you, Ace Trappola?"

"Senior Rosehearts!" Jonah yelled looked back and forth from Riddle to Ace and Deuce. "This has gone too far!" He pushed Trey out of the way, ignoring the others shouting his name, and ran straight to the hole that Deuce and Riddle had made.

"Stay out of the way!" Riddle pointed at Jonah, making the boy who just entered the arena stopped. "No outsider allowed in the battle!" He glared at the boy. "You dare to break the rule too?!"

"You still want to follow the rule even when your subjects are in danger?!" Jonah yelled back.

Riddle scoffed at him. "Anyone who breaks the rule will always amount to nothing, just like what mother said." He stepped forward. "They have to receive equal punishment for every rule they had broken... Those who break the rules have no right to complain to me for I am this dorm's absolute rule!"

From behind Riddle, Deuce aimed his pen toward Ace. "[Lacarnum Inflamari]…" Fire blasted from his wand, burning the vine that was choking Ace before working on his own. The ginger-head fell to the ground, coughing. He lifted his head, watching Riddle slowly advancing toward Jonah.

Jonah stepped back. "You can't keep using the rules as an excuse to do whatever you want!"

"What do you know?" Riddle screamed back. "No one will follow lenient rules! What sort of lessons were you taught that you can't even understand something as simple as this?"

"That's-"

Riddle slammed his staff to the ground, silencing him. A cruel smile grazed his face. "I bet you were born from parents who can't even use magic. I'm sure that you didn't receive any proper education before you stepped foot in this school. How pathetic, truly."

Jonah's breath hitched. How could... How could he say that...He opened his mouth, but someone beat him first.

"SHUT UP!"

*PUNCH!*

"RIDDLE!"

"M-Mister Rosehearts!"

"He… He punched the prefect?!"

Riddle clutched his nose with widened eyes. Blood dripped between his fingers. Who did that?! It came so fast he didn't even say who did it.

"You can be cruel to me!"

Oh. Now he knows.

"You can put that collar around me for the rest of my life! But don't you dare trash talk the captain! He's a hundred times better than you'll ever be!"

Ace stood in front of Jonah, red fist raised. His face looked wild, at the edge of exploding. Deuce quickly ran to Ace's side. He was still shocked at what Ace just did, but he was also mad at Riddle. How dare he said something like that? That was a whole new level of bad.

Grim flew and landed on Jonah's shoulder. "Hmmph! You deserve that punch!"

Jonah stared at the boys in front of them. "Guys..."

"Kids aren't their parents' trophies. Your parents aren't the ones who get to decide what you're worth. I finally understand that you being a trashy person, it wasn't your mom or dad's fault at all!" Ace screamed, pointing his magical pen at the shocked Riddle. "You've been at this school for a year and the one to blame is that bastard you call a friend doesn't do anything and ignored everything!

You didn't make a single friend to tell you off for being a tyrant in the past year, this is your damn fault!"

Riddle slowly lowered his hand from his face. "What… Are you saying…?"

"Growing up under your obsessive mother was probably some kind of hell, but is 'mama this, mama that' all you can say?! You're not capable of thinking for yourself!? To hell with that 'Crimson Tyrant' bullshit! You're just a baby who happens to be gifted with magic!"

"Baby, you say… Me?!" Riddle's hands curled up into a fist. "You know nothing …"

Ace doesn't know all those things he had to endure... All those times he was locked up because he fell asleep while studying... All those times his hands were smacked when he ate too much... All those disappointed looks his mother gave him because he couldn't live up to the expectation he wanted…

Riddle wiped the blood off his nose with his sleeve. "You don't know anything about me!"

Ace rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I don't. I don't know a damn thing! Do you think I'd know anything with that attitude of yours? I'm not letting you off the hook!"

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! SILENCE!" Riddle screamed with flushed cheeks. "Mother taught me everything! She's right in everything! I did everything she said, therefore I am also right!"

"Riddle, calm down." Trey finally decided to enter the arena, stopping just a few feet behind Riddle. "The duel is already over!"

"Mister Clover is right." Jonah felt a hand on his shoulder. When he looked up, Crowley wasn't looking at him, but toward the angry Riddle. "The challenger is disqualified for his outburst. Continuing to escalate goes against school regulations!"

"I agree with the newbie!" Cater looked at the audience. One of the Heartslabyul students was sitting on the ground, clutching his head, his body trembling. "I've had enough of this, too!"

*splat*

Everyone froze. Slowly Riddle lifted his hand to grab something that his the back of his head. It was a yellow goo and it had a disgusting smell.

Riddle squeezed the goo in his hand. "Who did this…?" He turned to the other student. "Who dares to throw this rotten egg at me?!"

…

…

…

"Oh." Riddle lowered his head. "So this is what you choose… You think you're the only one suffering here…" He raised his head, staring at everybody. "YOU THINK I'M NOT TIRED FROM DEALING WITH TROUBLEMAKERS LIKE YOU! NO MATTER HOW MUCH I WARNED YOU, NO MATTER HOW STRICT I'VE GOTTEN, YOU ALL KEPT BREAKING THE RULES!"

Jonah, to be honest, was terrified. He had never seen someone so angry to this degree before. "Gck…" He grabbed his eye-patch. His eye underneath was throbbing as Riddle continued to speak. Why did he have a bad feeling about this?

"Every single one of you…" Riddle raised his staff. A magic circle started to glow underneath him. "You're all just idiots who think about yourselves!" His smile widened. "Very well. If no one will admit, then I'll have you all take responsibility! Off with all your heads! [OFF WITH YOUR HEAD]!"

He slammed his staff to the ground and the magic circle underneath him expanded. Every spectator who got hit by the circle suddenly found themselves being collared by Riddle's magic collar. The rose garden suddenly became darker. Debris and petals that came from the previous battle suddenly started floating into the air.

"AHHHH! RUN AWAY!"

"Urk! The collar is-!"

Riddle laughed wildly, looking at the chaos unfolded. "AHAHAHA! How's that! Now, none of you can raise a hand against me! I'm the only one who's right because I protect the rules!"

"Please stop, Mister Rosehearts!" ordered Crowley. "Violating the rules is unlike you at all!"

"Oh, now you're just throwing a tantrum!" Ace shouted again. "This why you are a baby!"

"SHUT UP!" Riddle screamed at him, pointing his staff toward Ace. "TAKE THAT BACK BEFORE I CHOP YOUR HEAD OFF!"

"Come and get me, you twerp!"

"Riddle, enough!" Trey suddenly grabbed Riddle's arm. Riddle was surprised at this. He turned his head toward Trey who looked mad and worried at the same time. "You're only hurting yourself. Look at everyone's faces!"

Everyone around them was terrified, to be honest. Whispers filled the air, all coming from the poor spectators.

"He was serious about skewering him…"

"That's going too far…"

"He… He's a monster…"

"Riddle." Trey tried to talk to him softer. "Calm down and listen to what they're saying-"

"Are you betraying me, Trey?"

"What?"

Riddle stared at him with eyes filled with anger, but at the same time, Trey could see a trace of sadness in them. "Are you saying that I'm wrong, too?" Riddle pulled his arm back and stepped away from his childhood friend. "Even after I did my best to enforce all those strict rules?! Even after I've endured so, so, so many things!"

Riddle gripped his staff tighter. There were some black spots on his red gem, but slowly the blackness expanded, nearly covering the whole gem.

"I won't… I will never… I WILL NEVER BELIEVE IT!"

"You mustn't, Mister Rosehearts!" Crowley pushed Jonah back as Ace and Deuce took out their magical pen, ready to fight back. "If you use your magic further, your magic jewel will become tainted with blot!"

But Riddle wasn't listening. His face was already as red as his hair. He was shouting, not listening to anyone. None of the headmaster's words reached his ears.

"I am…! I ALONE AM–! I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO IS RIGHT!"

"RIDDLE!"

As Trey's scream echoed through the garden, the small red gem on Riddle's staff broke like glass. Black ink-like liquid came out from his staff, trapping him in a black cocoon before bursting out a huge energy wave that sent everyone flying back with a scream. Cater screamed to others to get down Ace and Deuce immediately threw themselves to the ground. Crowley immediately hugged Jonah, protecting him and Grim who tucked himself between them. Trey was too stubborn to back down, he stayed standing up with trembling knees.

When the liquid slowly uncovered, what they saw was no longer Riddle Rosehearts…