Previously:

"I was surprised to receive a letter from you out of the blue! If you'd told me you would be lonely here, I could have come with you, silly!" Soma yelled cheerfully at the young earl. But Ciel had turned away from him, still pale and sweating nervously while wearing an irritated expression with his lips pressed in a thin line. "Cieeeel~? Heeey!" Soma shouted at the younger boy as he began to walk away. "Are you listening to me?" Soma furrowed his brow and pouted a little. "..." He snapped his fingers, and the elephant let out another trumpeting sound and it scooped a startled Ciel up with its trunk.

"UWAAAA!" Ciel yelled with wide eyes, turning extremely pale with shock as his top hat fell off his head.

"Why don't we go together!?" Soma said brightly with a big grin.

"Enough with your jokes—!" Ciel snapped angrily with a vein throbbing on his head, covered in a nervous sweat. "Put me down at once, you! I-I knew I shouldn't have sent for yooou—!" he yelled.

"Darn, we'll be late. C'mon, let's run for it!" Soma said, urging the elephant to go faster.

STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.

"Uwah! You idiot! St-Stopppp!" Ciel shouted. The students who were watching all sweat-dropped.

"Good morning," Sebastian greeted one of the students with a sparkling smile as he passed him. Pretending not to know either of the boys who were with the elephant.

"G-Good morning, sir..." the boy said, amazed that he could ignore such a spectacle so easily. Was it okay for him to just let the young earl be carried off by the elephant?


That Butler, Plotting


THOOM. THOOM.

"You look to be doing better than I'd thought!" Soma said to Ciel over the elephant's heavy footsteps. Ciel was now sitting inside the howdah with Soma, swaying along with the elephant's gait. "It was quite a scene, you know! Agni wanted terribly to come with me. But it seems bringing along servants is prohibited in your public schools," Soma explained with a smile. Poor Agni had been in tears.

"Well, that's just common sense..." Ciel said. He paused for a moment. A bead of sweat slid down his face. "There is a reason I asked you to come."

"Right. What is it? Let's have it, then," Soma said, all ears.

"You see, I've quarreled with Maurice Cole of Red House… your house," Ciel said.

"Hmm?" Soma said.

"As you already know, I haven't too many friends… so I'm afraid I don't quite know how to smooth things over with him," Ciel said with a self-depreciating expression on his face. "And so I thought perhaps I could use your help..." Soma stared a Ciel with big teary eyes and a hand held over his chest, deeply moved that Ciel would ask for his help with something so important.

"All right! I understand!" Soma said, placing his hands on Ciel's shoulders. "So you've come to recognize your flaws!! I'll gladly give you a hand, my gloomy and self-depreciating fellow!"

"Hey," Ciel said with two veins throbbing on his head. "I said nothing of the sort."

"First, how about the three of us have a curry dinner together?" Some suggested brightly, holding up a finger.

"No, that won't be possible," Ciel said, shaking his head.

"Why not?" Soma asked.

"I seem to have made him so angry he doesn't even want to see me… so I'd like to talk to him again after I've gotten to know him better," Ciel said. "I'd appreciate it if you would observe Maurice closely for me and tell me what he's like… especially what he's like at Red House, since I can't see that side of him for myself. I want to know it all, even the most trivial facts. And don't tell anybody else about this!" Ciel told him with a furrowed brow, pointing his finger at Soma.

"Got it! It'll be our secret!" Soma said, touching his fingertip to Ciel's. "All will be well! Leave it to your best friend!"

"All right. I'm counting on you… urrp…" Ciel said, covering his mouth as a wave of elephant sickness came over him.

=†=†=†=†=†=

{Scarlet Fox House…}

Night had fallen and the stars were out. Inside the dorm, Soma was confronting Maurice.

"Hey, you there! Make nice with Ciel!!" Soma said earnestly, if a little high-handedly.

"… Hunh?" Maurice said, dumbfounded, looking up from the work he was doing at the desk in the room. The boy sitting at the seat next to his was doing his best to focus on his own work. Maurice turned his head away from Soma with his eyes closed and his brow furrowed. "You do realize he brought disgrace upon the prefects? As the fag of one of those prefects, there is no way I can forgive him!" Soma stared at him with his brow furrowed and his lips pressed together with his cheeks puffed out slightly, irked.

"C'mon. You really won't be friends with him?" Soma tried again, sticking close to Maurice.

=†=†=†=†=†=

"C'mon. He has his good points too," Soma said, following Maurice on the way to class.

=†=†=†=†=†=

"C'mon. You'll understand if you just talk to him," Soma said, sitting across from Maurice at meal times.

=†=†=†=†=†=

"C'mon!" Soma said, popping in on Maurice just when he thought he was alone, startling him.

=†=†=†=†=†=

"C'mon!" Soma said, popping up to talk to Maurice from the next stall while he was on the toilet, startling him again.

=†=†=†=†=†=

"C'mon! C'mon!" Soma said while watching Maurice do his work in class.

=†=†=†=†=†=

"C'mon!" Soma said, following Maurice so persistently that the other two boys with them had beads of sweat sliding down their faces and Maurice's eyes were cast in shadow while he shook. "C'mon! C'mon onnn, I say!"

"NNAAARRGH! What is it with you!!!?" Maurice screeched angrily with multiple veins throbbing on his head, clutching at his hair. "Don't follow me anymore!!" He disappeared into room 201 and slammed the door shut behind him.

'He's a bit like Ciel...' Soma thought, left standing outside the room. It was completely silent now that Maurice was gone. Soma looked this way and that and realized there was no one else around. "Right, then! Looks like I have time to spare! I think I'll go to Ciel's for a lark!" he decided brightly.

=†=†=†=†=†=

{Scarlet Fox House Stables…}

Soma strolled out under the starry sky to retrieve his elephant, which had been stationed next to the stables because it was too large to fit inside one of the stalls.

"Aaaall right!" Soma said, hopping nimbly up onto its back. "Elephant, to Ciel! Go! Blue House is a little far away, after all!" They had just turned to leave, when something rustled in the bushes nearby. Soma and the elephant both flinched as their hearts beat hard in their chests. "What is it!? A cat!?"

'Noooooo! A tigerrrr!' the elephant thought, crying as it made a loud trumpeting sound of fear and ran away.

"Uwaaah!?" Soma cried, holding on for dear life. "Aaah! Nooo, not that waaay!!" he yelled as the elephant stampeded toward the Red House dorm.

—^—^—^—

"Haah… finally a little peace and quiet," Maurice sighed, still annoyed by Soma's pestering, talking with two other boys.

"Ha-ha!" one of them laughed.

STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.

"Hn?" Maurice said when he heard something large approaching. He looked out the window behind him and saw Soma riding on the back of his elephant.

"UWAAAAAAH! STOPPPPP!" Soma yelled at the elephant, blue with shock as they hurtled toward the dorm.

"!?" Maurice gasped in alarm, turning pale. "What the—!? You're kidding, right!?"

CRASSSH!

"WAAAAAAH!!" Maurice cried as the elephant crashed into the dorm, demolishing the wall.

=†=†=†=†=†=

"Kadar, that's five Ys for you!!" Edgar said when he saw the mess, standing with his arms crossed. He had his eyes closed and his brow furrowed with a bead of sweat sliding down his face. He couldn't believe this had happened. "Henceforth, elephants shall be forbidden on school grounds!"

"Sorry," Soma said, rubbing the back of his head. He was a little roughed up from the collision and his right cheek had been bandaged. "Tee-hee!"

"You call that an apologyyy!?" Maurice asked angrily, filled with wrath.

"In any case, I'm quite thrown… all the rooms are full at the moment," Edgar said, looking at Maurice's broken bed and the gaping hole in the wall behind it. "Would you like to come to my room for now?" he asked Maurice.

"Eh!?" Maurice said, pleasantly surprised. There were sparkles in the air around him.

"No! Please, my bed is his!" Soma said, pointing his thumb at himself.

"Hunh!!?" Maurice said, flinching in shock at this unwelcome turn of events. He grabbed Some by the front of his shirt, gritting his teeth to suppress his anger, though he still hit Soma with one heck of a glare. "What nonsense is this? Who would stay in a room that belongs to you of all pe—"

"What can I say!? I'm a man with a strong sense of responsibility!" Soma said, unfazed. In fact, he was sparkling.

"That's the spirit, Kadar," Edgar said. "I leave him in your hands."

"No, please wait! Redmond!?" Maurice cried as Soma dragged him away.

"Capital—! I'll show you the way!" Soma said, ignoring his pleas.

—^—^—^—

"Here, use this bed," Soma said once Maurice had been dragged to stand before Soma's bed, which was clearly different from the other beds in the room, from the curtains down to the sheets and throw pillows. The designs and high quality marked them clearly as being fit for Indian royalty. Maurice sighed heavily and gave in to the inevitable.

=†=†=†=†=†=

Later, when the moon was high in the sky, Soma was snoring lightly and sleeping peacefully on the floor next to his bed, which was occupied by Maurice, when he heard a creaking sound.

'Nn?' Soma thought, peeling one eye open. He saw Maurice duck out through the door. 'Where is he going at this time of night…?' Soma got up and followed him, still a little sleepy. He crept quietly, maintaining a safe distance between himself and Maurice while he watched the other boy tiptoe past a sign that said 'Post'. 'The postboxes?' Soma thought, watching Maurice fiddle around with some of the boxes. There was a window behind Maurice, so Soma saw it clearly when Maurice held up a card shaped like a red rose. "!" Soma gasped. "He's..."

=†=†=†=†=†=

That morning, at Phantomhive manor, Sebastian woke Chêne and made her breakfast again. This time she wanted pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

"Did Soma join Ciel at school?" Chêne asked, yawning.

"He did," Sebastian said, flipping another pancake onto the stack he was making for her. "I take it you had another vision?"

"I guess so," she said. "Soma sure does know how to cause trouble, doesn't he? Running and elephant into a dorm room..." Sebastian was glad he wasn't in charge of Red House. Soma must be a pain to deal with if he was causing that much trouble on his very first day. "It wasn't entirely his fault, though. Something scared the elephant," Chêne said. "I think it was… nah, it couldn't be."

"Couldn't be what?" Sebastian pressed.

"I think I saw Mister Agni in the shadows? Maybe it was a trick of the light..." Chêne said, holding her chin.

"A trick of the light in a vision?" Sebastian said wryly.

"Anyway, Soma should have some useful information for you two," Chêne continued. "He followed Maurice when he got out of bed later that night and saw him leave notes in some little cubby holes that must've been post boxes? There was a sign to that effect, anyway."

"Hmm. Mailing clandestine letters in the dead of night while everyone else is sleeping. Sounds promising," Sebastian said. "Did you happen to glance the contents of the letters or the names of the recipients?"

"Well, one went to a 'McGregor', but as for the rest… sorry, it was too dark for the rest of them, and I didn't catch a glimpse of any messages. Oh, but you'll know them right away when you see them, because they were on red cards shaped like roses," Chêne said. "But I guess that isn't anything Soma won't be able to tell you..."

"Perhaps not, but I enjoy hearing it from you more," Sebastian said, kissing the top of her head as he placed the plate of pancakes that had been decorated beautifully with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and strawberries on the table in front of her.

"Yes~! You spoil me," Chêne said, grinning brightly at the sight. She turned her head and kissed him on the cheek.

BAM!

"Pancakes~!" Finni and Lacey shouted as they burst into the kitchen, throwing the door open.

'I should've known...' Chêne thought wryly. Pancakes were the only thing that could instantly turn Lacey into a morning person, and the smell of them cooking must have wafted all the way to their rooms. She looked at where her husband had been standing and confirmed what she already knew. He was gone. She sighed.

=†=†=†=†=†=

{Chapel…}

Later, Soma visited the school chapel to meet up with Ciel and was greeted by Sebastian.

"Welcome, Prince Soma. The young master awaits you within," the butler said with a polite smile.

"Eep!? I thought we weren't allowed to bring our servants along!?" Soma cried, paling as he flinched away from Sebastian.

"Let's just say he has a very good reason for being here," Ciel said.

"Prince Soma, I pray you will do us the great favor of keeping the fact that I am young master's butler to yourself. If you let slip this fact..." Sebastian threatened with a dangerous aura and dark smile.

"I-I-I-I-I-I won't!!" Soma swore earnestly, waving his hands as he paled and sweated bullets, panicking.

"So? Have you found anything out?" Ciel asked abruptly.

"Oh, yes! You see… in the middle of the night, I caught him posting flower-shaped cards to Red House residents on the sly. They were about this big," Soma said, holding his fingers in a circle about the same size as the cards. "And soooo very many of them too!"

"I see," Sebastian said. That confirmed what Chêne had told him.

"What a bashful fellow! Why, he'd be better off talking to them face to face!" Soma said, completely clueless.

"It seems we finally have a lead on some proof," Sebastian said to Ciel.

"Now to decide on the best method for making it up to him," Ciel said.

"Oh! And one more thing," Some said, holding up a finger. "He..."

Ciel and Sebastian were taken aback by what they heard. Chêne certainly hadn't mentioned that.

"Young Master…!" Sebastian said with his brow furrowed.

"Yes, now all the pieces have fallen into place," Ciel said with his arms crossed, furrowing his brow too. "Thank you. I could not have done it without you," he told Soma.

"!!" Soma gasped, glowing with happiness. "See you laaater! You can count on me anytiiime!!" he told Ciel, waving goodbye as he left.

"Time for a strategy meeting, Sebastian," Ciel said seriously.

"As you wish, sir," Sebastian said with his hand on his chest.

"We'll settle this score tomorrow!" Ciel decided firmly.

=†=†=†=†=†=

{Third Art Room...}

"—Well? What do you want with me?" Maurice asked Ciel after showing up to their meeting. "You've called me this room and all… I really must be getting to the Swan Gazebo, you know."

"I won't take much of your time. I simply wanted to confirm a small matter,' Ciel said smoothly. "Cole regarding your summons to me from the other day… It seems the message you conveyed was incorrect, after all."

"You're still saying that? It's not nice to blame others for your own mistakes," Maurice said coolly.

"A friend confirmed it with our classmates. Since you're the most fair-faced boy at school, Cole… the onlookers were many," Ciel said. "By the way, eighteen students testified that you 'mistakenly said "at 4 P.M.".'"

"!" Maurice said with his brows furrowed.

"No. To call it a mistake, a mere slip of the tongue, is itself misleading," Ciel continued slyly. "Because you allowed your tongue to slip on purpose."

"Hmph. Such a false accusation is serious indeed!" Maurice said dismissively.

"In that case! How do you explain the incidents involving four other students, including Joanne Harcourt?" Ciel asked.

"Hunh?" Maurice said as the crease in his brow deepened.

"Of the students who were invited to the Swan Gazebo by the prefects… all those who broke their appointment claim it was due to communication troubles with you," Ciel said. "For a prefect's fag to cut down the weak as you've done… Goes to show just how much of a sly coward you are. Yours are the actions of an outright liar!!" Ciel said, sounding outraged. "Moreover, you even leave your duties as a prefect's fag to other students."

"Haah? Whatever can you mean?" Maurice said, playing dumb though he seemed annoyed.

"Compiling the data Redmond requested. Ironing and shoe polishing. Even the preparing of dishes… you haven't done any of it yourself! Your competence is an utter sham!" Ciel said fiercely, pointing at Maurice.

"Hah! What wild fancy," Maurice said carelessly. "How can you claim all that when you haven't any proof?"

"Ah, but I do have proof," Ciel said, reaching into his pocket.

"!?" Maurice gasped. "!!!" he exclaimed, becoming alarmed when he saw what Ciel had pulled out: one of his rose-shaped cards, which was in pieces that had been taped back together again. Ciel smirked. "Th— That's—!!" Ciel flicked the card around to show the writing on it.

"Recognize this, do you?" Ciel said. "It's one of the cards you employ when commissioning your hangers-on to do your work for you. This here is a request for the compilation of data." He started pulling out more rose-shaped cards. "This one is for ironing. This one, shoe shining. The one, a request to the Red House cook to make a snack!" Maurice paled as he watched the cards drop to the floor one after another. "Shall I go on? I've got many more. Each one is quite clearly written in your hand, down to the date and time."

"How could they, after I made a point of telling them to get rid of the cards…?" Maurice gasped, horrified.

"Oh, they did just as you asked and disposed of them," Ciel said, holding one card out. "What a relief that the refuse hadn't yet been collected! Such a trouble it was… unearthing these tiny cards… from the heap of rubbish gathered from all over the school!" It had taken Sebastian half the night to find all of the little torn-up pieces in the massive garbage heap.

"Wha—!?" Maurice exclaimed, shocked.

"And carefully restoring the cards, which were torn into very small pieces, was quite difficult as well," Ciel added, although he had just slept in a chair while Sebastian put the pieces back together. "What would Redmond think if he were to find out about all this? As a student of the storied Weston College, aren't you ashamed of yourself, Cole!!?" Ciel asked earnestly.

"..." Maurice stood there with his eyes cast in shadow.

"I'm willing to overlook your deception of me and the others. But you should speak plainly to Redmond about this," Ciel said. "Yours is a relationship built on trust… right?"

"… Yes, you're right. I'll tell him… I'll tell him absolutely nothing!" Maurice said, screwing up his face in an ugly expression of hate and disdain. "Who in their bloody mind would—!?" He snapped his fingers.

WHAM.

A gang of three boys who were older than Ciel burst into the room.

"!?" Ciel exclaimed when two of them grabbed him and restrained him. "Uwah…!" The third boy scooped up all the dropped cards and handed them over to Maurice, who was now holding a box of matches.

"You didn't actually think I'd come here unprepared, did you?" Maurice said, striking a match against the side of the box to light it. "You're a fool!" He set the cards on fire and let them drop to the floor. "There we go! Evidence destroyed~! After you went to all that trouble to find it too… what a pityyy!" Maurice grabbed Ciel by his tie. "You irritate me! Who do you think you are!?" He said darkly. "You're getting uppity simply because the seniors have taken a passing fancy to you." He drew back and placed a hand over his chest. He wore a superior expression on his face. "Making use of other people is a talent too, you know!? And I am particularly talented at making good use of the plain students! I, the most attractive boy in this school—!!"

"..." Ciel glared calmly at Maurice.

"Whether or not I become a prefect at this school can make or break my future," Maurice continued. "That's why I've flattered and fawned over the prefects to withing an inch of my life! Someone like you, a winner with a title… can never understand the feelings of a second son, who will never be in a position to inherit, can you?"

"I don't believe there's any value in a victory obtained by deceit!" Ciel said.

"Your good boy act… makes me sick!!" Maurice sneered, whipping out a pair of scissors from the pocket inside his jacket. "I will be the next prefect of Red House!! And I will be the one Redmond loves best!!" He used the scissors to rip open Ciels jacket and shirt. "And I am the most beautiful one here at this school!!"

"What are you—!?" Ciel began, cut off by kick to his stomach. "!!" he gasped and coughed, tearing up a little bit as some spit came out of his mouth. "—! Kah-hah…!"

"You really are a fool for picking a deserted place like thiiis!" Maurice taunted over Ciel's coughing as the third boy reappeared with a camera. "No one will come to your rescue, you know? Now come on then! Time to take some photograaaphs! The kind that's so embarrassing you'll want to diiiiiie!!" Maurice traced the tip of the scissors down Ciel's chest. Ciel twitched at the feel of the cold metal on his skin, and his face flushed. "All right. Do it! " Maurice told the other boys, enjoying his complete control over the situation.

"Augh…! Nn!!" Ciel said when one of them clapped a hand over his mouth as they began to strip his clothes off, starting with his shirt, jacket, and socks. "P—Please stoppp!!!" he cried with a flushed face.

SLAM!

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, YOU LOT!!!?" Herman and Edward roared with veins throbbing on their heads as they burst into the room. Herman was armed with a cricket bat, and they were both absolutely furious.

"!?" Maurice gasped. He had only a moment to be horrified that he had been caught before Herman used his cricket bat to deliver harsh blows to Maurice's minions, knocking them out in an instant. "Ah… Aaah..." Maurice said, falling limply to his knees, pale with shock and disbelief.

"You're going to pay dearly for forcing me to break my vow of nonviolence… Cole!" Herman said, glaring at him over his shoulder.

"P-Please, I beg you, Greenhill!! Please don't tell Redmond..." Maurice begged with his hands clasped together and tears in his eyes, trembling.

"Do you not want us to keep Silent as well?" Lawrence asked as he and Gregory entered the room.

"Bluewer! Violet!? Wh-Why are you here!?" Maurice asked, startled. There was no way he could cover this up now, not with so many of the prefects there.

"Upon hearing the able and talented Maurice Cole's violent act… it would be odd indeed for them to not hasten here," Ciel said as Edward helped him up, pulling his shirt and jacket back onto his shoulders.

"But the Swan Gazebo is well away from the school building," Maurice said anxiously. "They should not have been able to hear m—"

"Cole. Sound is not transmitted by it's 'amplitude,' but… by 'vibration,'" Ciel said, looking down at him.

"!?" Maurice gasped.

"As long as the vibrations can be transmitted, sound can travel over any distance in theory. For example. If thin, plank- or sheet-like objects are connected by taut strings that allow vibrations to be conveyed with ease, they can become devices that transmit sound to a distant location," Ciel explained as he walked over to one of the painting canvases in the room and picked it up. "For example… like so." He turned the canvas around so Maurice could see for himself that a string was attached to the back of it, and as Ciel wrapped his finger in the string and held it tauter, Maurice noticed that the string led from the canvas through the window to the outside.

"No," Maurice said, horrified as he realized the other canvases must be like that as well. Now that he looked more carefully, he could see some of the many strings that traveled from the backs of the canvases, out of the window, and down to the Swan Gazebo. "No. No! No!! Nooooo!!" he shrieked. At the Swan Gazebo, the strings were all hooked up to gramophone horns.

"I've heard every last word," Edgar said coolly.

"Re...d...mond..." Maurice said, stunned to hear his voice.

"To think even you betrayed me… I am ashamed for being such a poor judge of character," Redmond said.

"N—No—" Maurice said desperately, fumbling for an excuse for his behavior.

"I don't want to hear your excuses," Edgar told him. "You are a great disappointment to me. Cole. I hereby sever my brotherly ties to you!"

"UWAAAAAAAAAAA!" Maurice screamed, pulling at his hair. He fell forward onto his hands, sobbing. He had been completely defeated. There was no way to come back from this. "… U...uu!" Ciel removed a handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to Maurice.

"Cole," Ciel said, going down on one knee to place himself on Maurice's level. "If you face everyone with honesty from now on, I'm sure you'll be able to regain their trust."

"Phantomhive..." Maurice said, looking up at him with relief.

"And to help you with that..." Ciel said, unfolding his handkerchief to reveal a photograph of Maurice as he was applying his makeup. His real face looked nothing like the beautiful boy he pretended to be. His eyebrows were practically nonexistent, his lashes were pathetically short, his eyes seemed smaller, and his mouth was a bit monkeyish. "… I made certain to share your 'true face' with everyone, Cole."

At that very moment, Sebastian was standing on top of one of the spires on the bell tower, scattering copies of that same photograph of Maurice in the wind, letting them float down to all of the students standing outside. Sebastian smiled slightly. It was a revenge that was sure to amuse his wife, since Maurice really did have such an ending coming to him.

"….!!!!" Maurice gasped as he grabbed the photo from Ciel. "….!!!?" he exclaimed, beyond shocked when he realized what it meant.

"You can take pride in yourself, I think," Ciel said, swinging his tie as he walked away. He paused to look back at Maurice, giving him an angelic smile. "Your skill with makeup is the real thing."

"Ciel," Edward said, standing with the prefects. How bowed suddenly to Ciel. "I'm sorry for falsely accusing you! Please forgive me!"

"Whatever the reason, I was indeed late. There's no need for you to apologize, Edward," Ciel said graciously.

"I must say… I honestly didn't take you for such a man of action… No wonder Midford acknowledges you," Herman praised Ciel.

"You're… really quite entertaining," Gregory said with a smile. Lawrence ruffled Ciel's hair.

"Wah!" Ciel said.

"Your deeds were brave, Phantomhive," Lawrence praised him with a smile. "There's a good lad. Well done."

'He's smiling...' Ciel thought, a little surprised.

"Th-Thank you!" Ciel said, fidgeting a bit. "When I discovered there were others besides me who had suffered at Cole's hands, I just couldn't let it go… I've never been one to condone such wrongdoing, you see." Ciel blushed slightly as gave them a humble close-eyed smile.

"Heeding tradition. Being without dishonesty. Remaining pure and noble of heart. That's what is takes to be a student of Weston!" Herman said proudly.

"…" Sebastian watched the touching scene, hanging upside down outside a nearby window. It would seem Ciel's acting skills had improved again.