Previously:

"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.


That Butler, Lauding


The image of the dignified chapel reflected clearly in the puddles left behind by the recent rain. Doves were perched in the belfry, while inside, a stained glass window of Saint George watched over the two boys who stood facing each other.

"I shall never betray. I shall never be arrogant. And until the day we take our leave of this sacred school… I shall build a relationship that will ennoble us both. This I swear by Saint George," Clayton said seriously. He offered blue gentian flowers with one hand. "I off you this pledge and ask that you be my fag… Ciel Phantomhive." Ciel stared solemnly back at Clayton.

CLANG~ CLANG~

Ciel went down on one knee to kneel before Clayton as the bell rang and the doves took flight.

"I humbly… accept," Ciel said. As the birds soared into the sky, Sebastian watched Ciel and Clayton from another rooftop. Ciel accepted the flower from Clayton and tucked it into his boutonniere. Then Ciel smirked. Everything was going according to plan now that Maurice was out of the way.

—^—^—^—

When Ciel returned to the Sapphire Owl dorm, he heard a voice say, "Ah! There he is!!" and suddenly he was bombarded with a mob of other students from his year. Their cheeks were flushed with excitement.

"You're incredible! Just incredible, Phantomhive!" McMillan said excitedly.

"Congrats!" another boy said. "Wow! You're really wearing our dorm flower!! I envy you!!" The rest of the mob was talking too, but Ciel couldn't make it out because there was so much noise.

"Ha… Ha-ha..." Ciel said, taken aback. "Ta..."

—^—^—^—

"Nn?" Soma said when he heard some commotion outside below the floor he was standing on while talking to another student.

"Oh! Look! That the fellow who joined up with the P4 right after starting school here," the other boy said as they looked down to see Ciel walking with a group of other students. "Whoa. Just look at all his admirers!"

"That's..." Soma said, recognizing Ciel. He threw open the window and waved at his friend with a sunny smile. "Saaay! What's this, Ciel!? You're mighty popular, I see!" he called down to him. Ciel flinched, anticipating something unpleasant or foolish on the prince's part.

"The one with the elephant!!" McMillan said, recognizing Soma.

"I'm so happy you've managed to make friends despite your dourness~!!" Soma told Ciel.

"Ah-ha-ha..." the other boys surrounding Ciel laughed good-naturedly.

"Ha ha..." Ciel said flatly, a little mortified.

=†=†=†=†=†=

{Phantomhive Manor…}

"Heheh..." Chêne laughed softly in her sleep. She had fallen asleep in a chair in the middle of dusting, and she was dreaming about Ciel's sudden boom in popularity. Everywhere he went, people wanted to talk to him. He was starting to look exhausted, but she thought it would be good for him to be forced to socially interact more with other kids his age. And Soma's remark about his dourness had been amusing.

"Should we wake her?" Lacey asked Mei-Rin, watching Chêne smile in her sleep. "It seems a shame to disturb her..."

"We should let her rest, yes?" Mei-Rin said. "Missus Chêne works hard, and she's been so tired lately..."

"Yeah. We should just leave her," Lacey agreed.

BOOM!

Lacey and Mei-Rin spun around to look out the door of the room they were standing in when they heard what was unmistakably an explosion.

"Bard!" Lacey said, gritting her teeth. "He does know that a bombe isn't supposed to explode, right!? It's just ice cream and a mixture of custard and fruit!" The more she thought about the trouble he was constantly causing while Chêne was in a delicate condition, the angrier she got.

"I-It's an easy mistake to make, is it not?" Mei-Rin said tentatively, wary of the dark aura Lacey was emitting.

"It really isn't!!" Lacey fumed, marching off to handle Bard. She stomped her way to the kitchen and found that it now resembled a war zone. "Seriously!?" she asked Bard. "We even made sure not to ask you to make Baked Alaska to avoid the possibility of you using a flame thrower!!"

"But it's called a 'bomb'!" Bard said defensively. "Besides, cooking is art, and art means explosion!"

"Who do you think you are, Deidara!!?" Lacey snapped, giving him a hand chop directly on top of his head.

"Aaagh!?" Bard grimaced, holding his sore head. He swore he felt something crack. "What the hell!?"

"That's my line!" Lacey retorted swiftly. "Unless there's an intruder, no more explosives! We have a pregnant woman in the house, for crying out loud!!"

"Damn! That's right!" Bard said, startled. "If Chêne or the babies got hurt, Sebastian would kill me!!"

"That's nothing compared to the suffering I'll have in store for you if that happens," Lacey threatened, grabbing him by the front of his shirt with an evil look in her eyes. Bard suddenly felt as though his life was in serious danger. No, whatever she had planned for him was worse than death, he could see it in her eyes. "Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am..." Bard said, sweating nervously.

"..." Lacey stared at him for a moment, judging whether he was truly sorry or not. She decided he was and let him go. "Good. Then you can start by cleaning this place up yourself while I try to salvage something edible from this mess. We are not eating canned beans on toast."

"It's going to take hours to clean all of this..." Bard said, looking at the scorched scene of his crime.

"Then you'd better get scrubbing," Lacey said as she started rummaging through the untouched refrigerator for food.

=†=†=†=†=†=

Night had fallen, and Ciel was collapsed in the nice chair in Sebastian's office, positively exhausted.

"I feel like I've become an opera singer or something..." Ciel said, sighing heavily.

"Heh heh. Your masterful performances here have been quite splendid of late," Sebastian said. "Why not continue in this fashion and aim to be an actor instead?"

"If you're in the mood to make cutting remarks, I'm ready for you," Ciel said.

"Far from it! I was offering you my heartfelt praise," Sebastian said with a sparkling smile as he hung up Ciel's discarded jacket.

"That's even worse!!" Ciel snapped.

"Heh!" Sebastian smiled slightly. "You eliminated that parasite, Maurice, and gained the position you sought in one fell swoop. I would say things are going well, do you not agree?"

"However, I'm still far off from my ultimate goal," Ciel said, a bit annoyed. "The queen's orders… were that I investigate the reasons why a number of students, including her blood relation Derrick Arden, have shut themselves up in this school and broken off all contact with the outside world..." He held his chin and furrowed his brow. "—However..."

"We have not even been able to lay eyes on them yet. And not a single one, at that," Sebastian said. "This situation is clearly out of the ordinary."

"I thought I'd compel them to return home by force, but… they bade me to simply 'investigate the reasons why,'" Ciel said. "Most likely… no… most definitely, she is aware that the situation is not the result of youthful rebellion on the part of the students… that something quite peculiar is occurring in this school!" Ciel stretched and sighed. "However, the school is enslaved to its own rules… and I can't even make the necessary inquiries."

"But is that not why you are attempting to get into the good graces of the prefects, the keepers of the rules, Young Master?" Sebastian said, pouring tea into a cup for Ciel. "And by employing much more peaceable methods than usual as well."

"True… but I'm still only the fag of the prefect's fag," Ciel reminded him. "In my position, I can't take part in the 'midnight tea party' hosted by the headmaster."

"It would seem you still have a long road ahead," Sebastian said, serving Ciel his tea.

"I'd like to return to the manor as soon as possible and take a leisurely bath. Here, I have to go last and make a quick job of it because of the brand on my back..." Ciel admitted, annoyed that he couldn't relax. He sipped his tea. "Well, at least I've finally made it into the 'P4 entourage.' I'll try sounding out the P4 directly about Derrick."

"Yes… and in all likelihood, the most useful information lies with the house into which Lord Derrick was transferred… Violet Wolf House… and its prefect—"

=†=†=†=†=†=

"Violet! How long must I hold this pose!?" Herman asked Gregory, trembling a bit from the effort of holding his ridiculous pose for so long. He had lowered himself into a backbend and had one leg raised in the air with a cricket bat balanced on his abdomen. "Is there any meaning to this pose in the first place…?" he muttered.

"Nnn—until my picture is finished," Gregory said. "So don't move, all right?"

"So when exactly will you be done!!?" Herman asked, paling. They were in the Swan Gazebo with the rest of the P4 and their fags. Joanne Harcourt had replace Maurice as Edgar's fag, and Ciel was there as well.

"Nothing to get out of sorts about, Greenhill! Consider it a kind of training!" Edgar said.

"Hnngh…!" Herman strained to keep the pose up. Ciel sweat-dropped while he watched.

"Every year, you chaps at Green House start to get restless as the fourth of June nears," Edgar said. "So standing still once in a while should be good for you."

"Hmph! I could say the same for you, Red House," Herman said, sweating from the effort of holding himself in the same position for so long.

"The closer we get to the fourth of June, the more the residents of all the houses lose their composure and allow their grades to slip..." Lawrence sighed.

"?" Ciel said. "Erm… Is something happening on the fourth of June?" Ciel asked Joanne.

"A cricket tournament will be held, in which the houses face off against one another," Joanne replied with a smile. He was certainly in good spirits since his name had been cleared after Maurice tarnished it.

"It is a traditional school tournament with a hundred years of history behind it," Lawrence said. "Make a point of remembering our annual events at least."

"E-Excuse me," Ciel said. 'I had no intention of staying here for this long, all right?'

"It is a magnificent event held but once a year, after all. Her Majesty the Queen even observes the victorious house's boat parade from Windsor castle on the opposite bank."

"The houses of our school have always been very competitive. That's why the entire school feels like it's on edge around this time of year," Edward explained.

"Ohh," Ciel said.

"Well… I can't say I'm the least bit interested, though," Gregory said.

"Me, I can't stand the sight of the louses from the other houses, so I'd like to beat 'em black and blue!" Gregory's fag, Cheslock, said with an evil look, giving Ciel a thumbs down. "Hyah ha!" His aura screamed 'Go to hell!!!' Ciel sweat-dropped.

"But what I detest most are the crowds of people who come to visit the school," Gregory said.

"Eh!? But I thought outsiders were forbidden from entering the school?" Ciel said.

"Evening celebrations are held both prior to and after the tournament," Clayton said. "On these days alone, we are allowed to invite our families and those close to us to the great dining hall in the main school building."

"The ban on women on school grounds is also lifted on those days!" Edgar said. "Escorting a beautiful woman is a wonderful way to flaunt one's status, you know!"

"Nnn… I've never seen you escorting a woman, though, Redmond," Gregory said, raising his drawing for a moment. The movement caught Ciel's eye, and he sneaked a glance at the drawing.

"!?" Ciel gasped, jolted by what he saw. Instead of Herman's ridiculous pose, there was a detailed sketch of Edgar standing alone against a pillar while a beautiful woman stood with her back to him, dancing with someone else.

"I'm just not in the habit of having any one particular partner, that's all!" Edgar said.

'He's making Greenhill hold that pose, but he hasn't drawn him at all!?' Ciel thought, shocked.

"A-Are you done yet!" Herman asked, still straining to hold the pose.

"No, not quite," Gregory said.

'Eh!?' Ciel thought.

"Lawrence here makes the rounds with a flock of women every year," Edgar said teasingly.

"They are not the sort of women of whom you speak!!" Lawrence snapped with nervous disapproval.

"Bluewer, you have several sisters, do you not?" Joanne said. "I myself have two elder sisters~… How many do you have altogether?"

"..." Bluewer looked uneasy. "Three elder sisters and four younger ones. Incidentally, I am the only boy."

"Wow..." Ciel and Joanne said with pale faces, shivering as they imagined what that must be like.

"Geeeh! Just one kid sister's noisy enough for me," Cheslock said, paling too.

"My little sister's graceful and sensible, so she's never any trouble!" Edward said proudly.

'Who is it you're talking about…?' Ciel wondered, sweat-dropping.

"… This is… lacking..." Gregory said, looking at his drawing. Ciel looked too.

"In truth, I would rather not invite them, but… they insist on coming..." Lawrence said of his sisters, while Ciel was shocked by what he now saw on Gregory's sketch pad.

"Bfft!" Ciel said before he could help himself. It was Lawrence, surrounded by seven women of varying ages, with three of the youngest girls clinging to him.

"Violet! I-I'm at the end of my rope here, so..." Herman pleaded, jerking a bit as his muscles protested the abuse.

"I'm nearly done, so keep still," Violet said.

'He's not drawing Greenhill in this picture either!!' Ciel thought, holding a hand over his mouth.

"Come to think of it, Midford's younger sister is your fiancée, right?" Edgar said, looking at Ciel.

"Eh!?" Ciel said, flinching as he turned to look at Edgar.

"Are you going to invite her?" Edgar asked.

"Er—" Ciel began, only to have Edmund swoosh in and make an X with his arms.

"She'll be here for sure!! But she'll definitely be coming to cheer for me, her brother, not for this fellow!!" Edward said fiercely with his brow furrowed and a vein throbbing on his head. Joanne and Edgar chuckled.

"I look forward to seeing which cheering section Lady Elizabeth chooses," Edgar said. "Well? How far have you gone with her?" he leered lightly at Ciel. "You must have at least kissed?"

"Hunh!?" Ciel exclaimed, blushing.

"R-R-R-R-Redmond!!?" Edward yelled, turning pale and sweating nervously.

"You're a lad, so I'm sure there must've been a little something, right?" Cheslock said, putting a hand on Ciel's shoulder.

"No, er…!" Ciel said, paling.

"CHESLOOOOOOOOOCK!" Edward screamed. He grabbed Cheslock by his cloak and glared at him with teary eyes. "Lizzie is an angel. She'd never do such things!!! Don't you dare insult my sister, you knave!!!"

"Don't bloody cry!!" Cheslock told him, disturbed. "I yield!!"

'Haaah… Ridiculous...' Ciel thought, already fed up while he watched Edward scold Cheslock. 'Exclusive societies are the same everywhere.'

BANG!

"You chaps are being too slack about this!!" Herman snapped as the cricket bat hit the floor when he suddenly pulled himself out of the position he had been holding to stand up. He was sweating and his face was flushed as he continued to yell at them. "Both celebrations are held solely so that the athletes can build up and maintain the strength to compete against one another in our traditional cricket tournament!! The goal is not to dance with women!!! First of all—!" He was cut off by a blow to the head when Gregory threw the french bread he had used as an eraser for his charcoal drawings at him. "D'ow!? What do you think you're doing!?" he asked Gregory incredulously.

"It was coming along so well too..." Gregory said with his face cast in shadow, sighing. "… But now my monumental masterpiece has been ruined." Ciel looked to see what he was talking about.

"Bfft!" Ciel had to stifle a laugh when he saw that the drawing was once again not Herman but a highly complicated maze.

"Hm… S-Sorry," Herman apologized.

'In the end, he didn't even draw his model once. But his talent at drawing qualifies him as a genius… What's with this strange fellow!?' Ciel wonder, trembling with suppressed laughter while holding a hand held over his mouth.

"Haaaaah..." Gregory sighed.

'Ordinarily, I'd steer clear of his ilk… but in this situation, I've got to converse with him and get to know him better,' Ciel thought, furrowing his brow slightly. He put on a smile. "D-Do you enjoy dancing as well, Violet?"

"It makes me dizzy, so I hate it," Gregory said, ripping off a piece of another french bread with his teeth to munch on. End of conversation.

"Is that so…?" Ciel said a little weakly. He was bad with this type. If only Chêne or even Lacey were there… 'It's no use. I'll have to change my strategy. This might be a little heavy-handed, but...' Ciel put on an even brighter smile. "Now I'm very much looking forward to the fourth of June too! But I think it must be difficult to compete against residents of other houses with whom you're friendly."

"Anyone who fails to fight in earnest and seeks to go easy on you is no true friend of yours!" Herman said strictly.

"That is true, but… I would find it difficult to fight against Phantomhive..." Joanne said.

"Me too, Harcourt," Ciel said. "I have a friend in Purple House too, so I can't help feeling like it will be hard to square off against him as well."

"Ohhhh… That's why you came by our house before," Cheslock said.

"Yes! His name is Derrick Arden," Ciel said brightly.

SNAP!

The piece of charcoal Gregory was drawing with broke from the extra pressure he applied to it and half of it flew into the air. Edgar, Herman, and Lawrence all stared at Ciel with stunned expressions on their faces.

CLACK.

The flying piece of charcoal landed on the floor. It was dead silent.

"Eh..." Ciel said warily.

"Did you say… Derrick…?" Gregory asked, scraping the paper he was drawing on with the remaining piece of charcoal as he turned his head to look at Ciel with and eerie glare.