Vil was checking his page when he noticed a new update on the special server for Alyssa. She had gone up in popularity since the server had become a bit more public, and he suspected she could easily become the next biggest idol if she was ever interested.

So you could imagine Rook's alarm when Vil suddenly spat out his herbal tea across the table at seeing the newest post.

"Roi du Poison, whatever is the matter?" said Rook. Vil handed him the phone, and his eyes went wide reading the top post. "So Yukina-sensei is really Roi du Roses aunt?"

Closer inspection did reveal several similarities. While Alyssa/Riddle had taken more after their mother in appearance, there were certain things that they inherited from their father. The shape of the face, their nose and the shape of their eyes were very similar to Yukina-sensei.

It was clear Cater had gotten his hands on a proper yukata, one in dorm colors. Alyssa was now in a similar clothing style to her aunt, making the resemblance even stronger. Add in the braids and ribbons that Cater had given both females, and it was clear they were closely related.

"That does explain a few things. I had wondered why a relative unknown had been hired as a temporary nurse. I suppose the headmage wants to curtail any further incidents regarding Riddle's growing abilities," said Vil, reclaiming his phone from Rook.

With the revelation that Riddle's aunt was now the secondary nurse, Heartsabyl became a bit more obvious about having adopting the female nurse as one of their own. Any attempts to harass her ended in very short order whenever a Heartsabyl student showed up.

Everyone remembered what they had done to that alleycat beastkin, and Leona had merely complimented them on it rather than defend the idiot.

Vil observed the picture for a moment, before he sent a DM to Cater's private MagiCam account. That was the one Cater generally used to moderate the Alyssa server. He used his public one for the Riddle server.

He got a reply back, and smirked a little because he rather enjoyed seeing the kitsune dress up properly and using the advice he gave.

A little while later, Riddle came to find him. While he still didn't like talking about his feminine side, he had become a bit more comfortable with people knowing about it.

Vil knew Cater was hopeful that Riddle would eventually come to terms with his other self and allow her to wander the school properly. He was still a bit too defensive about it all.

"Cater said you wanted to talk to me," he said quietly.

Vil had a quiet smile on his face.

"Specifically, I'd like a chance to properly talk to Alyssa."

Riddle froze, however Vil was patient. A series of conflicting emotions crossed Riddle's face, before it settled on reluctant acceptance that he wasn't likely to get out of this.

It was rather fascinating, watching as Riddle's shoulder relaxed, and his hair went from barely neck length to closer to waist length. His features softened, and his chest grew to a C-cup. He grew another inch in height and his blue-gray eyes became more green-gray in color. Closer inspection revealed he had also gained an inch or two in height, as his ankles were showing a bit more skin from the pants he was wearing.

Riddle's normal royal bearing became much more prominent, and his tail and ears popped out, making it even stronger than before.

All in all, it was clear how Alyssa had managed to convert her entire dorm into her fan club. Vil was partially affected as well, but shrugged it off with the ease of practice. After all, he was supposed to command the attention of the room, not someone else.

"Why did you want to talk to me?" she asked, curious. From the way she behaved, it was unlikely she was fully aware of the effect her aura had on others.

"Partially because I wanted to have a proper conversation with the one who managed to subvert an entire dorm into the most overprotective and rabid fan club I've seen in a while," admitted Vil. Once he realized what he was looking at, he was heartily glad Riddle had been sorted into a different dorm. Having to compete with Neige and Riddle/Alyssa was a headache he didn't want to deal with. "But I was also wondering if you'd be interested in a collaboration effort on one of the shoots I'll be doing next week."

Alyssa blinked.

"Collaboration effort?"

"I have to deal with Neige leBlanche on a modeling shoot for rose scented products. I was hoping you would be willing to join in, as you've become quite popular outside the school now that Cater opened up the server a bit more."

Alyssa's tail and mouth twitched.

"What's the real reason?" she asked.

"I'm interested to see how well you'd do as a potential model slash idol," admitted Vil.

Alyssa considered this, as she didn't really have a set idea on what she wanted to do outside of being a lawyer. She had a mild knack towards healing, but her false mother had soured her on the profession rather thoroughly.

"How well does modeling and being an idol pay?" she asked after a moment.

"Let me put it this way...you could easily pay for law school with the money you could earn if done right," said Vil immediately. Cater had mentioned Riddle was interested in a career in law.

Alyssa perked up at this, and then remembered something. She snickered.

"What's so funny?"

"Just imagining the reaction Che'nya-nii-san's roommate is going to have to a new rival. He mentioned that his roommate is big on the modeling scene and fairly high up in the ranks."

Vil's mouth twitched, and wondered if he knew the roommate if that was the case.

"I also forgot to mention, you do get to keep some of the samples they use."

"Really?" said Alyssa, perking up.

Vil smiled at her, and the two settled into a pleasant conversation for an hour or two about what modeling entailed and what she was likely to deal with on the shoot.

This was going to be fun.

In the rose maze

"So you're going to a modeling shoot next week? Wonder if you're going to the same one my roommate is," said Che'nya, his tail waving contently.

Being part of the "Queen's Guard" was rather fun, even if they attended different schools.

"Vil-sempai said something about rose-scented products."

"Yeah, probably the same shoot then," said Che'nya.

"Any requests on what sort of hints I should drop to your roommate about us being friends?" asked Alyssa mischievously. Che'nya's grin widened even more at that.

Riddle went to meet Vil at the port sporting a few bracelets and hair clips that Che'nya had donated from his own set. He was certain that his roommate would recognize them on sight.

Once they were safely on the hydroplane, Vil relaxed a bit. He noticed how tense Riddle was until they were safely out of sight of the school.

In the span of a few breathes, Riddle shifted into Alyssa, complete with ears and tail.

"I've been meaning to ask, but why did you come with such odd accessories?" said Vil.

"Mostly to tweak the nose of nii-san's roommate. He confirmed that he was going to be there and we were curious how long it would take him to realize who I am. Che'nya said he was 'tolerable, but a complete slob'," said Alyssa.

Now Vil was really curious as to who this 'roommate' was.

"Which school does this Che'nya attend?" he asked.

"Royal Sword Academy," said Alyssa. "However that hasn't stopped him from sneaking into Heartsabyl all the time with his signature magic."

"Wait. A cat beastkin with purple striped hair and several odd piercings?" said Vil. Alyssa nodded. "Rook was wondering who that was."

And why the headmage hadn't thrown him out repeatedly by now.

At the shoot

Neige heard a rather loud commotion, and went to see what the source was. He couldn't help but start at the fox beastkin standing slightly behind Vil. She wore a tasteful outfit with some rather odd accessories, and her hair was a deep red. Her green-gray eyes were positively mesmerizing. Her tail was very fluffy, and someone had taken care to braid in a few tasteful white ribbons that had a rose thorn pattern on them.

It took him several seconds to realize he was gaping, and to close his mouth.

"Who is this absolute cutie with you?" asked one of the make-up artists.

"This...is Alyssa-hime. As in that mystery model that's been creating such a stir among MagiCam with that secretive server. It took a bit of doing to coax her out of hiding," said Vil smugly.

That had the full attention of everyone there. Niege felt rather disconcerted that everyone's attention was now on the odd girl rather than him or Vil.

To be fair, she had a rather royal aura about her that drew you in.

In short order, Alyssa was put in a different room to be fitted and prepped for the shoot.

Niege took the opportunity to chat with Vil quietly.

"So how do you know Alyssa-chan, Vi-kun?" he asked.

"Her other half attends Night Raven. It's how she obtained the housewarden uniform for Heartsabyl," said Vil. Which was true, but kept the fact she was the housewarden quiet.

"So she already has a boyfriend? Pity, but I guess it's only natural with a cute girl like that," said one of the make-up artists.

"Actually Riddle isn't her boyfriend," corrected Vil. "It's closer to say they're twins in a sense."

"What do you mean, in a sense?"

"It's too complicated to explain, just that she has pretty much converted all of Heartsabyl into her fan club. So much so they turned almost rabid after Riddle had to deal with an unpleasant alleycat he had no interest in," said Vil.

Vil had to admit, Alyssa cleaned up very nicely under the hands of professionals. That wasn't to say Cater was bad at it, but with someone trained in dressing people up for maximum effect her full charisma was hard to miss.

He had to blink at the rose hairclip on both pigtails. They looked almost real, even to his professional eye.

In fact he could almost smell the scent of an actual rose, not the scent of perfume.

"Is that a real rose? How on earth did you manage to not bruise the petals when you put them in?" asked Niege, fascinated.

Alyssa had a mischievous smirk on her face as she took what Vil immediately identified as a rose seed...and with a bit of magic grew it into a full sized rose in a matter of seconds.

"Part of my mother's bloodline includes plant manipulation."

"I was wondering where you got that whip and sword from. So it's created from a common rose?" said Vil impressed.

"Some breeds are easier to manipulate than others. I got these from the rose maze in the dorm," admitted Alyssa. They seemed to like her a lot.

"Alright everyone, it's time to start the shoot!" said the director. "Alyssa-hime, you can watch for the first round so you can get a feel for how we do things."

Alyssa nodded, a bit surprised that even the director was calling her by the nickname Cater had given her.

While Vil got his make-up touched up, as the cameras were hot to work under, she questioned him about it.

"It's your stage name, so of course he's going to use it," said Vil patiently.

"My stage name? I thought Cater was just being ironic when he started calling me that. Most of the dorm does and I never asked them to," said Alyssa confused.

Vil smirked at that.

"Royalty always shows. Cater might have been calling you princess as a light joke due to your position, but you earned it a long time ago."

Alyssa blushed a bit at that. She almost missed how laser focused some of the production team were at the sight.

Several long, hard hours passed and eventually they took a break for lunch. Alyssa swiftly won the hearts of the hardened production team in the span of a few hours, not that she really noticed this. Vil had to wonder how high her absurd charisma ability was.

Niege took the opportunity to approach her with some water, as he had noticed one of the accessories they had swapped out.

"Excuse me, but how do you know Che'nya?" he asked. Because he recognized those accessories.

Alyssa beamed at him, while Vil choked.

"Wait...you're the roommate?" said Vil incredulous.

"Big brother Che'nya did say his roommate was high up in the modeling scene. He never said it was you though," said Alyssa smiling. "Also you owe me fifty thaumarks because I was right in that he'd recognize it before the end of the shoot."

"I'll pay up later," said Vil absently. "You know I'm good for it at least."

Alyssa laughed, causing even more of the team to fall for her. Vil and Neige had to stare a bit.

"Seriously, how high is your charisma to cause that?" said Vil. Alyssa tilted her head cutely, her ears twitching a bit creating even more victims.