[Discontinued*] The Darling Princess [A Twisted Wonderland Fanfic]

Chapter 13

CRASH!

Y/N stopped dead in her tracks, her hand resting on the handle of the cafeteria door. From inside had come the biggest crash that Y/N had ever heard, and in a moment of panic, her feet had taken the opportunity to root themselves to the floor. 

'What did those idiots do now,' Y/N thought to herself. She took a deep breath and entered the cafeteria, her eyes widening when she saw the mess. The beautiful chandelier had collapsed to the floor, the limbs of iron bent at odd angles, and the beautiful lights shattered like glass. A cloud of dust was covering the four culprits and Y/N glared at them.

"What in the world do you think you're doing, you absolute nitwits?!" The boys all looked up when they heard her voice booming around the room, and each paled as they saw her terrifying stance in the doorway. The hands that gripped the handles of the doors were sparking with red sparks, and Yuu noticed that a few strands of Y/N's hair were starting to take flight.

"Uh..." Ace muttered, glancing over at Deuce, who looked particularly guilty.

"I asked what happened," Y/N shouted, entering the room and slamming the doors shut behind her. Thank goodness no one had been in the room when the chandelier had come crashing down. 

Grim was the first one to come to his senses and he got to his feet, still a little wobbly. "They threw Ace at the chandelier and knocked it down!" Grim was waving his paws around wildly, hoping that Y/N would take pity on him and simply get mad at his companions, but unfortunately, there was no pity for him.

"And just why did they decide to throw Ace at the chandelier," she snapped. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she was tapping one of her feet on the ground impatiently. 

Grim's ears drooped, knowing that he had been caught, and he silently trudged around to hide behind Yuu's leg, only leaving his tail visible as it dragged on the floor.

"Deuce," Y/N asked. "What happened?"

Deuce sighed. "Well... Yuu and Grim came running up to me in the hall of mirrors, asking if I could help them to stop Ace from getting out of detention, but once we were able to stop him, Grim ran off, hoping to escape himself, and then we started chasing him but he hopped up on top of the chandelier and since we hadn't learned flying magic, I decided to try and catapult Ace up to the chandelier to grab Grim." While Deuce was rambling, he was staring at his shoes, ashamed for having acted so carelessly.

Y/N sighed and glanced over at the chandelier. Before she could say anything more, she heard another person enter the room, and though she had been tough on the boys, they were nowhere near ready for what Crowley had in store for them.

"Ah... Headmaster," Ace muttered, noticing the headmaster rather quickly compared to the other times.

"Just... what... exactly... HAPPENED," Crowley screamed. He was so enraged at the foolishness of the four boys that Y/N half expected for steam to start pouring out of his ears.

"The room is spinning," Grim mumbled, still slightly woozy from the whole ordeal that he had been put through.

"You weren't satisfied with just damaging the statue so you decided to destroy the chandelier! This is the last straw! I will have all of you expelled!"

Y/N paled and lowered her head, hoping that Crowley wasn't talking to her, as she hadn't done anything in this situation. Still, she couldn't help but feel bad for the boys. 

"Please," Deuce begged. "Anything but that! I have things I have to do at this school!"

"You have nothing to blame but your own idiocy," Crowley snapped, no longer even pretending to be his "gracious" self.

"I will pay for all the damages if I have to," Deuce yelled. 

"This is no normal chandelier. This is a magical chandelier that uses candles that will burn for eternity. It is a masterpiece made by the legendary master of magical tools. It has been entrust4ed to the school since its very foundation. Taking into the consideration its historical value, it would cost no less than a billion madol." Crowley turned to Deuce. "Can you pay for these damages?"

"A billion madol?!"

Ace stepped in. "But, Headmaster, can't you just fix it right up with magic?"

"Magic is not all-powerful. More importantly, what we call the heart of any magical tool, the magic crystal was shattered. No two magic crystals are the same. The chandelier will never be lit again." Crowley stared forlornly at the broken masterpiece now laying in a grisly mess on the ground, and right in the centre of it, was a beautiful gem the colour of the sun. It was shattered into a million pieces. 

"How can that," Ace asked 

"Crap," Deuce muttered. "What am I doing? What am I going to tell Mom?"

Crowley suddenly appeared to have remembered something and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That's right. There's one way..." He spoke up a bit. "There might be one way to fix the chandelier."

"Eh?!" Deuce and Ace were both shocked by this revelation.

"The magic crystal for this chandelier was mined in the Dwarf's Mine. If we have a magic crystal of the same kind as the original, repairs might be possible."

Deuce's look of a broken heart immediately changed into one of determination. "I will go find a magic crystal! Please allow me to go!"

"However, I have no guarantee that there are any left in the mine. The mine has been closed for a while and it's very possible it's exhausted of crystals."

"I'm sure that there is still one or two left," Y/N said quietly, speaking up for the first time since Crowley's appearance. "Years of disuse may have allowed nature to uncover some stones that were missed when the dwarves were working there."

"I'll do anything to get the expulsion rescinded," Deuce nearly yelled. 

"Fine," Crowley muttered. "I shall give you one night. Come to me with a magic crystal by tomorrow morning, or face expulsion."

"Yes! Thank you very much!"

Ace let out a long groan as he ran a hand through his hair. "I suppose. Let's go get that magic crystal and be done with it."

"Use the gate in the Mirror Chamber to go directly to the Dwarf's Mine."

"Yes Sir!"

Crowley turned to Y/N. "Miss. Artem, would you mind remaining here and assisting me in cleaning up this mess?"

Y/N frowned. "Are I not facing expulsion as well?"

Crowley gave her a small smile and placed a hand on her shoulder. "No, Miss. Artem. I saw enough to know that you did not take place in the breaking of the chandelier."

Y/N glanced over her shoulder at the boys, who were already starting to walk away. 

"I'll meet you boys at the mine, all right?" 

"Are you sure you don't want our help with cleaning," Yuu asked, glancing around at the many shards of metal and crystal on the ground. Y/N shook her head and said that she would have it all taken care of shortly, so they were free to head off to the mine. 

Crowley thanked Y/N for helping him to clean, and as he conjured up a set of tools for himself, Y/N set to work cleaning up all the shards of crystal off of the floor. For the most part, she was able to use a bit of magic, able to control enough to blow all of the shards together, but when she reached out to scoop them up, something strange happened. The moment one of her fingers touched a shard, her entire vision went black.

A/N: I'm sorry, it's a really short chapter today, but hopefully tomorrow's update will be longer! And we are almost done with the prologue so we can start getting into the interesting stuff! Thank you so much to everyone who has read this book, I can't believe that we are almost at 1,000 reads! This means so much to me!