Riddle’s First Year

In a flashback to Riddle’s first year at NRC we see him frustrated with what was presumably his first housewarden meeting and deciding to rectify the problem of Heartslabyul not embodying the Queen of Hearts’ spirit of strictness, starting with ensuring that all members memorize all 810 of their “esteemed rules.”

Trey attempts to calm Riddle down and Riddle, in turn, blames his upperclassmen for condoling indolent behavior, thus leading to the state of the dorm: “Our entire dorm culture needs to be reformed, swiftly and thoroughly!”

Cater explains that Heartslabyul’s students live by the Queen’s rules, and “the degree to which we adhere to the rules depends on the sitting housewarden. Past wardens have been much more lax.”

During Book 7 Trey explains that they “had such high hopes that (Riddle would) lead the dorm in a better direction once he took the top spot,” and he “ruled through power and fear to keep the Heartslabyul students in line. And he grew more and more isolated.”

It is also during Book 7 that we learn of the kinds of “indolent behavior” and “dorm culture” that Riddle decided to reform, with Idia and Leona explaining that the pre-Riddle Heartslabyul was “pure anarchy”: “the grounds were completely neglected, and the walls were covered in graffiti.”

Cater explains, “I figured as long as I followed the rules, l’d be coasting on easy street. But the rules kept getting more and more restrictive, and the atmosphere in the dorm grew more strained. Some people were happy when Riddle took over. But halfway through the year, even those people were griping nonstop about how stifling things had gotten.”

Cater follow with, “he did a bang-up job of bringing order to Heartslabyul’s anarchy. I can appreciate that much. If only it didn’t have to come at the steep cost of the Heartslabyul student body’s collective mental health.”

His first year at NRC seems to have also been Riddle’s first experience wearing heels, with which he struggles, wondering, “Why do so many people wear them?”

It seems that heels are not a requirement, with vil explaining that, for as long as he has been enrolled at NRC, the Heartslabyul housewarden has always dressed similarly to the rest of the dorm members: “Your predecessor wore sneakers just like they did. It hardly seems necessary to force yourself to wear high heels.”

Riddle explains, “You’re correct. They hurt my feet, and it irks me when people assume I’m wearing them to make myself look taller” and that he had his uniform tailored to match the uniform of the dorm’s first housewarden: “I believe that the head of a dorm honoring the Queen of Hearts should abide by tradition, which includes dressing formally. A housewarden must always be a model to their dorm’s students.”

Riddle reluctantly accepts bandage from Vil for his blistered foot, saying that his “failure to adequately prepare won’t happen again.”

Silver says, “Riddle seemed constantly on edge” in their first year, even struggling to bond with the horse that he was assigned in the Equestrian club.

It seems that this horse was Vorpal, and Riddle says that, while they have since built up a relationship of trust, “it has been a difficult road getting there.”

Riddle explains that Vorpal would refuse to accept anyone other than a “very capable” club leader who had left three years prior, and later he found out that assigning Vorpal to him was the upperclassmen’s way of hazing him in revenge for chiding someone when they skipped practice or stable cleaning duty: “They were hoping I’d cry about how hard that horse was to handle and withdraw from the club.”