21 The Institute (1)

Elior opened his eyes with nauseousness again. Shaking his head a couple of times heavily, he found he was still inside the bus. Ileana had not awakened yet, not anyone else.

Roan, the man who entertained them first, could be seen conversing with someone else. He seemed to notice Elior's awakening, looked at him and asked, "How did your Trial go?"

It appeared they have not received the result of the trial yet. Well, it had not been long since the trial ended.

"I passed," Elior answered nonchalantly, rubbing his forehead. All the tiredness of the four-day trial washed over him.

"Good job," Roan said. "It appears you are quite tired. We will be arriving at the Institute soon. You will have a proper room to rest."

Elior nodded and leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes. He did not sleep, knowing they would reach the institute in a few minutes.

Other folks woke up one by one. Some of them were in quite a good mood, conversing with themselves about their success. While some stayed silent with a lost expression. Those were the ones that failed the test and got their memory wiped. They could feel that they had lost something but could not pinpoint what.

"El," Ileana whispered in his ears.

Elior opened his eyes and saw the chestnut-haired girl was looking at him, biting her lips. It appeared she was better than before.

'Probably hiding it,' he thought, knowing Ileana's nature. But he did not question that topic now. It was time for that yet.

"Are you feeling well?" He asked.

Ileana nodded in response.

"You looked quite weary, though," he said in a joking tone. "Even your makeup got faded."

Ileana smiled a little, pouting.

The Bus stooped after a few minutes and they were asked to leave. A lady of middle age and a man in his early thirties welcomed them. The middle-aged lady with a fairly good-looking face took the girls, and the man took the boys and moved in the same direction. They collected more boys and girls from other buses as well. It appeared all the buses has not arrived yet. Only three so far, holding about sixty people.

Gaining the attention of everyone, the lady opened her mouth.

"I know, all of you are quite tired, so I will make it quick," she said, looking not only to the girl but also to the boys. "Some of you passed the trial, congratulations to them, and those that failed might think, it's unfortunate or unfair or may not have any idea. . . ."

Elior did not put his ears to what the lady was saying. His eyes gazed around and found the familiar buildings ahead. It was the Guardian Institution of earth. One of the most secure places on earth, though Elior put away that thought.

It was the centermost part of the Safe Haven, on the first ring. The Safe Haven was created after the tremendous attack of Chaos Fiends two decades ago.

It was divided into six rings, the centre most ring as the most secure, and the outer sixth ring being the vanguard. The allocation of homes is depended on the citizenship level. And citizenship level is dependent on the primary source of income of the family. So it was mostly by profession.

How much the person was important to the society—was the scale to measure the citizenship level.

Like the guardians, politicians, entrepreneurs, singers and superstars get home on the first ring. Then the normal people were divided into the other five rings by their rank of citizenship.

Elior's family lived on the third ring. With his father being a doctor, his family was quite well off, able to maintain a home of the third ring. With him being an apprentice Guardian, they will get a chance to raise their citizenship and moved to the first ring. But knowing his father, Elior had no hopes.

All the stubbornness he got was from his father, after all.

His father had not moved to the first ring in the previous regression, and if Elior did not overcome the disagreement with his father, then this time would be the same.

Just thinking about it made him depressed.

A huge fountain could be seen in the middle of the garden in front of the institute. Flowers of different colours bloomed in green trees. Not many presents there on the outside. His eyes followed the symbol with the huge words written in the front of the main building. The Institute of Earth's Guardian.

Elior felt quite nostalgic seeing that. It was the place he had to protect again, and this time he would succeed.

". . . Rules and regulations are everything here," the woman continued. "Even if you are the elite of the elite, you have to follow them. I won't waste any of your time for now. Girls come with me, and boys follow Ford over there. You will be given your personal dormitory now. And remember there will be a debriefing on the evening. Remember to present at the main podium before six."

With that, the lady finished his sentence. Her name was Murphy something—Elior forgot. All he remembered was that she was known as Aunt Murphy by all the student. With the other man, Ford, the two of them are in charge of the dormitory. They were not just regular people, but Guardians and that too, with a quite respectable level. With being in charge of the Dormitory, their other job was to protect the students from any unforeseen accident.

Elior gave a wave of a hand to Ileana, and she nodded before he noticed another girl quite close to Ileana was looking at him. It was Lara. Elior gave her a smile, and she too nodded in acknowledgement as the group of boys and girls parted away in the opposite direction.

Ford brought them inside the administrative office and distributed keys to their dormitory to everyone with a rule book and map of the institute. Each one of the students will get their own quarter with no room service.

They were quite nice and big, with its own toilet and washroom, but taking care of it was their duty as well. There would not get any housekeepers or anything. Cleaning their own dress, dishes after meals, even cleaning their own toilet was their duty.

The main idea behind this was, if you can't even take care of yourself, how would take care of the earth.

Ford was instructing the new students a few more things, but Elior left the group with no one noticing. Finding room number 17—the room he was allocated, he went inside it. Fortunately, the room was well cleaned, probably done a day before.

Elior left his belonging in the side and started to strip until he got entirely naked. After that, he went straight to the bathroom. He sat in the bathtub and poured cold water into it. When the tub was half full, he closed the tap.

Then he closed his eyes and slept in the bathtub. He did not intend to sleep for long, just an hour or two.

. . .

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