The “center"

Finlay looked at his watch. The bus had been rolling for a good five hours now. He could feel his stomach starting to digest itself and he needed to go the bathroom. Yes, the bus hadn't made a stop even once except for picking up people. What was the driver thinking? Even if he was doing mildly okay, there was a chance that others were at their limits.

As Finlay was reflecting on this, the bus driver was looking nervously through the retro visor. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he made the bus accelerate. He had been driving for five consecutive hours and he really wanted to take a break, but he couldn't. Not now. Normally, they could have taken a break during the middle of the ride, but right now it was too risky. And they were nearly arrived at the bell forest. Once they got there, they could just continue on feet.

About ten minutes later, the bus entered a sunny forest. About ten meters deep in the forest, the driver put on the breaks and stopped the bus.

-"Everyone out! The road stops here, we'll walk the rest on foot." He declared with a tinge of relief.

The students rushed out of the bus and tried to see if there were any toilets nearby. Obviously, there weren't and many people sighed in frustration. And so, they started walking. Finlay quickly noticed that he could hear multiple sounds resembling bells. After looking around a bit, he discovered it came from white-bluish flowers in the trees, they were round and looked like crystal. Suddenly, he felt emotions surging through him. Rage, sadness, regret and many more.

-"Hey! You, at the back. Stop daydreaming and start walking!" Said the ugly bus driver.

Finlay snapped his head to glare at the bus driver, ready to lash out at him, but luckily he had already turned around and hadn't seen him.

What was going on with him? The sudden wave of emotions slowly subsided. Was something wrong with him?

Finlay shook his head and silently followed behind. Soon, the bell forest left place to the large cliff side of a rocky mountain. They then walked for a small while until they arrived at what looked like a bunch of small buildings stacked together. It was placed on the edge of a plateau. The architecture looked quite messy as if it was made on a spur of the moment. The white paint that was falling of the walls and the brown roofing made it look like a touristic spot.

Though, metallic bars on the windows reminded him of what this place was.

The teenagers (mainly girls that didn't use the woods) hurried to the main gates. They were tall and wide, like the whole mansion. It looked like giants could live in it.

As he was walking towards the building, Finlay had the impression something had moved on the walls, something big. But he simply dismissed it as a hallucination as there was nothing there.

Some of the teenagers seemed to know each other, forming groups and talking among each other. Obviously, it wasn't their first time here.

A small garden with fountains and a small hedge as a fence was separating the mountain from the mansion. A fancy stone slab path led to the giant wooden doors. The building looked quite impressive and old for a youth correction center. Some people would probably pay to sleep there. Well, he still hadn't seen the interior, so he couldn't really tell.

As he walked to the door, he looked at the small birds chirping in the various structures the garden held. With the sun gently filtering through the tree branches that had falling red leaves, everything seemed straight out of a fairy tale. It felt odd.

Finlay was the last one the enter the big doors, which were closed behind him.

A guy dressed weirdly similar to a butler handed him a pair of classy interior shoes. He then removed his sneakers and placed them on a rack next to the others. Finlay finally looked around. He was in the main hall, it was big like a tennis court and had double doors on the right and the left, at the opposite of the room stood a double curled flight of stairs made out of wood. A wood table was placed near a bunch of leather couches arranged not to be in the way.

He saw all the other teenagers headed upstairs, so he simply followed them. Upstairs, a corridor led to the right and the left but there was also some kind of reception right in front. He had to wait a small while in line before being able to consult.

-"Paper." Another guy dressed like a butler said when he finally finished waiting in line.

Finlay handed him the now dirty and crumpled paper.

The guy read it quickly and then seemed kinda surprised. He looked at him with the shadow of a smirk on his face.

"Family descendance?" he then asked while stuffing the paper in a file case.

Finlay blinked. Family descendance? what's he talking about?

"uuhhh... Edgeworth?" he answered awkwardly.

The man looked at him. It was between a glare and a stare.

"Very funny. Now tell me which god is your parent." he asked seriously.

"I'm atheist sir." he answered matter-of-factly.

"Mister Edgeworth, I don't have all day and neither do you, please answer my question." he said in an annoyed tone.

Finlay struggled to find an answer. What kinda question was he asking him?

"Sir, I really don't understand what you're talking about." he reported.

The butler-like guy seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then, he sighed and called out to someone.

"Devon! I need your help!" he yelled.

Shortly after, the ugly bus driver arrived and looked at Finlay with questioning eyes.

"What's wrong? " he questioned.

"That guy's acting like he's still under the veil. I can't tell if he's faking it. So I don't know his descendance." he said while pointing Finlay.

Devon inspected Finlay shortly.

"Ok, first of all, remove your sunglasses so I can see your irises. We're indoors anyway." he said gruffly.

Finlay hesitated. He obviously didn't want to remove his sunglasses. But it seemed like he didn't have a choice, so he removed them.

Both the butler and the bus driver seemed somewhat shocked when they saw his glassy eyes.

"Guess he wasn't acting after all. So he's an unwanted heir or something? It's kind of weird with the reason he's here." the butler said.

"Just send him to a temporary room for now. We'll discover his parent one day or another." Devon concluded.

Some teenagers seemed to have their curiosity piqued by the holdup. Finlay quickly put his sunglasses on before they could see his eyes.

"Here's the key to your temporary room. You can put your stuff there. then you can go to the room right to the main hall if you're hungry." The butler said while dismissing him.

Finlay quickly put the key in his back pocket and went to the room he was referred to. It was small, a bed and the strict necessary. He quickly put his clothes in the drawers and then headed for what he guessed was the dining hall.

The doors were already open, letting a confused chatter slip from the opening. He entered the room with curiosity. There was two long wood table with benches that could each seat about 25 people placed in parallel and one smaller table with chairs placed further. There was a long counter with metallic trays like in a school cafeteria. On the tables, people were eating festively while chattering carefreely.

He took a tray and filled it with food, which didn't seem bad, but not top quality either. He then sat down on the corner of one of the long tables that seemed to be for the students.

After looking around while eating his meal, he noticed something weird. Some groups formed were made of people with the same features. A group made of people with pale white skin and jet black hair, a group of people with very dark brown skin and red eyes and a group of people with blond curly hair and yellow eyes, one of them being James Blaze. But there was a couple of group formed with various people. There was also a bunch of loners like him.

Finlay didn't really like eating and it always took him a while to finish his meals, even more so if the food wasn't to his taste. So, as time passed he was surprised to see nobody leave the place even when they all had finished their meals.

He was about to finish eating when he heard someone loudly ask for silence.

"silence everyone!" a tall guy with white hair standing near the small table yelled.

Quickly, the room was completely silent.

"As everyone knows, today a new batch has arrived from the outside. Among them, there seems to be two veiled. Tomorrow at 7:00 am, the unveiling ceremony will take place directly after breakfast. As you know, the veiled are still innocent to our world. Please be careful until the ceremony is finished." He said cryptically.

Finlay didn't like not understanding what the man was saying, but he guessed it would be fine either way. As long as he did like the others.

So when everyone suddenly got up, he did too.

But the students just stood there, doing nothing. Soon, Finlay started feeling awkward. What was going on?

He could feel small and soft wind twirling around the room. Something seemed to be happening, but he couldn't tell what exactly.

Finlay was relieved when everyone started getting out of the cafeteria and he went along with them. The students were chattering happily together, heading outside.

As Finlay was about to step out, someone grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him.

-"Sorry little guy but you can't go with the others, for you, it's lights out now." the butler-looking dude that had handed him interior shoes told him.

Obviously, Finlay wasn't sad about this in any way. He wanted to go to his room originally but had followed the rest out of logic. Without saying a word, he went back to his room to have a good night's sleep.