7 Settling In A New Realm

Back in the library, Clover stood beside Edward at the opposite side of the wooden counter to Scarlett.

"Thank you again for everything." Clover thanked Scarlett.

"I too am grateful that you hosted the young lad." Edward also thanked Scarlett.

Receiving gratitude from both Clover and Edward, Scarlett raised her hand and said, "It's no problem. Besides, I got to see something interesting. If anything, I should be thanking you Clover."

As she expressed thankfulness to Clover, Edward looked at him who was scratching the back of his head and chuckling awkwardly.

Taking the situation with a grain of salt, Edward shrugged of the urge to ask for an elaboration of what happened between the two of them.

As Edward gained his usual composure, he turned directly to Scarlett.

"Thank you again." he said. "I shall take him off your hands."

"Sure." she said before glancing at Clover. "It was nice meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you too." Clover replied.

"Alright now, we should be going." Edward said to Clover, he then looked at Scarlett. "I'll be coming back to discuss an urgent matter with you."

Before she could reply to Edward, he quickly made his way out through the red curtain.

Clover bowed to show one last gesture of gratitude to Scarlett before exiting the library behind Edward while Aera followed.

When the two of them left, Scarlett opened the status screen on her System and started scrolling through the contents of the screen. He fingers swiped with purpose and her face expressed concern.

...

Meanwhile, Clover and Edward walked through doors and along hallways for a couple of minutes.

With all this walking, Clover got bored and was about to make conversation but Edward took the initiative.

"I believe it's safe to say that you have no plans in this realm."

Clover though deeply before answering. He remembered the last words his mother told him before arriving here. And also, the fact that he doesn't know exactly what has happened to Hara. Wether she is still back home or if she got transported somewhere else. It actually didn't matter which one it was, he was still worried about her, and his mother.

He somehow had to find his mother and find out what happened to Hara, but he didn't have the first clue of what he should do to accomplish either of those.

Edward took Clover's silence as confirmation of his assumption. But he felt as though Clover was hesitant for some reason. So he gave him a little nudge.

"I can give you a place to stay for the night. We can discuss further on your stay here at the Gi Template tomorrow when you're rested. Although, that's if you plan to stay at the Gi Template."

Clover figured Edward's proposal was better than anything he could come up with right now. He had no plans at the moment, and he also couldn't just roam around without an aim. But there was one thing he wondered as he remembered everything Edward did for him to this moment.

"Why are you helping me?"

Edward looked at him and smiled. He paused while holding the smile on his face and replied to Clover.

"You see, being a veil guardian in the Gi Template, I haven't had someone enter through the central veil in a while. A veil guardian's job is not to guard the veil, their job is to assess the beings or objects that enter through the veil."

Edward stopped walking, and seeing this Clover stopped as well.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is...I haven't been doing my job as a veil guardian for the past few decades. And now that I have a chance to actually do my job, I want to do it properly."

Clover looked at Edward with understanding eyes and his mouth on the brink of drooling. If he had any doubts about Edward before, well now they were gone. His sincere smile and fidelity towards his status as a veil guardian gave Clover assurance.

He smiled inwardly before accepting Edward's kindness.

"Then where would I be staying?"

Edward smirked partially as he led Clover to the lower floors of the dome building. And after walking for some time, he showed Clover to a typical wooden door.

Edward held the door handle and glanced at Clover over his shoulder.

"You will stay here." he said, while opening the door.

The two went through the door and into a room that was not so small. It had a good amount of space to walk. A single one person white sheeted bed and a door leading to a bathroom was the first things that popped up. The walls, floors, and ceiling were all made from lumber.

It was a better accomodation than Clover was hoping for.

Clover looked through the window of the room and saw the orange clouds in the sky. The mountains spared no space to view the sun and the brilliant blue colour of the sky was now turned into a dull light shade.

"You must be hungry." Edward said. "I'll send someone to bring you dinner."

Edward then went to the door, before leaving, he said a couple of words to Clover.

"I apologize for leaving you so sudden. I'll come back tomorrow morning. You can use anything in here."

Edward was about to leave when Clover gave him a few words of his own.

"Sir Flele-...I mean, Edward. Thank you for everything."

"No need for thanks. I'm just doing my job."

With that said, Edward left Clover by himself to do whatever.

However, Clover wasn't alone. Aera was with him. He sat on the bed as Aera pounced in his lap. Having nothing else to do, he petted Aera.

"The outside of this place may look fancy, but it's like any other ancient building."

He thought out loud while stroking Aera's fur. He then plopped down on the bed, casting a flowing river of hair strands on the bed that dispersed like branches on a tree.

After moments of staring at the ceiling, he heard several light knocks on the door.

Not too keen on wanting to know who it was, he got up and opened the door.

A gorgeous green-eyed brunette woman in a maid outfit stood in his view with a tray filled with food.

'Wow. That was fast.' he thought

"Here you go. Sir Tychos." the brunette woman said, gesturing the tray to Clover.

He took the tray from the woman and thanked her. She bowed and walked away as Clover closed the door.

While back on the bed, he barely finished eating the food. Area however, seemed to have huge appetite. She licked and gobbled down the rest then Clover placed the tray on a table small table at the head of the bed.

The rest of the evening passed by uneventful and it was finally night time. After some twist and turns on the bed, he realized it was the first time that he ever ate dinner by himself, well he did eat with Aera but it didn't feel the same as when he was back home.

If it wasn't for the comfortable bed that he slept on, he wouldn't have slept at all. With Aera snuggled beside him and his pajamas adding to his comfort, he fell asleep.

...

Morning came, and beams of light slid past the windows onto Clover's face.

He groggily woke up as he stretched his whole body. His movements also woke Aera who was beside him curled up into a ball.

'I totally knew it wasn't a dream.'

After thinking this, a mildly pungent odour greeted his nostrils.

"Ugh. I need to take a bath."

After everything he went through since yesterday, from fighting a black cloaked man to having himself view his past; he really worked up a sweat and he skipped bathing for a full day.

With a glance to his right, he looked at the door to the bathroom. And of course, he went inside to take a bath.

Inside the bathroom, there was only a few buckets of water and a soap to clean himself with. But he didn't mind it, so he improvised.

With himself being cleaned, he didn't want to wear his sweaty pajamas again. But what would he wear?

As he exited the bathroom with his pajamas in hand, he looked at Aera following his movements with her eyes, not even sparing anything else the slightest attention.

'What does she know? She's only a cat.'

He shrugged off Aera's intent stare and looked around the room. A wooden closet in the left corner of the room caught his attention. The closet had two compartments with a slide door to access each.

He slid opened one of the compartments and saw three identical clothes folded up neatly in a box. The clothes looked like uniforms. It was similar to the ones he saw when he arrived here in the dome building yesterday.

A long blue jacket with white stripes starting from the underarms going straight down on the sides. A shirt that was of similar design and a long cotton trousers to match with the blue and white colors of the jacket.

'I wonder if anyone would mind if I use these?' he thought. 'Edward did say that I could use anything in here so, it's probably okay.'

He changed into the uniforms and opened the other compartment of the closet. There he saw three shin high pairs of matte black boots.

'Since I'm already wearing these clothes, it wouldn't hurt to wear these as well.'

With that though, he also wore the boots.

Even though the clothes and the shoes were on the loose side, they still felt like a good fit for him.

With his change of clothes, he went out of the room. As he was about to exit through the door, Edward was there right Infront of him with his index finger curled and ready to knock the door.

"Good morning." Edward said, unfazed by the sudden opening of the door. "Those uniforms suit you well."

"I hope it's not a problem that I choose to wear them."

"Not at all. Now please, follow me."

He led the way before Clover while Aera excited the room and followed.

Due to how colossal the dome building was, it seemed like everytime Edward was leading him somewhere, it turned out to be a long journey.

With walking through doors and halls, it would have been boring if it wasn't for the fact that everything within the building was absolutely amazing to him.

His long journey through large doors was accompanied by the usual magical scenes and the hallways brought him view to weaponry and armour.

This made his trips in the building seem shorter and exciting. And just as how time flies when you're having fun, they stopped at large beige wooden door.

"Wait here." Edward said, as he went through the door.

While at the door, Clover waited for a few minutes and saw students entering a room on his left. They wore similar coloured uniforms to what he wore, but the girls wore long blue dresses with a pale see-through outer jacket made of silk and the boys wore the same outfit as him but with broken collars and different designs.

Among the group of students, there was one thing that popped out, one thing that caught his focus...

...It was a silver-white hair.

He couldn't see the person's face due in the crowd of students, he could only see the silver-white hair peeping out ever so often.

"Hara?" Clover said, his voice was soft as if asking himself a question.

"Hara!?" his voice grew louder.

As he shouted, the head of the silver-white haired person stopped but started to move again along with the crowd. Clover took this as a sign that the person he was shouting at was indeed Hara. But he had to know for sure.

As he thought this, the door behind him opened and Edward called for him.

"Come in, Clover."

He looked behind him at Edward and then glanced back at the crowd of students. He scanned his eyes across the crowd but could not see the silver-white haired person again.

This sprouted a dejected expression on his face as he turned around and went inside through the door with Edward.

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