Beatitudes

Episode 39.

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                                        Harry Axon

                                        Race: Human

                                        Class: Berserker [Tier one]

                                        Hall rank: White lily

                                        Isaac Alexus

                                        Race: Human

                                        Class: Will Meister [Tier one]

                                        Hall rank: White lily

The details on the screen was a mix of lies and truths, yet no one but the owners of the identity knew that.

Hiya stared at the screen with her information that couldn’t be any more different, she looked on as her eyes gleamed with a strange light, a while later she said as she murmured to herself, “What am I getting myself into, it seems I’m not the only one here with some secrets hm.”

“Okay…”

Nodding his head, Adam gave the few lines of information of the three of us a once over before he spoke up again,

“I can only trouble you again…”

The woman gave a slight nod as she walked to her side away from the counter, with a gesture, she urged them to follow her and then turned her back to them as she led them deeper into the building, they walked down another corridor for a while before they got to a transparent closed space with a trans positional shifter[1], vanishing from sight they appeared at another place, possibly on the next floor as the tranquil air present here was absent from where they just came from.

After a little more time spent walking, she brought them to a well-furnished lounge which seemed to serve as a waiting room, there were other people in the place as they spread around the spacious lounge. Harry and Isaac immediately spotted several fruit and snack bowls giving off a wonderful aroma at different spots in the lounge, they hadn’t eaten anything for a while but they couldn’t possibly grab the contents like so, hence forced to stare intermittently.

The woman finally spoke up again as she paused her steps, “Could our esteemed guests please wait here, while I go get the badges and the basic beginners kit. If you have any question while I’m away, please, you just need to hit that button on the side of the table and you’ll get someone to give you answers.”

“Of course…”

And then she left them behind while she went deeper into the floor. Following that was a long period of silence as nobody moved a muscle or made to do something while those people in the lounge before them also made no move to start a conversation, after a suffocating while, Adam finally spoke up,

“Why aren’t you guys sitting?”

The sudden broken silence caused a tad too much of a jump from Harry as the others also turned their heads sharply to look at him. It was Isaac who replied faintly,

“No reason.”

Yet despite the casual tone he portrayed in his answer, Adam was quick to notice an odd emotion in his eye, he shifted his head to look at Hiya beside Adam who had also the same emotion in her eyes, albeit mixed with wariness as always, he finally turned to glance at Harry and while he tried to look away, the emotion was as clear as day in his eyes.

‘Are they being… cautious? To… me?”

After a quick contemplating the light of realization dawned in his eyes and he let out a small sigh. He felt a little awkward now that he knew what was going on, ‘I should go bang my head on a wall right now…’

Another silence set in among them as they kept waiting, the silence this time though was filled with awkwardness as they all realized something. Finally, a voice broke through the silence albeit sounding more casual and amiable than usual, not that he intended to make it the opposite at first though.

“Hey… You three…” the change in tone was picked up instantly by the three ex to-be slaves and they tilted heads to his direction with a strange gaze, “I think we need to clarify a few things don’t you think…”

“…”

“*sigh* Look you three, lets iron things out before it gets all the more awkward. I’m actually not that much older than you guys, I’m just a few years ahead of you three…”

No responses came from the three as the strange gazes in their eyes only deepened,

“… I might have come off to you guys as a bit intimidating, but that’s not what I actually intended. You should know by now that the reason why you, Harry and Hiya, are out of the pit is Isaac…”

At this point, the listeners expressions had changed while Adam continued without pause, “He’s the reason the two of you are standing here at all, and after walking together I can see you’re both not people to be wary of.”

He gave the duo a glance as Isaac stood ignored, he passed a longer gaze over Hiya before he continued, “I’ll be honest with you…” he said as he pointed a finger at Isaac with a slightly teasing smile, “He’s actually my boss, I’m just a lowly servant to his highness, he just doesn’t remember much as of now, which is why I’m leading him around till he does.”

Wide eyed Isaac had nothing to say so he poked at Astral, “What’s he saying”

“In time, you’ll realize it Isaac.”

“…”

At this point, the whole conversation felt as odd as ever but Adam knew better than to stop, they had to get through the talk to be able to understand and grow with each other. “And while I aimed to bring him around, you two followed along. And at this point, I don’t anyone of you has the need to leave anymore… Which is why I didn’t think there was anything else that needed to be addressed, but I do now…”

“Uh…”, Harry had opened his mouth to say something but stopped when he received a poke on the side from Hiya.

“You seem cautious around me at all times which doesn’t really make things as casual as it should be between us, basically I want us to be able to talk comfortably around each other with no pretenses.”[2]

The atmosphere in the waiting lounge had developed an oddly thick air, one that made the ensuing silence feel even worse, at this point Adam could only pray that they got the message as there was no way he had the face to say anything anymore. Thankfully for him, the woman behind the counter who had brought them here had finally come back as she walked towards them with a sweet smile on her face, looking closer you would notice a slightly teasing swing to her hips as she paced towards them, she stared at Adam and only Adam as she walked, this was actually nothing to take note of save for the hopeful and dreamy light she had in her eyes concealed behind her mask of professionalism.

Sadly though, none of her actions were noticed at all by any of them, Adam had just been feeling even worse when he saw her and hid a breath of relief, she had only just reached them when he stepped forward to grab her attention,

“Since you’re back allow me to excuse myself for a minute, I have something else to do, you can hand over their kits to them and give the usual briefing.”

He gave the woman no chance to say anything as he walked off in a direction away from the lounge.

She stared at Adam as he walked off into the distance with slight surprise, meanwhile a strange light flickered in the purple eyes exclusive to Hiya as a faint smile appeared on her face as she spoke in a voice no one else could hear, “What an awkward set of people I ended up with, I left behind such craziness twice yet I always seem to find a way back to it, *sigh*…”

Due to her few years of dealing with a lot of people, the woman was able to adapt quickly to the situation as she shrugged of the awkwardness she felt, and then she turned to the three who she now had to address. She smiled politely as began to talk,

“Pardon me for not introducing myself first, it seemed to slip my mind, my name is Kate although you probably might not remember it the next time we meet…” she chuckled faintly as she spoke trying to reduce any possible tension in the air.

It was at this moment that Isaac who had been quiet spoke up with a smile,

“How could we bear to forget your name”

She paused slightly at the reply before she smiled and nodded her head, “Of course”. Then with a turn of her wrist, her palms facing upwards, the air around her palm rippled slightly and three small boxes with a beautiful design appeared on it. At this point, Isaac knew better than to feel surprised at the different things he saw every time which he hadn’t seen before hence he remained unfazed as he stared at the boxes with a curious look.

She handed the boxes to each of them, then asked them to open it. When they did they saw a ring inside each box, identical to one another and they pulled it out of the case. she paused slightly before she continued, “These are the spatial rings provided to each new hall member, you just need to put it on and it’ll automatically take a sample of your DNA after which you and only you would have access to the ring.”

Isaac did just that as she said it and felt a slight prickly pain for a split second, after that he noticed that he now had a kind of connection to the ring as he felt in complete control of it, he finally couldn’t help but feel intrigued as he stared at the ring, he had no idea what to do next so he listened closer to what Kate had to say,

“…You should be able to feel the connection as you’ve worn it after which you should be able to control it with your mind, a simple order would suffice to open up the space within it after which you should see and access the contents within the ring. In the ring you’ll find the beginner kit offered to new hall members without cost…”

With the polite expression never leaving her face, she continued her explanation while she wondered why she had to in the first place, after all the one who stands behind them is at the level of a viridian orchid expert of the hall, even she doesn’t get many chances to meet before of that level as they all usually have no time or care for such formalities. The knowledge of things like these shouldn’t be something unknown to them should it. Only that she didn’t dare to question such an instruction no matter how it seemed…

Little did she know that Adam did intend to brief them on all the things, but after the little incident that just happened, he really couldn’t stand staying to explain.

She finally finished her explanation after a while as she said, “That’s all you need to know about that, I guess the next thing to say should be an introduction to the hall, it’s goals and mission-”

It was then that a new group of people walked into the lounge gaining the attention of the few people scattered all around in the lounge.

[1] – I decided to change the name since I felt this was a much better one compared.

[2] – trust me when I say that I also had a hard time writing this particular ‘speech’, I couldn’t help feeling the cringe as I typed. But this was exactly the atmosphere and feeling I tried to portray, since Adam Is somewhat of a taciturn himself. Nevertheless, I can tell you now that there shouldn’t be anymore scenes like this. I had to write this scene to get rid of the awkward relationship brewing unknowingly between the group. After all, Adam ’s just that bad a socializer.