Chapter 22: The Folinr (2)
Knock~ Knock~
Eve was knocking on a certain door. She waited for a response but nobody answered. She thought that there was no one inside to answer her but she was sure that she saw someone get inside the room earlier.
Knock~ Knock~
There was still no response. The absence of a presence inside the room made Eve doubt what she saw earlier. She was certain that a man and a woman went inside with a heavy expression on their faces. She was familiar with the woman but does not recall ever seeing the man.
Knock~ Knock~
She didn't know the people who stayed in this room but what she did know is that it is the alleged Adam's parent's room. Her mother told her about the scene earlier. How Adam was desperate about finding a goat shirt and a sheep-dragon shirt, and how Adam was not a typical teenage boy driven by lust.
Eve was skeptical about the last thing Andrea told her about.
'Mother tried to seduce him?'
But she denied that thought. It would be too much to imagine a gigantic woman attempting to seduce a boy that was so much shorter than her. It was a weird thing to visualize but it is better that she did not know her mother was telling the truth, what she doesn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Knock~ Knock~
"WHAT!?" A very angry voice resounded from inside the room.
'Oh no.' Eve has done it once again.
She could hear heavy footsteps from the other side of the door. Someone certainly was angry at her constant knocking. And soon enough, the door opened with an angry woman's face.
"Uhm. Hello Ma'am?" Eve cringed in fear of the demon before her.
And seeing that the visitor was an unusual one, Jenny's anger immediately subsided. She remembered this child as the child she gave the clothes to. With her aggressiveness gone, she fixed her manner and started speaking.
"Hello. Eve, Was it? Do you need any help?" Jenny asked Eve with a refreshing smile.
Eve could not believe that the devil from earlier suddenly became an angelic being. But she asked her anyway.
"Ma'am. I'm here to return the shirts to Adam. Is he here by any chance?" Eve took her chances and peeked inside the room. But the only person she saw aside from Jenny was a man who was watching TV while he was upside down.
'Weird.' She was being rude to a person who was in his private space.
"Hmm. We were together just earlier, however he did not come back to the lodgings with us but instead walked somewhere with his best friend." Jenny said whilst looking up, trying to remember the scenes from earlier.
"Do you know where they went?" Eve pressed further. She has no intent on giving up.
"Sadly, I don't. Well, there is a place in mind but you aren't allowed there." Jenny said with a shrug.
"Why?" This frustrated Eve and it agitated her.
"It's a place limited only to Soileward family members."
At this point. Jenny expected Eve to give up on asking. There was nothing she could do after all. Of course there was the option of Jenny bringing Eve with her to Tim's training area, but she's too lazy to do that.
"Family? But I'm Adam's partner!" And in her agitation, she blurted out her desires.
'Another one of them crazies.'
Eve was now put under Jenny's to-watch-out list just like Lilith. Nevertheless, due to her blunder, Jenny pitied her and offered to bring her to Tim's training area. She did not like moving much especially after hearing the news from her father-in-law.
And the boys at this moment were currently held up in the infirmary. Brian needed special care due to Adam's earlier strike at the family jewels.
"Adam. Couldn't you have been more gentler with your hit?" Ivan, who immediately went back to the clinic after taking his wife home, said to Adam as he inspected Brian's current state.
Brian was still in a fetal position. He seemed badly hurt but in all honesty, he was feeling better.
"Yea. I'm sorry Brian. My mistake. I wouldn't do it with my legs again, I promise." Adam apologized to the still posing Brian.
"Promise me you wouldn't do it with your fists either!" Brian asked Adam for compromises. He wanted to be safe from future spars. Adam only promised not to use his legs, but he could still use his hands to do it.
"I promise you that too." Adam replied quickly. He knew that Brian was already fine since Ivan had healed him.
Ivan settled down in The Vault as a medic. He has a very good healing ability and it doesn't come at much cost. He doesn't feel fatigue at all when he heals injuries but he does feel it whenever he heals traumas.
"Thank you as always, Uncle Ivan. You're the best." Adam did his best to be on Ivan's good side today.
And it worked like a charm.
"Hahaha. I'm still going to tell your mother about this." Charms don't work.
"Well. Off you go now. I have plenty more people to look after. There were a lot of children hurt during the exercises. Geez, why do kids have to be part of the military." Ivan remarked.
'Ivan was and still is a pacifist. Good for him.'
Ivan is already happy with his life. At first, he did not feel the burden of living with a mute wife. She didn't use to be mute either, she lost her hearing at a young age. Ivan lived with his wife that had muteness as a weakness but it never bothered him.
But now, due to the cataclysm, his wife's muteness was fixed. He fixed it himself with his own hands. The power he had was a blessing from the God above and he was ever so thankful. Now his wife can hold a decent conversation after years of speech therapy.
Brian slowly stood up. He no longer felt the stinging pain on his groin, but there was a phantom pain lingering.
'This isn't pleasant. Erk.' He was still groaning from the pain that wasn't there.
"Well, let us go then?" Adam said to Brian with blue eyes that shined innocence.
Brian scoffed at Adam. He was once again angry at Adam but it was always because he lost to Adam fair and square. Unlike last time where he couldn't do anything due to it being a lesson on leadership, this time he fought Adam with his own body.
And boy, he lost badly. He could still feel it. The pain. He was beginning to worry about not being able to make descendants in the future.
"Come on. It was sparring." Adam goaded Brian but was ignored.
"Alright. You forced my hand." Adam was bringing out his secret weapon against a frustrated Brian.
"How about some ramen? My treat."
Brian smiled at this. He could not resist the taste of umami which never existed in his original world of Tepatria. He loved the taste of this world's cuisine much more than his past world.
And so the two of them went to the cafeteria. They both ate in peace and in delight. Food is a very good stress reliever, no one could deny that. The savory taste lingered in their mouths even until they reached the lodging area.
"Alright. I'll go to sleep after packing up some of my stuff. I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early, with a brand new idea on how to kick your ass." Adam confidently said.
"Yea yea. Asshat. Why don't you go die in a ditch somewhere?" Brain replied to Adam's confidence in kind. He does not back down from petty bickering.
That was that for the two boy's day. But it was going to be a long day for someone else. Eve in particular was walking with Jenny. They were heading towards the training area and they conversed on the way.
"So, Ms. Partner. Since when were you two lovey-dovey?" Jenny cornered Eve with her first question.
'Since a long time ago! Even thousands of years before you were born!' But Eve could not say that.
"Since. No, not yet. But we will be soon!" Eve said this line instead. She held her chest since it was aching. She was too agitated, she still hasn't confirmed whether or not this Adam is the Adam she was looking for.
"Hooh. What confidence. I like that. But you are not the first to be this confident about being his partner, you know. Someone else took first place." Jenny warned the young Eve as she thought that Eve was very cute.
This statement of hers made Eve stop moving for a while.
'My worst fears have come to life!' She obviously misunderstood Jenny's words.
She thought that this first placer was the first one in Adam's heart but it wasn't the case. The girl she thought was Adam's girlfriend was only a very devoted admirer that annoys the hell out of Adam. But she doesn't know that.
For the rest of the walk to the training area, Eve was awfully silent. She was deliberating in her head how to separate Adam and this Lilith person but she doesn't know anything of their relationship so there was hardly anything she could think of.
"So. Now that we have arrived, I'll just have to ask the people around here if they are still inside."
Jenny walked towards a Vault employee and asked around. During this down time, Eve has turned for the worse.
'I'll kill her. Plain and simple.'
She could not think of any viable plan to separate them so why not just eliminate the threat? But obviously that was hard for her to execute so she just dismissed the thought. And due to her dismissing her thoughts, her heart once again ached.
'Kugh'
"They are no longer here." Jenny's voice woke Eve up from her trance.
"There was an accident when they sparred with each other earlier. And it is a nasty one that there is a chance it wouldn't recover at all." Jenny continued her ominous words.
Jenny did not specify about the accident nor did she say anything about who got injured but to Eve who was being crazy at this moment in time, she thought the worst of the worst possible outcome for her.
"Did Adam get hurt?" She asked Jenny with a poignant tone.
Seeing her gentle expression, Jenny was amazed. The girl before her was truly a maiden in love. It was a miracle for someone to fall for her son in first sight but it is no longer surprising since there was a precursor.
"No. They headed towards the infirmary. Let's go together, I doubt you know where it is." Jenny said to the very worried Eve.
After calming Eve down, they traced Adam and Brian's footsteps and then soon arrived in the infirmary. Once they were inside, they saw Ivan was talking to a patient. They stood quietly in the corner and waited for him to finish his conversation.
"So. What brings you here Jenny? I thought you were going to bed early due to the revelation from earlier?" Ivan asked Jenny in a calm manner as he was removing his gloves.
"Hmm. This girl with me is looking for Adam, she claims to be Adam's future girlfriend, partner or something like that. But most importantly, why are you taking your gloves off?"Jenny said without stuttering.
"It's just common medical practice to change gloves for every patient. Though I am not a doctor, more like a quack even, I still need to follow protocol." Ivan replied. He was now starting to become like a real doctor.
After removing his gloves, Ivan then removed his coat and everything related to work. He was taking a break, his mind was taxed due to Johnny's words earlier. It wasn't far fetched to call it an invasion too, since the threat was looming very near.
"Mister. Where is Adam?" Eve garnered his attention and asked.
Ivan totally forgot the main reason why Jenny came to him.
"Ah. Yes. They were heading towards the cafeteria but I do not think you can catch up with them. It has been quite a while now, they should be heading to bed to prepare for tomorrow's campaign."
"Oh. Okay. Thank you very much, Mister." Eve bowed politely at Ivan.
So Eve and Jenny just went back towards the lodgings. They missed the chance for an encounter outside of the boring lodgings so Eve was not feeling her best but she was still happy she knew where Adam was.
Slap. Slap.
'Come on Eve, still haven't checked if he's really Adam or not.' She was getting attached to someone she had a hard time connecting with.
It was a very nice string of unfortunate events. Due to her missing every opportunity to find Adam, it reminded her of her and Adam's hardship from long ago. This is why she slowly attached herself to this Adam.
However, deep within the earth near the outer walls of The Vault. Claws could be heard digging through dirt and pushed out rocks. The Folinr continued their excavation and soon found a solid wall.
"Reeeeeee!"
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