By the time the past Hope and Shane walked out of the palace, it was already afternoon. Hope looked at the time and sighed before heading in another direction. She waved her hand behind her back at the person following her.
"Don't come after me anymore," she said. "I need to do some private things."
Shane raised his brows, but he nodded. Even though he agreed, it didn't mean he wouldn't follow her anymore.
He went into an alley and quickly put on the cloak before walking out of that place. Then he continued to follow the girl through the crowd.
As they moved forward, the girl seemed to have felt something wrong, as she turned back and frowned. She tilted her head, thinking something might be wrong, before shaking her head.
Shane scoffed. "Your senses are strong."
"That's because it's me you're dealing with."
Shane didn't bother with her anymore. When they finally reached the place, he wasn't shocked to see where the girl was heading. It was the institute where he had spent a few months.
"So you had spread your wings here already."
"Shut up and continue watching."
The past Hope didn't stop until she walked through the corridor and entered a very familiar office. Shane's expression turned complicated when he saw such a scene.
He was back in Ed's office. Again.
The moment he entered after Hope, he saw Ed's familiar face who was marking his students with a serious expression on his face. Ah, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic, negatively of course.
Not that he ever wanted to go back into the past and relive those times.
The moment Hope entered the door, it alerted Ed, who put down his pen and raised his head. He crossed his hands over his chest and stared at the girl in an arrogant manner.
Then he said, raising his brows, "What do you want?"
"I want to accept an assistant."
"You are definitely talking about me, aren't you?" asked Shane to the Hope in his mind.
The woman scoffed. "Right, All I do is talk about you to other people like I have nothing else to do."
"Why are you being mean?" Shane frowned. "You're not on that time of the month, are you?"
Hope's face turned red when he heard those words as she said in an angry voice, "What the f*ck you're talking about? You should know that there are a few things that you can't talk to about in front of a girl, which also includes periods! How stupid of you! Get lost!"
Shane sighed. "Alright, I'm sorry."
She didn't reply.
"What? Are you seriously ignoring me?"
No reply, again.
"Good. Continue sulking. I'm not your boyfriend to coax you."
"Shut up!" She finally reacted only by ordering him to stop speaking.
He focused on Ed again after this, not bothering with the girl in his mind.
Ed frowned after listening to her. "Who? Give me his joining application."
Hope was silent for a moment as she lowered her head. "That's why I approached you instead of going with the normal order. The thing is, this young man can't really enter his private information."
Ed raised his brows. "He's a criminal, isn't he?" he scoffed and waved his hand. "Don't waste my valuable time. Go back."
He focused on the pile of papers on his table again. Just then, Dirt also entered the place. All of a sudden, he frowned and stopped walking. He glanced at the place where Shane was standing, directly meeting the man's eyes.
Shane felt a shiver down his spine as he looked at Dirt. he subconscious took a step back and only recovered when the robot shook his head and turned to Ed. "Boss, the new batch is ready to arrive. Do you want to take a look at the potential students?"
Ed waved his hand as if he were bored. "No need. They are going to arrive here anyway. Why should we even bother glancing at that stream?"
He sounded like a cold hearted teacher who didn't have anything to do with his students anymore.
Shane knew what his master was like. So he didn't bother with the man anymore.
At this time, just as he was about to do something, he heard Hope speaking from his mind. "Get ready. You're going to arrive soon."
Shane widened his eyes. "Too soon?"
"Yup," The Hope in his mind rubbed her hands as if she were a little more excited. "It would be fun to see your embarrassing events from the past all over again!"
Shane felt a headache coming on, but he couldn't do anything about it. So he just let it go.
Just as they were still thinking about the situation, a bell rang outside the building, echoing throughout the place. A strange robotic voice sounded through the speakers: "the new batch of students have arrived at Septo. Get ready to greet the surviving ones."
Hope looked over at Ed and said, "Whether you like it or not, I'll make you accept him as my assistant."
Ed sighed and put down the file. "Why do you want an assistant so bad?"
"Because you give me too much work."
"I don't. Stop making me your excuse."
Hope pursed her lips and said, "He's my distant cousin and needs to continue his studies. The only way for him is to be my assistant. But he had to face some official issues. Some people had faked evidence and made him spend a few years in the jail. So with those records, it's impossible for him to enter the institute officially. That's why…"
Ed narrowed her eyes and waved his hand. "Then do whatever you want."
Hope bowed and walked out of the office.
Shane raised his brows. How come the man accepted her words so easily? He looked back and sure enough, the man was frowning.
Dirt also noticed this. "Do you want me to do something about this?"
Ed nodded. "Keep an eye on the new assistant for me. Check his ID first."
"Okay."
Shane didn't bother anymore. He didn't care about his fake ID here. In any case, Dirt was the first person to fake the ID in the first place before dying.
"Let's go and see you!" Hope in his mind couldn't take it anymore and urged him again.
With nothing else to do, Shane could only accept it and go to the portal area. When he reached that place, he frowned. He couldn't really use his ID to transfer to a different continent. Since he was already dead officially, things would be difficult if he were to use even the altered ID. the police standing guard at the gates of the portal could identify that the ID was faked.
So what else could he do?
Just then, Hope said, "Don't bother entering the portal here. I'll tell you the address. Go there. Quickly!"
Sahne sighed and followed only to be even more surprised. Wasn't this the cave where he had found Ed and Dirt almost dying?
He tilted his head and entered with confusion written all over his face. Indeed, at the end of the cave, there was a portal that hadn't been used. He walked over and realized that it was just an empty portal without any energy. For it to work, he had to find a way to brighten it first.
Just as he was wondering whether he should use his powers or not, he heard Hope speak first. "I'll send you something. Use it on the portal."
After a while, Hope sent him a disc-like thing that had multiple wires drawn over it. When he took it from his menu and inserted it into the portal, it solidified in his hands. The disc disappeared as it brightened up the portal.
Hope sighed and said, "It's a one-time-use portal. You can only use it for going there and coming back once. Don't misuse this rare opportunity and enter!"
"Just what the heck did you do to find this thing?"
"I made it myself," boasted Hope in his mind.
Shane shook his head and entered the portal. He left a similar cave and continued heading toward the main gate.
The area outside was similar to what he had seen before. It was a gloomy and dark night filled with darkness. The cave was currently located at the place where monsters were there, and they walked back and forth the entire place, making the ground tremble.
Now that Shane had glanced at these monsters again, he didn't feel afraid of them anymore. He continued to walk and entered the place where the group of newbies had started to gather.
The first thing he heard and saw was himself poking his finger onto Frank's shoulders and saying, "Hey, can I ask you something?"
Darn it. How embarrassing!
Then he heard himself saying another even more embarrassing sentence: "I'm Shane Cooper. What's your name?"
He almost wanted to go there and shake himself over and over again, saying, 'Dude, the guy doesn't want to talk to you1 why the f*ck are you trying so hard for?!'
At the same time, Hope was already clutching her stomach and laughing hard at the scene.
<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>
This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eewebn(o)vel.com