Once Damien left the hospital's walls, he expected to see a spectacular world filled with magic and creatures, but now that he was outside, he wasn't sure if he had even left the human world.
The people in Gibbous looked just like humans.
If it weren't for some of them having unusual eye colors, or showing off their magic or horns to their healing kids, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between them and humans at all. Not to mention how the hospital's design itself looked exactly like the one back home.
The only difference was the car park.
Instead of cars, there were large stone arcs in each space a car could fit in, glowing different shades of colors with red and green signs placed above each of them. Damien soon noticed that the people entered the hospital grounds from the stone arcs with green signs on them, and exited from the ones with red.
As for how they did that, well, they just walked into the portals as if entering a door that leads straight home. Next to each arc was either a man or a woman dressed in what looked like the nurse's uniform as they guided the people around the portals and the hospital.
'This looks like a bus terminus,' Damien thought just as he and Ahara drew closer to Eden.
Four men dressed in black were stationed back to back around her in a square formation, their faces hidden behind masks. The moment the two facing them saw Ahara and Damien coming closer, their hands swiftly moved to their weapon-filled belts.
Ahara immediately stilled, stopping Damien in his tracks as she stared directly at them.
"Are you sure you talked to the real princess?" Ahara whispered under her breath.
She wasn't even done speaking before Eden waved at Damien, her grin widening. Her guards immediately withdrew their weapons.
"Took you long enough," she blurted out, waving for Damien to come closer.
The boy smugly smiled at his sister, taking her hand as he led them towards the grinning princess. Once they were close enough, however, Ahara immediately shifted from focused to jumpy. She slightly bowed her head in respect, a rather quirky smile on her lips.
"Good morning, Princess."
Eden visibility cringed, her hands waving for Ahara to stop. "Please, stop doing that. It makes me cringe when those older than me bow their heads."
Ahara immediately raised her head to face her, her eyes glued on the girl like she was her idol.
"Sorry," she blurted out, and Damien tugged at her shirt.
"You said you wouldn't embarrass me," he whispered through gritted teeth.
"She's the fucking princess you idiot. How am I supposed to keep my cool in front of royalty? Only X-ranked heroes can meet with them casually, you know."
"I don't care, stop acting like an idiot in front of a potential friend, or I'll return you inside."
"Says the guy wearing hospital pajamas in public," Ahara retorted.
As if he just noticed he's wearing them, Damien raised his head and smiled awkwardly at Eden, pulling the hem of the large shirt as if that'd make it disappear.
To his dismay, Eden seemed to have heard the conversation going on between him and Ahara because she snickered, before a contagious laugh filled the air the next moment as she used one of her guards as a pillar:
"You didn't remove them?" She asked, the guard she was resting on catching her giggles as he began silently laughing too.
Then they all joined in. Ahara too.
She laughed at her brother, along with Eden, who pointed at him as if to notify the passersby of his mortifying error.
"That's enough already," Damien pleaded, his eyes darting to the smiling strangers a distance away as a blush threatened to show on his light brown skin.
"Sorry. It's just…I didn't picture you as a dumb one," Eden cracked, moving away from her guard.
"Says the girl who left her purse in the hospital room," Damien subconsciously blurted out, covering his chest.
Then Eden stilled, looking at her hands.
"Oh my goodness, I left my purse on the bed!" She cried out, and immediately the words left her lips, one of the guards dashed in the hospital entrance's direction.
Now it was Damien's turn to laugh.
He wheezed, choked, and even teared up, savoring the sweet taste of a vengeful laugh until Ahara lightly slapped his back and stopped him from laughing.
"Never laugh at a woman's suffering, especially if she's royalty," she preached, her eyes darting back at Eden as if to make her notice she was taking her side.
Finally, the guard showed up with the small bag and gave it to the princess, who breathed a sigh of relief, rummaging her belongings before turning to Damien.
"Thanks for the heads up."
"You're welcome," Damien replied, still glancing around to see if anyone else had noticed he was still wearing pajamas.
"They don't care what you're wearing since you're a patient at the hospital, but you can't leave while wearing them. They're jinxed."
"Jinxed?" Damien snapped his neck at Eden, and she nodded.
"Yeah. It's a whole new lesson I'll have to teach you once we make it to Gibforge. For now, just go and change."
Damien glanced at Ahara, who immediately turned on her heel, taking his hand as they headed back inside the hospital.
"We'll be back once he's properly dressed," she notified the princess, a contented grin showing on her lips.
Once they were out of earshot, she finally let out the words she had been dying to say to her brother all along:
"Do you know how lucky you are to have met her on your first day here?"
And just like that, Damien knew he was in for a long session of explanations before they would finally return to meet with Eden.
*****
By the time he was done changing, Damien's brain was steaming from all the fan girl shit Ahara had spewed to him whilst he was changing.
She had told him how much she admired Eden's mom, the Vampire queen, and how she and the Dragon lord were the strongest members of the quartet that ruled over Gibbous.
She had also told him how much she wanted to become an X-ranked hero just so she could shake the queen's hand during her inauguration ceremony, because the vampire queen had been her role model since she was five.
The worship even got to a point where Ahara asked him to get an autograph from her once he reached her palace as if it was something simpler than breathing.
She's the Vampire Queen, damnit! The Queen!
"Oh, and make sure you mention my name whilst you're there, just in case she remembers the Numen," Ahara whispered when they were making their way down the corridor, tugging at his arm so he could tilt his head and be able to hear her clearly.
"Yes, yes. Anything else you want me to tell her?"
"Yes! A ton of shit about my heroic acts. How I raised you so well, you turned into this fine boy who managed to seduce her daughter at first sight."
"Oh my goodness. You know what?" Damien grabbed her hands, making her stop in her tracks.
"How about you just let this flow naturally, then when Eden and I become friends in the future, I'll ask her to come to our house with her mom and you get to spend time with her, hmm?"
Ahara's mouth flew wide open, the grin stretching to the corners of her eyes. She grabbed Damien's shoulders and started shaking him nonstop.
"You genius. I can't believe I didn't think about that!"
"Good idea, right?" Damien answered, his voice shaky from all the push and pull Ahara was performing on him.
"Perfect. It's perfect, Damien!"
"Good. Now stop behaving like a plotting thief against her daughter and start behaving more like my guardian. After all, I need Eden to trust me if we're going to be calling her mother in the near future."
That managed to make Ahara chill. She cleared her throat, removed the too-bright-to-chill beam on her face, and became more like her usual self again.
'Perfect,' Damien thought, allowing her to lead the way towards the princess. Ahara had already checked him out at the reception whilst he was changing, so they were fine to go now.
The moment they reached Eden and the guards, she let out a loud sigh.
"What took you so long? My legs are beginning to hurt, you know."
"A loud fan girl in the corridors," Damien replied, glancing at Ahara's forehead.
"Ugh, they're the worst. They won't stop yapping no matter how many times you comply with them."
Ahara's cheeks turned red at the insult, and Damien fought a smirk from showing.
"Anyways, now that you're done, shall we go?"
"I'll need your aura in my oblong first. Or you take mine," Ahara spoke, her voice now normal as she pulled out a small tablet from her pockets.
Damien glanced between the oblong and her, seemingly shocked that she had one.
"Where did you hide this all this time?" He asked his sister.
"I didn't bring it home," Ahara explained, handing the tablet to one of Eden's guards, who placed it on his palm as it began glowing.
"I left it here in Gibbous in my room to avoid you getting suspicious."
"Oh," Damien replied, wondering what would have happened to Ahara that night if Kaos hadn't tricked the two of them, but before his thoughts could drift further into the abyss, one of Eden's guards cleared his throat.
"Done," he announced, returning her oblong.
Damien immediately snapped himself back to reality. There was no need to go back into the past now.
Ahara was safe, and so was he.
Now he had to look into the future and try to find a way to keep her from danger while also managing to protect himself from harm, for he was no longer in the peaceful world that he was once accustomed to.
Even Twiller had said it himself, that the beings here are natural predators and weakness is considered a taboo.
Right now, Damien was the taboo, and there was only one way to be considered normal:
'I have to level up,' he thought to himself, watching as one of Eden's guards took out what looked like a small urn before sprinkling its contents in his hands.
Once he was satisfied with the amount, he tossed it on the ground and immediately, a blue fire erupted from it, burning high up the ground as if being fueled by the air. Then a portal like the ones on the arcs showed, except this one was black.
Immediately after it opened, Ahara pulled Damien into a tight hug.
"Make sure you notify me once you're done, okay. I'll come and pick you up then."
Then she let him go and waved, just when he felt soft hands wrapping around his. Turning, he noticed Eden beside him, a smile on her face.
"Ready for the most exciting experience in your life?"
Damien glanced at the portal, then at Ahara, before finally taking a large breath. Then he nodded, his expression hardening as he braced himself for whatever lay ahead of this new place he was going to.
"Yes. I'm ready when you are."
The grin of Eden's face widened. "Now that's what I like to hear."