Chương 42: Reunion Day

It's been a few days since the photoshoot. June's time in the nightrealm had been rather uneventful, if one could consider living in a castle and dining with royalty as uneventful.

June had been spending a lot more time with the royal family than he thought he would; he assumed the dinner would be a one-and-done type thing, and then he would be assigned residence somewhere away from the castle or even in the servant's dormitories, but to his surprise, the King gave him a guest room that was reserved for potential suitors. Basically, June was assigned to the room where the princess and a prince who were recently married would have… a nice time?

Luckily for June, as weird as the room's original purpose was, it hadn't been used in well over a decade or two, and most of the furniture from those decades was either replaced or repurposed in different rooms, so he was able to sleep on a comfortable bed not having to worry about any mystery stains. His apprenticeship hadn't started yet, but the royal family had been incredibly welcoming to June, which worried him a bit since his second home not long ago was destroyed by an incomprehensible beast.

Nonetheless, June enjoyed conversing with the family. It's only been a week in the nightrealm since he first met them, but he had gotten closer to all of them over the past few days.

The kings loved to tinker, so sometimes June would be invited to tinker along and create fun inventions with them, The Queen enjoyed knitting in her spare time, and occasionally June would join her and learn to knit, he has been working on a nice scarf for Lilia, the twin brothers also occasionally got into trouble and would hide from Mortimer in June's room, they even started calling him older brother, as endearing as it was it felt a little weird considering the twins were both seventeen, it was only a three year age difference, but he started to feel old.

The three of Lilias elder sisters were also the three oldest of the siblings, with Lilia being the second middle child of six.

One was really into archery and had taught June some tips and tricks, another was really into researching magics, so June occasionally popped by to make sure she ate, he would sometimes even help if she needed an assistant, the third and eldest was very interested in crafts, she's been in a pottery craze recently, but she often toiled trying to one up her old man in his own workshop and would sometimes help June with his own inventions.

Weirdly enough, despite getting so close to the family, Lilia was a bit distant; she still stared holes into June when he wasn't looking, but neither of her selves tried to approach him other than the occasional brush by.

June had a feeling she felt guilty, in fact, that's what the new scent he smelt from her was, or that was some sort of rose scented perfume, but June was pretty sure she was feeling a bit guilty due to Mortimer almost killing him, and now she was in a weird spot since the person who almost killed him was now his affectionate teacher. It was all too confusing, but it was a problem for another day.

Today, June was in a conundrum of his own; he was invited to meet up with friends, he had refused their invites two separate times since his awakening, and they were starting to get worried since the pre-nightrealm June tended to have some depressive tendencies. So he was invited on an outing with his friends to do some Mother's Day shopping. Normally, June would get her a card or just something to eat, but he didn't have a job, not to mention his situation wasn't considered stable.

But this Mother's Day, he had a job, maybe he would be able to get her something nice this time, other than a cheap postcard. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. So June got ready in his new finest clothing; his old favorites were long gone. He simply got ready with the set he wore when doing the final photoshoot, he put on his new set of aviators, which he also got from the photoshoot, and went to get his letterman jacket.

'Oh' June had forgotten to ask Lilia to return it to him; he sometimes saw her wearing the jacket and walking around in the garden when no one else was around. She had some sort of sub-space magic that she tossed it into whenever someone approached, so June was torn between wanting to ask her to return it and envying the jacket for being with her 24/7.

One of the reasons he was excited to see his friends today was to ask for love advice; after all, among his friends, he was the one with the least dating or even love experience. Even Fin, who was a busybody at heart, had a first love that he now adamantly refuses to talk about.

June felt a bit chilly going outside without his jacket, similar to his sunglasses, June used to be incredibly fixated on always keeping his jacket on, maybe it was out of insecurity or the idea that he would be able to survive superficial wounds if he was attacked, but after June became a Dreamer, that need disappeared.

His current outfit was a very 2000s look; he wore a sling pouch, a sepia pair of pants that were baggier near the bottom, a nice pair of midnight purple Chuck Taylor shoes with white shoelaces and outsoles.

He wore a plain white shirt underneath and had a white and beige plaid buttoned-up shirt that was a size too large, open to the breeze; his hair was tied into a bun, and of course, to top it all off, he had his sunglasses and the bracelet shade gifted to him, not to mention the revenant taking the form of a bracelet too. It was a weird endeavor to bring items back and forth in the nightrealm.

It was often considered a pointless waste to bother trying too; there were plenty of ways to do so, but they were specifically only viable if a Dreamer did so. June had his own roundabout way of bringing accessories back and forth, and that was to assimilate them into his body. June didn't assimilate the boss's aviators just yet, since he wanted permission from Shade and Julian before he made it a part of himself permanently. June took his regular route to the mall complex where Lilia, Mortimer, and he met.

'Good times' In reality, it had only been four days since Mortimer, and he had their friendly disagreement. The only issue was that the time dilation when being in the nightrealm compared to the waking realm was a little jarring.

June could spend seven days in the nightrealm, and that would only be around seventy minutes in the real one, so sometimes, after June wakes up, he needs to contemplate and remember something he did the previous day in the waking realm, because to him it may have been a week or even a month. June did have a journal, but he always failed to write in it consistently.

Mortimer had informed June that the distortion around the massacre he had imposed on Lilias attackers was a form of magic that separated reality and made an area into an effective clone; it wasn't particularly difficult to accomplish according to Mortimer, but his standards were sometimes completely unrealistic. The damage to the roof, on the other hand, required that wing of the mall to be closed off since it was outside the subspace. Well, June didn't have to worry about it. Mortimer has it handled.

The bus pulled into the station that was connected to the mall. As much as he valued the memories and enhancements he achieved four days ago, he also wanted to find Lilia's attackers. A few things made him seethe, but June felt excited thinking about finding the people who targeted Lilia and wrapping their entrails into a pretty bow.

'What a psychotic thought? Maybe I should really invest in a therapist finally… I mean, I can afford it now.' June had to wander around a little, but he eventually saw his friends from afar. They didn't seem to recognize him until Fin approached June with a dap. June had asked Fin to make an appearance to help his friends adjust to his new look. June understood Fin was a busy guy, but he was more than touched to hear that his friend would take a day off from his summer classes to help him out.

'I'll pay you back one day, man.' The long-awaited reunion begins; hopefully, nothing happens.