It had been 20 minutes since they had left Quinn's nursing office. They had been traversing the elegantly beautiful halls of the Black Sword Clan, which despite the name had a very pretty color palette, with only the clothes and the doors of the clan being black. After some time of silently walking around, Ivan had honestly felt uneasy.  

He wanted to talk to Mau, but every time he attempted, he immediately chickened out. He wanted to make a good impression on Mau in case they ended up being under the same teacher, but found himself really nervous around him. Mau seemed to have been very irritated with him not long ago, and he couldn't tell why. He had just apologized, and maybe he shouldn't have done that. 

This made Ivan unsure about how he should interact with Mau, out of fear of accidentally upsetting him. So he stayed silent and hoped that maybe Mau would start some type of conversation. Unfortunately, that did not happen any time soon. They soon found themselves approaching a long hallway that led to a dead end housing a large, beautifully decorated black door that looked as if it was the entrance to a castle. 

This was Lady Sarin's space in the clan, which was basically a huge condo with five large rooms. This is where Mau was supposed to stay. It was time for them to part soon, and Ivan knew he would have to speak to Mau to inform him about this. But before he could, he received a notification in the spaces from Mr. Leonard. 

 

[spaces]

Leading teacher: Change of plans, my sister  Ms. Sarin seems to not want to house young Mau anymore after I recently informed her through the spaces of his gender, in fear of him distracting her disciples.

Ivan: Typing...

Ivan: Yes, teacher, I understand. May I ask where I should take him now that he's no longer able to stay with Sarin? 

Leading teacher: Just make your way back to the estate. I'll be heading back there a little later to greet our new guests, so be a good host. I've sent a car, and it should be there in around 5 minutes.

Ivan: Yes, teacher. 

Should I tell him? What if he gets mad at me again? Or maybe he'll smile at me like he did in Nurse Quinn's office? Ivan thought to himself. 

Ivan shook his head as his cheeks started to glow pink ever so slightly. He continued to walk and turned his head towards the front of the clan so they could leave the building. Mau was confused because it seemed as if they were going to walk down the hall leading to the big door before Ivan stopped for a minute, before turning and heading in the opposite direction. Mau didn't care too much, as he had been lost in thought the majority of the time, going over his current situation and the offer he received. He wasn't really worried too much about talking to Ivan since he hadn't said anything to him since they left Quinn's room. 

 He thought it was because Ivan found it unnecessary, and just followed him without a second thought until they made it to where they were headed. So, he didn't really think too deeply into Ivan's actions. He wanted to trust his savior, so he just went back to deep thought as the two of them made their way towards the front of the clan. 

[10 min later ]

 Um I'm sorry i acted like that, you wanna start over. 

After Mau had briefly gone off on Ivan, he decided it was necessary to apologize and change the way he had been acting. It wasn't very appropriate. And Mau was right - it's not okay to just have someone walking around and following you without informing them on what is going on, if not just a little bit. 

Even though Mau knew they were taking him somewhere to stay, that's really all he knew. And that definitely isn't good - in any case, especially with how long they had been walking around. 

 Sure, I'm sorry for kinda going off on you a little bit. I was a little frustrated. 

 No, it's fine. I was acting very unbecoming, and I deserved it.

After Ivan had apologized, he then pondered on how he would start up a normal conversation. It seemed that Mau didn't like the lack of communication they were having, so he decided to engage in some small talk. Since he was curious about the life of a recluse, he asked him simple things around the topic and personal questions.  

what was it like

 huh? Mau said  with a confused  face.

"You know, being a recluse," Ivan said in his usual dull tone, although he was secretly a little nervous. 

"Oh, it was scary, but I enjoyed being out in nature. It feels natural to me. This was not a complete lie, but Mau couldn't tell him the truth mostly because who would believe it." 

"Oh, okay. Have you ever been outside of the forest before?"

 "No." 

"Right. Do you miss your teacher?" 

"Of course, I do. But there's nothing I can do. He's gone, and I will never be able to see him again." 

"Oh, I'm sorry for bringing that up. That was insensitive of me. Please accept my apology." 

"You're fine. Wow, you sure do apologize a lot! Haha, you're strange." 

"Oh, do you not like it when I apologize? I don't mean to offend you, so... I mean, my bad." 

"That's still an apology, Ivan. And no, I'm not offended by it. I just don't think you should apologize for everything. I'm not so sensitive that you need to constantly worry whether or not I'm offended by every little thing you say or do. This was kind of true, but he  also felt bad because he was lying to , Ivan." 

"Of course not, I'd never think something like that. I hope that isn't how I came across. That was never my intention. 

I know that's how it feels when you're constantly apologizing to me. It makes me feel kind of bad as well that I'm making you feel like you have to do that." 

Ivan was about to apologize again but stopped himself. Lucky for him, they had made it to the front door of the clan and were making their exit, so he could now naturally change the topic out of the necessity of needing to escort him to the hover car to begin making their way towards Leonard's estate.

  As they exited the building, Ivan saw a familiar face standing in front of a black Sapphire metallic hover car waiting for his passengers to arrive. This person was one of Leonard's attendants and he was also one of the stronger ones, just one realm under Leonard, who was a Heavenly Realm cultivator in the mid-stage. This attendant was very handsome. He had slightly pale skin, a chiseled jawline, beautiful hazel eyes, a thick beard and mustache, and a toned body.

 He had on a tight-fitting  uniform which was a white button-up with a black tie and slacks. The reason he was so familiar with this man was that, along with being his teacher's most trusted subordinate, he was also the main person to escort him and his teacher to their estate whenever they needed a ride somewhere. 

Hello, young sir. Please allow me to open the doors so you may enter the hover car." 

"No problem, Mr. Alban." 

They commenced to enter the vehicle. The doors had slid upwards allowing them to enter the hover car. Ivan allowed Mau in the entrance and soon followed in after him. The seats in the hover car were very thick and comfortable. The color palette inside the hover car was red and black." 

There were five seats in total, not counting the driver and passenger seats, and every  seat had a holographic screen in front of them. It was very spacious in the hover car, which wasn't surprising since the hover car was huge. There was also a big black table in front of the three connected seats in the back of the hover car, while the two seats not too far from the driver and passenger seats had two small individual tables in front of their seats.

 The tables were actually where the holographic screens were actually projecting from. Mau decided to take a seat in one of the chairs towards the front, and Ivan decided to sit in the chair next to him.

As Ivan was sitting down, he watched as the little cat boy looked at all the technology on the hover car with amazement. Ivan's face warmed up quite a bit before he decided to make some more conversation with Mau. He really wanted to get to know Mau, so he could understand him more, and he knew his teacher would  be happy to see them get  alone." 

"Um, so is this your first time in a hover car?"

 Ivan already knew the answer to the question but couldn't think of a better question to ask to start a conversation between the two.

 "Yes, it's really cool here. If I become Leonard's disciple, will I get to ride in these a lot?" Mau said in an excited tone.  He honestly already had information about the hover car in his head but he still found everything about it amazing and would love to ride in it as much as possible. 

"Yeah, of course. 

You want to know how the space Griffith works." 

"Huh

Mau honestly didn't know what he had just said or what he was referring to. Although he had a lot of information on the current world he was in, he didn't have everything. He only really had information on things that were imperative for his survival and any information outside of that was very little, but he had some, but not a lot."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm talking about the holographic screen in front of you, being transmitted from that black table." 

"Oh sure."

"Ivan was happy to receive this reply because honestly, he didn't really know what else to talk about and he was really nervous. Technology was something he actually had somewhat of a passion for, and talking about and studying it was his comfort zone, so along with using it as a way to start a conversation, he also used it to calm his nerves."

"Oh, okay. 

"This particular space Griffith  works as an entertainment center of sorts, mainly used for gaming, TV, and searching the web. It's touch-automated, so all you have to do to start using it is swipe at the screen." 

Ivan didn't stop there. He also started going on about the more technical and complicated parts about the space Griffith but stopped when he saw the confused look on Mau's face.

"Um, so, uhhh, do you want to ask me anything?" Ivan said with a surprisingly nervous tone.

"Um, sure. Do you like being Leonard's disciple?"

"Of course. Teacher is one of the strongest leads in the clan, and he's also way kinder than your average black sword member. The black sword clan is a clan of ruthless assassins, so kindness is hard to come by in it, and honestly, if not for him, I probably would have never become a member."

"Mau was now really curious about this answer and wanted to know a little more but didn't want to pry, so he kept his next question simple."

"Where did you and your teacher meet?" 

"Ivan was silent. He didn't want to answer this question out of fear of what Mau would think of him. It's not something he should be embarrassed about, but he wanted to look good in front of Mau. However, he answered anyway since Mau did say he could ask him a question.

"I met Teacher when I was a slave two years ago. My master at the time was a very powerful person who had many enemies. Teacher was hired to assassinate him. When he did, he released a lot of his slaves, but only kept me because he sensed my potential in cultivation."

"Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't have to tell me that if you didn't want to," Ivan said with sympathy. He didn't expect Ivan to have such a tragic past. This world truly was cruel."

"It's fine. I wanted to answer your question. I just hope you don't think any less of me," Ivan replied.

"Of course not. You saved my life. I would be dead if it wasn't for you, brother Ivan," Mau said sincerely.

Ivan was surprised that Mau was offended by what he said. He wanted to apologize but knew he would get annoyed, so he just nodded his head.

"Ivan, are you okay? Your cheeks have been turning red a lot. If you're catching a fever, you should really let someone know," Mau said, concerned.

Ivan looked away as his cheeks got even redder. If smoke could come out his ears, it would be right now.

"No, I'm fine. Don't worry. If anything is wrong, I can just take a healing potion," Ivan assured him.

"Ok.

Mau had a big smile on his face, which made him resemble an innocent little house cat. Ivan fought the urge to rub his head with all his willpower.

"Um, so have you decided if you wanted to become a disciple of Sir Leonard?" Ivan asked.

"Not really, but I think I'll be able to make my decision once I have another talk with Mr. Leonard," Mau replied.

After getting Mau's answer, Ivan nodded his head. Alban then informed them that they were five minutes away from their destination. Ivan decided to text his teacher to find out which room in the estate would be best to give to Mau. However, the answer he got made him believe it was actually possible for steam to come out of his ears.