Ed walked out into the hallway with a tired look on his face. He had just finished checking in on all of the interns under his control, and it was honestly exhausting.

Out of all of them, only Masami easy to deal with and explain things to. She had struggled with it, but she found a way to cope with everything, and Ed’s encouragement seemed to give her enough reason to keep going and to push back her problems.

Belle had been hit too hard by watching someone die, and she still hadn’t recovered from it yet. Ed guessed that if things kept going like this and she couldn’t get her act together, then she would not be able to pass the internship. Meaning she would die.

It’s fine. Buddie shouldn’t punish me just because one person didn’t pass. At least, it shouldn’t be too bad. Ed figured that as long as he got a few good seeds, Buddie wouldn’t treat him too badly. Of course, he wasn’t certain of this, given how Buddie has treated him before, but he knew that it wouldn’t be on the level of some things he had experienced before.

As for the rest of the interns, they had the exact opposite problem that Belle had. They were too excited and too eager to do their jobs. Jacob hid his desires well, being far calmer than the other two, but Ed could still see through him.

Mathew and Roman didn’t even try to hide it. Both of them were having far too much fun doing this. Mathew treated it like an act of revenge, even though he was just subjecting others to the same torture he went through. And Roman treated it like he had become a god and could let out all of his most twisted fantasies and desires.

It was draining trying to talk to them. Ed had hope that Mathew would eventually calm down and listen to reason, and that he would be able to convince Mathew to use his new found power for good.

But he had little to no hope that he would be able to convince Roman to do the same thing. He decided that he would just go through the motions with Roman and be done with him once this whole internship thing was over.

Passing through the door, he directly entered Zara’s apartment, where he saw her sitting on the couch reading a book. It was the same book he had gotten from Urdhuri. The one that was an encyclopedia of all living creatures.

Taking his shoes off, he went and sat down next to her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she leant on his shoulder. He noticed that she was reading a page on angels. “Found anything interesting?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Kinda. I’m just reading this to learn a bit more about my ancestors, Aside from our origin and some of our traits, it doesn’t really tell me anything specific about them. Still good to figure out more about myself and my people though,” she said, her eyes still focused on the book.

“That’s true.” He ran his hand through her hair, taking this moment to wind down after everything at work. It was nice to just sit with her and read. He didn’t have to go out or talk to people he barely knew. He felt comfortable here.

Zara eventually peeled her eyes away from the book and looked up at him. “Have you thought about going back to Earth for a bit?”

“Of course, I really want to go back and visit my grandpa. He hasn’t heard from me in so long, and I’m worried about him,” he said.

“Then let’s take a vacation. We can meet your grandpa, then I can take you to visit my family,” Zara said, excitement and eagerness bubbling out of her. She really wanted to bring Ed back to meet her parents.

Ed was stunned still by her eagerness. He hadn’t thought about this before. Ed had been with Zara for a while now, and she was one of the few reasons he could keep going in this world. Now that she had brought up something as serious as meeting her parents, he didn’t know what to do.

It was something completely mundane and trivial when compared to everything he had experienced in the past several months. But to him, this was a very serious and important moment.

“Are you sure that you want to do this now?” he asked “We haven’t been together for that long. I don’t even know much about your parents.” He was now thinking about what he should do and say when he met them. What gifts should I bring?

“Of course I’m sure. I really want you to meet them.” Her words caused him to ease up a bit. They smiled at each other. “So when do you want to meet them? Do you want to go right now?”

“You know everything that’s happened recently. Buddie probably won’t allow me to go on vacation right now. Besides, I don’t have the money for it, my account is still frozen,” Ed admitted honestly, sad that he had to say no to Zara after getting her hopes up. He looked at her, expecting her to be a little disappointed or sad, but she was still smiling.

“That’s okay. We can wait until the internship is over. I’ll cover the costs of everything, and you can just pay me back when you get your money back.”

Her words comforted Ed greatly. Now he actually had something to look forward to, no matter how nervous it made him feel. “So it’s going to happen then? I’ll be meeting your parents in ten days?”

“Hey, why are you so nervous? They’re just ordinary people. You’ll be fine.” She poked him in the belly, making him groan. She put the book down on the table and the two went to bed. “I’m the one that should be nervous. What’s your grandfather like?”