The job at the Library was able to distract Wish from the questions that plagued her mind. Despite her mental breakdown, the world still needs to function, and work needs to be done. Every time Wish felt like she had a breakthrough, she’d go to Gwadeweido for a session. But after many rejections, it was hard for the attendant to do her job anymore. In fact, she found little to no motivation to get up from bed at all. She laid there, staring at the familiar scene of her childhood that she can only vaguely recall, and watched as the days just passed by. Sometimes she would fall asleep and have dreams that she would soon forget upon awakening; but most of the time, it was just her blanked out, lying still on the bed.  

Just when she was thinking that this may be how she’ll spend the rest of her eternal days in the Realms, she received a call on her phone. Wish mustered up the strength to pull herself to her bedside and pressed the button to accept the call, but then she laid back down again to listen. 

“...Hello? Wish?” Adeina spoke up when she heard no greetings from the attendant. “...Right, um… I need your help with something. If you can, is it alright for you to help out a fellow neighbor that just moved in? Show her the basics and help her adapt.” 

Wish heard what was being said, and couldn’t help but to groan at the idea of leaving her room; Not a bone in her body wanted to move. Still, she understood the task. She stared at the ceiling, feeling her mind being stuck on whether or not she should answer Adeina or just remain silent. To take on the task and lend a hand, or let the new neighbor figure everything out themselves. Her thoughts felt like swimming through thick water, she had no energy to dive deeper into different scenarios or possibilities. 

“W-well, if you can’t do it, I understand. Don’t worry about it then.” Adeina eventually said after the long silence. The call was hung up, and the room returned to its original silence. 

The call didn’t do much to get the depressed woman motivated, but it did spark a thought in her mind: “Distraction.” Perhaps helping someone else can redirect her focus away from her own problems. With that thought firmly planted in her brain, Wish sat up and walked over to the door to open it. 

The first thing she did after greeting the outside world was to take a deep breath. She missed the fresh air, and her body knows it. Already, it was feeling less heavy to lift her feet up to walk. 

It was a bit of a hassle to use her senses to detect where Adeina was exactly, but Wish was relieved that it was a skill she didn’t lose. It would be an annoyance if she had to regain that ability all over again. The same could be said about her ability to manifest a box of cigarettes. Knowing that it may take some time to find her boss, Wish thought to herself and placed a cigarette in her mouth as she stowed the rest away in her pocket. Another manifestation formed in her hand as she brought it up to her mouth, a flick of her thumb against a cheap lighter to burn the end of the cig.  

She followed her boss’ trail of essence and found her way towards the woman. The closer she was to Adeina, the more her essence was mixed with someone else’s. Someone with a heavy and stuffy aura. As Wish walked closer, discarding her manifested cigarette, her head tilted to the side to see who was standing behind the woman dressed in red. 

It was a man- No, a female with masculine attire, dressed like a servant of some kind. They opened the door to their room in the Realms. The woman wore a crimson red dress-shirt, white tie, and dress pants with suspenders.

Wish focused on the newcomer, trying to get a good idea of who she was. The heavy and stuffy feeling from before was now understood as seriousness, but that was just a front for protection. Wish could feel the fragile center, already having obvious cracks; like a thin glass orb, barely being held together, and the stoic attitude is the last line of defense. 

“Um… You may enter.” Adeina then said to the person after noticing that the guard was just standing there beside her, waiting for the next instruction. “This will be your room from now on. You may get used to it for as long as you like, and then return to work.”

Wish took another step further, wanting to peek into the room to see how it looks. That caught the attention of Adeina, who turned with delight at first, but then shocked at the sight of her. 

“Wish! Y-Your beautiful long hair!” Adeina gasped at the sight. She spoke with her hands over her mouth, absolutely shocked by what she saw.

“Doesn’t matter. What did you want?” Wish replied in a monotone voice. Her gaze was as dead as her spirit. She didn’t even bother to recall what her boss had mentioned in the call, only the fact that she was summoned by the woman. 

“Right, yes- um…” Adeina then looked to the servant-like woman, and then back to Wish. “So, this, here, is Miao.” She introduced. The new neighbor stepped up and took a bow upon being mentioned. “I’d like you to be her caretaker in the Realms. At least for now, until she’s used to everything.” Adeina sighed as quietly as she could. She had heard from a colleague that Wish was feeling down and sad, but she didn’t expect it to be this bad.

“…Okay?” Wish looked at this ‘Miao’ with a troubled gaze. She could feel a unique essence that was mixed with the neighbor’s own scent. Gwadeweido. Making her believe their arrival to the Realms was similar. The blonde could feel the instinctive emotions emerging in the woman’s mind as she respectfully stared back at her. ‘Confusion’, ‘disappointment’, ‘unexpected’, ‘shabby-looking’, ‘pathetic’, but those thoughts were pushed aside as the more positive thoughts took their place ‘hidden gem’, ‘talented but not perfect’, ‘worth giving a chance’, ‘don’t judge too harshly’. 

Though it irked the attendant at first, Wish knew she had no one to blame but herself. She couldn’t be bothered to dress herself properly before answering Adeina’s call, and this depressed appearance was all she had to show to this newcomer. Taking a deep breath to swallow her unhappiness, she tried to endure the rest of this conversation. 

“Miao, this is Wish. She is a Session Attendant working in the Library, the same island as you.” The woman dressed in red explained, turning one last time towards the guard. “After you allow people into the Library, she will be one of the many people that will take over to guide and supervise them through the session.” 

That explanation alone told Wish everything she wanted to know. This person is going to be the newest guardian of the southern entrance to the Library. Now it was Wish that was judging this woman, looking up and down at how scrawny she is compared to the previous guards. She had serious doubts that this person can even last for three days. 

“Understood.” Miao responded with a light bow once more. 

“Right. I’ll leave you to it then!” Adeina clapped her hands together, trying to use her cheerful tone to bring the mood back up. But very quickly afterwards, she walked off, wanting to just leave the scene. It was clear to Wish that the woman didn’t know how to deal with Miao, for whatever uninteresting reason.

Seconds passed and things were silent between the two, with Miao awaiting instructions and directions, and Wish was utterly uncaring about the awkwardness and silence between them. She could feel the new guard’s thoughts, like piercing worms, coiling in her mind; the acceptance of her unfortunate death, the unfinished hopes and dreams she had left behind, the hidden guilt, and... murder? Wish watched as Miao was struggling to mentally tear the thoughts away from her mind to no avail. 

It was Miao that decided to speak up and break the silence. “Pardon me, may you kindly point me to…” The woman was about to ask about any local public activities she might enjoy, but then stopped herself as the negative judgments of Wish came flooding back into her mind. 

Wish rolled her eyes, watching the woman walk into her room to retrieve something. She took the opportunity to peer into the room, and saw a fancy study space covered in crimson red wallpaper. No bed was in sight, but there was a long sofa in the middle of the room and bookshelves that lined the walls. There were also different crafts such as an easel, violin, chess board, and even a telescope; it would make one wonder how many talents the woman had. 

Wish’s gaze shifted back to Miao when she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. With a comb in her hand, she took a seat on the flat stones of a nearby flower garden.

“Please, come sit down with me.” Miao spoke gently to the blonde, patting the seat beside her. Wish hesitated at first, but eventually decided to pull herself over to the guard. The guard adjusted her position a bit before starting to comb and straighten the attendant’s hair. No words were spoken between them, just silence, the surrounding nature, and the sound of hair being brushed. 

Wish pondered what the woman did before death. A servant was her top guess, but she also considered the possibility of her being a nanny. 

When the hair was untangled, Miao then went ahead to straighten the attendant’s clothing for her, making her as presentable as possible. Wish quietly watched, not really caring for her appearance, but she was feeling a slight sense of comfort from the supposed pampering. The woman was skilled at this, there’s no doubt. 

“Allow me to escort you back to your room.” Miao then said, standing up straight and proper, arms behind her back. 

Wish looked up at the guard, watching as the habits and professionalism of the old life come back to her like a second instinct. She was admittedly jealous, wondering if it was that easy for everyone else but her. She pulled herself up and pointed down the hallway that led to her room. The guard walked behind her, swiftly and quietly. 

When Wish arrived at her doorstep, she carelessly opened the door widely. It didn’t matter if Miao saw what her room looked like, especially if she had already seen how much of a mess she was in person. The attendant’s room was just as chaotic as her appearance. The floor was littered with items that should be placed on the tables and shelves. Dust had piled up in the corners of the room, papers were on the floor and sandwiched between the boxes that littered every possible segment of her living space. Wish even noticed, when she entered the room, that it had a bit of a musty smell. 

Miao bit her lip as she saw the chaos that was left unmanaged for who knows how long. The thoughts were radiating from her so strongly, Wish could practically hear them. ‘As the butler of the Redcrown Mansion, I was never allowed for things to be left unattended long enough for it to look like this.’ The attendant looked back to her and tilted her head, eyeing Miao from head to toe, wondering what use a former butler would have as a guard of the southern Library entrance. The more she thought about it, the more sure she was of Miao’s short stay in the guardian position. 

“May I enter?” The woman spoke softly as she turned to look at Wish, willingly stepping back into her old life’s shoes, fulfilling the role that she was most familiar with during her service.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” The attendant rolled her eyes and stared into white space on her ceiling. She was already exhausted from having to do so much already on such low motivation and energy. Miao could clearly tell that she was exhausted, but she didn’t pry. Wish manifests a cigarette and a lighter, wanting to quell the urge to smoke again to relax herself. 

The guard lightly stepped into the room and gave it a good look, only to confirm that the place indeed was a mess. “May I touch your things?” She turned to Wish once more, asking another question. 

This time, the blonde woman became a bit defensive. The lighted cig in her hand dissolved through, burning it into ashes within a second. “For what?” Wish lowly growled, not wanting anyone to poke around her private space. “What do you want?” 

“I’d like to get to know you more.” Miao explained, being careful not to push too hard to the point where she gets on the woman’s bad side. 

Wish let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the wall. “Don’t bother.” The words came out with her breath. “I’m not that interesting, I’m not special, I don’t have mystical super powers. There’s no spiritual reason I’m assigned to take care of you, it’s just because I’m the only one that works in the Library that has been absent for a long while, and they are trying to get me to… I don’t know, do something.” She was forced to think about what her purpose was, in her past life and in the Realms; and there was no will to seek an answer to it. Still, Miao looked to Wish, her soft gaze not leaving the rambling woman for even a split second.