Edited by: ASaltedFish
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The next day, Orin and Darya went back to their old apartment to pack and move their belongings to Orin and Ellery's childhood home.
As for Edros and Akimitsu, they stayed the night at Ellery and Juniper's estate. Since they stayed often, they had their own rooms with clothes and toiletries.
After eating breakfast, Ellery, Juniper, Edros, and Akimitsu made their way to the palace, where they stopped by the Residency Office. Even though they were in contact with this office, going in person was necessary to verify his identity before he could get his terminal with his identification information on it.
After seeing Juniper, with the mark of the Beast God, and with Ellery, who was carrying the crystal orb, and Akimitsu and Edros, they did not give him a hard time and processed his information quickly. Once his identification was in place, they brought him to the back of the office to insert the terminal into his arm.
The procedure was quick and painless, which made sure Juniper didn't even notice the terminal in his arm. Once they confirmed that it was bound to him and could activate, Juniper was good to leave the office.
Juniper finally had a terminal and an official ID stating that he was a citizen of the Zevaria Empire.
"Let's go to Emperor Eliane." Akimitsu ushered everyone out of the Residency Office. "She's been messaging me like crazy, asking where we are and when we will come to see her."
Emperor Eliane knew that Edros would not text her back in a timely manner, so she always bothered Akimitsu.
Everyone obediently left the office and made their way to Emperor Eliane's study without interruptions.
When Akimitsu opened the door, Emperor Eliane and Empress Iris were standing near the couches, waiting for them.
"My dear little brother and my sister in law!" Emperor teasingly brought Juniper and Edros into a hug, rubbing her left cheek against Juniper's.
Juniper felt goosebumps shiver down his spine and wanted to run, but Eliane's grip on him was tight.
Edros noticed his discomfort immediately and shoved Eliane's face away from Juniper's. Then, with Eliane caught off guard, he moved Juniper to stand behind him, protecting him from his older sister.
"I didn't know you could be so rough against me after finding a little husband. You know, I am so offended."
She went to cry to her wife, who lightly hit her on the head. Iris rolled her eyes. "You deserved it."
"Come now, you all sit down while Eliane puts the crystal orb back." Iris delegated the work to Eliane without mercy while acting polite to the four of them.
Eliane didn't want to, but she still grumbled her way into the secret tunnel. If it were a normal tunnel, her complaints would echo all the way to the study.
"Now that the troublemaker is gone, you must be… Juniper." Looked over at him with a gentle smile. "We were told about your name change from Akimitsu. My name is Iris Caecius, though this is our first time meeting."
Then she looked at Ellery. "It is an honor to meet you as well, Ellery. It is unfortunate that we are only meeting now."
"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Empress Iris," Ellery said with Juniper shyly saying a similar line.
Empress Iris also greeted Edros and Akimitsu, asking them how they had been doing.
They engaged in small talk until Emperor Eliane came back to the study.
"You know, I was so worried about you lot, but it seems you all don't care about me and love my wife more." Eliane jokingly complained while sitting down next to Empress Iris.
Empress Iris rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Edros said that he would report about the Beast God and his wife."
"Yes, please allow me to explain what happened to the best of my abilities, Empress Iris," Edros respectfully activated his terminal and read off the main points of the report.
Edros summed up their journey to MPE60 by mentioning meeting Orin, the barrier around the Beast God's abode, and even Adel, the Beast God's wife.
After that, Edros let Ellery and Juniper explain the process of separating their souls and how the Beast God had created a new body for Juniper.
"It seems you all had an eventful few months." Eliane finally looked serious. "Edros and Ellery, please give me a copy of that report so we can have it documented in the Imperial family's archives. Not only will we finally have records of Adel's name, but if another incident with two souls in one body happens again in the future, we will have records on how to solve it."
It made sense, so Edros and Ellery sent her an encrypted report. She would then add further encryptions before archiving it.
"Now that is out of the way, what are your plans next? Now that you all have successfully separated Ellery and Juniper, I'm sure there are many things you all want to do."
Eliane had a good point, but they had one more official thing to do.
Ellery answered her, "First, we are going to the Guide Association to revise the contract between Edros, Akimitsu, and me, and then formally announce Juniper's existence. We also need to update our ranks."
"Sounds like a good plan."
"Yes!" Akimitsu couldn't help but interrupt, "Then, Ellery and I are going to see my family on Hezyria for a formal introduction."
"Oh? It seems you two have already established your relationship."
"Yes, Eliane. I've liked Akimitsu for so long, so I couldn't wait."
"Wonderful! I expect an invitation to the wedding." She then teasingly said to Akimitsu, "You know, I've watched you and Edros grow up, and now I get to see your children in the future. You must name me godmother – I changed your diapers after all, and now I can change their diapers."
"Why do you sound like a pervert…" Akimitsu grumbled but didn't reject her offer.
Iris lightly poked Eliane. "Enough. If you keep going, we will have to arrest you."
Eliane looked offended but kept her mouth shut.
"Since you all have other plans, we will let you go now." Iris smiled while patting Eliana's hand. "Please, come again to visit us. The kids want to meet you all too."
Ellery, Juniper, Akimitsu, and Edros said goodbye to Eliane and Iris and then left the Imperial Palace to go to the Guide Association nearby.
*****
Thankfully, when they arrived at the Guide Association, no reporters could be seen. The four of them were able to walk into the building with no interruptions.
Ellery had already contacted Amari, the secretary guide assigned to him, so they saw him waiting for them at the front desk.
Amari greeted Ellery but then froze when he saw Juniper. Did Ellery have a twin? Since when? If he looked closer, he could see that Juniper had white streaks of hair, which were different from Ellery's hair… And that mark on their foreheads?!
"Amari, let's chat more in the meeting room." Ellery motioned for him to guide them to the exclusive elevator.
"Yes! Of course…" Amari ushered them over to the elevator and finally got a good look at Juniper in the elevator.
Juniper softly greeted Amari. Though it wasn't his first time meeting Amari, it was Amari's first time "meeting" him, so he did his best not to scare the young man.
The group was quiet all the way to Director Yun Da-Eun's office. She was the director of the guide association and was one of the many people excited for Ellery's safe return. Not only was she there, but her little brother, Yun Chan-Yeol, Ellery's advisor while he was at school, was there. He wanted to see Ellery as well, so he asked to join the meeting. Lastly, the Vice Director of the Guide Association, Theodore Martinez, attended the meeting.
Later, Ellery and Juniper planned for a meeting with the First Fleet's, Sentinel Association's, and the Guide Association's lawyers, but that was in a couple of hours. This was to revise the contract to include Juniper.
Even though Ellery and Akimitsu were dating, they still wanted to have a contract to protect them both, like a pre-nup.
Everyone greeted each other in Director Yun's office before sitting down.
"Thank you, everyone, for coming to this meeting," Director Yun said while looking at everyone in the room. "Ellery, it is good to see you are back safe and sound. Would you mind introducing us to this person who looks similar to you?"
"This is Juniper Aster," Ellery introduced him because he knew that Juniper was shy and nervous in large crowds of people. "It will take some time to explain why he looks like me and has the mark of the Beast God. I will talk about it first before we get started with the contract."
Vice Director Theodore, who had been curiously looking at Juniper, said while nodding his head. "That is fine. It is a pleasure to meet you, Juniper. I feel this is more important than the contract anyway."
Considering the Beast God was involved, this conversation was more important than the contract.