The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

The reason that the compartments were equipped with comfortable sofas instead of chairs or benches became obvious as night fell and all the lamps in the giant carriage artifact dimmed by themselves.

Since the journey through the 'Wonderland of Doom' would take up almost two weeks, the students would have had a horrible time without proper rest. Hence, when the night fell the sofas could be collapsed into beds, although it required a considerable amount of strength to do so.

Cecilia had to assist the students in both the 12th and 13th compartments with their sleeping arrangements, as part of her duties as a prefect. But the commoner students were docile and obedient, immediately following her instructions and making the whole process seamless.

"They seem more scared of you than me, you know?"

Evelyn knew it was true, because much like Aeron, Cecilia's ash blonde hair and dark honey eyes easily allowed her to blend in with commoners if she wanted.

"Well, I guess you can blame my hair for standing out?"

Cecilia turned her head to glance at her friend's vibrant, beautiful salmon pink tresses, and sighed wistfully. "… I think it's beautiful."

The pink haired girl smiled. "Oh, are you jealous?"

Cecilia didn't refute her immediately, thinking it through before shaking her head.

"Hm… I can't really tell. Maybe? But probably not. I think I'm more envious of the fact that you're so lucky with companionship than anything else."

Evelyn blinked. "You mean Vivi and Amara? Or Ruru and Bree?"

The ash blonde snorted as she converted another sofa to a bed. 

"I mean your circus, yeah. They're all so adorable, and they follow you around so obediently, aaah! I'm jealous!"

The pink haired girl chuckled. "Fufu… if you stop making fun of Vivi, you'll get along well with them too, so what's there to be jealous of?"

Cecilia couldn't help but laugh. "Ahaha… Guess that's true. Except your little hamster keeps on biting me for no reason."

The children in the 12th compartment didn't strike a conversation with either of them throughout the process. Not that they could have without rudely interrupting the two of them as they chatted throughout the whole process.

After the scare with the ape-like creature, all the ups and downs of the day had already gotten to most students. Not to mention most had also gorged themselves on the luxurious food, it was no wonder that they climbed in almost immediately after the beds were made.

Of course, given that there were only eight sofas in each compartment, many students would have to share the 'beds'. It wasn't the most comfortable or ideal situation, obviously, but given the limited space inside the artifact, Evelyn thought the academy had already made the experience quite luxurious.

In fact, more than the small amount of sleeping space, perhaps the students were more focused on the intermittent genocide of terrifying beasts in the forest outside. Although the sound was heavily muted, a heavy clash would still be enough to startle the more sensitive ones awake.

And from the initial reaction of the students during the day, Evelyn thought they would quite traumatized after a while, but they adapted shockingly fast. Now they were watching the combat and slaughter of the beasts as if watching a movie to sleep. 

After helping Cecilia open up all the beds in both the compartments she was responsible for, they finally returned to their own table.

Cecilia stretched as she watched Evelyn being welcomed by her two 'pets', both seemingly competing for her affection.

"Ahhh, finally back. Sorry I made you work, little Evey."

The pink haired girl rolled her eyes. "Not like I was busy with anything else, and don't call me that."

The ash blonde smiled as she watched the little fox circle around her master's legs while the golden puppy was held securely in her arms. She felt that it was a little pitiful, since Evelyn clearly favored the puppy far too much.

"Ehehe… I'll just say thank you, then?"

"You're welcome."

Just as Evelyn handed Bree back to Amara and was about to start working on their own sleeping arrangement, however, Cecilia stopped her.

"Hold on, I have a better idea."

The pink haired girl blinked, confused.

Cecilia tapped the heavy table between the two sofas. "Since the others have so generously huddled together to leave this whole place to ourselves, why not make the most out of it? I say we move this table out from the center, and then we can join the two sofas without collapsing."

"Ah… I guess we can try?"

And so, the two of them moved the table out and to the side. Evelyn had to admit it was far heavier than she thought it would be, weighing almost five thousand kilograms. 

Although she could have barely moved it by herself, with two of them together, it became much easier.

The pink haired girl couldn't help but huff once it was done. "What kind of stupidly heavy material is that, by the way?"

Cecilia's strength was a little higher than Evelyn, so she had an easier time, but she could tell why the tables remained stationary throughout the journey.

"No idea, to be honest. I think it might actually be a part of the artifact."

"Ah…"

Evelyn's eyes shone as the devious thought of storing the tables in her inventory crossed her mind. Since she had over 133 spirit power, her inventory space had already grown to over 1300 square meters, and most of it was empty despite all her hoarding over the years.

Of course, the area wasn't as big as it seemed at first. The height of the space was the same as the length and the width, meaning that even if the flat area was around 1300 meters square, it was actually just a cubic room with a height, length and width of just over 36 meters.

If her math was right, that meant she could store just under fifty thousand cubic meters of stuff in her inventory before running out of space.

Which was still more than enough to store all the tables in the entire chained carriage. And a lot more.

Evelyn entertained herself a little when thinking of the faces of the academy professors when they found out all their tables went missing, but quickly shook that thought off as she helped Cecilia join the two sofas together.

As soon as they were done, Vivian jumped into their newly made castle, followed by the two 'pets' and then finally Amara and Cecilia.

Evelyn sighed as she watched them have fun, thinking how wonderful it would be if she didn't have so much to worry about and could just enjoy this time like a field trip.

"Jump in?"

As the pink haired girl climbed in, the discomfort on her face was far too obvious for Amara to not notice, even in the dim light of the moon.

"What's wrong?"

Evelyn shook her head. "Nothing."

In fact, aside from Ruru and Bree, this was her first time sharing a bed with someone else. Despite how affectionate Isabella looked, even she never shared a bed with her daughter. Evelyn went straight from her crib to her own small bed.

Cecilia had wanted to sleep next to her friend, but Vivian refused to allow it. So the two Gilmore sisters ended up in the center, with Evelyn and Cecilia on either side.

As the night became darker, Evelyn started to see stars slowly shine through the roof of the compartment. It had also gone transparent, just like the two sides.

The pink haired girl was startled as she felt a hand clasp her own, and looked up to see Amara's already peacefully sleeping expression.

She couldn't help but smile. With her fluffy little fox snuggling into her belly, and being surrounded by her friends, this was perhaps the most comfortable she had felt in a long time.

After her rebirth, she sometimes used to have nightmares of waking up on that conveyor belt again, only this time to find herself half crippled but somehow alive. In those almost lucid nightmares, she would always think 'so it was all a dream', and the terror in her heart was so great that she found herself wondering how she managed to wake up alive the next day.

But after Ruru came into her life, those nightmares had failed to perturb her as much. With the little fox snuggling into her belly, she could always feel a comforting presence while asleep, and even if she found herself in that nightmare, she could snap herself awake.

Of course, her sleep would be lost, and her mind would wander for the rest of the day, but at least it wasn't as bad.

However, with all her friends by her side, there was a strange feeling of safety she had never felt before.

Perhaps the feeling differed because Ruru and Bree were ones she had to protect in her mind, while Amara and Cecilia were friends she considered more or less equal, despite their varying strengths.

Regardless of where the feeling of security stemmed from, Evelyn held Bree close to her chest as she slowly drifted off to sleep, completely unaware of the trouble heading her way.