Chapter 244: THE GREAT HALL

Chapter 244 THE GREAT HALL

Morning came soon enough and Haven was woken up by the soft banging on her door.

“ Haven?” The voice called out amidst the banging. “ Haven are you up? Haven, get up if you aren’t. It’s almost breakfast time. You need to get ready!” She yelled.

Haven groaned and pulled the sheets over her face. She wished she could stay in bed just some more but she knew she couldn’t. Not with the constant yelling and banging coming from the door. She had bolted the door before retiring to bed last night, so Katie couldn’t come in. That explained why the latter opted for the annoying knocking on the door this early morning.

“ I’m up, I’m up” She reluctantly opened the door. Katie giggled when she saw her expression.

“ Sorry to wake you up sleeping beauty, but you must get dressed now or we would be late.” She said shoving some more clothes into Haven’s open arms.

“ That’s the closest thing I could find to your size.” She added when she saw Haven staring at the clothes. “ I told you, we really must go shopping”

“ And I told you, it’s not necessary” Haven declined politely.

“ Forget all that, you just go out these on and we’ll leave then , okay? I’ll be waiting downstairs”

Haven nodded as she watched Katie leave before going back inside. She stared at the clothes in her hands. It included a thick woolen cloak, a dress which had several layers and a scarf. There was no way she could bathe or take a shower in this weather if she wasn’t planning on committing suicide. She’ll just quickly change into these and meet her downstairs. And that was exactly what she did

She took off her clothes and hurriedly changed into the new ones Katie brought. Even with the morning sun shining so brightly, the weather was still cold. What sort of a place was this?

The dress Katie brought her was dark red in color and it complimented her porcelain skin very well. The scarf was also in a shade of red and so was the cloak. They weren’t her size but she could still put them on.

“ All ready?” Katie saw Haven coming down the stairs. She was putting on clothes similar to Haven and somewhat in the same color gradient. Red has to be Katie’s favorite color, Haven guessed. It was so obvious.

“ Wow, you look really beautiful.” Katie compliment when Haven reached her. “ . I was afraid the clothes will be too big but hey, they don’t look so bad after all. Seems like you’re set to go, that’s good. We should get going now, come on.” She said and pulled Haven towards the door. Once outside, she made sure to lock the door behind them.

“ You’re locking the house?”

“ Owen has gone to work and we’re leaving, so we’ll have to lock the house right? All done. Let’s go now” She said and led the way into the streets. The snow beneath their feet was soft and gave both women a hard time as they walked– Haven, much harder because she wasn’t used to something like this.

Her boots kept sinking into the snow and she had to pull it down before throwing it in front of her as she took another step. It was really frustrating. Even the roads were covered in snow!

“ Where are we going?” She just had to ask.

“ To the Great hall” Katie answered from the front. The sun was up and for the first time since she came here, Haven was able to see the village clearly. People walked about as usual, greeting each other with cheerful faces and smiles and wishing each other a happy day.

Katie greeted and waved at a few people too as they walked while Haven drew her cloak closer to her body. She did this quite a few times because she felt so uncomfortable. The states she was receiving from the people was too much.

She could see the women stare at her with a curious look on her faces, others with grim looks while the men, well, their looks made her feel much more uncomfortable. It was as if they were drooling over this new beauty they were seeing.

Yes, the guardian angels were very fine creatures and their women were exceptionally beautiful but Haven’s beauty was on another level. She looked like a goddess, flawless and delicate as she walked under the beautiful morning sun in her purple dress. It was simply a sight to behold.

By the time the two finally arrived at the Great hall, they were panting slightly.

“ We’re here” Katie announced as they began to climb the flight of stairs leading to the entrance. They needed to be extra careful because of all the snow that had collected on the steps.

The Great hall, as Katie called it was aa very large building painted in cream color with intricate designs on both the building and the pillars surrounding it. A long flight of stairs led to it’s entrance. When they finally got there, Haven was mesmerized.

The building looked smaller earlier compared to what she was facing now. The hall in front of her was extremely large, maybe approximately three hundred meters in width or so. An extremely long and large mahogany table was placed at the middle of the room where hundreds of people were seated on the wooden chairs. There were numerous paintings that decorated the walls alongside flowers designed which were carefully carved on the walls.

The whole place was painted in birch color which gave a warm sense of feeling to the room accompanied by the sweet smell of good lingering in the air. Some of the people seated ate and chatted with the people besides them while others just ate alone and left in a hurry but based on how they interacted, it was obvious they knew one another.

Haven had never imagined there could be somewhere so splendid to eat. It was just like eating in a pack house but even bigger. Katie gave her a little nudge and pointed to a direction at one end of the large room.

“ Let’s collect our food from there.” Haven nodded and followed her to the stand where they picked up their plates. Next they joined the queue of people waiting to collect their food. Everything felt new to her. She stood behind Katie and when it reached her turn, she requested for Bread, sausage and some milk.

Katie was standing not too far away when Haven was done. They both headed to some empty seats and sat down to eat their food. As Haven ate, she saw people come and go every now and then, smiling and chattering along the way.

“ There are a lot of people here.” She noticed. The number of people present right now could be more than three hundred.

“ Yes, most have gone to work. We’re usually more than this” Katie pointed out.

More than this? Haven turned to look at her. “ Seriously? Are all of them guardian angels too?”

“ Guardian angels and Shadow Guards. Only those two creatures stay in this village.”

“ Shadow Guards? What are those?” Haven was curious.

“ Well.. uhm,” Katie hesitated “ I’ll explain that to you later” She sighted someone whom she knew across them and waved at him. “ Hello Aeon” She greeted him.

The man had dark hair as black as the night and back obsidian eyes. He was almost as burly as Owen and wore similar dark clothes. He waved back at Katie

“ Good morning, Katie” He greeted and his and Haven’s eyes locked for a second before he quickly look away and continued munching on his food.

“ Who’s that?” Haven couldn’t help but ask.

“ That’s Aeon. He’s one of the new Shadow Guards who recently moved to this village. He’s a nice guy and one of Owen’s friends “ She whispered to her. Haven took one more look at Aeon. At least he didn’t look as scary as Owen, that was a good thing.

“ Oh” was all that left Haven’s lips as she continued eating. She could feel someone’s eyes boring into her soul as she did and when she eventually looked up, her eyes locked with his black one’s again. Aeon was staring right at her.

Haven frowned. She didn’t like people staring at her especially directly like this. Katie noticed Haven stopped eating and saw her in a staring contest with Aeon.

“ Uhh” She gushed and nudged her a little. “ Would you look at that. You’ve found yourself an admirer already”

“ What do you mean?” Haven finally looked away.

“ Just look at the way he’s staring at you. Maybe he likes you” Katie wriggled her brows at her in a mischievous way which made her roll her eyes.

“ Oh please Katie, don’t even start” Haven was in no mood to hear any of her nonsense right now. She returned to her food. She didn’t even bother to look up from her plate again, even when she heard the Aeon

guy bid goodbye to Katie as he left.

She wasn’t ready for any more dramas in her life.