Some ground rules were set.
For starters, Hana was now allowed to carry out tests on Scaramouche on a weekly basis. In exchange, Scaramouche would be granted safety within the Temple and the removal of any modifications made by The Doctor.
Although Scaramouche reluctantly agreed to these terms, he couldn't help but feel a deep sense of loss. It had taken him centuries to perfect the modifications, and he was losing them like this. Since their meeting, he met Hana two more times. Each time, she only removed a small part. It didn't hurt at all. However, each time, he wanted to stop her and tell her he had changed his mind.
Deep down, he knew that quack doctor had helped to enhance his already God-like abilities. He was not a fool; he didn't just let Il Dottore play around with him for fun. As long as he received a boon, he didn't mind the experiments. He worked hard for them. He fought for them.
With that said, survival was his primary concern at the moment. He consoled himself by thinking he could always sharpen his claws once he was no longer being pursued by the Fatui.
In addition to these arrangements, Scaramouche was given another privilege: access to Bamoun's private book collection. Despite not having met Sethos's grandfather in person, Sethos provided Scaramouche with the key to the library, with the request that he only visit at night. Bamoun was old and frail, unable to stay awake for long periods of time, so this arrangement allowed Scaramouche to avoid spending time in the presence of Bamoun.
Although the situation seemed somewhat peculiar, with Sethos insisting on keeping their interactions limited, Scaramouche didn't dwell on it too much. He took advantage of the opportunity to explore the library, while also maintaining a distance from Bamoun as requested.
The library was not some free gift.
Sethos asked him to give him the map fragments he got from the couple he met. After some bargaining, Scaramouche gave the map to Sethos. It meant nothing to him and it clearly was something important to the Temple residents; it was a fair exchange, as Regrator would put it.
After taking the map from Scaramouche, Sethos stopped visiting him.
Scaramouche didn't expect that but he had enough distractions to not care about this change. He had a new room of similar size to his old one but it was far away from the other living spaces. This meant he could avoid seeing other people as much as he wished. For a while, Scaramouche enjoyed that privilege very thoroughly. But after a week passed and Sethos didn't appear to bother him again, he decided to visit the main hall to waste some time.
The last time he visited the main hall, he gathered some ire from the scholars for not caring about their argument. For that reason, they didn't invite him to join new arguments. He just spent some time watching them argue and left when he got bored.
He didn't plan to go and keep talking about some nonsense with them. He had no intention to turn into someone like Regrator, who kept talking about nonsense for hours.
Afterwards, he sometimes went back to his room and ate his food. He never saw anyone else go in or out of his room, but whenever he returned, he always found something waiting for him. He guessed his complaint about the food reached someone's ears because now the food was more fit to his tastes.
Fatteh, fish with cream sauce, fish roll or minty bean soup that was usually paired with simple salads. All were things that fit his palate quite well. One time, he even received some tofu and rice balls, after he mentioned to Hana about eating some in Liyue.
He didn't know why it affected him so much, but he found himself thanking her the next time. She laughed and told him he didn't need to thank her.
Occasionally, he would visit Bamoun's library, just like he was doing now.
