SD-WAN - Lab 1 - Connection Issue

CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure
1

In the EVE Topology - SD-WAN Lab 1:

  1. vEdge1 is NOT shown connected to either the Internet or MPLS - unlike vEdge2 thro’ vEdge4 - so my qs:

i) does a vEdge not necessarily need a connection to the internet or mpls?
ii) or, can I instead have the HQ Rtr and vEdge1 be collapsed into a single device - since the HQ Rtr does have 2 connections, one each to the internet and the other to mpls.?