Reincarnated as the Final Villain's Vessel

Chapter 287: The Calm After the Storm?

The morning breeze blew through the leaves of the trees near the open window, sending an audible rustle into the room.

It was a spacious bedroom, but also free of any unnecessary furniture apart from a few small tables and some shelves, and of course a big bed in the middle covered with clean white sheets.

And on the bed lay Caius, his eyes peacefully closed, only his chest rising and falling at a steady pace, while his tousled, medium-length hair was scattered across the luxurious pillow like shiny black threads.

His relaxed face was like a sculpture a great sculptor had spent his whole life on... even though he’d always been handsome, his clear face seemed to have gained even more.

His fair skin was clean and free of wounds, not like someone who’d been dipped in molten sand a few hours ago... and what’s more, he hadn’t received any treatment, he’d simply healed on his own before they got here.

Even his hair, which had burned, had grown back to its usual length, as if it had kept a memory of its own.

The sheet had been pulled down and bunched at his waist, revealing his bare upper body.

Like his face, his muscles were sculpted, neither lean nor bulky, just balanced... and of course the arm that had turned to ash was back in its place, flawless.

And on his wrist rested a small tattoo... it had come back along with his arm.

A thin hand touched his arms and shoulders, a faint light coming from it, wrinkles visible on the back of the palm, and it soon reached his face and lifted one of his eyelids, revealing an eye that was supposed to be black.

"Hmm. Ahem...." An old, broken hum echoed in the room every now and then.

Then finally Mary pulled her hand away and stepped back from the bed, a woman who’d accepted her age and owned a closet full of white medical coats, she never had trouble deciding what to wear.

In yet another copy of that open coat and a pair of wide cotton pants, she stood with her hands in the deep pockets, her gray hair tied in a ponytail, studying Caius’s body with a gloomy expression.

If he’d been awake, he would’ve felt uncomfortable under the intensity of the old woman’s gaze on his bare torso, but he wasn’t.

After a few more seconds she turned her attention to the other side of the bed, where Alicia sat in a padded chair, her expression even gloomier, and for some reason she looked tired for someone like her, waiting patiently for Mary to speak, but her patience seemed to run out at that moment.

"Is there something wrong with him?" she asked calmly as the blanket rose to cover Caius up to just below his neck.

Mary sighed in confusion, weighing her words. "The problem is that there’s no problem, his body is completely fine, or not... he’s just, how do I put it... strange."

She avoided Alicia’s eyes as she focused on his sleeping face. "Days ago, he was like a blot of ink that spilled on a white page and dried completely, but now he’s somehow become that white page."

Alicia knitted her brows. "You mean he’s healed?"

Mary shook her head.

"No, he didn’t just heal, he formed himself all over again, maybe into the state he was always supposed to be in, better than anything I’ve seen in my life, even the finest nobles don’t have this, and his eyes, you’ve seen them... on top of that, he’s achieved Fusion and already reached Rank 4, and that’s good... I think."

Mary went quiet for a few seconds, while Alicia stared into space with countless thoughts flooding her head, then the old woman brought her back to reality. "I don’t understand why you’re hiding this, girl, but I’m not blind, with this event canceled because of an explosion caused by an Ancient monster, as they say, you bring me this boy with... well, a new body?"

Mary let out a breath through her nose as she went on. "So, what happened to him out there?"

Alicia blinked gloomily for a few moments before she answered, her voice quiet and faint. "I don’t know."

Mary, who’d been holding her breath, felt a faint disappointment... she’d been genuinely curious about this boy since they first met, especially now after he’d gone through such a radical change.

And Caius wasn’t the only one who’d changed here.

Mary looked at Alicia on the other side of the bed, and strangely, the reclusive woman she’d known since her early years looked unsettled... even though she didn’t show it, the old healer caught the tremor in her movements and her words... and her face.

And that was strange too.

Since she was little, Alicia had always been Alicia, she’d hardly changed... in behavior and personality of course, after all she’d grown into a mature, very beautiful woman now, stunning.

But remembering those days, this girl had always been cold and gloomy, even after her parents died nothing changed in her... she’d been diagnosed with a number of psychological disorders since childhood... even Awakened don’t escape these mental ailments, especially in this world.

But even so, Alicia was different, not just a cold, indifferent girl, but also smart, sharp and ruthless... very ruthless.

Only after she disappeared into the death lands and came back did Mary notice some change in her... after all, she was her personal healer, though she’d been visiting her less and less lately... Kings don’t get sick easily, as you know.

She didn’t become more emotional or anything like that, but she seemed reasonable... yeah, Alicia was a little extreme, maybe more than a little... she even took the position of Duchess, and after that started working at the Axis.

How astonishing that was for Mary.

But out of all the moments where she’d seen some change, which had barely existed to begin with, Alicia now seemed to be going through... well, growth?

Mary stared at the girl’s face, to her Alicia was still just a teenager at twenty-five, so seeing her show some expression now, worry especially, was a good thing... a happy one, but was it really good?

After a few moments of silence Mary decided her work here was done, with steady steps she turned toward the door, her white coat swaying behind her. "I’m taking my leave now, anyway, if he wakes up at any point just call me... you know."

With that she went out and closed the door behind her, leaving the room in a deathly quiet, only the rustle of leaves drifting in from the open window.

...

Alicia wore a white silk shirt, its wide sleeves flowing lightly over her arms before gathering in soft ruffles at her wrists into narrow buttoned cuffs... every button of the shirt was done up, the fabric showing off her perfect figure, while its hem was tucked into loose black pants.

Sitting in the padded chair beside the bed, her ten fingers were laced together, her elbows resting on her knees, leaning forward in intense focus in the quiet room.

A few minutes passed, then turned into dozens before she finally let herself go, with a short breath she leaned back and sank into the chair’s cushions... her right hand rested on the armrest, while her other hand tucked a white strand behind her ear.

She turned her head away from the sleeping Caius toward the big window, watching the threads of sunlight slipping between the green leaves.

’I didn’t leave anything behind?... right.’

She went over every step she’d taken the night before, from hiding Caius, to altering the elimination logs, adding another belt under his name, and a chip in his arm to replace the original that had evaporated in the explosion... this was supposed to cover up him being found out there.

Yeah, there were gaps of course, like him being here instead of at the resort with his teammates, but those were easy to manage... and Mary wasn’t going to open her mouth, and even if she did, that was also within the range of what she’d expected.

She caught the reflection of her beautiful face in the window glass. ’Since when has my face been like this?’ It was showing a lot... more than ever.

And of course there was a reason for this.

Because new shards of outside sensations were invading her... or weren’t they? And with them, glimpses of life.

Resting her cheek on her hand, Alicia remembered her beginning in life, in that beautiful palace with loving parents.

And of course, before she watched them die.