Chapter 100: Something Deeper Than Reincarnation

Chapter 100. Something Deeper Than Reincarnation

She accepted my hand.

Somehow, despite everything that had happened in that bathroom, we ended up dressing separately.

Probably for the best.

I wasn’t particularly confident that either of us possessed enough self-control for round two of "this was supposed to be a simple bath".

Once dressed, I returned to my study first.

The room still smelled faintly of mana discharge, metal, and the herbs I’d been using lately. Evidence of this morning’s stupidity remained everywhere. Scattered tools, several damp cloths, the chair I’d nearly collapsed into, and the tiny spot of dried blood where I’d pricked my finger repeatedly.

I ignored the mess and approached the worktable.

The small box remained exactly where I’d left it.

I opened it.

Four bangles rested inside.

I smiled faintly and closed the lid. Yet when I picked up the box, something bothered me. Something else had been scratching at the back of my mind.

I stood motionless beside the worktable.

My consciousness was Evan Veyr. I knew that. I remembered being Evan.

My childhood.

My parents.

The accident that damaged my mana core.

My years as a researcher.

My laboratory.

My coworkers.

Every ridiculous all-night research session.

I remembered dying. Unfortunately. Especially that part.

Yet the memories belonging to Rey Valen never felt like I was watching another man’s life.

That should’ve been obvious from the beginning.

When I’d first awakened in this body, I’d assumed it was because I’d inherited Rey’s memories. Maybe memories carried emotions with them. Maybe inhabiting someone else’s body caused psychological synchronization.

Reasonable theories.

Except that explanation was beginning to feel increasingly insufficient.

Whenever something from Rey’s past surfaced, I didn’t feel like an outsider examining historical records.

I felt like I remembered it.

The distinction was tiny.

And terrifying.

From me...

The bitterness sat somewhere deeper than memory.

Even my wives.

Especially my wives.

That was the part I couldn’t explain.

I knew what Rey had done.

I knew how distant he’d become from them while the curse slowly destroyed him. I remembered Ariel’s gentle patience. Lily forcing cheerfulness through disappointment. Seris hiding concern behind pride. Nia teasing him because sometimes annoyance was the only reaction she could get. Liora quietly managing everything he stopped noticing.

Those memories shouldn’t belong to Evan Veyr.

But they hurt.

Not as someone else’s mistakes.

Mine.

That was why apologizing to them never felt like apologizing on behalf of a dead man whose body I’d stolen.

That was why loving them didn’t feel like I’d inherited somebody else’s wives and eventually developed feelings for them.

Somewhere inside me, affection had already existed.

Buried.

Damaged.

Muted beneath the curse.

But there.

I slowly placed the box back onto the table.

This made absolutely no sense.

Evan Veyr and Rey Valen were separated by thousands of years.

Two different eras.

Two different lives.

One was a cursed Royal Magus.

The other was a mad researcher.

Indeed, we shared a lot of simiralities.

The same obsession with magic.

The same habit of pushing the body beyond reasonable limits when there was something important to finish.

The same instinct to analyze danger rather than run from it.

Even the creepy similarities I’d previously dismissed as coincidence suddenly felt less amusing.

It was almost like looking at the same person shaped by two completely different lives.

Same soul.

Different environment.

My fingers tightened around the edge of the table.

Soul...

That word made something inside me stir.

Not mana, nor the curse.

Something deeper.

For one strange second, I felt as though I’d reached toward a door buried somewhere inside myself.

Then the sensation vanished.

I frowned.

Reincarnation itself already violated enough rules that calling something impossible felt intellectually dishonest.

Still, if Rey and Evan somehow were the same person from the beginning, that created considerably more questions than answers.

Why?

How?

Had Rey died and reincarnated thousands of years later as Evan?

Then had Evan died and been thrown backward into his original life?

That would create some kind of closed reincarnation cycle.

Which sounded ridiculous.

Also horrifying.

But... scientifically fascinating.

Okay, that was impossible. I had never heard of anything that absurd before.

Apparently, my imagination was getting a little too wild.

More importantly, breakfast was getting cold.

Soul-time-reincarnation bullshit could wait.

I’d investigate it later. Because apparently my existence itself had become another research project.

I left the study and headed toward the dining room.

By the time I entered, everyone was already there.

Well.

Almost everyone.

Ariel sat at the head of one side of the table, while Lily was already attacking breakfast with the enthusiasm of someone personally offended by empty plates. Nia had a cup between both hands, her fox ears twitching lazily, and Liora was reading through a small stack of financial documents while eating with the terrifying efficiency of someone who could probably calculate quarterly revenue and butter toast simultaneously.

Seris wasn’t there yet.

For completely mysterious reasons.

Four pairs of eyes immediately turned toward me.

I lifted the small box. "Sorry for making you wait. I needed to make these first."

Nia’s ears perked up. Her eyes locked onto the box with alarming speed. "Is that a new product for us to sell?"

Merchant fox detected merchandise.

"No." I walked toward the table. "I’ll actually be mad if you sell these."

That got everyone’s attention.

Even Liora lowered her documents.

I placed the box on the table and opened it.

Four bangles rested inside, their S-rank crystals catching the morning light.

Lily leaned forward immediately.

Ariel’s eyes softened.

Nia stared.

Liora’s gaze narrowed in the particular way it always did whenever she saw something expensive and began unconsciously calculating material costs.

I touched the edge of the box. "I made them for you. Just a little extra protection."

Liora looked from the bangles to me.

Then to the bangles again.

I knew that expression.

Accountant alarm.

"Those crystals are S-rank."

Nia nearly choked on her drink. "S-rank?!" She stared at me. "I thought you said you didn’t want to use them."