Chapter 107: The Fated Mark

Chapter 107: Chapter 107: The Fated Mark

Raphael hesitated slightly.

If it were anyone else, even if he had to lay out a hundred schemes and a thousand plots to exploit them, not a single ripple of emotion would stir in his heart. But the person sitting opposite him was an existence that could not be profaned.

After pondering for a while, Raphael finally suppressed both his selfishness and the suspicion clawing at his chest, deciding to observe for a bit longer.

He took out a bouquet of lily of the valley prepared in advance from his spatial storage and pushed it in front of Jeremy.

"At least this, please accept it."

Hearing his voice, Jeremy looked up and cast a glance.

Compared to everything that had just occurred during this afternoon tea, this bouquet was already the most ordinary item. Raphael’s attitude was so sincere that it was hard to refuse. Afraid that the other party would continue to drag out the topic of liking or disliking, Jeremy ultimately reached out to take it.

The fingertips of the two accidentally brushed against each other.

At that exact moment, Raphael’s fingers jerked back, as fast as if he had just touched a flaming thorn.

Jeremy caught that anomaly perfectly: "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing." Raphael retracted his hand into his sleeve. He looked up, his gaze pinned straight onto Jeremy’s face, each word carrying a trace of coldness: "...Just thinking, you really are not him."

His tone was calm. Calm enough to make one overlook the violent gleam that flashed through the depths of Raphael’s eyes.

That statement made the entire tearoom fall into a dead silence for a beat.

Compared to the terror of suddenly being seen through, what occupied the majority of Jeremy’s mind at this moment was the question: how should he handle this now?

Should he use sophistry and pretend not to understand?

Or... find a way to kill Raphael right here and then pack up and flee the empire?

Raphael’s expression remained flat, but his voice was drained of the earlier gentleness, replaced by a distinct distance: "Thinking of a way to deal with me?"

"You cannot kill me."

That weightless statement was indeed the truth.

Jeremy glanced at the dark corners of the room, where a few auras were intentionally released for him to sense. The corners of Jeremy’s lips curled into a faint smirk.

It seemed the other party had nailed down his conclusion. In this situation, playing dumb would only provoke that dragon into anger.

Jeremy decisively dropped his act. He casually set the bouquet aside, leaned back in his chair, his sitting posture becoming noticeably casual: "Since you used the word ’really’, it means you realized it early on. Since when?"

Raphael gave a slight wave of his hand to signal the hidden guards in the shadows to retreat, activated the soundproof matrix, and only then spoke apathetically: "The freshman tournament."

That was the first time the two sides had encountered each other.

Jeremy gave him a sidelong glance, feeling it was somewhat absurd: "My acting skills couldn’t be so bad as to expose flaws right on the first meeting. What did you base it on to figure it out?"

"The tone of your speech, your facial expressions, and the feeling you give me - all of them deviate." Raphael possessed an unusual patience for some reason. "At the time, I thought I was overthinking. But now it’s proven, I am right."

Raphael raised the hand that had just been burned, his gaze darkening.

"The dragon bloodline can connect with a fated mate. Did you know, his fated person is me."

"..."

Jeremy fell silent.

Know what the hell?

Jeremy only knew that the direct bloodline of the Valmont family had a certain probability of experiencing the fated mate phenomenon, something the elders still praised as a grace bestowed by the gods.

But the fact that the original owner’s fated person was Raphael was completely unknown to him. It was likely that even the original owner himself was unaware of this detail.

The possessiveness of dragons was morbidly strong. The mark was branded straight into the souls of both parties, and once a dragon’s fated mate developed even a trace of alienation, that person would instantly suffer a backlash.

An unreasonably overbearing unilateral contract.

Neither the current Duke nor the original owner’s older brother bore the mark. Who would have expected that thing to sprout on this body.

Looking at the bright red burn mark on Raphael’s hand, Raphael probably mistook Jeremy for the original owner, projecting all his emotional attachment for that person onto him, causing the mark to misidentify the target and strike back at its owner.

Calculating a hundred paths and a thousand ways, only to capsize because of one damn mark.

Generally speaking, didn’t one have to wait until coming of age for the mark to appear... It turned out there were exceptions.

Furthermore, before Jeremy transmigrated, the person holding the title of the original owner’s fiancé had always been Amber. Yet regarding this fated person matter, Raphael chose to keep his mouth shut tight.

Did that mean Raphael intended to stand in a dark corner watching over him for a lifetime, never marrying anyone...

Jeremy’s mood dropped a notch.

However, Raphael’s reaction also struck him as strange.

Usually, upon discovering that the person they placed their heart on had been forcefully possessed, the reaction of the vast majority of humans would be shock, fury, and then loss of control.

Yet Raphael could sit there, pouring tea, pushing pastries, asking questions as if discussing the weather.

Jeremy looked straight at him, his voice rippless: "You already know I am not him, yet you can remain this calm? Are you not planning to ask where his soul went, or how I possessed him?"

Raphael leisurely unbuttoned his cuffs, his voice flat and distant:

"The direct bloodline of the Valmont family absolutely never experiences a case of forced possession. If my guess is correct, you were proactively summoned by him. Thanks to that, you can control this body so comfortably, and seamlessly inherit his memories."

Just how well the four great Duke families understood each other, Jeremy didn’t know. But judging by the situation at hand, Raphael’s level of familiarity with the Valmont family - even with the original owner himself - far exceeded that of the original owner or a person who had just read the novel and inherited the memories like him.

Jeremy was fully convinced, going along with the other party’s words: "You are right. I was actively summoned by him, which is why I can control this body."

Matters regarding otherworldly souls naturally could not be leaked out.

Jeremy dropped half-truths and half-lies, simultaneously observing every muscle fiber on Raphael’s face.

Unfortunately... that face was as bland as a dust-covered mirror. From the initial gentleness transitioning to the current indifference, the speed was so fast it was like swapping a different person into the same set of clothes.

It was impossible to dig anything out of his expression or intonation.

Raphael suppressed the impatience rising in his throat, asking step by step: "...When were you summoned? I can feel that Jeremy’s soul is still within this body."

Jeremy was now too lazy to act: "What’s in it for me to tell you?"

The original owner’s soul hadn’t dissipated, only submerged in a state of deep coma.

If Raphael killed him - the one bearing this otherworldly soul - the original owner would die along with him.

Whether the Duke and his wife would disregard their son’s life and forcefully destroy him was a matter to be discussed later. But at least at the present moment, it was glaringly clear that Raphael - the one who placed the original owner above all else - definitely would not act rashly.

Though a bit shameless, perhaps Jeremy should capitalize on exactly this point...