–

“I’ll take a brief look then. Which part hurts? Is it here?”

Anne-Marie’s hand touched Odin again.

Somehow, she felt like she was in a much better mood than when she first entered this room.

Odin unconsciously flinched at the touch on his bare skin. He himself didn’t even know why he was reacting like this.

But the moment Anne-Marie’s smile struck him head-on, he somehow felt like he had been hit in the back of the head. His cheeks burned for some reason and he felt flustered.

It was only after some time passed that Odin came to his senses and grew doubtful.

‘Why is she calling me kind when she’s the one treating me, feeding me, and letting me stay in her house?’

Of course, the reason was Lakis.

Anne-Marie couldn’t help but compare the two patients she had. Of course, you shouldn’t judge people carelessly but…

From what she’d seen so far, Yuri’s lover, Lakis, was not as nice as she first thought. Of course, since he was more than docile to Yuri, maybe he was only that cold to Anne-Marie.

If that was the case, she was relieved because that meant she didn’t have to worry about Yuri who had Lakis as her lover. But on the other hand, it was something that bothered her.

There was probably no one in the world who enjoyed being disliked and naturally, Anne-Marie wasn’t one of those.

Anyway, because of that, Anne-Marie began to feel better with Odin since he had a mild nature and didn’t refuse her treatment. Of course, that feeling was more like happiness for humanity, not favor for the opposite sex. Not yet.

Then Anne-Marie suddenly remembered something and opened her mouth.

“Right, Mr. Odin. I think I should let you know just in case but…it is a little hectic outside nowadays.”

She explained to Odin that there was a search team looking for heretics in the East lately. This was because she thought Odin wouldn’t know the situation outside since he had been in the room the entire time.

Instantly, Odin’s eyes sharpened.

“So if you need to go out like Mr. Lakis, please let me know beforehand. You might get caught in something dangerous while on your way and…I’m worried.”

‘This woman…she knows I’m a heretic somehow.’

Anne-Marie didn’t directly show what she had guessed about Odin, but Odin was very quick on the uptake.

‘It might be best to take care of her before it gets troublesome later…’

It was a cold, ungrateful thought but it was the Carnot way of thinking. But contrary to the situation in his mind, Odin just sat there quietly, allowing Anne-Marie to treat him.

‘No…I should just let it be. Arachne called this woman her friend, after all.’

And then he quickly changed his mind.

‘Besides…she doesn’t look like she has a loose tongue.’

Somehow, it felt like he was making excuses to himself but either way, Odin made up his mind and cleared his throat for no reason.“Still, you have been getting enough rest, Mr. Odin, and as long as we keep applying the medicine, you will get better quickly.”

Her gentle voice rang in his ears.

This was a strange situation for Odin but for some reason, he couldn’t look Anne-Marie straight in the face.

* * *

Yuri left after doing some more investigation in the Alchemist Tower. She dug through as much as she could but apart from the ruin’s fragment she found earlier, there was nothing else worth seeing in the tower.

Yuri stood at the topmost part of the tower and pulled on the thread extending from the tip of her finger.

The threads she had attached to Damon and Genos were stopped at the same place.

Yuri cut through the wind as she jumped down from the tower. She was planning on heading to where the two guys were.

While Yuri was on her way, the thread attached to Damon began to move. Judging from the direction, it seemed Damon was heading back to the Salvatore mansion.

Yuri decided to head to Genos’ location since he was still not moving. And after a while, Yuri arrived at a place that her eyes were familiar with.

It was the old building that she found after following Kalian the other day. That unpleasant place with traces of similar experiments to the Carnot lab.

Yuri frowned slightly then she went inside.

It seemed that the entire search team that was stationed here had been withdrawn. She could not sense anyone inside, apart from Genos and one other unknown person. But the energy of that other person was somehow…

Yuri narrowed her eyes in suspicion and focused on her hearing.

“You’re saying you got this from the Alchemist Tower?”

A small, whispering voice could be heard in the seemingly empty building. But the voice sounded oddly familiar and Yuri couldn’t help but hold her forehead.

“Yes. I got it from the alchemist I mentioned before…The thing inside looks similar to what I saw in a scene not long ago and also the piece we found here so…”

“Give it to me, I want a closer look too!”

Right after Genos’ voice, came the impatient voice of a woman.

‘Siren…what is she doing here?’

Yuri was speechless when she saw the two people whispering in a corner of the room.

Genos and Siren; that was one combination she had never thought of before. She had absolutely no clue about why the two of them were together.

Not only that, judging by their attitudes with one another, they didn’t even look like they were meeting for the first time, right?

Then suddenly, Yuri remembered how Siren looked when she met her recently to ask how things were and the evasive answer Siren gave.

‘Wait, did she get caught by Genos while she was looking for me? No, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to move around without taking proper measures.’

Yuri’s statement seemed to be insulting Siren somehow, but she quickly erased the doubt that rose in her mind. But actually, that was the right answer.

Yuri didn’t know that of course, so she had a lot of questions when she saw the two of them. Most of all, she couldn’t help but wonder why Siren, who hated people, would be willing to have a harmonious talk with Genos alone.

“Gasp! What the hell is this!”

Right then, Siren, who was looking at what Genos brought, suddenly shuddered, and threw the thing in her hand.

“Ah, be careful!”

But before it hit the floor, Genos managed to catch it.

“What the—. Why did you do that all of a sudden?”

When Genos asked that, Siren’s face hardened, and she replied in a voice more hostile than before.

“You’re telling me the eastern alchemists really do alchemy with this thing? And human experiments at that?”

“What?”

Once he heard what Siren said, Genos’ face hardened too.

“No, alchemy doesn’t use living things.”“But this is a ruin’s fragment!”

“Ruin’s fragment?”

“The mutation you guys talk about, the thing that creates heretics…!”

In a moment, the air in the room sank icily.

“…What do you mean by that? You’re saying it creates mutations?”

Genos’ voice sank even more.

His eyes swept over his surroundings. He was obviously re-thinking what might have happened in this place.

“I’m leaving, my mood is spoiled! Even without this, this building already makes me sick every time I come here. If you need me for something, you better chose another place or just…!”

Siren yelled but instead of jumping to her feet, she suddenly inhaled sharply.

This was because she finally noticed a little thread attached to Genos.

Genos suspiciously looked at Siren who suddenly stopped talking.

Siren hurriedly looked around then scrambled to the window.

“I…I’m going, Human!”

Yuri realized Siren had noticed she was here. She silently followed after Siren.

“Siren.”

“Ack!”

Siren kept looking back and hesitating while going back to the hideout, so Yuri caught up to her very quickly. When Yuri quietly appeared from the dark and called her name, Siren quivered like she was going to jump out of her skin.

“Ah, Arachne!”

“I was wondering why you seemed so busy lately, I guess you were doing something outside.”

Yuri glided up the tree with her thread and met Siren at eye-level.

“I thought you don’t like humans very much, did that man catch your eye?”

Yuri wasn’t being sarcastic, she was truly curious.

“It’s not like that!”

But Siren was startled by Yuri’s question and shook her head furiously to deny it.

“I, I just thought that human man was the only person that could help you, so I just met him a few times.”

“Help me?”

“Yes. I was going to just kill him when I first ran into him but then I somehow found out he has the power to foresee…”

When she heard what Siren said, Yuri narrowed her eyes.

Siren seemed to realize she couldn’t hide it anymore, so she stretched her wings and flew to sit on the tree branch with Yuri.

Then she began to explain everything that had happened so far.

* * *

One of the biggest events in the East, the praying ceremony, was only three days away. That was the day that Genos had warned me about, so I decided to heighten my vigilance.

“Ms. Yuri, I feel like it has been so long since we went somewhere together like this.”

Anne-Marie, who was with me in the carriage today, said with a bright smile.

“I know Grandpa will be delighted too.”

Right now, we were heading to the Crawford house together. I already verified that Kalian wasn’t at home beforehand so there was no issue. For now, I had only told Bastian and I was visiting secretly.

I also had nothing to worry about since the patients at home showed amazing resilience and were almost fully recovered. Lakis was already prancing around the place while Odin was strangely recovering slower than other times, but all his serious injuries had healed.

After a while, Anne-Marie and I arrived at our destination and got down from the carriage. Like Anne-Marie said, it had definitely been a while since I stood in front of the Crawford mansion like this.

“Please come in. Bastian-nim is waiting for you.”

We entered the building, following the guidance of the middle-aged butler.

As I walked down the hallway, my eyes darted towards an area where I was sensing a familiar energy.

Honestly, the reason I came here today was to find my client who was hidden under a veil.