Chapter 56 - Home Again
The space above the sea suddenly rippled.
A young man with long black hair and brilliant golden eyes stepped out as though emerging from another world.
His feet landed lightly upon the sea’s surface.
The water beneath him merely formed gentle ripples instead of swallowing him.
He stood there silently.
A complicated emotion flickered across his otherwise impassive face before disappearing completely.
The next moment, his figure vanished.
By the time he reappeared, he had already arrived at a luxurious seaside hotel.
The entire establishment had been reserved, just for him.
The moment he stepped through the entrance, three masked figures immediately bowed.
"Your Highness."
Their voices carried unmistakable respect.
Two of them were Grandmasters and the person standing at the front possessed an even more terrifying aura.
A Divine Master.
And someone whose name alone was enough to shake an entire nation.
All three looked unusually anxious.
One of them finally spoke.
"Did you leave again without informing anyone?"
The young man merely sighed.
"Come now, Elder. There is no way I could hide my movements from all of you, I simply wanted to clear my mind for a while."
The old man grumbled under his breath.
"You really do enjoy giving us old people a heart attack."
The young man only smiled faintly before continuing deeper into the hotel.
Along the corridor, two more elders appeared.
Unlike the previous three, neither concealed their terrifying presence.
One of them hurried over and inspected him from head to toe.
"Young Leader! You really shouldn’t keep disappearing like this, what if something had happened?"
The young man patiently allowed the inspection.
After confirming there wasn’t a single injury, the elder finally relaxed.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"Won’t you dispel your Body Reconstruction Technique already?"
The young man paused.
A trace of helplessness appeared in those golden eyes.
"Uncle, I prefer remaining like this, because father..."
The sentence remained unfinished and the elder simply laughed bitterly.
"I know."
He gently patted the young man’s shoulder.
"Go and get some rest."
The young man nodded before returning to his private suite.
A short while later...
Warm steam filled the bathroom.
The moment he stepped into the hot spring bath, the disguise he had maintained for so long slowly began to dissolve.
Bones shifted.
Muscles softened.
His shoulders became narrower.
His waist slimmer.
Long black hair flowed down like silk, reaching far past her waist.
By the time the transformation ended.
The handsome young man had disappeared.
In his place sat an incomparably beautiful young woman.
Her beauty carried a strange contradiction.
It was both noble and demonic.
Her flawless face resembled a masterpiece carefully crafted by heaven itself, while those brilliant golden eyes seemed capable of swallowing the souls of anyone who looked into them.
As she leaned back against the edge of the bath, two tattoo-like markings slowly surfaced across her smooth back.
One depicted a majestic golden dragon soaring toward the heavens.
And the other was a terrifying ancient demon crawling from the abyss.
The two markings constantly shifted, clashing against one another as though engaged in an eternal struggle.
She quietly submerged herself deeper into the warm water.
Only her face remained above the surface.
Her golden eyes slowly drifted toward her own hands.
For a long time, she simply stared at them.
Then she asked herself the question that had lingered in her heart ever since leaving Ishikana’s place.
"Why did you appear in my life now, you fated stranger?"
Her voice was barely louder than a whisper.
According to every divination, their connection should have disappeared with time.
Instead, it was growing stronger.
The severed threads of fate had begun weaving themselves together once again.
She had known this day would eventually come.
She simply hadn’t expected it to arrive so soon.
Nor in such an unpredictable manner.
A faint smile appeared on her lips before quietly fading away.
Meanwhile, far away from this place.
Evren remained completely unaware.
He still believed himself to be an insignificant person struggling through an ever-changing world.
He simply had no idea, that to the girl silently soaking in the bath.
He was destined to become one of the most important people in her entire life.
And perhaps, the only one capable of changing her.
***
A Few Days Later...
New York, North Federation.
At last, I was home.
The moment I stepped inside, I tossed my travel bag into a corner before collapsing face-first onto my bed.
"Fuck jet lag."
The trip back had been far more exhausting than I expected.
A moment later, blood seeped out from my body before gathering into a familiar figure.
Ysvéra appeared beside the bed and leisurely stretched her arms.
"So this is your home."
She looked around the apartment before nodding thoughtfully.
"It’s rather small."
My eyelids twitched at her comment.
"Sorry for disappointing Your Highness, but I’m not a vampire royal from another world."
She completely ignored my complaint and wandered around the apartment, curiously inspecting everything she found.
She opened a cabinet.
Looked into the kitchen.
Examined the living room.
Even the bathroom wasn’t spared.
"You don’t have a maid?" she asked with genuine curiosity.
"I clean the place once every week," I replied while lying motionless on the bed.
"It doesn’t gather much dust anyway, and for the daily cleaning there’s a robot."
"Hm."
She nodded as though learning something important about modern human civilization.
Without warning, she walked back over and quietly leaned against me.
Her head rested on my shoulder.
I was too exhausted to push her away.
This journey had been more than worthwhile.
I had accomplished everything I originally planned.
In fact, I had somehow completed several unexpected side quests along the way (?).
Though I somehow lost a t-shirt.
Even now, it still felt slightly unreal.
There were roughly twenty days left before the Nexus Academy entrance examination.
Until then, my only objective was simple.
Train and become stronger.
I still hadn’t contacted Mira.
Part of me was still irritated with her after everything that had happened.
But we would meet soon enough.
I suddenly felt Ysvéra’s arms tighten around me.
"I need some blood, Hubby."
Before I could respond, she gently bit my neck.
"Sigh..."
I let out a helpless sigh.
The strange sensation was now oddly pleasant.
After a few moments, I gently held her shoulders and pinned hew down until she was lying beneath me on the bed.
She blinked.
I smiled.
"No wonder those were your first words after waking up."
Her cheeks immediately flushed crimson as she looked away in embarrassment.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
The proud vampire princess who had once wanted to enslave me now became flustered over a little teasing.
Life really was unpredictable.
I gently brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear before placing a brief kiss on her forehead.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
The room fell quiet.
The warmth between us needed no words.
Our relationship had changed more in the past few days than I could have imagined.
It no longer felt like a contract forged by circumstance.
Little by little, it was becoming something real.
Outside the apartment window, New York carried on as usual.
I allowed myself to simply enjoy the peace or maybe something more than peace.
I found myself hoping days like these would last until the entrance examination.
However, life never stayed peaceful for long.
After all, I had already made more than a few enemies in New York.