Chapter 120: Falling Asleep Together
It was very quiet all around. After closing their eyes, the only sound left was their breathing.
Evelia was the first to fall into a deep sleep. Her breathing was calm and steady.
She had let go of all her defenses and simply lay there in peace. Lying quietly in Armand’s arms, she seemed to be sleeping more peacefully than she had in years.
Armand kept his promise to Evelia. Even though the girl in his arms had fallen fast asleep, he didn’t move or get up from her side.
After all, they had agreed, he would stay here and keep her company.
He even smiled to himself, thinking that by the next morning, his arm would probably be sore from holding her all night.
After a while, he tilted his head slightly and heard a soft rustling sound. He looked over and saw Rachel slowly scooting over to lie behind Evelia.
He had actually been wondering for a while where the little girl who kept asking for hugs had wandered off to. Now that their eyes met, Armand smiled knowingly.
...It looked like this child really cared about Evelia.
Armand took Rachel’s behavior as a sign of how important Evelia was to her. After all, in Armand’s eyes, Rachel was just a three- or four-year-old child. A kid that young probably wouldn’t have any bad intentions.
At least, that’s what he believed.
As Rachel snuggled closer to Evelia’s back, Armand reached out his hand. Though he couldn’t fully reach around Evelia to hug Rachel too, when his large hand stretched toward her, Rachel reached out as well and grabbed hold of his finger.
If Rachel had to rate Armand based on everything that happened today, she’d probably call him “an annoyingly sweet guy.”
People often say that the “gentle and kind” type of man is outdated. That this type is boring and usually turns out to be a jerk. But Rachel didn’t agree with that.
If she didn’t think of Evelia as just a character she designed but as a “daughter” she had personally created. Then yes, she’d be happy to entrust this child to someone like Armand. Even if his public image made him seem like a bit of a fool.
But after spending the whole day with him, Rachel realized that Armand wasn’t as brainless as she had imagined. He wasn’t just a good-looking guy with muscles and no thoughts. From the perspective of a hundred-year-old alchemist like Rachel, Armand was actually quite decent.
Truth be told, Rachel had been wanting to move on from simply “creating life” to actually “raising life.”
The body she now inhabited was originally designed for a personal experiment. She skipped the complicated stages of pregnancy and taking care of a baby, and made this little girl at just the right age for playing a “child-raising game.”
She had even imagined that maybe, just maybe, this girl might grow up and meet her own “prince” like in a fairy tale.
If that really happened, then the experiment would be complete.
She didn’t have any strange hobby of spying on other people’s married lives.
All she wanted was to see if a child created from nothing, with no emotional foundation, could grow up and live like a real human being.
But because of the Second Prince’s interference, she could no longer take care of this little girl she made. Then again, wasn’t Evelia also an option?
She had created Evelia too. So in a way, Evelia was also her “child.”
And honestly, if the research topic was “emotional development in living beings,” then Evelia was the perfect subject.
At least for now, it looked like Evelia still struggled to express or understand emotions. In many ways, she really did seem like a child who needed to be raised from scratch.
Though it was quite possible… that even a three-year-old kid might understand joy, anger, and sadness better than she did.
—That damn Second Prince. Seriously, please just disappear from this world.
Even though Rachel had once helped him do evil, now she just wanted that annoying prince to drop dead as soon as possible.
People often said that alchemists like her, who study life, have no humanity left. But the ones who had truly lost their humanity were those noblemen with fancy titles and fake smiles.
Rachel was doing research on how to help people stay alive. Meanwhile, those nobles were always thinking about how to make others die.
If the Second Prince’s people found out she was still alive, they would probably send assassins after her immediately. Even though she looked like a small child now, her brain still held too many secrets.
Besides, Rachel didn’t plan to stay in this little girl’s body forever. If possible, she wanted to create a new body for herself again.
Even if the new body didn’t have any special powers or magical abilities, she at least wanted it to be an adult body.
As for the alchemy materials she needed… well, they were both easy and hard to get.
To be honest, many alchemy ingredients could be taken directly from nature. It was totally possible that something valuable for alchemy was already under her feet, just part of the dirt or plants around her.
Thankfully, when she changed bodies, she hadn’t lost her brain. As long as she still remembered her alchemy knowledge, she still had a chance to build herself a useful new body.
But tools and equipment for alchemy, and the books she needed to reference, were another story.
She still had to figure out a way to get those. She already knew how to find them on the black market, but… how was she going to get the money?
“Yaaawn...”
But that wasn’t something she needed to worry about right now. The more she thought about it, the more it felt like sitting through a boring class, making her even sleepier.
It was late at night. The world was quiet, and beside her, Evelia was breathing steadily in her sleep.
Surrounded by this warmth, Rachel felt herself relax too. Her eyelids started to get heavy, and she let out a long yawn.
Armand, hearing the sound of her yawn, gently reached out and patted her on the head.
Maybe it really was peaceful here. Because after a long day, Rachel quickly drifted off to sleep too, breathing softly like a little kitten.
“......”
Now, only Armand was still awake, and he was exhausted.
Evelia and Rachel were already fast asleep, and now… it was finally his turn.
He slowly closed his eyes, though it was more like resting than sleeping.
His insomnia was worse than he liked to admit. And with Evelia lying right next to him, he didn’t dare fall into deep sleep anyway.
Sigh...
‘Knowing you should sleep but still feeling too uneasy to do it.’
That was one of the most frustrating feelings in the world.
Armand could only lie there with his eyes closed. His body was completely tired, but his mind stayed awake.
Even though his eyes were shut from the strain, his eyeballs were still constantly moving under his lids.
‘...Why am I putting so much pressure on myself?’
He really wanted to ask himself that. But the burdens he and Evelia carried weren’t the same.
Evelia was carrying out the Second Prince’s orders. But he carried the weight of the Royal Knights, and even the people they swore to protect.
So frustrating...
Armand muttered to himself in his heart, trying to calm down his racing thoughts.
‘...If I can... just let me fall asleep, even just for a little while…’