Chapter 145: Children of the Same Age
Not long after, Armand and the others returned to Carle’s estate.
Even though Carle was a well-known wealthy man in the area, Rachel was surprised to find that his estate, at least from the outside, wasn’t as fancy as the one where Armand lived.
Still, it was quite grand. The family crests of both the "Morr" family (Carle’s side) and the "Plato" family (his wife’s side) were printed on the flags flying above the gate. From a distance, the whole scene gave off the feeling of an old noble household.
“Dad—!”
Just as Carle stepped out of the car, a little girl with long silver-white hair ran toward him. She squeezed out from under the butler’s arm and sprinted straight in his direction.
Her face looked just like a smaller, girl version of Carle.
“Don’t run too fast, Salana. You might fall.”
Carle crouched down to catch the little one charging at him. Even though she was running really fast and threw herself into his arms with a lot of force, Carle caught her steadily.
“Dad! Why did you come back so early today?”
Carle held his daughter, Salana, tightly in his arms. If people only knew him during work hours, they’d never imagine he was the kind of person who would let his daughter rub her face all over his.
“Uncle Armand, you’re here too!”
After Carle picked her up, Salana noticed Armand standing nearby.
“Hello, little one. It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? I’m honored you still remember my name.”
Armand stood beside Carle and reached out his hand. Salana politely grabbed one of his fingers with her small hand.
As she leaned her head on her dad’s shoulder, Salana suddenly spotted another little girl standing next to Armand.
Rachel had been trying to hide behind Armand, since she was the type of person who got a headache just from being around kids. The Rachel she had created… well, you could say she had “sacrificed herself” for the sake of science.
“Wow! Dad, Uncle Armand!” Salana waved at Rachel. “Did you bring a new friend for me?”
Seeing how excited Salana was, Carle quickly put her down, watching as she walked straight toward Rachel.
“Hello!”
Unlike Rachel, who preferred to be alone, Salana was much more cheerful and outgoing. She reached out her chubby little hand to Rachel.
“My name is Salana. What’s your name?”
“Uh…”
To be honest, Rachel wasn’t very good at talking to people. Especially not lively, energetic kids like this one.
“Go on, Rachel. Say hi.” Armand smiled and gently pushed her toward Salana by the back of her head.
“…Alright. Hello. My name is Rachel…”
Rachel’s expression was a little stiff.
“Now that we’ve introduced ourselves, I guess that makes us friends, right?”
Salana, still just a kid, didn’t notice Rachel’s awkward face at all. She spread her arms wide and gave Rachel a big hug.
The summer heat made the hug feel a little warm and stuffy, but out of kindness, and a bit of a “grown-up” attitude, Rachel returned the hug.
“Looks like it’s still easier for kids of the same age to get along.”
Armand smiled warmly as he watched Rachel and Salana hugging each other. Even though he hadn’t been in the “dad” role for very long, he already felt like a proud old father.
“…Same age? Seriously…” Rachel could only respond with a helpless sigh.
Same age? Please. She was older than everyone here put together. Back when she was out making a name for herself in the world, the father of the Second Prince’s father hadn’t even become a person yet. He was still just a “liquid” in the old emperor’s body.
And yet, in the end, she still ended up getting completely tricked by that guy…
After that mistake, Rachel originally wanted to turn over a new leaf and say something like, ‘I’ve been hurt too deeply by lies and money. This time I want to live as a good, honest member of society.’
But the very first thing she thought about when she opened her eyes was, ‘How can I make money with this kid’s body from now on?’
Even though Carle’s mansion didn’t look that fancy at first glance, the detailed interior decorations were extremely luxurious. Rachel almost started drooling just looking around.
She had gone hungry for a whole month once, and even back then, her mouth didn’t water this much.
Rachel had definitely been through hard times. Her family wasn’t well-off when she was young, and since they couldn’t afford tutors, she had to teach herself everything. Just buying books meant working three jobs, and after all that hard labor, she ended up with a bunch of lingering health problems.
In fact, her original motivation for studying alchemic life was to cure illness and save lives.
—Well, okay, maybe not that noble. Really, she just wanted to save herself.
Because of the intense studying and hard work, her body had started to break down. Once she learned alchemy, Rachel thought, ‘Rather than fixing something that might break again, wouldn’t it be better to just replace the whole part?’
And so, she started studying alchemic life.
Her first test subject was herself. She replaced her kidneys, which had been damaged from overwork. At first, her technique was still rough, but after a lot of trial and error, when she found out the artificial kidney worked, Rachel realized she had discovered the door to creation.
Unfortunately, even to this day, Rachel still hadn’t been able to create a true “conscious being.” Everything she made was either an empty shell or a puppet that followed pre-programmed instructions. None of them ever had real awareness or a soul.
Still, Rachel didn’t feel discouraged. She had also thought about it, creating something with a real soul and emotions could be very dangerous. That’s why, in the end, Evelia became her “substitute” subject for the experiment.
Even though Evelia wasn’t technically an alchemic lifeform, she already had her own soul. It was still fun to watch someone who didn’t understand emotions slowly develop them because of the world around her.
And honestly, Rachel found it even funnier when she remembered that Evelia was originally a man.
Trying to get a straight man to fall for another man is usually almost impossible. But if you change one of them into a woman, then it becomes a deeper question.
Is love based on the soul, or the body?
Of course, maybe it’s both.
After all, once someone’s appearance changes, their mindset might change with it too.
If Rachel had known earlier how interesting this topic was, she definitely would have studied it more seriously. But thankfully, it wasn’t too late now.
And what she was most curious about… was Armand’s reaction.
…What would Armand do if he ever found out that the “Evelia” who had been by his side all this time was originally a man?
Ah, of course, she was not going to tell him.
This kind of thing… it’s more fun when he finds out on his own.
Even though this alchemist usually looked calm and quiet, when it came to weird, messy experiments, she had a very twisted sense of humor.