Even if Eleonora were to miraculously open her eyes in her state, which was highly improbable, she would not be able to escape the chain of Laurent’s Protection Bureau until she has paid for her crimes.

That’s why Noah had given Adrian two choices: Either force that ruined woman back to life and let her rot in prison for the rest of her life. Or live comfortably here. Noah hoped that he’d choose the latter. She wanted him to break away from the boundaries and free himself and give him a chance to do so.

For a while, there was no response from Adrian. It was more right to say that he could not answer immediately. Tears started to show in his green eyes. After a long time, he said her name in a sobbing voice.

“Noah.”

“Yeah.”

“If I don’t have Eleonora, how can I live?” The tears falling down his pale face wet the collar of his worn-out shirt. His eyes became distorted.

“I don’t know,” Noah muttered. It was all she could say.

“I don’t know what will be left after Eleonora Asil is taken away from me. Probably nothing. What will I do then?”

The line of tears streaming down his face grew to two lines. Noah felt like she was walking alone on a rainy street holding an umbrella tightly, a few hours away from death.

Would she also cry with a blank face like that?

She clasped Adrian’s shoulder as if she were comforting herself. “It’s better if nothing is left. That means the space which can be filled with something new is that much bigger.” She had said that in a bright tone, but it was unclear whether the comfort had reached him or not. Still, everything she had said up to now was from the heart.

“If you still don’t know what you’re supposed to do or how you’re going to live, I’ll help you. I’m actually not fully recovered, so I’m not sure how much help I can be, but… it’s still better than doing it alone,” she murmured.

“I’ll set a big direction for your life to come. But as you follow me, there will be new things to fill your life with.”

“How and where will you set the direction?” asked Adrian. His voice mixed with tremors. Noah was looking at him for a bit, when she laughed jokingly.

“I’m not going to tell you now. But you’ll find out soon. Shortly. Probably tomorrow when the sun rises?”

Tomorrow is the day of Adrian’s trial; the day that will be the final destination of Noah’s plan. She glanced at him and smiled, “You’re curious, huh? So just hold off for one more day.”

Adrian merely stared at her, unable to voice a reply.

“These trivial things are worth spending the day for. Even though I am not really Eleonora. When I first fell into this world, I was so happy at the fact that I could sleep all day. My lethargy is getting better and I meet a lot of new people because I’ve been doing a lot of the things I couldn’t do. So I really like who I am right now,” smiled Noah. “You too will be the same. For sure.”

Noah was speaking in a voice as bright as possible, and when she saw that tears had formed in his green eyes again, she was embarrassed.

“Hey, why are you crying? Stop crying!”

Adrian didn’t answer in words until she eventually left the interrogation room. He cried for a long time even after everything Noah wanted to convey was over, and eventually, he poured out so much pent-up sorrow that she had to pat him on the head and soothe him for quite a while.

With that sad sob, it was as if she had heard his answer.

***

Deep darkness and deep silence spread across the Lendia Annex, from where the investigators and researchers had left when work time ended. After Penélope left after bringing in Adrian, Noah remained sunken in the sofa, staring into thin air.

Two hours until Kyle comes.

That’s how long it would take to lock Adrian in the Imperial Castle’s basement jail cell and return by tomorrow when the trial was held. After Kyle returns, she will probably be right next to him until just before the trial tomorrow, so now is the only chance.

Noah slowly rose. The door to the laboratory she had had to herself for the past several days slammed open.

As she entered the doorway, the door latch locked behind her. She whispered quietly to Muell, who was already in the lab, “Hey, make a barrier.”

After swiftly rising like a cat, he began to circle the experiment chair. Black orbs gradually appeared in the spots he ran past. Above them were gently swaying nets.

Noah stood in the center of the well-lit lab, staring at the experiment chair. She had talked to Adrian like he had two choices, but in fact, Eleonora’s fate, which she had set, had already been decided.

On the cold iron experiment chair, the body Noah had been wearing for the past two years was lying dead.