Downstairs, Vera supported Aurelia back to her room, helped her change the medicine, and re-bandaged her wound.
Looking at the hideous injury, Vera sighed in distress. “You silly girl, the Captain told you to go and you just went? Don’t you know how to push back?”
Her forefinger tapped Aurelia’s forehead, carrying both reproach and helpless concern.
“It’s lucky it was only your calf. What if you lost your life?”
Aurelia leaned against the headboard, whispering in protest, “I—I just wanted to help a little… How was I supposed to know I’d be so unlucky…”
【And that damn Red-Haired guy at the time looked so fierce, like he wouldn’t take no for an answer! From his expression, if I’d refused, he might’ve just dragged me off!】
But she didn’t dare say that aloud.
“You should help within your limits!” Vera poked her forehead again. “Next time, see if I don’t give you a talking-to! Alright, go to sleep quickly. Only then will your wound heal faster.”
“Mm, thank you, Vera.”
Aurelia obediently lay down. Vera tucked her in, blew out the oil lamp by the bed, leaving only a small nightlight casting a hazy glow.
【Miss Vera is so kind… beautiful, gentle, valiant, truly a big sister… Sigh, it’s a pity I’m a girl now too—don’t even have the right tools for crime…】
These random thoughts quickly wore her out. Combined with the pain from her injury, she drifted off to sleep in no time.
Vera waited outside the room until Aurelia’s breathing was steady before quietly closing the door and leaving.
She didn’t go back to her own room, but walked toward Laurence’s room and knocked. There was no reply from inside.
【The Captain isn’t back? Where did he go now? Tonight… I don’t think there’s a patrol scheduled?】
Vera frowned slightly, confusion filling her heart. After a moment’s thought, she decided not to go looking and returned to her room.
When the Captain needed time alone, it was best not to disturb him. This was an unspoken rule Vera had learned in the past several months she’d known Laurence.
However… she couldn’t shake a vague sense of unease, as if something somewhere was about to change—and it would be an irreversible change.
【Maybe it’s just my imagination… The Captain’s odd mood lately has been affecting everyone. I’ll have a proper talk with him tomorrow.】
Night deepened; the encampment was fully asleep, with only the sound of wind and the occasional chirp of insects from afar.
***
On the rooftop, Laurence opened his eyes, his Golden Eyes burning like holy fire in the darkness, dazzling and bright.
He estimated the time—it was when most people were in the deepest part of sleep. Stepping lightly, he landed on the ground almost without a sound.
Arriving outside Aurelia’s room, Laurence pressed his ear to the door, hearing only even, shallow breathing and the occasional soft moan of pain from inside.
He opened the door, slipped in, and closed it quickly behind him, letting out a silent breath.
This feeling of sneaking into the room of a sleeping maiden… gave him the ridiculous illusion of being a thief in the night.
【Tch, what maiden? She’s the Disaster that will destroy the world! Why am I thinking such nonsense?】 Laurence rubbed his temples and forced himself to calm down.
Moonlight streamed through the window, softly illuminating the room.
Aurelia lay on her side on the bed, her sleeping face serene, legs tightly hugging the quilt, brows occasionally furrowing from pain in her leg.
Long lashes cast faint shadows, making her seem completely defenseless—one careless sword thrust could pierce right through.
Looking at her, Laurence’s heart involuntarily began to race.
He held his breath, step by step approaching the bed, each step so light it was as if he walked atop the God Mountain Range—utterly insubstantial.
He stopped half a step from the bed, slowly opened his palm, and revealed a dim Magic Crystal resting quietly in his hand.
He carefully moved the Magic Crystal close to Aurelia’s injured calf, the one resting outside the quilt.
【React… Give me a reaction! Prove I’m right!】
He stared intently at Aurelia’s face, spiritual sense raised to the utmost, sensing for the slightest fluctuation of energy around her.
But deep down, Laurence actually hoped… there would be no reaction.
He wanted to be wrong, hoped those memories from his previous life were false, not to be trusted.
He hoped that figure who laughed maniacally in the sky, slaughtering tens of thousands, wasn’t her—but someone borrowing her appearance, impersonating her.
But then—
Just as the Magic Crystal was about to touch Aurelia’s bandaged calf—
『Heh, so the brave one noticed the anomaly already? Fine, let’s take this opportunity and let the Soul Container recognize its true self. Even if… it costs us a sliver of power…!』
With a surge of ominous energy, the black-haired girl’s eyes snapped open in her sleep.
But those were no longer the familiar, timid or gentle red eyes Laurence knew.
Instead, they were icy cold, vertical scarlet reptilian pupils. There was no focus, only the cold indifference of one looking down upon ants.
“!?” Laurence’s pupils shrank, his heart almost stopping.
【Not good! It’s coming!】
Before he could react, Aurelia’s right hand shot out like lightning.
That once slender, pale hand instantly became covered in a layer of pitch-black, closely knit Dragon Scale under the moonlight, the nails sharpening like daggers.
An irresistible, terrifying force crushed down on Laurence’s wrist.
He hadn’t even seen the movement before the Magic Crystal was snatched from his grip, seized midair by that Dragon Scale-clad hand.
【How is this possible?! She’s already awakened? When did it happen!?】
Laurence’s mind reeled. He tried to struggle, unleashing Blood Qi to activate his war skill, but found himself bound as if by invisible shackles—not a single finger could move.
The girl before him slowly sat up, her movements rigid yet elegant in an inhuman way.
She didn’t even glance at Laurence. Her unfocused reptilian pupils were fixed on the Magic Crystal, now trembling slightly in her hand.
The dragon-clawed hand squeezed gently, and with a crisp “crack,” the hard Magic Crystal shattered like brittle glass.
Pure Disaster energy turned into several tangible scarlet streams, surging from the shattered crystal, but unable to escape the dragon claw’s grasp.
What happened next chilled Laurence to the bone, plunging him into utter despair.
Dark red Disaster energy, like living things, scrambled to burrow beneath the bandages. The cloth was instantly dyed red, then rotted and turned to ash.
In just a few breaths, the deep, bone-baring wound vanished without a trace.
The skin of the calf was smooth again, not even a scar left, as if it had never been injured.
Only the lingering Disaster energy in the air proved just how strange and terrifying the events just now were.
Laurence’s mind went blank.
【So you’re not pretending anymore… This… is your true nature? Disaster!】
Just as Laurence was being swallowed by despair, convinced he would be torn apart by this awakened “Disaster” the next instant, the changes in the girl before him suddenly faded.
The cold reptilian pupils dissolved, focus returned, and the familiar red eyes—sleepy and hazy—looked back at Laurence.
The pitch-black Dragon Scale covering her right hand receded like a tide, the sharp claws retracting, leaving only a slender, pale hand behind.
But on the skin’s surface, faint traces of a deep red pattern—like burns from searing heat—remained, shocking to behold.
『Next… this is the moment I’ve looked forward to the most… Soul Container. Feel despair, feel fate, and finally… embrace our power…!』
“Mm…?”
Aurelia let out a subconscious murmur, her long lashes fluttering as she groggily opened her eyes.
【I think I just had a weird dream… My leg… doesn’t hurt anymore? How odd, did someone in the squad use some amazing little gadget to fix me up?】
She instinctively tried to rub her eyes, but suddenly found herself staring into a pair of golden eyes burning with boundless rage and icy killing intent just inches away.
***
He was half-kneeling by the bed, face ashen, veins bulging on his temple.
Those always steady and calm Golden Eyes now held nothing but the pain of betrayal and utter, frozen resolve. The terrifying aura radiating from him nearly solidified the air.
Aurelia’s drowsiness evaporated instantly, her mind blank.
【What the heck… What happened? Why is the Captain looking at me like that? Like I killed his father or something…】
She had no idea what had happened. She only remembered falling asleep peacefully, and then waking to see the Captain looking like he wanted to eat her alive.
“C-Captain? Why… why are you…” she stammered, trying instinctively to back away.
That look of utter bewilderment, as if she truly didn’t know anything, was the last straw for Laurence.
“Still pretending?! Even now, you want to play innocent?!”
He’d seen it with his own eyes—the reptilian pupils, the Disaster power healing the wound, the traces of Dragon Scale—everything was irrefutable evidence!
“Pretending innocent? Captain, what’s wrong with you?!”
Aurelia, completely panicked, shrank back even further, but to Laurence it was almost laughable.
“Disaster—!”
Laurence’s voice erupted in a guttural, agony-laced growl, all hesitation burned away.
The next moment, he drew his sword. Blood Qi surged, coating the blade. With all his strength, he slashed, sending a sword aura strong enough to cut through steel.
“War Skill: Air Slash!”
“Captain, are you crazy?!”
Aurelia had no time to think. The shadow of death made her blood boil with terror.
She had no idea why the Captain was trying to kill her; she only knew the pressure from that attack and the looming sense of death were all too real.
In that instant, her survival instincts overwhelmed everything else.
She didn’t even think—her body reacted on its own. She flung up her right hand, which still held a faint residual heat, in front of her.
“Clang—!”
A metallic, grating crash rang out in the room.
Laurence’s Air Slash struck squarely on Aurelia’s upraised right forearm.
But the expected scene—her arm being sliced off, blood spraying—did not occur.
Instead, under her pale skin, the previously faint red pattern suddenly flared with light.
A fleeting illusion of dense, hard Dragon Scale covered the spot, weak but perfectly timed.
The Air Slash collided as if hitting tempered steel, merely causing Aurelia’s arm to tremble violently.
She instinctively flung her arm aside, and the sword aura veered off course, “Bang!” slicing a man-sized hole in the window.
As Laurence caught his breath, Aurelia clutched her arm and retreated, her back hitting the cold wall.
【Hiss! My hand! It hurts!】
A stabbing pain shot through her right arm, but what shocked her more was that fleeting glimpse—Dragon Scale?
【Was… was that the old bastard’s power?!】
She understood instantly.
That wasn’t a dream—the old thing had controlled her body again and done something, and the Captain had found out!
【It’s over! Totally over!】
A wave of terror and despair overwhelmed her.
At that moment, Laurence stood beside the bed, sword frozen mid-swing.
His golden pupils contracted sharply. The last glimmer of light in his eyes paused at the spot on Aurelia’s arm where the Dragon Scale phantom had flashed by.
She had deflected his full-powered sword aura with just a flick of her hand. That glimmer of hope in his eyes finally went out, leaving nothing but endless… darkness.
【…Blocked it…】
【With… Dragon Scale…】
【So easily… even… deflected my full attack…】
He looked at Aurelia, clutching her arm, and suddenly let out a laugh.
It wasn’t loud, but was thick with self-mockery.
The blood at the girl’s lips, her eyes full of shock, fear, and despair—it all seemed so ironic to him.
His heart felt as if it had been gripped by an invisible hand—and then crushed.
All his doubts, his tests, his struggles, now had their final answer.
Clear. Cruel. Undeniable.
“Of course it’s you… the source of Disaster…!”
The obsession of a past life, the wavering of this life, the remnants of adoration and longing—all of it, in this moment when the Dragon Scale had so easily deflected his attack, turned to dust.
He slowly lowered his sword. The rage and frenzy faded from him like the tide.
What replaced it was a chilling, deathly calm.
A calm that came from seeing the truth, cutting all ties, and being left with only a single, absolute purpose.
He looked at Aurelia once more.
No more anger, no more pain, not even the sting of betrayal.
All that was left was the pure cold of seeing through everything, utter understanding—and a disappointment so deep it ached in his bones.