Lucien had expected things to go smoothly, but Melissa's parents were proving to be quite annoying. He wanted to reach Norwind City as soon as possible and heal his mother. This was a crucial point in the story.

  ?

  In the story, after his mother's death, Lucien turned into a killing monster. The death urges he had barely managed to control became so violent that he tried to hide them for some time and go about his life, but he ended up killing innocent people. Soon, the heroes discovered Lucien's secret and revealed it to the world. Lucien fled from the academy and continued to kill, the guilt and violence only piling up until he died, unable to control his murderous urges.

  ?

  Lucien was never a true villain. So far, he had not killed any innocent people, but in the future, he would kill if he could not heal his mother, who was the anchor point in his life. She meant everything to him.

  ?

  Even though he had lived two lives, he had only received parental love in this life, and now he feared losing his mother. Lucien’s mothers had dearly cared for him since childhood. She had told him enough stories of heroes to motivate him to walk the righteous path, but his personality was not suited for true heroism. His heart was never meant for such a life. Instead, he developed a hatred toward the weak, and the powerless. He disliked those who were not strong enough, since all heroes were strong in stories.

  ?

  The only people he loved and cared for were his parents. When he lost his mother, everything fell apart. As someone who knew future events up until Lucien’s death, he knew he had to heal his mother at any cost.

  ?

  The key was the future saintess, Melissa Waters, who was blessed by the goddess of light and could heal any disease.

  ?

  Lucien did not know how he would feel seeing Melissa in real life, a character he had only read about in the story. Internally, he was excited, but his face did not reflect it.

  ?

  When he saw her sitting at the table, about to eat dinner, he felt a surge of happiness inside. She was one of his favorite and most tragic characters from the story.

  ?

  Thankfully, from the looks of it, she had lived a good life up until now. But once she joined the church as the official saintess, things would start to go downhill.

  ?

  Lucien had to prevent that fate and save her from her tragic ending. But if he interfered too much, the story would derail from its original plot. Still, he had to save her from the clutches of the church. Since she would play a crucial role in the future.

  ?

  Melissa and her parents exited the house. The sound of their footsteps drew Lucien's attention.

  ?

  Melissa had long black hair that flowed to her waist, and her dark eyes analyzed him, her gaze lingering near his heart. Her face was porcelain white, so beautiful she could have been a model in his old world, perhaps even a top actress. She wore a fitted woolen jacket over her black shirt and thick trousers. She had changed her clothes to something warmer since the night was growing colder, and she carried a muffler around her neck. Even though her clothes were not particularly grand, she looked stunning in them.

  ?

  In the future, she would become even more beautiful. He could not imagine just how radiant she would become.

  ?

  He stood outside their home's wooden fence with his horse.

  ?

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Lucien turned to look at his horse, Obsidian, who seemed somewhat terrified of Melissa. Lucien knew the reason: Melissa had a light affinity, and Obsidian had grown up in Highland Valley, near the demonic forest filled with black miasma.

  ?

  Highland horses were mutated due to contact with black miasma. They evolved and maintained their rationality, likely because the black miasma was not potent enough in Highland Valley.

  ?

  The natural enemy of black miasma was light magic, and the future saintess, who possessed it and carried holy blessings, would definitely terrify a horse that had evolved in black miasma.

  ?

  "She is not a threat." Lucien patted the horse. His words of comfort were as brief as they could possibly be.

  ?

  Obsidian calmed down. "Hhh-t!" it snorted, as if trying to tell him it was not afraid.

  ?

  Lucien smiled inwardly at his horse. He felt weird smiling internally. Before he had regained memories of his past life as Evan, he would never have smiled internally; his face and thoughts were always aligned, and that was how he became so impassive. But now, with Evan’s memories, he could smile and worry internally in a way that did not feel entirely like Lucien. It was all because of Evan’s influence. Both of his lives had lasted nineteen years: Evan died at nineteen, and as Lucien, he was still nineteen. As Evan, he had been a kind, timid, and silent boy, but as Lucien, he was a killing machine who feared no one. His internal monologue was a mixture of both, but his body was mostly Lucien’s, trained to act in a certain way that would not likely change soon.

  ?

  Lucien shoved his thoughts aside and looked at Melissa standing before him.

  ?

  "Have you ever sat on a horse?" Lucien asked. He truly did not know, since the author had never shown Melissa’s village life. The story began at the academy. If only the author had mentioned the village, he would have found Melissa's home much sooner. There was only a rough understanding of its location, and he had searched for a long time before finding it.

  Also, he only roughly found out his mother would die tomorrow since tomorrow was the official start day of the academy, where he was the youngest professor. The author had explicitly mentioned multiple times that due to Lucien’s mother's death, he was not attending the academy for a week.

  ?

  If only the author had mentioned that Melissa’s village was called Downvalley, he could have saved a couple of hours.

  ?

  "N-No," she answered, shaking her head. She seemed to stutter in front of him, afraid of his presence.

  ?

  Lucien knew the reason for her fear. It was his black heart and the aura of death he carried with him. In the story, Melissa was the first to confront him, calling him a villain, though he had denied it to her.

  ?

  "It won’t be difficult. I learned to ride a horse in a day. Sitting behind will be even easier," Lucien said. He saw Melissa roll her eyes at his claim of learning to ride so quickly.

  ?

  As Lucien, he had never thought of it as an achievement, since he had actually fallen many times at the beginning, and it had hurt his pride. But now, with his memories of his previous life and a more grounded perspective, he understood what an accomplishment it was. Most people took weeks, if not months, to ride properly, yet he had managed it in a single day. Very few could do the same.

  ?

  Thankfully, Lucien had prepared a seat for Melissa in advance. He had told the brown-haired boy to add a double-seated saddle.

  ?

  Lucien jumped onto the horse’s back, sat on the front saddle seat, and grabbed the reins. Obsidian gazed at Melissa with wary eyes.

  ?

  Lucien steadied the horse. "Grab my hand with your right hand, tighten your left hand on the saddle, place your right foot in the stirrup, then push off the ground with your left leg and swing it over the horse's back. Sit down once you are over," he instructed Melissa.

  ?

  Melissa gripped his right hand tightly, held onto the saddle with her left, placed her right foot in the stirrup, and pushed herself off the ground.

  ?

  But as she was swinging her left leg over the horse, she started to fall back down. Her left hand released the saddle and grabbed onto his shirt’s sleeve, almost tearing it apart.

  ?

  Lucien immediately grabbed her left hand with his free hand as he turned toward her. "Move your left leg over the horse," he angrily said. She had almost torn his shirt’s sleeve. But since he acted out so quickly, the sleeves survived. What would he wear if it actually tore? He had not brought a change of clothes.

  ?

  Melissa, timid as a cat, followed his instructions and sat behind him.

  ?

  Lucien sighed inwardly. He did not know how to speak kind words. Even after gaining Evan’s memories, he found it difficult to soften up; his body was not designed to speak kindly.

  ?

  Lucien gazed at Melissa’s parents. Their black eyes seemed to want to say something, but were filled with fear of angering him. They had already taken an oath from him and knew he could not harm her, even if he wanted to.

  ?

  "Take care of Melissa," her mother said. Melissa’s father stood there, his lips parting as if to say something, but he decided against it.

  ?

  "U-um," Melissa spoke softly, her voice weak.