"Her ability isn't sothing she can fully control. Most of the ti, she subconsciously reads other people's emotions."
Kal'tsit frowned. After helping Amiya lie down on a nearby hospital bed, she turned to Steven and calmly explained the situation.
She was well aware of Amiya's powers, so she didn't think Steven was attempting to do any harm to Amiya. In fact, the real priority now was to calm him down.
Nobody liked having their consciousness and mories exposed to soone else, even if it wasn't intentional. There was no guarantee that Steven wouldn't be angry about this.
Luckily, from his expression, he didn't seem particularly bothered.
And indeed, he wasn't.
Steven knew exactly what kind of ntal state he was in. Having lived for centuries in a world with no one to talk to, no one understood his own mind better than he did.
After his early years of battling wits with the will of the world, he had fallen into a long, endless solitude that stretched on for hundreds of years.
During that ti, he had gone insane countless tis—only to recover again because of the sheer passage of ti.
Or rather, he hadn't fully recovered.
Instead, he had compartntalized his mories.
All the mundane, repetitive, and aningless experiences were buried together, while the significant, thought-provoking ones were kept at the forefront of his mind.
It might sound impossible, but Steven had long since proven that if one lived long enough—and was determined enough—it was entirely achievable.
He called this state of mind Preserving the Self.
It was thanks to this technique that he could maintain a personality and mindset nearly identical to what he had before transmigrating.
As for those endless, mind-numbing centuries of solitude?
To Steven now, they felt like the life story of a stranger—sothing he knew every detail about, but found difficult to emotionally connect with.
Ironically, this had beco his strongest layer of ntal defense.
Anyone who dared to invade his mind or spirit would first have to endure hundreds of years of chanical, repetitive loneliness.
And clearly, Amiya had not been able to endure it.
Steven was willing to believe that she hadn't ant to pry into his mind. If she had done it intentionally, she wouldn't have chosen such an obvious mont to act.
"S-Sorry..."
Amiya, still struggling against the sharp pain in her head, forced herself upright on the hospital bed. Her voice was weak as she apologized.
What she had glimpsed in Steven's emotions was an overwhelming silence—an isolation so absolute that it was utterly incompatible with the lively, easygoing person in front of her.
She had only wanted to understand—to grasp what kind of experience could give rise to such a void.
But the re attempt had left her in this miserable state.
Yet Steven, the one who truly carried those mories, could still smile and joke so lightly?
"A simple apology isn't enough for sothing like this, you know."
Steven waved a hand dismissively.
He didn't say sothing like "it's fine" or "I'll let it go". Instead, he seized the chance to make his exit.
"But, well… we'll deal with that after you've recovered. You guys clearly have your hands full, so I'll go check on Gladiia instead."
Seeing Kal'tsit and Warfarin fully preoccupied with Amiya's condition, Steven figured there was no point in sticking around. Rather than sitting there awkwardly, it was better to spend his ti elsewhere.
As for how to settle this matter?
Kal'tsit would give him an answer sooner or later.
"Then… about the Oripathy treatnt—"
Warfarin hesitated.
This whole situation had been shaping up to be a promising deal—until this unexpected accident threw everything off course.
Who could've seen this coming?
Her only real concern now was whether Steven would develop so emotions over this incident and abandon the agreent they had just made.
"That's a separate matter," Steven said with a smile. "I won't go back on my word. Besides, you all needed ti to decide who you'd send in as my test subject anyway. Now, isn't this just the perfect opportunity?"
With that, he followed the direction Gavial had taken Gladiia earlier and walked off.
Stretching lazily as he stepped out of the dical ward, Steven quickly located Gladiia's room on his minimap. He knocked lightly, and after getting permission from inside, he pushed the door open and entered.
The mont he stepped in, his eyes fell on a white-haired girl lying on the hospital bed, looking just like a sleeping beauty.
But sothing felt… off.
It had only been a few dozen minutes since he last saw her, yet why did his daughter seem shorter now?
Scratching his head, he walked over to the sleeping girl's side.
Gavial, busy with her work, didn't even acknowledge him, allowing him to move around the room freely.
Not that there was anything to hide.
But when Steven finally got a good look at the sleepy-eyed girl Gavial was currently examining, he suddenly felt like his whole worldview had just taken a hit.
What the hell? His daughter had… multiplied?!
If the girl lying on the bed was Gladiia, then who the hell was this one?
Fortunately, Steven had his Entity Information Display Mod to rely on. After glancing at the still-sleeping girl's status, he saw the title floating above her head: [Abyssal Hunter: Specter].
Ah… So that's what Kal'tsit ant by Gladiia's companion.
No wonder he had felt sothing was strange about Gladiia's height earlier.
So it turned out this was her comrade all along. Judging from the title alone, they were indeed from the sa group.
Not only that, but their shared snow-white hair further confird their kinship.
'So this is the other Abyssal Hunter Kal'tsit ntioned, huh? Gotta say, she's pretty.'
Steven stroked his chin as he examined the girl on the hospital bed.
Upon closer inspection, she and Gladiia really did have too many similarities. No wonder he had mistaken them for the sa person at first glance.
Setting aside their identical hair color, their delicately sculpted faces were another giveaway. They were so flawlessly beautiful that it was hard to believe such creations could exist in this world.
Even their status effects were identical—the (Currently Amnesiac) tag hung at the end of both of their titles.
Did soone smash her brain to bits, too?
If there was one major difference between the two, it was that this girl was slightly smaller overall.
Not just in height but in figure as well.
Her chest, her fra—everything about her was just a miniaturized version of Gladiia.
Not that there was anything wrong with that, but if Steven had to pick a preference… well, he was still more accustod to the larger variety.
As he silently compared the two in his mind, the room's door was suddenly pushed open again.
Steven instinctively turned his head—only to lock eyes with yet another girl who had just rushed inside.
Ah, yet another white-haired, red-eyed figure.
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