Silver silently closed the door.
He hadn't entered Sid's study for almost a month.
However, even the exact same scenes and things will become unfamiliar after a month of time.
He became uneasy in this unfamiliar environment, and his unease grew increasingly frantic.
So flustered that I didn't even know where to put my hands and feet.
He was completely stiff.
This feeling, however, is familiar.
He had been just as stiff last autumn.
At that time, he waited alone under the dim streetlights in front of the door, looking at the dark and terrifying night and thick fog, waiting for a completely impossible future.
He thought that he, who had always been unfortunate, had finally been blessed by the world.
Looking back, it all seems like a beautiful dream.
The world has evolved.
And his dream finally came to an end.
He can no longer deceive himself.
He was cruelly abandoned by the world.
While all living beings boarded the ark to Paradise, he could only sink along with the world that had passed away.
Because the truth he had deliberately suppressed in his heart cruelly surfaced—
He is not good enough for Sid.
His nearly crippled Branch of Time, only at level two, not only represented his incompetence and fragility, but also sealed his fate of a short life.
He will start to age in at most thirty years.
He had to confront a precipitous decline in physical fitness, resulting in a hunched back and an unsightly appearance.
At that time, Sid must have still been in his prime.
Before the world evolved, he could still deceive himself.
And as the world evolves, what futile struggles can he, forever left on the other side, make?
On the other side of breaking through the shackles of level seven was a world he could never have imagined.
Sid's lifespan will surely be ten times that of him.
This inevitability was not even something he came up with in his wild imagination.
The union of the useless Grand Duke and the genius alchemist became the hottest topic of conversation throughout the entire Golden Cloud Kingdom overnight.
Yes, even those subjects he so desperately wanted to help and save no longer approve of his marriage to Sid.
While his political enemies certainly played a role in this, he was truly powerless to do anything about it.
Because this is no longer a problem that can be solved simply by having a firm will, full of enthusiasm, and unremitting efforts.
Everyone was laughing at him.
He himself was indeed a joke.
The cruel world was like a giant roller, mercilessly crushing his taut, carefully maintained self-esteem.
I still remember that day.
He returned to the mansion, dejected and heartbroken, to the side of the spouse he had longed for day and night.
He swore he had absolutely no intention of testing Sid.
He just really, really needed to draw some strength from Sid.
He hates the world's sudden evolution.
He even took his anger out on Yun Wei because of this.
So, naturally, Sid and he had a big argument, and the two parted on bad terms.
God knows how much guilt he felt when he suddenly saw Isaac again today.
Compared to Isaac, who was as pure and simple as a breeze, he was hardly virtuous, and even ruthless to the point of being heartless.
He felt that he was not pure at all.
You should know that Sid loves pure things the most.
Moreover, as the most esteemed alchemist, the other party is fully entitled to refuse any defective products.
But he happens to have both.
Strangely, Isaac seemed quite pleased with himself and treated him as usual.
After carefully considering his words and making inquiries, he learned that Yun Wei had actually been resurrected.
"You're not allowed to have any complaints about him. If anything happens, you can only come at me," Isaac said to him, half-jokingly and half-seriously.
His handsome and dashing features exuded an undeniable confidence.
It was obvious that he had been getting along very well with his lover lately, and even his handsome face, which was beaming with joy, was filled with a warm smile.
Comparing the two, Silver couldn't help but feel envious, so envious it made his mouth taste bitter.
After calming down for a while, he had long since stopped holding a grudge against Yun Wei.
He himself is the only place where all negative emotions should go.
He made a huge mistake, but he was too weak.
But to his dismay, his extremely unreliable mentor shared a whole bunch of tips and tricks on how to please one's partner.
Even though he had been feeling down lately, he couldn't help but marvel at the incredibly shameless self-help guides he heard.
Finally, Isaac patted him hard on the back. "Come on, go to the study with your master. Don't worry, I'll help you hold off Yun Wei—you know, once they're together, they always lose track of time."
Silver deeply agrees with this.
He was coughing as Isaac helped him upstairs.
Encouraged by the other party, he surprisingly mustered up his courage again.
By the time he came to his senses, he had already arrived at Sid's door.
The door opened.
Yun Wei was indeed perfectly fine.
She even gave him a friendly fist pump, silently cheering him on.
Seeing this, Silver felt even more ashamed.
He has been like this all this time.
Once inner confidence and pride are completely destroyed, it is easy to be overwhelmed by a surge of negative emotions.
However, Sid's voice came through, interrupting his thoughts: "You've been standing there for so long, what do you have to say?"
The other person closed the somewhat old, thick book on the table, but their eyes, hidden behind their glasses, stared coldly at him.
Not only that, Sid's expression was also indifferent.
Silver paused for a moment, then stammered, "I...I want to apologize to you. It was wrong of me to argue with you before."
“Yes, I accept.” Sid nodded, his expression calm. “After all, I also have problems, and I should apologize to you.”
The excuse that had led to a nearly month-long cold war between the two was thus dismissed with just a few words.
Everything was done in an extremely rushed manner.
Silver was speechless, completely at a loss for words.
A deathly silence fell over the study, as if even the air itself weighed an ounce. The sunlight that usually streamed into the study was bright and clear, but now it was pale and devoid of warmth.
Finally, Sid tapped the table. "Alright, now that we've talked it out, let's leave it at that."
After speaking, the other person took off their glasses, closed their eyes, and gently massaged their brows and the bridge of their nose.
Silver knew this meant that Sid was getting impatient.
Under normal circumstances, he should have taken his leave immediately in this situation.
But his feet seemed rooted to the spot, making it impossible for him to move his legs. He simply continued to stand silently in place.
He stared rudely and brazenly at his legal partner, tracing the other's face with his gaze.
In fact, this is a completely useless effort.
Because, from the moment they first met, he would never forget Sid.
Sid didn't open his eyes, but asked listlessly, "Julius, what exactly are you trying to say?"
Silver lowered his eyes.
His fist clenched suddenly, then relaxed abruptly.
He finally opened his mouth, but the sound that came out didn't sound like his own at all.
"Sid. Otherwise... let's get a divorce." He actually said that.
After a few light, airy syllables, the study fell silent once more.
Even Silver himself was stunned.
His heart was numb, yet the pain was so intense it felt like it was about to burst.
"Is this the fart you finally managed to hold in for a month?" Sid suddenly opened his eyes and looked up at him.
The expression on the other person's face was more stern than ever before.
It was just extremely bland.
It seems like they don't care at all.
Realizing this, the Grand Duke of Bethlehem felt a pain spreading from his heart, and his cold limbs were completely unresponsive to his will.
He didn't know what strange illness he had contracted; at that moment, his mouth seemed to be filled with the metallic smell of rust.
"Fine, I have no objection. Now get out of my house, before sunset, and then..."
"Then you must never appear before me again. There's no need for us to meet again." The alchemist in front of him said this with restraint and indifference.
It was like dealing with those insignificant nobles who came to pay their respects.
Outside Silver's sight, Sid's fingertips, hidden under the table, had already dug into his palm. If Yun Wei were still there, he would have clearly sensed that the elements in the entire room were violently colliding and annihilating.
However, Silver remained standing motionless.
After uttering such heartless words, he still dared to stare sadly and desperately at the partner he had decided to abandon.
Sid was instantly enraged. "Are you deaf? I told you to get out—"
"Get out!"
In the last phrase, the alchemist surprisingly swore.
In that shout, he seemed to have exhausted all his reason and restraint, his voice hoarse and out of tune, and he could only press his chest against the table and gasp for breath.
However, Silver remained motionless, as if determined to take in his embarrassment.
Sid's rationality snapped completely.
He suddenly summoned a bolt of lightning and hurled it straight at Silver's face.
Even though the alchemical artifact was activated immediately and resisted the impact of the magic, the Grand Duke of Bethlehem still collapsed to the ground as the tingling sensation passed through the shield.
As the circuit was connected, the dark purple to white current instantly shattered the already thin ether between the two.
After a series of crackling sounds, countless alchemical artifacts on Silver's body exploded like dominoes. The last time such a scene occurred was in the dungeon of the Alchemy City.
This time, however, Sid wanted to get rid of his sworn enemy as soon as possible.
The other person was her husband, and also the love of her life.
In every instant, tens of thousands of assets are directly destroyed and turned to ashes.
At each pause, endless, lingering love is shattered and withdrawn, severing all ties and obligations.
I don't know exactly how much time has passed.
The air in the entire study smelled terrible, like a legendary hell filled with sulfur.
The last sturdy spell to be broken was the "Majestic Veil," which both of them remembered vividly.
The spell, which once carried such solemn meaning, was unsurprisingly reduced to a pool of foul-smelling black water under the alchemist's wrath.
The nimble electric snake coiled around Sid's forearm, its dark purple tongue flicking fiercely, ready to deliver the final, fatal blow.
Sid raised his head and slowly walked up to Silver, looking down at the man lying on the ground. "Get out of here, Julius. For the sake of our past relationship, I'll give you one last chance."
He tried hard to adopt the posture of a superior, but his soul had long since been reduced to dust.
Seeing Silver, who was almost unconscious, Sid finally couldn't suppress the intense resentment in his heart.
He glared at the other man with resentment and said bitterly, "I was so blind back then, Julius. You really...you have disappointed me so much."
His despair at this moment cannot be summed up by the word "disappointment".
He himself seemed to be torn apart and shattered—
No, he himself was incomplete to begin with.
It was gradually pieced together and restored to its original state by the other party, only to be smashed to pieces by their own hands the moment it was repaired.
This is the basic principle of "equivalent exchange" in alchemy, so what right does he have to resent the other party?
If I had known that falling in love with someone would be this painful.
If only time could turn back—
He would absolutely never get involved in love.
At this moment, Sid felt an intense loathing for himself.
He felt as if he, who had given everything to the other person without reservation, was the cheapest and most worthless thing in the world.
A violent wave of nausea washed over him, accompanied by bouts of dizziness; he was about to vomit.
"Hehehehe..." Silver was still chuckling with his head down.
Sid looked up in disbelief, completely losing all his strength.
Blood was clearly seeping from the corner of the other person's mouth, yet he was still laughing wildly, "Hehe, haha—cough! Cough cough!"
The low laughter was quickly drowned out by a series of violent coughs.
A dry cough with a strong, bloody smell sounded like it was being torn apart.
Sid stood there hopelessly, because even now, he still felt heartbroken for the other person's health.
Perhaps Haines is right.
In essence, he himself is a devil in disguise. Therefore, he is destined to associate with pain, destruction, and annihilation.
Sid didn't know what expression he should wear at that moment; he just stood there blankly.
He only asked Silver to leave him some dignity, and he could only remain motionless and hold on until the other left.
Silver finally stopped coughing.
The other person was breathing heavily, like a rotten bellows, "Disappointed? Hahahaha..."
Sid lowered his eyes and quietly withdrew the electric snake from his hand.
"Stop talking, let's part amicably... I'm begging you, okay?" he heard himself pleading.
This is quite a novel experience.
It's as if one's soul has detached from the body, soaring freely into the air, not knowing where it wants to fly to.
Silver struggled to lift his head, unable to suppress a cold laugh, "Hahahaha, what gives you the right to order me around, cough..."
"What I'm talking about, isn't it exactly what everyone, everyone wants me to do!"
The Grand Duke of Bethlehem, his face covered in dust, swallowed the metallic taste rising in his throat and cried out in pain, ignoring everything else:
"Otherwise what?"
"Otherwise what... With this body of mine, how many more years can I stay with you? Sid..."
“Sid…” he repeated the other person’s name absentmindedly, then chuckled softly.
But the laughter was not joyful at all; it was completely filled with deep sorrow.
“Sid, you are the high and mighty dawn, while I… I am completely different from you; I am just stinking water waiting to evaporate in the gutter.”
"Cough, you might live another five hundred years, but even if four hundred years pass, you'll still be the same as you are now..."
"Just like now, with just one glance, I've already... I've already completely fallen for her."
"I couldn't be that selfish, cough, I couldn't, to ruin your life. I didn't want to tell you, Sid—"
"Say less, Julius!" Sid, who was already sobbing uncontrollably, shouted at this moment.
He understood everything.
But precisely because he understands him, he is completely confused.
Through his tear-streaked eyes, he haphazardly applied various healing spells to the man's body.
However, Silver changed the subject, "But, all of this, what I just said... is not what I really mean."
Silver paused for a moment, and Sid also froze on the spot.
The alchemist stared in astonishment into her husband's indigo pupils, feeling for the first time in her life that her mind couldn't process what he was seeing.
The other person chuckled softly, "Heh, heh... You are so good, how could I bear to let you fall in love with another man and spend your life with another bastard?"
Silver gritted his teeth, and in a fit of despair, poured out his darkest thoughts to his lover.
“Whenever I think of this, I feel unbearable pain.”
"All I was thinking was that if I died, you could... you could die with me."
"That's it, Sid. I'm terrible! But that's the real me."
That's exactly right.
He was already crippled and stingy, yet he was extremely selfish, even fantasizing that Sid would die with him.
When he finally understood his true feelings, he lost all fighting spirit in that instant.
He didn't know if his feelings could still be called love.
He truly will never be good enough for Sid.
Silver regretted it as soon as he finished speaking.
He shouldn't have been so honest.
In this way...
So, what will Sid think of him?
But he didn't have time to think too much, because Sid gave him a direct answer.
The other person only said one word, "Okay."
A single, seemingly insignificant word, yet it was like icicles falling into a frying pan, igniting a raging inferno.
Silver was stiff all over, and he felt the frozen blood in his limbs starting to rush back to his body, making his heart feel like it was about to burst.
He stared at Sid in astonishment and confusion, wondering if the other man had really been driven mad by him.
“Julius, you really—” Sid squatted down in front of the man, clenching his fists as if he wanted to punch him in the face. “Anyway, listen up, I’m definitely going to settle this score with you properly later.”
He had been speaking fiercely, but the tears that flowed even more profusely than before made him feel as if he could finally breathe again, and he felt a sense of unbridled joy.
He said that the other person's gaze was still as pure as ever, so how could they say such heartless things?
How could a master alchemist be mistaken!
However, the shrewd Silver was not so easily fooled.
The other person pressed on stubbornly, "Please explain this to me clearly, Sid. I don't understand what you mean at all."
Sid gritted his teeth inwardly; he really wanted to beat Julius up. Unfortunately, the man before him was incredibly fragile and had no more alchemical tools left.
However, a master alchemist is, after all, always a capricious person.
So he grabbed Silver's left hand, frowned, and filled the space in the other's wedding ring with alchemical tools.
Immediately afterwards, he waved his hand at the magic circle on the wall, and the entire study went completely dark.
The smooth, expensive ceiling is engraved with all the star formations that have ever appeared in the night sky of the Zhuyuan Continent.
After doing all this, flames shot out from Sid's palm, and with the harmless experimental fireball, the alchemical artifacts on the other party's body exploded.
This time, however, there was no foul smoke or stench; instead, it was as splendid and peaceful as fireworks on an auspicious day in the East.
Amidst the orderly whirring of the alchemical artifacts, Sid finally calmed himself down. He looked up at the sky so close to his eyes and said, "Let me tell you, Julius, this time, I'm not so easily fooled."
"You'd better be prepared and think about how to apologize to me."
"Isn't it just a suicide pact?" he sneered. "Ha, who do you think you are! Is this some kind of big deal?"
Silver froze completely.
Logically, he should have been happy that his wish had finally come true.
But when Sid actually made the promise to him, he was extremely sad.
It felt like a heavy stone was pressing on his chest, making it hard for him to breathe. "I... I was just saying that in anger. I was just saying it... Please don't do that."
"If one day, I'm really gone..."
You should just forget about me.
Despite trying to appear generous and magnanimous, Silver couldn't help but shed tears.
The Grand Duke of Bethlehem felt as if he had broken down; he had cried so horribly for the first time in his life.
Originally, his face was at least passable.
That's it, he's completely bankrupt now.
Sid couldn't help but clench his fists again.
He must have been out of his mind to have followed along and accidentally told the truth.
That's the truth, which Yun Wei can also attest to.
Without Silver, he would be nothing but an empty shell.
But that's his own business, and Silver won't be able to see it when it gets to that point.
So he hardened his expression again, grabbed Silver's tie, and said, "Let's not talk about that now. I'm only asking you this, and this is the last time I'll ever ask you this—"
"Are you still going to get a divorce?"
Seeing that his lover seemed willing to let him off the hook, the Grand Duke of Bethlehem immediately rode his donkey down the slope, saying, "Of course, no, I won't leave."
Although it feels like after all that effort, everything seems to have come full circle, leaving one a bit confused.
Even though things seemed calm on the surface, Silver was still in a state of utter chaos.
He silently watched Sid's small hand resting on his chin, wondering if he really was that bad.
“In that case, I should get to my business.” But before he could think it through, Sid had already continued speaking.
Silver quickly composed himself, staring nervously at the other person.
“Since I’ve given you my life, you should offer something in return.” Sid fiddled with the other man’s tie, a mysterious smile playing on his lips.
Silver immediately straightened his expression, even bringing his neck closer to the other's fingertips. "What do you want?"
He did have some doubts.
Because he had already said that Sid could take whatever he had.
Sid looked at her husband's foolish expression and felt a little sorry for him. But he still leaned close to his ear and stated his conditions—
"I want ownership of your body. Oh, and..."
"All the time of your remaining life."
The latter was a request he came up with on the spur of the moment.
The former is the main one.
Yun Wei mentioned research on Aux.
The more he thought about using magical potions to treat Silver's Branch of Time, the more he felt it was worth a try.
Right now, he has already come up with no less than a dozen feasible ideas. Once he finishes his current affairs, the matter of visiting Oakes at the Tower of Ten Thousand Laws will be put on the agenda.
However, he didn't intend to let Julius know about this matter, which was still far from being finalized.
After all, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment often will be.
It's better to start with the worst-case scenario in mind and live each day of your life to the fullest.
This alchemist has been prone to acting silly when engrossed in his experiments for quite some time now.
So much so that he himself didn't realize how ambiguous his words were when they reached the ears of his unsuspecting partner.
Upon hearing this, Silver's face immediately turned red.
He looked away sheepishly and muttered under his breath, "Sid, how could you do that..."
"I've been yours for a long time."
Even the most oblivious alchemist would instantly realize what was happening when they saw their lover behaving awkwardly.
Sid reacted as if he'd been burned, abruptly loosening the other man's tie.
The bad thing is that he hasn't been intimate with Silver in so long, and after all that time they've been up to each other, he's starting to get a little carried away.
After a near-life separation, he couldn't help but feel anxious and worried, yet he also thought that a short separation was even better than a new marriage.
So, the alchemist who considered himself a "devil" surprisingly approached his legal spouse and asked, "Julius, answer me honestly, do you want to sleep with me?"
His only concern was the other person's weak health.
Even after pouring in a whole bunch of healing spells, Sid was still a little uneasy.
Alchemists have always kept their lives and experiments very separate.
So much so that Silver Julius, who had finally managed to relax, suddenly had an extremely strange psychological experience.
I have a feeling that Sid has become a bit strange, as if he provoked himself.
Even so, this young man, who had never admitted defeat in this regard, finally rekindled his fighting spirit.
"Of course I do," he replied decisively, struggling to his feet. "Do you want me to carry you back to the bedroom? But I'd like to take a shower first."
“Yes, let’s do it together. And let me use my mental power to give you a thorough check-up.” Ignoring the other’s request, Sid thought for a moment and happily made the decision.
Silver: "..."
His intuition was right.
Sid has become so scary...
But no matter what, all the unhappiness of that day was forever left in the memories of the past.
As for the only negative consequence—
If the punctuality of the Sid family's dinner party had to be postponed by three hours due to the absence of four important figures, that would be considered an exception.
Let's say that's it then.
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