Chapter 1286: The Other World

“How are you feeling?”

Fei Yuhan came into Room 402 with a stack of books tucked under one arm and placed them on the nightstand with a neat, economical motion.

“Thank you.” Valkries nodded. “I can walk now. The doctor says another week and I’ll have recovered fully.”

“Good. Your self-repair ability is remarkable, even for a martialist.”

“Is it?”

“The Force of Nature affects each person differently.” Fei Yuhan settled into the chair by the window. “Not every martialist could recover in a month from crushed leg bones. You probably haven’t seen injuries like yours before, so you have no frame of reference — but this kind of recovery means you have a strong constitution and an exceptional immune system. People like you are born to this work.” She paused. “Like me, I suppose.” Then, without changing tone: “Once you’re on your feet, we should spar. I’d like to see your measure.”

“That’s why you asked me to join your team? To fight you?” Valkries said, a note of resignation coloring the question. “You’re the Association’s prodigy. I doubt I have anything to teach you.”

“It’s not about learning. You’ve been in bed for a month. Working with someone capable will help you find your strength again. The Fallen Evils won’t make allowances for old injuries.”

A pause, then Valkries nodded. “Alright. Thank you.”

“Not a problem.” Fei Yuhan’s lips curved briefly. “By the way, I went downtown yesterday. I found a shop selling desserts from the Cargarde Peninsula — they’re in the bag on top of the books. Hospital food is terrible.”

At that, Fei Yuhan noticed something: the smallest tightening in Valkries’ throat, quickly released. The swallow of someone tasting the memory of appetite.

People from the Cargarde Peninsula ate normal food well enough, but their native cuisine was said to satisfy something the rest of the world’s cooking could not touch — some particular need specific to that region’s people. Fei Yuhan had tried their “unique” preparations once. She had not tried again. Most people felt the same; the shops catered to a narrow, devoted clientele, mostly people from the Peninsula itself. Not many lived in this city.

“Thank you,” Valkries said, her tone measured enough to reveal nothing.

“Comes with the role. Captains look after their teams.” Fei Yuhan waved a hand and glanced at the book open across Valkries’ lap. “You really do like to read.”

“I read when I’m restless.”

“A good habit. If you want more books, let me know.”

“I will.”

Silence settled, broken only by the dry whisper of pages.

Fei Yuhan looked out the window. A clear afternoon: the willows out there trailed their fingers across the surface of the lake, and a group of swans cut white wakes through the still water, unhurried, their reflections quivering below them.

A fine place to convalesce, if you were here to convalesce.

From the glass’s reflection, Fei Yuhan watched Valkries turn another page.

She had not come here purely out of kindness. That was not a secret she felt any need to keep from herself. A month ago she had realized something: this person might know Roland. More precisely — Roland knew of her, and had been carefully testing that knowledge during the hospital visit, asking those oddly angled questions to determine whether Valkries was the person he had apparently encountered somewhere else. Fei Yuhan was nearly certain she had read that correctly.

What puzzled her was the emotional temperature. Roland, during that visit, had shown no hostility — had been relaxed, even easy. Wherever he had encountered Valkries before, she did not frighten him. Valkries, by contrast, had been frightened by him: a spike of tension, swiftly suppressed, immediately after everyone entered the room. She had recovered fast, controlled her expression like someone trained to do exactly that. But Fei Yuhan had already seen it.

What was between them?

She ran through the obvious explanations and discarded them one by one. A romantic history that had curdled into enmity — possible, but Valkries was too composed for unresolved feeling. Years of absence and a changed face seeking revenge — novelistic, improbable. Roland regretting an old abandonment — she found this hardest to credit; Valkries carried herself too self-sufficiently for that kind of narrative.

None of the love-story shapes fit.

Fei Yuhan had been observant as a child, and the Awakening had sharpened the talent into something finer-grained and occasionally inconvenient. She read people too clearly for comfort, her own or theirs. Most found her unsettling; she had stopped trying to seem otherwise. But Roland was different — she could not read him. He moved through this world like someone born to it, which was, she had come to understand, strange precisely because it seemed so natural.

And then there were the small, specific facts about Valkries that didn’t fit together cleanly.

The food from the Cargarde Peninsula: Fei Yuhan had brought some two weeks ago, on a separate visit. Valkries had eaten it all but shown only polite interest — the response of curiosity, not recognition. Today, when Fei Yuhan mentioned buying more, something different had crossed her face: a craving that hadn’t been there before, as though the first time she had been tasting the food cold, without context, and only now understood what it was. A person from the Cargarde Peninsula should have grown up knowing the taste. The fact that Valkries had not — had apparently needed to discover it — was a fact that resisted ordinary explanation.

The phone. In one month, Fei Yuhan had never seen Valkries touch one. Young people were generally unable to sustain separation from their devices; even people her own age, with some discipline, checked them compulsively. Valkries sat in this room surrounded by books and appeared not to notice the phone’s existence.

The books themselves: history, specifically, requested chronologically from the library as though working through a curriculum. Not pleasure reading. Study.

Each fact, taken alone, could be dismissed. A person who disliked technology. A quiet personality that didn’t run on sugar. An unusual reading preference. But Fei Yuhan had the persistent, uncomfortable sense that she was observing someone learning a world that was not originally theirs.

She would have called herself ridiculous for thinking it, once.

Then she remembered someone addressing Roland as “Your Majesty.”

The thought arrived, as it sometimes did with important things, as a kind of pressure rather than a clear formulation — and then, all at once, it sharpened into a shape she could look at directly.

Someone not from here has entered this city.

They are from another world.

The idea frightened her. She could not stop thinking it.

Chapter 1286 - The Other World

Translator: Transn | Editor: Transn “How are you feeling?” Fei Yuhan asked as she entered Room 402 with a stack of books in her arms and placed the books on the nightstand. Valkries said with a nod, “Thank you. I can walk now. The doctor says I’ll fully recover in a week.” “That’s good. You really have excellent self-repairing ability even as a martialist,” Fei Yuhan said with a smile. “Really?” “The influence of the Force of Nature on each person is different. Not every martialist could recover within one month when his leg bones are crushed like yours. You probably haven’t seen any martialists sustain such severe injuries before, so you don’t know your potential.” Fei Yuhan paused for a second and said, “You should be one of the top martialists in your city, right?” “Why do you think so?” “My master often says that the strong one is strong in every aspect. The fact that you recover so fast means that you have a strong body and a great immune system. People like you were born to be a martialist, like me,” Fei Yuhan said flatly. “We may see who’s stronger once you recover.” “That’s the reason you asked me to join your team?” Valkries asked, a little resigned. “You’re the genius in the Association. I don’t think you could learn anything newfrom me.” “That’s fine. You’ve been lying in bed for a long time. Practicing with a good martialist can help you regain your power. Fallen Evils would not sympathize you because you had injuries before.” Valkries nodded after a moment of silence and then said, “Alright then. Thank you.” “Not a problem,” Fei Yuhan returned while curling up her lips. “By the way, I went to downtown yesterday and bought some desserts from the Cargarde Peninsula. I put them in the bag on the top of the books. I hope you like them. The food in the hospital isn’t very tasty.” At that moment, Valkries noticed that Fei Yuhan swallowed. People from theCargarde Peninsula did eatregular food, but it was rumored that they could not distinguish the good and the bad. Only the food grownin their native towncould satisfy their special need. Fei Yuhan had once tried their “unique” food but discovered that she could not take it. Only a few people appreciated the taste and claimed that they were the most delicious food in the world, although the public did not really buy the idea. Therefore, only a few shops were specialized in selling food from the Cargarde Peninsula. After all, not many people lived there. “Thank you…” Valkries said while trying not to reveal her true thought. “That’s nothing. I’m the captain, and it’s my duty to take care of my team members,” Fei Yuhan said while waving her hand. “By the way, you do like reading.” “Yes, I tend to do some reading when I’m bored.” “That’s a good habit. There’s no entertainment in the sanatorium except books. If you want more books, just let me know.” “Thanks.” There was then an awkward silence, except for the rustling sound of the book when Valkries flipped over the pages. Fei Yuhan looked out of the window at the scenery outside. It was a nice and clear day. A few willows dipped into the water, and the lake rippled slowly in the breezes. A group of swans were sliding across the lake, leaving white reflections in the water. This was indeed a nice place for convalescence. However, Fei Yuhan was watching Valkries in the corner of her eyes constantly. From the reflection on the window, she could see Valkires’ every move. Fei Yuhan was not a kind-hearted girl and had no interest in forcing people to fight with her. She requested a duel simply because she had discovered a month ago that this person might know Roland. That was not quite accurate. More precisely,Valkries knew Roland, but Roland regarded her as a different person. Roland was actually testing whether she was the person he knew when he had asked those weird questions in the hospital. Fei Yuhan was pretty sure that her speculation was correct. However, what bewildered her was that Roland had not revealed any sign of hostility against Valkries during the conversation. He was, instead, pretty relaxed, which indicated that whether Valkries was an acquaintance of his or not, she constituted no threat. Nevertheless, Valkries was, on the contrary, pretty nervous. Although she quickly concealed her emotion right after everybody enteredthe room, Fei Yuhan still sensed it. What was her relationship with Roland and what had made her react so weirdly? There could have been an intertwined, complicated romanticrelationship between Roland and Valkries. For example, the ardent love between the two, for some reason, turned into virulent rancor, or Valkries had undergone a series of plastic surgeries and now sought revenge after ten years had passed by, or Roland was regretted abandoning her and now wanted to be with her again. But Fei Yuhan thought that this was highly unlikely. Valkries was too good at controlling her facial expression. HadFei Yuhannot discovered it at the beginning, she would have probably be fooled too. She did not think it was a simple love story. Fei Yuhan had been observant as a kid. After she was awakened, this ability also sharpened accordingly. Because of this, she did not have many close friends, and people were sort of afraid of her. That was why she alwayslooked so aloof and distant. She could know what others were thinking withjust aglance. However, Roland was different. Fei Yuhan could not see through this new hunter, nor could she figure out his relationship with Valkries. Apparently, the two were hiding something, and she could not help finding out this secret. Her suspicion was further confirmed after she talked to Valkries. This martialist from the Cargarde Peninsula looked no different than ordinary people, but she had some strange behavior. If she had known Roland earlier, than it might explain her oddity. But after Fei Yuhan dug a little deeper, she found something incredible. She had brought Valkries some food from her native town a few days ago, but the latter did not look particularly excited about that, although she had indeed eaten them all. However, this time, Valkries’ attitude had completely changed. This indicated that Valkries had not known what the food from her native town tasted like. She ate them simply because she was curious. What a horrible fact! It did not make sense that aperson from the Cargarde Peninsula had not eaten food from there. Also, Fei Yuhan had never seen Valkries play with her phone in the past one month. It was very strange that she never touched phones that so many young people were addicted to. As for those books… Valkries requested for many history books from the liabrary. Although reading was a good habit, Fei Yuhan did not think sheherself could read a book for a whole day without doing anything else. The change in Valkries’ preference of food might be attributed to the lack of appetite. Being not so interested in phones might be ascribed to her quiet personality. History was probably one of her hobbies. However, there were just too many coincidences. Fei Yuhan somehow had a feeling that Valkries was familiarizing herself with this world. She would have probably dismissed this ridiculous assumption in the past. However, when she thought of the fact that Roland had been addressed “Your Majesty”, she suddenly had a bold idea. This idea terrified her, but she could not help thinking about it. Everything would make sense if she thought that way. Someone not belonging here had sneaked into this city. They were from the other world.