"This is what I want to show you. Look." Shen Yuan brought the painting to Ji Zhixuan, his excitement rendered him oblivious to the darkness he churned. He pointed at Vesper's figure. "This is you."
Ji Zhixuan slowly lowered his eyes to the painting and scrutinized the sparkly man. "…"
Turns out Shen Yuan was also giving those affectionate eyes to him, though in a different form.
But this flashy, fancy pants was him?
It did match his blonde self in the fortune teller's vision, but he didn't get to see his face or body clearly. Standing next to Shen Yuan, he didn't match his refined beauty at all.
Shen Yuan laughed at his distaste. "What's with that look?"
"This is the guy who told you to kill yourself?"
"Hey. We talked about that."
Ji Zhixuan only scoffed and shifted his focus to Shen Yuan standing next to the blonde him. "Why are you wearing these dull clothes?"
"It's a uniform. I was a palace servant after all."
"A servant?" Ji Zhixuan raised an eyebrow at Shen Yuan in doubt. "You?"
"I can do it if I have to, alright? Besides, I barely had to do anything after you made me your personal attendant. I was only a servant by name."
"Was there no other way?"
"I can't choose how I spawn, much to my unfortunate self." Shen Yuan gave the painting to Ji Zhixuan. "Take it. Maybe some memories will come back to you."
"You said you took away my memories along with my life force."
"I said 'maybe'. It's just my hypothesis."
Ji Zhixuan accepted it and looked at it more. As Shen Yuan said, he did look different than his reincarnation. Nothing about him resembled his past self.
"Have we ever met in reality?"
"No, I don't think so." Shen Yuan never encountered a special-ranked vulture before. He had never even been in the frontline. "Your physical body is dead though, so it doesn't matter anyway."
Boom!
A blast erupted from the floor below and shook the palace walls. The unstable structure of the walls crumbled further and struck new holes in the well-collapsing floor. Sounds of battle soon traveled from the direction of the hall.
"Who—!?"
"Aargh!!"
Shen Yuan's expression changed. "Is Zhou Jingchen…?"
"I've assigned someone on the lookout for other ships. If it's him, they should've noticed the royal vessel," Ji Zhixuan refuted. "Let's see what it is."
They left the study and jumped down a nearby hole straight to the ground floor. Another attack trembled the ground and they picked up their pace before the mysterious entity decided to level the floors.
When they arrived at the hall, the door was no more, and smoke and dust billowed from within. An injured guard slumped against the corridor wall, drenched in blood and half-awake.
Ji Zhixuan propped him up. "What happened?"
"A man…an activator…there isn't any catalyst with him, but—" The guard coughed out a lump of blood and wheezed out his last words. "He's dangerous, Master. Please…run."
Shen Yuan, "…"
An activator without a catalyst?
The guard closed his eyes and lost consciousness. Ji Zhixuan checked his pulse and confirmed he was still alive and was only losing a lot of blood. He stabbed his acupoints to stop his bleeding before standing back up.
Shen Yuan held Ji Zhixuan back by his arm, stopping him from entering. "That man is probably a mage. If he is, we can use him to open the seal at the temple."
"We can decide what to do with him after taking him down."
"We don't know how much mana—how much energy he has and as I said, magic is more complicated than a simple ability. We don't know what the fight will lead to."
The man's silhouette gradually emerged from the thinning smoke, standing in his lone victory amidst the fallen others. A muddied, tattered cloak shrouded his figure with danger and mystery, and his shredded boots had long past their limit of usage, only being held together by strips of makeshift bandages, possibly from his own cloak.
When the man turned towards them and raised his hand, Ji Zhixuan was ready to strike first and prevent whatever the other planned to do only for Shen Yuan to notice the patch of red on the lower half of the man's face.
He quickly canceled his energy transfer and stepped forward. "Juliard? Is that you?"
The man visibly twitched and whipped his arm away. The completed spell launched off a ray of light and blasted a hole in the wall, disintegrating the stones into nothingness.
The air fell silent for a second until the man slowly lowered his hood, revealing a familiar though slightly older face. Juliard stared at Shen Yuan for a long minute, his eyes full of wonder and disbelief.
He gave a small nod.
Shen Yuan was also in equal astonishment. Meeting him was one thing, but Juliard remembering him was another matter entirely. He paced to his side. "It's really you? What are you doing here? How are you even here?"
After he offered his palm, Juliard promptly answered, 'I'm always here. I should be asking you.'
"I guess you're right, but it's difficult to explain." Shen Yuan realized something and looked at Juliard in confusion. "Wait. Since when can you wield magic?"
'I awakened it years after His Highness's death and your disappearance thanks to the blue moon.' Juliard glanced at Ji Zhixuan in apprehension. 'Where is His Highness? Who is that man?'
"That person is him. You think I'd be with anyone else other than him?"
Juliard widened his eyes and looked at Ji Zhixuan one more time. The eyes flickering with blood-red warning sent chills down his spine and erased any doubt in his mind. He scribbled away on Shen Yuan's palm in panic.
'His Highness doesn't remember me?'
"Sorry, Juliard. He doesn't have any memory about his past life."
'As long as His Highness is alive and well, nothing else matters. It's just that, he looks like he's going to kill me…'
"I mean, after your stunt here…"
'I've never encountered any people after the Great Collapse, so I had thought these people were a new kind of mimic-type monsters. I'm sorry.' Juliard took off his bag and gave it to Shen Yuan. 'Please use my healing potions on them.'
"What if we use it all up?"
'I still have a lot of ingredients to make them back at my camp. Don't worry.'
With that, Shen Yuan let go of his reservation and gave the bag to Ji Zhixuan. He told him what happened, what it was, and that he could give one vial to each person. "I know this is not exactly the best first impression, but that person did it out of survival. He's trustworthy. He was the one who helped me go through the process of your life force transfer."
"Must he really touch you?" Ji Zhixuan scowled.
"He can't talk. It's the only way we can communicate." Shen Yuan felt a little helpless. He had thought Ji Zhixuan sent death threats with his eyes because Juliard wiped out his people, but turns out, it was because of something entirely unrelated.
"Who is he?"
"He was your personal aide. The most loyal one. Don't be mean to him." Shen Yuan turned to go back to Juliard. "I'm going to ask him everything he knows. Join us when you're done."
"…"
Ji Zhixuan looked at his fallen subordinates and the bag of vials in his hand. He went to the fallen guard outside and fed him a vial. Seeing the injuries closed and healed within seconds, he understood why Shen Yuan brought these healing potions up in his defense earlier. It wouldn't be an understatement to call this a miracle.
But it didn't mean he would forgive his past self for what he made Shen Yuan do.
Once the guard regained consciousness, Ji Zhixuan took two vials for himself and handed the rest to him. He passed him the task of healing his colleagues before returning to Shen Yuan's side to find Juliard writing a couple of strokes on Shen Yuan's palm and directing his attention to him.
Shen Yuan translated it for Ji Zhixuan, "He says he's sorry."
When Ji Zhixuan saw the loyalty in Juliard eyes and how he lowered his head to him in respect, he knew the man recognized him as his past master and eased his misgiving. "It's fine already. I'd do the same thing. Or worse."
Juliard sighed in relief and couldn't help but stretch a small smile.
He truly was His Highness.
With Ji Zhixuan joining them, Shen Yuan finally asked the question he had been the most curious about. "Earlier you said you never encountered any people after the Great Collapse. What did you mean by that?"
Juliard's face turned solemn. He answered with slow, heavy strokes while Shen Yuan translated it for Ji Zhixuan.
'Soon after that day, Everlight experienced recurring earthquakes, each stronger than the previous one. After King Zain's coronation, the world was showered by continuous storms regardless of season which caused high tides and floods everywhere. Crops failed, plagues spread, and wars sparked on every continent until the biggest earthquake struck and sank half of the map. We called it the Great Collapse.'
"We?" Shen Yuan cut in for a second. "There are people other than you?"
Juliard shook his head. 'The plague persisted after the collapse and the remaining people died soon after as well.'
Ji Zhixuan rubbed his chin in thought. "How long has it been since the Great Collapse?"
Shen Yuan translated it for Juliard and read the motion on his palm. He was stunned speechless for a short second before finding back his voice.
"He said…300 years. Give or take."