Chapter 256: 256

While Michelle was still in the bath, a slight frown on her face because of the pain it was causing her, Alexander was standing by the bathtub, his hand extended towards Michelle. She had a small knife in her hand, wondering how to start.

After a bit of contemplation, Michelle finally decided. “I hope you don’t mind a little pain!” she smiled wickedly before driving the tip of the knife into Alexander’s forearm.

He didn’t even twitch, but his eyes narrowed a bit.

But Michelle wasn’t finished. She pulled the knife back and stabbed it again, turned the other way, so the wound had the shape of a plus mark.

Then, Michelle once again pulled the knife out and stabbed it at the end of the wound. She connected the edges of the wound, creating a circle.

Finally, she pried the circle out. It wasn’t big, but Alexander’s brows were furrowed.

Naturally, Michelle saw it, but she didn’t care. He had already agreed to let her test her poison on him.

Opening the porcelain bottle, she let a single pill roll out. Without any hesitation, she pushed it into the wound.

She had a guess as to what it would do, but she wanted to see it with her own eyes.

Just as she had expected and wanted, the outer layer of the pill reacted to the blood and turned slimy, coating the inner part.

The slime was half transparent, so Michelle could see the corrosive part inside, getting to work. It started corroding the slime away from the inside. It did it quite evenly.

Alexander stared down at his hand. The slime wasn’t affecting him in any way, but he knew that things would change once the corrosive part got out.

It took a while, but when the slime got completely corroded away, even Alexander couldn’t help but flinch. It started digging into his flesh, making the wound Michelle cut open even bigger.

“What is this poison for?” he asked. He couldn’t quite see a way to put such a poison to use.

It didn’t cause big wounds, and the pain wasn’t that unbearable. So both killing and torture were ruled out.

Michelle shrugged. “It’s incomplete.”

The corner of Alexander’s lips twitched. It was unknown whether he was suppressing a smile or a grimace.

But there was no reason for Michelle to care. She was satisfied that the poison worked exactly as she had anticipated.

Because she couldn’t grind it into dust—it wasn’t made in a way that would allow it—it couldn’t enter the blood to flow along the victim’s bloodstream. So it couldn’t corrode away the inside of someone’s veins.

To do that, Michelle somehow had to mix the two layers without having them react together. That would ruin the concoction.

And to achieve that, Michelle would most probably need to use her spirit energy.

It was a bit of a pity. She was hoping to make a poison without the use of spirit energy. Or any other energy.

She wanted to only mix the ingredients in the right way and order to create a poison on the same level as Mavreth’s. But it was probably just her wishful thinking.

Alexander stared down at the wound on his arm, observing how the corrosion made it deeper with every moment.

But after just a few seconds, it stopped. The corrosive liquid lost its effect.

Seeing that, Michelle nodded in satisfaction. At least that part worked as she had expected.

“Can I wash it now?” Alexander asked carelessly.

When Michelle nodded, he poured some water over the wound.

Then, he directed his gaze at the medical bath. “Is it still effective?” he asked.

Michelle shook her head. “I don’t feel any pain anymore, so probably not.”

Hearing that, Alexander lifted her out of the bathtub and wrapped her in a towel. “Then you shouldn’t stay in any longer. It will cause more harm than benefit.”

Michelle stared at Alexander’s sinfully handsome face. She was already used to seeing it.

“You are being extremely suspicious,” she finally said after a while. She felt something was off.

Alexander stopped walking and looked down at Michelle. “How exactly?” As always, he had his signature playful smile on.

Michelle frowned. She couldn’t exactly put her finger on it, but something felt off.

“Or maybe not…” she mumbled. A dangerous thought stirred in her mind.

What if it wasn’t that Alexander was acting suspicious, but something about her view of him had changed?

That could explain the strange feeling she had.

Or Alexander was really acting strange, but Michelle just couldn’t figure out how exactly.

Alexander walked out of the bathroom with Michelle in his arms and placed her on the bed. He didn’t pull the blanket over her, so Michelle, with her always-cold body, didn’t have to sweat and feel hot under it.

“I don’t feel like lying in the bed anymore…” Michelle sighed. She felt extremely bored.

Alexander didn’t have much to say about that. “Did you already figure out how your spatial artifacts have changed?”

Remembering that, Michelle moved her gaze to the ring on her hand. It was probably time to finally figure it out. She already had the Eye of Nihil to help her with it.

The next moment, she sent soul and spirit energy into her left eye, and it shimmered purple. In that moment, it could clearly be seen that it was made of glass, because like a mirror, it reflected the room.

Once again, she saw windows pop up on everything she looked at. But her gaze locked on the ring on her hand.

She had to stare at it for a long time before she manipulated the window into showing her what she wanted—the state of the contract.

“Contract connected to a contract with another spatial artifact, blocking owner’s insight into both artifacts; items from the spaces can still be taken out.”

Seeing that, Michelle focused on the connection.

Upon that, the text in the window disappeared before something new started emerging.

When it could be fully seen, Michelle started reading again.

“Connection between the contracts binds the spaces of the artifacts together, combining their sizes and sharing their abilities or properties. Each space can now be accessed through both artifacts or through the soul space of the contractor.”

“To check the inside of the combined space, the contractor needs to use a wisp of consciousness through the soul space.”

After reading that, Michelle was pleasantly surprised.

To put it simply, the two spaces had merged, which, in turn, made the spatial ring and bracelet a pair of shared artifacts. One wouldn’t work without the other.

In other words, if someone stole one of the two from her, they wouldn’t be able to access the inside even if they had techniques to probe spatial artifacts.

But she, as the contractor, would still have access to the space.

“This is nice!” Michelle nodded a bit.

“What is?” Alexander asked from the side. “What did you find out?”

Michelle glanced at him. “You were quite knowledgeable about the spike and all, so how come you don’t know how it affected me?” she asked with a slight smirk.

She didn’t enjoy having to constantly lie down to recover, so her mood was quite prickly—which meant her responses to everything were similar.

Alexander shrugged. “The effects can vary.”

He said it shamelessly, without batting an eye, but Michelle could easily tell it was a lie. In the end, no matter how smoothly Alexander said it, he wasn’t trying to hide the fact that it was a lie.

Already able to move at least a bit, Michelle pushed herself up slowly so she could sit up. It was slightly difficult, but she managed on her own.

“Why even bother thinking of a believable lie when you will say it in a way that is impossible not to see through?” she asked, reaching into her spatial ring for a new set of clothes. Being draped in a towel wasn’t exactly comfortable.

But when she checked the space, she realized that all the clothes she had taken with her from the Land of Exile were already unusable.

She had burned most after they reached that point, so the part of the space that used to contain clothes was empty. Like a ghost town.

Alexander saw the ever-so-slight change in Michelle’s expression and couldn’t help but smile. “Should I go get new clothes for you?” He came over lazily and leaned down to Michelle’s eye level.

Seeing that handsome face so up close, Michelle narrowed her eyes. “No!” She let her back fall back on the bed. “I’ll take care of it when I recover!” she added and closed her eyes.

Though lying down was annoying, she really didn’t want to let Alexander go get clothes for her. She had the feeling it would end up in a disaster.

Alexander chuckled. “Are you planning to stay in a towel until you recover?”

“Yes!” Michelle’s answer was instant.

Upon hearing that, Alexander leaned down even lower, once again putting his face just millimeters away from Michelle’s. “Then I should enjoy the view while I can.”

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