Chapter 300: 300

Michelle glanced at Alexander. “You know…” her words were slurred because of the hit of infrasound. “You are… a bastard…” she muttered, feeling like sleeping.

But an idea formed in her mind.

What would happen to her wounds if she transformed? If she took on the form of the black gem?

Alexander stared down at Michelle, not really minding being a bastard. “You should rest.” He lifted her over his shoulder, not caring about ceremonies.

Then, he tore open a rift in front of him and walked in.

He walked lazily, so it took a few seconds to get to the other side.

Once through, Michelle recognized the place. She had already been there.

It was Alexander’s space. He had pushed her in there after he shattered the Life Stone of a huge mantis she was fighting so she couldn’t get the stone.

Michelle stared down at Alexander. She didn’t want to rest.

She was tired, and she did feel sleepy. But she had other things she wanted to test out. And she had the feeling that if she fell asleep, she wouldn’t wake up for a long time. Just like when she had first completely drained her soul energy.

“Put me down…” Because of how slurred her words were, she didn’t sound the least bit authoritative. But those who knew her would know she meant what she said.

And Alexander knew Michelle well enough.

But that wouldn’t make him change his mind. “Your experiments can wait for later!”

With how he spoke, no ordinary person would argue with him. Especially if they were in the same state as Michelle.

But Michelle wouldn’t accept someone telling her what to do. “Put me down…” she repeated.

The situation basically turned into a competition of who was more stubborn.

Naturally, Alexander won. He didn’t have a mental block caused by clouded consciousness.

Well, won… Not really.

The two were bickering for quite a while, and Michelle sometimes even brought up some valid arguments. But she did all that because she already knew Alexander was right. She just wanted to mess with him.

If she managed to anger him, that would greatly please her heart.

But she couldn’t achieve such a feat. Alexander remained mostly calm the whole time, placating her like she was some kind of child.

For someone like Michelle, that was a blow to her pride and left a nasty taste in her mouth.

But she swallowed back the disgust. She was too tired for that.

Instead, she swept her gaze over the space. Alexander had carried her further than before. The place looked a bit different.

Well, it was mostly the same. The biggest difference was that there was a small wooden house in front of her.

Alexander was taking her there.

Alexander carried Michelle inside and put her down on a bed. It was quite soft.

It had been a long time since Michelle had lain in such a soft bed. The last time was probably back in the Land of Exile, in her room in the Archduchy.

Since then, she had been sleeping on the ground, or on beds that were much harder.

She didn’t mind it, but suddenly being in a soft bed amplified her drowsiness.

She tried to fight the sleep at first, but her eyes started feeling heavy, and in just a little more than a minute, she was fast asleep.

Alexander watched over Michelle for a short moment before leaving the wooden house. With her constant vigilance even in her sleep, it was obvious she wouldn’t be able to rest properly if he stayed near her. So he left her alone.

Other times, he wouldn’t really care. For Michelle, light sleep was clearly enough most of the time.

But not when she was so seriously weakened, especially in her consciousness. In times like those, proper rest was needed. Not just some light sleep where her mind couldn’t relax.

That way, her consciousness wouldn’t properly recover, and it would take a while for her to return to her peak condition.

But with good rest, the recovery time could be cut down dramatically. Depending on the extent of the weakness, it could even be reduced to only the time of her sleep.

While Michelle was asleep, Alexander remained outside the wooden house, a white Life Stone in his hand. She had already absorbed a purple and a black one. Out of her elements, the only one she was missing was the ice element.

He was guessing that at the moment, the Heavenly Law would still see her as a monster, just like it had in the past. Because some of her spirit energy remained the same as it was before.

But if even her ice-element spirit energy changed, there was a huge probability the Heavenly Law would react.

At the moment, the only time the Heavenly Law would be confronted with the change in her would be when she tried to cross a barrier of the Heavenly Law.

But once she absorbed the last Life Stone, the Heavenly Law would begin to notice her even when she stayed calmly within one realm, not doing anything to attract its attention.

Because that was how the Heavenly Law worked. Once there was something it couldn’t grasp, it would keep it under a microscope.

Once something was within the range of its control, it would make sure it understood it. And if it didn’t, the watch would be tight.

The only way Michelle could get away from that microscope would be if she became something the Heavenly Law couldn’t even begin to notice.

Like a natural disaster that comes and goes.

But would that be achieved if she absorbed the ice-element Life Stone?

Alexander thought about it for a long time. But he didn’t reach a conclusion and decided to push it to the back of his mind.

It wasn’t even an immediate problem. Michelle clearly wasn’t planning to absorb any new Life Stones since she had no way of knowing what abilities they would give her.

But that also brought about one certainty.

If she ever found a way to separate the abilities inheritable from the Life Stones, she would use it.

While Michelle slept in Alexander’s space and he stayed there too, Noctis and Unlucien were outside, lazing on a tree.

They had never seen a human able to absorb a monster’s Life Stone, so naturally, their thoughts were on Michelle too. And with the fact that she defeated the Silent Bastards, their respect only deepened.

“Noctis!” Unlucien glanced at Noctis.

Noctis instantly stood up straight. Unlucien was his superior, so he was respectful.

Unlucien continued: “That girl,” it was clear who Unlucien was talking about.

When near Alexander or Michelle, they addressed her as Milady, but otherwise, she was just that girl.

“Her cultivation increased after she absorbed the Life Stones,” Unlucien finished.

Noctis nodded. “She could go to the upper realm if she wanted to.”

Unlucien nodded, but one thing was bothering him.

Michelle had clearly advanced in rank.

Both he and Noctis felt the shift in her power, and Alexander most probably didn’t overlook it either.

Then why were there no external signs? And why did she not notice it?

The lack of external signs could still be explained. When some monsters advanced in levels or ranks, there weren’t external signs like with humans, beasts, and most monsters.

But they could distinctively feel it. Michelle clearly didn’t recognize that her rank had leapt.

She was no longer in the Divine rank. She was a Monarch Lord.

Such a big leap couldn’t just be ignored, not to mention overlooked.

But not once had Michelle shown even a flicker of a sign that she noticed. It was like something was veiling her knowledge.

Noctis and Unlucien couldn’t understand it, but Noctis was at least able to form a theory. “Maybe, after her body underwent so many changes, she can’t recognize the difference between when she was human and when she lost her humanity.”

Noctis’ words basically meant that though Michelle was consciously aware of her loss of humanity, her subconsciousness still acted like that of a human, so she was still blind to the changes.

She would only realize them in time, as her thinking slowly changed.

It made some sense.

There were times when people lost their humanity. But they lost it under such extreme circumstances that even their minds broke, and their subconsciousness no longer worked like that of humans. Those people could perfectly name all that had changed in them without any effort.

After Michelle absorbed the Life Stones, she needed to check her body for any changes. That highly indicated her subconsciousness was still unchanged.

Purely human.

But the two words “purely human” completely repulsed Noctis and Unlucien.

Michelle was never purely human. When they were watching over her, there were times when she seemed more like a monster than they were before she absorbed the two Life Stones. And the two of them were born monsters, both holding command over thousands of other monsters.

But a mere human sometimes seemed more monstrous than them. That completely denied their very existence. And the existence of all other monsters.

And at the same time, it brought about a new theory.

Maybe, since Michelle already had a monstrous mind, nothing more could change in it, and that was why she didn’t notice the changes in her body.

Her subconsciousness was used to the body she had and could notice changes in that state. When the body completely changed in its very essence, the subconsciousness completely overlooked it, and Michelle had to consciously find the new things.

And that brought about the possibility of not noticing the leap in her spirit energy cultivation.

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