The next morning, my third day in this world, I woke up quiet early and the wall on the clock showed that it was only half pass five in the morning.
The outside was still dark and it was eerily quiet.
It's kind of a rare time for me to be alone without anyone on sight. I could sense multiple people surrounding the ward but at least no one was blatantly staring at me like Vince did.
While I was thinking about my new life and what to do, a female nurse suddenly came early into my room. She didn't even knock before coming in.
I observed her through the corner of my eyes and when she saw that I was awake, I could see a trace of shock and vigilant in her eyes. But she quickly became calm and compose again.
Vigilant?
Why did she need to be vigilant with her patient if she didn't have any bad intentions?
Although I was apathetic, I was sensitive to people's feelings especially those who have bad intentions and negative feelings toward me.
However, I didn't feel the need to reveal her weirdness too quickly thus I just stay still and wore a confused look after seeing her.
"Good morning young master. You wake up early today?" The female nurse greeted me cheerfully and if you're not keen enough, you wouldn't realize anything wrong with her.
"I think I slept too much so I can't sleep anymore."
"Ohhh that might be the case but since you are still in recovery, that's normal. I have to inject another potion for your recovery young master"
"You come quite early. Even my butler never come this early," I said flatly, trying to see her reaction.
"Hahaha actually this potion has to be given very early in the morning since it is the most effective in the morning especially when you just wake up," she explained to me calmly.
She walked closer to me and took out a syringe containing reddish liquid inside it. It looked like blood rather than a potion to me.
My instinct was rarely wrong and there were a lot of loopholes in the female nurse's explanation and behaviour. Currently, as Ares, I'm a noble thus it was the doctor and a senior nurse's responsibility to administer all the medicines and potions given to me.
But now this young female nurse who was obviously below 30 years old said she had to give me a potion early in the morning when my butler wasn't even arrive.
"Please give me your arm, young master"
"Hmm nurse can I ask something?" I said to her while gesturing for her to come closer to me.
She bowed down slightly while still holding the syringe. I quickly grabbed her neck with one hand and my other hand snatched the syringe from her. She quickly struggle but without giving her the chance to do anything else, I injected the potion straight into the carotid artery on her neck.
From my past life experience, I knew that whatever is injected through the carotid artery goes straight to the brain, diluted by only a small amount of blood. It will cause seizures within seconds after the injection.
The female nurse looked shocked before she let out a loud scream while falling to the floor. Her skin started to turn red like a burnt shrimp and blood started to come out from her seven orifices.
I looked at her with uninterested eyes and at the same time, I sensed a slight changes in the atmosphere inside the room. There must be at least someone staying guard with me inside the room all the time but staying hidden.
'The Shadows'
The Shadows was a group of people from the Moran clan, a vassal of the Zanuki who was trained to be elite bodyguards for the Zanuki. As someone who is the direct descendant of the current Zanuki matriarch, it isn't weird if I also have Shadows guarding me all the time.
While the female nurse still screaming and squirming on the floor in extreme pain, I looked at the syringe in my hand. There was still a quarter of the red potion left in the syringe and the reason why I didn't inject all of them into was because I wanted Vince to test what kind of potion it was.
Looking at the female nurse, it didn't look like a lethal poison that could knock a human dead instantly. It looked more like torture material, looking at the nurse still screaming out of her lung due to the excruciating pain.
There was also a pool of water mixed with blood under the female nurse which I assumed she peed herself due to the pain.
"Young master!" Vince suddenly barged into the room.
He quickly walked toward me and acted like he didn't see the female nurse on the floor. He observed me up and down, trying to find out if something was wrong. His face looked genuinely worried.
Two people in black quickly knocked the female nurse unconscious before dragging her out of the room. The other people in black quickly cleaned the floor and even sterilized them before exiting the room, leaving me alone with Vince.
"What happened, young master?"
"She wants to inject me with this," I gave him the syringe.
"This...-Don't worry young master. I will take this weird potion to be tested. I have to go for a while but you won't be alone. Just push the blue button and there will be someone serving you young master," Vince said showing me the buttons on my bedside and I saw a few people in black standing straight in front of my room.
All of them looked like normal bodyguards except they wore black masks covering the lower half of their faces and also black sunglasses.
Their black hair is also styled with the same neat army-style haircut. The only thing to differentiate them was the badge with numbers on their right chests. That must be their codename or something.
Not long after Vince left the room, a set of breakfast was served and the cook which also the hospital staff was required to eat a sample of the food to make sure it wasn't poison.
They also have a weird hand scanner to make sure it wasn't poison since this world has a lot of people with special abilities exceeding normal humans. Thus some of them also develop immunity toward poisons.
However, Ares didn't have that ability and after the incident in the morning, I could feel everyone was careful when interacting with me. Maybe they never expected I could easily defend myself from being assassinated but for me. I was just lucky to be awake at that time.
In the meantime, I was still thinking about who would bother to kill the young Ares who just woke up from a coma. Is it the same person who caused Ares to be in a coma?
Zanuki is one of the most overpowered noble families. They are rich, strong, and have wide and deep influence inside and outside of the empire but what kind of threat did Ares pose?
As far as I knew, the Zanuki never really put any importance on Ares in the novel. They didn't even care when Ares became a villain and was hunted down by the others. The empire even put a huge bounty on Ares's head.
Did Ares also experience the same assassination attempt and what happened to him? The attempt might be unsuccessful since Ares managed to remain alive until adulthood.
Will I have to face this kind of thing again in the future?
"Sigh-"
The plot didn't even start yet and there was already someone trying to kill me. I just died so I can't let my second life be shorter than the first one, right?
**************************
"Garan how is my grandson?" The current Zanuki matriarch, Madam Anith Zanuki asked her butler.
"He is fine matriarch"
"What about the potion?"
"It already confirmed that it was a K3 poison where if it was injected into a Zanuki, instead of experiencing extreme pain like the female nurse, they would fall into a coma instead since Zanuki blood is different from normal people"
"So it won't kill Ares?"
"No"
"I see. The objective is obviously not to make Ares wake up. I have a few people in mind that would do that. So what is the origin of that potion?"
"It seems it comes from the Dawn Kingdom and the creator is someone close to your daughter."
"It's not that guy is it?" Madam Anith asked while looking straight at her butler who was half kneeling in front of her.
"No, since the potion had just been created a few years ago when young master Ares just fall into a coma."
"I see. Now it was obvious who targeted Ares. But since nothing happened, I will let it slide this time."
"Then, please excuse me-" before Garan managed to finish his sentence, Madam Anith interrupted.
"Don't you think my cute grandson has become cuter?" Madam Anith asked, pointing towards the monitor screen.
The screen showed the scene inside a room occupied by a red hair youth. Currently, it was showing exactly the scene where the youth decisively grabbed the female nurse and injected the syringe into her neck.
From his face, no trace of wariness or nervousness could be seen. It was like he was looking at an ant.
"Young master looked different," Garan said in a low voice.
"Yes indeed"
'It seems the last incident created a huge internal scar on him' Madam Anith lamented.
She still remembers the first time she saw Ares a few years ago. That boy was smaller and skinnier than his peers of the same age. His body was full of scars where the sizes, shapes, and depths were vary.
Ares looked like a *Mimosa leaf closing off up just from a touch. He would put his guard up when people got close to him. He was such a close-off kid. It took the Zanuki family almost a year just for him to talk. There was also another reason why Ares didn't talk but that was another issue.
*( Shameplant/ Mimosa pudica is a creeping annual or perennial flowering plant of the pea/legume family Fabaceae. It is often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken, defending themselves from harm, and re-open a few minutes later)
Unlike other Zanuki children who were taught to be brave and bold, Ares was timid and reserved. However as time passed by, he also started to change until the incident happened, causing him to be in a vegetative state for almost three years.
"Is this a good change?" Madam Anith asked.
"I think it's aligned with how a Zanuki should act. No matter what, young master Ares still bears the Zanuki last name" Garan answered perfunctorily.
Madam Anith once again focused on the monitor screen that have been paused. She looked at the youth inside the screen.
"Did you clean up everything?"
"Yes, we already disposed of the female nurse. Should we find the real perpetrator?" Garan asked.
"No need. You can go"
Garan immediately vanished from the room.
Not long after that, the sound of a phone ringing reverberated across the silent room. Madam Anith glanced at her smart communicator on the table.
She lazily picked up the call, "Hello"
"That kid passed my test," said the person on the opposite side of the call.
"Isn't it too early for this kind of thing? He just woke up from a coma" Madam Anith tried to suppress her anger.
No matter how Ares was, he was still her youngest grandson. Even if he didn't act like a proper Zanuki, Madam Anith couldn't bear to even scold him let alone tried to put an assassination act on him.
"Don't he look more like a Zanuki now" the voice remained calm as if it didn't even matter if Ares was affected and went into a coma again.
"I told you, let me handle him and don't interrupt in any way"
"He still bears the same last name as me and he better don't bounce around showing how useless he is if he can't even act like a proper Zanuki. But it seems I don't have to worry anymore and I don't care if you tell him the truth about this incident"
"But I already told you-hey hello! This bastard dare to hang up on me?" Madam Anith didn't manage to finish what she was saying when the call suddenly ended.
She tried to call the number again but was rejected by the other side.
Through the intercom, Madam Anith told Garan to inform Ares a few days later that the perpetrator have been caught and sent to prison. The mastermind was a noble family who hate the Zanuki and coincidentally knew one of the Zanuki was hospitalized.
They used that opportunity to harm Ares as revenge on the Zanuki. They didn't care if Ares was innocent and know nothing.
After settling the issue, Madam Anith continue her work as if nothing happened. Unfortunately, the grandson that she thought was naive, felt dumbfounded listening to the half-assed made-up story.
Ares looked at Garan, his grandmother's butler expressionlessly. He didn't believe it was a revenge attempt by an unknown noble just to piss off the Zanuki.
'Who the hell dares to mess with this group of people that even the royal family didn't want to offend?' Ares almost wanted to roll his eyes but he suppressed it.
He just nodded slightly at Garan and dismissed him. If the Zanuki didn't want to reveal it, there must be a reason for that and he was not interested in it.
He knew as Ares, he was confident he could survive if something similar happened again in the future.
Ares continued looking at the scenery outside the window. It was currently late winter and there was still snow everywhere.
As someone that has experienced being homeless, winter was the season the current Ares hates the most.
He likes autumn the most since he was born in autumn and the temperature in autumn is also just nice. Most people might like spring but for him, he felt the autumn season was like himself.
In autumn, the trees changed colour and the weather is not too hot or too cold. The leaves begin to fall from the trees, the birds leave, and there seems to be a kind of sadness in the air. It is not a happy season like spring.
Did he ever cry because of sadness? The answer is no since he didn't have time to indulge in his emotions. He lived in a corrupt orphanage until his real family found him.
But his life wasn't much better after being taken back. He had to guard his back all the time lest his blood-related brothers and cousins would stab him when he was careless.
'I don't have time to be sad or angry. I commit suicide multiple times but fail. When I wanted to try living my life, I suddenly died. Maybe that was for tg best. That world was already doomed to begin with. I can try living in this world.'