The moonlight was illuminating a simple but luxurious room, the dim light hiding the person standing in the corner. The person wasn't tall, their height between 160 and 165 centimeters, but the surrounding air was so cold that anyone could sense their power... and anger.
The tight fitted red dress perfectly hugged the girl's curves, but it was in an unnatural contrast to her purple eyes and silver hair. Though... with the raging fire in her eyes, no one would notice the color. The rage was so scary that no one would pay attention to her appearance. Even though she was so stunning.
But something happened soon after which completely erased the unnatural contrast between the dress and the eyes. Because the eyes turned blood-red, the same color as the dress.
Instantly, the girl looked like a completely different person as she stared into the mirror. Her focus wasn't really on her reflection, but she still looked. Her focus was somewhere else. Deep in her mind. On the conversation she had with the Archduke.
Truthfully, she didn't even know what she was planning to do after taking revenge for the original owner, but she didn't expect him to tell her such news. It shook her deep in her core and enraged her even more than when Alexander forcefully kissed her. Back then, her rage wasn't so intense as to turn her eyes red. But at the moment, her mind was operated by intense rage twisted with disgust and hate.
In her mind, a plan was being cooked up. She wanted to do it swiftly and gruesomely, but her opponents were too powerful. The only way for her to win was by exhausting them and killing them at their lowest.
In her head, she started replaying her conversation with the Archduke, to remember more information.
When she asked him if it was wrong that her spirit veins and blood veins merged, he shook his head. "No, it isn't! But it can be dangerous for you." He was clearly distressed as he spoke.
"Why can it be dangerous? Will something happen to me, father?" Michelle raised an eyebrow in question.
The Archduke shook his head. "No! Nothing will happen, just that you might be targeted." He sighed.
"Your blood, Spirit Blood, is rare by itself, and as it can be used to control beasts and monsters to some extent, people would already be targeting you if they found out you have it. And now that your spirit veins and blood veins have merged, your blood and spirit energy have merged too and became one. It's called soul blood, but since from the start, your blood was spirit blood, after merging with spirit energy, it's not soul blood but Spirit Soul Blood." His voice was dire as he spoke.
"What's Spirit Soul Blood, father? How will it affect me?" Michelle asked.
The Archduke sighed again. "Michelle, your cultivation will be much faster than that of others, but to break through, you will need much more spirit energy than them. And unlike others, when cultivating, the amount of spirit energy you can condensate won't grow but will instead become denser and more deadly. It will grow in size only after breaking through ranks."
Listening to that, Michelle frowned. "What breaking through, father? Isn't cultivating only about increasing the size of spirit energy one can condensate?" she tilted her head to the side as she asked.
But to her surprise, the Archduke shook his head. "This world is made of realms, and the one we are in is the lowest, and the Land of Exile at that, so the spirit energy here is the lowest. No one can even break through the first rank here, but once you go to any of the higher realms, you will learn about the ranks there. For now, they aren't important. What's important is the danger lurking around."
"Then, what is the danger, father? Tell me already!" Michelle insisted.
The Archduke pressed his forehead against the palm of his hand, his elbow resting on his knee. "Having Spirit Blood, in this realm, you are safe because no one knows the power it holds, but people from higher realms will all try to capture you if they notice you. But you have Spirit Soul Blood which is more powerful. You will be able to communicate with beasts and monsters, and they will be naturally drawn towards you. Unlike with Spirit Blood, you won't be able to control them, but they will be willing to obey you. To the extent that if a beast is contracted with a human, it would be willing to disregard its master's orders to obey you. This power of yours is something both hated and desired by all powerhouses, and if you are found to have it, your life will turn into a nightmare worse than death."
Hearing that, Michelle frowned a bit. "But I'm safe here, so why are you so worried, father? Why should I never condensate my spirit energy?" her purple eyes narrowed as she spoke. "Father... Did someone from higher realms come here?" she asked, already certain that she was right. There was no other reason for the Archduke to be so worried.
The Archduke nodded. "The ones who came aren't just some random people from the higher realms, but the son and the daughter of the leader of one of the three biggest power houses in the middle realm. The realm we are in is the lowest, then is middle and then is upper. Above the upper realm is only the heavenly realm, but they never meddle with the realms lower than them, so the upper realm is practically the most powerful. The two who came are known for being ruthless and cold-blooded. I don't know why they came, but their intentions are never good."
Listening to the Archduke, Michelle raised a brow. "Father, you know them personally?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
When her words fell, the archduke froze for a moment before answering. "I know both them and their father," he said with a tingle of something dark in his voice, making Michelle even more intrigued.
"Father, you are from the middle realm?" she asked after a while.
But to her surprise, the Archduke shook his head. "Originally, I'm from the upper realm, but I was sent down here to search for something."
"And the middle realm can't know about it, so you can't interfere if they find out about my blood. That's why you are so worried. Am I right?" Michelle tilted her head with a smile.
"Yes. You are right." The Archduke nodded.
With that, Michelle's smile widened. "Father, Alexader Terce and David Elether are from the upper realm too?"
Once again, the Archduke nodded. "Yes. I think so. But no one can be sure. It's known about them that they belong to the top powerhouse, but there were some rumors that they have connections in the heavenly realm."
That made Michelle raise a brow. That explained why the two were so powerful. And why the Emperor Emeritus was afraid of the Archduke.
"Father, what are the names of the two who came from the middle realm?" she spoke again after a while of thinking.
The Archduke sighed again. "Eleanor and Joseph Hillberg. Their father is Thomas Hillberg. All three of them are despicable bastards." He frowned as he spoke.
Seeing how the Archduke was acting, Michelle narrowed her eyes. "What did they do?" she asked.
When she asked, the Archduke sighed and leaned back on the couch. "What do you remember about your mother, Michelle?" he asked after a while of silence.
Michelle shook her head. "Nothing, father. Just what I heard here and there from the servants. She died shortly after I was born from the aftereffects of a poison, didn't she?"
"Yes..." the Archduke sighed. "Before I was told to come here, I went to the middle realm with your mother. She was already pregnant at the time. Knowing that I was a close friend of one of the leaders of the upper realm's leading academy, Thomas Hillberg decided to weaken me, to strike at the academy. He had a grudge with the academy. So he poisoned your mother. I didn't know even when we returned to the upper realms and I only found out when we came down here. Your mother died shortly after you were born from the poison." The Archduke had to work hard to suppress his raging hatred.
Michelle watched his expression and felt something stir inside her. One of the things she hated as a doctor was when someone targeted pregnant women. And poisoning a pregnant woman was something she abhorred the most. Especially since it was her mother. She might have only taken over the body she was in and the Archduke's wife had basically nothing to do with her, but even in her past life, she had no mother as she was an orphan, so after feeling familial love from the Archduke, she had taken the Grace family as her own. So Michelle Grace's deceased mother was her mother, and she would take revenge for her.
Not even knowing when or why, intense rage appeared in her chest, but it was still containable.