Chapter Ninety-Three: An Unexpected Incident — Electronic Medicine

“Do you really have to go? Cole, can’t you stay a few more days?”

Inside the airport, sixteen-year-old Cole walked behind Doctor Roger. A blond girl traveling with them caught hold of his sleeve and asked with obvious reluctance about the boy before her, the one she had stopped. Yet the boy named Cole showed no emotion anyone could read.

“The Northern Union is no longer a place for the two of us. If we stay any longer, we won’t be able to leave.”

Cole did not let any trace of sadness show on his face, nor did he turn around. He stood motionless where he was, waiting for the blond girl’s reply.

“I know. You two can’t be ordinary people, can you? To attract the attention of the Northern Union government, you must be...”

“Just ordinary people. Two overly powerful ordinary people...”

Cole closed his eyes in silence. His eyes told a lie, but the small motion of his body concealed it.

“Cole, can I ask you something?”

An expectant look appeared on the blond girl’s face, and Cole’s heart began to tremble.

“You’ve been asking me this whole time...”

“When can you come back?”

“Maybe I won’t be coming back. But...” Cole opened his eyes, and a flicker of regret shone in his golden pupils. Hearing only the unfinished answer, the blond girl leaned eagerly against his back.

“But Cole will be willing to take risks for me, won’t he?”

“For the sake of my comrades, I’ve already made an enemy of the entire Arab Union. What does it matter if I add one more? Besides...”

He closed his eyes again and motioned for Roger to leave.

“Besides what?”

Resting against Cole’s back, the blond girl waited with growing anticipation for his answer.

“Besides, what’s the harm in making the world my enemy for the girl I like?”

A smile she would never forget appeared on the face of the person she loved. When Cole turned around, he gave her a bright, open smile...

...

“A dream?”

When he opened his eyes, Mingchuan was still thinking about the scene from moments ago.

Ten years earlier, a war of aggression launched by the Arab Union against Israel had dragged Cole into its wake. The Crown Prince had come under attack, and the Welsh Party had secretly given strong support to Israel’s resistance war, which in turn led indirectly to the Arab Union’s crushing defeat. Even so, the Crown Prince of the United Kingdom had lost part of his memory, along with his ability to remember everything.

“That was nine years ago, wasn’t it? Hah... looks like technology isn’t omnipotent after all. It still can’t let me recover everything completely.”

Mingchuan closed his eyes quietly. By now, a hairpin-like device had appeared on his head. It was his memory storage unit, capable of backing up part of his memory and awakening fragments of what he had once forgotten. It had been made for him years ago by Teacher Titan, though Cole had since modified it a little.

“Is it troubling you, Cole?”

At that moment, a voice rose from the side, startling Mingchuan. He opened his eyes in surprise and looked at the woman beside him.

“Katyusha, how did you...”

“That’s normal, isn’t it? I’m your girlfriend. Oh, of course, you’re Mingchuan now, not Cole.”

Feigning belated realization, Katyusha deliberately put on a surprised expression. She turned slightly, and the only blanket on the bed left even her nearly unclothed figure completely exposed. Her pale shoulder pressed against Mingchuan’s right arm. If it had not been for the armor he always wore, one could almost say they were already naked before each other.

“As long as you know.”

Mingchuan reached out with his right hand, and the watch on the bedside table seemed to attach itself naturally to his arm. He got out of bed and stretched, while Katyusha remained lying there, gazing at him with the look of a dutiful wife.

“Um... Cole, could you leave for a bit? I need to get dressed...”

“No need...”

At her words, Mingchuan climbed back onto the bed with a mischievous look and pinned her down through the blanket.

“After all, this body is Cole himself. There’s no need to be shy before him, is there?”

“Huh? Cole?”

“Besides, didn’t you already see it yesterday? What exactly are you resisting?”

Seeing her expression, Mingchuan could not help but tease her a little.

“All right then! Let me up first...”

At his words, Katyusha’s face reddened at once.

“Sorry, I was joking. Get up. I won’t look...”

With that, Mingchuan temporarily stepped into the washroom.

“Hah, that guy really can’t read the room. Still, this fellow... heh.”

Seeing her own Cole suddenly so obedient, Katyusha could not help but laugh. Yet as she watched Cole leave, a sense of relief rose in her as well.

After a while, Katyusha, now fully dressed and armed, came to the washroom door and knocked, wanting to call Mingchuan out. But there was no sound from inside.

“All right, Cole, it’s time to go!”

“You go on ahead. Someone from the Welsh side is looking for me.”

Hearing Cole’s reply, Katyusha had no choice but to accept it. Still, she understood that something might have happened, so she opened the door and, before leaving, turned back once.

“Then after this war is over, you have to spend some proper time with me, darling!”

But as soon as she reached the doorway, Katyusha saw Wenxin standing there in shock. And when Wenxin heard what she had said, she rushed straight into the room.

“Mingchuan, get out here!”

The washroom door was kicked open. Wenxin, her face full of fury, glared fiercely at the man before her. And yet...

“Cough!”

The weakened Mingchuan braced both hands on the sink. A mouthful of blood erupted from his lips, and the air filled with the stench of it. The mirror before him was splashed red by the spray.

“M-Mingchuan...?”

Seeing this, Wenxin, who had been brimming with anger only moments ago, instantly lost all her temper. What had happened? Why had Mingchuan suddenly become like this?

“Body check complete. Body condition: normal...”

“Damn it! How is that possible?”

Hearing the report, Mingchuan flew into a rage. Heat surged up through him in an instant, and another mouthful of blood spilled from his mouth.

“Roger! Report!”

“Yes, Colonel. There are self-replicating electronic machines inside your body. Your body has been damaged, and the instruments have been infiltrated. Please put on your uniform at once. I will use electronic interference against them.”

Far away in London, inside a villa and within a command center, Roger stood before his computer. He knew Wenxin was standing beside Mingchuan, so he did not use the title he ordinarily reserved for his royal prince. Instead, he addressed him as Colonel Mingchuan. Yet the Colonel before him was harboring a terrifying electronic parasite that could kill him.

Roger did not dare relax. Silver liquid coiled around Mingchuan’s body, and the electronic interference was activated. The electronic machines inside Mingchuan’s body immediately stopped functioning.

Ignoring Wenxin, Mingchuan charged out at once and yanked his clothes from the rack, throwing them on.

“Katyusha! I need an explanation! What did you do?”

His body was extremely weak, yet he still shouted angrily at the blond beauty before him.

But when Katyusha saw him like that, she could not understand what had happened. Then a clear answer surfaced in her mind.

“That medicine... they lied to me...”

“What?”

“The Northern Union’s electronic medicine. They said it could help you recover your memory...”

Katyusha, stunned, gave the answer without resistance. Cole had never been this angry with her before, and yet she also understood that this time, she had brought it upon herself.

“The Northern Union... in the end, they still wanted me dead... Roger, do you understand?”

“Understood, Colonel. I’ll have a good ‘talk’ with them.”

Listening from afar, Roger understood their exchange. The Katyusha of now could never lie to Cole, so there was only one possibility: the Northern Union meant to strike at Mingchuan.

“If I’m not mistaken, the Northern Union wanted Cole’s memories, so they used Katyusha. But who knows, perhaps you are not...”

“What? You...”

Hearing Roger’s words, Katyusha was shaken as well. Could it be that everything was false, that the person standing before her really was not...

“Fake. Only that one word.”

The silent shape of his lips made it obvious that the words were meant for Katyusha alone.

“Yes, I know how you feel about Cole. I never expected that I, as a substitute, no, as someone who looks exactly like him, would be able to help him block this blow. I forgive you. But I will not forgive the Northern Union, and neither will Cole or His Highness!”

Seeing Katyusha’s panic and feeling Wenxin’s gaze from behind, Mingchuan could not help but laugh inwardly. He left the room “angrily,” leaving only the expressionless Katyusha and Wenxin, who had witnessed everything.

Katyusha bit through her lip with her sharp little fang, and a drop of blood fell from it.

“So that’s how it is... I...”

“Katyusha, what exactly is going on here?”

Seeing Katyusha silently kneel down, Wenxin could not help but step forward to ask.

“No, you don’t need to know... Only, Cole will never speak to me again, will he? I’m sorry. Your boyfriend isn’t the one I love... I misunderstood...”