Free Web NovelChapter 96: Chapter 96: Are You Serious?_1
"Hmm, this should be the right place," Aiden said.
Carrying a basket of fruit, Aiden stood in front of an apartment door, comparing it to the inherited memory he had.
In the previous Aiden’s memory, there was an address for the apartment where his colleague Rebecca lived.
There wasn’t any special reason; the team led by the former Aiden seemed to often hold a celebration at a pub nearby after successfully capturing criminals.
Several times, Rebecca had invited several colleagues to her apartment to drink tea and sober up, and the group often chatted until late into the night before breaking up.
At least according to the snippets of memory that Aiden had inherited, he could feel that the former owner of this body had a quite deep bond with colleagues, including Rebecca—after all, they were comrades who had repeatedly faced life and death together, trusting each other with their backs in danger.
The current Aiden, although he retained the memories of interacting with former colleagues, did not inherit these feelings.
Soon after inheriting this body, he was transferred to work at the prison and had only met Rebecca a few times. This girl hadn’t even left a deep impression on him. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
But nonetheless, since he had promised the Chief Harold, he still felt it was necessary to fulfill the commitment.
He raised his hand and tried knocking on the door.
After a while, no one came to open the door, so Aiden knocked again, a bit harder, followed by another silence.
Just when Aiden was starting to wonder if the person inside was not at home, there was a noise from the lock.
Then, the door cracked open, and half of Rebecca’s face appeared on the other side, scrutinizing the visitor with caution.
This unusual response didn’t scare Aiden; after all, he had already been informed of Rebecca’s amnesia beforehand.
He greeted her directly, "Good morning, Rebecca. I’ve heard about your condition from the Chief Harold. Do you remember me? I am..."
"Aiden Galahad?" Rebecca’s eyes widened slightly.
"You remember me, that’s great," Aiden said with a sincere smile.
He was genuinely pleased that Rebecca recognized him, as explaining their relationship to someone with amnesia and gaining their trust without any impression would be quite a hassle—especially since Aiden was not the original owner of this body but only inherited its memories.
But he could still feel the unnatural distance when Rebecca called out his full name.
Rebecca seemed to let down her guard and opened the door further, then with an apologetic face, she said to Aiden, "I’m sorry, I only have a vague memory of your face and name..." She looked at Aiden anxiously and tentatively asked, "We used to work in the same department, right?"
"We were in the same response team, I was the captain. Later, I transferred out. You even helped arrange my farewell party," Aiden explained. "It looks like you don’t have any impression of that either."
"I’m very sorry," Rebecca apologized again, her eyes cast downward, showing a trace of weariness. Obviously, she had gone through this sort of visit where she couldn’t remember anything about the person several times already.
"I’m not blaming you," Aiden quickly gestured, "no need to force yourself."
He didn’t feel uncomfortable with Rebecca’s attitude... after all, the one who had inherited this body wasn’t really familiar with Rebecca to begin with.
"Come in and sit down; I just made some coffee," Rebecca invited him into her home.
The limited space in the apartment didn’t have a living room especially for guests, so Aiden placed the fruit on the table and sat down at the dining table, while Rebecca poured him coffee from the kitchenette.
"Need anything added?" Rebecca asked him.
"A bit of fresh milk, two sugars," Aiden replied.
The amnesiac Rebecca was clearly not yet accustomed to the layout of her own kitchen, a bit flustered and clumsy.
It took her a while to find the sugar cube jar in the cupboard, and this delay seemed to make her tense. When she scooped up the sugar cubes, her hand shook, causing two to roll onto the floor.
In her rush, she placed the spoon on the rim of the coffee cup to deal with the sugar cubes on the floor, and her fingers inadvertently touched the coffee that was filled too high and scalded herself, causing her to shriek.
"No need to be so nervous, I’ll add it myself."
Watching Rebecca rinse her scalded right hand under cold water, Aiden felt a bit guilty as he stood up.
"It’s okay, it’s okay! Just stay seated!" Rebecca waved her hand repeatedly.
She picked up the sugar again to add to Aiden’s coffee, her movements this time a bit smoother. Holding the coffee cup, she gave it a quick stir with the spoon and then turned and forced herself to be calm as she held out the cup across the table to Aiden, "Please, enjoy."
She forgot the saucer... Aiden thought.
But the atmosphere didn’t feel right for a reminder, so he reached out with both hands, one cautiously touching the edge of the cup while the other took the handle that Rebecca was holding, inadvertently touching the fingers of her recently burned right hand.
Aiden hadn’t really thought much of it, but Rebecca’s expression tightened visibly for a moment, compelling Aiden to take note of it as well.
Rebecca was obviously still not quite comfortable with a man who seemed quite familiar in her house but whom she just couldn’t remember.
"Amnesia has certainly made things inconvenient," Aiden broached the subject, showing his understanding.
"Yeah, some things I don’t use often... It takes me a while to remember where they are. Though it’s not a big deal, it’s pretty annoying," Rebecca said with a wry smile.
"That must make it difficult to go back to work, doesn’t it?"
"Yes, my work memories... basically only revolve around the things that happened when catching Presia," Rebecca sighed. "Now I can’t even handle a gun well, going back to being a Judge, I’m afraid I don’t have the life to spare."
"Yeah, I can understand," Aiden said sincerely.
This was the truth for Aiden, probably no one else could understand the idea Rebecca suggested more than he could.
"I was thinking of requesting a transfer to another unit, but the chief has been trying to keep me, saying I could continue to take paid leave until I recover," Rebecca’s expression was somewhat helpless. "And he also got really mad at me, saying that in my situation, I even thought about transferring to that kind of unit..."
"Which unit did you ask for?" Aiden asked, casually bringing the coffee to his lips.
Since his departure, the Heretic Inquisition Bureau had become increasingly short-staffed; Chief Harold probably wouldn’t let people go easily now.
"Rose Iron Prison."
Aiden choked on the coffee as soon as he sipped it.
"What’s wrong?" Rebecca got frightened.
"You..." Aiden coughed for a while before finally catching his breath, "are serious?"
