Chapter 440: Chapter 440 Selfishness_1
This scent, there couldn’t be a mistake.
The uniform was emitting a familiar scent, warm with body temperature. Veronica was a bit curious if she would be able to find the other party’s heartbeat with her ear against the chest, and whether she would discover that his heartbeat was, in fact, quickening as well.
However, she might not be able to hear anything clearly because Veronica could distinctly feel that her own heartbeat was already as chaotic as fervent drumbeats.
She might as well never wake up from this dream, preferably with a bit of a follow-up...
Thinking this, Veronica carefully lifted her hand, wanting to embrace her "dream lover" in return.
Aiden timely noticed Veronica’s subtle movement and realized he had to make a sound, so he coughed lightly, "Veronica, wake up, are you okay?"
Veronica’s hand, which was about to clamber onto Aiden’s back, paused.
An awkward silence lasted for several seconds, Veronica gradually moved her face away from Aiden’s chest and slowly lifted her head.
This wasn’t a dream...
Upon realizing this, Veronica felt her head buzz, and at that moment, she just wanted to disappear from the world right there and then.
Aiden spoke in time, breaking the silence, "Thank God you’ve come to. You suddenly fainted just now, and it scared me. Umm... it was so sudden, I could only hold you like this, sorry."
Aiden raised his hands, trying to look apologetic—although strictly speaking, he was the one who’d been taken advantage of. However, at the moment, Veronica’s face was so red it seemed as if tomato juice might drip out, and not finding some words to give her an out might result in this girl ending up charging headfirst into a wall.
Veronica was stunned for a moment, then asked subconsciously, "I, fainted?"
"Yes, you fainted, so I could only catch you like this." Aiden nodded confidently, "But you woke up quickly, how do you feel? Is there any area where your consciousness doesn’t seem clear?"
A series of questions left Veronica a bit dazed, "I feel alright."
She could sense that Aiden was helping her gloss over the awkward segment where she had tried to snuggle into her superior’s embrace and had lifted her hand, ready to hug him—just by interpreting it as being muddled upon waking up, it was all excusable.
Both were well aware of what had transpired, but chose not to articulate it, an unspoken mutual understanding.
Veronica finally recovered from the embarrassment and then realized a crucially important issue, "What in the world happened to me just now!?"
"You were hit by a Mental Attack. How much do you remember?" Aiden immediately steered the conversation in that direction.
"I..." Veronica struggled to settle her scattered thoughts, recalling, "I was walking toward the reception area and then... then..."
She didn’t manage to finish the rest of her sentence—"then collapsed into your arms."
"That person who came looking for me, named Melissa, she did it, do you remember her?" Aiden said seriously.
"Her?" Recalling the young girl she had seen at the reception, Veronica was somewhat surprised, "What did she do to me? Who is she?"
"She occupied your body with her spirit, talking directly with me about some matters. She is also a wielder of authority powers, and her rank is above mine. Sorry for dragging you into this." Aiden apologized, this time genuinely.
"She is?" Veronica’s eyes widened.
Veronica was quite surprised, but she finally understood why she had instinctively wanted to dodge when she made eye contact with the other party—probably the Mental Attack had been executed at that very moment.
"Far from it, don’t be deceived by her appearance, she is a dangerous individual, she wields powers of the spirit..." Aiden hesitated for a moment before deciding to tell Veronica the truth, "She is a true god."
"A god..." Veronica was so shocked that she could not utter another word.
"Because of past cases, I’ve developed a connection with her, we... should consider ourselves as mutually using each other. I didn’t expect she would do such a thing to you; it was my oversight," Aiden explained, "Just to be safe, I’ll have Presia conduct a Spirit probe on you afterward to see if she has done anything else."
If the Spirit had been tampered with in any way, there should be some traces that are detectable, like when the goddess of vengeance used the "Sacrifice" power to enter Halo’s subconscious spirit fragment—a deeper search should reveal something.
And the Wordless Code—it might be better to write down some rules using the Wordless Code as a precaution, even though Melissa seemed to have broken free from the control.
Veronica hesitated for a long time before deciding not to ask too many complicated questions, only the most crucial one: "Is she an enemy?"
Since she chose to trust him unconditionally, there was no need to know too much about the complex intricacies, just understanding some essential things to be aware of was enough.
"Hard to say for the future, but at least for now, she isn’t," Aiden replied, "And I can’t afford to be her enemy for the time being—I need to wait for the right conditions."
Veronica pursed her lips tightly. A deity—even someone she most respected couldn’t easily find a countermeasure against such an existence.
In that moment, she intensely felt the world Aiden was involved in, and how unattainable it seemed for her.
Nevertheless, even so, she found it extremely hard to convince herself to let go and distance herself from this dangerous world, no matter how presumptuous it might be.
But she refrained from voicing any pledges of loyalty, Aiden already knew she was willing to risk it all; she trusted he would make the right judgments and choices.
"So she is still at the reception area now..." Veronica lowered her voice.
"If nothing unexpected happened, she should have already left. We can check at the reception later, I also can’t afford to show my face directly in front of her right now," Aiden said, "Let’s go to the library’s research room first to see Presia. Let’s go."
After speaking, Aiden opened the door to the office and gestured for Veronica to come out with him.
"Alright," Veronica replied with a nod, stepping out of the office.
She thought again about what had just happened...
While she still felt ashamed enough to want to find a place to hide, on the whole... it was actually not a loss.
There was nothing to regret, an opportunity like that, which she’d only dare to take in a dream, she couldn’t let pass again even if it came once in a thousand years.
No... that’s not quite accurate either. Veronica immediately dismissed this thought in her mind.
She did have some regrets; since such opportunities are so rare, she should have steeled her heart and hugged him then and there.
And there was no need to shy away; if she had confessed her feelings in the moment...
At this thought, Veronica suddenly came to her senses, wanting to slap herself awake.
Her superior was now involved in such deep matters; he shouldn’t be distracted by such things.
She should at least wait until after everything was resolved...
Veronica stole a glance at her boss’s figure, trying hard to bury that small personal desire deep like a seed.
