After putting on some clothes, he finally stepped out from his hiding place, his face red as he scratched his cheek and gave an awkward grin.

Charlotte, still sitting there, looked just as flustered.

Her nosebleed had mostly stopped, but she had to keep a piece of cotton stuffed in her nose to stop it from dripping again.

A quiet, uncomfortable silence stretched between them.

Neither of them seemed to know what to say.

Charlotte avoided his gaze, pretending to look around the room, while Vivian shifted his weight from one foot to another.

Realizing she wouldn't be the first to speak, Vivian cleared his throat softly.

"Ahem... ahem..." His voice cracked a little, making things even more awkward.

Charlotte finally glanced at him, her eyes traveling up to his head.

Her brows furrowed slightly as she asked, "These horns... can they be cut?"

Vivian blinked, caught off guard.

His hand went up to touch the smooth black horns curving from his head.

He hesitated, then gave a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes. " I think they can be removed without being cut".

Saying that, Vivian closed his eyes and focused.

A faint glow flickered around his horns, and slowly, they began to shrink.

The sharp curves drew back into his skull until they vanished completely.

At the same time, his long black hair shortened, stopping neatly at the nape of his neck.

"See?" he said, flashing a small, proud smile.

"I can make them disappear with just a thought. But when I bring them out again, my senses become sharper, I can almost feel attacks before they happen."

"And my hair, when it's long, becomes tougher... like scales." He had an excited expression as he explained.

Charlotte tilted her head, eyes narrowing slightly in thought. "Hmm... so how did you change like this? Is it because of the Vehemoth Heart?"

Vivian gave a bitter smile as he explained how these happened.

Honestly, there was no mention of one's body changing because of the Vehemoth Heart, but somehow his body had started going through a transformation.

It was most likely because of the fused Vehemoth pair's heart.

"Haa," he exhaled softly, glancing at his hands with a faint smile.

"Though it was dangerous, the reward was just as great. Not only did my body change, it became about four times stronger than before. I feel like I could do anything right now."

Charlotte watched him silently, a mix of amazement and worry flickering in her eyes.

She didn't say it aloud, but the thought crossed her mind.

Clearing away her thoughts, Charlotte took a quiet breath before speaking.

Her voice was hesitant, but there was a flicker of expectation in her tone as she asked, "Vivian... what about the curse?"

Hearing her question, Vivian looked down at himself, studying his body for a few seconds.

Then, without saying a word, he crossed his legs and sat down in a lotus position.

His expression turned calm and focused as he began to cultivate.

Charlotte bit her lip, wanting to ask more, but she stopped herself.

She could feel the faint waves of mana gathering around him, spiraling and condensing as if drawn by an unseen force.

The air itself felt heavier, almost humming with mana.

Minutes turned to hours. Two... maybe three.

The sun outside had started to dip lower when Vivian's eyes suddenly snapped open.

A faint light flickered in them, cold and sharp, and a smirk formed on his face.

But it wasn't a smile of relief or peace. It was something darker.

"Kafrik," he murmured, his voice low and steady, "be prepared... for the gift I'll give you."

Charlotte's brows furrowed.

The name sent a wave of disgust through her; she could feel the wickedness of that bastard.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded, stepping closer. "Is it cured?"

Vivian didn't answer.

His expression stayed unreadable, eyes fixed somewhere far away, as if lost in thoughts only he could understand.

Charlotte's impatience grew, her heart beating faster.

From his expression, it seemed the curse was gone, but she needed to hear it from him.

"Vivian!" she called, taking quick steps toward him. "Answer me, what happened?"

Seeing her impatience, Vivian finally stood up.

A soft, genuine smile touched his face as he nodded. "It's cured."

For a moment, Charlotte just stared at him, her mind in Chaos to believe it.

Then her knees gave out beneath her, and she nearly collapsed as her lips trembled.

"It's… it's really cured…" she whispered, unable to finish the sentence.

They had suffered so much for this, endured sleepless nights, countless dangers, and pain that could have broken anyone else.

Now that it was over, it felt unreal, like waking from a nightmare only to find the morning light waiting.

Vivian's expression stayed calm.

Watching her struggle to stand, he quietly stepped forward and caught her in his arms before she could fall.

Charlotte froze.

The trembling that had come from shock now deepened, but for an entirely different reason.

Her face grew warm, and her heartbeat raced wildly as she looked up at him.

His eyes were steady, filled with quiet concern rather than the coldness from before.

"You haven't rested these past few days, have you?" he asked softly.

Charlotte didn't reply, but she didn't need to.

The dark circles under her eyes and the weakness in her body were proof enough.

Vivian sighed, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "You've done enough. Rest now," he said gently.

For once, Charlotte didn't argue.

She simply leaned into him, letting her exhausted body relax as the weight of all those long, desperate days finally began to fade.

He carried her gently and laid her down on his bed, careful not to wake her.

For a moment, he simply stood there, looking at her peaceful face, so different from the one that had been tense with worry only hours ago.

Then, with a faint smile, he brushed a few loose strands of hair from her forehead and pressed a soft kiss there.

Charlotte's lips curved slightly, as if she could still feel the warmth of his touch.

Her eyes fluttered shut, and within moments, her breathing grew slow and steady as she drifted into sleep.

Vivian pulled the blanket up around her shoulders, making sure she was comfortable before stepping back.

Then he sat down on the ground beside the bed, crossing his legs once again into the lotus position.

A long breath escaped him, half relief, half burden.

His gaze, once soft, hardened again as his thoughts turned inward.

The curse was gone, yes, but the real battle wasn't over. Not yet.

He needed to reach the 5-Star stage and awaken his intuition.

Breaking through to 5-Star wasn't the problem, he could feel his strength surging every time he cultivated.

But intuition… that was something else entirely.

It couldn't be achieved through raw power or endless training.

It required something, something specific that he couldn't quite grasp.

That uncertainty was what troubled him most.

"It'll be difficult," he muttered under his breath, closing his eyes.

His mind wandered back to his previous life, searching for any clue, any moment that could explain how he'd done it before.

When he had been tortured, when the pain and despair consumed everything else, he'd felt it.

That spark.

The intuition had awakened then, born out of hatred so deep it had almost devoured him.

But hatred alone wasn't enough.

He knew that now.

He had felt hatred again, toward Kafrik, toward the professor, but the spark didn't return.

Something else had been missing.

Something that had slipped between the cracks of his memory.

He frowned, trying to piece it together.

"Setting aside the intuition from my past life… what about during the battle against the fused Vehemoth pair?" he murmured to himself.

He remembered that fight vividly, the fear, the pain, the determination.

At one moment, when death was only a breath away, he'd felt it again.

A faint sliver of intuition, like a whisper at the edge of his awareness.

But it was fleeting. He hadn't been in the right state of mind to understand it back then.

Vivian's brows drew together as he sank deeper into thought.

'If hatred isn't the key, then what is? Fear? Resolve? The will to survive?'

'Or something far more elusive, something only those who stood between life and death could touch?'

The questions echoed quietly in his mind as he sat there, unmoving, his expression caught between focus and frustration.

"Haa…"

He sighed, releasing the frustration that had been steadily building in his chest.

His thoughts were circling in the same place again and again, and no matter how much he tried to reason through it, the answer stayed just out of reach.

At this rate, he wouldn't be able to awaken his intuition, and if he couldn't awaken it, then there was only one path left.

He wouldn't take unnecessary risks.

He'd kill Kafrik, expose what had happened, and capture the professor.

Whether the man would talk about that Clown or the experiments was another matter, without intuition, the chances of extracting anything useful were slim.

Still, even that plan carried weight.

There was no point in throwing himself into danger without awakening his intuition first.

That had to come before everything else.

Another sigh escaped him, longer this time, and he forced his mind to quiet.

He straightened his back, pushing away every distraction, and began to focus on his cultivation.

The air around him shifted, faint ripples of mana forming gentle waves that pulsed with his breathing.

"Fifth Star, huh?" he murmured, his eyes flickering open for a brief moment before closing again. "One month will do."

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