Deviant: No Longer Human

"!!"

"Cough... Cough... What!?" Seraphina choked on her food, her heart racing, a chill running down her spine.

Unperturbed, Wang Xiao reached for a napkin and gently wiped her face while Seraphina stared back with pale, bewildered eyes, wondering if she was like a pig being fattened for the slaughter.

"Don\'t fret, I took my revenge for that on the same day ..." Wang Xiao said with a smile, his eyes twinkling at her evident fright.

Memories from three years ago flashed through Seraphina\'s mind.

She had indeed tried to manipulate him, but once her scheme was exposed, she not only suffered a severe backlash but also became entangled in other dangerous affairs that she had initially avoided.

An attack even destroyed her royal palace, necessitating more than a year of repairs.

Her heart felt heavy as she mulled over these memories, increasingly uncertain about Wang Xiao\'s true motives.

"We\'ve settled that score, but afterwards, you became involved with Gabrial and suffered greatly, yet you chose to keep us close and allowed us to live, if I recall correctly?" Wang Xiao spoke again, his tone slightly amused as he observed the array of emotions playing across Seraphina\'s face.

"...Do I even have another choice?" Seraphina spoke bitterly.

Could she have asked him to leave back then?

Would he have wreaked havoc if she had?

"Haha... Actually, after your palace was destroyed and you moved to another home, if you had asked, I would have taken Anran and moved somewhere else." Wang Xiao\'s laughter, warm and unexpected, rang in her ears, catching her off guard.

She turned to face him, her expression one of surprise.

She hadn\'t known he could laugh so genuinely.

Why had he suddenly become so mysterious?

Wang Xiao caught her questioning gaze and nodded. "A lot of people died, many of them yours, including Marcus and his entire crew. You never came to protest or make a scene. Whatever your reasons, Sera, I remember both the good and the bad equally."

"The timing wasn\'t right back then, but now, if there\'s anything you want, just say it. As long as it\'s within my power, I can make it happen for you."

"Gasp!!"

The sharp intake of breath came not just from Seraphina, but from a hidden shadow that had been following Wang Xiao as well.

\'As long as I ask, I could have it?\' Seraphina\'s lips parted slightly in hesitation, her teeth gently nibbling her lower lip as she contemplated the offer.

The proposition was overwhelmingly tempting.

But what did she truly want?

That\'s the curious part—everyone thinks they want many things, but when presented with the opportunity, what do they actually choose?

Serpahina\'s heart pounded with anxiety, yet Wang Xiao remained patient, a calm presence by her side.

"You can take your time... Whether you ask for something or not, it won\'t affect the lives of you or your daughter," he reassured her, casually holding chopsticks in one hand and stuffing a piece of meat into her mouth forcing it to shut.

"Mmm..." Seraphina nodded, her gaze drifting to the food in front of her with a sense of relief.

Though she often appeared as a grumbling, annoyed woman, in truth, she harbored a deep fear.

She worried that if she asked for something, their accounts would be settled and Wang Xiao would then have no further obligation to her and Josephine.

But his reassuring words had soothed her. However, as calm as she felt on the surface, a new chaos began to stir within her...

The irritable woman of moments ago seemed to vanish, replaced by a more subdued and youthful demeanor.

Her face now flushed, she looked more like a girl bashfully contemplating a proposal of marriage.

She feared that if he spoke further, the butterflies in her stomach might burst free.

Her lips parted only weakly to accept the food, but after a few minutes, Seraphina regained her composure and snatched the chopsticks from his hand.

"Hm?"

"I can eat by myself," she declared, a hint of aloofness in her voice.

She grabbed the bowl of rice and began to eat at double speed.

"..."

"Why—gulp—did you suddenly decide to—cough— t—cough—to...change..." Seraphina choked on some rice as she swallowed it too hastily and asked, her eyes watering from the effort.

"Change like how?" Wang Xiao\'s eyes blinked with genuine curiosity.

Yet, whenever he spoke, there was a subtle calmness about him that might seem natural to him, but to those around him, it marked a significant transformation.

"Ummm... change like..." Seraphina hesitated, unsure whether to speak her mind.

After a brief moment, she shrugged, deciding to go ahead and potentially offend him anyway. "Change like, before you were some bossy thug kid! But now, it\'s different."

After dropping this bombshell, she quickly pretended to focus on her food, half-expecting to be scolded for her blunt observation.

Yet Wang Xiao\'s eyes closed, rather reflecting on his own history, which felt as if it had been sandwiched between different eras of his life.

He recalled the memories from his birth up to his entry into the Graveyard of Gods, followed by the vivid experiences within the Graveyard, and then another set that restarted from his birth and concluded once again at the entrance to the Graveyard.

This segmentation was necessary to prevent catastrophic consequences that might arise from fully accessing his memories of the Graveyard of Gods while attempting to recall anything from his earlier life.

As he pondered over the personality he had before entering the Graveyard, everything became clear to Wang Xiao.

Compared to his past self, he was indeed far more seasoned now.

Very few things in the world could unsettle him, an evidence to the profound experiences that had shaped him into the composed figure he was today.

He nodded, reminiscing about the once determined person who had entered the Graveyard of Gods. "Sera."

"Eh?" Seraphina paused midway through a bite, waiting for him to continue.

"The person you knew growing up always felt something was missing..." Wang Xiao began, his voice tinged with a reflective somberness. "He didn\'t have anyone behind him to say, \'Go do whatever you want, and even if you fall, it doesn\'t matter.\' There was no one standing beside him, no one there at all..."

Images of people flashed through his mind—from his family to the new family he had formed here, and even the lost Aurora.

None had given him that assurance.

So, he decided that he needed to find that Person.

Curiosity sparked in Seraphina\'s eyes. "So, you found that person finally?"

Wang Xiao smiled, a knowing look in his eyes, but he offered no answer, which made her pout in annoyance.

"If you didn\'t want to tell, why hype my curiosity?" she grumbled, but Wang Xiao paid her no mind.

He had indeed found that person, but it wasn\'t anyone else but—

Whoosh!

The conversation was abruptly interrupted by a gust of wind that swept through the pavilion, rustling the papers and small items on the table, pulling both of their attention away from the deeply personal moment.

The door to the pavilion swung open with a cheerful jingle of the bell as three guys strode in, followed closely by two girls.

The two guys playfully encircled their friend in the middle, their hands resting on his shoulders as they erupted into laughter, their camaraderie filling the air.

Trailing behind, the girls wore soft, subtle smiles that hinted at shared secrets.

"William, do you remember that girl from school? She\'s apparently now... Haha."

"That one, hehe, Jamie, how could William forget? He and she..."

"You guys—" William\'s face flushed with a mix of amusement and embarrassment from their teasing, but his attention was abruptly diverted when he spotted a familiar figure.

"Mom!"