Chapter 76: Beware Women
"So, what's up?"
Kael sat on a tree that had fallen over and propped his legs over the edge of the trunk.
"I am freaking out, that's up. I hadn't been able to sleep for days, and I've just been keeping thinking about Miss Angelica.
"Whenever I close my eyes, I see her face. I hear her voice. I smell her. I taste her lips…"
Jeff gritted his teeth.
"…You really love her, huh?"
Kael said.
"That's the thing. I don't think so. I think these feelings are fake, and that Miss Angelica herself planted these feelings into me."
Jeff said, pulled out a wrinkled leather-bound notebook from inside his coat, and flipped through the pages.
"I am so stupid that I had completely forgotten about this notebook. Since I couldn't fall asleep last night, I visited my home back on Earth.
"My grandfather, whom I adored in my childhood, always told me stories of Whitesky and his adventures.
"He wrote everything in this notebook!"
Jeff said and gave him the notebook with the specific page already open, and Kael read it through carefully.
"Jock Quinn, the Fifth Aeon, Eighteenth Winter.
"I think my childhood friend had turned into a woman. He pretended not to know me, but I know it was him; I just know from the shape of his birthmark.
"He had a very unique birthmark with a flower-shaped scar on his left wrist, right below the thumb. It was definitely him.
"However, I am pretty sure he was a man. He was my neighbor during my childhood, and we even bathed together, as our families were really close.
"I came across him or… her; I don't know anymore. I saw him at Gehram Lake during the annual dance festival, and I saw him… her dancing with a handsome gold-haired noble.
"My friend… was really beautiful, I must admit it, even though that makes me sick to my stomach, but everyone in the festival agreed, and that noble was all over her.
"However, I happened to catch a glimpse of her wrist, and there was that scar I just mentioned. I went to talk to him, and he… she was in a really hurry to get far away from me.
"I saw her eyes, and I saw a glimpse of my old friend in those eyes… I don't know; maybe I am wrong, and I bothered just some poor lady."
Kael finished reading through it, and then Jeff flipped way back to one of the last pages in the notebook.
Jeff tapped at the page and told him to keep reading.
"Jock Quinn, the Fifth Aeon, Fortieth Winter.
"My friend is dead. Old, very old friend, whom I thought I lost a long time ago.
"Many years ago, I thought I believed that my friend had turned into a woman, and months have passed ever since that encounter, and I found out that my friend's family has put in a missing person report.
"They believed that he died, and in years to come, that belief became stronger as he never returned.
"They buried an empty coffin and had a nice little funeral that I took part in.
"Last week, I met the woman with the flower-shaped scar once more, and she told me who she really was.
"She was my old friend.
"I asked, how could she be him? They looked nothing alike, and their genders were completely reversed.
"She told me that she joined a cult, which she regretted greatly, and that it had changed her in ways she never expected.
"Sex Redemption, an evil cult that worships the Rose Goddess, and they've been blessed with the Seduction Pathway.
"It's Pathway that turns men into women.
"She told me all the things she had to do, or she would wither and die. The 'women' of that cult also received a curse of rapid aging.
"To stop that, they had to suck the life force out of men to stop the curse and to make themselves stronger, and in return, they would also become inhumanly beautiful.
"When I met my friend, she had become very old. So old. She didn't want to keep doing that anymore, so she let the curse kill her.
"Yesterday, she died of old age.
"I don't know what to do with her… him. I can't take her to her family either, as no one will believe who she actually is.
"I am planning to put her in that empty coffin that her family lowered into the ground many years ago.
"I think she will like that…"
Kael looked at the notebook in disbelief, and he slowly closed it with a deep breath.
It was unreal what he just read.
"I think Miss Angelica is part of Sex Redemption. I am sure of it. She took my life force, which made me so sick back then."
Jeff said angrily, and if his knuckles weren't already bloody, he would've definitely punched the tree next to him.
However, he had already punched his wall back in his room, and he didn't really want to break his hand.
"I think you're right. Her disappearance is suspicious. I think she left after she finished taking your life force, but she didn't take enough to kill you.
"She didn't want to kill you because that would increase her chance of getting caught, but I am sure that she left somewhere to find more victims."
Kael concluded.
"Yeah… That fucking bitch!"
Jeff shouted into the empty forest around him, screamed with all his built-up hatred, and wanted to do nothing more than kill her.
However, those overwhelming feelings were making things very confusing for her, as on one hand, he loved her greatly, and on the other hand, he hated her.
He knew those feelings of love weren't real, but he couldn't do anything about them.
"You think Miss Angelica is really a man? When I think about it, I feel utterly sick. I think there is a possibility that she is actually a woman, but she could also be a man."
Jeff said, and the further he thought about it, the more he felt like he was turning sick.
Kael let out a cold breath, awkwardly scratched the back of his head, and made a mental note to be extremely careful not to sleep with women of Sex Redemption.
He could accidentally lose his life force, and worse, he could accidentally sleep with a man.