Rrakavasha sneezed several times in succession.
"What's wrong, Mr. Rrakavasha? Did you catch a cold, or is someone secretly talking about you?" Clarice looked at him with concern.
"No one would talk about me. It's probably the sudden temperature drop." Rrakavasha rubbed his nose.
He and Clarice had been chatting for quite a while now; it was already deep into the night.
"...Then why not wear more clothes?"
"Two reasons. The first is probably a habit formed from childhood experiences... I don't remember it too clearly."
Rrakavasha searched through his memories, his tone gradually becoming tinged with emotion as he recounted:
"When I was small, my homeworld erupted into global war. Numerous devastating weapons polluted the land, sky, and ocean."
"The air was perpetually thick with an extremely uncomfortable odor. War spread across the entire planet, leaving countless people displaced."
"Innumerable biochemical weapons were deployed in warfare, spawning many lethal viruses. Not a single infected person survived."
"When I collapsed in a pile of corpses waiting to die, Ruan Mei appeared. She was a Biology researcher who picked me up and gave me the possibility of living..."
This was the first time Rrakavasha spoke of his past. Clarice focused intently, listening with utmost seriousness.
"Perhaps my life force was stubborn. My teacher said I carried at least a dozen viral strains, several of which counteracted each other, allowing me to hold on until she arrived."
"From that point on, I became her test subject. To stay alive, I initially spent two full years soaking in a cultivation chamber."
"Once outside, the viruses could very likely erupt beyond control."
"Even after I could leave the chamber, I needed constant physical examinations and real-time monitoring of viral activity and potential mutations."
"Wearing too many clothes was troublesome. For the entire year, I'd basically just throw on something clean. Though the memory is somewhat hazy, that's roughly how it went."
"What about the second reason?" Clarice asked softly.
Rrakavasha fell silent for a moment before explaining matter-of-factly.
"...Though all the viruses in my body have been eliminated, aftereffects remain. Sometimes I lose bodily sensation."
"Bodily sensation?" Clarice tilted her head.
"Touch, smell, pressure, temperature, pain... for instance, occasionally I can't taste food or sense climate changes. It's not too serious."
"Previously, my constitution was good, so it didn't affect me much. Now, perhaps due to my advancing age, I've actually become sensitive to cold. Haha..."
"You don't seem like someone of advanced age."
He spoke lightly, but Clarice didn't entirely believe him.
What she'd witnessed over these years wouldn't lie.
Facing climate changes, people who sense cold add layers; when hot, they dress lightly.
The frequency of Rrakavasha losing bodily sensation might not be merely occasional...
He could possibly spend most of winter unable to sense specific climate changes, only learning through monitoring information to decide whether to add clothing.
Right, and taste too!
Clarice suddenly recalled that last time when she'd brought the Red-Blue Crystal Fruit, Rrakavasha had said it was very sweet after tasting it.
But that fruit was clearly sweet-and-sour. No matter how ripe, the sour flavor remained obvious.
Initially, she'd thought it was due to differing tastes between people, but now it seemed...
Clarice's heart felt like it had been pricked by a needle.
Could he... have long been unable to taste true flavors without realizing it...?
But if his sense of taste had problems, how could he make such delicious pastries and wine?
Unless his taste hadn't had issues before, only developing them recently.
"Even your teacher can't cure it?" Clarice suppressed her heartache.
"...If it could be cured, it wouldn't be called aftereffects." Rrakavasha showed an accepting smile, though his heart apologized inwardly.
This was also half a lie.
In truth, these symptoms only appeared in recent years.
Physical decline brought by bodily aging, not lingering effects from the viruses.
He was a short-lived species with an original lifespan of at most a hundred-some years.
That he could live until now was entirely due to Ruan Mei extending his life back then.
But he didn't plan to mention any of this.
A dying man should take unpleasant matters alone to his grave, not weave them into others' memories.
Rrakavasha understood one thing very clearly.
To Clarice, he was merely a passerby in her life, the doctor who cured her mother's amnesia.
Nothing more.
Unaware of his true inner thoughts, Clarice only sighed quietly.
"You were fine just now. Why suddenly sigh?"
"I feel sorry for you, Mr. Rrakavasha. Fate has been too unfair to you."
"Hehe, it's never been fair. I understood that as a child, but that's just part of life."
Rrakavasha smiled, speaking gently:
"Work hard to become the person you want to be, and so-called unfair fate becomes less important. You can treat it as nonexistent."
"Then Mr. Rrakavasha... have you become the person you wanted to be?" Clarice pressed.
"I should think so."
"...You don't sound very confident."
Rrakavasha's smile remained unchanged. "This question has no standard answer, like pi, you can never calculate to the end."
"Fate left me displaced and subjected me to endless suffering, yet also let me meet Teacher and find salvation."
"Thinking of it this way, fate has been fairly balanced toward me."
Hearing these words, Clarice felt that Rrakavasha wasn't a pessimist after all, but more of an optimist.
He was very accepting.
Or perhaps, having experienced life and death from childhood, having lingered at death's edge, such people saw things more clearly?
Clarice thought of her homeland.
Nations had no overt military conflicts on the surface, but their covert struggles never ceased.
Even within her own country, court politicians held different positions, fighting to the death over interests.
But regardless, compared to his childhood experiences, the environment she'd grown up in could practically be described as paradise.
Being excluded, being isolated... was utterly trivial in comparison.
Perhaps this was why she couldn't understand how he could be so accepting.
"You really respect your teacher."
"Of course. Without her, there'd be no me today, and therefore no you today, nor Mrs. Durand."
"To teach such a gentle doctor as Mr. Rrakavasha, she must also be a very gentle person."
"Mm, she is the gentlest person in the world."
Rrakavasha answered from the bottom of his heart without any hesitation, his expression growing increasingly tender when speaking of his teacher.
"She always said she only took me as an experimental subject, researching how to eliminate the viruses in my body... but for that claim, she worked for six full years."
"During those six years, I don't know how many times she went several days and nights without sleep, all to find one more thread of survival in me and preserve it."
"After clearing the viruses, seeing I had nowhere to go, she took me as her student and taught me extensive knowledge without reservation."
"From the most fundamental knowledge to the most cutting-edge learning, she taught me everything hands-on."