Hudson sat silently on the doorstep of his home, as though the earth itself had become too heavy to allow him to stand.
He couldn't bring himself to enter the now-empty house.
With great effort, he slowly lifted his eyes toward Kayden.
Kayden studied him in return.
The man's green eyes had completely lost their former brightness.
They were dull, swollen, and red, like dying embers drowned in tears.
His short black hair was disheveled, and his black clothing wrapped around him like a heavy shadow.
He wasn't mourning merely through the clothes he wore.
His very soul seemed buried beneath mourning.
After introducing himself and offering his condolences, Kayden quietly asked,
"Tell me… what did you do on the day she died?"
Hudson drew an uneven breath. "I went to buy bread."
He spoke slowly. "On my way back, I ran into one of the neighbors."
He lowered his gaze. "When I came home, she wasn't there." His voice trembled.
"The neighbor and I searched everywhere." He swallowed. "Then… we organized search parties."
A painful silence followed. "We didn't find her until… like that."
Kayden watched him carefully, studying every movement and every shift in his voice.
' He doesn't seem to be lying. He's trying to maintain eye contact despite how difficult it is. His eyes keep falling to the ground. He's completely broken by his wife's death. His hands are trembling while he squeezes them together… Is he trying to convince me he's telling the truth, or is that simply grief? Power off. His voice is shattered.Can he even bring himself to eat?'
Breaking the silence, Kayden carefully asked, "Did she suffer from any mental illness?"
Hudson immediately shook his head.
"She was always smiling." A weak smile crossed his own face before disappearing. "She never stopped laughing… never stopped running around."
He looked toward the empty house. "She lived normally." He whispered, "She was happy."
Kayden took a slow breath. "Did she ever express suicidal thoughts?" He paused. "Even as a joke?"
The man remained silent for a long time.
Finally, he answered. "Never."
He slowly shook his head. "I don't remember anything like that."
He swallowed again. "She only talked about treating her patients…having children…and curing Miss Hazel."
His shoulders slumped. "But… I don't know what suddenly happened."
Kayden slowly lowered his gaze. ' A sudden thought crossed his mind.If Kayden had died… would Isabel have drowned in the same unbearable grief? I pity her now…'
His heart belonged only to that family.
His warmth, his jokes, and his affection were reserved exclusively for them.
Even now… He couldn't bring himself to pity Hudson.
He was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed Henry approaching.
Henry dragged over a chair from the garden and sat down in heavy silence.
Kayden resumed the questioning in a gentler voice. "Did she recently say she felt hopeless?"
Hudson's eyes filled with tears. Barely audible, he answered,
"She said…she was close to finding a cure for Miss Hazel." His voice cracked. "But she was afraid it would all be meaningless."
"Did you notice any changes in her behavior?"
"Sometimes she'd get angry…" He shook his head. "But it was normal anger."
Kayden slowly nodded, rubbing along his jaw in thought. "Did she recently give away any of her valuable possessions?"
"No."
Hudson answered immediately. "Did the two of you have financial problems?"
Hudson first shook his head before correcting himself. "We struggled a little…but I recently found a good job."
"Everything was getting back to normal." He looked up. "She never once said money was troubling her."
Kayden slowly rose. "Very well You should get some rest."
He left with Henry. Once they were some distance away, Kayden asked, "What did you find?"
They stopped in front of the neighboring house.
Henry cleared his throat.
"Actually…They were trying to have a child." He folded his arms. "There were no financial problems. The marriage seemed almost perfect." He paused "But one of the neighbors mentioned that Mr. Hudson had been trying to advance his spiritual cultivation."
Henry sighed. "He remained stuck."
"He couldn't move forward even a single step."
"You know… because of that Immortal's advancement."
Kayden frowned. "So he was frustrated."
He narrowed his eyes. "Was he treating her badly? Did he sacrifice her to advance? …Or is he simply another Arbella?"
Henry looked at him. "I don't know."
He glanced toward the neighboring house. "But the woman living there said she heard shouting late at night."
"It wasn't an ordinary argument. It was a violent fight." He lowered his voice. "Afterward, Grace appeared covered in bruises."
A bitter smile spread across Kayden's face.
"So Isildar's instinct is about sixty percent right…" He looked back toward Hudson's house. "…but I have a feeling we're being misled."
A few moments later, Isildar entered with calm, measured steps, carrying a plate of food. He walked straight toward Hudson, set it down in front of him, then crouched as if the entire situation were perfectly ordinary.
The twins turned toward him in silence. He extended a small bag toward them, containing two dark-colored wool shirts, each a different color.
Raising one hand, he spoke calmly. "Go inside and change into these. After that… Kayden, I want you to come out first. I have a few questions regarding the investigation."
Kayden made no comment. He took the green shirt and quickly went inside to change, emerging only seconds before Henry.
Isildar pointed directly at him. "So… you're Kayden."
He then turned toward Henry, who stepped out wearing the blue shirt. Henry let out a slow breath, releasing a long sigh as though a burden had finally been lifted from his shoulders. "This is… surprisingly comfortable."
Kayden shot his brother a sidelong glance and whispered, unable to hide his surprise. "I wasn't expecting that."
"I wasn't expecting it to work either," Isildar muttered, sounding genuinely relieved.
The three of them sat together, and the twins began recounting everything they had discovered during the investigation, while Isildar carefully observed their faces, studying every feature as though searching for another difference some overlooked detail that might expose a deception.
Henry eventually broke the silence with a heavy sigh.
"Actually… Adam can tell us apart without making any effort. He doesn't even have to think about it. He recognized Kayden the very first time they met."
Kayden answered instinctively, "It's Adam. That's only natural."
Isildar lowered his head slightly and replied with blunt honesty. "He's extremely observant… In fact, he's sick."
Henry chuckled quietly, shrugging. "That's incredibly mean."
Kayden shook his head, a trace of concealed amusement in his voice.
"You shouldn't talk about someone behind their back."
Isildar paused for a moment, studying their reactions as though testing them, before asking,
"Everyone says he holds grudges… doesn't he?"
"Yes?" Henry answered, visibly puzzled.
Isildar reached toward the food, tasted a small bite with the tip of his tongue, then placed the plate back down with clear disgust.
"Adam never forgets… anything. He remembers everything. If someone hurts him, he'll remember it. And he'll come back… even if a hundred years have passed."
The twins exchanged startled looks.
Kayden quietly murmured, as though the explanation made perfect sense.
"That's… somewhat expected."
"He has hyperthymesia," Kayden muttered in astonishment.
Henry looked toward him. "Adam joked about that before. He told me he could store entire books inside his head, but… I never expected him to be telling the truth."
"Makes sense."
Kayden lowered his gaze toward the food without reaching for it.
Suddenly, Isildar spoke in a cold voice. "The food here is terrible… Commoners' cooking always lacks soul."
None of them touched the food.
Silence settled over the room for a moment before Isildar slowly rose to his feet. He stopped in front of Hudson and looked at him steadily.
"I was told you used to argue with her… Why?"
Hudson hesitated before answering in a subdued voice.
"She wanted children… but she was infertile."
One of Isildar's eyebrows rose. "So… what happened after that?"
Hudson drew a deep breath, bitterness creeping into his voice.
"We went to doctors… even spiritual healers. We found no solution. There was nothing wrong with me, but there was with her… Still, it was useless. I told her I didn't care about having children, but she was obsessed with the idea. She kept saying I wasn't trying hard enough."
In the background, Kayden leaned toward Henry with a mischievous smile and whispered,
"Hudson looks like the original product… just a defective copy. Do you think he has performance issues?"
Henry nearly burst into laughter but barely managed to suppress it.
"The imitation doesn't function properly."
Isildar slowly turned toward them, his gaze icy.
He hadn't heard the words clearly, but the mere fact that they were whispering at a moment like this irritated him. He was on the verge of throwing them out before Kayden swiftly redirected the conversation.
"So… why did the bruises appear?"
The question was deliberate, meant to draw Isildar's attention elsewhere.
Hudson looked uncomfortable, struggling to explain.
"This is… embarrassing to say. But I didn't hit her."
Without realizing his voice had grown slightly louder, Kayden asked, "Does she… like pain?"
Hudson lowered his head slightly before saying, "She said it made her happy. It was completely consensual."
A brief silence passed between them before Isildar broke it with a short remark. "A strange preference. You humans truly are peculiar."
But Kayden wasn't finished. It was almost as if he enjoyed making the atmosphere even more uncomfortable. "You're having trouble advancing, aren't you? Perhaps… things would have been much easier if you had performed a sacrifice ritual. After that, your advancement would have been remarkably smooth… almost perfect."
Hudson's jaw tightened at those words, but Kayden paid him no mind. He simply stood up and headed inside.
As he entered the house, his eyes calmly swept across the surroundings. He could still hear Hudson speaking behind him, but Kayden no longer cared.
The kitchen was suspiciously simple. Only a handful of utensils, a table that was far too clean, and no trace of an ordinary life.
She doesn't just have strange preferences… she's obsessive as well.
He moved on to the bedroom, searching through drawers and wardrobes, but found nothing out of the ordinary.
He then entered Grace's office.
The room was far messier due to the police investigation, but something immediately caught his attention—a collection of old, worn books, their pages weathered by time. He reached for one, opened it carefully, and began turning the pages.
There, written in tiny, barely visible letters, he found an address with a name written beside it.
Kayden smiled faintly before closing the book.
Calling quietly to Henry, he said, "Check Hazel's medicine… I'm going to verify something."
Kayden quickly made his way to the address he had found. When he arrived, he stopped in front of the building and looked up at it for a long moment.
It wasn't an ordinary hospital as he had expected. Instead, it appeared to be a small medical building housing several private clinics. Its exterior was elegant, yet an oppressive silence hung over it, making the place feel strangely hollow.
He pushed open the front door and stepped inside.
The corridor was narrower and quieter than it should have been. The cold white walls were completely bare, devoid of paintings or any sign of life, as though they had been designed to suffocate visitors rather than reassure them.
Kayden walked cautiously, studying every detail until he reached the room he was looking for.
He knocked three quick times. A voice from inside granted him permission to enter.
Opening the door, he found a middle-aged man seated behind a wooden desk. He wore a neatly pressed white coat, but his eyes were sharp and guarded.
The doctor looked up and said sternly, "You shouldn't be in here."
Kayden had no badge or anything to prove his identity, but he ignored the warning and calmly took a seat across from the doctor, leaning back against the chair.
His voice remained low and steady. "I'm one of the investigators working on Grace's suicide case… Your name was listed in her office."
The doctor stared at him for several seconds before slowly nodding, as though resigning himself to the situation.
"Then… what do you want to know?"
Kayden leaned forward slightly, carefully watching every subtle movement on the man's face.
"What was she doing here? What kind of treatment was she receiving?"
The doctor answered with the detached calm of a professional.
"She visited me regularly. Nothing more than routine follow-up appointments."
Kayden narrowed his eyes.
"Did you notice anything unusual… anything suspicious?"
The doctor hesitated for a moment before tapping his fingers lightly against the desk.
"Her body… was extremely cold. Even during the hottest days of summer, it was as cold as a corpse."
Silence fell between them like a stone sinking into a deep well.
Kayden offered no reply.
Instead, he lightly touched his neck, as though something there was bothering him, before rising from his chair.
His expression remained tense and guarded as he turned and left the room with heavy steps.
' Her body was as cold as a corpse… That's nonsense'.
When Kayden returned to Mr. Hudson's house, he found Henry inside Grace's office, sitting among shelves of medicine bottles and stacks of files.
Henry was carefully examining several small vials with visibly tense eyes.
The moment Kayden entered, Henry grabbed him by the arm with restless excitement. His eyes were wide, his voice trembling with disbelief.
"You won't believe this! These medicines… they're made from fetuses. From children!"