“That might have been too much information at once. I’ll try to be concise. So, you almost died from over exhaustion, more accurately, your body actually had died, but your soul was still fighting for life. The Ulimes, thinking that you’re dead, sent you to the crematory. I was there just by chance. One of my trusted subordinate’s departure ceremony was held there that day. When I saw you, your body, I knew something was wrong so we took you for examination. And then…  I hope you won’t find me repulsive and immoral after you hear this, but believe me there was a reason for that. Your soul was very weakened and refused to collaborate and just hid inside your womb. I had to make a rushed decision, and gave you my seed thinking that it might be what the soul needed to hold on to life. And it actually worked.” He paused, probing Silvano’s reaction. “Back then I told everyone to leave the emergency room and didn’t stay inside of you a second longer than necessary. After that your soul started working on reviving you and with the medical help we succeeded.” 

He gave Silvano some time to process the information and quietly sat there looking indefinitely at the window. After some time passed and feeling that Silvano’s breathing relaxed he asked. 

“Do you have any questions? Is there anything seriously worrying you? You can ask me anything now.” It was asked so clearly that Silvano just said whatever was on his mind and the Admiral patiently listened. 

“I… can d..d-do  whate...v-v-ver wor..kk-k. C-can you l-let m-me s-st…stay uhh..hhuh… with-th hi..hi-him, p-p..pl…le..lease, S-ssir…hhuh.” This much was said with a lot of difficulty, he strained all the muscles he could to bring out the still hoarse voice to articulate his strongest wish. In the end he was left breathing heavily, and emotionally very vulnerable, still looking straight at the Admiral’s eyes. There were hundreds of other questions flooding his mind like ‘Why would the great Admiral Carnage care?’ ‘What does he mean to say he saw his soul hiding in his womb?’ ‘What’s that about immortals?’ ‘How did he even think of that unusual solution?’… But first of all he needed to be reassured about that one question he put his best effort to ask. 

“Yes, you can. I give you my word to never separate you and your child or let another person do that. Is this enough as a guarantee for you?” 

Silvano noded emotionally with eyes full of tears, which caused the tears to fall in different directions on his cheeks, making him look kind of childish. Admiral Carnage barely restrained himself from rubbing the tearful kid’s head. 

He waited idly for a while for Silvano to gradually process his thoughts. And was amused with the realisation that this youth’s actions and priorities are exactly the same as his soul’s. 

“Any other questions?” He asked after a considerable time had passed. 

Silvano, lying quietly and staring at the Admiral with round wet eyes, looked like a school kid that had been caught daydreaming during class. 

“Come on, you might not get a chance to ask later.” He urged, making up reasons, finding this kind of childish personality quite endearing. 

Silvano moved his eyes left and right a couple of times, not sure whether to speak or not, then with hesitation he said in a quiet stutter. 

“T..they a-all ssay r-r-red bb…but th-they aaah-are b-b-blue, r-r-right-tt?” 

Silvano said shyly and it was Admiral Carnage’s turn to be stunned. ‘Seriously?! He could see? Could it be that I actually underestimated this kid when everyone thinks I’m overestimating him.’

“You mean my eyes, right? Do you see them now in the darkness? And they are blue?” 

“Sh-shinin-g b-bl-blue, n-no?” Silvano himself was confused by the conversation. 

“Well if you say so, haha.” Admiral Carnage was involuntarily laughing. This was the first time anyone apart from himself saw his soul colour as blue. In everyone else’s perception he has a dark crimson light in his eyes. He has long made up an explanation that when he looks in the mirror he sees what he wants to see but others see all the violence and massacre he has done throughout his life reflected in his soul. But now this kid in front of him says he could see his soul colour while staring at him with his dark purple pupils that are rimmed with silver-gold shining circles. 

“N-no?”

“No, no, Silvano, you are not wrong. That is, you are apparently one of only two people who sees that way. And also this is one more proof that you are indeed a longliver. Only those who have this “talent” can see soul reflection in the eyes at regular times. Right now I’m not in battle or agitated to exert force, actually I’m quite relaxed, so only someone very sensitive can see it. Now you look like you don’t believe me, but you couldn’t know you have this in you as you have never met “an immortal” person before, have you?” 

Silvano shook his head lightly but still unconvinced. 

“What about Colonel Gillian, did you see his eyes? What colour are they?”

Silvano tried to remember but didn’t recall anything particular. 

“B-br-brown, o-o-ora-ng-ge?”

“Puhaaha!” The Admiral broke out laughing and astonished. 

“Brown? Orange brown?”

“No?” 

“Hahaaa, I’m sorry Silvano, this is something.” He was excited and moved closer to Silvano as if telling some playground secret and this looked particularly unusual with his muscular build and military stance. “You know, I have this theory but there hasn’t been anybody I could confirm with until now. I always thought these so-called soul colours are just the result of reflection. Like depending on the breaking point of the light the reflected colours change. All the people I know who is capable of seeing a certain range of colours don’t really see the same colours of the soul as I do. So I usually don’t tell people what I see. You know everyone says that Gillian’s soul colour is sky blue. But when I look at him I can see an earthly okra colour, something like what you actually described! Haha! Isn’t this really something?! Are you still not convinced that you are an “immortal” too?” This kind of talkative Admiral was something that Silvano had a hard time getting his head around. 

“B-but I’m-m not st-stro-uh..ng at-t all.”

Admiral Carnage was amused at his reaction first, then fell into silence and added in a solemn voice. 

“Yes, I should say that it’s actually very tragic since you were a long-liver and  were supposed to develop into a strong individual, sadly that’s in the past. Most of your vitality was sucked out of you, that is, also the years you were supposed to live were robbed from you and literally wasted on that piece of garbage. That’s truly unforgivable.”

“Well, as of now you can be considered an ordinary human being. With a certain sensitivity to the supernatural.”

Admiral Carnage looked saddened and angry but Silvano just shook his hand. 

“Ts..it’s f-fine.” 

Seeing a guy easily discarding the thought of several hundred years of life made him realise even more how much of a simple and kind kid this is. Or it just took him longer to react… as he fell into his own world again.

“I’ll..uh d-die s-soo-soon?” Solvano said while touching his belly. 

The Admiral clicked his tongue in his mind thinking that this person is really the same conscious or unconscious. He made up his mind and spoke while getting up. 

“No. You are actually back to where you thought you were. Meaning you still have approximately regular lifespan ahead of you. You might even see this rascal’s children. So don’t worry. Now, see, we talked almost until sunrise. You should rest. I’ll let you sleep.” 

Silvano followed Admiral Carnage with his eyes to the door not knowing what to say. 

“Have a good sleep Silvano.” The Admiral said and went out the door. Several minutes later Silvano fell asleep still processing the Admiral’s words.

… 

When Silvano opened his eyes again it was afternoon and the room was filled with warm sunlight. He was instantly filled with joy just looking around and feeling the fresh air coming from the half open floor to ceiling windows. Melam, the second nurse assigned to Silvano, was standing behind the bed and silently observing his awakening and reactions. It was amusing to see how he’s carefully looking around with wide eyes. 

“Greetings Mr. Silvano. Would you like me to open the curtains?” She said with a nice friendly smile. 

Silvano has already gotten used to meeting a new person every time he wakes up. So somehow he wasn’t very surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice. For his convenience she walked to his side where he didn’t need to strain his neck to see her. Melam seemed to be a little older than Thesa, maybe around 35. 

“T-that, can-nh y-you?” 

“Of course, dear, you don’t need to be so polite. Just let us know when you want or need something.” As she spoke she walked to the ‘windows’ and drew back the curtains, it turned out those were not windows as Silvano initially thought, but large glass doors leading to a lush green backyard. This scenery made him emotional and tears started welling up in his eyes. 

“Is something wrong? Did the light hurt your eyes?” She rushed to Silvano who shyly shook his head. They knew that the youngster had a difficult past so she didn’t press on the topic and went on with their routine. 

“Dear, it's time for washing up.” Just then Silvano had a realisation that since waking up from coma he has always been neat and clean, and for an immobile person that means he’s regularly been taken care of in many ways. This thought made him very-very shy and kind of uncomfortable. As he is the type of person whose thoughts are written on his face as an open book, Melam knew right away what was going on with him.  

“You don’t need to worry, first of all both Thesa and I have been here for almost 7 months and tended to your needs in all kinds of ways. And secondly both of us are certified nurses at a private hospital that exclusively treats male+ patients. I understand now that you are awake, at first you may find it uncomfortable to be helped with everything but you should also understand that after such a long time of immobility you will need time until you’re able to perform daily tasks on your own. Your muscles have deteriorated and need time to re-develop. So you don’t need to feel shy in any way, the reason we are here is to help you in all possible ways.”