Evolution Online: I Can Fuse With All Things-Chapter 39: Slice of Life

It was almost unbelievable—the woman might have been joking about willing her house to him, but she wasn’t actually joking about him having the place to himself. While doing the laundry, they had even settled that she was going to rent out a part of the house to Lucien because the house was divided into two sections.

Two different families could live there without any issues, except that they’d be sharing the same yard. But the roof was also generous with space, so they could renovate however they wanted.

Lucien wanted to pay the whole million dollars to her, but she berated him and called him a fool. She said he was probably going to be scammers’ favorite target because he was so naive.

Those were harsh words that not only sliced through Lucien’s ego like a hot knife, but no one had ever spoken such words to him.

He didn’t know who this woman was, but it was fascinating that she didn’t seem to give a damn who he was. All his life, Lucien was used to old people coddling him and being very conscious of who he was—never speaking harshly to him and treating him with deference.

Until this old woman.

Thinking about it as he walked down the street, Lucien couldn’t help but smile warmly. He felt like he’d left home and everything in his life started to feel promising.

Even though it wasn’t entirely smooth. For example, Lucien was currently wearing some hideous-looking slippers and the old lady’s clothes.

Kids were staring at him with odd expressions and whispering to themselves as they passed.

"Handsome weird uncle."

Some were even bold enough to say it aloud. But Lucien didn’t care—their opinions were so trivial that it didn’t cross his mind to check what was wrong with his appearance.

He pushed open the glass door of the convenience store and stepped inside.

He went straight to the counter and met a young girl with long, dark-purple hair and deep black eyes. Her ivory skin almost shimmered beneath the fluorescent light.

The girl glanced at Lucien and nearly stumbled. She looked away for a moment, then gently tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear.

She spoke with gentle kindness.

"What would you like, sir?"

Completely oblivious to her flustered state, Lucien spoke in an impassive voice.

"Muscle balm, lemongrass tea, evaporated milk—two cans—ginger chews, and a single roll of toilet paper."

The young lady typed them in as he spoke, then raised her brows.

"Oh... Grandma Thena sent you?"

Lucien looked at her, puzzled for a moment.

"If you’re speaking about the old woman three blocks away, then yes. She sent me."

She smiled.

"I see. Grandma Thena is always sending random people to get these things, and they’re always the same items. Honestly, at this point I’m guessing she has a stockpile of them in her room."

Lucien nodded, unsure what to say next and utterly disinterested in prolonging the conversation.

She pressed on.

"I don’t see you around here. Are you new to this neighborhood?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Cool. So where are you staying?"

Lucien looked at the attendant and sighed.

’God, she’s making me talk too much. I hate it. She looks like she’s going to ask more questions if I give her short answers.’

"I’m staying at the old lady’s place, and no, I’m not her grandson—I’m merely a tenant there. Yes, she uses the place for rent now. And I don’t know how long I’ll be staying."

The girl was speechless for a second, staring at Lucien and blinking oddly as she slid the bag of his goods toward him.

Lucien bowed briefly and walked out of the store, not realizing—or perhaps not caring—that his slippers squeaked with every step. She leaned on the counter with her elbow and rested her chin on her hands, smiling with dazed eyes.

"I’ve found my soulmate... he even knows what’s on my mind. How adorable."

She sighed.

"I know he definitely isn’t her grandson. That one was ruder and more annoying, even though he was handsome. I hear he’s a superstar now."

She continued to mumble to herself as she got back to work and welcomed another customer.

The neighborhood of Crane Hill Road was breathtaking, but it had a lot of elderly residents, which made Lucien very uncomfortable—especially since they always wanted to pinch his cheeks whenever old lady Thena introduced him as her new tenant.

He would always hear them say, "I thought you said you’d never take a tenant?"

This almost made Lucien doubt her integrity. Maybe she did know him, and his father was working through her.

But Lucien forced himself to kill the idea. He loved to believe the best in people—he wanted to believe old lady Thena was genuinely good, someone who found interest in him and helped him despite it not being her way.

It was because people like this existed that the world was still somehow livable today.

Aside from being forced to do laundry and sent on errands—things that had never happened to him before! He even followed her to a marketplace! That place was packed with people, and it had traumatized him as a kid when he got lost there once.

He went there and had to trail the lady like a child. It was only after he came back that he thought he’d have time to make a few purchases, do some renovations, and start the process of making this place truly his own.

But then again, she dragged him to stay with her in the kitchen, saying things like, "A man must be able to cook so that he doesn’t depend on his wife for food all the time. Sometimes a man should be able to cook the family dinner."

These were all things Lucien found bewildering. For one, all his life, the thought of a wife or child had never crossed his mind. He’d never considered whether he wanted to get married or not.

Either way, he suffered quite a bit the whole day and slept with an aching body. Lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling, he was almost blaming himself. Maybe he should have just rented a place that was better—somewhere he’d be alone.

He didn’t want to be ungrateful, but at the same time, if the old woman kept pestering him like this, he might snap at her. And Lucien knew he’d feel terrible if he snapped at her.

Still, as he stared up at the ceiling that night, wrapped in borrowed clothes and worn silence, Lucien couldn’t shake the strange warmth that came from being seen—and not worshipped.

Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)