I was born with one more soul and spirit than other people.

No evil thing could come near me, and from childhood I had never known what it felt like to be sick.

The day I came of age, the Pruitts sent someone to collect me and made me the shadow of their daughter, keeping within thirty feet of her, twenty-four hours a day.

It was only because Aria Pruitt had been born with a broken soul. Only when I stayed close enough could the expert the Pruitts had hired use me to mend what was missing in her.

During all that time my own soul and spirit could not be disturbed. The moment they were harmed, she would die in a matter of minutes.

Half a year ago, at a business conference, the man assigned by our host drove my car off its route, and Aria collapsed at the venue, on the edge of death.

That same day the company behind it was hit on every front in the industry, and within a week it went bankrupt.

After that, any time we traveled and were not in the same vehicle, the most advanced tracking system in the world was installed on each car.

A dedicated driver was assigned to me, who confirmed our position against Aria's driver at all times.

Until Aria's fiancé came home. Before she left for the conference, he offered to drive me himself. On the road, he had the tracker stripped out of the car and ordered the driver off the route.

In the rearview mirror, his lip curled in a cold sneer.

"I hear our Aria can't get more than thirty feet from you. The way I see it, that's just your excuse to stay close to her. A toad lusting after swan meat. Stop dreaming. I'm the only one who deserves her."

"I've already brought in the best internal specialist from abroad for her. You can fool the Pruitts, but you can't fool me."

I grabbed for the wheel, but the bodyguard he kept on him pinned me down and dragged me out into the wilderness.

And right then, miles away at the conference, the breath of life in Aria began to come apart.

…

Hearing Ernest's words, I frowned.

I had agreed to become Aria's shadow only because the family had spent a fortune to bring in the best medical experts to save my mother.

My one soul and spirit were anchored in Aria, completing what she lacked.

But now, as the car drove the wrong way,

I could feel that pair of soul and spirit drifting steadily away from her,

and a good part of it had already returned to me.

Which meant Aria's life had begun to weaken.

If the soul and spirit came back to me completely, she would die in a very short time.

I pressed down the urgency in my chest and explained patiently,

"You've got it wrong. I'm only here to repay a debt. I have never wanted anything of the Pruitts' fortune."

But at that, Ernest gave a scornful laugh.

"Do you even believe that yourself? We're both men. I don't know how you faked your way into the Pruitts' trust."

"But now that I'm back, as Aria's fiancé, it's my duty to clear a parasite like you out of her life."

"I'm the future master of the Pruitt house. I will not allow you to walk off with a single cent of theirs for nothing."

"And I won't allow you to have a single improper thought about Ernest Henson's fiancée."

At that the driver turned in his seat, looking anxiously at Ernest.

"Mr. Henson, he's telling the truth. If we get too far from Ms. Pruitt, she really will die."

"Let's turn back now, please. There's still time if we go now!"

The next moment, a dagger pressed against his side.

Ernest snapped at him.

"You're nothing but a Pruitt servant. You don't get a say here. Keep driving."

Threatened, the driver did not dare say another word.

But just then, the alarm he carried on him let out a shrill warning.

"Safe distance exceeded by three thousand meters. Please shorten the distance immediately!"

"Warning!! Warning!!"

The alarm had been the Pruitts' idea. On top of the tracker, they'd fitted one to the car Aria and I shared, a second safeguard to keep us inside the safe distance.

The next second Ernest yanked the wire loose and hurled the whole thing out the window.

It hit a boulder and shattered.

"Piece of junk. Hurting my ears."

The driver's eyes went wide, but he didn't dare say a word, his face tight with panic.

I looked at Ernest, cold.

"I'm telling you for the last time. Turn around now, or you won't be able to carry the blame for this."

Ernest sneered back at me.

"Keep up the act. I spent years abroad. There's no con, no swindle I haven't seen."

"Running into me, that's your bad luck. Today I'm exposing what you really are. Call it a homecoming gift for my Aria."

"You'd better come clean. Otherwise, once we get where we're going, I'll let you sample the methods I picked up overseas."

I held his gaze, cold.

"You'll regret this."

Ernest's lip curled.

"I've lived my whole life without regretting a single thing."

Just then the satellite phone built into the car rang.

The driver glanced at Ernest, then carefully eased it to his ear. Aria's personal doctor came through, voice frantic.

"Joseph, where are you? Bring Zachery back, now!"

"Ms. Pruitt's condition is very bad!"

The driver's face went taut. "We—"

Before he could finish, Ernest snatched the phone and cut the call.

It rang again. He hung up again.

"Once I've shown everyone what this parasite really is, there's still time to call back."

The driver owed the Pruitts more than a little, and now he forgot his own fear, pressing the point. "Mr. Henson, if the satellite line is ringing like this, something's gone seriously wrong on Ms. Pruitt's end. Please, turn around, or you really will cause a disaster!"

The words were barely out when the dagger drew a line across his cheek.

Blood dripped onto the steering wheel, and the driver broke into a cold sweat.

"When this young master acts, he doesn't need your mouth running."

"And I'm doing this for the Pruitts. Not doing it is what I'd regret."

"Keep driving."

By now we'd pushed into the deserted wilderness outside the city, more than eight thousand meters from the conference site.

The expert had said it plainly once: the safe distance maxed out at a hundred meters. Right now we were eighty times past it.

Ten more minutes, and the car finally rolled to a stop.

A bodyguard hauled me out and dumped me on the ground.

Ernest stood over me, studying me, amused.

"You won the Pruitts' trust. You must've gotten a lot out of it."

"Besides my studies abroad, I picked up a few ways of making a man suffer."

"Don't rush. I'll get you to spill the whole swindle, piece by piece."

But my mind was somewhere else.

We were at least ten thousand meters from Aria now.

I could feel it clearly, the soul and spirit that completed her life-soul, already returned to my body.

Aria's life had entered its countdown.

Still, after clinging to her so long, I could tell the returned soul and spirit weren't whole yet.

The moment all of it left her, she would die on the spot.

As long as I came to no harm and got back at once, she could still be saved.

I looked at Ernest and warned him again.

"Take me back. Or your Pruitts are finished."

"Begging didn't work, so now you're threatening me?"

Ernest sneered and waved a hand.

A fist slammed into my stomach.

Then another. And another.

Ernest stood to the side, jeering.

"You dog, you're nothing, and you've got the nerve to threaten me."

“With the ties between my family and the Pruitts, even if I did something to you, they'd never turn on the Hensons over a nobody like you.”

“Aren't you supposed to be born with that extra soul and spirit? Never sick a day in your life? Let's see exactly how much of a beating you can take.”

He had the bodyguards pin me down, then drove his foot into my stomach, again and again.

A wild grin spread across his face.

But never falling ill wasn't the only trait that came with carrying an extra soul and spirit.

There was another.

I couldn't feel pain.

The driver, still tied to the car, watched it all with mounting panic.

“Mr. Henson, doing this only speeds up Ms. Pruitt's death.”

But Ernest didn't hear a word of it.

Not until he wore himself out and stopped.

The whole time, I never once cried out in pain, and it made him frown.

Seeing that, a bodyguard murmured something in his ear.

Then he gave a cold laugh and produced a vial of serum from somewhere.

“I brought this back from abroad just for this. It magnifies a person's pain a hundred times over. Might as well test it on you.”

With that, he jammed the serum into my body.

The next instant, my senses changed.

Every spot where I'd been struck began to burn, and my strength started bleeding away with it.

So this was pain.

But pain came with something else: the trembling of my soul.

To protect me, that extra soul and spirit began to thrash, calling the rest of itself back.

Seeing this, Ernest sneered.

He was about to start in on me again when the satellite phone rang once more.

This time, Ernest answered.

The voice of Aria's attending doctor came through, urgent with warning.

“Where are you? Get Zachery back here now. Ms. Pruitt's already slipped into a coma! Hurry!”

But Ernest ignored it, his eyes on me where I lay curled on the ground in pain.

“Tell Aria I'll have this fraud confessing the truth any minute now.”

“Fraud? What fraud?”

The next moment Ernest hung up again and looked at me coldly.

“I really do admire you. Spinning so many people in circles. I'd love to know what method you used. You didn't actually resort to some kind of dark art, did you?”

The driver called out, “Mr. Henson, he's been at Ms. Pruitt's side for three years. If he were a fraud, they'd have caught it long ago. There's no way it could have gone on this long!”

“Three years?”

Ernest's gaze turned cold and dark.

“You've been by Aria's side for three years? And she never told me.”

The driver went on, “It wasn't that she didn't trust you. It's the Pruitt family's most closely guarded secret. Only a handful of people know, because if it ever got out, it could put Ms. Pruitt's life in danger.”

Ernest muttered, :

“I'm her fiancé. You're telling me even I'm not to be trusted?”

“Why?!”

“No. No, it can't be. He must have bewitched every last one of them!”

He pointed at me and snapped, :

“Keep hitting him. Don't stop until he talks.”

The bodyguards' fists and feet came down on me again.

And all the while, in the venue, the breath of life in Aria grew fainter and fainter.

Just as Ernest landed the last blow on me,

that soul and spirit solidified completely.

The Pruitts had shown me kindness.

From the day I became Aria's shadow, she had never once looked down on what I was. Every time she saw me, she called me brother.

Over our three years together, I had come to think of her as my own sister.

But now, the full solidifying of that soul and spirit meant one thing: Aria's life had reached its end.

My eyes red, my voice raw,

“Ernest, you deserve to die.”