I Am Young Again

Chapter 4 – [A Starry Night For Me]

I was in disbelief.

‘Was the pink liquid we drank really the same? Was it because the rat was already sick with something? Am I immune to it?’

So many questions flew through my head as I tried to understand the differences between our situations.

I stared at the professor, stupefied.

He just looked at me indifferently in return.

“Most of the animals I tested died after taking the medicine. But interestingly, humans reacted to it differently. After some more studying, I realized that the drug might’ve reacted with the unique human energy, resulting in an unexpected change.”

“……an unexpected change?” I asked, looking at him obliviously.

He sighed, looking frustrated and confused.

“Did you run out of the lab and check the mirror that day?”

“Um . . . I don’t remember?”

And I really didn’t remember. Everything from that day was just blurry.

Thinking about it, when I was waiting in the lab for an interview, I thought I had looked younger.

I forgot because of the sudden events, but the reason I rushed out of the lab was to check myself in the mirror.

He brought the desk mirror that was on his desk and held it out to me.

“This is what you look like.”

Lifting the mirror with trepidation, I slowly looked at my reflection.

“Ah!”

I couldn’t believe it.

‘How could this happen, even though they say I took the experimental medication?’

But looking at the image in the mirror, I couldn’t deny what was happening to me. What I saw in the reflection was not a lie at all.

I quickly put down the hand mirror and walked up to a full-body mirror inside the office.

I was suspicious that the hand mirror he gave me might’ve been tainted or tampered with.

However, when I looked at the full-length mirror, I could see that I really did look younger than what I looked like before.

It wasn’t just my face. All the marks of old age had all disappeared from my body. The dress I was wearing now hung loosely around my body.

I thought it might’ve been an illusion until I looked in the mirror, but I could only say that I was flabbergasted.

“Do you see it now?” He asked, coming up from behind me.

My reflection in the full-length mirror matched the reflection from the hand mirror.

The mirror really wasn’t tampered with at all.

“How did this happen?”

I examined my new appearance with my own eyes in the mirror and touched it with my hands, but I still couldn’t believe it. I never imagined this kind of phenomenon would happen in real life.

“I’m surprised that my hypothesis was actually true. Looking at you, I feel as if I’m appreciating my work right in front of my eyes.”

He smiled, motivated, and pointed his chin at me on the sofa.

“Sit down for now. This will take a bit.”

I sat on the sofa he had pointed at and nodded at his words. But I wasn’t as calm as I looked.

My heart was pounding loudly within my ribcage.

The emotions that I was feeling couldn’t be defined in one word. I was excited, I was enthusiastic, I was happy, but I was conflicted and scared too.

Slowly, he sat down on the sofa that is opposite mine. He carefully scanned my face with his eyes before asking:

“What’s your name?”

“……my name?”

“Would I ask for my own?” He asked with annoyance.

Hiding my name wouldn’t help with anything, so after a bit of hesitation, I answered clearly.

“Belia de Perrington.”

“Perrington? I’ve never heard of such a family.”

“You might not have heard of it because we’re a baron family with a small territory.”

In fact, since my father, the Baron had passed, and my two sisters had married and already inherited another family name, the only person who would use the name “Perrington” would be me.

However, it is natural that he didn’t know anything because I had rarely appeared in society to care for my mother.

“Well, you’re still a nobleman, aren’t you? I thought you might be a commoner, but you’re an aristocrat,” he muttered silently.

I felt like I was being looked down on for my looks, and bit my lips in discouragement.

Of course, his words were not wrong. The dresses and the accessories I am now wearing were very plain. For noblewomen, the dresses and accessories they wore were symbols of their wealth, and my current appearance was displaying how poor I was.

“Alright then, Young Lady Perrington. You told me earlier that you’d pay me for the experimental drugs, right?”

“ . . . yes,” I agreed with hesitation.

“Well, if we were to put a number to how much that drug cost . . . It’s about a year’s worth of operating costs for the Kamar Academy.”

“Wait, what?!”

I jumped out of my seat.

The registration fee for entering the Kamar Academy was so expensive that it was easier to dream of entering the Academy than to actually take out the money needed for tuition. But the annual operating cost of such a venerated institution was an even more astronomical amount!

“That’s so expensive! There’s no way that liquid is that costly! It doesn’t make any sense!”

“It doesn’t make sense? Look at you now. What do you think people want the most? It’s about not dying and getting young again. And yet you don’t think it’s worth that much?”

“Well, that’s…”

I was speechless.

In fact, it was a hard amount for me to pay because of my situation. But if I was a wealthy aristocrat growing old with age, I would also be willing to spend my fortune on a drug like this.

My hesitation gave the professor an opening.

“Of course, you don’t have to pay me back,” he said with a smile.

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