Julian was not surprised to receive such a question. He guessed that the people here, including Ethan, must have suspected this issue a lot. It was just that for Ethan, it was probably due to his feelings, while the others kept quiet out of respect for Ethan. Felix was different; he was a military man. Generally, military men carried their own sharpness, and they did not overly defer to anyone.

Julian naturally wanted to be straightforward about his issue, especially with Ethan. Although they had not gone through life-and-death situations yet, perhaps because falling in love makes one foolish, Julian thought he could trust him. But... honestly, things like transmigration and such were too unbelievable. Saying it did not guarantee anyone would believe it immediately.

Because of that, Julian kept hesitating until now.

But it was fine, he now had a way to deal with it. It was just that...

Julian was originally sitting in Ethan’s lap, so he turned around, wrapped his arms around the man’s neck, and murmured: "So do you believe me?"

Ethan brushed aside his slightly drooping hair: "How do you want me to answer?"

Julian did not speak. In fact, he did not necessarily need Ethan to give him a straightforward answer. He simply... probably, wanted to hope a little.

Because there had never been anyone in his entire life who placed only him in their heart, nor had there ever been anyone who considered him their number one priority for a lifetime. Therefore, just for a split second, Julian wanted this person to be able to answer that he would believe him at any cost.

It sounded a bit unfair to the brothers, but honestly... Julian thought, even if he lied, he would believe it.

It was just that hearing the man’s answer, for some unknown reason, Julian suddenly felt a bit sulky. He shifted his hips, intending to turn his face away, but in the end, he was pulled close against the man’s body by a tight grip on his waist.

"Are you sulking?" Ethan’s voice murmured by his ear, but Julian still did not answer. The man sighed, his voice deep: "Julian, I have said it, you are my life partner. Even if we die, we will be buried in the same place."

"I do not mind dying by your hands, nor am I afraid. It is just..."

The man paused for a moment, tucked a strand of hair behind Julian’s ear, and lightly kissed his cheek: "If you truly are one of them, I hope I will be the only one to die in your arms."

"I do not mind dying for you, but I only hope you do not harm the people around me. My friends, they trust me, so I do not want to become a sinner."

"As for me, this life is already yours."

Hearing this, Julian burst into laughter. He rubbed his nose against the man’s nose, pouting: "What do I need your life for? Just to get another life on my hands for nothing? Otherwise, just give all your fortune to me, I find that more valuable."

"Alright. If you want, I will do the transfer papers for you tomorrow."

Julian clicked his tongue: "You are too crazy, Ethan."

Kieran watched the two people starting to flirt again, could not help but clear his throat, but did not say anything either.

To be honest, initially, when hearing that Ethan was marrying the true young master of the family, they all felt sorry for their friend. The fact that Ethan liked men was no secret, both his family and outsiders knew. Also because of that, quite a few middle-class families with young sons who looked somewhat pleasing actively brought them along to gatherings and parties.

The purpose was naturally because who knows, they might catch the eye of this crown prince of Saint Lawrence City. But until now, Ethan had never dated, nor had he laid eyes on anyone.

Just like that, out of nowhere, he married a boy from a newly developed family according to his grandfather’s words.

What mainly made Kieran feel sorry was that he had previously heard about Julian’s personality, being completely timid and gloomy, truly not suitable for Ethan. On the day Ethan held his wedding party, he was busy so he did not attend either.

Unexpectedly, meeting Julian for the first time was in a relatively awkward situation. At that time, Kieran’s impression of him was that Julian looked very well-behaved. There was no gloomy feeling as people had previously rumored to each other. On the contrary, he was very clear, his eyes shining brightly.

At that time, Kieran only thought, ah, not to the extent of being gloomy like those outsiders rumored. At least his friend still had a life partner with good looks.

But gradually, upon hearing Ethan mention Julian having a hand in the development plan of the Caldwell Empire’s latest project. When truly seeing Julian’s capability, Kieran could not help but click his tongue and say, children growing up in wealthy families were all very good at hiding themselves.

But, just as Felix said. If it was simply deep thoughts and outstanding capability, it would not matter at all. But there were things where Julian was exceeding the abilities he inherently could do.

"I know what everyone is suspecting." Julian buried himself in Ethan’s lap and slowly spoke up: "But if I were truly one of them, would I be so careless as to expose my identity in such an easy way?"

"Who knows, perhaps it is a trap within a trap. Intentionally pretending like that to make us not suspect." Louis also spoke up. He did not want to suspect this person either, after all, it was the person his friend loved.

But the implications in this matter were too much, so he also had to be cautious. If Julian truly was someone from CORE, then even with Ethan, he should not dream of escaping out of here intact today.

"Have you all ever thought about why I am so different from before?"

As Julian spoke, his fingers touched his left wrist. The skin there was pale. If one did not look closely, they would not discover a fragile scar on it. It was just that when touching it, that rough keloid scar could be easily felt.

The people present in the room said nothing, only Ethan noticed his action and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Julian is already dead. On the day you guys heard the gossip, that the true young master of the family committed suicide because he was forced to marry Ethan of the Caldwell Empire, he was already dead." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

They did not understand what Julian was saying.

Dead?

Was it like what they often said, the old person was dead, and from now on it was another person, living another life?

But Julian leisurely continued: "What I mean is, he is truly dead. Completely vanished from this world."

While speaking, Julian rubbed hard on his scar, and then his wrist was grabbed by Ethan again. The man said nothing, he just hugged him tightly in his arms, lifted his hand, and kissed that scar.

Julian tilted his head to look at the man’s profile, smiling.

"Felix, you just said that previously there was an experiment wanting to keep a human body alive, with full bodily functions, only the willpower was eradicated. You said that was the reverse operation of another type of experiment. I guess the other type is extracting a person’s entire consciousness and transferring it to another person, right?"

Felix snapped his head up, then as if thinking of something, he mumbled: "You, do not tell me..."

Julian chuckled softly, flipped through his phone for a long while, then turned it for Felix to see.

On it was a stylized symbol of an eye, the pupil inside drawn as an inverted triangle. Before letting Felix say anything, Julian’s finger swiped to an adjacent photo.

The person inside the photo had a face similar to Julian’s, but no matter how one looked at it, it did not look like him. His bangs hung down, covering his eyes, making his whole person exude a gloomy vibe. He seemed to be taking a selfie, but his gaze was not looking at the camera and was unconsciously glancing to the side. Following his gaze, one could see a piece of paper placed on the desk, densely covered with drawings of that eye symbol containing the inverted triangle. They were all drawn in a bright red color like blood.

Seeing this photo, Felix’s face darkened even more. Finally, he gritted his teeth: "Did you conduct that research with them?"

Felix’s voice was slightly heavy, and his demeanor was also much fiercer. But Julian did not seem afraid at all. He leisurely replied: "I already said it, he is dead. There are many things about him that I do not know either, so asking me is useless."