Not only did that man manage to hide his presence from her, but he also visibly wanted to do a show of force to her, as he filled not one, but a few hundred glasses, without letting a single drop of blood fall to the floor.

[...]

She somehow had a strong, imperious feeling that she not only NEEDED to kill him but also had to keep his intact brain and sexual parts…

After some time pondering she didn't find the source of it, but she felt that it came from her entire being.

[…]

She then became Rald again.

Without losing a second, he washed himself of all the blood with one of the blood-sucking plants he kept in his laboratory.

It was already morning, and he had a meeting.

With that fly that bothered him gone, it was now time for him to go to work.

[...]

Alchemy was still Rald's passion, or else, why would he have spent three reincarnations worth of life doing the same thing?

[…]

-Success!

Rald heard a delighted shout.

But he didn’t even bother to take a look.

From the smell alone, he already knew what the other alchemist did. Rald already knew what he was experimenting on days ago, and it probably didn’t change since.

[…]

-I need more resources.

[…]

Time to go to do some shopping!

Rald entered the toilets.

He then took a bottle from a bag he always carried with him.

He put a little piece of brain on the side of his actual brain.

Rald now had a new ability. He could fly!

------------------------------

Rald was seeing his life passing before his eyes…

No.

Not his life, his lives.

His life and the lives of all of the brains he collected…

Wait, he was not Rald?

Was he Rald at some point?

Will he be Rald?

Who was Rald?

He didn't know.

He only knew one thing, he was afraid of heights.

He discovered a new feeling.

A new feeling?

Did he already know another feeling?

Oh yes…

As he saw his life passing through his brain, he suddenly remembered…

Loneliness…

That was loneliness.

He knew fear and loneliness…

A big, empty emptiness…

He remembered now…

He was in the War world, a world in constant war, a barren place.

He met someone. The first person he ever met.

At that time, he was thinking…

He was pondering over the meaning of life…

This is where he learned about god.

God…

God MUST have miscalculated something while creating him, his brush MUST have slipped, what was his utility, what was the worth of his life?

He thought he was useful for a while, as that person he met needed him. But then, the person died.

And he started to ponder again.

For a long time, he was roaming in the world…

Why was I born?

What was my reason to exist?

These are questions he was asking himself at that time.

In this world, he was like a ship slowly sinking.

He lacked something to answer this question…

He understood it the day the person died. When his head exploded.

He was lacking a limb.

Not an arm, not a leg…

He was lacking a brain, one able to feel, and think.

After discovering that, he made a lot of discoveries.

He was able to open his head… And to use the brains of others.

That WAS the goal of his life he discovered. Collecting the brains of others for his own use, in the same way that a pope would be collecting faith for his god.

He was not able to learn much? He was not even able to put on clothes himself?

It didn’t matter!

He was going to learn… He was going to live! In his own way…

He remembered now…

The name he was given by that person…

Shem!

What is that?

It's only then that his mind became clearer.

The fear dissipated as he discovered something new.

Another new feeling? Curiosity?

Since when did he have memory, and was conscious of it?

He was suddenly curious to know the answer…

He opened his head and looked with a mirror in it.

There really was a new brain of the size of a soap bubble!

The only difference was that, obviously, it was not some foam but a real brain.

But this brain was akin to the wings of a dolphin… Inexistent.

It was so tiny that one could mistake it for a speck of dust.

But it was actually a brain!

He had a brain!

That discovery filled his head with a new feeling: joy!

But that feeling was quickly overwhelmed by fear when his recently discovered brain informed him that his meeting with the ground was going to be brutal if he continued to space out.

He quickly switched back to Rald and that unknown flying brain…