Nicolae had always known that his body was special. He stopped aging after entering his 20s, he had never been ill, and his physical endurance had always been very strong.
He used to think that he was the victim of a Nazi Human Experimentation[1] during the second world war, performed by their 'mad' scientists. He never once thought that he was an Alchemist, and that there were other people who were just like him, who could live for hundreds of years with their youthful looks.
His father, Lauriel, was currently the oldest Alchemist in the world who had lived for nearly 600 years, and still they could walk next to each other and look like brothers.
Now seeing Aleksis' rapid progress, Nicolae was very relieved. He never dreamed that he could ever see a patient with a severe brain stem injury have such a remarkable recovery. Today, Aleksis had begun to move her hand in response to the presence of her two younger brothers.
If you read what Nazi and Japanese did in their human experimentation projects during WWII, you'd shudder... War really brings out the worst in humanity.
By the way, as a Christmas gift, I'll give you a bonus chapter later today :).