At the time, he was immersed in his work and didn't think much of that comment, so he simply replied with "Indeed, that's possible," and left it at that.
"No rush, there will always be opportunities in the future."
That was his thought at the time.
He somewhat understood why many middle-aged people took up smoking, likely because they were troubled and yet found it inconvenient to confide their worries. However, since he was not accustomed to smoking, he could only stand there rigid, like a stump.
"If someone else had said this to me, my first reaction would probably have been 'Are you joking?'? because no one knows her strength better than we do. If she only considers Remnant Beasts as enemies, I simply cannot imagine any Remnant Beast that could match her."
Asou Yuan Xiang's voice was calm: "Did something happen when she wasn't transformed? Or did she contract some disease? No matter how I think about it, it shouldn't be that she was murdered by someone."