120 – If you come across a girl in the hallway of the laboratory, run away immediately.
In a gray room, Iris, Noah, Jess, Nero, and Lily lay bound on beds placed at regular intervals. Their mouths were gagged, and their necks were restrained by magical collars that blocked their magical power.
“It’s all because of me…”
Tears streamed down Lily’s cheeks, countless drops falling.
“Even if I hadn’t been taken hostage…”
Jess, known as the Crimson Queen, Iris, who destroyed the arena, Noah, who had become several times stronger through awakening, and Nero, who had trained under Noah for a long time.
While it was true that Lily was taken hostage easily by the enemy, there were other reasons as well.
“Oh, I thought at least one of my limbs would have flown off… But surprisingly, I’m intact.”
A man with a slightly dried-up mustache appeared quietly in the laboratory. The researcher, who was jotting something down next to the bed where they were restrained, lowered their head and greeted him before speaking in a polite voice.
“It’s that good of a quality. These are materials that are hard to find even if you pay for them anywhere.”
“Even though they’re defective, they’re materials that can fight on par with combat weapons. It’s only natural.”
The man with the mustache smiled and showed it off.
“Lucky me, very lucky. To have such high-quality materials at the end of the experiment.”
The man laughed unpleasantly and tapped the edge of Jest’s bed closest to him with his finger, as if playing the piano. And then Jest’s pupils contracted.
“Creak..”
As a growling sound emanated, the man’s laughter grew even thicker. It was similar to the gaze of a housewife looking at fresh vegetables or fish.
The man with the mustache, who was looking down at Jest, quickly turned around and asked another researcher.
“How many discarded specimens are there?”
“There are at least ten.”
At those words, the man’s eyes widened.
“All ten of them were discarded by these things?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Haah…”
The man’s cheeks turned red like someone who had just met their first love. His excitement made his mustache twitch.
What they were researching was a battle weapon stronger than the Empire’s knights.
A mass-producible combat weapon on par with knights. Just hearing about it made the smell of blood flow thickly.
In order to create a perfect result, all sorts of trials and errors were bound to occur. In the process, defective products were created, and Noah and his party fought against those defective products.
No matter how defective, it was still the result of the Empire’s knight-level production. It might be a bit of a struggle, but it wasn’t a complete failure. The problem was the number of defective products.
“Those dreadful things were defective?”
Noah recalled the dreadful creatures that endlessly swarmed like waves. With various forms such as beasts, monsters, and humans, ‘they’ were strong enough to defeat even Nest’s executives single-handedly.
They were captured partly because Lily was held hostage, but the biggest reason was the relentless onslaught of those creatures.
Noah bit his lip and pondered.
“I can’t just obediently become an experiment subject like this. I have to find a way to escape from here somehow.”
As Noah thought that, a man who was twirling his mustache approached him.
“Heh, judging by your unwavering gaze, I can see that you’re thinking about escaping from here.”
From Noble mtl dot com
“…!”
“But it would be best if you gave up on that thought.”
The man who came closer had madness in his eyes.
“Having fought firsthand, you should understand better! The strength of the ‘Invasion’, the ultimate weapon of the Demon King’s army! Every drop of your blood will be used for the Demon King’s ultimate weapon!”
The man shouted in a fierce voice but soon spoke in a chilling tone.
“Ah… Now you understand, right? How great of beings you all will become.”
Noah closed his eyes, suppressing the rising sense of revulsion. He didn’t want to face the dirty man’s eyes anymore.
As the man’s excitement grew, he began to chant the greatness of the experimental subject ‘Invasion’ as if humming.
“Even if you stab its heart or cut off its head, it won’t die, and it can use any weapon flexibly. Yet it remains loyal without any hesitation!”
As the man continued speaking, the eyes of the other researchers in the room turned bloodshot. It was because they were imagining the glorious path laid out before them, making them highly excited.
“With such an honorable-…”
The moment the man was about to utter an unknown praise.
Bang!
The tightly closed laboratory door swung open violently, almost crumpling. A researcher, pale-faced and bloodied, entered.
“…! What, what’s happening!?”
The man’s face turned cold in the unsettling atmosphere.
“R-Run… run a-…away…”
The researcher couldn’t finish his sentence and collapsed forward. Eyes rolled back and a motionless body. He had ceased to breathe.
The atmosphere in the lab became as chilling as a morgue.
“Now… find out what’s happening right away!”
“Yes!”
Leaving Noah and his companions behind, they hastily left the lab. The bearded man followed suit, trailing behind them.
And not long after…
“aaah!”
“D-Don’t come closer! aaah!”
A horrifying scream echoed beyond the broken door. The captive party, bound and gagged, had no choice but to listen to the gruesome sound in silence.
So, how much time had passed?
“Oh my, isn’t this the place?”
A woman’s voice came through. Everyone turned their gaze to the newcomer who had entered the room. Dressed modestly, as if going on a date, with shoulder-length blue hair and blue eyes.
The beautiful woman rolled her foot and checked her wristwatch. The problem was that her fist was covered in bloodstains.
“Sigh… I can’t be late. And the stains won’t come off either.”
The woman took out a wet wipe from her small bag and wiped off the splattered water on her clothes. But it didn’t come off easily, so she became frustrated.
“Oh! There are other people here! I don’t know why they’re tied up, but I can ask them!”
Saying that, the woman approached Noah.
“Which way should I go to get to Bucheon Station?”
As incomprehensible information poured in all at once, Noah’s brain stopped functioning.
“Oh, do you happen to know? Ugh… What should I do…”
“Uh! Ahh!”
Anyway, the only way to get out of the current situation was through this woman, so Noah quickly spoke up. In response, the woman said with a surprised expression.
“Oh! Come to think of it, your mouth is blocked! Shall I help you?”
Noah nodded, and the woman tightly closed her eyes and struck the corner of the bed with her clenched fist.
“Hey!”
Crash!
…The restraining device, including the bed, shattered into pieces and scattered on the floor. Noah looked at the woman with a dazed face.
“Well, then, how do I get to Bucheon Station now?”
As the woman was speaking, her face suddenly started melting like a blur. Noah hurriedly backed away in astonishment.
Swoosh -.
The woman turned into liquid as if pouring water on the floor. She couldn’t withstand the blood of a gag resident and collapsed.
“This is…”
The shape of the flowing woman was very familiar somewhere. When the ‘defective product’ they faced died, it turned into liquid and flowed like the woman in front of them.
“This could have been a big problem.”
Noah finally realized that the woman he couldn’t understand was an experiment result.
“I need to get out of here as soon as possible.”
He had many questions about why she took the form of a woman, why she helped him, and why she suddenly died. But now was not the time for that. Noah hurriedly began to untie the people bound to the bed.
***
At that moment, Lian had entered the depths of the research facility to find Noah after sending everyone else away, but he got lost.
“Where am I again?”
Perhaps because the research facility was in chaos, Lian didn’t come across any researchers even though he was walking around openly.
The experiment subjects, who had consumed Lian’s blood, were running wild. Whether they did or not, Lian was curious about where he was.
Lian decided to wander around wherever his feet took him, planning to grab a researcher and have a meeting with the Scythe.
[ Partner, I sense various presences behind that door. ]
Lian immediately changed his direction towards where the Scythe pointed. As he was about to open the tightly closed door and step inside, he froze.
“..Do I really have to be like Gargandoa?”
[ If you leave here, you won’t know when you can make a grand appearance! I only want to show your magnificent form… Ahem, I mean your magnificent form! ]
The reason he froze was because he had lost his initiative to show off his cool moves, just like when he faced the Giant Spider. If Lian wanted, he could easily regain his initiative, but since the Scythe started complaining, he sighed and left the initiative as it was.
Then, the Scythe began to move Lian’s body meticulously, from his fingertips to his toes.
The Scythe had passed through countless hands, including those of noble individuals.
Thanks to those memories, Lian’s movements were dignified, like those of a noble’s son. Even his faintly smiling expression was identical to that of a noble who always wore a mask and smiled.
Thud.
The door, which hadn’t been locked because the researcher hastily ran out, opened smoothly, and Lian entered with relaxed steps.
“…Who…are you?”
The attendants who were handling chores inside jumped at the sight of Lian, thinking he was an intruder. But upon seeing his noble appearance, they cowered like frightened lambs.
There was one person as surprised as the attendants.
“Y-Your Highness?”
The knight of the Duke who had been trapped inside the glass room looked at Lian’s face and showed a shocked expression.
@.@
I didn’t see that coming