＜ Episode 24 ＞
“Sit down for now. You are the first guest in this house.”
The voice is like a fairy whispering, and the child’s unique smell calms the mind.
He behaved cautiously, but when he saw him walking flutteringly, a smile naturally flowed out. Seeing the bright smile on his lips naturally made me feel good about him.
“I’ll get you something to drink.”
Seeing the ten-year-old child caring for him, he wanted to get up on his own and do something to help, but John raised this ability and calmed his body and mind.
“Okay.”
Ekaterina flinched at the low, heavy voice.
“okay?”
The small and cute angelic child smiled even brighter.
He reflexively wanted to get up and stroke his hair and rub his cheek, but John held back his mind.
“yes.”
A strange light shone in John’s eyes, his face hardened.
“There is no need to try.”
“I don’t know what you mean?”
Would it have been an illusion if the smile on the child’s face looked cracked?
“I don’t know exactly, but it seems to have the ability to manipulate emotions by inducing chemical reactions in the body.”
John and Ekaterina’s eyes met.
“I happen to have a similar ability.”
“…you must have been a person with this ability.”
The bright smile, the voice that seemed to be whispered by a fairy, and the scent that tickled the tip of my nose and calmed my mind disappeared like a lie.
As if the appearance just before was a dream, there was a girl with eyes uncharacteristic for a child and a cold expression.
Feeling the look of a girl with a very wary look and high poison, John continued.
“I don’t know if Ivan’s genes are superior or not.”
Ekaterina’s body flinched at the mention of Ivan’s name.
“Help John. He’s a solver who came to protect you at Ivan’s request.”
“…protect from what?”
“I’ll have to look into that from now on.”
John’s mind began to spin busily at the sight of Ekaterina, who did not resemble the thick-lined Ivan at all.
***
Perhaps it was a pheromone, John expected.
A substance that could neither be seen nor felt spurted out of the child’s body, and tried to reach and influence John, but John could feel and manipulate the molecules with his powers.
It wasn’t his full strength, but the fact that he was always displaying this ability was the best move.
The moment I entered the room, I could immediately sense the foreign substances in the air.
‘If it wasn’t for me, it would have happened… Even Ivan will endure it.’
A magician who always wears mana, a warrior who straightens his image, a magician who protects himself with complete faith, and a person with special abilities who completely controls his body because his physical abilities have become proficient.
Ekaterina’s ability was so frightening that those who did not enter a certain state would be defeated without any warning.
‘Unconditional crush. It is stronger because it is simple.’
No matter how great a person is, he can’t do anything about his feelings.
Ekaterina’s ability is to touch people’s instincts, and her angelic appearance catches others off guard just by looking at her, so no matter how mature a person is, he or she will fall in love with her the moment he sees her.
The first impression was a very lovely girl, but John opened his mouth as he looked at the girl who looked like a doll made of inorganic matter.
“How far do you know?”
It was a bottomless question, but Catherine satisfied John’s faith.
“That Ivan was put under arrest, that the Pushkin mafia would come after me.”
Her voice was still like honey, but it was hard to believe that the cold tone came from the girl’s mouth.
“yes. In fact, it was confirmed that the Pushkin Mafia visited the Danilova couple.”
The mineral-like face of the child seemed to be cracked.
“…Is Ivan all right?”
“Don’t you know? Few people can do anything about Ivan.”
“It is.”
As John watched the child’s complicated expression, the pieces of the puzzle in his head began to fit together, and the outlines soon began to emerge.
Originally, there was no need to know the detailed circumstances of the request subject, but John felt that it was necessary to know in detail about Ivan and Ekaterina.
If his prediction is correct, this would be far beyond his scale.
“I have a question for you.”
“Tell me.”
Perhaps sensing John’s serious mood, the girl hesitated a little.
No matter how much he has this ability, and he shows coping skills that would be unbelievable for a 10-year-old, the years John has lived have been tough.
In the atmosphere created by such accumulated experience, the child was unknowingly shrunk.
“Is Ivan’s daughter right?”
Ekaterina stiffened at John’s words.
It wasn’t something a 10-year-old would ask, but John didn’t mind.
“First of all, Ivan and you look very different. He may have resembled his mother’s side, but even taking that into consideration, I couldn’t find a single place that resembled him.”
John’s education in the past also included skeletal and contemplative.
It was essential information to learn in order to find a specific person among a myriad of people or to detect a disguise, so John’s view of people was a little different from that of ordinary people.
In John’s eyes, Ivan and Ekaterina had outward appearances that made it difficult to regard them as the same blood.
“There, you are a person with special abilities.”
Ekaterina, frozen at John’s words, bit her lip.
It is very rare for a person with special abilities to pass on a generation, and it is an astronomical probability that a child barely acquired like that will become a person with special abilities.
“When I confirmed that you are a person with special abilities, one fact came to my mind.”
It was an act of bullying and mentally abusing the child no matter how well he looked at it, but John did not stop.
“Ivan experimented with his own body and got meaningful results. Ivan said there is a way to enhance this ability. That’s what I’ve agreed to accept in exchange for protecting you.”
Looking at the girl’s pale face, John continued.
“This is the latest information we got just yesterday. They say that the reason why the Pushkin Mafia noticed your existence was because the researchers from Ivan’s experiment came to see you. The problem is that researchers aren’t the only ones making fun of the Pushkin Mafia.”
The girl’s face went white.
“Ask again.”
Faced with the face of the girl who exuded transcendent beauty even though she was white, John opened his mouth.
“Are you Ivan’s daughter?”
***
Ekaterina opened her mouth in a silence that seemed short and seemed like an eternity.
“…the biological daughter is right.”
“···Right.”
Good hunches always go wrong, and bad hunches come true with a fairly high probability.
Frankly, John hoped his prediction was wrong.
No matter how unbecoming a child he was, he was only 10 years old.
However, the reality is always miserable enough to bring out swearing, and it was even more so here where John is alive and breathing.
Because this is Luna.
“Design Child. Am I right?”
“···okay.”
At Ekaterina’s answer, John involuntarily let out a sigh.
There are all kinds of crazy people in Luna, where transcendent science, magic, martial arts, sorcery, and superpowers are harmonized.
Luna is full of terrible things that good children should never get close to, and the elderly and pregnant women have a bad effect just by looking at it, but there are still some taboos.
One of them is creation of life.
To be precise, it is an act of artificially creating humans.
It’s not for soft reasons like ethics or emotions.
There were people in Luna who could do anything for a purpose, and there were researchers and wizards who didn’t care about taboos.
Just because it’s dangerous.
Creating humans in Luna, where gods can be observed thanks to the existence of shamans, is an act of direct opposition to God.
I don’t know if it’s because of that, but the artificially created intelligent bodies were all tyrannical, and depending on their abilities, they could call the destruction of the city, so naturally they became taboo.
Of course, lunatics who don’t even care about such things must be hiding in Luna’s shadow right now, violating taboos.
Design child is a level of work that slightly crosses the taboo.
It is said that genetic manipulation is done with a smile, but genetic manipulation at the fetal level is strictly prohibited.
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Most of the children born that way became psychopaths.
There was even a history of children born that way driving Luna to the brink of destruction at one time, so if this fact were revealed, the mafia conflict would not be a problem, and the city government’s inspector might be dispatched.
…Nevertheless, there are crazy people who try, and the fact that Ekaterina, born through Ivan’s genes and artificial womb, openly exists, proves that fact.
“…Ivan believed that he could catch variables with his regenerative powers.”
Ekaterina, with a slightly childlike expression, continued.
“…To me, you don’t look like a child either, but you still think you’re a success.”
“What. Yes.”
Looking at Ekaterina’s slightly relieved expression, John was lost in thought.
‘There is no change in expression at all. You can think of it as acting, but at that level, you have some degree of sociality. No wonder Ivan considers it a success.’
And the researchers who participated in the experiment must have had the same idea.
“Let’s get up first. I will fulfill your request.”
“Where are you going?”
“Anyway, avoid this place. I was a bit fast, but I’ll catch up soon.”
John bit his lip as he looked at the rising child with an expression of understanding.
‘I’ll have to talk to Ivan.’
John had a foreboding feeling when he saw the child carrying a bag the size of his torso, probably preparing in advance.
***
“This way.”
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Men in suits entered the ruined house, as if it had been looted, followed by a man covering his entire body with a robe.
It was worth frowning at the broken fixtures and furniture, the open traces of blood and the smell of oil, but no one’s expression changed.
“What about things?”
“Here it is.”
Responding quickly to the gloomy voice, one of the men cautiously handed over the item, and a skinny hand covered in tattoos grabbed it.
It was clothes.
Old clothes for a child of about 4 or 5 years old.
He looked around to see if he had managed it in a mess, and although there was a lot of dirt, the man nodded in satisfaction and then pulled back his robe.
“Turn your head.”
“ancient!”
A skinny man with metaphysical tattoos covering his entire face commanded in a melancholy voice, and the men in suits all turned around.
“···ha.”
With a strange groan, the black mark in the man’s eye disappeared, and he carefully picked up the clothes he was holding with both hands and brought them to his mouth.
Chi profit.
There was the sound of something tearing, and the men’s faces turned pale in fear that something bizarre was happening behind their backs, but they tried to stand up as much as they could.
rain. rain.
Awesome. Awesome.
gulp.
The pale face turned white at the sound of the beast savoring its prey as much as possible, and such a bizarre time passed.
“I see you were there.”
“Did you find it?”
“yes. What a lovely child.”
Kurak laughed, opening his torn mouth wide below his ears.
＜ Episode 24 ＞ End