episode_0020

The incident happened suddenly, without any warning, like a natural disaster.

“Oh, Noah, I’m planning to have an experiment with Mia tonight, so I don’t think we can eat together. I’ll eat beforehand and leave, could you feed her?”

Noah looked at Lian, who spoke those dreadful words with a vacant expression and a casual face. Noah managed to force out a dry response with his stiffened tongue.

“…Sure.”

“Thank you!”

He smiled brightly as if it was nothing and left to prepare dinner. Noah gazed at the empty space where Lian had been, bit his lip, and bowed his head deeply.

‘Is this the right thing?’

He said. His body heals easily and doesn’t hurt that much. So it’s okay.

‘Right, I said it’s okay.’

It became as cold as if blood didn’t flow through his fingertips. The image of children being dragged out of prison flashed before his eyes.

It felt like screams and the pungent smell of blood were paralyzing his mind. No matter how much Lian said he was okay, as long as the dreadful memory remained in Noah, he couldn’t just say “I see” and move on.

‘…Let’s check.’

Noah didn’t want his brother to be experimented on, including himself. At the same time, he didn’t want Lian to undergo a dreadful experiment.

These two feelings couldn’t coexist in the face of cruel reality. Then, it should be checked.

‘Like Lian said, whether the experiment is really not cruel, whether Lian is really not suffering. It should be checked.’

Noah hadn’t spent much time with Lian, but he relied on him quite a bit. Unlike Noah, who was forced to mature at a young age, Lian took care of them like a real adult.

Unconsciously, Noah trusted Lian’s words. Or maybe he wanted to believe them.

If, as he said, the experiment is not that cruel and Lian is not suffering that much, he would be able to laugh freely in the uneasy peace he had tasted for the first time in his life.

As soon as he made up his mind, Noah started preparing.

“Pia, can I leave the meal service to you tonight? I have something urgent to help Lian with.”

“Okay. Just need to handle the meal service, right?”

“Yeah.”

Thanks to Pia readily taking on the meal duty, Noah was able to make time for the evening.

As time passed, it was evening.

“Well then, I’ll go ahead.”

Lian, done with meal preparations, waved as she left the kitchen. Noah tried to smile naturally and waved back, then nervously sought out Pia to let her know that the meal preparation was finished.

Upon seeing Pia enter the kitchen, Noah quickly dashed towards the corridor where Lian had gone.

***

“I’m here.”

“For now, just sit there.”

When Noah arrived, Lian was already inside the laboratory. Fortunately, the door was slightly ajar, allowing a glimpse into the interior of the lab.

“What…is all this?”

The sorcerer’s laboratory was more dreadful than imagined.

There were ominous crimson fumes rising from a menacing-looking furnace, grotesque byproducts of demons hung dry on the wall, and enchanted body parts twitching as if alive, oozing green blood, among other horrifying sights.

It was filled with all sorts of dreadful things, and even emitted a noxious odor indicating what was being concocted.

Thud! Thud!

Mia, who had gone downstairs to the basement, returned. Pouring the contents of a large orc barrel into the bathtub, she then approached Lian.

“Now that everything is ready, let’s begin the experiment.”

Before she could finish speaking, Mia swiftly rolled up Lian’s sleeve. In response, Mia skillfully blocked the spurting blood with a shield and peered inside. Her hand… -…

“Oh, oh…”

Noah sat down in place, his mind going blank.

No matter how many times she witnessed children dying, she rarely directly saw cruel scenes because she always tightly closed her eyes or desperately avoided looking at the cruel situations.

Chiik -.

The experiment that Lian confidently claimed wouldn’t hurt at all continued. His arm melted and oozed with pus due to the poison.

Puhwaak!

As he probed the wound that seemed like it needed to be cut off, blood poured out. Lian’s expression was not clearly visible under the blood. No, it couldn’t be seen.

“Is this… Is this an experiment that isn’t painful?”

Noah shook, covering his mouth with both hands. Tears gathered in his eyes and streamed down his cheeks to the floor.

Woodduk.

A sound of bones breaking was heard as he probed the wound too deeply. His arm bent in a direction it shouldn’t have.

After tightly closing his eyes at the excessively cruel scene and then opening them, it seemed like Mia had moved aside; her body was covering Lian’s wound.

“Lian, are you by any chance…”

The casual conversation didn’t reach Noah’s ears. Due to the intense shock, a ringing filled his ears. When he came to his senses, Lian was sitting quietly with something stuck in his arm.

His broken arm had returned to normal. As if to prove that the cruel experiment wasn’t a dream, there remained a faint mark on his arm.

Noah’s gaze followed what was stuck in Lian’s arm downward. A large container was sloshing with red blood.

“…How can his body look like that? We dissected his whole body, yet we couldn’t figure it out. Should we open up his head after all?”

…!

Unconsciously, Noah had been separating Mia from the cruel sorcerer. One reason was her beautiful appearance, but the main reason was that she provided them with a place to stay and meals.

Having lived through hunger and persecution, he unconsciously thought that Mia couldn’t be such a bad person for providing them with sustenance.

Perhaps it was because of such foolish thoughts that he believed Lian’s words.

“We…we dissected his whole body?”

Noah recalled the cruel marks engraved on Lian’s body. She realized that all the marks, which seemed like scribbles, had been inflicted by Mia’s hands.

“I thought I knew it properly…”

Compared to children who couldn’t even control their urine and cried cruelly before being brutally murdered or driven insane by mental illness, Noah was definitely rational.

However, she was not wise by any means compared to her age group. She was too young for wisdom to accumulate.

“I didn’t know anything… I didn’t know anything at all.”

She easily forgot how her current peace and joy were being created through terrible sacrifices. Somehow, she felt as if her throat was parched.

“Well, then let’s try the next experiment.”

At the mention of a new experiment, Noah involuntarily closed her eyes tightly. She no longer wanted to watch. Nausea surged so strongly that she felt she might vomit blood.

She staggered to her feet and started to flee with a pale, nauseated face.

“Hu, hag…”

Even though she hadn’t run far, her breath felt as if it would choke her.

{ Hahaha! Really? }

Laughter echoed in her ears. Lian’s laughter echoed in her ears.

{ How about trying this next time? }

The image of a child of her age speaking brightly and approaching her with a smile lingered in front of her eyes. Noah’s steps slowed.

“I, I…”

Noah was more afraid that such a terrible experiment might happen to herself or her sibling than of dying. At the same time, she felt a sense of relief that Lian might sacrifice herself instead.

“Uwook…”

A suffocating sense of sin and guilt throbbed at her throat. There was nothing but dry heaves. Tears streamed down her face and soaked the ground.

Before she knew it, her steps had stopped.

…

She looked down at her hand with a vacant gaze. Her clean hand looked as if it had been stained with red juice. Noah began to scratch her hand.

It scratches too hard, causing bruises. Tears fell on the red marks. Lian’s wound came to mind.

“I… have to see.”

Noah muttered slowly, stepping back.

“I have to face it myself.”

She gritted her teeth. The desire to run away immediately was vivid on her face, but she didn’t. She couldn’t.

Noah turned around and slowly started moving forward. His heart beat roughly, and his insides trembled.

She was running before she knew it.