Ch.72Ordinary Days (3)

“Marian, so you’re saying you’ll station Leonard here along with some of your elite fleet?”

“Yes, of course.”

Perhaps it’s because our first meeting started off on the wrong foot.

While I trusted the capabilities of this character Leonard and the fleet he commanded, I wondered if we couldn’t just deploy the existing pirate fleet for the long term instead.

But as if reading my thoughts…

Marian added more explanation:

“Among the pirate groups available for deployment here, Leonard is the only one with a male commander.”

“Hmm… does it have to be a male? I wouldn’t particularly mind a woman either.”

I raised a mild objection to Marian’s statement, but…

“No way. A few days or a week might be fine, but absolutely not for more than a month.”

“I see.”

“If I stationed those bitches here, there’s a high chance they’d try to steal your chastity, oppa.”

“Ah… um… I understand.”

“So I’ll place the highly trustworthy Leonard here to protect your chastity.”

“…”

I had to maintain a rather complex expression, as did Leonard himself—one of the pirate’s top executives and a superhuman considered a “badass” by users—at suddenly being treated as my chastity guard.

And whether we felt that way or not, Marian, having finished her main objective of absorbing “Icarusium,” said:

“Well then, I’ll see you next time! Oppa!”

“Yeah, sure.”

She left without taking any responsibility for her bombshell announcement.

And with his lady (?) and Ma’am departing, our chastity guard… no, Leonard also returned to his flagship, saying there was nothing more to discuss.

As for me, I steadied my shaken mental state amid this confusing situation.

After ordering repairs for the reception room door, I decided to meet with Oxianor, who was staying at our base as an envoy from the “Monster” faction, to find out how many commanders they had. I also wanted to see Griyanar, who had been secluding herself for leveling and research.

So I left the reception room and headed toward the “Biology Research Lab and Neural Network” area for the first time in a while.

==========

On the way there, after passing through bizarre corridors that seemed like a fusion of machinery and organic matter, reminiscent of something from Con*ra, I dragged along Jessica, who was shuddering with disgust at our surroundings.

We approached the door of the “former” biology research lab—now a “living” door—and stepped inside.

“The lights are all off.”

“…Indeed.”

For some reason, most of the lights were turned off, and the floor was covered with slimy mucus and what looked like flesh chunks and blood vessels.

Some were actually pipes or wires rather than blood vessels, but the boundaries between them weren’t clear, and the dim lighting made it even harder to distinguish between them.

Amid this grotesque scene, Jessica and I were looking around with heightened tension when…

“Oh my, Commander? What brings you here~?”

Turning toward the familiar voice, I saw what looked like sausage-like tentacles, pipes, and wires all mixed together, connected to some opaque test tubes.

Something was wriggling inside the test tubes, with pipe-hoses or tentacles or whatever they were extending from them, half-merged with flickering monitors and mechanical equipment.

And at the center where all these “pipes” converged, sitting on what appeared to be a sofa(?) decorated with bulging blood vessel-like protrusions that seemed to be wriggling somehow, was Griyanar.

She had kicked off her shoes somewhere and was wiggling her toes, giving me a mischievous smile.

I shrugged as if it was nothing and decided to check Griyanar’s status window first.

Of course, the reason was obviously because of the insane visuals around us.

I was worried that instead of doing the leveling she was supposed to do, she might have gone into “Monster tentacles are amaziiing! I’ve wasted half my life!” mode, but…

—————————————-

<Griyanar>

<Level 43>

<Type: Support Mid-range>

<Traits: Research, Enhancement, Mad Scientist, Biological Experimentation, Modification>

<Stats>

Health: C+

Attack Power: S-

Physical Defense: SSS+

Magic Power: SSS-

Magic Defense: SSS+

Mobility: C-

—————————————-

‘What the?’

When I checked Griyanar’s status window, I was surprised to see more “traits” than I remembered.

Not only that, but while her overall stats had increased, her “mobility” alone had dropped two levels (C+ ⇒ C-).

While I was internally dumbfounded, wondering what kind of leveling would produce such results, I decided to assess the situation first and addressed Griyanar:

“Griyanar, it hasn’t even been a week since I last saw you… when did you turn the biology lab into something like this?”

“Hehehe, why? Curious?”

Wiggling her toes, Griyanar laughed at my question.

She stroked the surface of a nearby test tube with her hand, wearing a dreamy expression as she continued:

“It’s nothing special. I just got a taste of how far life engineering could evolve… and used it to upgrade myself and this lab to the next level.”

“…”

Seeing Griyanar’s somewhat ecstatic expression, I could feel Jessica flinching behind me.

Honestly, anyone would think she might suddenly transform into a mad scientist and charge at us yelling “Make us whoooole!” given her visual presentation.

I too was preparing to call Ignis and Berial, who were taking a break instead of doing daily quests today…

But at that moment:

<<“That’s enough joking around, Griyanar.”>>

“Oh my, were you watching the whole time? Oxianor.”

“…?”

As soon as I heard the telepathy of Oxianor, the Monster faction’s envoy, the dark interior of the biology lab—which looked like an evil scientist’s nest of alien biological viruses consuming everything—suddenly lit up brightly.

The entrance area where we stood, the “test tube zone” where Griyanar was, and the rest of the “Biology Research Lab” maintained its usual white laboratory appearance, except for some walls partially consumed by the Monster faction’s “neural network.”

And finally, in that normal section, watching Griyanar cautiously while giving me sympathetic looks, were the “researchers” of the biology lab.

“Ahahahahahaha! Commander? What did you think I was going to do, for you to be so tense?!”

Finding our shocked expressions hilarious, Griyanar was genuinely amused, holding her stomach and laughing hysterically.

And in place of Griyanar, who had lost her composure from laughing, Oxianor, who had turned on the lights in the biology lab, apologized to us:

<<“I don’t think she meant any harm. She’s just been researching here so much… I suppose she wanted to play a prank on you.”>>

“…”

<<“For the record, I told her not to do it.”>>

While Oxianor was apologizing, Griyanar, who had laughed for quite a while but still had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard, approached me with her characteristic impish smile and said:

“What’s wrong, Commander? Did you really think a genius like me would lose my mind?”

“…”

“Hehehe, don’t worry, that would never happen♡ As if I would ever do something weird like what you were thinking—”

*Grab!*

Before she could finish her sentence, I:

“Thank goodness, really thank goodness!”

“Eeeeh?”

Rather than feeling angry about Griyanar’s prank, I was genuinely relieved that my precious SSS-rank noble support hadn’t been lost in vain. I sighed with relief and pulled Griyanar into a hug.