episode_0120

In a gray room, Iris, Noah, Jess, Nero, and Lily were lying on beds placed at regular intervals with their limbs tied up. Muzzles were attached to their mouths, and magic-blocking collars were fastened around their necks.

“It’s all because of me…”

Tears rolled down Lily’s cheeks.

“Even if I hadn’t been captured as a hostage…”

Jess, known as the Crimson Queen, Iris who collapsed the arena, Noah who awakened and became several times stronger, and Nero who had trained under Noah for a long time.

While Lily being captured as a hostage was one reason why they were easily captured by the enemy, there was another reason.

“Ho, I thought at least an arm or leg would be missing… They seem healthier than I expected.”

A man with slightly dried-up mustache appeared quietly in the laboratory. After nodding to the researcher who was writing something next to the bed where they were tied up, he greeted them politely.

“They are of excellent quality. These materials are hard to obtain even with money elsewhere.”

“Even if they are defective, they are materials that can fight on par with combat weapons. It’s a natural outcome.”

The man with the mustache smiled, showing it off.

“Lucky, very lucky. Such high-quality materials coming in at the end of the experiment.”

The man, smiling unpleasantly, tapped Jess’s bedpost closest to him like playing a piano. Jess’s pupils contracted.

“Creak…”

As a growling sound emerged, the man’s laughter deepened. It was similar to the gaze of a housewife looking at fresh vegetables or fish.

Looking down at Jess and chuckling, the man with the mustache turned swiftly and asked another researcher.

“How many discarded specimens are there?”

“At least more than ten.”

At the mention, the man’s eyes widened.

“All ten of these were discarded by them?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Oh…”

The man blushed as if facing his first love. His excitement made his mustache twitch here and there.

What they were researching was a combat weapon stronger than the empire’s knights.

Mass-producible knight-level combat weapons. Just hearing about it made the smell of blood thickly flow.

To create a perfect product, various trials and errors were inevitable. In the process, defective products were created, and Noah and his group fought against such defective products.

Even if they were defective products, they were results comparable to the empire’s knight-level products.

It might be a bit challenging, but it wasn’t a complete failure. The issue was the number of defective products.

“Those dreadful things were defective products?”

Noah recalled the horrifying creatures endlessly surging towards them. ‘It’ took various forms like water spirits, monsters, humans, and was strong enough to defeat Nest’s executives with just one hand.

They were captured not only because Lily was taken hostage but mainly because of the endless surge of those creatures.

Noah thought while biting the muzzle.

“I can’t just obediently become an experimental subject. I have to find a way to escape from here somehow.”

As Noah thought so with determination in his eyes, the man with the mustache, who had been fiddling with his mustache, approached Noah.

“Hmm, seeing that your gaze doesn’t waver. Looks like you’re thinking of escaping from here.”

“…!”

“But it’s better to give up on such thoughts.”

The man who came close had eyes filled with madness.

“Since I fought directly, I know better! The strength of ‘Invazel,’ which will be 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 hoarse voice and then spoke in a calm tone that sent shivers down one’s spine.

“Ah… Now do you understand? How great you all will become.”

Noah closed his eyes, suppressing the rising sense of revulsion. He did not want to meet the filthy man’s eyes anymore.

As the man’s excitement grew, he began to extol the greatness of the experimental subject ‘Invazel.’

“Even if you stab the heart, decapitate, it won’t die and can use any weapon flexibly. Yet, without ease, it remains loyal!”

As the man continued speaking, the eyes of the other researchers in the room turned red with excitement as they imagined the path to glory laid out before them.

“With such honorable…”

Just as the man was about to continue his praise, the tightly closed door of the lab was roughly pushed open, revealing a researcher whose face was pale with bloodstains.

“What… What’s happening!?”

In the tense atmosphere, the man’s face turned cold with apprehension.

“R-run… cough..”

Before the researcher could finish his sentence, he collapsed forward, lifeless. His eyes rolled back, body motionless. He had breathed his last.

The atmosphere inside the lab turned as chilling as a morgue.

“Now… find out immediately what is happening!”

“Yes!”

Leaving Noah and his group behind, they swiftly fled the lab. The man with a mustache also followed them out of the lab.

And not long after -.

“Aaah!”

“D-don’t come closer! Aaah!”

Beyond the broken door, horrifying screams echoed. Those whose limbs were bound had to endure the cruel sounds in silence.

Time passed.

“Oh dear, isn’t this the place?”

A woman’s voice was heard. All eyes turned to the newcomer entering the room. Dressed modestly as if going on a date, with waist-length navy blue hair and blue eyes.

The beautiful woman paced nervously, checking her wristwatch. The issue was that her fist was smeared with blood.

“Oh… I mustn’t be late. And these stains won’t come off.”

She took out wet wipes from her small bag and tried to clean the bloodstains on her clothes. Failing to remove them completely, she frowned.

“Oh! There are other people here! I don’t know why they’re tied up, but I’ll ask these people!”

Saying so, the woman approached Noah.

“Excuse me, which way should I go to get to Bucheon Station?”

As incomprehensible information flooded in, Noah’s brain ceased to function.

“Oh, do you happen to know? Ugh… What should I do..”

“Eugh! Uhp!”

Given the current situation, the only way to escape was through the woman, so Noah urgently spoke up. Startled, the woman responded with a surprised expression.

“Oh! It seems like your mouth is blocked! Shall I help you?”

Nodding, Noah watched as the woman tightly closed her eyes and struck the bed’s edge with her clenched fist.

“Hey!”

Crash!

The confinement device, including the bed, shattered into pieces and scattered on the floor. Noah looked up at the woman with a blank face.

“I, then, what about Bucheon Station…”

As the woman continued speaking, her face suddenly began to blur. Noah hastily stepped back in astonishment.

Splat!

The woman turned into liquid as if pouring water on the floor, spreading out as if she had become liquid like a broken resident unable to withstand the flow of blood.

“This is…”

The flowing form of the woman was very familiar somewhere. When the ‘defective product’ they had faced died, it had turned into liquid and flowed down like the woman in front of them.

“It was bound to happen.”

Only then did Noah realize that the incomprehensible woman was an experimental result.

“I need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

Why she took the form of the woman, why she helped him, why she suddenly died—there were many questions, but now was not the time. Noah urgently began untying those bound to the bed.

At that moment, Lian, after sending everyone out, ventured deep into the research facility to find Noah but ended up getting lost.

“Where am I now…”

Perhaps because the research facility was in chaos, Lian wandered around openly without encountering any researchers.

Given how the experimental subjects fueled by Lian’s blood were going crazy, it was no wonder Lian was curious about where she was.

Lian decided to wander around first and then catch a researcher to guide her through the situation.

“[Partner, I sense multiple presences behind that door.]”

Lian immediately headed towards the direction indicated by the partner. As she tried to open the tightly closed door and enter, she hesitated.

“Do I have to do it this way?”

[If you leave now, who knows when you’ll be able to shine! When the opportunity comes, show your magnificent self… Ahem, I just want to show your magnificent self!]

The reason for her hesitation was that she had lost the initiative to show off her cool moves like with the giant spider. Although Lian could easily regain control if she wanted, the partner started to whine, so she sighed and left the initiative as it was.

Then, the partner began delicately moving every inch of Lian’s body with excitement.

Having been through various hands, including those of noble status, the partner had seen many people.

Thanks to those memories, Lian moved with grace like a nobleman’s son. Even the subtle smile that emerged was akin to that of a noble always wearing a mask.

Thud.

As the researchers hurriedly ran out, leaving the door unsealed, it gently opened, and Lian walked in leisurely.

“…! Who are you?”

The attendants inside, thinking Lian was an intruder, were about to shout, but upon seeing her noble appearance, they trembled like scared lambs.

One person among the surprised attendants stood out.

“Y-Your Highness?”

The knight of the imprisoned aristocrat, locked in the glass room, looked at Lian’s face and showed a shocked expression.