Chapter 9: The Girl Who Didn’t Know What to Wish For.

It was a narrow and pure white space.

Barrenly clean walls and ceilings.
Children of similar ages.
Men in white gowns passing in front of them in a line, checking this and that.

The girl’s very first memory was of such a sight.

[Facility]

The adults only called that place a facility.

It was only later that she learned that… the existence of the laboratory itself was top secret, so they didn’t even give it a proper external name.

Was that why the girl who grew up there didn’t have a proper name either?

Only the number 32 designated her.

“Number 32. Injected substance H6 special complex essence. Specimen mother, ‘Queen of Conquest’…. Vitals check, no abnormalities. Cumulative genetic modification rate 0.08%……”

To the adults who were muttering unknown stories, the girl had needles stuck into her and blood drawn several times a day. She was often injected with unknown liquids.

Every time that happened, she would be sick with a high fever or suffer from unknown pain in nine out of ten cases.

But no matter how much the girl groaned all night, the adults at the ‘facility’ only observed the child’s condition with indifferent eyes from behind the glass window.

It was a repeatedly repeated memory.

In that place, the girl never cried, got angry, annoyed, or scared.

Even if the pain that tore her body apart continued for days,
Even if she was forced to do actions and follow rules for reasons she could never know,
Even if the child in the next room that she sometimes saw, suddenly changed into a stranger….

She only silently accepted it with a expressionless face.

Because the girl’s life had been in that form from the beginning,

Because she hadn’t learned anything
Because she didn’t know anything in the first place
She didn’t even think it was hard or painful.

“167th day of experiment record, number 17, number 29, drug administration discontinued due to death. Disposal.”

“If this is the case….”

“There are only three left. We need to request a supplement.”

“After all, the idea of directly manifesting the Queen’s essence in humans is too……”

The experiments that were repeated day after day for countless times.

And finally, the moment when the familiar pain no longer came-

The girl realized.

Something that had sprouted inside her.

She didn’t know what that was, but she naturally sensed it.
That this was the result that the adults at the facility had been looking for and wanting so much.

She also instinctively realized that nothing in this place could bind her anymore.

Not the thick reinforced walls,
Not the suppression device hanging around her neck,
Not the men carrying guns and patrolling the hallways,

Now, if she just made up her mind, she could tear them apart like paper with just a gesture.

The girl was realizing that all too naturally.

But…. the girl didn’t resist at all.

The experiments continued to be carried out, and the painful things were still repeated, but….

Because that itself was the form of her life. Because she didn’t know any other life.

Because she didn’t know or imagine what would happen after she left the facility.

She just continued to comply without even trying to escape or resist.

As time passed, soon the adults also discovered something dwelling in the girl’s body.

“This is…!”

“Oh my god, it’s a success!!”

From that time on, the girl was no longer stuck with needles. Instead-

The girl was standing in an unfamiliar place.

The deep underground of the facility. The pure white walls were a square with high ceilings, a single room that she could go back and forth about thirty steps from side to side.

On one wall was an opaque glass window. There were gazes watching beyond the reinforced glass, mixed with expectations.

The girl raised her head.

[Grrrrrr….]

Jagged teeth visible before her eyes.
Sharp claws.
The beast, whose physique far surpassed the girl’s, was a captured mutant species of encroachment.

[“Begin experiment.”]

In response to that voice, the alloy restraints that bound the predator fell off one by one.

The mutant species, which had completely regained its freedom. Its whitish gaze was directed straight at the girl.

The instincts that had become extremely ferocious due to the Hexa Virus lunged to tear apart any life other than itself without any hesitation-,

It burst before it could even take a step.

Pow-!!

Literally, it burst.

Blood splattered all over the walls of the pure white experimental site.

The girl’s cheeks were also stained with a thick red light.

But the girl didn’t wipe it off and just stood there blankly, with her fingertips stretched out.

Rather, it was the side beyond the reinforced wall that became noisy.

The adults inside the glass window couldn’t hide their excitement and talked among themselves.

[“Oh my god, to knock down a Delta-class mutant species so easily….”]

[“It exceeded expectations. Even though the estimated assimilation rate is still less than 1%, how could she….!”]

[“It’s a success. It couldn’t be better! That test subject can be seen as the ‘Queen’ herself who has metamorphosed as a human….!”]

The voices of those celebrating were even leaking out beyond the speakers of the experimental site.

At that noise, the girl also inadvertently turned her head.

Clearly, it was opaque glass so that it couldn’t be seen from the outside, but it didn’t matter to the girl now.

Sapphire blue eyes watched the adults beyond the glass window.

In her memories, they were the people who gave her injections with indifferent faces at all times, not caring at all whether the girl was in pain or sick in bed.

But it was different now.

They had a very strange expression.

They were all tearing up the corners of their mouths and exhaling strange and rapid breaths as if they were heaving.

The girl, who had grown up as a test subject without human relationships, didn’t even know if that was ‘laughter’.

It was just that it was the first time she had seen such a sight, so she was just watching it curiously.

No, in fact, the girl had seen that expression once before.

『”Hello, nice to meet you! My name is-“』

She was a peculiar person. She was wearing a white gown like the other adults at the facility, but… the expression on her face looking at the girl was different.

The dark brown eyes, which beautifully curved her large eyes, always contained rich emotions as she chattered on and on about stories that weren’t necessary for the experiment.

『”Have you ever seen a shooting star falling in the night sky?”』

But as the experiment progressed and the children in the next room changed, somehow her expression gradually darkened.

When the girl, thinking that she was somehow sick, stared at her, she would smile belatedly and whisper like that.

『”It’s okay, I’ll help you…. Just hold on a little longer. I’ll get you out of here. No matter what it takes….”』

And she gave her the same smile as always.

It was a clumsy, forced, uneasy, distorted smile, but…

The girl somehow couldn’t take her eyes off that face.

But that was the last appearance.

After that day, the girl could no longer see the woman. She disappeared from sight anywhere in the facility, so of course she couldn’t meet her again.

But no one cared about that fact. Whenever she recalled the strange memory of someone who had disappeared in an instant as if she had never existed from the beginning,

The girl somehow felt like one side of her heart was being pressed down hard and ached.
It was a strange feeling.
Even when she groped around as if there was a wound in her clothes, all she touched was smooth skin.

It wasn’t like she had needles stuck in her,
She wasn’t bruised or bleeding,
But it hurt….

It was something she couldn’t understand.

After that day, her daily life changed rapidly.

From the time the girl knocked down the mutant species in the underground, the adults at the facility became somehow busy, saying things like escort, demolition, and so on.

The last moment when the research institute, which had been completely isolated from the outside, was being used up and being cleaned up.

No one imagined that the commotion would call something in.

“M, mutant species?! Why now…!”

“Where did this many come from?!”

“Aaaargh! Kkeuaaaaack!!”

The facility turned into a slaughterhouse in an instant. Because the location itself was in the depths of the contaminated area in the first place. When a colony of mutant species rushed in through a gap that was created by preparing for evacuation, not a single person there survived.

Except for the girl.

The child who was left alone in the ruined facility.

Even though it was a place where no one was anymore, the girl still stayed in that place.

She wasn’t afraid.
She wasn’t lonely either.

Because she didn’t know such emotions.

She didn’t expect hope, and she didn’t despair in despair, she just looked up at the sky endlessly.

The starlight that twinkled through the cracks in the collapsed ceiling.

『”Hey, do you know that? If you look at a shooting star falling in the night sky and make a wish, the story that it will definitely come true, have you ever heard of it?”』

The story that a woman with dark brown eyes had once told the girl.

Just in time, a silver light was falling from the sky.

But the girl couldn’t make a wish.

Because she herself didn’t know what to wish for.

Still….

It seems that someone generously grants even wishes that haven’t been wished for.

Because the very next day, the girl met ‘him’.

『”Let’s go together.”』

The goodwill that was wholly given to the girl for the first time.

『”I’ll protect you safely. I promise.”』

『”My name is Yu Seo Jin. Call me whatever you’re comfortable with. It’s okay to call me uncle.”』

『”You’re going to live here from now on. I hope you’re comfortable. You can do whatever you want if you want.”』

That’s how she received a life.

『”Number 32…? That kind of number isn’t a name. Forget it.”』

『”From now on, your name is…. Yunia.”』

『”Yunia Daylight.”』

A name and life as a human being, not an object…

『”…. Listen carefully. Yunia, you’re a person. It’s okay to cry when you’re in pain, to laugh when you’re happy, to get angry when you’re annoyed… We’re the same people.”』

『”So I hope you cherish yourself even more than you do now.”』

She owed all of that.

『”The fact that there are people who worry about you….”』

『”I hope you’ll always remember that and live proudly……”』

“You seem tired.”

At the low voice, Yunia quietly opened her eyes.

In the scenery of the office that she always saw, a strange pair of eyes was staring at her.

“I had something to think about…. Sorry, I was rude to call you here.”

“It’s okay. Director, is there anything you need from me?”

Yunia briefly looked at the other person’s appearance.

A woman in a suit who neatly gathered her silver hair that was close to pure white.
A beauty whose gray eyes created a cold impression.

Her name was Maylen Schopenhauer.

She was the team leader of Special Task Force 1, which oversees the investigation and suppression of crimes committed by unqualified psychics.

Due to the nature of her job, she was also the most capable person in gathering information within the Defense Bureau.

Special Task Force, even though its affiliation itself was the Encroachment Countermeasures Defense Bureau, mainly deals with the same humans. Therefore, it is guaranteed special autonomy and is even treated as an external organization to some extent.

It was not a relationship where she could easily ask for personal favors.

So Yunia hesitated for a moment. Now, at her position, she had no choice but to be conscious of external and internal factions and power struggles even for trivial requests.

From the standpoint of disliking such politics, it was an action that she would normally be burdened to do, but hadn’t she already decided?

This time, it couldn’t be helped, Yunia braced herself once again and opened her mouth.

“Team Leader 1, there is one matter I would like to ask you to do.”

“I’m listening.”

A calm and polite attitude.
As a woman who was known to always demand perfection, she would certainly solve the work she was assigned to do.

‘It will require some kind of compensation….’

Yunia didn’t hesitate any longer and brought up the main point.

“Please investigate the recent activities of Linesha Apelberry.”

“Are you talking about the Stella Guild Master?”

As the target was quite a famous person, Maylen understood at once. But she wasn’t surprised. She just asked back once.

“Is it perhaps because of that incident related to the military recently?”

“No, it’s not that. This is just…. a personal matter. Is it possible?”

Maylen paused for a moment, as if she was calculating something.

Then she answered, sparkling her calm gray eyes.

“If it’s a member of the Apelberry Group…. We’ll have to be very careful since the target is the target. It will take quite a while to investigate, would that be okay?”

There was also a hidden meaning that it would be that much more expensive.

But Yunia didn’t care.

Because her intuition was shouting that she should never let go of the clue in front of her.