Chapter 154  

As if choosing something to say for a moment, the silent angel glanced up at the black man.

“The cage is open…”

The voice that had been muttering softly became more and more confident.

“You can fly anywhere.”

And she smiled broadly and held out her hand.

“It’s terrible.”

Vincent muttered unknowingly.

The view inside was gruesome. There were quite a few children who had been experimented on to be a chimera but ended up as a failure and seemed to have side effects.

They screamed horribly, writhing in agony with bodies that were neither alive nor dead. Fortunately, they listened to Aria’s Song of Requiem and closed their eyes comfortably.

‘Please go to a good place…….’

The screams of the children still echoed in her ears. Aria closed her eyes tightly and opened them to pray for the well-being of the dead children.

“There was a laboratory.”

Then, Winter, who had checked the back room and came, said.

“But it seems that all traces of the experiment have been erased. It seems clear that they escaped after taking all the data.”

As expected.

At the time when they almost got caught by Valentine, they couldn’t leave important material in a place where it might be taken.

Veronica has already abandoned this place. That was probably why she entrusted the orphanage to another priest.

‘But then…… Why did she leave these children behind?’

When Aria was puzzled, Winter added.

“There are a total of thirty-six children who survived here. Three or four of them were locked up in the same laboratory.”

Three or four?

“But Laura said she was locked up in an empty room…”

Then the boy, who had not spoken while holding his younger sister in his arms, added a word.

“She must be an A-class child.”

“…A-class?”

“Yes, the higher the rank, the more they were locked up in a solitary cell and thoroughly managed. I heard the researchers talking.”

Class. The expression of blatant displeasure that gave her no choice but to wrinkle her impression.

Like grading meat…….

‘Come to think of it, I heard that children were graded from Count Chateau’s time.’

The children adopted by the Angelo family were unaware of the existence of the experimented children while they were living in the orphanage.

From there, the classes were divided.

Children living just like ordinary orphanage children. And the children who were locked up in the basement for the rest of their lives and experimented with.

‘I should have been involved earlier…….’

Aria could only regret it. Count Chateau had died and the country had taken a massive step, so she thought it would be fine.

‘Because this never happened in the future.’

However, she did not know that these children were leading a more terrifying life than when the Count was alive.

Aria remembered Carlin waiting outside. If he had been here, he would certainly have said ‘the price of changing the future.’.

“Then why aren’t those children here?”

“I heard conversations between the adults. A few days ago, they said that only A-class children were rushed to another lab.”

It seemed that not only the datas but also the children were moved.

‘Then the children who are left behind here are the children who had poor grades.’On the contrary, it was fortunate for these children, but……. It was unavoidable that her insides were burning with anger.

Aria sighed and extended her hand to Matthew.

“Come here. I’ll treat you.”

“……”

“Because it’s borrowed power, I can’t fully treat it right away, but it’ll still be helpful.”

Who could resist a savior’s touch? Matthew stretched out his hand as if possessed, and then a pure white light enveloped him.

He glanced at Aria and blushed.

‘You look like my age…….’

Strangely, unlike how she looked, she was strangely mature, and an atmosphere that could not be approached flowed from her.

Matthew, unable to take his eyes off Aria, was startled at one point.

Because Lloyd’s black eyes were staring at him silently.

From him, there was an atmosphere that could not be approached in a different sense.

“Then it seems that there is no more information to be obtained here.”

Lloyd looked away indifferently and said so. But it was then.

Lucy, who was looking up at Aria and Lloyd with twinkling eyes, rummaged through her clothes.

“There, there, is this.”

And handed her a roll of paper.

“Oh my God, Lucy! How can you give trash to the benefactor?”

Matthew was terrified. However, Aria did not hesitate to receive the smudged and soiled wad of paper from Lucy’s hands.

“Thank you.”

She smiled briefly and stroked Lucy’s hair, then opened the paper.

“This…….”

Vincent muttered as he lowered his head with a curious face.

“It’s a research report.”

Aria looked closely.

Equations that were difficult to read even a single letter were written frantically like code.

“The time has come for you to act.”

Aria handed the report to Vincent without hesitation.

“You only use me at times like this.”

“You said you’re my strategist.”

“Hmm, that’s right.”

When Vincent was observing the documents, pretending to give in to her obvious tricks.

“Looks like they’re trying to inject something.”

Winter, who came out of nowhere, interpreted the contents at will.

“I was going to say that!”

“What? Oh, yes. Go ahead.”

Winter looked at Vincent, who got agitated for nothing, and wondered. He just said what he saw, he didn’t know why Vincent was angry.

Only Vincent, who had been deprived of his chance, was regretful.

‘Is it possible that the Young Duke is aiming for Sister-in-law’s bookkeeper position?’

Vincent was very suspicious. But to say that in this situation, he would only look petty and absent.

“The Young Duke is right.”

He sighed and added.

“But the problem is that the material used in the experiment is an abbreviation I’ve never seen before. It’s called ‘Shad’.”

“Um, I can’t even guess.”It was when they were in trouble, thinking of all kinds of compounds and energy by-products.

Aria belatedly realized what it meant and said, ‘Ah!’.

“Shadrach.”

It was God’s name that she heard from the first Siren.

Princess Natalie likes rumors.

From rumors close to established facts, to absurd rumors. It was so famous that everyone knew about it in the Imperial Palace.

So, nobles and servants visiting the Imperial Palace offered all kinds of rumors to win the Princess’ favor. Then a pretty satisfactory reward would return.

“There is a saint named Veronica, who has become quite a topic of discussion because she is a rare beauty.”

“Therefore?”

“She was famous enough to say that just by looking at her you can have faith. However, it seems that the Saint caused a big problem this time.”

“Hmm, tell me more.”

The Princess looked into her sharply trimmed nails and said indifferently. Then the employee told her the little things about the incident in her ears.

“The orphanage of St. Aquino, run by Count Chateau…”

Because it was such a horrific incident, the handmaid’s voice grew more and more intense. There was of course the excitement of getting a reward in return.

“It was Valentine, who recently made a name for themselves as a hero, that uncovered this.”

“That’s what happened…”

Natalie tossed one of her expensive jewels to the handmaid who had said, and she motioned for the handmaid to return. The handmaid bowed her head in greeting with a satisfied smile and disappeared.

“As expected, I have good eyes for people.”

Natalie muttered as she drew a satisfied smile with her lips. It was because she had guessed that it was Valentine, especially Aria, that discovered this case.

‘If the rumor spreads soon enough, Garcia will bleed quite a bit.’

Of course, Garcia will only cut off their tail with Saint Veronica, and will remain ignorant. It was obvious that they would say that the saint acted arbitrarily and they didn’t know.

‘But even so, they will not be able to prevent the damage to Garcia’s noble image.’

Natalie felt a bit refreshed. At the same time, no matter what, she didn’t want to miss Aria.

‘If there is the little deer, really…….’

She seemed no longer able to hide herself.

She seemed rather regretful that she had not revealed herself.

She was not afraid of death and seemed to be able to go without hesitation, only her and her own happiness.

‘In order to win the Grand Princess’ favor, what is the best gift to give?’

And she started to worry.

Aria was Valentine. Their money was overflowing and it was rotting.

‘Power? Fame? Social influence?’

Aria already had that.

She’s even chosen as the Queen of Spring Flower, and since then she’s never been seen in public.

Aria just threw the Princess away once she didn’t need the Princess and went back to the Grand Duchy again.

The nobles, who were doing everything they could to stand out from the social circle, felt deeply skeptical of Aria’s actions.

‘Even if she doesn’t want to show off on the outside, on the inside, she would be desperately wanting to get entangled somehow.’

But Aria didn’t care about such a crowd. Even Princess Natalie was no exception. She’s just less scorned towards them.

Aria was showing some attitude that said, ‘Cooperate if you want, don’t if you don’t want to.’

‘I just want the Princess to be happy, was it.’

It seemed that Aria didn’t know that it frustrates people more.

“Hmm, then… let’s get this out of the way.”

The Emperor was sure to come out lukewarm. It was because Garcia and his interests were complicatedly intertwined.

But it was a different story for Natalie, who was ignorant, arbitrary, and selfish.

‘Huhu, I hope the Grand Princess likes it…….’

Natalie walked out of the room imagining that Aria would be saying ‘As expected, I only believed in you.’.