“Hah, seriously.”

Lakis looked at the shitty bunch in front of him and sighed. There was obvious irritation in his eyes.

‘This crazy bastard really threw shit everywhere.’

“L-Lakis-nim? Why are you doing this all of a sudden…!”

A subordinate of his ran out after hearing the commotion and prostrated before Lakis, asking pitifully.

Slash!

But before he could even finish his sentence, his head was sliced off and fell to the floor.

It was clean-up time again.

Lakis was dealing with every lab Milliam had set up all over the place.

When he looked into the bastard’s mind not long ago, he found that Milliam really planned on making a mutant army and that made Lakis speechless.

To put it nicely, he was someone with big dreams but in reality, he just didn’t know his place. The fake bastard wasn’t even satisfied with the east and actually stretched his hand to the south and the north.

Then again, it would have been difficult to get test subjects from the west alone, so perhaps that was expected.

Young children had higher rates of success when experimenting with the ruin’s fragment. So there must have been a limit to the number of test subjects he could get in each district.

—I think we’ve dealt with all the managers by now?

Lakis killed all the bastards that wagged their tails at Milliam. There was only one person who could be useful to him, so he knocked them unconscious and stuffed them in a corner.

They might scream nonsense about how they only did what they were asked to do but for Lakis, he was simply disposing of garbage that couldn’t be recycled.

Moreover, Lakis had always hated this type of disgusting behavior. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have blown up the lab in Carnot as soon as he became king.

‘But I can’t believe this bullshit.’

Lakis ground his teeth at Milliam who should be in the south about now. He didn’t want to get too far from the East where Yuri was, so he sent the fake bastard to the far places.

The brainwashing worked very well on Milliam.

He became an obedient slave and was destroying the facilities in other regions one by one at Lakis’ order. That said, the other regions didn’t have as many garbage dumps as the east, so it should not take too long.

—Lakis, finish this up, and let’s leave already. Ugh, no matter how many times we do this, I still really hate it.

Lakis agreed with what the bug was saying and went into the underground basement.

Inside, were test subjects that had absorbed the fragment from the ruins. Most of them were children and a few of them seemed to be adults.

For the people who were on the verge of death due to side-effects, Lakis killed them to let them die comfortably.

“H…Hel…Help me…”

But there were at least a few test subjects who didn’t look like they were about to die. Of course, that didn’t mean the experiment was successful, just that most of them didn’t have any ability; only their appearances were strange.

Lakis stared down at them with cold eyes.

Then soon, he clicked his tongue softly and spoke:

“If you still want to live, go to Carnot in the west. I’ll get someone to guide you. When you get there, there will be another guide waiting for you and from there, you can decide whether to follow or not.”

Lakis brainwashed the manager he had knocked out earlier and put him with the test subjects.

Lately, the suppression of heretics was intense in other regions, especially the East, so if they were released here, they would only get caught and killed.

Even though Milliam was the one who caused all this, he was a Carnot person who was under Lakis.

So Lakis felt he had some responsibility for these mutants that had emerged.

For now, Lakis took care of everything he had to do here then he left to go clean up another facility.

* * *“Dammit, I knew that watchdog would cause trouble one day.”

Yuri, Odin, and Siren; the three of them were gathered together in the hideout for the first time in a long while.

“I sent a crow to scout but for some reason, it looks like the watchdog is the only one being handled separately. Arachne, I went to the point you asked me to check but I couldn’t see a single thing.”

Odin said with annoyance in his voice.

But thankfully, the thread Yuri attached to Leo was still connected to him. And judging by the heartbeat transmitted from the thread, Leo was obviously still alive.

However, if Odin couldn’t see Leo even after sending a crow, that meant it was impossible to communicate with Leo.

“It was heavily guarded, so I could only go the area nearby…Hey, gum sticker. You talk next.”

Odin motioned to Siren.

“What? Gum sticker? You’re the one using that stupid clone magic and you weren’t even helpful at all today.” (1)

“What did you say?”

Odin’s eyes flared in rage.

Siren also glared back at Odin but it seems she decided to put up with it for now and let it go.

“Arachne! As I said, the bird I sent out today was more useful than the Crow’s!”

Odin’s crows turned into smoke when they were destroyed so they were not allowed to approach the guards beyond a certain distance, just in case anything happened.

“There were a lot of guards around where the watchdog is locked up. The shifts are every three hours and I couldn’t find any blind spots so there was no way for me to get closer secretly.”

“They didn’t notice that the bird was being controlled?”

“I don’t think they noticed. But as soon as my bird got close to the door of the watchdog, they immediately cracked its neck. It would have been troublesome if that was the Crow’s clone.”

However, since Siren was controlling the bird to search in real-time, there was a high chance they would think it was just a normal bird even if she got caught.

After listening to what the two of them had to say, Yuri thought about it for a bit then said:

“Since you said Leo was separated from the others, they must know he is a real mutant.”

“He didn’t transform in front of the humans, did he?”

That possibility seemed very high.

After all, the place Leo was locked up was different from the place where people with deformities in their appearance were imprisoned.

“Arachne, I overheard the conversation of guards and they said they were going to bring out the watchdog on the day of the praying ceremony!”

Siren added and gave Odin a triumphant look.

Odin looked back at Siren with annoyance all over his face.

At that moment, Yuri realized something.

‘Is this what Genos meant?’

He had a prediction that something dangerous would happen to Yuri around the time of the praying ceremony.

Certainly, if Leo was involved, Yuri couldn’t help but move personally. As long as Leo was imprisoned at the center of the East, it was almost impossible to break in and get him out.

“Alright, then it will be better for us to move then.”

So, for now, she made the best choice in the present and Odin agreed. Siren also nodded.

“Huh? Wait…!”

But then, Siren quickly remembered something and yelled in shock.

“That can’t happen!”

Odin gave Siren a look that was almost asking ‘what is it this time?’.“That red-haired prophet said that if we’re not careful, Arachne could die or get really hurt during the praying ceremony!”

“What?”

Odin frowned like he was hearing something bizarre, but Yuri was calm because she already knew this.

“What in the world are you talking about all of a sudden? A red-haired prophet?”

Odin questioned Siren doubtfully then suddenly, he paused.

“Wait, when you say red-haired prophet…are you talking about the East’s Sheldon?”

With a mere fragment of information from Siren, he immediately inferred Genos’ identity. It seems that being the information broker that he was, Odin naturally knew about Genos. When Siren did not deny it, Odin’s face turned ugly.

“That guy made that kind of prophecy about Arachne? No, before that, how do you know Genos Sheldon?”

Siren was flustered and looked away, but she couldn’t win against Odin’s pestering and ended up explaining what happened at the time.

“You idiot! If you got caught, you should have dealt with him right there and then!”

“I was going to do that! But then, that guy…”

.

“Ms. Yuri? Ms. Yuri’s friend? The white bird?”

Right then, shortly after locking eyes with Siren, a string of unorganized words began to pour out of the stunned man. But the name embedded in those words was enough to make Siren’s ears open.

“What? You know Arachne?”

“I was right? Then…is your name Siren?”

“Gasp. Wha, What the. Did Arachne tell you about me?”

Siren was surprised and withdrew her hand which was about to rip out Genos’ throat. Then a bright smile appeared on Genos’ face as if he was convinced of something.

At that time, Genos looked like he saw a vision of the future the moment he met Siren.

“Come in, Ms. Siren. On that day, you will be one Ms. Yuri needs.”

.

“…and then, the red-haired guy said that Arachne will be in danger during the praying ceremony.”

“Why did you never mention something so important? If so, then we have to move alone, without Arachne.”

Yuri watched Odin and Siren argue from the side, then she spoke up.

“Won’t it be fine? Based on what he said, Siren will be able to help me so it should be fine if we move together.”

“M-Maybe that’s it?”

A slight look of triumph graced Siren’s face again. Naturally, Odin’s face crumpled when he saw that.

“I still can’t agree. Hey, gum sticker. How exactly are you going to help Arachne?”

“I, I don’t know that either but…but I will definitely do my best, Arachne!”

Siren was fired up with the passion that she will protect Arachne with her own two hands. Odin looked at her like she was pathetic from the side, but she didn’t even notice.

Since it was late, they decided to stop for now and meet up again tomorrow to discuss, then the three of them separated.

* * *

“See you tomorrow then, Arachne!”

When they arrived in front of Anne-Marie’s house, Odin said goodbye to Yuri in a natural manner.

Odin’s internal injuries were still not fully healed, plus he wanted to know more about Anne-Marie’s healing ability, so he was calling himself a patient.

“Sure. Also, Ms. Anne-Marie looked really startled by what happened today, so please try to comfort her.”

“Don’t worry, I…”

Then the two of them sensed someone approaching and stopped walking.

“Ms. Yuri.”

Lakis appeared from the alley.