I was in the best mood I'd been in lately, thanks to thoroughly enjoying the greenhouse and taking a long nap. The fact that I could have dinner with Theo made it even more perfect.
As usual, Theo cut my steak into small pieces and handed the plate back to me, subtly asking,
"Shuian, I was wondering..."
"Hmm?"
"Actually, I wanted to throw you a surprise party, so I asked Orca to secretly find out your birthday, but it wasn't easy. Could you tell me when your birthday is?"
Birthday? Come to think of it, when I was making Theo's gift with Orca and made a pen out of my feathers as a belated birthday present, he was so happy and asked me to tell him my birthday so he could repay me, but I brushed it off.
He seemed disappointed but accepted it, but from a few days later, he kept asking me about my birthday persistently, to the point where it felt unnatural. I wondered why, but it seemed like Theo had asked him to.
There wasn't any particular reason why I didn't tell Orca my birthday. It's just that I didn't know it myself. Telling him my birthday as a human felt like a lie and made me uneasy, and telling him my birthday as a divine beast was impossible because I didn't know it.
Even though he hadn't been treated well and never properly celebrated it, Prince Theo's birthday was recorded, but mine wasn't. Even if I borrowed a book related to me from the temple, I doubted it would contain such personal information as my birthday. The only way was to ask my family, who knew me well.
Family... The word suddenly stirred my heart, but I didn't show it and answered honestly. Of course, I added a little lie because he might think it was strange.
"It's not that I didn't want to tell you, it's just that I don't know my birthday. I never really celebrated it."
Theo seemed troubled by my answer and pondered for a moment before asking again.
"Then, if it's okay with you, how about we decide on a birthday? Just like you want to celebrate my birthday, I want to celebrate yours too. But if you don't want to, we don't have to force it."
"No, I think it's a good idea. I'd be even happier if you celebrated it for me."
It wasn't that I was looking forward to the gift Theo would give me, but I would be happy just knowing that he was thinking of me and preparing something. So, when should we set the date... The day we first met would be nice too... While I was thinking, a good idea suddenly came to me.
"Ah, then let's make it Theo's birthday."
"My birthday? Why?"
"Then we can have a real birthday party just for the two of us on that day. The gift is a surprise, but it would be fun to make a cake together every birthday. Who knows? Maybe in a few years, we'll be able to complete a fancy three-tiered cake with our eyes closed."
Of course, given our skills, that wouldn't happen, and we'd probably fill a three-tiered basin with the tears of hardship that Eden sheds. Anyway, Theo seemed to like my suggestion and nodded with a smile.
"Okay, let's do that. You always have great ideas, Shuian."
"Really?"
"Everything you do makes me happy, so I'm worried I'll become spoiled."
His jest made me laugh. I was already looking forward to next year's birthday.
While we were eating, I suddenly had a thought and asked,
"By the way, what happened to that demonic beast we saw during the subjugation? The one that looked like a person."
"The imperial mages are studying it, but Orca has been nagging them to death, so I think we'll have the results by tomorrow."
"What happens after the results come out?"
"I'll know for sure when I see the results, but if it's really the work of a black magician, it will be reported to His Majesty the Emperor. It's something that a prince can't handle. Besides, we need to investigate whether the black magicians only touched this rift or if there are other deals with the Erebus priests."
"I see..."
I suddenly recalled how I felt when I encountered that grotesque intermediate monster. The more magical energy it had, the stronger my anger or disgust would be, but when I saw that monster, I only felt the energy similar to that of a low-level monster.
I felt strangeness because of its bizarre shape and movements, but my disgust was less than that of other monsters, which was very strange.
"If the results come out, can I go with you?"
"I don't mind, but why? Don't you hate monsters?"
"I do... but something just feels strange."
Theo readily agreed, but I still felt uneasy. Theo and Orca didn't express it directly, but they seemed to have an expected outcome, and I thought my guess wouldn't be much different from theirs.
I really hope my hunch is wrong this time...
***
As Theo expected, the mages' investigation was completed the next day, so we decided to visit the lab to check the results. Orca and Liam, who would soon be sharing his work, were with us. Liam was frozen stiff at the mention of seeing the strange monster from the subjugation.
I had been interacting only with Theo and Orca, so I had forgotten, but it was normal for ordinary people to react like Liam. It wasn't just a monster, but a demonic beast.
"Will you wait outside?"
"Ah, no... It's my job now... I'll go in too!"
Orca, unable to watch any longer, asked, but Liam answered bravely. Well, he wouldn't faint this time, would he? It wasn't like he was seeing a living monster.
When we arrived at the lab, someone was already waiting for us. The man, who introduced himself as Jack Winheil, tried to act calm, but he kept glancing at me, as if he had a lot of questions. I'm glad I wore a hood... I tried to ignore his curious gaze and walked inside, sticking close to Theo, following his guidance.
I had imagined that a mage's lab would have books flying around, all sorts of magic circles drawn on the walls, and flasks filled with unknown drugs. There were flasks filled with colorful liquids, but the rest looked like an ordinary lab. Seeing the mages exhausted, they even looked human.
"I... I apologize for the mess inside. We've been so busy lately that we haven't had time to clean..."
Theo nodded casually at the awkward excuse. Jack looked relieved that Theo didn't say anything and led us further inside.
As soon as we went inside, the first thing we saw was the intermediate monster (demonic beast) we had seen during the subjugation. Liam, his face pale, hid behind Orca as soon as he saw the monster in a huge glass cylinder filled with liquid. His larger frame wouldn't be hidden by Orca's, but it was good if it made him feel better.
"First of all, even with the naked eye, we could see unnatural connections and artificial compounds, so we speculated that it was a chimera. After examining it, it turned out to be a chimera as expected."
Chimera was a general term for artificial organisms created by black magicians through experiments. They were obsessed with the study and experimentation of demonic energy, and they often conducted experiments to create new creatures by combining monsters and demonic beasts, or demonic beasts and animals. In other words, a chimera was a successful result of that experiment.
"Unlike the chimeras we've found so far, the rate at which the demonic energy condensed inside the monster's corpse decomposed and the rate at which the corpse decayed were unusually fast, which was questionable... But if we make one assumption, we can get a better idea."
At Jack's explanation, Theo sighed and said,
"Human experimentation?"
In the end, everyone's expectations were correct. I wished my hunch was wrong this time... The reason why I felt less repulsion towards that intermediate monster was because it was half human. Even if I had a repulsion to humans, it wouldn't be more than to monsters.
"...Yes, if it's a chimera that combines an intermediate demonic beast and a human, then its shape, rapid collapse, and high intelligence, such as acting cunningly for an intermediate demonic beast, can be explained to some extent. However... we couldn't find the reason why the other monsters acted as if they were protecting this chimera, as the Second Prince mentioned. As I said, the corpse is decaying too quickly, so it seems difficult to find out anything more. The special liquid and magic are barely preventing the corpse from completely collapsing."
As I said, experiments on monsters and demonic beasts, or animals, were frequent, but experiments on humans were rare. Demonic energy itself was deadly to living beings, especially humans who were close to divinity, so they had to repeat many failures, and there was no choice but to have problems with the supply of materials.
Therefore, black magicians tried human experiments many times, but most of them failed or ended inconclusively. It was not a scale of research that individual black magicians could carry out.
Even if they tried to conduct joint research by gathering their minds, most of them were eccentric and didn't even know where each other lived, so cooperation itself was difficult.
But this human experiment was eventually successful, which meant that there was a center that could unite the extremely individualistic black magicians. Judging from the circumstances so far, it was likely to be the Erebus Order.
With the collusion between black magicians and the temple and the addition of human experimentation, it was not a problem that could be solved at the prince level, as Theo said. Theo sighed, rubbed his wrinkled forehead, and said to Orca.
"Write a report first. I think I should report it to His Majesty."
"I understand."
Human experimentation... Human experimentation... Orca patted Liam, who was muttering as if in a panic, on the shoulder a few times and asked Theo.
"It was strange from the moment the priests of the Erebus Order started moving... In the end, something happened. Does His Majesty know about this?"
"Probably. It's unlikely that what we saw was the first successful work. Even though the collapse was faster after he died, we didn't feel anything strange when he was alive."
Compared to other intermediate monsters, its durability was low, but its attack power, speed, and intelligence were rather high. The low durability was more accurately seen as a characteristic of the human body rather than a side effect of the experiment.
"The black magicians want to create a better organism by combining it with other species, but the fact that they created something that moves properly by combining humans and demonic beasts is close to a complete success. That means there have been many failures before. Those many failures may have appeared in other subjugations. So it would be strange if he didn't know. Anyway, it doesn't seem like something I can handle."
Orca swallowed a sigh. Just when they thought the demon beast subjugation was over and felt relieved, a huge bomb had been dropped.
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