[No Title Provided]
A fishy blood scent. A chilling touch. The icy sensation freezing her spine dragged Celine's deeply slumbering consciousness back to the surface.
"......W-where is this?"
Her foggy, mist-shrouded vision gradually cleared over time, allowing her to finally take in her surroundings. Only then did Celine grasp her dire predicament.
A vast room with damp, hard stone walls. In its center, she lay abandoned in a small iron cage like some monkey in a zoo.
Clink, clink—
Her limbs wouldn't move as she willed. Looking down, she saw handcuff-like restraints on her wrists and her ankles bound tight with rope, rendering escape impossible.
"Ugh...... damn bastards. You! Do you even know who I am!? Untie me right now!"
Realizing she'd been kidnapped, Celine immediately started screaming and thrashing about. She tried channeling mana to shatter the cage, but whatever trick those handcuffs had woven scattered her gathering mana every time, foiling her spells.
Unfortunately, her physical strength was below average. Judging that neither brute force nor magic would free her, she resorted to threats, leveraging her status as the duke's daughter.
"You've messed with the wrong person! Once they find out you kidnapped me, you're all finished! You think my dad will let you off?!"
After shrieking in her shrill voice for several minutes, the door creaked open, and someone entered.
"Threatening us even in this situation. Should I call it bold or just stupid......"
A deep, masculine voice. The middle-aged man in a neatly draped black robe had a surprisingly youthful face—like a kindly thirties teacher from the countryside. Had it not been for this filthy, repulsive place, Celine's impression of him might not have been so bad.
"You? You're the one who had me brought here?"
"Indeed. I urged them to fetch you posthaste. I admit the process was a bit rough...... but it's for the greater cause, so please bear with it, my lady."
"What bullshit......"
The one who farts gets mad—that saying fit perfectly. Kidnapping an innocent person and then asking her to endure it? What nonsense was this?
"Wait. You know I'm a duke's daughter? And you still kidnapped me?"
No sane person would plot to abduct a duke's daughter—especially one from a family basking in the emperor's favor, with a high-ranking archmage as her father. Only suicidal maniacs shouting "We wanna die early!" would dare such a thing.
Besides, the duke's doting on his daughter was infamous. If word of her kidnapping reached him, the catastrophe that followed would be beyond imagination.
"It'll cost us a bit, but you're that important to us, my lady. Surely you can tolerate a little discomfort."
Something in the man's nonchalant tone unsettled Celine—not mere physical inconvenience or strange drugs, but a profound revulsion. A distance, a disgust, like something inhuman pretending to be human wafted from him.
Outwardly so ordinary, even kindly, yet harboring a monstrous madness that viewed humans not as people.
"How else could we have snatched you so easily? We'll get all the info on you in time—we have plenty."
"......Right, that traitor bastard!"
Her last memory flashed: the scum who'd infiltrated the duke's estate posing as a guard. Grinding her teeth, Celine seethed.
"Oh dear. Our precious test subject—don't strain yourself too much. Your body is a valuable resource; we don't want it damaged prematurely."
"What? Me...... a test subject?"
"Yes. A test subject. Take a look around—what do you think this place is?"
Glancing about at his words, Celine felt chills erupt down her spine.
The room looked ripped from an alchemy or herbology class—littered with experiment tools, the air thick with blood and chemical stench assaulting her nose. And around her cage stood countless others of varying sizes.
Their common thread: the horrific state of whatever was inside.
Cages held animals, humans, even monsters. Some lay motionless, long dead; others rasped faintly, clinging to life by a thread.
Her eyes locked on one in particular, and the reason hit her—
"......A chimera?"
"Ho? Sharper eyes than expected."
It resembled the chimera she'd glimpsed with Mars during that prior incident—different in appearance, but the artificial vibe felt eerily familiar.
"The prototype of the Behemoth you defeated, my lady. A failure, as you see, but it yielded plenty of useful data."
"Proto......type?"
Unlike the bull-chimera that had charged murderously at them, this one lay meek as a dead rat—yet it emanated a human-like aura, just like her.
"You've probably guessed: we're researching chimeras. The Behemoth you felled was my creation. Pleased to meet you."
"Eat shit."
"Mm. Quite the foul mouth. If that temper persists post-transformation, it'll be a problem."
"......Post-what?"
Those words she couldn't ignore made Celine's shoulders stiffen.
"Still haven't figured it out? We kidnapped you to make a chimera—one transcending human and monster, utterly unprecedented."
"You psycho bastard......"
"Curious why you, I suppose...... Well, in our research, we discovered something key: the higher the magical talent of the human base, the stronger and smarter the resulting chimera."
"......What?"
"The Behemoth you fought was a promising mage—didn't quite excel, but graduated academy decently. That prototype there? A rural kid freshly awakened to mana."
Chimeras fused human and monster. Normally, the monster's instincts overwhelmed the human mind, leaving a bestial monster. But mages awakened to mana? Their mana harmonized the psyches during fusion, boosting success rates dramatically.
They'd experimented only on mediocre mages so far. But a prodigy like her as the base?
The man spoke of birthing a monster surpassing all prior subjects—his eyes pure, devoid of malice or killing intent, only fervor. Terror gnawed at Celine.
He's insane! Out of his mind!
Realizing reason wouldn't reach him, fear gripped her, and she thrashed wildly.
"Don't make me laugh! Release me now! If you don't, none of you will see a good end!!"
"Calm yourself. This is for 'Him'; it's a blessing for you too. Accept your fate quietly, and there'll be no pain—"
Ptoo!
Splat.
Fueled by rage and humiliation, the lady spat at him. An act she'd never stoop to normally, despite her bratty side—but the horror of becoming his chimera triggered it instinctively.
Regrettably, for all his kindly face, the man's patience was thin.
"Hmph...... I planned personality training post-transformation, but we'll advance the schedule."
He yanked her from the cage—
Crack!
"KyaAAAAAAAAAAH!! It huuuurts!! HURTS SO MUCHHHHHH!!"
"Chimeras gain rapid regeneration; wounds like this heal in no time."
Indifferently, he lifted his foot and crunched her shin. For a lady whose worst pain was a childhood scrape from a fall, shattered bone was consciousness-shattering agony.
"So noisy."
Thud!
"Keurk!!"
Unable to bear her screams, he booted her chest hard. Air exploded from her lungs; Celine could only choke, tears and snot streaming.
Jealousy and envy were child's play. Exposed to genuine killing intent, she tasted death for the first time—legs going limp.
"S-sorry...... please spare me...... p-please, have mercy......"
"Tch. Breaking already? Should've used force sooner—wasted time."
Urine trickled as she writhed in pain; the man chuckled gleefully. Irked by the haughty test subject lording her status, he decided to vent his lab frustrations by toying with her more.
"Spare me...... it huuurts...... s-someone...... anyone, help meee......"
His hand reached for her trembling, delicate limbs, intent on snapping them—
"Elder!"
"Tch. What is it."
His fun interrupted by the subordinate's call, the elder-turned man clicked his tongue and turned.
"If this is nothing, the next test subject will be—"
"I-intruder!"
"Intruder?"
An intruder causing this much fuss? Sensing something off, the elder demanded details from his panting underling.
"W-well...... the ground traps and guards are all breached, even the elite reserves fell! Wields a sword—Master level, at least!"
"How did they find this place...... Steady yourself. Panicking over mere intruders? Even a Master can't budge once I—"
"Not intruders!"
"What—"
"There's...... only one!"
BOOM!Crunch!
Lightning from the earth—a massive roar as the lab's iron door blasted inward. The subordinate in its path was hurled like a ragdoll, splattered against the wall.
"......Who are you."
The door's speed left no reaction time; the elder instantly knew the intruder was no ordinary foe. Any closer, and it'd have smashed his face. The figure responsible stepped into view.
"Me?"
Celine, rolling on the floor amid tears and snot from the elder's torture, stared blankly at the sudden reversal.
"Our lady's love consultant."
At her savior's arrival, she simply wept quietly.