Chapter 38
Chapter 38
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: The Successful Subject
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Haon turned to look somewhere, her face hardening.
The faint flow of mana she could just barely sense.
A rough, ominous energy carried on the wind.
*This is…*
Suddenly, a small explosion rang out from the direction Haon was staring.
It had happened far away, but Haon's eyes trembled minutely.
This wasn't just any explosion; it was a mana explosion.
* * *
Sitting in her fourth-floor lab, Haon stared grimly at the analysis results.
The mana explosion had occurred at the docks, and when she arrived, Cue had been in a rage.
It seemed Cue's smuggling ship had been completely blown up along with the pier.
The thick fog had allowed her to secretly inspect the wreckage before the Heroes arrived, but the traces of mana had already faded.
Still, she had learned something.
The structure of the mana that had temporarily flowed through Checker's body was the same as the mana left in the explosion's debris.
*It can't be a coincidence.*
Lost in thought, Haon decided to pull out some records she had tucked away and forgotten.
"Blue. Display all the research records on forced Awakening."
[Displaying the forced Awakening research records, sorted by date!]
"No. Don't sort them by date. Show them exactly as 'Eun Haon' had them categorized."
[Understood. Reorganizing according to the original categorization.]
With a few flaps of Blue's wings, the documents on the screen rearranged themselves.
Haon focused on the records, her eyes darting across the screen.
*This formula is a failure. This one is far from complete. Not this one. Not this one, either.*
She could determine the success or failure of an experiment with just a quick scan.
*This one… no. This is no better than a gamble. What in the world?*
After staring at the screen for a long time, Haon pressed the corners of her eyes and sighed.
*Is this a forced Awakening that happened separately from 'Eun Haon's' experiments?*
*Or does Checker just have a constitution with few side effects, even after a failed forced Awakening?*
Haon pushed the documents in front back, swapping their positions with the ones behind them.
*Let's look at the environment, not the results. The things that were necessary but unrelated to the formulas.*
As she scanned until her eyes ached, a set of numbers caught her attention.
"Huh?"
A strange sense of déjà vu made her examine the document slowly.
It was a list of investment funds 'Eun Haon' had received for her Awakening Sphere research.
*I've definitely seen these numbers before. Even the order is the same. Where did I see this?*
As she arranged the numbers she'd recently seen in her head like a game of Tetris, she flinched at a name that suddenly came to mind.
"B-Blue. Show me the list of commission fees."
Checking the displayed document, Haon shot up so fast her chair tipped over.
The investment funds for the Awakening Sphere research matched Halo's commission fees exactly.
* * *
"You actually contacted me first. What's the occasion?"
Nova, who had crossed the first-floor café to sit opposite her, smiled brightly, but he looked displeased.
"After we spent the night together, you just tossed me a glove, then ignored my calls, refused to see me, and didn't even stay at the lab."
"W-What are you talking about!"
Hearing his highly misleading words, Haon thought it was a good thing she'd sent Bani home early.
"It's not like that, I've just been busy. You said you were busy too, Nova."
"I made time for you even though I was busy, but you didn't answer once. Don't make me seriously consider killing you."
"...A-Actually, I called you because I have something to ask."
One of Nova's eyebrows arched upward.
"Right. I didn't think you called me for a date."
Haon had called Nova because of their inscrutable connection, but even with him sitting in front of her, she wasn't sure if it was the right choice.
She had assumed that since 'Eun Haon' loved Nova, she had simply taken a commission from Halo, but she was completely wrong.
"Nova. What was the relationship between 'Eun Haon' and Halo?"
"I didn't expect to hear that name here. What will you give me this time?"
"...You don't know, do you?"
His reaction confirmed it for Haon. He really knew nothing about 'Eun Haon'.
Nova just kept smiling pleasantly, making her wonder if her guess was wrong.
Haon decided to change the question.
"Do you happen to know anything about forced Awakening, or the explosion at the docks today?"
At that, Nova stared at Haon with a peculiar gaze.
"You seem clueless at times, but you have a sharp side to you."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm an Awakened who succeeded in a forced Awakening."
"...!"
A tremendous shock shot through Haon's mind.
The fact that he had succeeded in a forced Awakening—which had an abysmal success rate—without any side effects was astonishing, but the main reason for her shock was something else entirely.
'Eun Haon's' forced Awakening experiments were all designed to end in failure, no matter how you looked at them.
However, if she had a genetic sample from someone who had successfully undergone a forced Awakening, that was a different story.
She wouldn't have known the specifics of mana, so the probability would still be extremely low, but if some coincidence were added to the mix...
Haon tried to remain calm and asked in a trembling voice.
"Did 'Eun Haon' know about that?"
"She did."
"Did 'Eun Haon' ever take your hair or blood?"
"I received something quite nice in return."
"H-How many times..."
"Let's see. Was it five times?"
"..."
Haon returned to the very first mystery she had encountered after falling into this dimension.
*Why did 'Eun Haon' die, and what did the killer steal from the penthouse?*
The scene of finding the body when she first arrived replayed in her mind from various angles.
*'Eun Haon's' cause of death was a gunshot wound that pierced her forehead. There were no other injuries.*
*She wasn't shot during a fight. It must have happened suddenly.*
There were no signs of a struggle, and the lab's laser guns hadn't been deployed for defense.
*The killer was someone she knew well.*
Not just an acquaintance, but someone she never thought would kill her.
She had collapsed near the door, and the nearby desk wasn't in disarray.
*After killing 'Eun Haon', they didn't search the lab.*
Instead, it was the penthouse that had been messily ransacked.
*The killer knew where to find what they were looking for.*
Or they were certain it wasn't in the lab.
Recalling that 'Eun Haon' had been quite thorough with her security, Haon came up with a hypothesis.
What if she kept her most important data not in the lab, but in the penthouse?
And what if that data was about the successful results of her forced Awakening research?
Having finished her speculation in an instant, Haon looked up.
"Does anyone else know that you're a forced Awakened, Nova?"
"I'm not the type to go around bragging about it, but I'm sure most people have their suspicions."
From his vague answer, it seemed he didn't know if 'Eun Haon' had told anyone.
"But were there no side effects?"
"Hmm. My hair and eyes changed color after Awakening. I suppose you could call that a side effect?"
Haon nodded. The last question had been one of personal and academic curiosity.
"Darling."
"Yes?"
"That was quite the interrogation. Surely you're not going to send me away empty-handed?"
"Ah..."
Faced with his expectant gaze, Haon broke into a cold sweat. A few hours later, she returned from her workshop with a white garment.
Nova spoke, his expression full of dissatisfaction.
"...Darling. You made me wait this long... Are you teasing me?"
"Of course not."
Haon's eyes went wide.
Seeing not a hint of playfulness in her face, Nova asked reluctantly.
"Aren't gifts supposed to be made with the recipient in mind?"
"I did consider you when I made it."
"In what way?"
"You're pretty, Nova, so I thought this kind of outfit would suit you well."
Haon held the garment in both hands and confidently spread it open. The white, áo dài-like outfit had a very faint checkered pattern woven with silver thread.
Considering she always wore plaid shirts, it seemed to be Haon's personal preference.
Nova immediately recognized that the outfit before him was made of the same material as the glove she had given him.
That meant this, too, was something he couldn't get anywhere else.
"Of course it'll suit me. Like you said, I'm pretty."
But he was starting to get annoyed with Haon, who called him pretty but wouldn't cross the line even an inch.
"Do you really think I'm pretty? When you see someone so beautiful it takes your breath away, don't you normally want to do anything for them?"
"You really are pretty, Nova. The prettiest person I've ever seen."