After leaving Rhodes Island, Wang Fei had to put in a great deal of effort to persuade Luna, or Blaze, not to follow him to Lungmen.
Since her original goal was to find him, whom she thought was dead, and that goal was now achieved, she was sad about having to leave Rhodes Island because she really liked the people there and Amiya.
When Wang Fei heard that, he quickly offered her a new option: he would also come to work at Rhodes Island and move here as well. Now that he was Infected, he needed to rest and receive treatment here just like everyone else. This way, not only would she not have to lose her job, but Amiya also wouldn't be sad about losing a good employee like her. It was a win-win for both sides.
Blaze was overjoyed to hear that he would be staying at Rhodes Island too. She excitedly asked Amiya if she could be the one to choose his bedroom. Amiya replied that they had already selected a room for him, but she could move Blaze's room to be next to his. Hearing this, Blaze immediately agreed and decided to continue working at Rhodes Island.
The person who expressed the most concern upon hearing this was Ch'en Huijie. She had sensed from the first time she saw her that this woman was likely the greatest danger to her younger brother. The thought of the two of them living next to each other twenty-four hours a day (an exaggeration on her part) made her waste no time in speaking privately with Amiya. She brought up the new alliance between Lungmen and Rhodes Island and said she wanted to send some personnel here to look after her younger brother and to monitor the agreement between the two organizations. Therefore, she also needed rooms for them right next to her brother's... of course, she meant the rooms on both the left and right side of his.
This made Blaze, who overheard, immediately show her disapproval, arguing that she had come up with the idea first. But Ch'en retorted that she had the right... because she was his older sister, and they were also from the same agency. What was so strange about people from the same unit staying close to each other?
Hearing this, Blaze had no choice but to grit her teeth and finally accept it.
One of the people Ch'en wanted to send was herself, along with two other colleagues. Of course, she was more than willing to fully cooperate in frontline operations....
Amiya, hearing this, couldn't agree to it on her own, as she needed to consult with Doctor Kal'tsit first. Even though Amiya was the head of Rhodes Island, most of the decision-making power still rested with Doctor Kal'tsit. It would probably be after the Chernobog operation was over before she could give Ch'en an answer.
Although Ch'en was not very pleased to hear that woman's name, when Amiya promised to do her best to negotiate the agreement, she finally accepted. She then said she had many matters to attend to in Lungmen as well, and after she finished, she would immediately head to Chernobog. She hoped that when they met, she would receive a satisfactory answer.
After that, both Wang Fei and his sister left Rhodes Island in the private car they had driven, with Blaze and Amiya waving from afar until they were out of sight.
On the way, Wang Fei turned to ask his sister.
"Sis... while I was unconscious, did you talk to Doctor Kal'tsit about anything?"
"Hmm? Oh... that," Ch'en, who was driving, glanced at him briefly before nodding silently.
"Yes... we talked. You want to know?" Ch'en asked before turning her attention back to the road.
"Just a little. I saw that neither of you looked well when I woke up... but if you don't want to tell me, it's okay," Wang Fei replied, pretending not to be curious.
But in reality, he was dying to know.
The reason Wang Fei was so curious wasn't anything complicated. He was just afraid that the news about his brain infection and having less than three years to live had reached her. But looking at his sister's face, which showed no particular reaction after hearing his question, Wang Fei felt a secret sense of relief. It seemed she didn't know about it yet.
"..." After hearing his question, Ch'en was silent for a moment before replying.
"We just talked about my father."
'Her father... if I remember correctly, Doctor Kal'tsit did mention him as a parting shot to my sister.'
"Mr. William, right? Is he doing well? I haven't seen him send a letter to us in almost a year. Don't tell me he's busy chasing girls at Rhodes Island and giving Doctor Kal'tsit a headache."
Wang Fei said it jokingly. Although he had never met his sister's father in person, the two of them had exchanged letters several times, so they knew each other's general personality. Mr. William was a man with a way with words and was quite the flirt. The number of handwritten letters he sent to girls all over Victoria probably outnumbered the pile of documents on his sister's desk on her day off. He had also seen the hundreds of letters that man had sent to his sister.
Wang Fei admitted that at first, he disliked the man quite a lot for never once visiting his sister. Plus, with his flirtatious nature and the fact that he was already engaged before his sister was even born, it made Wang Fei think he had no interest in his sister at all, seeing her as an unintentional child.
That's what Wang Fei initially thought of the man.
But after reading the many letters sent to his sister, and after corresponding with him via letters for nearly ten years, he came to realize that the man truly saw his sister as his daughter. He had even invited his sister to live with him in Victoria after she graduated from there. It seemed that during the three years his sister studied in Victoria, the two of them became quite close. But his sister had refused the offer because she preferred Lungmen and had told him that when she was free, she would take him to visit her father. Unfortunately, the Londinium incident happened before they could.
Wang Fei also learned vaguely from the old man (Wei) why he couldn't travel to Lungmen. This made his initial displeasure turn into sympathy and pity for the man.
Wang Fei thought that his sister going to study in Victoria would allow her to meet Mr. William and strengthen their father-daughter relationship. Since Mr. William also worked as a police officer in Londinium, the two should get along well due to their similar lines of work.
"..." When Ch'en heard his question, her face showed no emotion at all, but Wang Fei noticed his sister's wrist, gripping the steering wheel, was trembling slightly.
"He's dead..."
"..." Wang Fei's smile froze before it turned into panic.
"Dead? Y-you mean Mr. William?"
Ch'en nodded before speaking.
"Half a year ago, during the chaos in Londinium, he was at the rear of the procession, leading his family and other evacuees to escape. At that time, a troop of Sarkaz mercenaries intercepted them."
"To buy time for the others to escape, that man went to stop them all by himself and died in the line of duty... That's all that woman told me."
"Don't tell me Luna's incident—"
Wang Fei, thinking about the case of Luna, his childhood friend who was rescued from Victoria around the same time, thought it might be the same incident.
But his sister shook her head, denying it.
"Although the timing was similar, it was a different location... That woman was lucky that Rhodes Island was able to intervene in time. But for that man... from what I heard, by the time Rhodes Island arrived, it seemed one of the evacuees was a traitor. It led to losses from internal fighting."
"Less than half of them survived that incident."
"..." Wang Fei felt both confused and heartbroken. He was so stunned he couldn't speak, but he still couldn't help but ask.
"A-and Mr. William's family?" Wang Fei asked with concern.
"They're safe. They're currently working at Rhodes Island. I met them earlier. Tomorrow, when I drop you off, I'll introduce you," Ch'en turned to smile at Wang Fei, but it was a smile different from any he had ever seen.
"I'm so sorry," Wang Fei said, genuinely feeling it. Ch'en understood, so she just nodded at him and said nothing more.
"..." "..."
After that, neither of them spoke again. Wang Fei didn't even dare to try and comfort his sister, knowing that saying anything now would only deepen her emotional wounds.
It wasn't until the car stopped at a red light that Ch'en spoke up, breaking the silence.
"Fei Fei, can you promise me one thing?"
Ch'en turned to her younger brother with a terrifyingly serious expression.
"Promise me that when you go on the operation in Chernobog, you won't do anything stupid, like putting yourself in danger."
"Please, promise me this."
'...She must be afraid of losing another family member.' 'But there's no need to worry about that. I'm the type who cherishes his own life!'
So, Wang Fei didn't hesitate to reply to his sister with confidence.
"I promise."
"..." Ch'en nodded with a smile, though her anxiety about him hadn't completely disappeared. But seeing him make that promise was enough to make her feel a little better.
At least it could make her escape from the image that woman had shown her, even if just for a second...
Ch'en thought back to earlier, after her younger brother had collapsed.
She had stormed in to confront that woman, grabbing her by the collar, demanding to know what she, Kal'tsit, had done to her brother's body.
Instead of answering her question... that woman had offered to take her to a certain place, a place that was a secret to all staff, a place that only a few high-ranking personnel had the right to know about.
Even Amiya didn't know about that place.
She didn't know why she had the right to go there, so she asked. The woman only said it was because of her father that she had the right, before saying nothing more.
Before she could even ask about what that old man had to do with this place, the woman led her into an elevator that took her underground, outside of Rhodes Island.
This stunned Ch'en, to learn that there was an underground level so close to the mobile city district of Lungmen. She asked if this place was built by the people of Rhodes Island, and if so, what was their purpose in doing this.
The woman looked at her with contempt before replying that this place was built before Lungmen even existed... and she added that this wasn't the only one on Terra, that there were dozens more such places all over the world, all built by the same person.
Hearing that, Ch'en could hardly believe it. To have so many such places on Terra was not something just anyone could do. Even the mighty King of Victoria or the wealthy Emperor of Ursus couldn't create even a fraction of a place like this. But what stunned her even more was what she saw after arriving at that place.
The sight of a place as vast as a small city. There were countless pieces of machinery and glass test tubes, stretching as far as the eye could see, as if from a sci-fi movie. But those things didn't surprise her as much as the fact that the place contained numerous clear glass tubes filled with green liquid, with real human bodies floating motionless inside!!
Those bodies were just lifeless corpses, she was sure. Because next to those tubes, there was some kind of device similar to a pulse monitor, and there weren't just two or three tubes containing human bodies... there were countless others, too many to count by sight. Every machine had a life-sign indicator, and they all showed only one signal: no life signs, indicating that those bodies were already dead.
At that time, she was so shocked, thinking this was a laboratory for this woman. She became furious and drew Ch'ixiao to strike at her without a second thought.
But suddenly, a strange black demon emerged from the woman's spine, blocking her sword. The woman told her to calm down, saying that those tubes were not her doing but were just containers for expired vessels, for the one who created them.
Of course, she didn't believe it then and argued back.
"A flimsy excuse! What nonsense about vessels... those are clearly human bodies!!"
"Oh... then why don't you take a closer look at those bodies? Don't you think they look a little familiar to you?"
The woman's indifferent, taunting words made Ch'en come to a realization. As she turned back to look at the bodies in the test tubes she had seen before, suddenly, when she saw the face of the motionless body inside—not just one, but all of them! Her eyes flew wide open in utter shock.
"No... impossible... impossible!!"
She didn't know how many times she had shouted those words then.
But the shock turned into endless terror. She had never felt such despair before. The Ch'ixiao she held in her hand fell to the floor, and her body collapsed from the shock of what she saw.
The woman watched her actions with indifference, as if she had seen such a scene countless times. She merely glanced at the tubes with a complex expression before saying something she didn't understand.
"But you're half right... this place was not originally built to store vessels."
"Because the first thing that person was interested in creating was a Sarcophagus."
The woman turned back before starting to ask her a question.
"I have a question that might be a little difficult for you to answer."
"But... when the time comes that that man becomes something you no longer recognize, and is ready to destroy everything he sees."
"Will you... have the courage to stop him with your own hands?" After finishing, the woman held out a crystal knife engraved with strange characters in front of her.
"If you dare to answer that question, it means you have the right to know about this, and I will be happy to tell you everything."
"But if you don't dare... then consider all of this to have never happened."
"What will you choose, little one?"
With a face both emotionless and indifferent, those words were like the whisper of a demon, coming from the mouth of a woman who seemed as cold as if she weren't human. Amidst the countless glass tubes containing thousands of dead human bodies, the woman's voice was the only sound that echoed in that place, without any response.
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