"The Ifrit Project is just one of Rhine Lab's various shelved projects that has been brought to light. Before we joined Rhine Lab, research concerning gods had already begun."
With a mix of shyness and relief, Saria maintained the same demeanor she had while "flirting" with Silence and Goki, her lips subtly moving as she spoke these serious words.
From her hand, several streams of silvery-white mist rapidly enveloped various parts of the room.
None of the three people present were Great Masters of engineering, but Silence had studied drones and understood a bit about electronics.
Saria could control calcium elements, and under Silence's guidance, a slight use of Originium Arts could fill any listening devices with static.
This kind of surveillance had existed for a long time, but recently, it had become a bit more aggressive.
"Do we really have to call those things 'Gods'? I don't think an existence that arbitrarily alters our consciousness, makes us see terrifying illusions, and even causes Ifrit pain can be called a God."
Silence adjusted her glasses, her cheeks still slightly flushed, but her words were full of disdain.
"And... this is too idealistic; it doesn't feel scientific at all."
When Saria and Goki first mentioned the word "God" to her, Silence initially thought they had converted to some strange religion.
"Ha, just treat it as a codename. Even in legends, there are good Gods and evil Gods. We can only say that Ifrit encountered a bad guy."
Goki, on the other hand, looked unconcerned, slowly feeding apple slices to a bewildered Little Fire Dragon. The three of them didn't even need to avoid Ifrit while talking, because she didn't understand anything at all.
"And look at what you're saying, science is a methodology. Since it has been proven that there are existences in the world that can drag us all into illusions, and Madam Director has studied them for a long time, then we must use this as a basis to find a solution."
Now, the three adults present were all in the same boat—a boat named Ifrit.
Ever since that collective hallucination incident, the entire Structure Department had been silenced by Madam Director with non-disclosure agreements.
Involving experiments with "Gods," Madam Director did not allow the information to be widely disseminated. She simply brought in a new helper for the Structure Department and the Defense Department, stating that experimental safety would be strictly guaranteed.
"Energy Department, Muelsyse / Muir Sais is an absolute egoist. With her meddling, there might be more accidents."
Although the Ifrit Project was still ongoing, for those who cared for and loved Ifrit, this matter could not be simply dismissed.
Silence and Saria, two friends who had previously argued and fallen out, quickly reached a private agreement to jointly investigate the cause of this hallucination, determined not to allow such a crisis to befall Ifrit again.
Saria outwardly accepted Madam Director's invitation, showing curiosity about "Gods," and joined Madam Director's research.
Silence, meanwhile, continued her research on the Ifrit Project, further improving the inferno potion.
At least on the surface, both of them were diligently performing the work expected of researchers every day, appearing exceptionally busy.
But secretly, they both felt that Madam Director and Rhine Lab must be hiding more unspeakable secrets.
To this end, they split up: Silence conducted scientific explorations in the laboratory, while Saria searched outside the experiment for the truth hidden by Rhine Lab.
However, because both were key figures in the Ifrit Project, their actions within Rhine Lab always attracted too much attention.
Madam Director was not so easily fooled. After explaining her years of research projects to all the department heads at a meeting, she immediately secretly intensified surveillance of these department leaders—the Defense Department was merely a security System existing on the surface.
Even the future Rhodes Island has cleanup agencies like the SWEEP team, so it's not surprising that Rhine Lab, a research enterprise, has a covert department.
Therefore, whether it was Silence, as the leader of the Ifrit Project, or Saria, as the Head of the Defense Department, both were more or less subjected to surveillance and eavesdropping.
Thus, they needed someone discreet, well-liked, reliable, trustworthy, willing to stake their future on pursuing the truth, and who also cared for Ifrit, to help them carry out tasks that they themselves could not complete.
And so... they found Goki.
Goki gladly accepted the task—to be honest, holding back from telling them more about the Gods, and only hinting indirectly, was indeed a somewhat difficult job.
However, this also gave Goki an even better opportunity to delve deeper into Rhine Lab and search for his prey.
More importantly, he also didn't want anything to happen to Ifrit.
In this way, the three formed an alliance, fighting for Ifrit's health and future.
"To make a long story short, Silence, didn't you ask Ptilopsis to retrieve Parvis's and Madam Director's experimental records from before the Ifrit Project? The result is that only a small amount of content with detailed records exists, and the rest shows obvious signs of alteration."
Taking a deep breath, Saria quickly shared her investigation results with the other two.
"I then went to the archives to look for the experimental conditions of various Rhine Lab departments and Ifrit's 'treatment' records before joining the Ifrit Project, and found that parts of the content had been deleted."
At this point, the Vouivre / Wyvern lady could no longer hide the pretense on her face and couldn't help but clench her fists.
"Excessive concealment became their flaw. Connecting the three types of altered information, I found clear correlations—it's very clear that Ifrit was already a test subject of Rhine Lab before we were just ordinary researchers and joined the Ifrit Project."
All this information was deliberately deleted; if Saria hadn't carefully compared it this time, she might never have noticed these issues in her life.
"What—before the Ifrit Project, they were already experimenting on Ifrit? This is simply... insane."
The feathers on her forehead stood up in anger, and Silence was also exceptionally furious.
Silence conducted experiments on Ifrit because she believed the inferno potion could prevent oripathy patients from suffering due to their illness.
But now it seemed that if similar experiments had already begun, then Rhine Lab certainly didn't care whether this little infected person could be cured.
Even... Ifrit's Originium Arts, and even her oripathy, might be the evil consequences of Rhine Lab's experiments.
"Heaven knows what they did to Ifrit."
Holding Ifrit's small hand, Silence looked at her with a hint of apology.
Madam Director might possess foresight beyond ordinary people, and she wasn't as insane as Parvis, but clearly, she was still a cold and indifferent researcher—it was obviously difficult for such an iron-willed person to care about a little girl's health.
"Alright, alright, look how confused the child is. Don't say so much in front of Ifrit—Saria, tell me, what do you want me to do? You must have a plan."
Goki stroked Little Fire Dragon's head, smiling as he looked at Saria's silver hair, and the equally resolute and slightly angry orange eyes beneath it.
Goki knew that this Wyvern had her own ideas.
It turned out that Goki's arrival had already caused many subtle but important changes in Terra's timeline.
In the original storyline, Ifrit was merely a test subject of the Ifrit Project.
Silence always firmly believed that the modification by the inferno potion could alleviate Ifrit's oripathy.
As for Saria, although she vaguely felt that the Ifrit Project had the risk of crossing a line, she couldn't find any clear evidence.
It was only after the Flame Demon Incident occurred and Ifrit went berserk that Saria alone subdued the rampaging Ifrit, fought with Madam Director, left Rhine Lab, and continued to search for a way to cure Ifrit.
However, this instead made Silence believe that Saria had abandoned "them two" (mother and child), directly leading to her and Saria's split while she remained in Rhine Lab. Even after arriving at Rhodes Island, the two continued to argue.
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