Chapter 132: What a Disappointment

Time to Hunt[9]

Chapter 132: What a Disappointment

"Cough! Cough!"

We both turned.

The young man who’d been lying motionless on the floor had suddenly started coughing.

His body jerked several times before he expelled a large amount of liquid from his mouth. Then he tried to push himself up on trembling arms.

"Cough... Hah... Hah..."

His chest rose and fell rapidly.

He lifted his head.

With vacant eyes, he looked around, then at the shattered capsule.

He seemed to be trying to work out where he was.

Eventually, his gaze dropped to his own hand.

He examined the shard embedded in his palm for a few seconds.

His face remained expressionless.

"Oooh!"

Marven’s delighted exclamation made me flinch.

He began clapping.

"Congratulations, sir! You’re today’s lucky winner!"

He approached the young man and crouched in front of him.

"So, can you tell us how you’re feeling?"

The man didn’t answer.

He just stared at Marven’s face.

"Hey?"

Marven waved a hand in front of his eyes.

"Can you hear me?"

There was no reaction.

"Hellooo?"

Still nothing.

Marven finally straightened and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Interesting. Is his brain damaged? Or did this happen because the experiment was interrupted?"

For a moment, he seemed genuinely curious about the answer.

Then he shrugged.

"Ah, I wish I’d listened to my mother more carefully. Perhaps I’d know."

He suddenly turned toward me.

"What do you think is wrong, Layla?"

Why are you asking me, you psycho?!

Unsure what to say, I looked at the man on the floor.

He was still staring blankly at the glass in his hand.

"Uhhh... I don’t know."

Marven nodded.

"Neither do I."

Then, without warning, he kicked the man in the head.

THUD!

The man’s head struck the floor hard.

More blood joined the pool of liquid.

I instinctively stepped back.

Marven lowered his foot.

"I guess there’s no hope for this one."

He was about to turn away when...

"H... hope?"

A faint voice reached us.

Marven stopped.

So did I.

The man on the floor was slowly raising his head.

"Ho- pe...?"

His lips trembled. His dull eyes widened, a faint light stirring within them.

For the first time, there was an expression on his face.

But I couldn’t tell what it was.

Pain?

Fear?

Or anger?

"H ope..."

His body began to shake.

First, his fingers clenched. Then the glass fell from his hand as his back hunched at an unnatural angle.

Small black spots appeared on his wet skin.

They rapidly expanded, merged, and became scales covering his body.

"What...?"

I backed away without realizing it.

The man’s left arm began to swell. Muscles shifted beneath his skin, and his bones lengthened as though something were pulling them from within.

His fingers grew and curled.

Long black claws replaced his nails.

His other arm had barely changed.

Then he lifted his head.

The whites of his eyes had turned yellow, and his pupils had narrowed into thin vertical slits.

Dark smoke rose between his teeth.

"H... OPE..."

His voice no longer sounded human.

A surprised smile spread across Marven’s face.

"Wow..."

The creature drove its enlarged arm into the floor.

It lifted its head and opened its mouth as wide as it could.

"HOOOOOPE!"

CRACK!

The scream cut off.

For a moment, I couldn’t understand what had happened.

The head that had been there a second ago was gone.

The black-gloved hand of Marven’s bodyguard hovered above the creature’s neck.

He’d crushed the man’s head with one hand.

Blood and small pieces of flesh scattered across the floor as the creature’s body spasmed once more.

Then it went still.

The bodyguard raised his hand.

He lightly shook the blood from his glove, then walked back toward us and resumed his place a few steps behind.

His expression hadn’t changed in the slightest.

As though he’d just crushed an annoying insect rather than killed a person.

I’d forgotten how to breathe.

Marven looked down at the corpse.

Then he nudged its enlarged arm with the toe of his shoe.

"God..."

He paused.

"I think we just ruined something with incredible potential."

Crouching, he examined the creature’s black-scaled arm.

"Look at this! If the experiment had been completed, it could’ve turned into something extraordinary."

With a sigh, he released the arm and stood.

"What a shame..."

Then he looked at the shattered capsule.

"I suppose breaking the capsule really was a bad decision."

He sounded like a child who’d accidentally broken something valuable.

"I hope my mother never finds out."

Marven turned his head, looking first at Oswald, then at the workers in white coats waiting at the end of the corridor.

A sweet smile settled on his face.

"She won’t, will she?"

One of the workers immediately lowered their head.

"O-of course not, young master."

"Wonderful!"

Marven clapped his hands.

"Then we’re done here."

He turned cheerfully toward me.

"Let’s go, Layla!"

"..."

I didn’t answer.

Actually, I wasn’t even sure I’d heard him.

My eyes were fixed on the corpse.

A few minutes ago...

No, a few seconds ago, this man had been alive.

He’d been breathing.

Trying to speak.

Perhaps he’d opened his eyes for the first time in ages.

And now?

He lay in a pool of blue liquid.

Where his face should have been, there was only a red stain.

Could a person’s life really end so easily?

No...

His death wasn’t the only problem.

The problem was that Marven felt nothing about it.

They’d just killed a man.

But all he could think about was the failed experiment.

As though...

As though the fact that this person had ever lived didn’t matter.

"Layla?"

I heard Marven’s voice.

Then footsteps approached.

"Hmm? Is something wrong?"

I didn’t look up.

My hands were shaking.

I didn’t know how long they’d been doing that.

A weight had settled in my stomach. A lump kept growing in my throat, refusing to go away no matter how many times I swallowed.

I wanted to throw up.

I really wanted to throw up.

Marven, Dorian Hale, the people working here...

After seeing this entire damn laboratory, all I wanted was to retreat into a corner and empty my stomach.

But what difference would that make?

Would it erase what I’d seen?

Would I be able to forget the girl who’d died behind the glass?

Or the man whose head had been crushed while he screamed the word "hope"?

Haven’t I seen enough...?

Don’t I already know what kind of hell this place is?

I clenched my teeth.

Ever since arriving, I’d been trying to hold myself back.

Stay calm.

Wait.

Find the right moment.

You only need to kill Marven.

I couldn’t remember how many times I’d told myself those things.

But none of them meant anything anymore.

Because everywhere I looked, I saw the same thing.

People.

People who’d once lived ordinary lives. People someone had known, loved, perhaps even waited for to come home.

And now they were nothing more than material for experiments in this damn place.

How...?

How could one person do this to another?

What did these lives mean to them?

A number?

An experiment’s results?

Or a broken toy they could throw away when it failed?

Fuck.

I don’t even want to know anymore.

I slowly reached toward my bag with my right hand.

When my fingers touched the zipper, I hesitated.

Was I really going to do this?

Marven stood a few steps ahead of me, still watching.

Dorian Hale was behind him.

Farther back were the laboratory workers...

They were all here.

And I was right in the middle of them.

How stupid...

I opened my bag.

Then I took out a small water bottle.

Inside the clear plastic bottle was the potion I’d poured into it earlier. I’d used an ordinary water bottle so it wouldn’t attract attention.

The liquid sloshed gently as I pulled it out.

I stared at it for a moment.

Did I really have to do this?

Perhaps there was another way.

Perhaps if I waited a little longer...

No.

I didn’t want to wait anymore.

I didn’t want to see what these people would do to someone else.

I didn’t want to watch another person suffer.

Most of all...

I didn’t want to be one of the people who stood here and did nothing.

Enough.

I twisted the cap off.

Enough already.

I raised the bottle to my mouth.

Right now, all I wanted...

I tilted my head back and swallowed the entire potion in one go.

...was to vomit out all the anger and hatred building inside me.

I lowered the bottle.

Not a single drop remained.

A second passed.

Then another.

Nothing happened.

I looked at the bottle.

Huh?

For a moment, I genuinely thought it hadn’t worked.

Maybe it was taking longer to kick in because it was cheap.

Maybe—

THUMP!

My heart slammed against my chest so hard that my entire body shook.

My eyes widened.

What...?

The next beat was even stronger.

THUMP!

The bottle slipped from my fingers.

As it hit the floor and rolled away, I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to clutch my heart.

It was pounding as though it were about to burst through my ribs.

Then...

The pain began.

"Kh...!"

Every muscle in my body seized at once.

My knees buckled, and I staggered forward.

It felt as though molten iron had been poured into my veins.

The burning started in my chest, then spread through my shoulders, arms, and legs all at once.

This...

I clenched my teeth.

What is this feeling?!

My bones felt as though they were breaking apart.

No, not just my bones.

It was as though everything in my body was shattering, coming back together, then breaking apart all over again.

"Ah...!"

I dropped to my knees.

I tried to pull my hand away from my chest, but even my fingers refused to move properly.

I need to breathe.

I opened my mouth.

Air...

Where’s the air?!

My lungs wouldn’t fill.

I clutched my throat.

Then tried to breathe again.

I couldn’t.

The corridor blurred before my eyes.

The lights from the blue capsules bled together, and the ceiling seemed to be collapsing toward me.

"Layla?"

Marven’s voice sounded distant.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I tried to answer.

But all that escaped my mouth was a strangled sound.

"Kh... Aa..."

An unbearable pressure filled my head.

It felt as though my brain were swelling inside my skull and my eyes were about to burst from their sockets.

My heart was still beating.

Too fast.

Too hard.

Every beat sent another wave of pain through my body.

Damn it...

What is this?!

My hands were shaking.

I pressed my fingers against the floor.

Liquid on the cold stone soaked my palms.

I needed to get up.

But my legs wouldn’t obey.

No...

Clenching my teeth, I tried to raise my head.

Not now...

A pair of shoes appeared directly in front of me.

Marven.

I hadn’t noticed him approaching.

I lifted my head a little farther.

He was looking down at me.

But there was no trace of his earlier cheerfulness.

He wasn’t smiling.

He wasn’t frowning, either.

There was no concern on his face.

Only...

A cold expression.

As he looked down at me, I saw something in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed before.

Disappointment.

Marven watched me in silence for a few seconds.

Then he tilted his head slightly.

And a voice almost as quiet as a whisper slipped from his lips.

"What a disappointment..."