Chapter 353: Global Scientific Community
The screen cut to a different feed. The camera framed a cluttered lab crowded with humming machines and shelves of glass vials. A thin, gaunt man in a stained lab coat stood front and center. His hair was a wild halo around a face that smiled too much.
A placard flashed on screen: Scientific Community.
Below it, a smaller caption named him. Dr. Elias Roht, evolutionary mage-biologist.
Luna paused mid–popcorn, brow raised. "Isn’t that the lunatic from the Bastet Q&A? He tried to turn the whole panel into a grant pitch about monster symbiosis or something and nearly spent the budget asking his dumb hypothetical questions. The higher-ups had to yank the budget out of his hands, or he singlehandedly would’ve made us billionaires. How unlucky..."
Bastet released a rare giggle. "Yeah, I remember. He was raving about ’The dawn of the age: Symbiotic Monster Romance Evolution!’ or something like that. Basically, he wants to know how to breed monster girls."
The tanned felinid found it so funny that she kept giggling for the next minute.
Aria’s eyes, instead of laughing along, darkened. She looked toward Kaiden while her fingers tightened around his hand. "Do you think he is behind those masked men?" she asked quietly. "Could he be the one who sent them after us?"
Nyx made a small noise, part scoff, part thoughtful hum. "I doubt it. This type of scientist is exactly the one Kai was worried about. The kind who would strap people to a table to study them. He would want specimens alive, not dead. The masked killers we faced were trying to murder, not capture. That smells like some big enemy of the state, like China or India, trying to get rid of us because we kept ignoring them. They’d much rather have us dead than in the hands of the USA."
But then the gorgeous pink-haired Valkyrie thought a bit more and corrected herself. "Or rather, it could be a radical group that hired them to erase witnesses. Maybe some smaller, desperate faction testing dirty tactics rather than a strong nation doing this outright, because if it were China or India, then the awakened they hired for the job would’ve been stronger... Probably..."
"Maybe they underestimated us. It could still be a major nation. If it were a couple of days ago, these guys would’ve been more than enough for the job," Luna replied. "We kept our new powers hidden until today, so no one knew what to expect. Instead, what I’m concerned about is how they knew we’d go to that dungeon... Either someone in Runewoven or the government itself leaked our information, I’m afraid."
Aria listened, accepting the logic. She let out a breath. "We’ll deal with that later. Let’s focus on the crazy scientist guy. He looks like he has something worthwhile to say for once. And, just for the record, I still do not like him," she murmured.
"You’re not alone, yandere bestie," Nyx giggled, but her eyes stayed on the screen.