"...just a potion that replenishes vitality and slows down aging."
The boy's words fell upon the ears of Miss Dull Goose, who had truly come here at the risk of being ensnared by him. Her expression froze solid.
"...Captain, are you serious?"
"I'm serious."
Li Zihan looked at Durandal, who contained a world bubble within her body—a girl who was practically playing a high-fantasy system in the world of Honkai.
Durandal was a walking bug; that much was obvious.
"Your constitution is special. You could even say it's more special than mine."
"Poisons that would be fatal to others are nothing more than mosquito bites to you. By the same token, a potion that could keep Rita in her child form for a hundred years can only slow your growth rate," the boy, who had inherited the Clairvoyance of three Grand Casters and would likely be a Grand Caster candidate if he were a Heroic Spirit, explained the basics of potion-ology to Miss Dull Goose.
So, I was never actually facing a crisis of not being able to grow?
I came all this way for nothing?
Her expression froze solid, as if she'd been made the butt of an elaborate, cosmic prank.
In that case, what did her actions amount to?
Delivering herself on a silver platter?
Could she contact someone at Chaldeas right now and have them pull her back immediately?
---o---
"Since you're already here, you might as well help me with something," the boy, who was starting to find this younger Dull Goose quite cute, said with a faint smile, looking at the girl who had "I want to get out of here" written all over her face.
"What is it?"
As one of his subordinates, Durandal paused for a moment before asking.
"Well, I have some business I need to take care of."
The boy, who was planning to visit the Babylon Laboratory next, smiled slightly and stated his request.
"Captain, are you entrusting a mission to me?" Miss Dull Goose, who had a keen awareness of her role as a tool from being ordered around so often, asked after a moment of thought.
"Not exactly."
The boy, who didn't want Mei or Durandal to see certain unsightly things, shifted his gaze slightly, as if in thought.
Then, he broke into a bright smile.
"Could I ask you to help me find a suitable wedding venue and hire some wedding planning companies?"
The boy's words seemed completely nonsensical.
How strange.
Durandal, who was always used as a Tool Goose, looked at the boy who usually threw the dirtiest and most tiring tasks to others while he flirted with girls.
And...
For this guy, who actually loves pursuing romantic gestures and would even personally design bridal gowns for his lovers, to delegate the wedding planning to someone else instead of organizing it with his lover?
Strange.
Very strange.
Durandal thought, vaguely sensing that something was amiss.
"Can I entrust this to you?" the boy, who was about to go and deal with the human experiments, tilted his head and asked.
"Leave it to me," Miss Dull Goose nodded.
I have a feeling there's a hidden story here.
Should I try to investigate?
========O========
In the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible, there is a story.
At that time, the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building and was filled with fear.
"Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
The tower that reached to the heavens was thus given the name "Babel," or "Babylon."
---o---
In the late 20th century, a steel tower abruptly rose from the snowy plains of Siberia—the Babylon Laboratory.
As Schicksal's largest Honkai energy research facility outside of its headquarters, it carried the high hopes of all.
The Babylon Laboratory was divided into three main departments. The first department, the Advanced Systems Department, was a medical organization for treating Honkai-related diseases.
Of course, this was merely a public facade. The department's real work was researching the integration of Honkai energy with the human body—in other words, human experimentation.
One could not expect the researchers to be gentle with their test subjects. Perhaps at the beginning, they might have felt a shred of compassion, but as the experiments progressed and they became accustomed to failure and death, the demise of a test subject became just another number on a list of losses.
Schicksal was never a gentle organization.
Beneath the radiant shell of "hope" for all humanity lay mountains of corpses.
And in the end, they paid the price for their actions.
"We were surprised to find that test subject No. 52 from Belarus exhibited extremely high tolerance to Honkai energy and was able to absorb and neutralize it. The reason for this phenomenon is still unclear, but it is very likely what we have been searching for. Additionally, the laboratory is in urgent need of more test subjects. Please provide the relevant support."
— 2000.01.12 Babylon Tower Research Report (Abstract)
Then, the Second Herrscher's compatible subject, No. 42, Sirin, underwent an incomplete Herrscher transformation after being injected with an overdose of Honkai energy during a human experiment.
Under the dual torment of the cruel, sunless experiments and the tragic deaths of her companions, the Second Herrscher was born, harboring an intense hatred for Schicksal.
After slaughtering the researchers in the Babylon Laboratory, under the influence of the "Honkai," the Second Herrscher Sirin's hatred for Schicksal quickly evolved into a hatred for all of humanity. After obtaining new powers, she quickly launched a campaign of revenge against humankind.
---o---
"Ah, the familiar scent of a gathering of scumbags."
The boy, who had grown up in the Clock Tower, strolled leisurely toward the so-called Tower of Babel.
Unsurprisingly, his brazen approach attracted the attention of the guards.
"You there, show your entry permit," a guard stationed at the Tower of Babel shouted from a distance.
And then—
The wind picked up.
Floating along with the wind were black and red feathers.
"May I come in?" the boy asked the guard politely.
The guard, his eyes now completely black and red, silently opened the gate for him.
"Please."
Author's Note:
PS: Recommending "In Arknights, Just Became Decade"
From a sarcophagus in Chernobog, Shi Hao awakens.
Then, from the mouth of a rabbit-eared girl, he learns of his past.
The spiritual mentor of the operators, the chess master who guided everyone to victory, and...
—The Ghost of Babel.
But Shi Hao looks at the driver on his waist and couldn't care less about all that complicated stuff.
"People or ghosts. Ordinary citizens or the Infected."
"Whatever stands in my way, I will destroy it all, leaving none behind!"
[Kamen Ride: Decade]
"Because I... am the destroyer of worlds!"