MLBO 05

Emilian stared at the man in silence.

It was the same researcher who had mercilessly beaten a powerless child before.

Before Emilian could even take a step, the hot-tempered researcher strode inside and roughly grabbed his arm.

“I’ll walk on my own, so let go.”

Emilian violently shook off his grip. The researcher frowned and muttered,

“What a cocky little test subject…”

The researcher raised his large hand, and Emilian thought he was about to be hit again like before.

But instead, the researcher lowered his hand with a disgusting smile.

“No… There’s no need to waste energy here.”

The researcher immediately dragged Emilian to the laboratory.

Various unidentified chemicals boiled inside beakers. Surgical scalpels of different sizes, scissors, and syringes were laid out on a cart.

The air inside the laboratory felt heavy.

Screams echoed from somewhere.

And…

‘The smell of blood.’

The researchers waiting in the lab fastened handcuffs around Emilian’s wrists.

Chains connected to the ceiling hooked onto the cuffs, forcing both of his arms high into the air.

One of the researchers roughly grabbed Emilian by the chin.

“You were acting so confident. Are you scared now?”

“……”

Without replying, Emilian only glared at him.

The researcher chuckled before slowly brushing his fingers across the neatly lined-up scalpels.

Soon, he picked one up.

The sharp tip of the scalpel gleamed under the light.

With a vicious grin, the researcher spoke.

“Look forward to it. We’re about to find out whether you’re a useful test subject or not.”

I carried breakfast with me as I headed toward Emilian’s room.

‘I wonder if he’s feeling a little better…’

If his fever was still high, I would try asking the head of the laboratory to excuse him from experiments for a day.

Honestly, I didn’t know if he would allow it.

The director treated Emilian as special, but not in the sense of cherishing him like a precious jewel.

As long as the experiments produced results, he was the kind of person who didn’t care if the test subjects got hurt.

‘Still, it doesn’t hurt to at least ask.’

After organizing my thoughts, I quickened my pace.

When I arrived at Emilian’s room, I cautiously peeked inside.

‘Is he still asleep?’

But contrary to my expectations, the room was empty.

Had he already gone to the laboratory?

Emilian’s experiment had originally been scheduled for after breakfast. But depending on the researchers’ circumstances, schedules were often moved forward or delayed.

‘He should’ve eaten before going…’

There was no choice but to take the meal back.

I straightened the messy bedding and was about to leave when something suddenly caught on the wheel of the cart.

Bending down, I picked it up.

It was the damp towel I had left behind yesterday.

The image of Emilian suffering through a terrible fever last night surfaced in my mind.

‘Did his fever go down?’

I really hoped it had.

With a heavy feeling in my chest, I left his room.

After going down to the dining hall for breakfast, I headed to the laundry room.

As always, mountains of laundry were piled in front of me today.

The overwhelming amount naturally made a sigh escape my lips.

The amount of laundry produced by the laboratory every single day was always this enormous.

Sighing wouldn’t change anything, so together with the other errand children, I busily picked up the laundry.

I rubbed soap into the fabric and scrubbed hard to remove the stains.

After an hour passed, my arms slowly began to ache.

Since it was winter, the water was freezing cold. It felt as though dozens of needles were stabbing into my skin.

I stopped for a moment and blew warm breath onto my numb hands.

But the throbbing pain didn’t fade easily.

If only I could keep my hands in my pockets for five minutes… no, even just one minute… maybe the pain would lessen.

“Hurry up! Otherwise, there’ll be no lunch for you!”

A researcher’s sharp glare landed on me.

After hesitating for a moment, I plunged my hands back into the icy water.

A stinging pain spread through both hands.

Suddenly, sorrow welled up inside me, making my eyes sting.

But I quickly swallowed the tears back down.

I raised my arm and wiped my eyes with my sleeve before moving my hands busily once again.

I deliberately emptied my mind and focused on my work.

For us, even the time to drown in sadness was a luxury.

Working without rest, noon arrived before I knew it.

I stood up and wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve.

‘By now, has he returned to his room…?’

Thoughts of Emilian suddenly surfaced.

I wondered if he had endured the experiment well.

It probably wasn’t anything too severe on the first day, but he was still a child who had spent all of yesterday suffering from fever.

Taking care of the meals for the test subject children had been my job for a long time.

And whenever those children were called into the laboratory, I was always filled with anxiety.

“Tonight’s dinner is your favorite steak.”

“What? Really?”

“Of course it’s true.”

“Hehe, I can’t wait!”

Andy had been a strong child.

Even through the brutal experiments, he never lost his smile.

That day too, he smiled as he said he’d be back.

If only I had known that would be our last conversation…

I would have told him that his cheerful smile had always given me strength, instead of leaving those words trapped inside my mouth.

But this place was somewhere the boundary between life and death crumbled far too easily.

Death took the children away without warning.

‘…Still, Emilian will endure until the end.’

Suppressing the gloom threatening to consume me, I headed toward Emilian’s room.

The door creaked open as I turned the key. I pushed the cart inside.

Emilian was lying sideways on the bed.

He shifted slightly but didn’t turn toward me.

I placed the meal on the table.

“Um, I brought lunch…”

There was no response from Emilian.

He had been dragged into the laboratory early in the morning, so maybe he was simply exhausted.

I wondered if I should just let him rest, but eventually I walked over to the bed.

He hadn’t eaten breakfast, and skipping lunch too would definitely be bad for his health.

I gently shook him awake.

“Hey, wake up.”

“Ugh…!”

The moment Emilian curled up and let out a painful groan, I froze.

It sounded… exactly like the reaction of someone whose wound had been touched by mistake.

Sensing that something was wrong, I pulled away the blanket covering him.

And in that instant, I gasped in shock.

“……!”

Bloodstains soaked through Emilian’s experiment uniform.

His arms and legs were covered in wounds.

‘On the first day, they’re supposed to start with light tests… Then why…?’

I was so shocked that my hands trembled and I couldn’t say a word.

Meanwhile, Emilian twisted his head and curled his body tightly, as though the pain was unbearable.

Cold sweat beaded across his forehead.

His lips had turned blue, and his small body trembled violently.

Terrified, I collapsed beside him and stammered,

“A-Are you okay?”

Emilian squeezed his eyes shut and struggled to breathe.

He clearly wasn’t in any condition to answer.

My trembling eyes scanned over him.

And then, his wounds slowly began to heal.

“……!”

Only then did I realize what kind of experiment he had undergone.

It was an experiment that used drugs to drastically enhance regenerative abilities—an experiment that should have only been performed much later.

The experiment altered the frail human body down to the cellular level.

And it came with unbearable pain.

I grabbed the hand of the curled-up Emilian as he groaned in agony.

“Hngh…”

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

Holding tightly onto his trembling hand, I kept repeating words that I didn’t even know were meant for myself or for him.

Then I suddenly came back to my senses.

‘This isn’t the time for this.’

I needed to hurry and bring painkillers.

As I quickly tried to stand, a strong grip caught my hand.

Emilian’s long eyelashes trembled as he slowly opened his eyes.

His lips moved weakly. A faint voice escaped him.

“……Don’t… go…”

Because of the pain, the words came out broken apart, making them hard to understand.

But the hand clutching mine felt so desperate…

I knew I had to pull away, yet somehow I couldn’t do it.

I bit down hard on my lower lip.

Gently placing my other hand over his, I spoke softly.

“I’ll come back. So just wait a little longer.”

“……”

There was no reply.

But the trembling in Emilian’s crimson eyes gradually calmed, as though reassured.

At the same time, the strength of the hand gripping mine slowly weakened.

Emilian would eventually awaken as a transcendent and escape this laboratory without anyone’s help. That was why I kept telling myself not to get emotionally involved…

But seeing him suffering like this, I simply couldn’t stay indifferent.

Whenever the other children were hurt, I had never been able to just stand there either. I always ran to call the researchers.

Even though those efforts had ultimately been useless every single time.

Still, this child would survive to the very end.

So…

Suppressing the tears that threatened to spill out—

After letting go of Emilian’s hand, I ran without looking back.