Silence was a little surprised. Wasn't her once deeply respected teacher temporarily dismissed from his post? How did he get off a Rhine Lab plane?
Had he been recruited by Miss Jessica?
Uhm...
That seemed unlikely.
Her teacher was tied up and thrown violently to the ground; no matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like he was here for a job interview.
"Miss Silence."
Jessica hadn't expected to run into Silence here. If she wasn't mistaken, Silence must have just finished dinner and, seeing the aircraft land while on a walk, came over to check it out.
"Take this to the lab and run some tests..."
Jessica was holding a container filled with nutrient fluid. Within the fluid, an organ closely resembling a brainstem bobbed up and down with the bubbles.
As an expert.
Silence naturally recognized a brainstem.
But she had never seen one like the one in this nutrient fluid.
How to put it...
It didn't look like a normal person's brainstem.
Its surface was a sickly black color, and, what's more, it was covered to varying degrees by sinister Originium crystals, as if the brainstem were made entirely of them.
At that moment, Silence seemed to forget that her former teacher was still sprawled on the ground. She, along with Shining and Liz, stepped forward to observe it carefully.
"Not congenital..."
Shining recognized it at a glance.
Silence looked up and asked Jessica quizzically.
"Miss Jessica, where did this brainstem come from?"
Jessica didn't know the specific details, as she had been fast asleep when Lucas Reeve was turning the entire research facility upside down. Conveniently, Lucas Reeve took control of Jessica's body and recounted everything he knew in detail.
"Human implantation?!"
Silence took the brainstem, her brows furrowed.
She had always been strongly opposed to cruel human experimentation. After the incident where Rhine Lab deceived her about Ifrit, Silence's attitude towards such experiments had grown into utter disgust. After taking the brainstem, she immediately rushed back to the laboratory. Shining and Liz trotted along behind her, also very interested in this organ.
Silence admitted she had heard rumors.
It seemed that after the test subject for the [Flame Demon Project] disappeared, her teacher Parvis, who should have received severe punishment, did not. Instead, he escaped his fate through another research achievement. This could only mean that this other achievement was in no way inferior to the Flame Demon Project, and might even surpass it.
Could it be related to this brainstem?
According to the description.
It seemed her teacher was preparing to perform a craniotomy to implant this brainstem into a young girl.
Since the analysis would still take a considerable amount of time, it was of course impossible to let the former director Parvis go. After some thought, Lucas Reeve had Little Moti restrain his soul, while his physical body was temporarily tossed into Raythean Medica.
It had to be said.
Raythean Medica was now in a period of vigorous growth, although...
It hadn't started turning a profit yet, and was still far from it.
But the future was promising.
During the time Lucas Reeve stayed by Lisa's side, Raythean Medica's HR department had worked hard to recruit many more employees from all fields, even for positions Jessica hadn't considered. Although Jessica was the boss, she wasn't an expert in medical research, and even a medical research expert would at most conduct related scientific research; they wouldn't know anything about hiring, for instance, an electrical maintenance engineer.
After all, Raythean Medica wasn't some small unit in an office building. It had its own factory buildings and definitely needed electrical engineers for daily maintenance and such.
As everyone was preparing to return to the villa, the employees they met strolling on the road would greet Jessica with "Director" and "Boss." They even encountered the High Priest on his 'patrol' in his medical cart.
When it saw Jessica, it waved its wings in a human-like gesture.
"Hey, little lady, is Brother Lucas Reeve around? Don't tell me he's still fooling around in Siracusa? I've got a new modification plan. I want him to swap out the power source for my dear little cart. I heard he brought back another batch of Active Originium from the outside world?"
"We'll talk later."
Lucas Reeve, occupying Jessica's body, replied to the High Priest.
"Yo, you're back. I thought you weren't ever coming back from Siracusa."
The High Priest and Lucas Reeve chatted for a long time as they walked, and even ended up at Jessica's house. Well, since they were already there...
They might as well have a meal. Jessica's house had also thoughtfully prepared a large portion of Originium for the medical cart.
As for Zumama? Both Lucas Reeve and the High Priest had forgotten about her.
At this very moment, she was burning the midnight oil in the Columbia University library, cramming for tomorrow's make-up exams.
Lucas Reeve discovered.
He had been getting busier and busier lately.
After having dinner with Jessica, he went to Siracusa to accompany Lisa for her nightly training. She was still young, after all. Even if she was more mature than her peers, she was still just a child. Lucas Reeve really wasn't at ease leaving her alone in one place.
As for Zumama's side, Lucas Reeve hadn't been there in a long time, only occasionally stopping by to say hello. His visits to the Reunion Movement's side also became less and less frequent.
This wasn't good.
The master of time management was about to get overwhelmed...
The next day.
Silence's overnight test results were out.
This brainstem was an artificially created infected organ. When implanted into a human body, it would grant the test subject a special Originium Arts, and the subject would not become Infected as a result. However, there were many, many drawbacks. Because it was a directly implanted organ, it was imperative that the body did not reject it. If the body's system rejected it even slightly, the test subject's death was almost a hundred percent certain.
The proof of his crimes was irrefutable.
Silence reported the specific details to Jessica, and with Jessica's permission, also informed Saria.
Silence had originally thought that Saria, as the Head of Rhine Lab's Defense Section, would have known about this matter, yet... she was completely unaware. And at Rhine Lab, there was only one person who could hide things from Saria's sight...
The Director-General!
Kristen Wright.
Upon receiving the relevant information, Saria immediately launched a full-scale investigation and found the Loken Water Tank, the experimental facility that had collaborated with Parvis. Lucas Reeve and Jessica didn't need to concern themselves with the subsequent events. They believed that with Saria's attitude towards human experimentation, she would definitely handle it properly. As for Parvis, he was temporarily kept at Raythean Medica, awaiting Saria's results. If Saria couldn't resolve it properly either...
Jessica wasn't against informing her father about this.
After all, although many companies conduct human experiments in secret, they are explicitly forbidden on the surface. And while Rhine Lab was not as big as Raythean Industries, it was still one of the giants in Columbia, second only to them. It was a competitor. No one would pass up a chance to get leverage on a rival.
Lucas Reeve's life seemed to return to tranquility, no different from before. The only change was that he now had the additional task of training and protecting Lisa. Lisa truly did not disappoint Lucas Reeve. Although she was just a twelve-year-old girl, her resilience was far greater than that of an average adult. She wasn't afraid of hardship or fatigue. Furthermore, as time went on, Lucas Reeve's training became more and more strict, and for some missions, Lucas Reeve wouldn't show up at all, letting Lisa handle them entirely on her own.
Although there were flaws, overall it didn't disappoint Lucas Reeve.
Another two months flew by.
The end of December.
Lisa's training was basically complete. After two months of tempering, even though Lisa was still a child, she seemed like a completely different person. Her skills had become much more seasoned. In addition, Lucas Reeve had also intentionally transmitted the breathing method to Lisa directly through her soul. With the boost from the breathing method, Lisa's strength had improved significantly.
And over these past two months.
According to intelligence, Lisa had been continuously hunting down villains who had committed numerous evil deeds.
Her name had begun to spread a little in Siracusa. However, since no one had ever seen what Lisa looked like—because she fired every shot from over two kilometers away, her weapon an absolute paradigm shift in power—they simply couldn't imagine what kind of weapon could strike from such a distance.
Over time.
Another urban legend began to circulate in Siracusa.
An invisible assassin's ghost wandered Siracusa, holding a list of the city's most wicked people. As soon as a villain's name appeared on the list, they would die at the hands of this ghost. Of course, this was just a legend; no one would believe it.
After the fall of Wolf Fang, the remaining four powerful families speculated whether it was some kind of weapon. The Sicily family, in particular, after consulting with the relevant person-in-charge at Raythean Industries, received an answer: a long-range heavy sniping crossbow had this capability.
However, no trace of any crossbow bolts was found at the scenes, which left the Raythean Industries representative stationed in Siracusa deep in thought.
As for Rhine Lab, after the infected organ was exposed, Saria secretly investigated the entire Loken Water Tank and discovered a large number of young children inside. She openly condemned this inhumane and cruel practice at a Rhine Lab meeting. As for Rhine Lab's situation and response, Lucas Reeve had no way of knowing.
"M... Mr. Reeve...."
Jessica called out to Lucas Reeve nervously, as if she had something important to announce.
Ever since returning from Siracusa.
Franka and the other two were hardly affected by the dream, at most... Magallan had become a bit more chuunibyou.
But Jessica must have been too deep in the dream, causing her own personality to be affected to some extent. For example, she became a bit bolder, or would occasionally misspeak, mistakenly calling Lucas Reeve 'husband'.
"Yes."
"Do you know what day it is the day after tomorrow?"
Jessica said.
Lucas Reeve thought for a moment and shook his head.
"It's a holiday! The most important holiday of the year in Columbia!"
Jessica's reminder made Lucas Reeve remember. It seemed to be late December now. In Columbia, and even Victoria, there was a major holiday similar to Yan's Spring Festival.
"Um..."
Jessica fidgeted a bit.
"Because, my family has a rare reunion dinner every year on this holiday, and anyway, Mr. Reeve, you have that special body now, so... I was thinking... I'd like to ask you to accompany me. Besides, I'm not young anymore, and those relatives will tease me about finding a boyfriend again..."
Lucas Reeve thought for a moment and nodded.
Seeing that Lucas Reeve had actually agreed.
Jessica happily threw her arms around Lucas Reeve.
"Really?! Thank you."
However, after a moment, Jessica realized what she was doing and quickly let go of Lucas Reeve, her pretty face flushed crimson. In the dream, she often hugged Lucas Reeve... now it had become a habit...