Chapter 13

I put my necklace in the lab coat pocket and announced,

“I’m done.”

Then he turned and looked at me.

With an expression of seeing something unbelievable.

He approached me slowly and scrutinized me up and down as if he was regarding a strange animal. It was hard to discern what he was thinking before and now it was impossible. Even my height and physique shrunk, I was much shorter and smaller.

“Your hair is longer too.”

He lifted a strain of hair, examining it as he twirled it in his hands. I secretly admired that even though I had washed it with soap it didn’t look dried out.

“Now say my name.”

“Uh, Mr. Alexis.”

“Good.”

Maybe he’s doing this to me because he wants to see him obey me. Maybe I’m not a mouse to this cat but a toy.

“Can I go back now?”

“No.”

Why not?

“Sit down.”

“Yes?”

“Sit down.”

What the hell do you want from me?

Afraid, I could not resist his commands. I closed his eyes and sat down on the floor, and he sat right in front of me.

“Why are you closing your eyes?”

“Ah… .”

He was holding my hair with both hands. I didn’t know what he was thinking, so I stayed still. It looked like he was playing with my hair as if I was a toy.

Then he started braiding.

His bizarre behavior caught me off guard. When I got my bearings I  found several very thin and thick braids.

Utterly bewildered, I stared at him. He smirked and answered my unspoken question,

“Long hair is required.”

“Then why hasn’t Sir Alexis grown out his hair?”

“There is nothing I can do according to my will here.”

Even within the laboratory, our hair was cut after a certain period. Those like him who had outside assignments were subject to even more supervision and control.

“Pretty.”

I never thought he would have a knack for caring for hair. I liked the braided hair more than I expected, so I fiddled and looked at them. He laughed.

“Then, your training… .”

“I don’t have to. I’m strong even if I don’t.”

“Ah yes… .”

Alexis was staring at me blankly, I also had nowhere to look, so I looked down.

Somehow he looked so smittened that I felt rather troubled.

***

“You.”

“Yes sir! A-702!”

I was resting since it was during a free period, but a researcher barged in like an uninvited guest interrupting my precious alone time.

“Follow me.”

“Yes sir.”

The bright red-haired researcher looked somewhat in disawry.

I wasn’t the only one called, A-888, Felix, was also called out.

Previously I thought he was an A-class like me, but now that I know he’s Duke Felix Magnolia in disguise, he doesn’t look the same.

From the moment he left the room, he was grinning.

I could no longer regard him as someone I grew close to. He didn’t look like a friend.

“You, wash that beastly punk.”

The researcher swiped his card, and the door opened.

I had no idea what kind of painful experiment he had undergone there. But when I took in the scene it didn’t look like he had been subjected to another experiment. There was usually a procedure, first you add the stimulant before the experiment. But it was obvious that’s not what was happening.

Because his eyes were out of focus.

“Go to hell.”

Kalisten’s words were as harsh as his wounds.

I could roughly guess why he was so angry.

Perhaps these wounds had nothing to do with an experiment and the most likely candidate to have injured him so severely is this  red-haired researcher standing in front of us.

“You can’t even do anything because you’re chained up, yet look at you mouthing off. Do you want to be beaten again?”

— Ptui

Kalisten spit in his face as he approached.

Let’s do it.

— Wack!

With a very loud sound, his head turned. He glowered at the researcher as if he wasn’t in pain, but I felt like I was going to faint with numbness from sympathy pain.

“I’m gonna teach you a lesson!”

Even as the researcher shouted loudly, Kalisten was glaring at him.

He looks unhinged from being brutally assaulted like this.

But what if he goes berserk and runs amuck right now?

“P-please stop it!”

I said to the researcher as I hugged Kalisten tightly just as he was about to kick him. In fact, he didn’t mean to get down and block it, but my legs shook with fear and I collapsed and I fell to the floor embracing him.

“Z-999–must be— drugs… Ah, oh, it seems like he’s high on drugs that’s why he’s like this… .”

“Ha. Did you get attached because you brought him some food?”

“Get out!”

Bewildered, Kalisten shouted looking flustered. Where did that powerful image go from just a moment ago? Then, his eyes grew determined and he yelled at me:

“Fuck off!”

“H-he—r-researcher… .”

I tried to say something but my terror was shaking my whole body and nothing seemed to be working according to my will.