The Dutiful Kid Who Saved the Villainous Family - Chapter 149

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 149

Part 1 Side Story. Little Ghost Airi

* * *

Little Ghost Airi stepped foot into the Papal States.

‘Now I can’t escape from this place!’

Airi was well aware of the Papal States’ blockade.

This wasn’t a simple blockade.

It was an act of borrowing divine power to block intruders.

When that happened, the Papal States would become ‘a place where neither the living nor the dead could leave.’

She was prepared for not being able to leave this place until the Pope opened the gates.

‘Now let me do what I need to do!’

Little Ghost Airi’s goal upon arriving at the Papal States was simple.

To give hope to the experiment subjects who had lost their reason.

The book Olivia had shown her, 『The Monster Clan of the Northern Snowy Plains』, was full of experiment subjects who were being brainwashed.

They had abilities that allowed them to become ghosts like Airi.

‘But the experiment subject friends used their given abilities very, very badly.’

Eventually, they began wearing other people’s shells and causing great chaos in society.

Sometimes they became finance ministers and embezzled budgets, and sometimes they became leaders of infantry units and ordered absurd suicide mission operations.

But it was difficult to stop them.

Besides their ability to change appearance, they also possessed other powerful abilities.

Airi’s ultimate goal was to awaken their minds so that this powerful legion wouldn’t cause chaos while being brainwashed!

Airi, who had become a ghost, held her breath and walked carefully step by step.

‘It feels just like being an invisible person!’

She was curious about what she looked like in her ghost state, but…

‘I must look really cool, befitting a hero, right?’

Cookie, who had also become a ghost, thrust out a transparent note.

[Rules for Little Ghost Hero Airi!

1. Don’t let anyone discover your identity.

※ Especially if the Pope discovers your identity, you die!]

“Huh, huh. Why would I die?”

As Airi’s eyes shook violently, Cookie whispered quietly.

“…I’m not sure.”

“Hng…”

“Let’s read the second rule for now!”

[2. While in ghost form, change the world’s causality by more than a ‘specific variable’!]

But Airi tilted her head after seeing rule number 2.

There was a part that Airi’s mind couldn’t understand at all.

“What’s the specific variable?”

“What a sharp little ghost!”

Cookie smiled sinisterly and gestured toward the bottom of the status window.

☞ Go to Item Window

“Here, there’s a [World Rate Meter]!”

“World Rate Meter…?”

Airi clicked on the item window.

[World Rate Meter]

A meter that shows the rate of world rate change for the hero Airi, who is meant to change the world’s order.

※ Specific variable = ‘1’

Airi clenched her fist tightly.

‘I need to change the world, but absolutely not die!’

It was when Airi had finished reading the item window’s description.

A console as small and soft as a financier fell with a thud into Cookie’s hand.

[0]

Airi bit her lips tightly while glaring at the meter displayed as 0 on the console.

‘I can do this somehow!’

It’s a new beginning!

Up until this point, Airi was very confident.

Airi’s gaze swept around the surroundings.

‘Should I go inside there?’

It was a huge laboratory with a pure white dome-shaped roof.

Airi and Cookie held hands tightly.

Then they were sucked into the laboratory with the grand nameplate reading “Ability Experiment Lab.”

* * *

Upon entering the laboratory, a lobby as large as a plaza appeared.

‘It’s incredibly quiet!’

At that moment, Airi could hear noise coming from the left side of the lobby.

Walking step by step through the corridor past the reception, she could see a large room located at the very end of the corridor.

‘The door is open!’

The little ghost ran vigorously without making any sound.

Inside the door, she could see a cleric and children.

A Head Cleric in pure white robes looked around at the children kneeling on the floor.

“Experiment Subject 101, 102, 103, 104. Be seated.”

“…”

One cleric flipped through documents and spoke leisurely.

“These are children brought from the orphanage on Lostrite Street.”

“I see.”

A boy who appeared to be about ten years old lifted his head defiantly.

“Why did you kidnap us?”

“Hehe, kidnap? Little one.”

“What are you trying to do to us!”

“Hmm.”

The clerics glanced at the three small boys struggling on the floor.

Then the leader boy, feeling threatened, raised his hands as if to embrace the small children.

And then…

“Bring me a whip and fire.”

“To tame them?”

“Yes.”

In an instant, the leader boy’s hand was burned by fire.

Airi’s eyes shook violently at the sight of him losing his form.

‘Wh-what is this.’

She wanted to save him.

But she couldn’t manifest her purification power.

While Airi clenched her fist tightly, the leader boy…

“Agh, aghhhhhhh!”

“Beg.”

“N-no…”

“If you don’t, we’ll burn your little brothers too?”

…Even while treating the children terribly, the clerics wore vicious smiles.

But Airi couldn’t do anything.

Because Airi was a ghost.

Because she couldn’t be discovered by them.

Airi’s eyes wavered.

‘They kidnap orphanage children, beat them, and even experiment on them?’

Airi recalled the palace orphanage children she had met when the Capital City was nearly corrupted by magi.

If those children had been unlucky back then, they could have been kidnapped like this too, right?

Having become ‘test subjects,’ losing even their own names.

Even after committing such cruel acts, the clerics at the research facility simply looked peaceful.

They whistled lightly.

“Now it begins.”

It was the start of insane experiments, begun under the pretext of implanting abilities.

* * *

Several days passed like a terrible nightmare.

In just a few days, the children’s eyes had become completely empty.

Because the torture inflicted upon them was so horrific.

The children wearing experimental caps on their heads were suffering.

Even though they looked like nothing more than ordinary caps on the outside.

“This is an experiment for ability implantation.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“The failure rate must be high…”

“Then we’ll just dispose of them.”

They looked at each other and giggled.

Airi’s body stiffened.

She had read about it in the book, 『The Monster Clan of the Northern Snowy Plains』, but seeing it in person was extremely shocking.

But as if this wasn’t enough, the clerics continued to harass the children.

“His Holiness the Pope will come in a year, and you plan to show such a pathetic state!”

“Th-that… Please send me back to my f-family!”

“Your family abandoned you long ago.”

“…”

Had his memories become hazy after entering the Papal States?

The test subject boy’s face became tearful.

“More importantly, try to feel the power in your hands. Why can’t you do it? We definitely implanted an ability.”

“I don’t really understand what you m-mean…”

Even when the child covered in wounds pleaded desperately, the cleric only turned pages with an indifferent expression.

“Listen well, Experiment Subject 15. The ability His Holiness the Pope granted you is to transform your entire body into a demon. If you can’t manifest this ability, you’ll be disposed of.”

Even if they didn’t know exactly what disposal meant, they were old enough to know it was close to death.

Unable to say they couldn’t do it, the children could only mumble weakly.

“B-but I don’t really know what that i-is…”

But the cleric was cold.

“I’ll tell you from now on. What great mission you’ll carry on your shoulders.”

They once again burned the children’s tender skin.

The child who saw flames blazing from his own feet collapsed to the floor as if in shock.

His deeply burned feet looked so pitiful.

However…

Right then, the clerics became extremely excited.

“My goodness, Head Cleric, please look at this child’s feet…!”

“Oh…”

“Wings have sprouted.”

They expressed a child barely manifesting an ability after abusing them as ‘wings sprouting.’

It was disgusting, but that’s how it was.

The children here were treated worse than slaves.

Abuse that seemed like it would kill the children at any moment began.

When the children’s shoulders shrank even more, Airi realized.

‘This place is hell…’

A hell that killed countless children to satisfy one Pope’s ambition and greed.

That scene was like…

‘It’s exactly like having a nightmare.’

So in the future Olivia had seen, things like this were naturally carried out.

Airi clenched her transparent fist tightly.

Her breathing kept getting ragged and her body moved restlessly.

‘This is bad, if my existence is discovered, it’ll be terrible.’

Ghosts cannot interfere too much with the world’s laws.

It felt like her soul was being scraped away.

‘What should I do in this place?’

She had returned as a confident hero.

But why?

One side of her heart kept aching.

‘The babies are so pitiful.’

They were children even smaller and more fragile than Airi.

As a ghost, Airi let out a small breath.

Though she was a ghost, it felt more like being an invisible person.

She could survive without eating anything, but still, her ‘existence’ must not be discovered.

But…

Right when Airi couldn’t bear it anymore and moved her feet.

One cleric frowned and looked around.

“Didn’t you hear some sound?”

“…”

His gaze reached the wall where Airi was positioned.

“Hmm…”

The research cleric in the laboratory might not know, but at that moment, his and Airi’s gazes met.

“Strange…”

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

A one-sided eye contact continued, with one side unaware.

Airi and Cookie froze without even being able to breathe.

He raised his hand with a puzzled expression.

Slowly.

Gradually…

Finally, the researcher’s hand approached right in front of Airi’s nose.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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