The guide gave a gentle smile and turned back the way she had come.
Iris swallowed hard and knocked on the door to the Lab Director’s Office.
After a moment, a low voice answered, inviting her in.
It was Abellus’s voice.
Nervously opening the door, Iris was surprised to find the Director’s Office in perfect order, not at all what she had expected.
‘It’s more normal than I thought. I expected corpses scattered everywhere. Not that there would really be, of course.’
Anyone could tell the room belonged to someone deeply passionate about science, but there was nothing abnormal about it.
Naturally. Anything truly abnormal was gathered in a Secret Room, accessible only by a security key.
Since assistants often came and went from the Director’s Office, only things that looked as normal as possible were kept here.
No matter how much of a psychopath you might be, you couldn’t live in society without at least pretending to care what others thought.
As her eyes wandered, Iris caught sight of Abellus’s face without his glasses and couldn’t help but admire him inwardly.
Without the glasses, his handsome features stood out even more.
‘Hmm, seeing him like this, he’s actually quite….’
Perhaps from spending all day in the lab, his face was strikingly pale.
His rare violet eyes, beautiful in a way unbefitting a psychopath, shimmered with an uncanny allure under the light, as if you could get lost in them at any moment.
The deep eye sockets, the straight bridge of his nose, and the neat line of his mouth all came together in perfect harmony.
To sum it up, he was far too good-looking to just hole up in the lab all day.
He wasn’t quite the actor type like Laika, but if he hadn’t been a researcher, he could have made a living on his looks alone….
‘Wait, what am I thinking? That guy’s just a villain. And a psychopath who handles corpses like it’s nothing.’
Iris, whose mouth had been hanging open, forced herself to snap back to her senses, eyes widening.
Just then, Abellus put on the glasses resting on his desk and stood up.
Wearing the white lab coat she’d seen before, he walked over to Iris with a broad smile.
“Iris, you’re here.”
“Yes. The guide brought me here. The Research Director said he’d personally show me around.”
Iris replied hesitantly.
Abellus quietly watched her and suppressed a smile.
She’d been so confident as a Hero, but now she seemed terribly shy.
She was acting just like a newcomer nervous to meet an important person for the first time.
‘She must know who I am… Of course, she’s putting on an act. More cunning than I expected, huh?’
He’d posted clinical trial announcements on the Hero App several times, but she’d never fallen for any of them, so he’d assumed she wasn’t stupid.
After she managed to retake the Potion Transport Truck he’d stolen and snatch the Teleportation Device from his hands to escape, he’d revised his opinion to see her as quite clever.
Now, watching her act shy despite knowing full well who he was, he was even more convinced.
If not for his <Wondrous Perception> skill, which saw through Iris’s identity, he might never have guessed that Angel Girl and Iris were the same person, so different was her demeanor.
Deciding he should never underestimate Iris, Abellus composed his expression and widened his eyes slightly.
“Yes. I’ll be showing you around the Laboratory myself. Please, just call me Abellus.”
“Is that… really okay?”
“Yes. The title ‘Research Director’ feels a bit too distant.”
A seductive smile played on Abellus’s red lips.
Iris bit her lip, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
Why had he invited an ordinary person like her to the lab?
It was hard to guess what a psychopath like him was thinking.
He had no blood or tears, so it couldn’t be that he was just being kind to a fellow believer of the same faith.
Besides, there was no way to know if she was truly a follower of Enraka anyway.
How could a maniac like that believe in God?
If he was just going for the benefits he could get, that would at least make sense.
Suspicion rose naturally in Iris’s mind.
Letting her guard down could get her in serious trouble.
She resolved inwardly to be extra cautious and nodded.
On the outside, she relaxed her gaze, pretending to be clueless.
“All right, Abellus.”
“It feels good to be called that. Shall we go?”
Abellus opened the Director’s Office door and looked back at Iris.
She instinctively hesitated, then gave a polite smile and followed him, albeit reluctantly.
She resolved to escape at the first sign of danger.
However, contrary to her suspicions, the tour proceeded in a perfectly normal fashion.
Abellus introduced the various sections of the lab in an ordinary way, then walked down the corridor for a while and turned into a particular area.
At the end was a railing.
He walked straight to the railing without hesitation and pointed down.
Worried Abellus might shove her over without warning, Iris only craned her neck to peer below.
“Ah….”
She saw the scene of researchers working busily in the lab.
Abellus and Iris stood at the railing above the lab floor.
Abellus pretended nonchalance, but seeing how Iris tensed up every so often, he stifled a laugh.
She was acting like an innocent guest, not knowing her cover was already blown—it was almost amusing.
But rather than being off-putting, it was somewhat cute.
Maybe it was just because she looked so cute.
‘I wonder what kind of reaction she’d have if I confessed that I know her true identity?’
But the time to reveal that would have to wait until he had completely seized Iris.
He was deeply curious about her body.
The body of a Hero, and of a woman.
Escaping with a faulty Teleportation Device that killed the lab mice by making them cough blood suggested she had an incredibly sturdy body.
And he was curious what kind of figure she was hiding under those baggy clothes.
For a moment, imagining her bare body made the heat rush downward.
If he got caught standing at attention here, things would get complicated.
Abellus gritted his teeth and stifled his excitement, then cleared his throat and spoke in a calm tone.
“This is the chemical weapons lab. Everyone’s working hard with no one slacking off.”
“Ah, yes. But… is it really okay to show me a place like this?”
As Abellus approached, Iris took a step back.
Standing at the edge of a drop, she was nervous about what a psychopath might do if she got pushed.
Seeing her continued caution, Abellus’s smile deepened.
“Yes. If this was a top-secret area, I wouldn’t be showing it to you, Iris.”
“I see. Seeing how hard the researchers work makes me feel like I should hurry and get a job myself.”
Thankfully, he didn’t try to push her over or anything dreadful.
After the tour of the lab, Abellus led Iris to the back of the building.
What was he planning to show her now?
Could this finally be the trap?
Feeling uneasy, Iris darted her eyes about, and ahead, Abellus’s voice called out.
“Iris, you said you were looking for a job, right? Have you thought about the Internship I mentioned last time?”
“Ah, I think I’m a bit lacking to be an Intern here…”
“That’s not true. We need a lot of hands here. Someone like you would be a great help.”
“Is that so….”
Iris trailed off, forcing a stiff smile.
Abellus’s pretense was almost comical.
Could someone really be this different?
He must not know she was the Hero who recaptured the Potion Transport Truck, hence all this fake friendliness.
She wondered how he would react if he found out the Hero he’d groped was her.
Oblivious to the fact that Abellus already knew her secret and had invited her for that very reason, she clicked her tongue inwardly.
At that moment, Abellus opened a heavy iron door.
Iris’s eyes widened as she stared blankly at the backyard, covered in green grass.
A researcher was walking a dog twice her size—with three heads.
Drool dripped hotly from the beast’s jaws.
“Whoa….”
She never imagined she’d see a Monster at the lab.
Even if they were studying them in secret, she’d have thought it would be hidden from guests, not paraded before them.
Startled, Iris stepped back and bumped into Abellus’s chest.
As she tried to move aside, his large hands gripped her shoulders, fixing her to face forward.
‘What is he doing now?’
With an awkward smile, Iris hunched her shoulders and glanced back at him.
“Isn’t that a Monster?”
“Yes. This is where we tame Monsters. Did it surprise you?”
“Yes. I never expected to see Monsters in a lab.”
As Iris twisted her shoulders again, Abellus let go.
For a moment she stared at him, eyes wide in disbelief, then relaxed her expression.
She’d nearly broken character from surprise.
Abellus carried on in a calm tone as if nothing had happened.
“J Corporation is a Weapon Company, after all. To develop stronger weapons, we research and observe Monsters that appear in Gyodam City. It might look startling, but it’s a huge help for weapon development.”
“…I see.”
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