Ian’s eyes twitched.

She woke up?

He had immediately recognized who the girl was.

Unlike before, half her face was hidden behind her messy hair, and she was wrapped tightly in an attendant’s cloak, but there was no mistaking her.

She was the experimental subject from Roben’s laboratory, the one he had seen when Roben first brought him into the tower.

The one he said was his favorite.

Ian shifted his gaze.

Mev had walked out of the elevator with an attendant beside her. She was gripping the girl’s wrist with one hand, where it poked out from the cloak.

The girl, her hair hanging wildly over her face, simply trudged along without resistance.

"Did you want to take a look at the top levels of the magic tower?" Ian asked casually.

Mev smiled faintly and shook her head. "No. Reporting first seemed like the proper order."

"Then you can do it right there. You’re heading back out anyway."

At Ian’s words, Mev, the attendant, and the girl all stopped.

Ian glanced at her briefly, moving only his eyes.

"All the mages who tried to escape have been dealt with, Ian," said Mev. "But... Moro didn’t come back with me."

"Don’t tell me it went to Nila?" Ian frowned slightly and looked at her.

Mev clicked her tongue and nodded. "Probably. The moment I got off at the entrance, it turned around and ran off. It didn’t even stop when I shouted."

"Looks like it’s completely smitten..."

Her tone revealed her bewilderment.

He let out a chuckle and shrugged. "So you picked up something else instead?"

"That’s not why. Well... not exactly."

Mev hesitated, then finally looked down at the girl.

"I found her on the way here. She was walking toward the central plaza."

So she left the laboratory on her own.

He stopped in front of Mev and looked down at the girl just as she did. Even with both of their gazes on her, the girl didn’t react at all.

"She didn’t show any hostility when she saw me. And she seems to understand speech. So I brought her to you first," said Mev quietly.

Mev's expression showed she couldn't just ignore the girl and leave her behind; it likely reminded her of Lucia.

Ian nodded and gestured to the attendant beside them.

"Let’s check her while we head down."

The attendant immediately turned and walked toward the open elevator.

Its right arm, armor and all, had been burned black as if struck by a spell.

Come to think of it, a lot of them are injured. I don’t even know how to treat them.

Ian clicked his tongue as he stepped into the elevator behind them.

Most of those wounds weren’t something simple first aid could handle. And unlike Yog or Moro, he couldn’t just feed them chaos power.

At least they didn’t seem to be in pain. That much was a small relief.

Rumble—

Once Mev and the girl stepped fully inside, the attendant skillfully placed its left hand on the spell circuit and closed the door.

The elevator began to move.

Ian turned around and crouched down in front of the girl, who stood stiffly like a doll.

"Can you understand what I’m saying?"

Instead of answering, the girl simply nodded.

"I can’t see your eyes very well. Mind if I move your bangs aside?"

The girl nodded again.

Ian reached out and brushed the hair covering half her face upward. The blue eyes hidden beneath were revealed.

"Your hair’s a complete mess..." Ian muttered with a crooked smile.

Even so, the dull look in her eyes didn’t change at all. After a brief hum of thought, Ian slid his hand deeper into her hair.

"It’s not just fear. She’s lost all emotion," murmured Mev, crouching beside him. She bit her lower lip slightly, looking troubled.

"Don’t move at all. Got it?" Ian said, shrugging as he looked at the girl.

He had spotted something hidden beneath her hair. A needle was still embedded deep in her scalp.

The girl nodded again.

Ian pulled the needle out without the slightest hesitation.

The girl’s shoulders flinched while Mev sucked in a breath.

"Not yet. Keep still." Ian dropped the needle, now smeared with blood and fluid, and slid his hand back into her hair.

This time, the girl didn’t even nod.

One by one, the long needles were drawn out and dropped to the floor, where they clattered softly. Her shoulders twitched now and then, but her face remained utterly blank, as if the pain had long since stopped reaching her.

Then Ian noticed something beneath the cloak wrapped around her. Her left hand was clenched tightly into a fist.

Pretending not to notice, Ian continued feeling around inside her hair.

Finally, he pulled his hands away and smiled. "That should be all of them. You held out well."

Her already messy hair had become completely disheveled, but she never once looked away from Ian.

The girl blinked once.

He studied her unchanged blue eyes for a moment before asking,

"You still can’t speak at all?"

Instead of answering, the girl slowly opened her mouth.

Ian’s eyes twitched, and Mev let out a quiet gasp. "O Stern Goddess..."

Where her tongue should have been, there was nothing. It had been completely removed. Perhaps her vocal cords had been ruined as well. Even the roof of her mouth bore a small spell circuit carved into the flesh like a tattoo, its purpose impossible to guess.

"I shouldn’t have asked. Sorry. You can close your mouth now." Ian said quietly.

The girl obediently closed her mouth.

At the same time, the elevator’s vibration faded. As the doors began to slide open, Ian rose and turned to the attendant.

"Watch her for a moment."

The attendant placed its left hand over its chest and stepped toward the girl.

She looked up at it blankly.

Ian nodded toward Mev and stepped out of the elevator. The corridor outside still bore the scars of the earlier battle.

"Do you think that girl has been tainted by chaos?" Mev asked quietly as they walked past the bodies of the armored slaves.

Ian shook his head. "No. I already checked."

After all, he had run his bare hands through her hair moments ago. If she carried chaos, the essence bead inside him would have reacted somehow.

However, he had felt nothing at all.

"Really?" Mev asked again, her eyes brightening.

Ian shrugged. "Well, maybe they didn’t want to introduce another variable before finishing the process. They wouldn’t have been able to predict how chaos would interact with her. Or maybe they never intended to contaminate her with chaos in the first place."

Even while speaking, Ian casually glanced around. There was a chance another test subject might have regained consciousness. But of course, they were the only ones moving.

The upper floor was still littered with drying blood, crushed flesh, scattered organs, and the corpses of masked slaves.

"In any case, it seems the part about her being their favorite wasn’t a lie."

Ian eventually looked back at the girl walking behind them beside the attendant.

"Judging by her condition, it doesn’t look like any other mage got their hands on her."

"That’s a relief... At least her soul hasn’t been lost," Mev answered with a sigh and glanced back.

"She might not have lost all her emotions either."

Mev’s eyes widened at Ian’s words.

Ian kept his gaze forward toward the approaching elevator. 'When I pulled the needles out, she clenched her fist without realizing it. If she truly felt nothing, she wouldn’t have done that,' he continued.

"By the heavens," Mev murmured, placing one hand over her breastplate as she let out a breath of relief.

The fact that she seemed more emotional than usual was probably because this was the Gray Magic Tower.

"Do you think he treated her differently because she was his favorite test subject?" Mev added after a moment, a new thought crossing her mind.

After all, Roben had been very confident about the procedure used to remove emotions. It was something Ian himself had wondered about as well.

"Well, I did come up with a guess," Ian said calmly and looked over at Mev, who swallowed nervously. "She didn’t have her hair shaved off, and there are no signs her skull was open. Instead, they stuck a lot of needles into her head."

"So?" Mev blinked.

She clearly couldn’t guess where he was going with it. That was hardly surprising for someone who wasn’t a mage.

"Maybe they tried a different method. For example, stimulating specific areas of the brain without opening the skull."

Mev widened her eyes.

"Removing emotions was probably simple for him by then, so he might’ve tested that first. Once it worked, he likely grew even more attached to the result. Of course..."

While Mev listened in stunned silence, Ian simply shrugged casually. "As I said, it’s only a guess. We’ll know for sure once we read Roben’s journal."

Despite saying that, Ian was almost certain his guess was correct. He had already gotten a decent sense of Roben’s personality.

Roben would have considered this approach far more refined and elegant than cutting open someone’s skull and directly tampering with the brain.

That was likely why he had been so confident this girl would become a masterpiece worthy of the top level.

"Now that I hear all that, it’s even more regrettable that I didn’t get to kill that mage myself," Mev muttered after finally recovering from her surprise.

Ian smiled. "You killed plenty of other spellcasters instead. They were all the same kind of scum anyway."

He looked toward the approaching elevator, then turned to Mev with a meaningful gaze.

"Besides, we haven’t even touched the real mastermind backing them yet."

Strength entered Mev’s eyes.

Looking into her green gaze, Ian added quietly, "Not yet. But when the time comes, you’ll have more than enough chances to release the anger you’re feeling now."

That was likely the real reason Mev had come all the way down from the top level.

If not for the test subject girl, she would have already asked about the gate’s condition and the plan to subjugate Larmut.

"Alright. I’ll look forward to it," Mev answered with a slight curl of her lips. Her smile was as gentle as her voice.

She really does like hearing things like that.

Ian returned the smile before looking forward again.

"If she hasn’t been tainted by chaos and hasn’t completely lost her emotions, would it be alright if I took her with me, Ian?" Mev said cautiously just then.

"You?" Ian paused for a moment before asking.

Mev nodded. "We can’t just leave her here. And it would be difficult for you to keep her with you. Besides, Nasser and I were already planning to go to the Bastard King."

"Well, I didn’t say this earlier because things got chaotic," Ian said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "But I’ve changed my mind. I think it would be better if you stayed with us until we reached Drenorov."

The reason, of course, was the new vision of the future he had seen.

Originally, he had planned to give them a few pieces of dragon equipment the next time they met. However, if he wanted to change the future, he needed to make far more extreme and decisive choices.

"Until Drenorov?"

"Yeah. I plan to gear you and Nasser up even more there."

For example, covering the entire group in dragon relics.

Of course, he had no intention of explaining the details now. They would be suffering plenty because of him soon enough.

"My equipment is already good enough, but if that’s what you think, alright, Ian." Mev nodded readily despite the puzzled look in her eyes.

Then, stepping into the elevator, she asked, "Should we bring the girl with us until then?"

"Let’s postpone that decision for now," Ian answered, stopping and turning around. "We should hear the others’ opinions first. And we still don’t know exactly what kind of abilities she has."

"Alright." Mev nodded and turned with him, looking at the attendant and the girl approaching behind them.

Despite the gruesome scene surrounding them, the girl didn’t react at all. Not even a flicker of expression crossed her face.

Then again, no amount of blood or scattered flesh could compare to the horrors of the experiments she had endured.

Rumble—

The attendant who had entered with the girl quickly closed the elevator doors.

Ian gave it a small nod of acknowledgment.

At the same time, Mev leaned forward slightly and asked the girl, "Do you have any special abilities?"

The girl, whose face was once again half hidden behind her hair, nodded immediately.

Mev glanced back at Ian with a look that said she had expected as much.

Crackle—

At that moment, a flash of blue light burst from within the girl’s brown hair.

Ian and Mev turned their heads simultaneously.

But in that instant, the girl’s hair had already begun standing wildly on end.

Crackle— crackle—

Blue lightning spread between the strands like a web. Her glowing blue eyes flickered ominously.

"Stop! I didn’t mean you had to show it." Mev stumbled backward as Ian pushed her behind him.

He had already stepped in front of her, raising a Platinum Barrier.

If necessary, he had been ready to knock the girl unconscious with a burst of willpower.

Crackle...

As if responding to Mev’s words, the lightning instantly faded. Her hair, however, remained wildly flared for a moment longer.

"So that’s why her hair’s such a mess." Ian let out a chuckle as he looked at the girl, whose hair now resembled a lion’s mane.

I should read Roben’s research notes right away.