In the dim space, the glow from operating cables and instruments flickered, serving as the only source of light.
"Glub..."
Amid the sound of bubbles rising, the life-support apparatus that stretched like a pillar to the ceiling continued to function as it had for decades, keeping that being—part Saint, part demon, part young man, part child—suspended upside down in the liquid. It entrusted every vital function to machinery and endured the solitude and loneliness of this tiny world alone.
"Buzz!"
At a certain moment, a screen-like spatial window abruptly opened before Academy City's chairman.
On it, a man and a woman chatted as they headed toward a private apartment building, apparently intending to pick someone up. The man looked helpless, while the woman seemed amused.
Faced with this scene, Aureolus did not open his eyes.
Yet the information required for sight had long since been transmitted directly into the central cortex of his brain through machinery.
Thus, Aureolus slightly raised his head.
"Already back?"
His voice, which only emerged after being processed by machinery, echoed through the dim space.
"Then where exactly did those two go?"
Only a few days had passed since Fang Li announced his departure from Academy City and his return now.
Perhaps even Fang Li himself had not expected this departure to last such a short time.
However, to Aureolus, the length of time was unimportant.
What mattered was that, given Fang Li's rather unusual existence, Aureolus naturally could not help but try to gather information about his destination.
Yet the result was that he found nothing.
Fang Li and Sylvia had seemed to vanish from the face of the earth. No matter what channel he used, he could not find any trace of them.
"Was this also that man's method?"
Academy City's chairman showed no