"You... you guys?"
The door to the analysis laboratory slowly closed behind him with a snap. Chiba blinked at the group to his left, a trace of surprise appearing on his face.
What was going on?
Why were these old scholars willing to leave their research room? The thought naturally crossed his mind amid his surprise.
"Perfect, you're here. Here, this is for you."
The old scholars all looked utterly drained, their dark circles as heavy as a panda's. Aside from their surprise at Chiba suddenly appearing here, every one of them looked uninterested in everything. Three of them held scrolls and papers, forming quite a large stack together. Hearing Chiba's slightly surprised words, they seemed to realize something. With their listless, dead-fish eyes, the three of them directly piled the scrolls and papers into Chiba's hands.
"Th-this is?"
Faced with the papers being shoved at him, Chiba instinctively spread his hands to catch them. His thoughts were still caught on the surprise of running into these people, and his voice sounded somewhat dazed.
"The research report on your body!"
One of the old scholars said impatiently.
Uh...
The research was finished? At those words, Chiba's first reaction was not the joy of finally getting what he had wanted, but confusion.
"The research? It's finished?"
The words slipped from his mouth unconsciously.
But no verbal response came. After stacking the documents all the way up to Chiba's chin, the old scholars rolled their eyes and staggered off one after another. They looked like they were hurrying back to sleep and could not be bothered to waste words on Chiba.
It was really... finished?
After watching them leave, Chiba looked at the scrolls and papers piled nearly to his chin, still somewhat blank with disbelief.
However, he quickly became certain that