"Test subjects... No wonder they were covered in bandages and wounds. But why was there absolutely no mention of them in the mission files...?"
Theresa looked at the girls before her with worry, sympathy, and even a trace of guilt—not for anything else, but for failing to rescue them sooner.
"Schicksal secretly conscripts thousands of test subjects like them every year. Most of them are orphans. No one cares whether they live or die."
Patrick stood to one side. Unlike Theresa... she knew about most of Schicksal's dirty secrets. But this had already become the norm. It was nothing rare.
She had never thought of changing any of it, nor did she have the power to. Someone had to be sacrificed. If not them, then someone else.
"No, it's not true that no one cares about them. At least... at least I do. Treating them as disposable experimental materials... using them up like that is slaughter!"
Theresa loudly refuted Patrick's words. This was not how she had been raised to think. They were living, breathing people—innocent girls, every one of them. How could they be casually used up like experimental supplies?
Theresa approached one of the test subject girls and placed her hands on the girl's arms. She looked at them with utter sincerity. "Don't worry. Nothing else will happen to you. Hide here for a few days first, and in a few days... I'll get you out of here. I promise! Please believe me."
"Leave... Really?"
Seeing Theresa's earnest promise, the girl parted her lips slightly, hope in her eyes.
"Of course!"
Theresa nodded firmly.
"Hey, hey... Theresa, that's against the rules. Especially since they've all been injected with Honkai energy. Letting these test subjects out would be far too dangerous!"
Hearing Theresa's words, Patrick could not help speaking