Leithanien had once been obsessed with research into the human body, even sparking a collective fervor among the upper class. They did not call themselves witches or mages, but by a far more grandiose title.
Scholars.
Sinful experiments had been packaged as academic inquiry. The moral values hidden behind them were truly horrifying to contemplate.
"Why can't you learn from Columbia?"
Hoshino shook her head and sighed as she moved back and forth through the herd, the burning flames carrying away their remaining consciousness and pain.
"Everything needs a little science. Those companies in Columbia do a fine job of it. Even if what they're researching is complete mysticism, they should at least package it to look scientific."
"Lumen, the Argo clan's jellyfish branch... Don't tell me what you were after was the secret of immortality?"
"Ridiculous."
Hoshino was about to kill the last creature in the herd when the burly man covered in black crystals suddenly shuddered. He briefly regained consciousness, pale gray pupils gradually emerging as immense pain and confusion filled his eyes. He even shed two trails of tears.
"Save... save me."
Then there was no more then. His body swelled and exploded with a boom, crystals scattering in every direction like blades as the sound of them cutting through the air rang out.
"Hiss—"
"This is way too tasteless."
He needed to be punished.
Hoshino sheathed her blade cleanly and looked up the slope. A staggering woman came into view. Perhaps it was a racial trait, but her limbs—especially her legs—were exceptionally long. By rough estimation, her proportions were an astonishing nine heads tall.
Compared to a doctor, Miss Lumen looked more like a model.
How should she act in front of her?
When a long-lived being met a friend with amnesia, she could not be