The pale blue glow of the healing Magicules slowly faded away.
The room was quiet now, with only Norman's faint, labored breathing to be heard.
Nearly ten full minutes passed before his unfocused eyes finally came back into focus.
The change in him after the Green Goblin persona was removed was striking.
The viciousness and paranoia once hidden in his eyes were gone, leaving only the exhaustion of an overtaxed soul.
Even his eyes had returned to their original gentle light brown.
Though his physical wounds had healed, the pain of having his soul forcibly torn apart remained.
The discomfort came from the very root of his consciousness, and he couldn't recover from it at all.
Norman laboriously turned his head, looking at the three people present one by one.
He glanced at Harry first, then at Peter, who was drenched in sweat, and finally at Rimuru.
After a long pause, he spoke in a hoarse voice so broken it was almost inaudible.
"Everything that just happened-only the four of us know about it, right?"
Harry hurriedly bent down to support him, moving so gently it was as if he feared he might break him.
His own palm had only just healed, and dried blood still stained his cuff.
He immediately replied softly, "Don't worry, no outsiders saw anything."
Hearing that, Norman's brow furrowed sharply, his face full of worry.
He knew perfectly well how much turmoil there was inside Oscorp, and he didn't dare let his guard down.
Ever since the military had pulled funding from Oscorp, the company's stock price had plummeted.
The old guard on the board had long been itching to act.
They had been secretly gathering evidence of his mental instability, waiting for a chance to use it against him and force him out.
If