# Chapter 46
I glanced at Alice, puzzled by her incomprehensible behavior, and turned to stare at Zenon. But he seemed equally confused, unable to hide his bewilderment.
“Name…”
Alice gently reached out to grasp Zenon’s collar, demanding an answer in a tiny voice. After hesitating, Zenon responded.
“…It’s Zenon.”
“Name… that?”
But Alice tilted her head in confusion.
“You’re asking if Zenon is my name?”
I questioned Alice again about this strange inquiry, but she immediately nodded. Zenon isn’t particularly unusual as a name, so why was she reacting like this?
But thinking about it carefully, one thing bothered me. When Zenon was a spy, he must have used an alias. Yet he still introduced himself as Zenon now.
Using your real name when infiltrating increases the risk of exposing your identity, so he must have used an alias… But why is he still maintaining that alias?
This unanswered question naturally turned my attention toward Zenon. He seemed deep in thought after Alice’s question. His hesitant lips and contemplative eyes were evidence of this.
Could there be a reason why he needed to keep using the name Zenon? It should be nothing more than a meaningless word to him now.
Meanwhile, Zenon appeared to have organized his thoughts, as his calm, settled eyes turned toward Alice. His gaze was filled with strong determination.
“That’s right, it’s my name.”
At his clear, resonant voice, my fingertips involuntarily twitched. Despite being a seemingly meaningless statement, words of unfathomable depth flowed into me.
“Name… good.”
With those words, a faint smile appeared on Alice’s face. Though it was very subtle, it was the first time I’d seen her smile. Did Zenon’s words have meaning for Alice too?
She had been confined to this room all along, so it would be normal for her cognitive abilities to have deteriorated, but like before, there were times when Alice seemed like someone who knew everything.
Each time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Alice was hiding something. What exactly did she know?
* * *
As time passed, I gradually adapted to Kane’s unfamiliar life. Seeing Alice and going to the lab no longer felt strange. I still felt uncomfortable administering drugs to her, but it couldn’t be helped.
According to Kane’s diary, I could write false entries a few times, but there was a high risk of being discovered if I continuously avoided administering the drug. Therefore, it was impossible to completely avoid the experiments. Each time I injected the drug, Alice took it stoically, as if accustomed to it. But even she couldn’t become numb to the pain.
As the pain gradually intensified, Alice bit her lip hard and shed tears. They weren’t tears of sadness or anger, but purely from pain. Even though they stopped shortly after, what was being injected into her was a potent drug with the side effect of stopping growth. It couldn’t possibly be painless.
I was somewhat accustomed to pain myself. I felt pain every time I trained with Boss. But that was momentary pain. If you endured it, the pain disappeared instantly.
So it was difficult, but not unbearable. But Alice’s case was different. The pain persisted and kept recurring. In a way, it was remarkable that Alice was still alive. Most people would quickly go insane in such a situation.
That said, she wasn’t completely normal either. For one thing, Alice lacked basic knowledge. She could speak to some extent because Kane had taught her, but she wasn’t fluent. Of course, this was something that could change, so it wasn’t a major issue.
But the biggest problem was that Alice was insensitive to emotions. She was like an empty shell. Having abandoned so much to survive, eventually all that remained was a shell.
I knew that being like a doll rather than a human was the best approach for Alice. But even that had its limits.
If this continued, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for Alice to wish for death.
I wish I could have rescued her back then. Since I was destined to die anyway, what if I had properly rescued her? That would have made not only Alice happy but Boss as well.
Now that I’m dead and Zenon has left the organization, they’ll probably look for another way to save Alice. I wanted to fulfill Boss’s wishes before dying, but it’s regrettable that I couldn’t do so in the end. Since I couldn’t save her and just died, it’s not surprising if I remain as useless words in his memory.
He might be sad, but even so, he was the Boss. He’ll quickly brush off such useless emotions. That’s the kind of person he was.
He was someone who existed solely for the position of the Boss of “Alice.” So whether the obstacle was me or the failure of the operation, he would surely return to normal soon. Boss was too busy a person to remain stuck on obstacles.
* * *
While I’d grown somewhat closer to Alice, there was someone with whom I’d made absolutely no progress. Today, like always, I glanced at Zenon, who kept his distance.
Knowing it was impossible to ignore Zenon, I’d decided to try to get to know him instead. Given his actions so far, I couldn’t believe Zenon acted without reason.
But that would only be possible if we had contact. In a relationship where we couldn’t even have a decent conversation, investigating Zenon was impossible.
“Um… I’ll go out for a bit.”
Besides, trying to talk to him was futile. Zenon didn’t respond to words he deemed unworthy of an answer. I didn’t realize it then, but his initiating conversation with me when we first met was actually quite unusual behavior.
It seemed I would disappear before I could learn about Zenon. I tried to live normally, not expecting to vanish right away, but it wasn’t unreasonable to have such thoughts about someone I couldn’t get close to.
From the beginning, I didn’t have a good sense of how to become friendly with him. I thought talking to someone would make us closer, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Besides Boss and the executives, my only friendships were with Tade and Ben. Even then, they were the ones who approached me. Come to think of it, they must also be at Peace. If I were Hans, I could ask about them, but as Kane, that was out of the question.
Tade and Ben wouldn’t have any connection with Kane, a researcher. I never imagined it would be this difficult. I wiped the moisture from my hands with a tissue and left the bathroom.
It seemed Kane had been in charge of quite a few test subjects before my possession, but now, perhaps because of this incident, I was only responsible for Alice.
That was fortunate in a way, but Kane had a weak personality. It was puzzling why Peace would entrust Alice to Kane at such a critical moment.
I couldn’t fully grasp the internal circumstances, but Peace was pouring all its efforts into experiments, so it seemed unlikely they would entrust such a sensitive matter to Kane. Furthermore, it was strange that they assigned Zenon as Alice’s attendant. At first, I was too overwhelmed by my own situation to think much of it, but once I adapted, there were more than a few things that bothered me.
Zenon wasn’t friendly to Peace. From what I’d observed, this was certain. I just hadn’t figured out why yet.
So why would they assign such a person to guard Alice? And Zenon, one of the main culprits at that? It was difficult to understand.
It would be better to separate Zenon from Alice. Moreover, with Zenon’s abilities, it would be a waste to use him as a guard. Just having Zenon place a barrier around Alice would be sufficient.
I couldn’t grasp what Peace was thinking. In a situation like this, I could investigate using a werewolf’s supernatural ability, but without any powers, I could only feel frustrated.
I never knew being without abilities would be this difficult. Rescuing Alice was currently impossible too. With each passing day, the situation only made me sigh more.
“…said.”
As I walked down the corridor, continuing to harbor these questions, a faint sound came from far away.
The voice, suddenly heard in the silence, made me stop and move toward its source. As I walked, the sound gradually grew louder.
“That’s right, didn’t I tell you? The leash is in our hands.”
“Then you might as well have killed me.”
“You’re too useful. Besides, with an ability like yours, how could you die?”
I immediately knew who they were talking about. Someone with an ability that prevents death even at the moment of dying. That could only be me.
From the voices, it seemed to be Zenon and some woman. Why were they talking about me? And was it okay to have this conversation in the middle of the corridor? I wondered, but then realized this was the 11th basement floor. Since everyone who came and went here was on the same side, there was no need to hide. I silenced my footsteps and hid behind a wall, focusing on their conversation.
“What if I had died?”
“Then that would have been good. You know too. That ability is dangerous to him.”
“Dangerous?”
Zenon let out a hollow laugh, apparently finding it absurd. I couldn’t tell exactly who “him” referred to, but it must be someone high up in Peace.
Before I died, Peace had tried to capture me, but I thought it was just for information. But from what I’d just heard, it seemed Peace wanted to kill me because I was harmful to this “him.”
“It’s better to remove dangers quickly.”
“I suppose it’s only dangerous to that bastard.”
Zenon clearly harbored hostility toward this person.
Given his hatred for Peace, it made sense he wouldn’t like the person at its center.
At Zenon’s fierce words, the corner of her mouth curled up. It was clearly not a good sign.
“I don’t know why you’ve changed so much lately, but surely you haven’t forgotten your sin?”
At those words, he pressed his lips together and maintained silence. His trembling hands revealed that Zenon was angry, but the direction of his anger wasn’t solely aimed at Peace.
“…”
“If you’ve forgotten, it’s better to remember. Who killed them.”
Zenon’s anger included himself.
