Chapter 1057: with translation of chapter title

NO．180：Some people just disappear suddenly.

From the day I lay on the operating table, the pain in my limbs has clung like a shadow, never easing.

For a child, crying and acting out when in pain is utterly ordinary.

But when that blond child starts making a fuss, many of the experiments surrounding her cannot continue.

Thus, the empathy‑lacking experimenters become annoyed, complain, and then look to their leader.

AhrensParvis/AhrensParvis, a kindly‑looking old Caprini.

He is also the manager of the entire project.

"Everyone, go away, do as the child says, and we'll stop for now."

He spoke, his words as gentle as his appearance, but their meaning was beyond doubt, enough to make those employees eager for progress reluctantly disperse.

Soon, only four people remained in the scene.

"Olivia, is there anything else?" Parvis asked his outstanding disciple.

In his view, this disciple is excellent in everything, just not smooth enough in dealing with people.

He even wanders off into irrelevant thoughts because of the subject's condition.

Fortunately, his foundation is solid, so he hasn't made any basic mistakes.

Even so, this kind of stage right now is always meaningless.

"Teacher… can that child really get better?"

Through the transparent glass, watching the loudly crying child, the brown‑haired, gold‑eyed woman asks the instructor, inevitably feeling a hint of hesitation and timidity.

"Of course, she'll be fine, and might even be reborn." The old man said with deep meaning.

"I don't think she wants to be reborn…" Olivia muttered.

"Before true convenience arrives, people always reject new things, but for a researcher this really shouldn't be," the old man regrettably shook his head, "Olivia, in this regard you should learn from the newly transferred Miss Ailisuzhi."

Saying that, he turned his gaze to one of the two researchers who weren't in a hurry to leave.

That brown‑haired Koulanta girl truly impressed him, possessing at a young age an enthusiasm and focus others could only envy.

That is why Parvis allowed her, despite her status as a newly arrived exchange intern, to be exceptionally assigned to this key project.

As for the possibility of her being a spy… given her age, ability, and passion, he could not imagine any experiment team willing to sacrifice such a talent for espionage.

After all, youth is both a value and a weakness.

Someone his age has seen too many youths lost in material desire, power, achievement, etc., unable to free themselves; even if the other party were truly a spy, he has ample patience and leverage to turn them.

Thus, the only problem is……

The weaknesses of youth are broad, one being that they easily possess, like Hermes, an empathy that hinders progress.

When they are female, this tendency is even stronger.

"Maintaining reverence for the unknown actually yields sufficient caution and rationality, Director Sir; I actually think this senior's style is also the essential quality of an excellent researcher."

Such approving words, which at first hearing seem lacking in sympathy, still end up concerning that child, don't they?

The old man, whom many secretly call an old goat, can instantly see the girl's little scheming in her heart.

However, saying this is actually more flexible than his dull‑witted student, so Parvis is willing to give her a higher score, thinking this child might be more suited than Hermes to inherit his mantle.

But before that, he still needs to find a chance to dampen her enthusiasm.

After all, if the goal is to make a good impression in front of colleagues, directly rebutting the director's words would be a case of losing the big picture over a small gain.

But seeing her indifferent, bland smile, the old man realizes she may not be obsessed with the usual craving for promotion.

Young people's talent‑based arrogance is likewise not surprising……

Thinking thus, he also sighed: "You can think that way, no problem; so you stayed for the same reason as your senior?"

Rushing to educate would only be dismissed as nagging background noise; the old man, whose experience in this area is especially rich, still pulls the topic back to the present, then greets her innocent expression:

"What? I came to ask for instruction on the third step technique of prior source stone embedding."

"..."

Faced with that expression of "I really want to progress," even the well‑experienced old goat could not tell true from false at once, merely giving a fake cough and asking: "And you? Ifrit."

He looked at the tall girl who, like Ailisuzhi, was an exchange intern and shared the same code number as the test subject, and found it not strange.

After all, truly speaking, Ifrit/Ifrit itself is a title with special meaning, especially in the Salamander clan culture of the Sarkaz—its strength great and violent, bearing double horns, dwelling in sunless underground, engulfed in flames, as a true hero only a king can subdue, a noble existence.

Such a title is easily borrowed, after all, in any land, heroes' names are always attempted to be recreated.

And this intern is indeed a Sarkaz.

……Is she a Sarkaz?

Gazing at the girl unmistakably bearing demon‑race horns and tail, he felt a momentary daze, and inexplicably began to doubt.

I am really old…… he couldn't help but feel that way, and laughed helplessly at his own fleeting doubt.

The flame demon, as an ancient and powerful branch of the Sarkaz, has long been severed; that is why everyone flocks to the tiny "Royal Court Flame Demon" power crystal, and he also tries to use it to recreate the "Chimera."

By contrast, this Sarkaz bearing the Ifrit work code resembles a rebellious girl who worships the glory of a vanished side‑branch clan…… and does have a bit of youthful vigor; placed between Ailisuzhi and Olivia, she seems like a dividing line of "normal people."

"Do you want to comfort the patient who shares your code number?"

"Comfort…?"

That girl, who had not participated in the conversation earlier, nor paid attention to it, merely gazed through the glass at the crying child on the bed; her look was so complex that even the old goat found it hard to read. Upon hearing the words, she turned her head, listened again, then remained bewildered, and simply turned her gaze back to the child, giving a slight shake of her head.

"No way." she said.

"What she needs is not comfort either."

"……Exactly, you should also take this to heart, Olivia." Unexpectedly hearing such a practical, reliable answer from the other side, the old man couldn't help but be startled, yet he did not forget to educate the disciple he had high hopes for.

"For a child of this age, mere words are also meaningless, but if you want to prove you can truly empathize with them, how should you speak?"

He walked to the table, picked up his own insulated water cup, took a light sip, not looking at the other's flustered expression, and continued speaking leisurely:

"Don't speak, don't try to do anything; when they truly understand, when they know how to look back, they will understand. By then, she might even thank you, thank us, thank us for giving her such a…… What's wrong? Ifrit?"

He noticed the employee suddenly turn his head to look at his actions, and it wasn't hard to imagine that these words of his were hard for young people to accept.

But what of it?

In the research field, one always encounters such things: when you are still studying a project, someone else publishes a paper with a completely opposite viewpoint, and it gains wide recognition in academia.

You can't accept it, can you?

But that is ultimately an indisputable reality.

Some people may have spent their whole lives striving in the wrong direction; when they realize this, even though they feel countless regrets and find it hard to accept, they ultimately must learn to compromise with reality.

Although there are also those who refuse to compromise, that ultimately amounts to nothing more than throwing a childish tantrum.

Paersi had no intention of prolonging this meaningless topic, and thus paid no heed to the hostility in the girl's eyes, simply continuing the old cadre's habit of raising his cup to drink, and then—— in Ailisuzhi's startled voice——

——A giant claw suddenly burst out after shattering the glass, clenched in his hand.

……

The irresistible oppression combined with an excessively scorching touch even failed to draw the desired scream from the old goat before it fell silent; Ailisuzhi and the wide-eyed Yifulite gradually lifted their heads together, watching the demonic beast that was slowly rising up, excessively sudden.

Meanwhile, Olivia beside them instinctively stepped back step by step under that pressure.

"Yifulite… why…"