Tokyo Area, the Holy Palace .

  Powerful members of society gathered as they prepared for another conference .

  Seitenshi sat at the head of the table as the leader . She placed her hands on her legs while spotting a poker face .

  “Did you guys receive a copy of the brief report on the mysterious tremors and phenomena?”


  Seitenshi revealed the topic of this meeting without delay .

  An aide not far away stood up and he bowed respectfully towards Seitenshi .

  “Seitenshi-sama, the civilian unrest has been resolved for now . However, reporters from all the media companies are already on their way to the source of the event . It is my belief that articles on this will be issued in a few more hours . ”


  “Good job, keep me up to date . ”


  Seitenshi praised her subordinate .

  “What about the detailed investigative reports?”


  “We are still gathering information on it . ”


  A subordinate hurriedly replied .

  “Preliminary findings revealed the source of the mysterious tremors in the Outer Zone . We dispatched personnel to investigate before the reporters took action . We should be able to obtain accurate information in a more timely fashion than the media . ”


  Seitenshi sighed in relief, this message soothed a bit of the burden she carried .

  The mysterious events and the pillar of radiant light left a wake of civilian witnesses .

  If she didn’t get to the bottom of that, anxiety would be the least of her worries .

  After this series of events, there are people spouting crap like it’s the end of the world or something .

  Without appropriate measures, mass panic would set in and cause more chaos within the Tokyo Area .

  This is the root of Seitenshi’s unease .

  Given the events that transpired, she couldn’t rule out the possibility of it being an omen of worse events to come .

  This is why they needed to get to the bottom of this immediately .

  If it was a force of nature, they can leak it out without worrying too much about it .

  If it’s truly an ominous portent, then, they needed to prepare for whatever that is coming their way . At least, they need to make sure they aren’t taken by surprise .

  Firstly, they need to make sure the media didn’t get the scoop before them . That would start a mass panic .

  Clack

  An intelligent-looking girl with glasses entered after knocking on the door . Everyone took notice of her as she entered .

  The secretary took out a vibrating phone as she reported to Seitenshi .

  “Seitenshi-sama, it’s a call for you . ”


  “A call?”


  Seitenshi didn’t turn around before she continued .

  “After the meeting . ”


  “But……”


  The secretary hesitated .

  “It’s a call from Guild master Noah . ”


  “Guild master Noah?”


  She did a 180 as she picked up the phone .

  “Hello . ”


  A soothing voice came from the other side of the phone, it was a very grim and low tone .

  “Do you know where Saitake Sougen lives?”


  Seitenshi trembled for a second .

  That voice, it was like a gust of air coming from the coldest recesses of hell .

  It didn’t sound like the usual Noah and that threw Seitenshi off her balance .

  “President Sougen should still be in the hotel……”


  “Is that so?”


  Noah said nonchalantly . Then he ordered Seitenshi .

  “Get in the car, we are going for a second meeting . ”


  Sitting with a very uncomfortable look, Seitenshi looked at Noah who is sitting directly across her .

  Noah placed his chin on his palm as he stared at the passing sceneries outside . He looked calm but Seitenshi can tell he is very riled up right now, his presence alone is enough to chill the temperature in the car .

  Seitenshi asked with an anxious tone .

  “Erm, what happened?”


  Normally, Seitenshi wouldn’t be able to oblige by Noah’s order even if she wanted to . However, she broke protocol, called off the meeting in order to arrange a second meeting with Sougen .

  Ignoring if the guy even wants to see them, there are still unresolved issues at the meeting, she basically ditched her subordinates to do as Noah says .

  Noah told her to ignore the other stuff .

  Seitenshi trusted Noah despite the flagrant number of red flags .

  She delayed the meeting and she called Sougen up for a second meeting .

  Noah appeared soon after that as they got ready for a second meeting . He didn’t even give her the security details he’s working on . Suffice to say, Seitenshi wanted to know what is going on here .

  Noah turned towards her .

  “What is the New Human Creation Plan?”


  “Huh?”


  Seitenshi gasped . She waxed thoughtful for a short while before she replied .

  “Besides the New Human Creation Plan, America, Germany, and Australia were working on mechanized soldiers during the time of the Great Gastrea War . ”


  Seitenshi continued .

  “NEXT is the American counterpart to the New Human Creation Plan, Ayn Rand is the leader of this research program . ”


  “Ayn Rand……”


  Noah repeated the name as he carved it into his memories . He landed his sights on Seitenshi .

  “This project, are cursed children dragged into this too?”


  “You mean modifications on cursed children?”


  Seitenshi looked genuinely surprised as she shook her head .

  “No, only terminally filled or doomed humans are offered to take part in the program, how can cursed children be modified?”


  She had a point, the process of conversion to a mechanized human is excruciatingly painful, it would be a travesty to human rights to drag a perfectly healthy and fine human into this .

  Plus, cursed children are very resilient to diseases and injuries, barring extraordinary physical harm, it’s impossible to kill them . In other words, there is a 0% chance that a cursed child would be so grievously harmed to be allowed entry to this program .

  This meant that someone out there experimented on cursed children to create mechanized cursed children .

  They used their surgical knives on perfectly healthy cursed children!

  To complete this modification, they most likely used varanium-enhanced alloys to cut and maim cursed children .

  “The chances of successfully completing an operation and the subsequent survival of the subject is extremely low . This is even more unlikely if Varanium were used in the process, the survival chance is astronomically low . ”


  Seitenshi said with a very grave look on her face .

  “I shudder to think how many cursed children died on the surgical table in order to complete this task . ”


  Noah’s eyes flashed with a cold glint, he couldn’t hold back his own hostility from leaking out .

  Ding

  The elevator door slowly opened as Noah and Seitenshi looked at the person on the couch .

  There are four bodyguards in suit around Sougen, he stood at attention, unlike his cocky self during their first meeting . Noah and Seitenshi looked into the dictator’s eyes .