Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

The Researcher Micuria

I CAME OUT of the shower fully refreshed and found that all the equipment I’d left on the shelves was now clean. I had no idea what had happened while I was in the shower, but perhaps some kind of Galian technology had cleaned my clothes.

After dressing and equipping myself, I returned to Micuria and Kairos. They were huddled close to the panel Micuria was working on and deep in conversation. Kairos noticed me and quickly motioned me over.

“Fate, come here. Got something to show you.”

Unlike before, Micuria was all smiles and good cheer. Perhaps Kairos had persuaded her to trust me. I didn’t know what they were looking at, but I was excited to see what was on that panel.

“Wait,” I said, disappointed. “This is just a map of the facility…”

“What the hell kind of a reaction is that?” said Kairos.

I couldn’t hide my frustration. I had hoped to see top-secret Galian tech or something, but I’d gotten my hopes up for nothing more than a plain old map.

“Don’t look so down in the dumps,” Kairos continued. “Don’t you know that this map is top secret? The correct response is ‘Oh, great Micuria! I thank you from the bottom of my heart!’ Isn’t that right, Micuria?”

“Stop it already! Why do you insist on this idiocy?!” Micuria flicked Kairos’s forehead. “This buffoon aside, I do want to show you why I called you here.”

Micuria pointed to an area in the basement of the research facility. The map was three-dimensional, and she zoomed in so we could see it more clearly. 

I studied the panel carefully, but I was still left scratching my head. “There’s nothing there.”

“That’s right. Not yet. But if we do this…” 

Micuria put a hand to the map, and with a quick gesture, the map transformed. Where once there was nothing, there was now a wide-open area in the basement.

“What…is that?”

“I called you here to find out. Now that I’ve got two more of you than I expected, it should be at least twice as easy, no?” Micuria looked at Kairos with a grin.

“Yeah, I don’t mind going to find out what’s down there, but I do want to know what exactly you’re after,” said Kairos. “You only ever research the dangerous stuff. So let me guess—you want us to kill whatever we find down there.”

“Bingo. If that’s even possible, then that’s the best solution. That being said, given the unique nature of your skill, Kairos, it’s incredibly dangerous for you to kill something you know nothing about.”

“So, it’s not as simple as feeding and fleeing, then. Well, that’s disappointing.”

“I can’t believe you sometimes. If you keep this up, one day you won’t be able to endure it any longer. You’ll turn into a real monster. I can’t let that happen. I can’t let that be the end…”

“I’ll be fine.”

Micuria sighed. “Fate, please. Say something.”

I’d seen how Kairos fought on our way here. It was hard to believe that he was even the bearer of Gluttony. It seemed like devouring souls had almost no effect on him whatsoever, whereas I always struggled to keep Gluttony under control even with Luna’s help. Without her, I doubted that I could have made it this far. I’d even felt the full force of my Gluttony when I fought the Divine Dragon.

“Relax, guys,” said Kairos. “I’ve got my Gluttony under control. Recently, I can binge as much as I want and feel fine. I barely feel hungry anymore. If you ask me, I’m probably close to complete mastery of the skill.”

“Don’t be daft. It’s not a skill you can master. You’ve always suffered because of your Gluttony—always. And suddenly it’s gone quiet? What you described makes me more worried than relieved.”

“Isn’t it good news? I can finally use this power for good. I’m a changed man.”

“You haven’t changed. Nothing has. Look.” Micuria gestured to some kind of scientific data. It showed levels well above normal. The data resembled what Laine had shown me back at the kingdom. The difference, however, was that it was much worse for Kairos.

“It’s a wonder you’re even breathing,” said Micuria. “That’s the other reason I called you here.”

“I don’t have the time.”

“Don’t be like that. Once you’ve finished exploring the basement, come directly back here so we can stabilize you. We have to do what we can. Here in the facility, more and more people are unhappy with how the empire is being run. Yes, power is important, but right now the most important thing is time. We need you. What would we have left if something happened to you?”

“Fine. I’ll come back once we’re done. This was the real reason you called me here, wasn’t it?”

“Does it matter?”

From where I stood, Micuria’s true intentions couldn’t have been more obvious. 

According to Micuria, something was growing in the basement area she’d shown us. At first, it had needed little in the way of sustenance, so it had slipped through her analysis. However, in recent times, greater and greater quantities of supplies were being brought down to it.

“From what I can gather, it’s some kind of unknown biological weapon, and it grows extremely quickly.”

“So the faster we kill it, the better, right?”

“Not yet. More and more people are ready to join you, Kairos. We just need a little more time. What’s going on in the basement is concealed from the vast majority of researchers here, myself included. We can use that information to bring them to our side.”

“You think? I’m not sold yet. The people here… None of them ever considered us people. To them, we were just lab rats.”

“That was true in the past, yes. Have you forgotten that I used to be just like them? Look at me now—I’m working with you.”

“Hmph.”

“Here, take this.” Micuria passed Kairos a compact image-recording device, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. 

Kairos handed it to me. “Fate, you’re on camera duty.”

“I gave that to you, Kairos!” said Micuria.

“Look, we both know that I’m the guy that does the fighting. I won’t have time to snap some pictures.”

“Unbelievable. If you get into a full-blown fight down there, you’ll bring this facility down on top of you!”

“You’ll gather everyone and evacuate them long before that happens. I’m counting on it, Deputy Director.”

“Kairos, you… Never mind. You’d best get going. The monitoring systems are down; you only need to worry about running into actual people.” Micuria handed Kairos the panel with the map of the complex. 

Kairos once again juggled it from his right hand to his left and passed it to me. “Fate, you’re on map duty. I’m no good with maps.”

“No sense of direction?”

“If I was that bad, we’d never have made it here, right?”

That was true. Kairos probably just didn’t want to be bothered with figuring out a route to the basement. At least now I knew why he’d brought me along. 

I realized that I hadn’t seen Myne since she disappeared, so I wandered over to the next room to look for her.

“Ah, so she’s sleeping…” I muttered.

Real adventurers knew to rest whenever they had the chance. Myne had taught me this herself. This girl had fought Kairos, lost, became a prisoner of war, and was now working for her captor. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep nearly so soundly, if I could even manage to sleep in the first place. I placed a hand on Myne’s forehead.

“Something happened here, something that trapped you in your past. If I stay with you and Kairos, will you show me what that is…?”

But Myne, in her sleep, did not hear my words. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry. I never meant to… I… No…”

She was having a nightmare, and it contorted her usually stoic face into a mask of anguish.