What happened afterwards was an inhumane experiment, where I was forced to varying degrees of cruelty by the lab-coats… was what I had originally expected.

It turns out that I had thought too much. Apart from when they were extracting small blood samples using a sterilized needle, they didn’t look like they were going to do anything else that was directly suspicious, only performing what seems to be have been measurements and some clinical tests so far.

A good thing to note about this place was that the equipment that spread all over this vast room covered completely in clear white walls appeared astoundingly expensive, which indicated the financial status of the organization behind all this, X.

Ultrasound scanners, ENTs, highly advanced MRI scanners, PET scans, surgical robots were some of the few pieces of equipment that I recognized from having my little sister, Yamo undergo years of treatment in a private hospital. That did not include more than half of them which I did not know the names of with my half-baked knowledge.

Nothing strange of the sort happened to me over the course of a few hours. Besides the tests, they had even treated the scrape I had on my elbow from earlier with frightening speed and efficiency. It was to the point where I could no longer see any traces of the wound in mere minutes. As I had my belongings taken away from me before the tests, I relied on the analog clock on the wall to tell the time.

It had become a little tedious and boring as I moved from station to station, handled precisely by the lab-coats, as if I were a doll that would die from the slightest mistake. Most of them appeared to really know what they were doing, clearly professionals who didn’t play around as none of them were idle at any point.

Circling around me like bees, they were quick to procure reports and scribbled down notes in between intervals of the tests. Being the curious spirit that I was, I had tried to talk to them on several occasions. But beyond being ignored, I felt as if I was talking to air.

“Be quiet. We are not going to hurt you if you cooperate with us.” Had it not been my initial refusal to follow their instructions, I would have thought that they were mutes.

「...Say… how many more tests are there...」

『...』

While I was lying down on a dental engine, I casually spoke to the middle-aged man who was currently writing down notes in a flurry. But it felt as if he didn’t appreciate me suddenly talking to him, as his pen suddenly stopped.

The man furrowed his eyebrows and stared at me with a twinge of frustration. It seems that I had broken his concentration, as he finally answered me.

『...Until we find the things we want to see.』

I wanted to ask him what that meant, but in the next moment a colleague appeared beside him and tapped on his shoulder. The man immediately stopped talking after that warning, and it seems that I could no longer glean any more information out of him.

…Still, what does that mean? What do they want to see from the reports they were writing about me? At this moment, I couldn’t help but feel that I was some kind of rare animal stuck around the company of these mysteriously tight-lipped scientists. Of course, that was probably due to the directions of X, this mysterious organization that had caught me.

Things went on for a while more, and it wasn’t until 9.20PM that I was brought to a room by two bodyguard-looking men. The woman with the ponytail came and told me that they wanted me on stand-by while they assessed my reports. Her face when she talked to me seemed to be a little impatient for some reason.

Anyway, along the way here I was blindfolded so I no longer knew the way back to the elevator.

...Well, it didn’t matter to me. In the hands of a powerful organization, I could only resign myself to any kind of resistance. Since there was no way out from the very beginning, I should just succumb to whatever that comes. I could only trust that they would keep their word about not placing a hand on the people around me, as long as I followed whatever that they told me to do.

In other words, I was confident that I wouldn't be hurt as long as I didn't do anything stupid. It was clear that I held some value to them while alive, so I wasn't too worried. But of course, I was still quite nervous at the beginning, but that feeling had died down over time.

After the doors to this room closed tightly, I sighed heavily and took a look around this place.

It was just like a small jail cell, with no food and nothing to sleep on… was what I thought.

In actuality, this room was rather wide even when enclosed with white walls on all four sides. Four panels of light lit up from the ceiling, and a vent which was giving the room a cool supply of air conditioning. There was a bed that appeared to be for patients at the side, and a shelf with some books. A small drawer table beside the bed had some dry biscuits inside.

There was also a cubicle segmented by a curtain should I feel the need to use the washroom.

Was I supposed to be confined in here for a while? Well, the room was pretty spacious and clean so I had no complaints. Since I had addressed my absence from school to my close pals already, there was no problem with me suddenly disappearing for a single day… although if they were to keep me here for any longer, some of them might get a little suspicious.

The only problem was the lack of entertainment. Since I had my phone confiscated earlier, I only had the books to pass the time with. Sighing to myself again, I picked up one of them. It was a book on the studies of human psychology. I plopped down and lied on the bed exhaustedly while flipping the pages disinterestedly.

...It really wasn’t a very interesting book.

Average. Average. Average!

In another room, a woman was flipping through the pages of the reports while clutching her hair in irritation.

How could this person be so exceedingly average?!

(Had it been an oversight to bring him here after all?)

The woman lamented as the lab-coats around looked at her with equally frustrated looks.

『Good work, you guys can leave now.』

When she had said so, they slowly left the room one by one, leaving only the woman and a single escort by her side.

The woman frowned as she looked at the papers on the table, and at the photo of the young man. Indeed, nothing pointed to him possessing the aptitude to synchronize with Noir, the entity that was the black card. However, it was a fact that she had seen it.

The ability, [Hyperbolic] had indeed manifested on his body earlier today.

She was definitely not mistaken about it. She had seen it with her very own eyes.

In that case, what was the issue here?

The known signs and connections that they had learnt about Noir did not surface as results on the tests. That would mean either of two conclusions.

One, the young man did not actually synchronize with Noir, and she had actually been mistaken the entire time.

Two, the young man had indeed established the connection, but it was through some other means of ‘authentication’ that had allowed him to bypass the normal procedure of ‘selection’.

There was also the possibility that he was withholding information secretly by adjusting his body parameters through some means, but that was highly unlikely from the background she had researched about him beforehand.

…

The fact that they had spent so long just to draw such vague conclusions was detrimental.

At least to her.

The woman had wanted to obtain that clue for ‘authentication’, then there would be a chance that she could undo Yato’s synchronization and seize the ownership of Noir for herself. After all, being the owner of Noir held many monetary benefits. But that wasn’t the main reason why she coveted it.

But as it stands, they truly could not find anything special about Tsukasa Yato, and so they were now forced to make a decision about the existence of this peculiar young man.

『What shall we do now, young miss.』

The escort holding on to the reports spoke with an indecisive tone. It was clear that he was speaking out his mind in place of his employer. There was a long while of silence after that.

Holding her head with a frown, the woman finally muttered back.

『...What to do… huh.』

She then stood up from her chair and walked over to a glass window where the floors of this underground facility could be overseen clearly from above. Her eyes rested on a room where she could see the young man, Yato sleeping soundly inside the room he was allocated to.

『...We will release him first thing in the morning. But...』

When she saw how carefree he looked in his sleep, the woman grit her teeth and continued:

『...Keep a close watch on him. Time will tell us if he has truly obtained the successor rights to Ren-sama’s inheritance.』

『What about the card? Is it really okay to leave him with it?』

At her aide’s words, the woman closed her eyes once more and spoke,

『...It is a good opportunity. They say money blinds fools. If he ruins himself with it, then it just proves that this guy amounts to just that much. Besides...』

From her pockets came out a similar black card. The woman narrowed her eyes and spoke coldly.

『Ren-sama has disappeared, but this doesn’t mean that any country bumpkin deserves the rights to what he has built. The only ones who do, are only the ones who had stayed by his side the entire time.』

『...It is as you say, young miss.』

The escort bowed his head and decided not to say anything more.

The woman was, after all, surely another one of those potential candidates for succession. His lowly status deemed it necessary to possess a certain amount of respect towards his employer who was a far more important figure than anyone else in this place. Indeed, the woman was the boss of this entire underground facility.

『For now… we will stand by and watch.』

Twiddling the black card around her fingers dexterously, she turned her back and left the room with the escort in tow.

(...Tsukasa Yato. You must be hiding something about yourself… but I will find it. ...No matter what it takes---! Because no one else but me can obtain it. Master’s possessions are mine, and mine alone. You can hold on to it for now, but I will definitely never acknowledge you as his successor----)

Her eyes that flicker in the dimly-lit corridor appeared with an unwavering conviction, as well as an eerie aura of obsession. A knife had appeared in one of her open hands at some point, the sharp edge of the serrated steel glimmering in the darkness.

(--Not even one bit.)