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 .
âDid you guys receive a copy of the brief report on the mysterious tremors and phenomena?â
Seitenshi revealed the topic of this meeting without delay .
An aide not far away stood up and he bowed respectfully towards Seitenshi .
âSeitenshi-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 . â
âGood job, keep me up to date . â
Seitenshi praised her subordinate .
âWhat about the detailed investigative reports?â
âWe are still gathering information on it . â
A subordinate hurriedly replied .
âPreliminary 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 . â
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 didnât 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 itâs 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 Seitenshiâs unease .
Given the events that transpired, she couldnât 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 itâs truly an ominous portent, then, they needed to prepare for whatever that is coming their way . At least, they need to make sure they arenât taken by surprise .
Firstly, they need to make sure the media didnât 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 .
âSeitenshi-sama, itâs a call for you . â
âA call?â
Seitenshi didnât turn around before she continued .
âAfter the meeting . â
âButâŠâ
The secretary hesitated .
âItâs a call from Guild master Noah . â
âGuild master Noah?â
She did a 180 as she picked up the phone .
âHello . â
A soothing voice came from the other side of the phone, it was a very grim and low tone .
âDo you know where Saitake Sougen lives?â
Seitenshi trembled for a second .
That voice, it was like a gust of air coming from the coldest recesses of hell .
It didnât sound like the usual Noah and that threw Seitenshi off her balance .
âPresident Sougen should still be in the hotelâŠâ
âIs that so?â
Noah said nonchalantly . Then he ordered Seitenshi .
âGet in the car, we are going for a second meeting . â
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 .
âErm, what happened?â
Normally, Seitenshi wouldnât be able to oblige by Noahâs 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 didnât even give her the security details heâs working on . Suffice to say, Seitenshi wanted to know what is going on here .
Noah turned towards her .
âWhat is the New Human Creation Plan?â
âHuh?â
Seitenshi gasped . She waxed thoughtful for a short while before she replied .
âBesides the New Human Creation Plan, America, Germany, and Australia were working on mechanized soldiers during the time of the Great Gastrea War . â
Seitenshi continued .
âNEXT is the American counterpart to the New Human Creation Plan, Ayn Rand is the leader of this research program . â
âAyn RandâŠâ
Noah repeated the name as he carved it into his memories . He landed his sights on Seitenshi .
âThis project, are cursed children dragged into this too?â
âYou mean modifications on cursed children?â
Seitenshi looked genuinely surprised as she shook her head .
âNo, only terminally filled or doomed humans are offered to take part in the program, how can cursed children be modified?â
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, itâs 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 .
âThe 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 . â
Seitenshi said with a very grave look on her face .
âI shudder to think how many cursed children died on the surgical table in order to complete this task . â
Noahâs eyes flashed with a cold glint, he couldnât 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 dictatorâs eyes .