Mutagen

Day 359 - 12:49 AM - Meeting Room, 38th Settlement, Muria Sacred Fortress, Mount Muria, Kudus Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

The part of the story about Luna's niece made Mei uncomfortable. Luna's friends had similar reactions, but the source of Mei's discomfort was her own unpleasant experience.

On the other hand, Mark could not help but glance at Iola. It was not wrong to say that Iola and Luna's niece had the same experiences. They were both caught by a gang and were treated as toys for amusement to the point of dying.

But comparing the experiences of the two girls, it was hard to say who had it worse. Iola was literally dying when Mark took her. On the other hand, while Luna's niece lived, the little girl had yet to wake up after several months of coma.

Sensing Mark's glance, Iola turned to her father while rubbing her sleepy eyes. As Mark saw how Iola was fighting her sleepiness, Mark adjusted his arm, wrapped it around Iola's shoulder, and let her comfortably lean to his side.

Soon, Iola could not fight her sleepiness any longer and fell asleep.

That act between Mark and Iola made the atmosphere in the room a little warmer, especially for the leaders of the Moon Chasers. The five women had already realized the truth. The three little girls around Mark and Mei were not their blood-related children. 

Limabela knew Mei even before the apocalypse began. Of course, she knew how old the princess of Xiao Industries was. At the moment, Mei should be nineteen years old. There was no way for Mei to have an eleven or twelve-year-old daughter like Iola unless she gave birth at nine. Even having the youngest, Miracle, who looked like five years old, would be unlikely.

It meant Mark and Mei adopted these three little girls, and all of it happened after the apocalypse began. Yet, they treat each other as a genuine family, probably even better than most blood-related families.

Mark turned back to Luna as she finished the summary of how the Moon Chasers ended up in this Sattelite Settlement despite being the first settlers in Mount Muria.

It seemed that Luna and her group were pushed to this state due to a series of unfavorable circumstances.

"You gave up on searching for your family?"

Mark asked as he analyzed a few parts of her story.

"It's not that I want to give up on them," Luna bitterly replied. "When my friends left, they also searched for me. I want to go searching, too, but my niece's state isn't something I can just leave to anyone."

Luna did not mention it, but a part of her reason was the betrayal of her brother's best friend, causing her to not put much trust in people she barely knew. And this behavior of hers got even worse after their settlers got bought by the government and turned against them.

If not for the fact that Limabela vouched for Mark and his group through her [Clairvoyant] visions, they would also be subjected to a large amount of distrust from Luna, although she would not show it openly.

Luna's distrust was also one of the reasons why the 38th Settlement had very few allies.

"We reached their house, but we found no one," Limabela spoke their side of the story. "It seemed that they managed to evacuate at the start. But after the remaining military forces and refugee camps joined, we're not able to find any clues about them. As far as we know, all remaining military forces are now here. But we never found any member of Luna's family."

Military camps and outposts could fall at any time. It could be caused by attacks from the [Infected] and [Evolved Animals]. Maybe even attacks from fellow humans. Even if Luna's family managed to evacuate during the initial outbreak, it would not be surprising if the evacuation camp they went to ended up falling.

Luna had a bitter expression as Limabela explained their findings. Nonetheless, she had already gotten over this fact. She had to in order to move forward.

At this time, Luna stared straight at Mark.

"Say," Luna spoke with a hesitant voice. "Do you still have some of those potion-like liquids you used on Farel's group? I'll exchange items for it. If we don't have what you want, I'll try to find those items."

Mark stared back at Luna, especially her purplish eyes. She was offering an exchange, but she had no intention of using the points she received by selling the [Fog Crawler's] head. It would not be fine for her to use the points Mark technically gave to them to exchange for his item. Luna intended to get the payment straight from her pocket despite the fact that she was struggling herself.

And seeing Luna's sincere request, Mark smirked as he glanced at Mei.

"Take out the small set."

Mark told Mei, and she nodded.

The five women were confused at first, but their eyes then widened in utter surprise. It was because Mei stretched her right hand forward, and a hole in space opened out of nowhere. She then took out a six-slot test tube rack with six test tubes in it. Each test tube contained that familiar reddish liquid that healed Farel's group.

But at this time, the [Regeneration Medicine] was not the focus of their shock.

"Wha-How?" 

Luna almost yelled loudly, but she managed to force herself not to disturb the sleep of Mark's daughters and the [Sylph] on his shoulder.

On the other hand, Ellie was literally screaming in the background. Fortunately, Nelia was covering Ellie's mouth tightly despite being shocked herself.

"You girls are weebs," Mark shrugged. "You girls know of spatial storage, right?"

The five women understood what Mark was saying. However, they could not recover easily. After all, it was definitely magic.

"Anyway, take this," Mark glanced at the test tube rack. "Six vials of [Regeneration Medicine]. You don't have to pay. Use these in times of emergency. And don't use it on your niece."

Mark's words snapped everyone out of shock. They all turned to face him. Not asking for payment was one thing, but he told Luna to not use the healing item on her niece.

"Why?"

Luna could not help but ask. Did this medicine have bad side effects?

"This medicine only helps with wounds and injuries," Mark answered. "Do I have to tell you more?"

Luna fell silent. She and her friends immediately realized the answer.

It was already nearly a year. Luna's niece had already been healed of all her physical injuries. Furthermore, it was already confirmed that her niece developed a regenerative ability, healing her injuries even faster than regular people.

But despite her body returning back to health, Luna's niece was not waking up from her coma.

It was clear that the issue was not just physical anymore. Making Luna's niece drink a vial would only be a waste of time and precious medicine.

Luna fell silent.

Seeing Luna's defeated expression, Mark asked.

"When are you visiting your niece? I'll accompany you. I won't be able to do much about physical injuries. But if the problem is mental and emotional, I might be able to do something."

"What do you mean?"

Luna asked.

But before Mark could answer, Thirteenth, who was silent all this time, spoke.

"This guy is an [Empath]. He's currently the strongest [Empath] alive. He can a hundred percent wake your niece up."

Mark turned to Thirteenth with a frown. He was unsure that he would be of help at all, so it was a good thing Thirteenth confirmed this face. However, it was rude to just go and reveal his information to others without consent.

Nonetheless, hearing Thirteenth's confirmation made Luna and her friends excited. After all, Luna's struggles would finally be fruitful.

However, after giving Luna some hope, Thirteenth poured dirty water to calm them down.

"Don't get too excited. I've been waiting for you to realize this, but what will you do after your niece wakes up? You know? After all that happened to her."

Luna's excitement vanished. Thirteenth was right. After the things that happened to her niece, how would the little girl live with all that mental trauma?

"Let's wake your niece up first," Mark suggested, making Luna lift her head up to him. "We don't know the effects of trauma on her unless she wakes up. You can just adjust things after that. Furthermore, she's just six, right? There's still a chance for her to outgrow and forget the unpleasant memories. But that will be up to you and the people around her."

Thirteenth smiled upon hearing Mark's words. If there was one weakness Luna had, it was her indecisiveness when it came to the circumstances around her niece. That was why she gave Luna something to heavily ponder, knowing Mark might have something to say that would make Luna have only one choice. 

Mark suspiciously glanced at Thirteenth.

"You're expecting me to say all this stuff, didn't you?" Mark questioned the [Eye]. "And why are you suddenly sharing my information?"

"If I didn't, you'll just beat around the bush, making this talk even longer, right?"

Thirteenth argued, but Mark was unable to refute this one.

"See? You can't say anything back."

Seeing that Mark could not refute her words, Thirteenth gloated.

"An [Eye] directly meddling between a conversation of mortals," Mark spoke. "It should be reported."

"WHA-Hey!"

Thirteenth did not expect Mark to say those words.

But then, another voice entered everyone's ears.

"There is no need to report."

Out of nowhere, a door of light appeared in the room, with a woman stepping out of it.

"GEH!"

Thirteenth behaved like she was a mouse caught in a trap.

But before Thirteenth could make an attempt to escape, the woman already grabbed her collar and began dragging her into the door.

Thirteenth was screaming something. However, her voice was not coming out.

"My apologies for the disturbance."

The woman said before the door of light vanished.

"Wh-who?"

Luna and her friends were flabbergasted by the sudden intruder who dragged Thirteenth away and vanished.

"Nineteenth. She's Thirteenth's superior of sorts. Except for some specific circumstances, the [Eyes] should not meddle with the mortals directly. Thirteenth clearly violated that rule earlier. She's likely to get some punishment."

Luna and her friends had complicated expressions. They did not know that a godly being like Thirteenth could be punished by someone. No wonder Thirteenth never spoke about dangers directly but just gave them signs.

"Besides, I realized one of the problems why your group is struggling now."

Mark said with a sigh.

"What problem?"

Luna could not help but ask.

"Thirteenth is babysitting you too much," Mark shrugged. "You kept relying on Thirteenth, right? Your growth is being slowed down by your reliance on her. If not, you might have been far stronger now."

"But... Thirteenth saved us several times with her help. If not, many of us would have died already. Is that bad?"

Luna tried to defend Thirteenth.

"I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. However, those situations Thirteenth helped you with might have been a trigger or stimulant for your growth." Mark explained. "In your story earlier, you lost control and showed some strange power when saving your niece. Have you been able to control that power? You never mentioned it in the rest of your story."

Luna fell silent. So were her friends. That was right. After saving her niece, they never saw Luna wield that power. Not even once until now.

It caused Luna to feel down once again. This night had been quite a roller coaster for her emotions.

"There's no need to feel down," Mark continued. "In any case, we are here to help you since Thirteenth said you have been facing a lot of danger lately. So, tell me everything I need to know so I will know what we need to do to help."

Mark's words made Luna and her friends cooperate. They answered Mark's questions and even gave the concrete information they had.

And after hearing the whole story, Mark could not help but frown.

By the looks of it, increasing the strength of the Moon Chasers was not the most important thing they needed to do.

Instead, they needed to know why Luna and the Moon Chasers were being targeted.