Mutagen

Day 2 - 6:28 AM – City Mall Bacoor, 3rd Floor, TechZone

Mark, who fell unconscious even before his battle in the previous night was finished, slowly opened his eyes while lying on a soft mattress. While he stared at the ceiling, 'It's an unfamiliar ceiling.' was not what he first thought of but he calmly try to recollect all his memories before the collapsed while ignoring the fact that he was now inside the storage room of his base store.

He was not a person who was groggy when waking up in the morning even if the timing he woke up was bad. Rather, he was always clear headed even if he was still sleepy after waking up.

After recollecting what happened, he tried to make several assumptions on how he ended up in this place. He was a person who did not speak too much and as such, he learned to make assumptions and try to find the exact situation using clues he could find around him. Just like how he handled a lot of his questions that he liked to ask to Paula yesterday. He only asked about her ability and background and he could make conclusions using what he observed about her and what he detected using his ability.

As he just woke up, the first thing he wanted to do was to lift his body up and sit down on whatever he was lying down on.

'Heavy.'

That was what he felt when he tried to move. Mark looked around his body and he saw two girls sleeping by his sides. On his right was Mei who was kneeling down on the floor while her head lay on the soft mattress he was lying on and her hands were holding his right hand. To his left was Abbygale who was tightly hugging his body.

While most men might have felt lucky if they were in this situation, Mark was actually feeling discomfort.

'Just what are these girls doing with an injured pers…"

He stopped his train of thought. As he tried to feel the condition of his body, he felt no injury. On the other hand, he actually felt that his body was slightly stronger than before specially his lower limbs.

Mark gently pulled his hand from Mei's grasp and slowly peeled off Abbygale from his body before he sat down.

It was then that he saw a woman come in through the door.

"You…"

He was surprised inside.

Who entered was a mature lady who was wearing a black tank top covered by a denim jacket, fitted pants and rubber shoes. He then stared at the woman's face.

The woman's face was something he would not forget for a long time. He was sure that she was the woman who was covered in grey colored bone armor last night!

The woman looked surprised as she saw him sitting on the mattress while staring at her. She then properly fixed her posture and smiled.

"Master, you are finally awake."

Mark heard what she called him but ignored it for now as he used his ability to find out what was the woman's intention. But he frowned.

Like Abbygale, there was something strange in her mental fluctuations. Even if her emotions could be seen in her face, her emotional fluctuations were filled with loyalty and indebtedness. It was unlike in the previous night. When he was fighting her before, her emotional fluctuations were normal aside from the overwhelming fluctuations coming from the consciousness that was corroding her own.

"Is there something wrong with my face?"

The woman said as Mark kept staring at her without saying anything.

"Just what did you call me?"

"I said Master did I not?"

"Why?"

Mark expected her to answer but what she did was show a troubled expression before she took out a small device and a phone from her pocket.

His expression changed. It was his Bluetooth Camera and the phone he used to record what happened yesterday evening.

While he received the gadgets, their voices caused Mei and Abbygale to wake up.

Mei was a little out of it as she rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms while yawning. On the other hand, Abbygale stared at Mark for a bit and yelled.

"Papa!"

Like a rocket, she launched her body towards Mark to hug him with joy. However, the strong girl forgot to control her strength. Abbygale and her Papa fell onto the floor with a loud thud. Fortunately, Mei snapped out of her morning daze as she saw her Gege and Abbygale fall from the makeshift bed. Out of reflex, she backed away from her spot or else, Mark would have fallen unto her.

Mark sat on the floor feeling the pain on his bottom. He wanted to smack this little girl cuddled on his body on her forehead but as he could see the innocent joy on her face, he wasn't able to do so.

"Gege!"

Mei who finally reacted to the scene in front of her also jumped into action and embraced Mark.

"My, my, you're really loved are you not, Master?"

The woman watching by the door said while giggling.

Mark looked at her for a bit making her stop before turning to the two who were very joyful due to him waking up. The feeling was good. Knowing that there were people now who were worried for him, he was quite happy, still, he also felt a little repulsive as he was not used to this kind of affection.

"Can you two let me move somewhere else. Sitting on the cold floor really feel unpleasant."

The two girls reluctantly let him go while he sat back on the makeshift bed that he finally saw what it was made of. No wonder that the bed felt quite uncomfortable. It was made by stacked boxed topped with a thin mattress. He would rather sleep on the floor than here.

As he sat back on the bed, the two happy girls stuck to his sides not wanting to part from him. Hearing the story from Mei, he learned that he was brought in by a stretcher carried by the soldiers. His body was stained with blood while his lower limbs and chest were showing symptoms of acute inflammation. He was also burning with high fever. It seemed that Mei took care of him during the time he was suffering until it settled down.

"Thank you."

Mark patted Mei's head. Before the outbreak, he felt alienated by these two words but it seemed that he could say it naturally now.

Seeing that her Papa patted Mei's head, Abbygale started to sulk.

"Papa, me too!"

The little girl then received a light pinch on her nose.

"You just pushed me out of the bed so this is your punishment."

Mark then looked at the woman once more since she just stood there smiling while watching the three. He then sighed.

"The answers to my questions to you are recorded in this phone right?"

"It should be."

Unlocking the phone and opening the galleries, he started watching the video. Beside him, he just let Mei and Abbygale watch as he did not feel the need to hide the things in the video from them. He knew that he could trust these two girls. He actually felt funny as he actually able to trust people.

During the first quarter of the video, Mei looked at the woman in shock as she saw the state the woman was in. However, after two-thirds of the video passed, Mei and Abbygale started to glare hatefully at the woman. They saw what happened when Mark was kicked away and they saw the amount of blood he coughed out in the video. If Mark was not holding Abbygale back, the little might have started to lash out at the woman.

The woman guiltily accepted the hateful glares of the two girls. She knew that she had nothing she could say to defend herself. Actually, she had one but it did not come to her to use that as reason.

Then, after that part, it was Mark's turn. His face started to darken. The change was not because of the sudden change of personality, movements and speech but because the 'him' in the video was the one responsible for adding more injuries in his body. On the other hand, it seemed that he partially expected the chance of the other 'him' coming out as he was not surprised by it.

On his sides though, Mei felt really surprised by what she just saw while Abbygale just looked confused. It seemed that she did not understood what was happening.

Then, it reached the part where the deal between the 'him' in the video and the woman in front of them came about along with the very little tutorial and the mysterious ability to help the woman that 'he' used"

"That Freed is causing me troubles again that bastard."

"Gege, what is happened there? You also had D.I.D.?"

Mei asked him in surprise which in turn, Mark sighed.

"I can't really tell if he's really another personality of mine. That guy knew a lot of things that I didn't. You just saw him use an ability that I don't know of. Seriously, that guy is a headache causing me trouble every time he comes out."

Mark scratched his head not knowing what to do about this. He then looked at the woman.

"You're really going to fulfill the deal between you and Freed?"

"So, he is called Freed?"

"He is. That's the name I gave him not because of goodwill but because he's doing things as freely as he could causing me trouble every time. Let's leave it at that. Answer my question first."

Mark looked sternly at the woman.

To his stare, the woman smiled and nodded.

"You already saw my answer in the video, did you not? And I would not let you kick me away either. There are a lot of things I'm good at but my best trait is to pay debts and fulfilling my end of the deals I made. I was raised by my parents that way."

"Given that response of yours, you will become my servant as long as Freed say that you can go right? I'm sure that bastard won't let you go you know? Don't tell me that you want to serve all your life? You also have your children with you."

"It is fine Master. If you want me to go away because of my children, then it is fine if you also take my children under you."

Mark stared at the woman.

"There's something wrong with your head. Why am I getting the vive that being a servant is just natural for you?"

"About that."

The woman scratched her cheek and let out a wry smile.

"Actually, my mother worked as a maid while my father was a gardener at the same household. I grew up helping them as the bosses were a rich but kind family. It's also them who took care of my schooling back then. So, Master can say that the blood of a servant run on my veins."

Mark barely held himself from slapping his forehead. The woman then continued.

"Besides, I don't think it will be bad serving you. It is not just that you have the ability to fight almost on par with the mutated me before. If not for the high defense my ability gave me, you might have even killed me. Furthermore, you are not a normal person yourself."

The woman then looked at Abbygale.

"You also have another one like me beside you. And you do not seem to treat her any different from a normal girl at all. Most people will treat us as monsters but you're not one of them."

The woman then vowed.

"Well then, Master, let me introduce myself. I am Odelina Nadasia at your service. You can all me Odel if you wanted to."

Mark rubbed his temples as his head started to ache.

"You're really forcing yourself under my wing aren't you? It's not like I have one."

Odelina did not answer his question and just smiled.