CHAPTER 51: FAILED PRODUCTS

Celestia’s POV

’What in the Goddess’s name is going on down here?’ I thought as I cleaved through another grotesque, half-melted creature. Its body hit the ground with a wet slap, dissolving into foul-smelling muck.

There were too many of them. Dozens, perhaps hundreds—mutated things. Just beneath the capital.

Why had no one in Fern noticed?

Why hadn’t the Royal Knights, or the magisters, or the church?

The idea of these things crawling up through the streets, dragging children and families from their homes...

A cold shiver ran down my spine.

If no one had found this place—if he hadn’t—this would’ve been a massacre waiting to happen.

My gaze shifted forward to the man leading us.

Lucien Ashborne.

He walked ahead as though he belonged here. His steps were measured, precise—never once hesitating when the tunnel split.

He didn’t guess. He knew which path to take.

Every time the passage branched, he chose one without looking back.

It was as if he already knew the layout.

As if he’d been here before.

’How... does he know all this?’

The thought gnawed at me, tightening in my chest like a vice.

He didn’t stumble, didn’t flinch at the monsters. Even when one lunged from the shadows, he sidestepped it like he’d predicted it.

A soldier couldn’t move like that—not without knowing everything beforehand.

And then—

Click.

Something long and metallic blocked my chest.

I froze. My sword half-raised, I turned.

Lucien was right beside me, his rifle held horizontally to bar my path.

For a brief moment, our eyes met.

His were sharp—too sharp, like a hunting hound’s focused on its prey.

The air between us seemed to crackle.

He didn’t speak. Just nodded once, as if telling me to wait.

Then he slung the rifle over his shoulder and walked forward alone.

The tunnel opened into a larger chamber—a half-collapsed cavern crawling with monsters. But unlike before, they weren’t attacking.

Some stood motionless, staring blankly into the darkness.

Others trembled against the walls, quivering as though terrified.

Lucien moved among them quietly.

First, he stopped beside one of the still ones. The thing didn’t even react when he reached out and touched its deformed arm.

"...."

No response. Just a faint wheeze escaping.

Then he turned toward a quivering one crouched in the corner.

The moment he took a step closer, it flinched—the whole mass shaking violently, tentacle-like limbs curling defensively.

That was when a voice came out.

[Pl-please... don’t kill me....]

A woman’s voice.

No—too soft, too small.

A child’s voice.

My heart dropped into my stomach.

Behind me, Elisha gasped. "That voice—was that—?"

The realization hit us all at once like a blade.

Mariella’s whisper trembled. "Th-this... is it what I think it is...?"

Lucien’s voice cut through the silence.

"This is a trash bin."

The words echoed against the walls, flat and cold.

I blinked. "What...?"

He didn’t look at me. His tone was calm—dispassionate, as if describing the weather.

"A trash bin for discarding failures."

He gestured around us—the monsters, the trembling masses, the ones staring blankly into nothing.

"No sorting. No care." He pointed to the one cowering in the corner. "Those with reason left..."

The creature whimpered again, its black surface shivering.

He stepped to another—one that lunged toward us mindlessly, teeth gnashing, instinct driving it.

"Those with instincts left."

A quick shot from his rifle silenced it forever.

Then he turned to the one that hadn’t moved at all since we entered—the hollow, unresponsive shell.

"Those with nothing left but a body."

His eyes were unreadable.

"All failures," he said softly. "Thrown here to rot. We came through the garbage chute."

His words hung in the air like a curse.

*****

No matter how much I expected it... seeing it firsthand was sickening.

In the game, this had just been another scripted event — [Missing Children]

— a tragic but distant narrative where you connected clues, followed the quest markers, and finally uncovered the laboratory of a deranged scientist hiding beneath the Fern capital.

A side quest. A piece of lore. Nothing more.

But here... it was real.

The smell of rot. The faint whimpers echoing through the tunnels. The trembling, malformed bodies that once had names, dreams, families.

It wasn’t text on a screen anymore.

It was a horror I could smell, hear, and feel clawing under my skin.

The scientist — the man behind all of this — had been trying to create a chimera.

An artificial apex predator. The culmination of alchemy and dark mana infusion.

But since I arrived ahead of the game’s timeline... it seems the final phase hadn’t started yet.

So all that was left were the failures.

The byproducts of his obsession. The discarded pieces of his ambition, crawling mindlessly beneath the city.

Each of these abominations was once a child stolen from the slums.

Children who were never even missed.

I clenched my jaw until my teeth ached.

No matter how much I prepared myself, no matter how much I reminded myself that I knew this would happen, seeing it with my own eyes made my stomach twist.

Meanwhile—

"...Wh–What do you mean, Cadet Lucien?" Celestia’s voice trembled faintly, her usual calm breaking.

I turned toward her slowly.

"Have you not guessed it yet or pretending to play dumb?" I said with a mocking chuckle. "Since you were following me you must have heard on the way — children have been going missing for quite a while."

Elisha’s face went white. "You don’t mean—"

"It’s exactly what I mean," I replied. "Someone is experimenting on the missing kids down here."

A frozen silence fell over the tunnel. Even the rats that had scurried off into the dark seemed to hold their breath.

"You wanted to know why I was here, didn’t you?" I let the words hang, then finished in a flat tone, "This is the reason. I’m going to kill that bastard."

Mariella’s hand trembled as she gripped her staff. "B-but how do you know all this?" she demanded, voice tight with anger and fear.

"And why didn’t you inform anyone? We could have gotten knights’ help," Celestia added, outrage lacing the question.

"Are you serious now? Have you guys ever believed me if I come up and say, ’Hey, there’s some mad scientist in the sewer experimenting on children — wanna go take care of him?’" I said, sarcastic enough that the words cut through the damp air.