## Chapter 129 – Secret Laboratory Assault (1)
***
“Haa… I wonder if those kids are still alive?
They’re definitely not the type to go down that easily….”
It’s already been a week since Hero Magical Girl Magical Seraphina and Aquamarine went missing after the battle.
When a hero goes missing during battle, the situation usually unfolds in one of two ways.
If there’s some clue as to what happened, they mobilize manpower to find them, but if they can’t get a lead, they give up the search after a certain period.
Since heroes are important personnel, the Union tries its best to find them, but if there’s no evidence, they have no choice but to give up.
In the case of the two girls, all the agents around them were found dead, so there were no witnesses.
Moreover, the CCTV footage only showed a scene filled with thick smoke, and they had no idea where, how, or to whom they had disappeared.
“If they don’t come back… it’ll be difficult for me to avoid responsibility.”
The director of the research lab, who was responsible for giving the two girls, who were ordinary ability users with potential, powerful abilities, and who currently serves as their attending physician and person in charge, thought grimly.
“Well… I can’t avoid taking responsibility, but…
I don’t know what happened to those young girls… so I can’t rest easy.”
The two girls, who were like children born from his heart, hadn’t returned, so he couldn’t sleep at all.
“Director!!! Director!!!!”
While the director was racking his brains writing a report, a researcher rushed into his office in a hurry.
“What’s wrong? Is it something urgent?”
“The… the magical girls… they’re back!”
“What?! Is that true?!”
The two girls, who had disappeared without a trace from a street in S City, had survived and returned to the Hero Union headquarters, bringing shocking news.
“Where are they! Where are the two of them now?!”
“They’re resting in the overnight room inside the lab right now.
Their injuries are very serious… I think we need to bring them here and check their condition.”
“Okay… bring them here quickly… no.
Bring them to the examination room. I’ll go there!”
***
The director dropped everything he was doing and rushed into the examination room.
Inside, Seraphina and Aquamarine were collapsed, exhausted.
“You really came back…! You guys…!”
The director’s heart ached as he stroked their tattered magical girl costumes, but he couldn’t help but be moved by the fact that they had somehow survived and returned.
“Ah… Director… it’s you….”
“Uncle… hello.”
Aquamarine and Seraphina, their faces pale, weakly turned their heads to look at the director.
Their voices were so faint that they could barely be heard, showing how bad their condition was.
“Did you… did you take your medicine? You haven’t been back for a week….”
“Just in case… I had some… emergency supplies with me….”
Aquamarine took out a small white container from her pocket and showed it to him.
“That’s a relief… that’s a relief…!
I was worried about the side effects if you didn’t take your medicine, but the injuries must have been a problem too!”
The two girls had secretly taken the emergency medicine they had packed while being held captive by the villains, and had been looking for a chance to escape, finally managing to escape through a small gap.
“Okay… get some rest for now. I’ll talk to the higher-ups.
It’s okay if it takes a few days, so recover slowly here and then decide whether to resume your activities.”
“Thank… you….”
– Knock knock knockㅡ
While the director was talking to the two girls and checking their condition, he heard a knock on the examination room door.
“Did I call someone…? I don’t remember very well.
Whoever it is, come in!”
The person who knocked on the examination room door and came in was a female researcher.
In one hand, she held a stack of documents containing the two girls’ examination results, and in the other, she held a few small machines needed for the examination, and entered the examination room.
“I thought you might need these for the examination… so I brought them in advance.”
“Ah! Thank you. I was in such a hurry that I completely forgot.
But… you… are you a new researcher?”
“Yes! My name is Hong Seorin, and I’m a new researcher who joined last week.”
The female researcher had dark green hair with a slightly bluish tint, like Seraphina.
She smiled brightly and placed the documents and machines she was holding on the table next to the director.
“Ah…? Ah… I see. I’ve been so out of it lately… I didn’t recognize you.”
The director himself knew that he had been spacing out since the two magical girls disappeared, so he thought it was possible that he didn’t recognize the new researcher.
“Well… fortunately, their condition seems to be good.
It seems like they’re in even better condition than before… is it the effect of the procedure?”
Contrary to how bad they looked due to their serious injuries, the two girls’ physical condition was not only good, but quite healthy.
“Well… take a good rest in the facilities inside the lab for about a day.
And… since you’re here, I’ll give you some extra medicine.”
The director picked up the receiver in the examination room, pressed a button, and tried to connect to the researcher in the pharmacy.
“Ah… are they away for a while? I can’t seem to reach them.”
However, the researcher who should have been stationed in the pharmacy was away for a while, and he couldn’t connect even after trying to communicate several times.
“If you’re talking about the pharmacy… I know where it is too.”
“You’re probably new, so you don’t know what kind of medicine it is… I’ll go out myself.
That’s right! It’s the first time we’ve met… why don’t you talk to those girls for a while.”
Since Seorin was a new researcher, she probably wasn’t familiar with research or work yet.
The director left the two girls in her care for a while and walked towards the pharmacy.
“Pharmacy… I’m sure something interesting is waiting for the director… Hehe.”
***
“Hoo… I’m so glad. Those kids… causing unnecessary worries.”
After failing to secure a permanent research position for a long time and wandering around various research facilities, he accidentally heard about a secret project of the Hero Union and obtained the position of director of the research lab.
It was the winter of his fourth year, finally having secured a stable position and doing satisfactory research, when he met two girls who had lost their parents due to a villain incident.
The girls didn’t remember anything from before, perhaps due to the shock of the villain incident, and the director thought of them as his own children and vowed to raise them into great heroes.
That’s how Hero Magical Girl Magical Aquamarine and Seraphina grew up.
There’s a reason why the director has a special affection for the two girls.
“Hoo… by the way, why is the lab so quiet?”
The secret lab where he is the director has about forty researchers.
Normally, there should be about six or seven people walking around or resting in the lab hallway, but it was strangely quiet with no one around.
“Did everyone go to lunch without me….”
He had been secretly upset that the young researchers had recently been reluctant to have meals with him, who was older.
As the director grumbled to himself with a slightly hurt feeling, he soon arrived in front of the pharmacy and opened the door.
“No one…? What… what the…?!”
“Ugh… ugh…!? Ughhhh!!!!”
The pharmacy was a mess with fallen medicine containers and spilled medicine, and about twenty researchers were gagged and tied up, trembling.
“So that’s why… the lab was strangely quiet…?!
Are the other researchers… are the other researchers safe?”
The director was flustered by the unprecedented situation, but he shook his head and looked for a way to resolve the situation.
“Villains… villains must have invaded in the meantime…! I need to call for help…!”
“Ughhhhh!!! Ughhhh!!”
When the director tried to pick up the internal communication receiver to ask the Union for help, the researcher who had informed him that the magical girls had returned earlier screamed and shook his head wildly.
“What’s wrong?! Were you threatened… or something… Gaaaaaak?!!?!?!”
But the director’s hand was already on the receiver…
– Bangㅡ!!!!!
The receiver exploded, blowing away the director’s entire left hand and arm.
“Kueeeuk… Uwaaaaaaaaack!!!!”
The pharmacy became even more chaotic with the smoke from the explosion and the director’s blood splattered everywhere, and the director, who had lost his left arm, wailed in unbearable pain and embarrassment.
“The reason he… shook his head… was because of that…!?”
The reason why the researcher screamed and shook his head wildly was because someone knew that someone would call for help with the receiver and had planted a bomb.
“Huff… huff… I have to… contact… them…!”
Perhaps because he had lost so much blood in just a few seconds, the director, who was already old, had a pale face and was breathing heavily.
But even if he died, he had to save those researchers.
He had to save the two magical girls who were still not in good condition.
With that in mind, he grabbed his arm in pain and raised his head.
“Looks like you finally touched it? Director.”
“You… you…!”
And standing in front of the director, with an evil smile on her face, was a woman.
She was the female villain who had introduced herself as Hong Seorin.
It was Ruirin in ‘Glamour Mode’, who had killed a researcher, stolen her clothes, and disguised herself.
