Chapter 44. God’s Wisdom (3)
“Hmmm.”
Yukgap wandered around the restaurant alone, deep in thought.
“Hmmmmmm.”
Eventually, Robert could not stand watching him anymore.
[Stop pacing around, Yukgap. You are distracting me.]
Yukgap immediately snapped.
“But Victoria went alone! What if something happens to her?”
[The Doctor is not so weak that she requires your protection. Do not worry.]
Unlike Yukgap, Robert did not seem concerned at all.
Yukgap stared at him in disbelief.
“How can you be so relaxed? We’re talking about Abraxas! Those people kill others as casually as throwing away trash!”
[I respect the Doctor’s decision. If she chose to go, she had sufficient reason. Do not treat the Doctor like a child.]
Robert simply continued reading the morning newspaper.
Was it because he was a golem?
Perhaps his way of thinking was fundamentally different from a human’s.
Seeing no trace of tension in him, Yukgap complained,
“Are you really fine staying here? Isn’t protecting Victoria your mission?”
[The Doctor ordered me to remain here. I merely obey the Doctor’s instructions.]
“Must be nice having such a simple life.”
Yukgap grumbled.
Then he sighed with a resigned expression.
“I guess I can’t exactly follow her into a convent.”
Nova’s laboratory was hidden inside a convent.
Even Yukgap could not simply barge into a place like that.
“But I can at least prepare lunch for them, right?”
Apparently thinking of something, Yukgap began rummaging through the refrigerator.
Robert noticed him gathering ingredients.
[What are you planning?]
“Restaurant Shelley’s delivery service.”
Yukgap pulled ingredients from the refrigerator one after another.
Vegetables like spinach and carrots.
Ham.
Meat.
He lined everything up neatly.
Robert looked around with curiosity.
[What is this, lump of flesh?]
“Ingredients for the eternal Korean lunch, gimbap.”
Fortunately, Restaurant Shelley had nearly everything needed for gimbap except pickled radish.
It was unfortunate they had none, but rinsed kimchi could imitate the flavor well enough.
They also had plenty of rice, so making gimbap would not be difficult.
“Good. This should be enough for everyone.”
Yukgap lightly stir-fried the ingredients in a pan.
Robert immediately pointed something out.
[But you cannot enter the facility. Have you forgotten?]
“That’s why you’re going to deliver it.”
Robert looked confused.
[Me?]
“Strictly speaking, you’re neither male nor female. I’ll only go as far as the area nearby, then come straight back.”
Robert calmly asked,
[Are you truly that afraid of Abraxas?]
Yukgap’s hand briefly stopped.
After a moment, he regained his composure and spoke quietly.
“Do you know what kind of work I used to do?”
He resumed cooking.
“I killed targets who were hidden in places exactly like that.”
His expression darkened.
“Abraxas has plenty of ways to destroy that convent right now. No. 8 could simply bombard it with the Noise Gun. No. 7 could infiltrate the place and assassinate everyone.”
Yukgap paused.
“And the worst possibility is...”
Before he could finish, the restaurant door suddenly burst open.
A man covered in blood stumbled inside.
“Ugh... help me!”
It was Nova’s bodyguard.
Yukgap recognized him immediately.
“Y-You’re the bodyguard from earlier!”
The man struggled to breathe.
“I came to ask for help. One of Abraxas’s Archons has approached the convent. I was far enough away to escape immediately, so I survived, but everyone else is in danger!”
His clothes had melted so badly that they barely retained their original shape.
His body was covered in red, blistered burns.
In several places, even the skin had dissolved away, exposing raw muscle underneath.
He looked as though someone had poured concentrated acid over him.
Yukgap stared in horror.
“Damn it... The worst one really did come.”
“This is the formula for the new drug.”
Nova handed Victoria a neatly organized report.
Victoria scanned it and let out an impressed sound.
“Wow. This is incredible.”
“It uses your mother’s research as a foundation. Honestly, Doctor Mary is the reason I was able to get this far.”
Nova pointed toward the results section.
“I’ve reduced the margin of error in the drug’s performance to eighty-six percent. But that isn’t enough. It needs to reach at least ninety-five percent before it can be effective enough for treatment.”
Victoria stared thoughtfully at the numbers.
The drug was not complete yet.
But there was clearly hope.
“So the problem is figuring out the remaining nine percent.”
“Can you do it?”
Nova asked as though testing her.
Victoria answered confidently.
“Leave it to me. I hate to brag, but I inherited my mother’s genius!”
Victoria hummed happily while studying the formula, as though she were solving an entertaining puzzle.
There was pure enthusiasm in her expression.
More than anything else, she simply seemed to enjoy tackling a new problem.
Nova silently watched her for a moment.
Then she suddenly said,
“You really are surprising. I never expected you to come help me just because you heard one story about my sister.”
“Was I not supposed to?”
Victoria widened her eyes.
Nova shrugged.
