"Quit your acting. Unfortunately for you, I am neither blind nor deaf." Edwinna gritted her teeth and said to her unruly students.

"Ah! When did you come here?" The boy exclaimed in surprise and the girl imitated his expression.

"Tch. You need to work every waking second if you want to win this competition." Edwina lectured them with a serious expression. "Or Betty's dad will break your legs."

"I—I am always first from last in academics. How can he expect me to get first from first?" Vinar cried out in protest.

Betty nodded vigorously. "Yep, yep. We are trying to get him to the top 10. If dad still pressurizes Vinar, I'll show him his own school results. He never reached top 50."

She looked like a mother hen protecting her chicks as she shielded Vinar behind her.

Varian watched this with a surprised expression. He didn't expect this at all.

The once arrogant, bratty, and proud Betty changed so much?

And this Vinar…if he remembered correctly, he chased after her damn hard. So, they finally got together?

'Happy ending, eh.'

As the discussion between Edwina and Betty seemed like it could stretch to hours, Varian interrupted.

"Good to see you two like this."

"Huh?" Vinar and Betty just noticed them.

"You know us?" They said together.

Varian chuckled. "You don't know me."

They raised their brows in confusion.

Edwina hurriedly said. "He's my collea-friend! I told him about you guys. Hahaha."

She glared at Varian to which he simply shrugged. "Yeah. These two are also her friends and they'll live here from now on."

He pointed to Kyle and Maya.

As if on cue, Maya wrapped her arms around her Edwina and said to Vinar and Betty. "We're really good friends for 40 years."

"Don't be modest. It's 60 years." Kyle said with an honest expression.

'But they don't even look 20.' Vinar and Betty glanced at each other.

"Cough. Cough." Coughing lightly, Varian wished to slap these two guys. "They're joking."

"Haha!" Vinar let out a friendly laugh to ease the awkwardness.

"Yes, we're joking." Maya realized they went overboard and nodded.

"Yes, we're joking. It's not just 60 years—ouch!" Kyle, the idiot was about to say 80, thankfully, Maya pinched him to silence.

"I'll show you your rooms, then." Edwina said to the trio.

After she was done, Varian asked her for the basement. On the way, he also explained a few essential things.

"They're researchers?" Edwina was both surprised and suspicious.

"Well, kinda." Kyle shrugged.

Taa~

The door to the basement opened and closed as they entered.

"Now what?"

"Don't be too surprised," Varian said and without waiting for her answer, snapped his finger.

"Eh? Ehhh?! Hi everyone! Nice to meet you. I'm Tom!" An old man in white clothes appeared in front of them and said with a cheerful expression.

"What the?!" Edwina sucked in a cold breath and stared at Varian in shock.

Living objects can't be stored in storage rings. So, how…?

But more importantly, who's this guy?

Varian turned to Kyle and Maya, who seemed to be more surprised by the old man's condition than his appearance.

"Long story short. Boo and I did a number on him. He broke and lost all his memories of self. But voila! His knowledge and skills are still there.

My treatment of him was also particularly focused on his 'self', so maybe that's why. Anyway, use him good for your projects." Varian said with a nonchalant expression.

Kyle gulped his saliva and stared at the world's best scientist alive today.

"Hehe~How are you? I am Tom. Let's be friends, okay?" The top scientist giggled like a child.

"Hiss!" Kyle flinched and took a step backward.

Maya looked at Dr. Thomas with a complicated expression. This guy was both her father's rival but also his superior.

She turned to Varian and asked. "Are you fine with it?"

During their meals and snack breaks, she and Varian caught up on many matters. Of course, Kyle too.

Varian revealed that Enigma had to go through unimaginable pain to suppress the tracker and that was one of the reasons why he tortured Dr. Thomas so badly.

So, by leaving him alive…was he really okay with it?

At Maya's questioning gaze, Varian smiled meaningfully. "I did think of killing him, but isn't death too easy of an escape?

Regardless of his actions, his intellect is unquestionable. So, it's better to keep him alive and use his brains to do something helpful to society."

"Do you think we can 'use' him properly?" Maya said in a weird tone.

"Well, I trust you," Varian smirked. "Without CTF, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere."

"Trust me too!" Kyle protested.

"Nah, bro. Show me some results other than those metal armors." Varian waved his hand like he was bored.

"I just needed some experience to solve some bottlenecks. But now that I have Thom…Tom, I will show you the results soon." Kyle raised his chin to the sky and bragged as if he was the one solving the bottlenecks instead of Tom.

"Do tell me once you're done. Maya's invention helped us a lot. I'm expecting something as good from you."

"You bet!"

"…." Edwina watched in silence as the trio engaged in a conversation, almost ignoring her existence.

'Wait, this is my home. And they are the guests. But why am I feeling like a guest?'

"Oh yeah, Edwina," Varian called out, startling her.

"Huh?!"

"Take it." Varian flicked his finger and a small black cube appeared in her hand. "What's this?"

"The remote." Varian also gave the same black cubes to Maya and Kyle.

"To what?" They asked simultaneously.

Varian smiled and pointed to Dr. Thomas, no, Tom who was smiling at them innocently.

"If this guy ever regains his memories, press it." He said with a peaceful expression.

"Will it knock him out?" Edwina guessed.

"Well, it will mentally torture him until he's knocked out," Varian admitted with a straight face.

"Torture…how much?" She asked hesitantly.

"Not much, really." Varian shrugged. "He'll just experience the gruesome death of a dozen people in his mind. Other than that, he'll be fine."

Edwina felt a shiver down her spine.

"Alright, keep this guy secret from everyone or you'll all be fucked." Varian said to Edwina with a serious expression.

"Uh-oh." Edwina nodded stiffly, realizing that she might get into trouble if things went wrong.

"Don't worry, I'm not an ungrateful person. If you ever need any help that doesn't conflict with my interests, I'll help you." He looked into her eyes and said with a serious expression.

"For your own good, I'm adding this. The longer you hold onto that favor, the more valuable it becomes. A month from now, I might help you a lot. But a year from now...probably neither you nor even I can imagine." He said with full conviction.

Even though she didn't want to, his mysteriousness, his confidence, and his rising strength caused Edwina to believe in his words, even if only to a small extent.

"Well then, see you." Varian waved at them and left.

"...We're tired. We'll rest for the night. See you." Kyle and Maya retired to their rooms.

Only Edwina was left standing.

So, she realized what seemed like a normal conversation wasn't really normal.

He didn't leave them just because he trusted her.

'But because he was confident I wouldn't harm them. He used both the carrot and stick on me.'

The carrot—his favor. Even if she didn't believe in his own strength, she still knew that he was related to Enigma. That was enough of a favor.

The stick—his threat. For some reason, she felt that while he trusted her...his last words were a subtle warning.

Edwina didn't know then, but her guess was once again on spot.

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