Chapter 14: The Virgin Conception (２)

****

I’m supposed to take this?

I looked at the monster once more. The vicious creature just extracted from the uterus was a filthy tangle of human flesh, teeth, hair, fingernails, and muscle. The monster’s single eye stared straight through me.

A surgery to create an emperor, they said…

Utterly revolting.

But there was no choice.

Dr. Lee held out the horrific fetus to me. Grimacing in disgust, I had no choice but to accept the cursed monster into my hands.

Blood and amniotic fluid smeared my palms.

An insult to humanity.

Today’s surgery had borrowed the form of birth, but its product was not new life—only a terrible desecration of everything sacred.

I want to get rid of it as fast as possible.

“Run.”

Clutching the monster, I sprinted out of the operating room as fast as I could. Outside, the doctor who had left earlier was waiting with a bucket, white vapor rising from it.

I showed the monster to the doctor.

“This is liquid nitrogen, right?”

The doctor nodded.

I carefully dropped the monstrous fetus into the bucket. The surgery had been long, but this should bring things to a close.

Probably. I let out a sigh.

The monster twitched inside the liquid nitrogen, its movements gradually slowing. After a moment, it stopped completely. The doctor holding the bucket let out a relieved breath. I felt much the same.

“Good work, Chief Researcher.”

“What happens to the monster?”

“It will be preserved in formaldehyde. After that, it’ll be moved to the Research Department’s specimen room or storage.”

“It looks dangerous.”

“This facility already holds twenty-four ‘Antichrist’ specimens. As far as we know, they’re not dangerous. Even if it is the devil’s spawn, it’s just a frozen fetus.”

The more I hear, the more unpleasant it gets.

The Foundation doctor gave me a bow, then left carrying the bucket with the specimen. I’m exhausted. I slumped down in the corridor outside the operating room.

****

I feel like throwing up.

Not simply from disgust, or pity for the surgery’s subject. I’ve killed plenty of rats and dogs in the lab.

It wasn’t that. It was a primal unease—the sense that something was unnatural and wrong.

The frozen Antichrist specimen was taken away by the Humanoid Division’s researchers. I just squatted there in front of the operating room.

“Are you alright?”

I looked up at the sound of footsteps.

Dr. Lee was looking down at me from above. Being looked down on wasn’t exactly pleasant, but I didn’t have the strength to get up.

With this height, being looked down on is just part of daily life anyway. Even if I stood up, I’d still be looking up at him.

“I’m fine.”

Dr. Lee’s expression had softened. The surgery was over, so nerves must have settled. Looking at me, still squatting on the floor.

“Anomalous can be unbearably unpleasant sometimes. I understand—this must be your first time seeing something like that. I think I was the same way once.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

I tore off my disposable gown and set it down.

“Did the surgery go well?”

“She’ll recover in a day or two.”

That’s a relief.

“Dr. Geum, do you believe in God?”

A strange question. Hmm. Does believing in God even mean anything when you’re surrounded by anomalies?

If God exists, who permitted that horrible monster I just saw? If a truly benevolent God existed, He would never tolerate the existence of the evils the Foundation fights against.

“Me? I don’t go to church. Do you believe, Dr. Lee? Even while working at the Foundation?”

This time, Dr. Lee nodded.

“I believe in God. Didn’t we just see a demon? If demons exist, isn’t it only natural that God exists too?”

“I’m not sure that follows.”

It could just as easily be a terrible world where only demons exist. You can’t judge from that alone.

“This is the Foundation’s work. Didn’t you just see it—a terrible monster that harms the innocent, that violates the lamb? We must fight against an endless malice whose nature we cannot know. I believe this is God’s work.”

God’s work. Not what I’d expected.

I’d thought Dr. Lee was a frightening man. He must have convictions to match, then. Not that I understood them. I nodded.

“Yes.”

“I know what you think of us. We did request verification of the Chief Researcher, so I doubt you see us favorably. But… please consider our position. I believe you’ve come to understand what we fight, and what we fear.”

I looked Dr. Lee straight in the face.

People can disagree. You might not understand someone else’s methods. But you should still be able to respect the difference of opinion.

I rose from my seat.

“Thank you for your work, Dr. Lee Minsik.”

“Would you be interested in joining the molecular biology research on the specimen you saw earlier? I think you’d find it fascinating, Dr. Geum.”

“If it’s tomorrow, I’ll do it.”

A man with clear convictions—that, I could respect.

****

Anyway. I got out of the Humanoid Division as fast as I could. They hadn’t been doing human experimentation today, but unpleasant was unpleasant.

When I stepped out, Nanami was waiting outside the Humanoid Division. She’d said she was busy… I guess she just didn’t want to set foot in there.

“Hello, Di-rec-tor.”

Nanami smirked.

So she’d been listening to the conversation earlier.

“Dr. Lee Minsik was annoyed and slipped up—I can’t exactly say ‘Chief Researcher of the Director’s Office’ every single time, can I…?”

Nanami shook her head.

“That doctor? A man who calls his own students sons of bitches and sons of cows—he wouldn’t make a slip like that. He said it because you made a good impression.”

“Then I’m glad to hear it.”

“How was the Humanoid Division?”

I thought for a moment.

“Do you dislike the Humanoid Division, Nanami? You told me I didn’t need to worry too much, since they’re just people after all.”

“Mm, that was about you. Me, I’m scared of the doctors there… They hate me, you see.”

“They hate you?”

Why would they hate her? Nanami started walking toward the Director’s Office. I hurried to catch up.

“It’s a bit complicated to explain.”

“The Humanoid Research Department finds beings like me unpleasant. More precisely, they find it unpleasant that I’m not under their control.”

Nanami was silent for a long while after that.

“Enough dark talk. Let’s head back to the Director’s Office. Take the day off—I’ll buy you coffee.”

“Yes.”

Nanami.

Let me think for a moment.

Probably a Foundation test subject. Not certain, but she seems less like a simple test subject and more like something created entirely in the Foundation’s hands.

I sat back down in my office.

A few minutes later, my office door opened again. Nanami poked her head in.

“Dr. Geum. Brought you coffee.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Nanami set the mug down on my desk. I brought it to my lips. Coffee—she’d said she’d buy it, but it looked like she’d brewed it herself.

Tastes terrible.

I suppose I should hang Plato’s Window in my office too, not just in the containment cell. Maybe seeing sunlight in the office would make work easier.

****

[Specimen Examination Results]

[Filed by: Research Department, Molecular Biology Department]

[We received the specimen. Quite an interesting one. Using the tissue sample you provided, we completed the requested tests and ran a few additional checks.]

[The specimen is genetically human. It appears to be a teratoma, but it carries human genes and is composed of human cells.]

[Half of the specimen’s genome is confirmed to originate from the patient, but the other half is completely unidentifiable. We can’t determine its origin—only that it is human genetic material.]

[And. Disgustingly, there is a bundle of nerve tissue at the specimen’s core. It’s horrifying, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the specimen is conscious.]

****

[Anomaly P-3030]

[Antichrist]

[Risk Class: Extremely Dangerous]

[Classification: phenomenon-type anomaly]

[Anomaly P-3030 is a monster resembling a teratoma. Its size typically ranges between a ping-pong ball and a soccer ball, though occasionally larger instances have been found.]

[From 1950 to 2015, 31 instances of this anomaly were discovered in South Korea. Refer to the attached supplementary documents for information on each individual instance.]

[This anomaly is primarily found in females between the ages of 9 and 18. Fortunately, if discovered and treated within 8 months of manifestation, there is no long-term health risk.]

[It can also be treated at civilian hospitals. The best treatment method is surgical removal of the anomaly via cesarean section or hysterectomy.]

[It is not an anomaly that kills many people, nor is it a particularly powerful anomaly, nor is it an especially inscrutable one.]

[However, when considering the population group this anomaly targets, the means by which it achieves its goal, and what that goal actually is, it ranks among the most horrifying anomalies of all.]