Chapter 68: Project Blue Rose (１)

****

Haah. I stared at the ceiling. This was a sickbed in Facility 82. I’d told them my limbs ached and I was exhausted, and the Medical Department had admitted me.

Felt a bit like overzealous loyalty.

A white ceiling under harsh fluorescent lights. A ceiling I didn’t much care for. Around me, as always, the Foundation’s doctors had gathered in force.

A great many of them, really.

When I’d first arrived at the Foundation, about five people had crowded in to run my physical.

This time, it looked like the entire Medical Department had shown up. The Head of Medical was even here. How many section chiefs alone had come?

“Hello, Director.”

I looked at the Head of Medical.

Head of Medical Shin Seungyeon. An elderly physician whose gray hair was just beginning to show.

“How are you feeling?”

“Tired. My legs won’t hold my weight.”

The Head of Medical pondered for a moment.

“It appears to be decompression sickness — that is, barotrauma-induced gas embolism. The prognosis varies depending on where the emboli lodged, but recovery may be difficult. We haven’t found a definitive problem, and we may never find one.”

I nodded. I’d gone diving, so decompression sickness. A perfectly commonsense diagnosis.

“Any other discomfort?”

Nothing in particular.

“Don’t worry. We’ll run a few more days of tests, and we will cure you, no matter what.”

Honestly, it didn’t hurt that much. I was just a little tired. That said, I didn’t think I’d be able to sling on a pack and go running around anytime soon.

My leg joints ached a bit, too.

“When can I be discharged?”

“We’re currently looking at about three days. If you haven’t improved by then, we’ll resort to extreme measures to treat you.”

I thought for a moment.

“There’s really no need to go that far——”

No. They’d handle it well enough on their own.

“Good work, everyone.”

“Yes. Thank you, Director.”

And with that, the doctors withdrew.

****

A conference was convened in Director Geum’s absence.

Called by the Head of Medical, a large conference attended by ten section chiefs from various departments. Most of those gathered were Medical Department physicians, but there were plenty of other specialists as well.

“Hello. I’m Shin Seungyeon, Head of Medical.”

A physician stepped to the front of the conference room.

“I trust everyone here knows why we’ve gathered. The Director is currently in poor health.”

Everyone knew.

“This conference will cover medical treatment first. But if time passes without improvement, we intend to make her well by force if necessary.”

This time, there was a hint of puzzlement in the room.

“Let’s proceed with the conference for now.”

The Head of Medical picked up a laser pointer.

Director Geum’s current symptoms are fatigue and weakness in the limbs. The cause is believed to be the gas embolism from several days ago.

No past history, family history unknown, and she appears to have been perfectly healthy before the decompression sickness. It’s a bit ambiguous, though.

She did receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the scene, but several days have passed, and there’s no real treatment for this condition. With conventional methods, there’s nothing more we can do beyond what’s already been done.

“Barotrauma-induced gas embolism is a complicated disease. The gas emboli disappear quickly, but the symptoms remain.”

The Head of Medical continued.

“The problem is that we don’t know where the infarction from the gas emboli will occur. In the Director’s case, no infarction shows up on imaging.”

“With diffuse infarction, it’s very difficult to locate or treat specific damage. In particular, we can’t clearly determine the cause of the symptoms either.”

The presentation went on for a long while.

“For treatment, we’re considering steroids, anti-inflammatory analgesics, and lidocaine. None of the three has clear evidence behind it. Any questions?”

The Orthopedics Section Chief raised a hand.

“Section Chief. Go ahead.”

“The Director’s musculoskeletal symptoms come from bubble formation in the joints due to decompression, and perfusion impairment caused by perivascular tissue.”

“Good. Any other opinions?”

This time, the Neurology Section Chief stood up.

“The cause of the musculoskeletal symptoms could also be ataxia resulting from diffuse brain damage. In that case, recovery cannot be guaranteed.”

The Head of Medical let out a sigh.

“Then… let’s move on to the main point. We need to decide what to do if we fail.”

****

Dr. Chae began.

“What the Metaphysics Division proposes is this. Starting tomorrow, we’ll select suitable gods and hold a human sacrifice rite to pray for the Director’s health. Until the Director recovers.”

The Head of Medical nodded.

“That’s insane. But I like the creative thinking. Have you done similar work before?”

“Hmm. There are many records in the Foundation. But I’ve only performed one myself.”

Dr. Chae did not explain for whom she had performed the human sacrifice rite.

“Very well. We’ll mobilize disposable personnel and start tomorrow. We’ll keep at it until it works. Next—does anyone else have a proposal?”

Someone rose from their seat.

“Dr. Kim from the Macrobiology Division. We have a definitive solution. Let’s inject the Director with a placenta shot made from Popo placenta. It showed clear efficacy in animal trials.”

“Uh…”

The Head of Medical cleared his throat.

“You’ve already run animal trials on that?”

“We injected one placenta shot into lab rats in various conditions. Their internal diseases were cured almost immediately.”

“Excellent. The proposals keep coming. Anyone else have an alternative?”

Aide An raised his hand.

“Yes, Aide An.”

“Let’s send her to Foundation Headquarters. If it’s Foundation Headquarters, they’ll surely be able to cure the Director.”

That’s a bit… The Head of Medical shook his head.

“That’s… we’ll handle it within our own ranks.”

“Then let’s send the Director to Seoul National University Hospital. This hospital isn’t perfect either, so maybe they’ll find something different?”

The Head of Medical sighed.

“It might be fine. But I’d rather not send her to outside doctors. It’s not that I doubt their skill—it’s that we don’t know what might happen in the process.”

“Next opinion, please.”

The conference room began to buzz.

“This is Dr. Cheon. Let’s transplant a Returnee’s heart into the Director. The Returnee’s mana might give the Director strength.”

“Mechanical Section Chief here. Let’s either replace the Director’s heart with a mechanical one, or fit her with an exoskeleton suit so she can function while working.”

“Using a reality anchor or a causality distortion device to manipulate reality and restore the Director to a healthy state seems best.”

“Contact a friendly Group of Interest, or maybe those banker bastards, and see if we can save—”

The madness continued.

“No, wait a moment.”

Lee Seah, who had been sitting, scratched her head.

“Head of Research. Do you have something to say?”

She did. Lee Seah rose from her seat.

“Look. A person can get tired, sure, but cutting out her heart, injecting her with stuff extracted from gods, offering human sacrifices—this is a bit… The Director’s mind is perfectly sound, you know.”

The Head of Medical opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again. It was hard to argue with that. Because the Head of Research was right.

“And you all know we were able to bring the Director to this conference, right? She’s not mentally impaired, and she’s not lacking the knowledge to sit here.”

The conference room fell silent.

****

Project Blue Rose. To be precise, the Blue Rose Composite System for Anomaly Utilization. Lee Seah let out a sigh in her office.

The Foundation’s commandment states that the containment of anomalies takes priority over utilizing them. But it’s been over seventy years since that was last followed.

Most Foundation employees wouldn’t hesitate to use anomalies, for one reason or another. The reasons might differ, but the practice doesn’t.

Even more so—a significant portion of the Foundation’s leadership are humanoid anomaly themselves.

The Foundation had been fighting for a long time. They were drifting further from what they were meant to protect, becoming more like the things they fought against.

The Composite Systems for Anomaly Utilization were part of the same trend.

This is how the Foundation monopolizes and controls magic. This is how the Foundation takes magic from the world and uses it to control the world.

“…”

At least, that was the Orchestra’s position.

In Lee Seah’s view, Facility 82’s response had been too weak and too slow. They should have scoured the entire country, using Yulje-myeon as the trigger to wipe out every Group of Interest.

Director Geum needed to recover quickly. The greater cause was outside Lee Seah’s concern anyway. The sooner the Director’s health was restored, the sooner the facility could operate normally.

“…”

The research team that had participated in Project Blue Rose had been small from the start. Not many of them remained now. As far as Lee Seah knew, Dr. Geum’s original had also taken part.

Did she remember? The possibility that the memories had been suppressed or erased seemed high. But at the same time, it didn’t seem like the memories were completely gone.

Her—the Head of Research—she remembered too… didn’t she?

Either way, it was a little frightening.

****

[PROJECT BLUE ROSE]

[Filed by: Lee Seah]

[We will bring down the sky.]