The news he heard from the General made Julius chug down the liquid from his flat bottle again. This time he downed one big gulp before finally releasing the bottle from his mouth.
Julius then took a deep breath while looking at General Lennard. "What are you saying?"
"It's just a possibility, sir," General Lennard said with a hint of fear in his voice. "We still don't know for sure about that."
"But why is there such a possibility?"
Something must have happened if General Lennard had mentioned the possibility of Conrad's loss of Magic abilities.
General Lennard took a deep breath before speaking. As if he was preparing himself to deliver bad news.
"That's because Annie, subject number 2, has also lost her Magic ability."
Julius' forehead twitched briefly when he heard that.
"You confirmed about that?" Julius asked back.
"Yes. Annie regained consciousness quicker than Conrad and as soon as she did, she no longer had that Magic ability."
Julius sighed loudly. He held his forehead because he suddenly felt dizzy.
"What about subject number 1?" Julius asked, there was a hint of hope in his tone and the look in his eyes.
However, General Lennard shook his head in response. "We couldn't find him, sir. The man just disappeared like the intruders."
The room turned silent as they didn't say anything for a few minutes. General Lennard didn't say anything waiting for what Julius would say.
Meanwhile, Julius is busy thinking with a heavy head.
"Those intruders just attacked our facility and destroyed all of our research data?" Julius suddenly asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Yes. Apparently, their goal is to prevent us from mastering the Magic power," General Lennard answered.
"How did they know we were trying to develop our own Magic mastery?" Julius looked at General Lennard with a frown.
"I've thought about it too. But I can't find the answer." General Lennard shook his head. "Maybe it could be because they are beings who can use high-level Magic."
"And that allows them to suddenly know our secret, which is in this other world?" Julius asked rhetorically.
General Lennard was silent.
"Who else did you tell about this project?" Julius asked.
"Other than us, only the three officers who returned from the world of the Elves know about the apple project."
"You don't suspect them?"
"I saw for myself that they were in this base and doing their job as usual when that happened, sir. So I don't suspect them," General Lennard said.
"They're here?"
"Yes." General Lennard nodded firmly.
"Are you sure it's really them?"
"I saw them here with my own eyes, sir. And I saw nothing strange about them."
Julius gritted his jaw. "I have a feeling they have something to do with this, Jacob."
Upon hearing that, General Lennard frowned. "Why do you think that?"
"I don't know, for now." Julius looked elsewhere as if he could see an image of a scheme there.
"No one else knows about it besides us and them. And neither of us would do that to our facility. Besides, the three of them are people who have gone to the world of the Elves.
They could say that they no longer had any connection with the Elves. But is that true?"
"But they were here the day of the attack, sir," General Lennard said.
"You said yourself that the Elves have extraordinary Magic. You think they can't create some kind of illusion like that?" Julius once again asked his rhetorical question to General Lennard.
When he heard Julius's words like that, General Lennard couldn't help but have a suspicion of them too.
He never thought of that possibility because he was stuck in a belief about them when he saw them at the military base when that incident happened.
Thus, General Lennard immediately eliminated them from the subject of suspicion after asking them once that time.
"I want you to investigate them. I will use the terrorist attack from that time and link it to this incident," said Julius.
"About the secret facility, we will say that the facility is where the latest weapons project is made and we keep it a secret because we don't want it to be stolen by other countries and used by them."
"But saying it's a weapons development project would be another controversy, sir," General Lennard said.
"But it is a reasonable answer. Let it be controversial. It will die down with time."
After that, Julius left the General's room. General Lennard immediately made a call to tell his people what to do with the ruin of the secret facility.
General Lennard ordered a secret team to place some evidence that said that the facility was indeed the development site for a secret weapons project.
Which was attacked by the same party that attacked the ship during the military operation exercise.
The attackers who destroyed the pieces of equipment and data regarding their Magic experiments actually helped to cover up the fact about it.
General Lennard only needed to place some evidence and let the journalists in to check it out in person. And this problem will be solved soon.
Then, after thinking about the President's words, General Lennard also sent people to investigate Erend, Billy, and Adrien.
~~~
Time just flew by, now it was time for the soldiers to go home.
The president who said he would hold a press conference about what happened made the journalists feel more satisfied.
Most of them have left the military headquarters and prefer to wait for more certain news at the press conference.
This made security at the military headquarters and the presidential palace drastically reduced.
The soldiers are allowed to go home. Including Erend, Billy, and Adrien - who were deployed to guard the presidential palace.
Erend and Billy are no longer driving to Slum. They drive to a residential complex in the city area.
Billy has also told his family that they are getting a house in the city area.
Their house is even closer. When Erend entered the area of ??his house, he saw that the house was lit up with lights from inside. Indicating that his mother and Arty were already inside.
~~~
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