Chapter 398: Relic Research Institute
"Has Nini fallen asleep?" James asked Mosicca after swallowing a chunk of the tender beef tenderloin in his mouth.
"She slept early today. She was going to wait for you to come back home, but she ended up falling asleep on her chair. She looks so cute asleep," Mosicca replied.
James smiled upon imagining the scene that Mosicca had described to him.
"You must be exhausted working hard by yourself here at home, Honey," James said as he cast a gaze full of tenderness upon Mossicca, which seemed to betray the character he was portraying, which was a stern, burly man.
Mosicca shook her head and replied, "I'm not exhausted at all. I will never find my work here exhausting so long as you come back home safe at the end of the day. By the way, Father wants us to have a family dinner this weekend. Will you have time for it?"
James nodded after taking a sip of the soup with a spoon. "Yeah, there should be no issues. I don't think my workload is going to be that heavy from now on. That brat Dipp has returned as well, and we share workloads."
Mosicca rested her cheek on one hand and tilted her head, seemingly starstruck, while staring at James eating with relish.
"Looking back to when you proposed to me, I find it really funny how stubborn my father was at the time. He was afraid that you'd end up dying at sea and that I'd end up being a young widow.
"He hasn't really expressed it, but I'm his daughter, so I know that he's really happy to have you as his son-in-law. You're one of Hope Island's Police Chiefs, after all," Mosicca said.
James recalled something just then. He reached into his pocket and took out a small box before handing it over to his wife.
"What's inside of that box is created by Hope Island's research institute, and it looks pretty, so I decided to get one for you," James explained.
The small box contained a transparent pendant in the shape of a water drop. The shocking part was that rather than jewelry, the pendant was a drop of water with a tiny jellyfish swimming inside of it while emitting a green glow.
"Wow, this is so beautiful. How did they make this?"
"It was made by someone who had just obtained a special ability upon fusing with a relic. She obtained the ability to fuse a variety of tiny objects into other objects. It's not exactly a useful ability, so I thought it was useless.
"However, someone suggested that she make luxury accessories to earn money for Hope Island. The necklace in your hand is a part of the first batch of the goods she had made with her ability.
"I'm not sure if everyone will like them, but anyway, hurry up and put it on. It's definitely going to look great on you," James suggested.
"You've been so busy today that you even forgot to eat, but you still managed to bring me a gift. You really don't know your priorities, eh?" Mosicca said, but her delighted expression betrayed her words. Clearly, she was happy with the gift.
James let go of the knife and fork before placing his big hand on Mosicca's tiny hand, saying, "You know my top priority has always been to make my honey happy."
Mosicca avoided James' ardent eyes. "Hurry up and finish your meal. I'm really surprised that you've learned to be such a smooth talker. You used to be clueless like a dense block of wood."
Mosicca wanted to retract her hand, but James' grip tightened. "Mosicca, let's have another baby."
"Okay"
Just as the heartwarming scene was about to become fiery, a series of urgent knocks echoed on the door, dousing a bucket of cold water upon the couple.
"Chief! There's chaos at the prison. The guys from District 3 and District 4 are already on their way!"
James' expression instantly became solemn at the report. Then, he stood up and rushed to pick up his coat on the hanger before walking briskly toward the door. "Sorry, Honey. I'm going home as soon as I'm done."
"It's okay. Go ahead and stay safe," Mosicca replied.
James immediately got into the car, and the car sped down the empty road toward Hope Island's prison.
"What happened?" James asked the driver.
"Someone who had just fused with a relic somehow managed to control the failures in the research institute. The latest news I heard was that they were rushing to the docks. I think they're trying to hijack a ship to leave Hope Island."
James opened a compartment in the car and took out the Purple Pyramid that Charles had handed over to him long ago. It didn't take long for James to arrive on the scene, and he saw a pile of deformed corpses lying in a pool of blood.
James turned and saw Dipp chatting with his hot but fiery-tempered subordinate while squatting on top of a car.
"Dipp! Where's the culprit?!"
"He's dead. I killed him. You can't blame me. I was going to capture him alive, but he struggled too hard," Dipp said while juggling a sharp knife between his webbed fingers.
James sighed in relief. It was a good thing that the issue was resolved before the chaos reached the residential areas of Hope Island. If that had happened, many people would have died in the resulting chaos.
Soon, the police officers arrived on the scene and started cleaning up the scene. It was night, but the pile of deformed corpses would inevitably create a big fuss if a civilian were to see it.
James started instructing the police officers to wrap up the matter, and he soon found a familiar figure rapidly approaching the site from afar.
"What happened? The mice reported a lot of movement here," Charles asked.
"The issue has been settled, Captain. Fortunately, there aren't that many casualties and the damage is minimal," James replied.
Charles sighed in relief at James' report. "The police responded pretty quickly."
"Well, the credit doesn't belong to us at all. The majority of the credit actually belongs to Dipp. He" James trailed off and turned around but was surprised to find nothingDipp had inexplicably disappeared from the car roof. "Huh? Where did he go? He was just there."
Charles looked around but failed to find his boatswain. "Forget about him. Just hurry up and wrap this thing up. We wouldn't want anyone else to know about what just happened here."
James' expression changed at Charles' remark. He seemed hesitant about something but eventually expressed it, saying, "Captain, I'm afraid we can no longer hide what we're doing here. After all, our research institute has been openly recruiting people for the construction.
"I think anyone with eyes can see what's going on."
Charles turned to look at the cluster of half-built buildings in the distance. He then seemed to have fallen into deep contemplation and emerged from it after having made up his mind. "If that's the case, then let's stop hiding it. I doubt anyone is still daring enough to make a move against us, anyway.
"However, we should increase the security at the research institute to make sure that this incident won't happen ever again."
"Yes, don't worry about it, Captain. I'll make sure that it will be done," James replied. Then, he stared at Charles with a solemn expression before saying, "I think that we should increase the allocated budget for the Relic Research Institute, Captain."
Charles cast a surprised gaze upon James before replying. James' reaction was a bit too serious for Charles to ignore. "Do you really think that's necessary at this point?"
"It is necessary, Governor. The recent successful experiments have produced Ascendants exceeding our imaginations," someone said behind Charles.
Charles turned around and found Hope Island's Minister of Administration, Leonardo.
"Type-3 Steel has begun production in our factories. It's lighter and stronger than any other steel in the market. Ships made from Type-3 steel are inevitably lighter and faster, while cannon barrels made out of it are capable of withstanding extreme temperatures, which will allow them to fire more powerful projectiles.
"Type-3 Steel is just one of the items we managed to develop, all thanks to the efforts of our research institute. Please follow me, Governor. I'll show you the incredible products that we've found from the treasure chest you've given to us," Leonardo said.
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