The imperial Armada consisted of thousands of space warships and they were tasked with monitoring the evolution of the situation within the now restricted area.
"Commander, the one from the Fenrirus clan reported that they managed to find the daughter of the clan's head and the son of Kepalta," an imperial officer reported, standing dignifiedly in front of a bulky man with a stern face.
The man wore a particular outfit for people who held a certain position in the Imperial Army, and he was the commander of this Armada.
Standing on a spot on the highest floor of an enormous battleship, the commander stared at the vast space in front of him.
"It doesn't change the fact that they violated the rules," the commander said in a calm but imposing tone. This flaxen-haired man didn't think that Adam and the others' survival was a good or bad thing, and he was just following the orders from his superiors. "Arrest him and seize their ship, and put the so-called missing people into confinement."
"Roger."
After that, the commander continued to stare blankly at the scenery in front of him.
These last three years, this man and the millions of soldiers under him didn't take a single break and monitored the area where the gigantic portal appeared.
Among them, thousands of experts were trying to learn about the nature of this phenomenon and also its causes.
The Empire didn't expect things to escalate to this level so soon, so they needed to hasten their preparation for the upcoming great war.
"You look boring to talk with as always," A woman wearing a lab coat approached the commander from behind but he didn't even turn back. "So what are you going to do with the kids? So you know, the boy will be under my watch, well the little princess too, because there are a lot of tests that I have to perform on them," the woman continued.
"We follow the orders," the commander said. "If I am told to leave them to you, I will leave them to you. If I am told to dispose of them, then I will do so."
"Aren't you dutiful? Well, I am kind of fond of that boy, so I will use my position to protect him," the woman said as if she was challenging the commander.
Both of them were once classmates during their time at the only Academy, and even after they became important people in the Empire, they still talked to each other casually.
"Caroline, don't forget that we almost died because of that selfishness of yours," a man wearing a pair of glasses and a white lab coat approached Caroline and the commander.
"Well, we got interesting data, so it wasn't that bad. You even looked happy about it, didn't you, Joshua?" Caroline rebuked.
"Well, he was indeed an interesting kid, and we got to do some experiment that we couldn't do at the Empire, but to spend our entire years of vacation there. We will not have vacation again in the next 20 years or so you know," Joshua explained.
"Can you two talk elsewhere, you are being a bother," the commander said.
"By the way Brook, if you received the order to not dispose of them, can you let us meet them first?" Caroline asked. "You wouldn't want to deal with a bunch of traumatized kids, right?"
"Don't address me like that," the commander said. "And I will have to wait for further instructions for that."
"Tsk, you are so stiff… You will not find a wife if you continue like this," said the woman who was still single in her thirties.
"…" The commander didn't reply to Caroline and just continued to stand straight in a dignified posture.
"You are the one to talk," Joshua mumbled.
These two scientists went to a place far from the Empire to relax, or so Caroline put it, and of course, they hide their true identity, but in the end, they ended up performing experiments again.
Caroline just thought that it would be interesting to meet Adam, and she didn't expect him to be smarter than she thought he would be. It was fun to play around with him, so she even forgot about the Empire for a while.
Moreover, Caroline and Joshua made some interesting discoveries about mana stones, mostly because Adam was there, so they continued to work on developing new things, unable to restrain their curiosity.
Their trip to the planet under the jurisdiction of Kepalta should have been a kind of vacation, but these two people were scientists to their cores.
*****
Soon, Brook was ordered to leave Adam and the others in the hand of the expert, in other words, Caroline and Joshua.
These two were the head of the Research Department of the Empire, and with the appearance of a gigantic portal, they were tasked with trying to gather more information about it.
Adam, of course, didn't know about their identity, and he completely forgot about these two people.
His mind was focused on his parents and how their well-being, but despite that, Caroline and Joshua were found of him.
At first, they thought that he would be a spoiled brat who was extremely self-centered, but when they met him, they were astonished by his intelligence, and they even had the impression that he was looking down on them.
Instead of finding that bothersome, these two mad scientists found it extremely interesting and tried to find out more about Adam's situation, but in the end, they learned a lot of things from him, just by observing what he was doing.
At that moment, Caroline realized that Adam was an unparalleled genius, but of course, she didn't know that his situation was much more complicated than that.
When the gigantic monster appeared, the Empire immediately sent reinforcement, and it was because Caroline and Joshua were extremely important people.
Nevertheless, they didn't discover anything about Adam's true ability or his true nature.
"What do you think?" Joshua asked Caroline as soon they arrived in a more private place.
"I am not sure, but from what we were told, they suddenly disappeared and now they reappeared out of the blue? What can I say, there must be an explanation for this phenomenon, isn't there. Both of us know that there's an explanation behind everything else that had happened recently," Caroline said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if Adam did something," Joshua said thinking back about Adam and his interesting character.
"Even if he did, he would never reveal such a thing." Carole talked in a very amused tone, believing that Adam was always hiding his true capabilities.
Both Caroline and Joshua agreed on one thing: 'Adam was a genius'. However, they couldn't assess his true capabilities no matter what they tried to test him.
At the end of the day, Adam appeared to be a normal young Lord who was a bit brighter than the average person. Curiously, though, they continued to learn a lot of things just by observing him, and in the end, they felt like it was better to leave Adam alone.
"Even now, I am still wondering if he was smart enough to fool us and hide his ability at that age, or if we were expecting too much from him," Joshua wondered out loud.
One year had passed since they left the planet under the jurisdiction of the Kepalta family, but they didn't forget Adam, even though what happened to him didn't concern them at all.
"Well, we still have to follow the orders from above and perform the test that needs to be done," Caroline said.
"I am sure that those people expect to learn something from the kids, and if they knew that they know something, they would do everything to extort this information from them," Joshua said in a concerned tone.
Depending on the test that would be performed on Adam and the others, there was a possibility that they would end up as test subjects, both Caroline and Joshua knew that.
After all, such information didn't only include what Adam and the others saw or experienced, but also the change in their bodies.
If something happened to change in them, giving them the ability to return from beyond the portals, the Empire would want to be the first to know about this.
Such information would be crucial for the war that had yet to begin, so sacrificing two or three kids was a cheap price if they won this war.
"Well, that's why we are here. Adam, at least, deserves better after what happened. With his talent, he would become a valuable asset for the Empire in the future," Caroline said. "This will be our argument no matter what we find out."
"Well, it's rare to see you talk about someone that way," Joshua remarked. "But you are right, he deserved better. However, this will also show us what kind of person he really is."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel