She considered opening the box immediately, but stopped herself.
"I've already wasted too much time. First, I need to unload the car. I'll examine this upstairs, in the comfort of the house."
Gripping the box tightly, she headed for the door. Before leaving, she turned back to look at the silver motorcycle one last time. She felt a genuine ache in her chest.
"Not being able to ride such a beautiful baby really hurts…"
She began walking at a slow pace. The shotgun was slung over her shoulder, the mysterious box held in her right hand. Her left hand, now empty, stayed alert—ready to reach for the pistol at her waist at any moment. Elenor was not foolish; even if the laboratory looked clean and safe, she would not let her guard down.
Her grandfather had built this lab at a point where the probability of a rift opening was minimal, taking thousands of precautions. In fact, all shelters across the Empire had been designed by Soren with the same meticulous care. The reason he had directed Elenor here was twofold: to give her a space of her own, and to keep her safer under the protection of his inventions. Moreover, during the connection with LYRA, Elenor would be vulnerable and would suffer greatly; Soren wanted the process to be flawless, with no possibility of interference.
She reached the garage door with calm steps and touched the panel. The door slid open silently. As she stepped inside and walked toward Omar's vehicle, she scanned her surroundings—and spotted what she was looking for.
"There it is."
Elenor walked toward the carrier with measured steps; the rhythmic sound of her heeled boots echoed across the empty garage. When she reached the vehicles, she paused for a brief analysis and chose the largest one.
"That way, I can carry everything upstairs in a single trip," she thought.
She climbed into the carrier's pilot seat and started the engine. Thanks to its advanced gravity stabilizers, the vehicle rose fifteen centimeters off the ground and began gliding silently. Skillfully maneuvering the controls, Elenor guided the carrier alongside the SUV. The carrier was nearly half the size of the car, but its cargo bay was designed to be remarkably deep and spacious.
She climbed out of the cockpit and opened the trunk and side doors of the vehicle. Her plan was clear in her mind:
"First, the food. Weapons and explosives must go on top. If they're buried underneath and get activated by accident, there's no coming back. Especially if one of those poisonous gas bombs detonates… Considering they can kill a troll in seconds, a normal human like me wouldn't stand a chance."
This time, the frantic chaos from earlier was replaced by calm, systematic work. She arranged everything with meticulous care, placing bags of clothing between food packages and chemical materials to absorb impacts. She neatly covered the food supplies with a picnic blanket she found in the car. The entire loading process took about forty-five minutes. When she finished, Elenor stretched her arms overhead and smiled faintly.
"Finally done…"
But the moment the pitiful mess of the house upstairs crossed her mind, her smile vanished instantly, her expression darkening.
"Oh, what wonderful peace…" she muttered with weary sarcasm.
Elenor sighed, straightened the back seat of the car, closed the doors firmly, and locked the vehicle with the physical key from her pocket.
"Good thing Uncle Omar has a habit of keeping a spare key inside the car. With my smart watch blown up, starting this thing digitally wouldn't really be possible anymore."
She boarded the carrier, gave the garage one last glance, and headed deeper into the greenhouse section. Within seconds, she arrived at the residence at the end of the corridor. It resembled a small mansion. Its exterior was painted a modern smoke-gray tone, and the massive windows of the living room and kitchen stretched seamlessly from floor to ceiling. At the entrance stood a wide veranda that radiated a sense of calm. On the veranda, a stylish relaxation area had been arranged: a round wooden table with a modern fire pit at its center, a pristine white rug beneath it, two intricately carved wooden chairs, and comfortable sofas.
Elenor parked the carrier right beside the veranda. Stepping off the vehicle, she reached the steps and gracefully removed her heeled boots. She took slippers from the shoe cabinet beside the entrance, slipped them on, and slowly climbed the wooden steps. A faint smile appeared on her face as she glanced at the warm-looking seating area to her left.
"This was definitely Uncle Omar's idea," she thought with a soft chuckle.
"He loves grilling. Who knows how much meat has been cooked over that fire pit…"
When she reached the entrance, an elegant door with wooden carvings and glass details greeted her. She placed her finger on the scanner beside it, and once the system confirmed her identity, the door opened silently. Out of habit, Elenor subjected the door to a brief analysis.
"Looks like wood, but it must be made from that special tree extracted from the depths of the rifts—ten times harder than steel. And the glass is probably top-tier reinforced. I still can't tell whether Grandfather's obsession with excess comes from narcissism or just a love of playing it safe."
The moment she stepped inside and confronted the chaos she had been expecting, her eyebrow began twitching wildly again. She took a deep breath, left the door open, and quickly stepped back outside. Her first task was to take out the food items that needed to go into the freezer and carry them into the kitchen. When she opened the refrigerator and saw the stacks of packaged meat inside, she smiled helplessly.
"As expected… In a house where Uncle Omar and Aunt Amanda live, it's impossible not to have meat. At this rate, thanks to them, I'll probably become unable to live without it too."
She placed two kilos of lamb ribs onto the cluttered counter. When she saw the leftover food and stubborn grease stains on the surface, her expression soured again; an inexplicable wave of anger surged through her chest. She placed a hand over her heart and took a deep breath, holding the air in her lungs for a moment before releasing it slowly. She transferred the ribs into a large container taken from the cupboard.
"I really hope this house has a walk-in freezer, and that it's filled to the brim with meat."
As she examined the kitchen, a door caught her attention. She approached slowly and opened it, revealing a narrow yet functional room lined with empty shelves. It was wide enough for three or four people to stand side by side. Directly across the room stood a door made of fogged glass, and right beside it, a digital panel. Elenor wiped away the white mist on the glass with her hand and peered inside. When she found what she was looking for, a calm smile curved her lips.
"So this is the freezer room."
The freezer room measured five meters in both length and width. Inside were two whole cattle, four whole lambs, and several crates of packaged meat. Elenor made a mental note to conduct a proper inventory later to determine exactly how much meat she had. After leaving the pantry, she carried the frozen items she had brought in on the cart from the kitchen and placed them into the freezer room. Her posture was tense like that of a gunslinger, and her ruby eyes were as sharp and focused as a predator locked onto its prey.
"Time to clean."
With a determined motion, she rolled up the sleeves of her pajamas. After a brief sweep of the house, she found the laundry room stocked with cleaning supplies. She put on her gloves, secured her mask over her mouth, and entered the battle in earnest. She gathered Omar's weapons scattered throughout the house and stacked them beside the carrier. The foul-smelling laundry, dirty clothes dragged across the floor, and underwear were sent to the waste disposal unit with visible disgust and destroyed. Eliminating the obvious chaos and foreign objects took more than two hours.
She could have activated the cleaning drones; however, it was impossible for them to distinguish disorder on such a large scale. They would most likely mistake valuable items for trash and destroy them as well.
"Why did artificial intelligences have to become corrupted?" she muttered.
"If we could use AI, everything would be so much easier. Two hours and thirty-five minutes of my life wasted… I'm already making a note to give Grandpa and Uncle Omar the cold shoulder for a long time the next time I see them."
She walked over to the control panel for the cleaning drones and activated the screen, but what she saw was utterly disappointing:
[System restarting…]
[Remaining Time: 4 hours 32 minutes.]
Elenor's eyebrow twitched violently. She let out a deep sigh; the last few hours had been so intense that exhaustion had seeped into her bones, and she was still standing there in her pajamas. At that moment, a loud growl from her stomach broke the silence. She held her abdomen with her slender hands.
"…I didn't eat anything last night. On top of that, I skipped breakfast. If my stomach hadn't growled, I would've forgotten I was even hungry."
She turned and headed toward the kitchen, but the environment still felt far too repulsive to her. Instead, she took clean plates from the cupboard and cutlery from a drawer, then quickly stepped out onto the veranda. She set everything down on the table near the fire pit, then brought out the ribs she had taken from inside along with bread and salad ingredients from the carrier. She reached for the panel to ignite the fire pit.
"Please work… I really don't want to survive on just salad right now."
The moment she touched the panel, the infamous warning appeared once again:
[System Restarting.]
With a groan of frustration, she dropped herself onto one of the sofas, spread her arms wide, and stared up at the ceiling.
"That's enough already! My sleep was interrupted, I drove like a racing master at the crack of dawn, killed a group of goblins and a troll! I inspected an entire laboratory and then cleaned up the filth of two elderly adolescents. I'm dying from exhaustion and hunger… Even Aunt Amanda's harshest hunting training sessions were easier than this!"
She swore she wouldn't step back inside until the drones finished their job and left the house spotless. Calmly standing up, she reached for the bags on the carrier. While rummaging through the package of snacks, she found a rectangular almond chocolate bar. She opened it and took a large bite, and with the rush of sugar, she felt her stress slowly melt away. A warm, peaceful smile spread across her face.
'Hm~ chocolate really is a woman's best friend…'
As she moved to step onto the veranda, her gaze once again fell upon the small black box. She wiped the chocolate smeared at the corner of her full lips with her thumb, then, unable to resist her curiosity, picked up the box. The moment she felt its weight again, that same unsettling chill crawled over her body. Her brows knit together instinctively.
"That's twice now… Why do I freeze every time I touch this box? What's inside it?" she murmured. "Grandpa told me to use it as soon as possible, but he tends to exaggerate everything about me, so I didn't dwell on it much. Still, I don't understand why my instincts react like this. I haven't even seen what's inside yet. Could it be some kind of master chip for the laboratory systems? But it can't possibly be this heavy…"
Thoughtfully, Elenor took another bite of her chocolate; the instant the familiar flavor touched her tongue, an uncontrollable smile appeared on her face. With the box in hand, she stepped onto the veranda and settled onto one of the sofas. Crossing one leg over the other, she set the box beside her and leaned back. As she finished her chocolate, she began planning while gazing at the smooth surface of the greenhouse reflecting artificial sunlight.
'Hmm… First thing I need to do is prepare a supply list. No matter what I plant right now, nothing will grow overnight. Even with the most advanced fertilizers, harvesting takes eight to twelve weeks. I need to know exactly how much food I have and what types of seeds are available.'
After finishing the last bite of chocolate, she wiped her lips with her finger, then slowly licked the remaining chocolate from it, savoring the taste. Her mind refused to rest, turning over possibilities one by one.
I also need to be prepared for anything. If what Grandpa told me is true, the laboratory might not be as safe as it looks. There's a risk of rift openings almost everywhere… At least the chances of high-level rifts appearing in this area are low. Still, the most logical move would be to hide weapons and ammunition in every frequently used room, everywhere I can reach.
Elenor reached for the metallic belt around her waist and checked the equipment attached to it.
'I should make my belt more functional… maybe even apply some upgrades.'
Her gaze shifted from the greenhouse to the training hall. She knew she couldn't rely solely on her weapons in close combat.
"Uncle Omar's training hall is the ideal place for me to improve myself. I'll need to choose new weapons for close combat and start training."
Finally, she looked over the gardens in the greenhouse; she needed to examine every plant, every leaf one by one to fully understand what she was dealing with. There was much preparation to be done, and time was limited.
'This place is now both my home and my fortress,' she said to herself.
'I have to make the best possible use of it.'
After letting out a deep sigh and rubbing her eyes with one hand, her gaze drifted back to the black box beside her.
"Alright," she murmured in a resolute tone.
"It's time to see what this thing really is."
The moment Elenor picked up the box, that unsettling chill swept through her body for the third time. It was starting to irritate her now; her intelligence and logic refused to accept such a meaningless physical reaction.
"How did that saying go?" she muttered.
"Once is coincidence, twice is luck, and the third time is enough to raise suspicion. Let's see what it is that's making me this instinctively uneasy."
She focused on the touch panel at the front of the box and placed her index finger onto the scanner. A faint red light scanned her finger from end to end, and a green confirmation light immediately followed—but at that exact second, Elenor felt a sharp pain in her finger and jerked her hand back reflexively.
"ACK!"
She stared at her finger in shock; the tip had been punctured by something like a tiny needle, and a thin line of blood slowly welled up. Without thinking, she brought her finger to her mouth and looked back at the box with suspicion.
"A blood analysis? Grandpa must have been dead serious about this thing. If someone without the correct DNA had tried to open it, this device would've either exploded or locked itself permanently. It probably would've generated a massive shockwave too—enough to turn a fifty-meter radius into ash."
Her curiosity quickly overwhelmed her fear, and she slowly lifted the lid. Inside the box rested an exceptionally sleek smartwatch, its silver-colored, 50-millimeter round casing gleaming softly. Elenor's eyebrows shot up in astonishment as she carefully picked it up and examined it more closely.
"So… a smartwatch? Is this the 'great invention' and 'secret delivery' he was talking about? No… there's no way he'd make such a fuss over just a watch. There has to be much more to this."