"So you want to tell me that you came here because I"m your brother? I understand that we"re family but we hold no special attachment to each other and being seen with each other will increase the risk of being discovered."Bin stated, his face expressionless as he threw the papers on the ground.
"First, let me check something…"
She looked at him from head to toe before speaking again.
"You"re ill, right?"
The frown which appeared on his face was already an answer.
"We"re twins so if I"m sick then you"re sick too."
Bin, visibly shaken, looked at her expectantly, and said, "You"re sick too? But you can use magic and seem fine too."
"I suppose we"re in the same boat." She sighed again and asked, "The infection spread to my internal organs so I got two to three years left, how about you?"
Bin"s face changes multiple times in just a couple of breaths. He quickly collected his thoughts and asked back,
"So it"s an infection? I"m not entirely sure but someone told me I"ve got two months, at best."
Now it was Elise" turn to become shocked, her figure blurred as she appeared in front of him, startling the servant.
"Two? Let me check!"
He couldn"t do anything as she placed her hand on his chest, droplets of blood came out of the tip of her finger and drilled through his black suit and entered his body but a split second later, Elise staggered a few steps and even coughed blood.
"You… why is your body like that?"
Bin knitted his brow but didn"t reply as he, too, didn"t know what"s wrong with him. The black-haired girl coughed a second mouthful of blood then straightened his back and looked at him with a mix of sadness and surprise. As they were twins, she expected him to be at the same phase as her if not better but it was the total opposite, unfortunately.
"So… I didn"t lie about the two months, right?"
He hoped she would say otherwise but his supposed twin sister maintained silence for an inordinate amount of time before opening her lips again.
"Even though the proof is clear, I"m beginning to doubt whether you"re really my brother or not. How can the infection progress this fast?!"
"What"s this infection?"
Elise didn"t speak, she looked around again then muttered, "Now, I hope you believe me so let"s leave this place first, it"s not safe."
Bin didn"t reject her as he nodded his head, picked up his gun, and followed after her.
The pair of brother and sister walked for two hours and a half, they left the district and even the city. They only stopped when they reached an abandoned and half-destroyed old house, which was temporarily being used by Elise.
She motioned for him to sit on one of the chairs then she walked up to her backpack and took out a water bottle and a protein bar. The girl finished eating in seconds, alleviating a bit of her hunger and thirst.
"This illness, it was an infection?"
Elise nodded her head and explained, "You know how the facility is made of three major parts. Immortality, psychic, and Blood. I was detained in the Blood Facility and escaped one year ago. What we have is a bacterial infection which occurs in case of the failure of the birth vaccine."
"Birth vaccine?"
"Yes, the moment we, the test subjects, are born, they inject us with a fluid, which is made from the body of a worm they call "M-W". In case of failure, either the subject dies immediately or, if their bodies are a bit resistant, they perish in a few years, two decades if the body is able to produce antibodies at a relatively faster rate. In our case, our bodies were able to resist the bacteria with enough immunoglobulin but, sooner or later, the bacteria will spread across the whole body. There are also permanent side-effects such as stopping the growth of one or two limbs, Leukemia, brain tumors, bone cancer. Also, the infection has a severe and direct negative effect on our immune system hence the appearance of the black spots… that"s all I know."
Elise looked at the silent Bin, who was processing everything he just heard.
"You can"t use Blood Magic so I a.s.sume you weren"t part of the Blood Facility?"
"Yes, I was in the Immortality Facility."
"Ugh, that"s the worst one. By the way, when did you escape?"
"Fourteen years ago. Tell me, is there really no cure?"
Seeing his sad and lost expression, Elise sighed and shook her head.
"There"s none that I know of, however, if we can get our hands on that fluid or the worm then it"s possible to find a solution but it"ll take a lot time… more than two months."
"I see…"
Bin wryly smiled at the girl and switched the subject.
"I still don"t know your name."
"Elise."
"Ok, Elise, I don"t know if it"s nice to meet you or not but the information you provided is helpful so thank you."
A bout of silence flowed between the two siblings, it made the atmosphere a bit awkward but it was soon broken.
"Why are they hunting you down? They should know about your condition."
"They don"t want me but Mina, my little sister."
As he said that, Elise was startled but his serious expression indicated that he wasn"t lying or cracking a joke.
"Little sister?"
"We"re not related but we"ve been together ever since leaving the facility."
Elise seemed to have realized something, causing her mouth to open wide.
"Wait… don"t tell me this "Mina" is the one from the Psychic Facility? Their one and only successful subject."
"You know her?"
"How can I not?! Before escaping the facility, everyone was talking about her. Apparently, the Psychic branch wasn"t showing any useful results and the search for Mina was fruitless, making the higher-ups angry. They"re basically betting their everything on finding her as it"ll bring the much-wanted glory to their branch."
"Anything else I should know?"
"Yes, although the facility seems united, the three branches are always at each other"s throat. Their relationship isn"t harmonious and there have been many cases where they tried to hinder their rivals" progress and experiments."