Based on his hunch, Julius felt that this man named Erend was harboring something else.
He didn't know what it was, but Julius was almost always sure of his gut feelings.
It almost felt like he had some kind of supernatural power to predict things.
Julius naturally didn't really believe in that idea. It's just that, he arrived at this position because of a hunch that tends to say the right thing.
But for this one, Julius felt that it was better if he didn't say anything to anyone.
He will keep it to himself until the right time comes. Even though he didn't know when it would come.
"Very well. Good Job, Jacob," Julius handed the files back to General Lennard.
"We will continue to talk about Project Apple," Julius said. "How's it going?"
General Lennard nodded firmly.
He felt that his pulse had slightly increased once Julius finally started on this topic.
"Project Apple is progressing well, Sir. Conrad showing quite promising results," General Lennard said.
Then he took out a USB drive from his pocket and handed it to Julius.
"What's this?" Julius asked while accepting the USB drive.
"That's the video from last night's tenth attempt," General Lennard replied.
Julius nodded and then inserted the USB drive into his computer. Julius then started playing the video that was in it.
General Lennard paused to let Julius watch the video all the way through.
The sound starts indicating that the experiment video has started playing.
- "Check, check, ahhh..."
The voice of a scientist working on the project was heard.
The General knew his voice well. It was the voice of a genius young scientist.
Even at only twenty-five, he has already become the leader of this project.
"This is the person you called the genius?" Julius asked while pointing at his computer screen.
"Yes, sir." General Lennard nodded.
"What's his name? I forgot about it."
"His name is Thomas, sir."
"Ahh... Thomas. Right." Julius nodded. Then he continued watching the video.
Next, Thomas' face appears close to the camera lens so that his face fills Julius' monitor screen.
Julius seemed to wince when the strange sight appeared in front of him.
"He's always been ?" Julius asked.
General Lennard who saw the appearance of Thomas's face that filled the screen grimaced while letting out a long breath.
"Yes sir. I'm sorry. He won't do it again," General Lennard said, apologetically.
"Yeah. I prefer not to see his face fill my screen," Julius said.
Thomas's face is indeed not something that is pleasant to look at especially for a man.
Although he was not exactly ugly, Thomas's face was very pale and he had thick, black bags under his eyes. Indicates a very severe lack of sleep.
The man's hair was also long and messy. Julius was sure that he didn't even bother to take a shower before recording this video.
General Lennard regretted being in his seat because he didn't order the crew of scientists to get ready.
He didn't even say he was going to send the video of the experiment to the president.
This is the first video Julius has received regarding the experiment they did.
Although General Lennard always got video reports and files of notes about previous experiments, the previous experiments did not produce good results.
General Lennard had personally heard the order from Julius that he only wanted to accept a clear result.
He didn't want to waste time watching something fail over and over again.
So General Lennard complied and only sent the video on their tenth try. The try where experiments have yielded pretty good results.
Although it can not be said to have already succeeded.
- "Good morning, General. I will start the tenth trial now."
Thomas' voice which sounded like a sleepy person started to sound again.
He opened a tubular device three meters high and about five meters wide.
The tube is transparent because it is made of thick glass.
In the middle is a wooden chair. There's nothing else.
- "Now we will start entering subject number 0," Thomas said.
A moment later a shirtless man walked towards the door of the tube.
He was only wearing plain black pants and leaving his upper body bare. Revealing his thin and pale body.
- "Subject number 0, how are you today?" Thomas chattered.
His words were not responded to by the man who was called subject number 0.
But Thomas nodded as if he had obtained a satisfactory answer.
The man got into the tube and sat on the wooden chair.
He's facing the camera. His face was hard and filled with anger.
However, Julius seemed to see the sadness in those brown eyes. He decided to ignore it for now.
That man was the one who had successfully entered the Elven palace and searched for an artifact that belonged to the Elf race.
Something that would eventually bring the war to their country.
Julius felt rage fill him when he found out that the precious artifact had returned to where it came from by the three soldiers who also reveal what Coil and Ibis had done.
After he sacrificed so many lives, it was all for naught in the end.
Even though those were the lives of the people in Slum, they were still valuable resources according to Julius.
However, Julius wasn't someone who would dwell on the past for a long time. So he continued to focus on what he will do next.
The man didn't just come back with the artifact.
He also carries with him the ability to awaken the power of Magic within himself.
He also carries a bit of knowledge about how to awaken Magic powers in ordinary humans.
Unfortunately, that knowledge was something possessed by a civilization far superior to theirs regarding Magic power.
The beings in that other world already have Magic talent from birth, it's different from them.
According to the man's explanation, awakening Magic power in ordinary humans without the help of the Elves was extremely difficult. Almost impossible.
However, Julius is optimistic that they can do it.
Based on the bit of knowledge the man had brought along, Julius started gathering scientists in related fields. And finally started Project Apple.
The original name of the project is Project Apple of Eden. Because their goal is to obtain the fruit of knowledge reserved in heaven.