The Ancient Genes

Express Station, Ishtar.

"Is it because of Erina? Is she in some kind of problem?"

A vein popped on Axel's forehead as he turned his head towards his right to see the person who was asking him the annoying questions.

It was Eren.

Yup, he was accompanying him.

Mark had sent him to go after Axel as he felt it was not right to leave a guy all alone when he was going crazy with a girl in his head.

"I said, there is nothing more in Ishtar to look forward to. I might as well go ahead, and help Max in Ocien." Axel put his palm on Eren's shoulder, and tilted his head a little before saying those words with a deadly look in his eyes.

"O-Ok.." Eren nodded, and didn't dare to question him again.

…

Worker's District, Ocean.

"Is this the place?" Rihanna finally arrived near the factory which she had heard about. These factories usually were operated 24/7 by workers on two shifts. So, she wasn't worried about finding the place closed.

She quietly entered the factory grounds, and began to sneak around. But, nothing seemed wrong to her.

She could see people carrying stuff around from one place to another. Goods were being loaded in trucks, and there was loud noise of machines continuously ringing. It was obvious that work was going on in this place.

'I wasted my time..' Rihanna sighed as she reached near the workers' quarters. Even though there weren't enough quarters to shelter every worker, the factory provided it to some of them.

"When are you going to empty the place?! I already have given you more than enough time!"

The loud voice caught Rihanna's attention. It was obvious that some people were quarrelling. And, she could even see a small crowd gather at the place where the voice came from.

Out of interest, Rihanna moved towards the crowd to see what was going on.

"Last time you said that you needed two more days, and it's already the fourth. Are you planning to leave or not?!" The person who was shouting was a well dressed man. He didn't seem like a normal worker, but most likely a Supervisor or manager in the factory. Against him stood a couple. Both of them were middle aged people. The man seemed to be trying to apologize, but his wife definitely wasn't having this manager's behavior.

"How are we supposed to find another place at such a short notice?!!" She retorted in anger, "Not only did you fire us without any reason, but even want us to empty the quarters? You think it's so easy to find a place in this busy season?"

"You were fired because the company is in loss, and we need to do some cost cutting," The manager replied.

"Cost cutting my ass!! This is the busiest season of the whole year, and you are firing workers for this reason. Besides, aren't you bringing these new people to replace the previous ones? Are they working for free here then?" The lady sneered at him.

"I don't know anything about it. I am not the owner, but only the manager. I have to follow orders from above as well. I want the place empty by evening." The manager looked at the lady with a frown.

"Fine, let me see what you can do. I won't leave.." The middle aged lady crossed her arms.

"Y-You!!" The manager immediately went insane.

…

Rihanna finally got out of the place as the quarrel behind continued to go down.

'Something is definitely suspicious about this? Should I report it?' She thought to herself. But, she shook her head. Even though something felt off, there was no evidence that it was related to their matters. And, she couldn't link it to them anyway.

Who knows if it was just to do with this factory's upper management people who were just messing around with things for their own benefits.

'There was one more factory, maybe I should take a look at that place as well..' Rihanna slowly moved and went out of the place.

She didn't seem to realize but two workers working in the distance, seemed to look at her as she passed through the gates and then exchanged a look.

…

"Where are you?" Synthia's voice came through the transmitter.

"I stayed back in the Worker's district. Something seems odd here, so I stayed to take a look," Rihanna replied as she continued to move.

"Why are you moving alone?! Didn't you hear the orders?!" Synthia asked with a voice full of anger.

"Don't worry, I don't think it's going to be anything troublesome. It's just that I feel that something is odd with these factories' recent moves. And, it got my curiosity piqued.." She replied with a smile.

"Still, even if it's like that. You shouldn't have let your team return." Synthia still seemed worried. "And, why are you always like this?!"

"Don't worry, I will contact you if anything happens. Besides, we already have the people we were looking for on Argus's side," Rihanna said with a smile, and then hurriedly hung up before moving to satisfy her curiosity.

A few minutes later, she reached the place she had been searching for.

There was a guard on the main gate like the previous one. But, there was no way that common people could keep track of her movements.

With a swift movement, she entered the place without anyone's notice, or at least she thought so.

The moment she entered the place, the guard who had acted as if he had seen nothing suddenly turned his gaze towards the direction in which Rihanna moved.

A second later, he took out a transmitter, and passed the message.

"It seems to be the same person who visited the other factory. Should I kill her, Master?" The guard asked.

"No, let her do what she wants. As long as we don't give anything out, it will only make our position stronger here." An eerily voice came back from the transmitter.

"As you wish.."

The guard kept his transmitter back, and then shifted his attention towards one of the workers who had been looking at him from the start. As soon as their gaze met, the guard made a sign to him.

The worker seemed to understand, and nodded his head before slowly walking towards another worker, and lightly whispering something to him.

The message soon began to circulate around while Rihanna had no idea that she had stepped into the Lion's den.