The following twenty minutes went about how one would expect. Villin asked Elinoire a number of questions trying to get a better hang of the situation. Elinoire patiently answered each question since she knew she was the one here who had doubts cast into her.

Apparently, they were in a completely separate, secret research station from Decorus. It wasn’t attached to one of their grades at all. Normally, this would make escaping more of a possibility since the institution would be smaller and have less powerful magi. The problem was that this specific institution held the most valuable prisoners Decorus had and wished to use for experimentation.

It was clear why Elinoire would be here. She was the daughter of the headmaster and probably had a rare and powerful bloodline. 

As for Villin, he figured it was probably because of his identity as the youngest runemaster. It was also possible they were trying to figure out where the massive explosion that covered a fourth of the grade came from, and he was one of the two people found at the very center of it, mostly unharmed.

It was most likely a combination of the two as Marvin was nowhere to be seen. Villin also didn’t see Ruby, who was the second youngest runemaster, anywhere. Villin could only hope she and his other companions survived, but he quickly focused his mind on other manners to avoid showing weakness to Elinoire who could still be lying.

Elinoire didn’t have much information about the layout of the research institution. She had only been taken here a week ago, and she had been taken in for experimentation two times. The research would consist of the scientist taking blood, skin, and other things he needed while you were tied down. Then, they would look at your condition.

If you were looking pretty bad, they would cast a long-term healing spell and send you back to your cell. If you were still looking relatively healthy, they would use you as a test subject for a new spell or two.

Even though she hadn’t been blindfolded, there wasn’t much Elinoire could say. They only passed through two small corridors, barely walking for five minutes to get to their destination and she was constantly surrounded by three golems, any time she was moved three magi were also there to make sure she couldn’t escape.

She hadn’t tried any sort of escape yet since she also figured the statues around the room were probably made with some sort of secret art, she doubted they were just statues.

As if all that wasn’t enough, when they were called upon to come for a test, they would create two arm-sized holes in the door, You would then need to put your arms into them and they would put a special kind of cuffs onto you. The cuffs would drain you from all magical energy making resistance impossible.

The day after you would suffer from mana exhaustion for at least half the day.

After hearing everything Elinoire said, Villin didn’t lose his hopes, there was always a path to escape. Over time wardens would become less nervous and you would get a bit more leeway to work with. 

The cuffs she mentioned made Villin think back to his trip to the mortal world where Amelia had those on. Still, they didn’t have a Geralt to help them now.

No matter what, he would have to experience it all for himself first. He would have to pay a lot of attention to his surroundings and try to find a way out.

Still, this wasn’t Belgium or Germany. If they were caught trying to escape they would most certainly be treated harsher, it was unlikely that they had the right to pursue freedom in Decorus’s eyes. If Villin was caught, death was most likely. In that respect, Elinoire didn’t have as big of a risk as even if she was being used for experimentation currently, she was still the headmaster’s daughter.

Two hours after Villin woke up, their conversation was interrupted by a loud bang coming from the door. “Both of you, arms through the holes, no funny business.”

The voice came from behind the door, Villin and Elinoire quietly went ahead and put their arms through the holes that had been created. Feeling around with his hand, Villin could feel that his arms were in an enclosed tube, once they were fully through, the holes tightened near Villin’s shoulders not giving him any chance to move. Then the end of the tube opened and heavy-duty handcuffs were placed on his hands. He could instantly feel that his magical power was quickly being sucked out of him, soon leaving him dry and incapable of using any spells.

Next to him, Elinoire went through the exact same process.

Then they were told to take a few steps back, after which the door dislodged from the walls and opened. Coming into the cell were three stone golems that were made in a lot of detail. They pretty much looked like tall humans, making it clear their creators were probably all very skilled. 

From behind them, a voice sounded out. “Yesterday we took the girl, take the new guy.”

Having heard his command, two of the golems moved behind Villin while the final one walked in front of Villin. It was clear Villin was supposed to follow him.

He walked through the door following this final golem and was soon face-to-face with the researcher. The man looked to be only around thirty years old, he had brown hair and glasses. His green robe made it clear that he was with Decorus. Behind the man were two others with an identical robe and wands in hand. They were both pointing them at Villin, they were akin to the guards that would keep the researcher safe, their strength wouldn’t be much less than those of teachers, completely out of his league.

After the researcher looked at him for a bit he finally called out “Alright then, you look healthy enough, now let us hope your blood values aren’t too bad. I’m a simple man mister Grey. If you behave properly during the test and don’t lie to me at any point in time, the only pain you get will be that from the experiments. If you don’t behave properly, we have plenty of enhanced interrogation techniques that could also do with some testing.”

Villin could tell from the researcher’s face that he wasn’t lying, he didn’t seem to put Villin in his eyes. To him, he was a test subject, if he misbehaved, he would be tortured, if not, he will be treated as the test subject he was.

For Villin, this was much better than him saying he would be set free after a certain period of time. If someone would’ve told him that, he knew he would be killed after the tests are finished. This was much better, they probably intended to keep him for a long period of time if possible.

After this, they began walking to their destination, the two guards moved to either side of him and kept their wands pointed at him constantly with the golems never being far either. It seemed to be total overkill to him. After all, with the handcuffs, he couldn’t cast any spells, and even if he could, at the very most he stood a chance against someone of the sixth grade. The only exception was his derivative spell of Mentallage but he doubted these people knew about that.

After five minutes of walking through they arrived at their destination. A white door that was once more merged through the wall beside it. The researcher put his hand on the door, as he did so the door dislodged itself from the wall and swung open, letting the group in.

The inside of the room was about what Villin expected. The entire room seemed to be made from a quartz-like material. There were a large number of white cabinets on one side of the room, probably holding all sorts of equipment the researcher might need and there were two other doors that you could use to exit the room, both of them were merged to the walls alongside him.

In the middle of the room were two different types of chairs with bindings that could be closed. Looking at the differences, Villin figured one would be used if he had to lay on his back and the other was to lay on his belly. This would allow the researcher to quickly switch from working on the front to the back without much risk.

He was asked by the researcher to sit on the first chair casually, something Villin quickly did. If there was one person here he didn’t want to piss off before escaping, it would be this guy.

When he sat in the chair, one of the guards used the bindings to make sure he couldn’t move. There were four straps in total. One on his forehead, one over his ribcage, one just below his knees, and the last one went from his handcuffs to a bar above his head. It forced his arms up, allowing the researcher to access all of his body.