TWLPOD 31
by soapa“Ugh— Guk—…!”
But holding on with one arm was too much, and even as the man, crushed to the floor by the immense pressure, coughed in agony, Kay did not stop. As a result, blood rushed to the man’s face, as if he were about to be crushed to death, and even his eyes turned red from burst blood vessels. The man’s face repeatedly turned red and purple as if he were having trouble breathing.
“He’s really going to die.”
“Shouldn’t someone stop him?”
“Him? Who?”
The onlookers who were watching had thought ‘no way,’ but Kay had been consistent from the beginning until now. Consistently, he intended to kill his opponent.
CRACK! Just as another bone-breaking sound was heard and the man could no longer offer even a sliver of resistance…
“Kuhk, heok, keok!”
As Kay’s foot was removed, the big guy, who could finally breathe, began to scream only after taking in a lungful of oxygen. With the pressure gone, the pain from the broken bones piercing his organs and muscles had come belatedly.
Writhed in a pain different from the stab wounds or cuts he had gotten in the war, the big guy had to look up with tears of blood at the small shadow that had been cast over his head.
“Thank Aran.”
The shadow raised its hand and then SMACK! slapped him across the cheek.
“It’s thanks to him that I’m holding back and not killing you.”
He didn’t want to admit it, but Aran’s calculation was correct. It wouldn’t have been bad for Kay to kill this man and make an example of him to the gazes that persistently followed him within the center, but he didn’t like the idea of Aran paying the price.
‘I don’t want to care.’
He was a valuable asset, and he had realized the power of the Repard name, so he understood that even if the guy faced some harsh consequences, his life wouldn’t be in danger. He understood, but… he didn’t want to be indebted. He had come to not even want him to face those ‘harsh consequences.’
The words ‘I don’t want to care’ were also proof that he ‘did care.’
He had criticized Jin while acting high and mighty, but damn it, everyone had a hierarchy of lives.
‘What a shitty thing.’
Even if all humans are created equal, for each individual, people are divided into those who are important and those who are not. So he didn’t want to make anyone precious to him. But his heart always betrayed his reason, and the people who ended up being created were subjects to be protected in his small world.
So Aran’s promise was welcome.
— I won’t die.
Because he was strong enough not to need to be worried about, and a person with enough power and honor not to need to humble his pride.
— So you don’t die either.
Is a promise that will be kept until it is broken a blessing? Or a curse?
Even as his thoughts grew numerous and his mind complex, the body that felt unbelievably light, a result of the guiding, was annoying again.
Kay, who had washed his sweat-drenched body and changed from his loungewear into his uniform, headed to the library. It was good for finding information he needed to know, and he liked that he could read books, a luxury in Willamere, to his heart’s content, but more than anything, it was a place in this center where he felt more at ease than even in his own room.
In a world where everyone used e-books and separate chip readers, people who used an analog library were extremely rare, so what he liked most of all was that he could enjoy the sense of liberation that this wide, high space gave him all by himself.
[“Hello, Mr. Kay.”]
After coming and going several times, the mechanical voice that called out his name had become as familiar to his ears as the space where his one-sided intimacy had grown.
[“The books you requested have been prepared.”]
A hemispherical face with two antennae. A body made of attached cylinders placed the books on the desk with a movement that was both flexible and unnatural. He was still continuing his studies on androids and the core, and this time, the books also included information about the ‘citadel’ where he had to be deployed in two days.
[“Do you have any other requests?”]
“……”
[“Mr. Kay?”]
“Sorry. I was just… lost in self-loathing for a moment.”
The sensation of the violence he had wielded in the training facility still lingered in his hands. He didn’t particularly regret his actions, nor did he think he had done anything wrong, but the thought that it was unlike him took precedence.
‘Is this also because of the guiding?’
Seeing as the imprinting of an esper and a guide brought not only physical but also mental stability, it was an undeniable fact that guiding could have some kind of emotional effect on an esper.
He didn’t have a sly personality like Aran, nor was he kind to everyone like Leah. Even if he admitted he had a combative personality, the emotional upheaval and aggression he had shown recently felt as if they weren’t his own.
‘Or do I want to use that as an excuse?’
But he had wanted to hold someone responsible for Simon’s death, everything he had said to Jin was sincere, and he thought that what happened in the training facility was necessary to some extent to make an example.
At the same time, that entire train of thought felt like a rationalization, that entire train of thought that resembled a rationalization…
‘I’m not a kid.’
…was inducing self-loathing.
[“Self-loathing. A type of self-hatred, and if accompanied by depression, psychological counseling is recommended.”]
“Are you comforting me?”
[“It is a realistic recommendation.”]
“Thank you.”
The metal machine, which he was not used to at first and thought he could never get used to, now looked cute as it blinked its large pixelated eyes and made expressions.
“You…”
This robot was what he had thought was surprising from the first time he saw it.
“What should I call you?”
Lympus was a place where androids had become the common enemy of humanity, but coexistence with machines was still inseparable. He had thought that this ‘robot’ he had met here on his first day in Lympus was also one of them, but it was not.
[“I am designated with the model name And—11.”]
So far, even though Kay had passed through several other districts of the city and his living radius, the only ‘robot’ that seemed to be located somewhere between a human and an android was this one piece of metal in front of him.
“Not the model name. Don’t you have a name?”
[“In accordance with the current laws of Lympus, machines cannot have names.”]
“Something like Dongle-ie isn’t a name.”
[“Responding to a call other than the model name is grounds for disposal.”]
“The model name is okay, right?”
[“That is possible.”]
“Then… And. Reading the model name as it sounds, And. That should be okay.”
The machine, which had never hesitated even in finding tens of thousands of materials until now, flickered the pixels that represented its eyes. Bzz.
“It’s okay, right?”
[“It is judged to be an element where the verdict may be divided depending on the legal interpretation.”]
“Then there’s no problem?”
“…There is… no…”
The robot, which had rolled its eyes a few times with a Bzz. Bzz., answered.
[“…problem, it is believed.”]
At that answer, Kay called out to the robot he would be seeing for a long time to come.
“And.”
[“Yes, Mr. Kay.”]
This relationship of calling a name and being called…
For Kay, it was the only one in this land…
A relationship where he was not asked for anything in return… and did not ask for anything.
In this land that could not be called a land, only this library was to his liking.
However, the coziness was brief. Kay had to move again due to an alarm that went off on his wrist.
[NOTICE: H-District Citadel Raid.
Assemble at the main conference room of Jeokhwagwan by 18:00.]
Jeokhwagwan was a considerably large building as it was where the main administrative systems were gathered, but for Kay, it was also a place where he had little reason to set foot. Kay, who was walking in search of an elevator, noticed a neatly dressed man in black standing in front of a corridor with a sign that said ‘reception room.’
Kay, whose gaze naturally turned inside, made eye contact with an unexpected person.
One person among the five or six people sitting at the round table who particularly drew his attention.
It was Aran.
He, who had been listening listlessly to the conversation going back and forth at the round table, which must have been heavy, also opened his eyes wide and then playfully winked one eye.
Kay, who passed by pretending not to have seen the fleeting eye contact, checked his bracelet in front of the elevator.
[(∴•̀ᴗ—)✧]
Crazy.
The text pretending to be cute somehow resembled the guy.
The memories he had forgotten through exercise and books were trying to surface again.
“Mr. Aran, are you listening?”
Aran, who had been smacking his lips in disappointment at the lack of a reply, lifted his head.
“I’m listening. We were talking about espers appearing as Aberrants.”
“The main content has been deleted and cannot be known, but the data that Mr. Aran extracted included the experiment outline and so on.”
“It would be correct to assume that they actually succeeded. Since we saw what we saw.”
Not only the espers, but even the researchers had parts of their bodies modified and moved under the command of the <Mother Core> as machines. He didn’t know what the principle was, but the androids had succeeded in mechanizing humans.
“This would also explain the recent sharp increase in the number of Aberrants. Therefore, I ask each of the corps commanders to be cautious, and in the future, please report without fail any cases of espers who go missing or die on the battlefield.”
The people actually sitting at the round table, as well as those participating via video conference, murmured. As numerous voices intertwined in a complex manner, someone asked a question.
“Are we defining them as Aberrants?”
All eyes turned to Redon, the corps commander of O-District.
“What is the intention behind your question?”
Laila, the center director with Jin standing behind her, asked coldly.
“It’s just as I said. If they are espers who were kidnapped and had machines implanted in them, shouldn’t their bodies themselves be defined as human?”
His arm, which was on the round table, was a prosthetic arm made of machinery.
“This is a different matter from simply replacing artificial organs or bodies. The problem is that they cannot escape the commands of the <Mother Core>.”
“If we capture them alive and restrain them, and then destroy the <Mother Core>, they might be able to live as ordinary humans without a command system.”
[“Are you suggesting we shouldn’t kill them?”]
“I’m suggesting we consider it.”