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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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It’s more awkward than you might think to witness someone’s hidden shame.
It’s naturally uncomfortable for the person being seen, but it’s also embarrassing for the observer. Especially when it’s the undisclosed private life of a cyberpunk aristocrat, a high-ranking MegaCorp executive.
“Wait, wait…!”
“Take your shoes off now!”
As I watched a young girl mercilessly thrash a middle-aged man, I thought blankly, If I clipped this and sent it to NCB24, I could make a decent amount of money…
The situation was so chaotic that such absurd thoughts crossed my mind.
Hmm.
I contemplated as I watched Ko-zaka William tap out, signaling his pain.
Frankly, it would be strange for us to intervene.
Ko-zaka William was in the wrong. How could he enter a house without taking off his shoes? What a barbarian…
Objectively, I thought he deserved the scolding.
So, what should we do?
…….
I cautiously approached one of Ko-zaka’s (ninja) employees who was standing by.
“Excuse me…”
“Yes?”
“Do you have any popcorn or soda? Caramel-coated would be even better.”
“…….”
The employee looked at me like I was crazy.
Apparently, they didn’t have any. Disappointed, I turned away from the employee’s gaze and returned to watching the marital spat.
It was too captivating a spectacle to watch empty-handed.
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The seemingly eternal “marital spat” ended shortly thereafter.
The defeated general, Ko-zaka William, uttered his last words – that he would go fix his disheveled hair – and shuffled away.
I offered no consolation to the loser; I didn’t bother seeing him off.
Come back stronger…!
Then, as if nothing had happened, the girl, Ko-zaka Kohaku, sat demurely and bowed her head to us.
“My apologies for the disturbance.”
She took a sip of her now-cold tea. Indeed, she must have been parched.
She seemed like a completely different person from the woman who had just been yelling and pulling the MegaCorp Vice Chairman’s hair.
Catherine, who had witnessed the whole scene with me, offered her observation:
“That was definitely chaotic─.”
“Ahem.”
I stopped the golden child before she revealed too much.
As if she hadn’t heard anything, Ko-zaka Kohaku led us, her expression unchanged.
“You must be tired of standing. Please, have a seat.”
She gestured in front of her.
Catherine, Eve, and I awkwardly sat down before her.
Having grown up in the cyberpunk world, Catherine wasn’t used to sitting on the floor. She tried to mimic Ko-zaka Kohaku’s posture but nearly got a leg cramp and quickly adjusted to a more comfortable position.
Eve spread her long skirt gracefully and sat down neatly.
I didn’t want to attempt the Japanese seiza, so I simply sat cross-legged.
“…….”
Despite our unconventional postures, Ko-zaka Kohaku showed no reaction and calmly raised her hand.
The sliding doors on either side opened, revealing several employees carrying tea and refreshments.
As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t fond of tea other than coffee, but judging by the color, it seemed to be the same kind as before – meaning, incredibly expensive. I accepted the teacup without hesitation.
A period of silence followed.
“…….”
“…….”
Ko-zaka William, who had arranged our meeting, had fled after his defeat in the marital spat.
We hesitated to speak first, and she didn’t broach the subject either. Perhaps she was embarrassed by the earlier fight.
A period of time passed, long or short depending on your perspective.
Just as the taste of the warm capitalist tea began to wear on me, I decided to break the silence and ask Ko-zaka Kohaku something I had been wondering about since I first saw her.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
I cleared my throat.
“How old are─.”
“I’ve heard a brief account of your situation.”
“Huh?”
Her sudden change of topic caught me off guard.
No, seriously, how old are you?
Ignoring my question, Ko-zaka Kohaku continued without pause.
“I understand you are all opposed to my biological father, ‘Ko-zaka Nobukiro.’ Is that correct?”
“…Well, yes.”
I nodded.
It felt a bit awkward to admit my dislike for her father directly to his daughter, especially given that she was also Pete Mac’s daughter. But she had already heard the story, and things had gone too far to deny it.
Ko-zaka Kohaku asked again, “May I ask why?”
“Ah, that’s a bit… difficult to explain.”
I politely declined, taking a sip of tea to signal my unwillingness to elaborate.
Explaining my situation would inevitably involve talking about Eve. That was something I couldn’t share with a MegaCorp executive, especially not one who wasn’t an ally.
The existence of cyberpunk’s only Super AI was a secret that couldn’t be risked. It could create another enemy besides Pete Mac.
However, as if anticipating my response, Ko-zaka Kohaku showed no particular reaction and set down her teacup.
“I see.”
It was somewhat amusing to see the little girl in her formal kimono nodding with a serious expression, as if she were some important figure. The surface of her kimono shimmered faintly, though it wasn’t an LED kimono, as far as I could tell.
“I apologize.”
“?”
Her sudden apology puzzled me.
“I must ask for your understanding once more.”
With that, Ko-zaka Kohaku stood up, wobbling slightly on her small feet.
“I haven’t received a proper explanation from my husband yet. I’ve only been told that he’s secured an opportunity to remove the chairman from his position.”
“Uh-huh.”
“…….”
Perhaps annoyed by my lack of enthusiasm, Ko-zaka Kohaku frowned.
…Well, I didn’t know what was going on, so my response was natural.
Composing herself and folding her hands neatly, Ko-zaka Kohaku continued calmly.
“You don’t yet understand how dangerous Nobukiro is.”
…….
I managed to hold back a response this time, but that didn’t mean I agreed. Having been targeted by an anti-tank missile while riding in a driverless taxi, I certainly had my own opinion on the matter.
Perhaps satisfied with my silence, Ko-zaka Kohaku slightly pulled back her sleeve.
“My body is also a testament to that. As you may have noticed, you probably had questions from the beginning. Ko-zaka’s prosthetic technology isn’t as advanced as Monolith’s yet, so this is the result of an experiment for stability.”
“…….”
But why would the chairman’s daughter be the subject of a safety experiment…?
“Because I’m related to Nobukiro by blood. He wanted a young body, so I was trapped in this artificial prosthetic against my will. A fake, not even the real thing.”
Whoa. I wished she would choose her words more carefully, considering there was another person here with a prosthetic body.
I had simply assumed Ko-zaka William was a pervert, but apparently, there was more to the story.
I mentally downgraded Ko-zaka William from “hopeless pervert” to “uncivilized barbarian who wears shoes indoors.”
Glancing at Eve, I tried to steer the conversation towards a conclusion.
“…I understand he’s dangerous, but we can’t just do nothing while you’re opposing him.”
That was my logical conclusion.
He wasn’t just dangerous; he was crazy! What kind of insane MegaCorp chairman would pretend to be a mascot character?
Even outside the cyberpunk world, it would be creepy if the chairman of a company that created a certain mouse cartoon walked around saying, “Pika Pika.”
Ko-zaka Kohaku responded calmly to my argument.
“That might be true for you, but it’s different for my husband and me.”
She gestured behind her.
“I apologize, but I can’t trust mercenaries I know nothing about.”
All the sliding doors in the room disappeared. I had thought they were real furniture, but now I saw they were holographic projections.
Outside the room, a group of black-clad figures, their eyes gleaming menacingly, stared at us.
“These are my personal ninjas. If you were truly capable of opposing him, you could easily─.”
That’s when it happened.
“Ha.”
At first, I thought it was Catherine’s scoff.
But unless I was mistaken, it was Eve’s voice.
I glanced back at Eve. Her face was still impassive, as usual, but perhaps because Ko-zaka Kohaku had insulted “prosthetics,” she seemed…angry.
The next moment, everything changed.
Before any “aisatsu” like “dough-moh” could be uttered, all the ninjas beyond the sliding doors collapsed with muffled groans.
“Ugh!!”
“…Hacked? But there was no signal!”
“Hidebu!!”
If they had been traditionally trained ninjas, this wouldn’t have happened. But cyberpunk ninjas were no match for Eve. They all relied on cyberware.
Just like in front of the Ko-zaka headquarters building before, the hidden blades of the MegaCorp boasting the second-highest market capitalization were neutralized in an instant.
“……What is the meaning of this?” Ko-zaka Kohaku looked around in bewilderment.
But no matter how much she looked, the situation didn’t change. The ninjas struggled to get up, only managing to crawl on the tatami mats.
And then it happened.
The sliding door behind us opened, and Ko-zaka William, the MegaCorp Vice Chairman, entered, his hair now neatly styled. He looked slightly embarrassed, perhaps ashamed of the earlier fight.
“Sorry for leaving for a mome─.”
He stopped mid-sentence.
Ko-zaka William slowly surveyed the scene, trying to understand what had happened.
“……What’s going on here?”
Unable to grasp the situation just by looking, he turned to us and asked. It seemed this hadn’t been prearranged.
Unlike before, Ko-zaka Kohaku’s expression darkened.
Naturally, Ko-zaka William’s gaze finally settled on her.
“…Honey, I’d like an explanation.”
As another marital spat threatened to erupt before our very eyes, I calmly assessed the situation.
What I needed to do was…
Having reached a decision, I approached one of the writhing ninjas. He looked at me with a questioning gaze.
“Where’s the kitchen? I’d like some popcorn…”
“…….”
Unfortunately, perhaps because he was a ninja, he didn’t answer my question.
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