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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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“Are you just going to leave?”
I stood at the front door, seeing Natasha off.
“Today was just a quick visit to see your face in commemoration of my move-in, and besides, I have some business to take care of at No Answer later.”
It seemed she really had come purely to ‘see my face.’
Natasha, who had been staring at my face, answered with a smile.
“We’ll see each other again later, so I’ll be going now.”
Natasha moved her steps toward the elevator.
The large orc, Smith, whom I hadn’t even known was behind her, followed.
…He’s already discharged?
Seeing Smith, I instinctively frowned.
No matter how outstanding the scientific capabilities of cyberpunk were, it was definitely not a wound that could heal in a single day.
Even if it is his own body, isn’t he using it too carelessly?
As if he had noticed my thoughts, Smith, who had left a brief nod, quickly entered the elevator as if fleeing.
…Sigh, I don’t know. He’s a bodyguard, after all.
He probably knows his own body better.
I saw the two of them off until the very end as they disappeared between the closing elevator doors.
After confirming that the elevator’s floor number was going down, I closed the front door again and went back inside.
…Hmm.
Now that Natasha has moved in too, how many is that?
I calmly sorted them out one by one.
Eve, who had been living with me from the start.
Catherine, who had moved in next door to follow me.
Julia, who at some point had moved in across the hall.
Andrea, who had moved into the house Bill had vacated.
And even Natasha, who I didn’t know the exact house of, but who had said she had moved in and then disappeared.
Ah, come to think of it.
I think the Chairman had also half-jokingly said she would get a place.
For goodness sake.
I wondered how on earth my happy-happy one-room life had gotten so twisted.
Was it my fault for telling Catherine my address?
No, even if I hadn’t told her my address back then, the result would have been the same.
She would have found me one way or another.
“Phew.”
What was the use of worrying?
I lightly shook my head and awakened my hazy mind.
No matter how much I worried now, it wasn’t like I could change the current situation.
Let’s just think positively.
Since the situation has already flowed this far, the problems won’t get any more tangled from here, right?
“……”
They really won’t, right?
Probably so.
I erased the ominous premonition that arose in my heart.
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…Is she a mercenary, or a bum in the corner of her room?
Catherine asked me, lying on the sofa.
“Where’s Natasha?”
“She said she just stopped by since she moved in.”
“Hmm, I see.”
At my words, Catherine rolled her body as is.
She changed her posture as if to look up at the ceiling. Her feet naturally came up onto the back of the sofa.
It looked like a posture I had seen before.
Since Catherine’s sense of balance was so exceptional, it didn’t look much different from sitting.
For reference, since her light attire was still the same, it was difficult to know where to put my eyes.
I asked, looking at Catherine’s bare feet, which were moving as if walking on air.
“You’re not surprised?”
At my question, Catherine answered while operating her visual interface.
“It’s not the first or second time this has happened.”
She was right.
As if she felt her explanation was lacking, Catherine continued to speak.
“Andrea moved in too, and that girl named Julia is living across the hall, so. It’s not that surprising.”
And it was a sound argument.
Catherine said, looking at Andrea.
“Isn’t that right?”
I followed Catherine’s upside-down gaze and I looked at Andrea, who was sitting in front of an old computer, enjoying her hunt.
“Uh, what did you say?”
“……”
Is this one a famous singer, or a game addict?
I shook my head and lamented without realizing.
It seemed to be the same for Catherine, who was a (true) bum, as she looked at Andrea with cold, dead eyes.
From my perspective, they were both pretty much the same.
Catherine turned her head back to me.
“Anyway, it’s a situation where I’m already not surprised by every little piece of news like that, unless someone like the chairman of Monolith moves in.”
As if she had made herself laugh.
Catherine laughed softly and sought my agreement.
And I.
“……”
Of course, I couldn’t answer.
Catherine, who had become anxious at my reaction, glanced at me and asked once more.
“…It’s not, right?”
“……”
As I couldn’t answer, Catherine got up from the sofa.
She stealthily approached Eve, who was guiding the game (entertaining the newbie) next to Andrea, and asked.
“…Is it true?”
“That’s—.”
Just as Eve was about to continue her explanation.
Ding-dong.
The intercom bell of the front door rang once again.
“I’ll get it.”
I didn’t wait for an answer and quickly walked toward the front door.
I didn’t know who had come, but it was a guest who had come at a very good time.
First, before I opened the door, I checked the outside first through the intercom screen.
I saw the solar plexus of a muscular man.
“?”
I looked a little more closely, I also saw a neatly braided gray beard.
A man with a gray beard and muscles of this height.
His head was probably bald.
It was someone I knew.
I immediately opened the front door and welcomed the person.
“Drek!”
It was my dwarf friend (2m, fashionably bald).
Drek bowed his head and slightly lowered his black cyber sunglasses. His green cyberware eyes met mine.
“I was just passing by and decided to stop in.”
Drek greeted me with a cliché expression.
How long has it been since Drek came to visit?
To be precise, it seemed to be the first time since he had come to kidnap me for a cyberware scaling.
Having thought that far, I was silent for a moment.
“……”
Is my cyberware implant scaling check-up due yet?
Hmm.
I thought for a short moment and welcomed him again.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t time to get it yet.
“Welcome, there isn’t much, but come on in.”
“…I’m curious about what that brief silence was.”
I ignored the unnecessary postscript.
If he had come to see me again for a cyberware scaling, I was about to immediately close the front door and jump out the window to escape.
It was a relief that wasn’t the case.
Friends are always welcome.
Drek came inside my house.
“Oh, hi.”
“……Uh, what. And here I thought, who could it be. It’s Drek.”
Catherine and Andrea greeted Drek in a comfortable state, as if it were their own home.
Catherine was now wearing a coat, covering her tank top. When did she put that on.
Drek looked around my house.
And he looked at me and said,
“…Wasn’t this your house?”
“……”
Not anymore….
Recalling the famous line of a former hero, current gay character from a certain gun game in my mind, I answered with silence.
“Ah, take off your shoes before you come in.”
“I know without you telling me.”
Drek took off his shoes with a familiar movement.
“Dwarf ‘Drek,’ nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, nice to meet you too.”
“You can put your shoes over there.”
“Alright.”
Eve also took on the role of guiding Drek with me.
Except for the two bums, Eve is the only one who helps me at home.
I guided Drek to a guest chair.
“This should be fine even if you sit on it.”
Drek, whose entire body was made of a cyberware artificial body, naturally did not have a ‘normal’ body weight.
For reference, this would probably be the same for Catherine, Andrea, or Eve.
Even if they had made it lightweight, they would weigh at least a little more than my scrawny body.
Of course, since my life was precious, I had never seriously asked about that part.
Leaving behind Catherine and Andrea, who had flinched slightly at my words, Drek expressed his thanks briefly.
“Thanks for this.”
Drek sat down in the chair with his body of thick muscles (and chrome).
“Want some coke?”
“With some oil mixed in.”
“We don’t have that.”
We don’t have that….
Drek, Drek.
Cyberware users who had replaced their entire bodies often used special drinks to maintain their bodies.
Should I say it’s like the engine oil of an engine?
Of course, that didn’t mean they absolutely couldn’t eat normal food.
Usually, the majority of cases were where they would install an implant like an ‘organic reactor’ inside to be able to produce enough energy even from normal food.
I poured a normal coke for Drek.
“…What kind of coke is this?”
“Mint-flavored coke.”
A new product
Drek, whose expression had become twice as grim, slowly put down the coke glass.
I asked Drek.
“So is something wrong? What’s up. And don’t give me that strange story about just passing by.”
“I’m always the same. Running the shop, processing cyberware. I don’t get caught up in incidents like someone I know.”
“……”
Is it because he drank the mint-flavored coke? He’s throwing some pretty sharp facts.
Drek, with a grim smile on his lips (his face was originally scary), continued to speak.
“But it’s not like I just stopped by without any business.”
Drek operated his visual interface.
“It’s right to hand over something like this in person.”
At the same time, in my visual interface.
A message notification from Drek appeared.
The content was….
An RSVP card.
“Ah.”
An RSVP card.
Often used to ask about attendance for a wedding, and also usually used as a wedding invitation.
I had already heard the news last time. I had heard it at Drek’s house, where I was taken as if kidnapped.
I offered a handshake to Drek.
“Congratulations again.”
“Ha, to think a day like this would come.”
Drek answered, taking my handshake.
And just then.
“…What is this, an RSVP? Drek, are you getting married?”
Catherine stood up and asked.
“Really? To whom? Ah, you had a girlfriend.”
Andrea, who had been focused on the computer, also quickly stood up from her seat and approached us.
Both of them, of course, knew about Drek’s girlfriend, ‘Lorenda.’
When we had first saved Drek from the scavengers, it was also because his girlfriend had asked ‘for the time being’ to save him.
Drek, who had heard their questions, looked back at me.
“What, you didn’t tell them? I already told Shiun a step ahead.”
Then, the gazes of Catherine and Andrea turned to me this time.
It was a look that wanted an explanation.
Hmm.
On the contrary, I looked at Eve with a look that asked for help. But in fact, since Eve hadn’t been there, there seemed to be no way for Eve to help me.
I swallowed dryly. I slowly chose my words.
How should I say it?
To get out of this situation.
Before long, I cautiously opened my mouth.
“I forgot.”
““……””
I decided to just be brazen. So what can you guys do?
Catherine, who had heard the date, asked Drek back.
“…Next week? Why so soon?”
“Well, you see.”
Drek briefly continued his explanation.
“Pregnant? Ms. Lorenda is? Not an artificial womb, but a natural pregnancy? Why didn’t you tell me such news!”
“I told Shiun, so I thought you would of course know too.”
Their gazes gathered on me once again.
I calmly made another excuse.
“I forgot that too.”
And I was almost kicked out of my own house.
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