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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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I wondered if I had heard correctly.
I cautiously doubted my own ears.
“……So you mean.”
I asked the orc, Smith, for an answer once again.
“That it’s okay not to go to the hospital.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
What kind of bullshit is this?
I looked at Smith, expressing a curse with my face.
But Smith continued to explain my question in his usual tone.
“I know my own body well. You may not know since you’re not an orc, Mr. Shun, but among brothers, going to the hospital for a wound like this is a disgrace.”
What’s so disgraceful about that?
The image of orcs in my mind went down another notch.
Come to think of it, speaking of brothers.
The other ‘brothers’ Smith had mentioned had all been safely captured as well. And they had answered in the same way as Smith and had gone back to their homes.
Of course, the hospitals in cyberpunk were all eroded by capitalism, so their medical fees were heinous.
But, seeing him say that he really didn’t need to go to the hospital, I felt frustrated.
It was even more so for someone who had been confined in a sealed space for a week.
“…Even so—.”
Before I continued, I briefly organized my thoughts.
A normal person would have gone to the hospital first and worried about their own condition.
Right, If they were a ‘person.’
A thought followed belatedly.
Could an ‘orc’ really be described as a normal person?
“Hmm.”
Come to think of it, maybe it was okay not to go to the hospital.
I shook my head to come to my senses.
I suppressed the racist tendencies that were trying to come to life inside me. Ugh, I almost had a crazy thought.
“…It’s because you don’t have insurance, right?”
“……”
At my question, Smith flinched.
As expected.
There was no way a mercenary and an orc living in cyberpunk would have signed up for insurance services.
The number one profession to be denied insurance enrollment was mercenary, and when it came to race, it was orc.
It was a natural guess based on facts.
“…No, that’s not it. It’s more urgent to go and show my face to the boss.”
Just how much is his salary that he shows this much loyalty.
Smith pushed aside my feeble restraint and stood up from his seat.
“……Hmm.”
And he sat back down in his seat again.
He let out a shallow groan as if he were feeling dizzy.
Only then was I able to notice the fact that I hadn’t been seeing.
“No, this is insane.”
A curse escaped me without me realizing.
“What’s with the bandage on your stomach?”
“…It’s a scratch.”
“There’s blood seeping out right now, what.”
A reddish tint of blood seeped out from the surface of the worn-out bandage. The amount was by no means small.
At my flustered voice, Smith answered nonchalantly as if it were nothing.
“It’s really nothing. The gang members just put a bullet in my stomach so I wouldn’t cause a ruckus.”
“……”
I couldn’t answer.
If a hole in the stomach was nothing, I wondered what kind of wound would be ‘something.’
“You have to go to the boss right n—.”
I drew up my mana and shook Smith’s semicircular canals.
Normally, the result would have been different.
But now, the aftereffects (hacking) of being kidnapped by the gang, the Red Orcs, remained in Smith.
The unconscious Smith collapsed on the spot.
I wanted to at least grab his shoulder and support him, but I didn’t have the strength to support a 2m-tall orc.
Looking at the collapsed Smith, I operated my visual interface.
I entered a familiar number.
With a short ringing tone, the call was connected.
“Ah, hello? Is this the Neon City emergency center? Yes. I called because there’s an injured person here. Yes, yes. The location is—.”
Please come quickly.
Before long, I ended the call.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
No Answer, that secret 3rd floor.
Natasha skillfully prepared a cocktail in the
bartender-less wine bar.
“With Coke?”
“…Yep.”
In Natasha’s hands, as she returned to where I was sitting, were two well-made cocktail glasses.
Natasha extended her slender fingers qnd handed me a cocktail glass.
“I mixed it smoothly.”
“Thank you.”
I tossed the cocktail of unknown identity into my mouth.
The intensity of the carbonation and the sweetness, at the same time, I felt the bitter aftertaste of the alcohol.
My impression was as follows.
“…It’s delicious.”
“It’s a hobby.”
It was a taste that even I, who did not particularly prefer alcohol, could drink without any resistance.
Natasha sat down on the sofa across from me.
I calmly assessed the current situation.
Originally, I had no intention of coming to No Answer.
I was going to just deliver the news by phone and be done with it.
But Natasha had asked me to come just once.
So I had no choice but to come.
How could I refuse a request from the boss of No Answer.
In fact, Catherine and Eve had tried to follow me, but for some reason I didn’t know, Natasha had added that she wanted me to come alone.
Those processes had gathered and had led to the situation where I was drinking cocktails with Natasha, just the two of us.
I slightly lifted my head and looked at Natasha.
Natasha was dressed in a suit and had a neat and tidy appearance, just as I had seen her last time.
I also missed the cheongsam she had worn even before that, but I wasn’t drunk enough yet to thoughtlessly let such a thought escape my lips.
Natasha smoothly crossed her legs. It seemed to be a habitual action.
The high heels that continued from the end of her suit pants showed off their sharp presence.
“So.”
Natasha asked, taking a sip of her cocktail.
“You found Smith in Redwood.”
“That’s right.”
I nodded and continued my explanation.
The kind guide, Tom.
The gang, the Red Orcs.
Smith, who was taken to the hospital.
I calmly conveyed the process of what had happened today to Natasha.
“Mr. Smith was trying to come straight to you, Boss…, Natasha. But I stopped him, so please don’t look at it too badly.”
“Of course not, if he’s injured, he has to go to the hospital.”
Natasha answered with common sense.
As expected, it was Smith who was being irrational.
“…As for Smith, I’ll thank you on his behalf.”
Natasha covered her mouth with a fan.
“…He’s a subordinate who doesn’t take care of his own body as much as you’d think, which is why I’ve given him the role of a bodyguard.”
Natasha’s blue eyes turned to me.She put down the fan she was holding on the table and stood up from the sofa she was sitting on.
Now that the explanation is over, I can go back, right?
I also tried to stand up from my seat, following Natasha who had stood up.
But, before I could stand up, Natasha moved to the sofa next to me.
“?”
This is too close.
At the sudden invasion of my personal space, I couldn’t give any clear reaction.
How close was it, you ask. It was ‘very’ close, to the point where Natasha’s shoulder touched my shoulder, and Natasha’s hip touched my body.
Whether I was flustered or not, Natasha’s gaze was staring at me from a close distance.
“I’ll say it again, thank you.”
Natasha continued to speak.
Was my flustered reaction funny?
A faint smile was on her lips.
Is this a green light? Or is it just because she’s drunk?
My head wasn’t working properly.
“…Hey Natasha, this is too clos—.”
Before my words could finish, Natasha drew a long smile on her lips.
“Hoho, what’s wrong with expressing gratitude to a subordinate’s benefactor.”
It’s not the gratitude, but it’s because you’re too close.
With her gaze still on me, Natasha extended only one hand and lifted the cocktail glass I had been drinking.
A slightly dark liquid flowed from the cocktail glass into Natasha’s mouth.
“Poo.”
A cute expression, unfitting for her cold image, escaped Natasha’s lips.
She placed the empty glass back on the high-end ceramic table.
“…You were always like that. You always help me. And you help others too.”
A nostalgic feeling passed through Natasha’s eyes. She reminisced about the past while looking at me.
“Remember? When you saved my life.”
“Ah.”
There was a time like that.
It wasn’t that long ago. It was a relatively recent event.
Of course, it was a story from before I had met Eve.
I went through every hardship then too. I had struggled and died alone against the mysterious group that had been targeting Natasha at the charity party.
Just when I thought it was the end, my colleagues had appeared and I was able to survive.
I really had gone through all sorts of hardships. I answered Natasha’s words with a brief thought.
“I didn’t do it alone.”
“Others won’t think so. Me included.”
…….
You’re not really drunk, are you? I had a strong desire to install an ethanol burner implant for her at my own expense.
But apart from that.
The fact that my heart was pounding was an unavoidable physiological phenomenon.
…Why have I been getting involved with so many beautiful women lately?
I thought of a happy problem, from others’ perspective.
I didn’t know how many it had been already.
The Chairman…, Andrea, Catherine, Maya.
And Eve, who had appeared with an artificial body. Julia was pretty too, though she was short.
And even Natasha.
“……”
I suddenly noticed that Natasha was getting closer and closer to me.
“Natash—.”
I was about to call her name to snap her out of her drunken state, but Natasha was faster, raising her index finger and covering my mouth.
“Shh.”
A faint blush appeared on Natasha’s cheeks.
No, no matter how I looked at it, she seemed drunk. I wondered if it made sense for someone like the boss of No Answer to get drunk on two cocktails.
As an ‘I’ by birth, I was weaker than anyone else to being pushed.
I swallowed hard as I watched the approaching Natasha.
Natasha’s short black hair was close enough to touch my face—.
[Ahem.]
Eve’s cough echoed in the room.
Eve! You’re here! I looked at the place where the sound had come from.
In the empty space where there had been nothing, a hologram screen had now appeared.
Natasha, as if she had expected it, looked at Eve’s figure and said.
“As I thought, you were watching.”
[This unit is always by ‘Shiun’s’ side.]
“Hoho.”
Natasha stood up from her seat and walked toward the hologram screen.
With her arms crossed, the two of them began to talk in a small voice.
[I do not recommend arbitrary actions.]
“…I know, it was half a joke.”
I couldn’t hear their conversation well.
I let out a short breath. I was dumbfounded by what had just happened.
Natasha, who had finished her conversation, walked toward me.
“It seems this is the end for today. Hoho, what a shame.”
I didn’t have a good grasp of what the situation was, but if I wanted to escape, now was the perfect opportunity.
I stood up from my seat and said to Natasha.
“…Yes, well. I’ll be on my way for now.”
“Okay, I’ll see you out.”
Natasha followed behind me.
I didn’t know the exact principle, but the hologram screen with Eve’s figure on it also continued to move in the air, following the steps of the two of us.
“Ah, come to think of it.”
Natasha suddenly spoke up.
“You guys are still living together, right? ‘Shooting Star’ and the ‘artificial intelligence’.”
“……That.”
—’s right.
For some reason, my gut told me not to answer, so I trailed off my words as I answered.
But as if that was enough for Natasha, she waved her hand lightly and saw me off.
“Anyway, that’s all for today, I got too carried away with my emotions, unlike me. See you again.”
“…Then see you next time.”
I also answered her words briefly.
I left No Answer and walked out onto the lower-level street, where the lukewarm air lingered in various places.
And a little while ago, I thought about what had happened to me.
…Hmm.
“……”
I should just go home and play some games. I decided to leave the rest to the me of tomorrow.
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“Hello, I’ve moved in.”
“……”
It was something I could have expected by now.
I thought as I saw Natasha, who had knocked and entered the front door.
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