56 – Recklessness (3)
“…Ugh.”
“Lord Taehyuk?”
As I regained consciousness, Ilia’s voice flowed into my ears.
In my right hand – not a splint, but a proper cast.
I felt completely wrapped up, even the frustration, leaving only enough room for my fingers to twitch.
“…Ugh.”
“There might be nausea due to the side effects of morphine.
You should lie down and rest.”
As I tried to sit up, my wobbly body couldn’t overcome it, and I lay there, staring at the ceiling.
Inside a place too neat to call my home, surrounded by medical devices attached to my body.
…The Tech Boys weren’t to be underestimated, but here –
“Ah, looks like someone regained consciousness, Incheon’s sharpshooter.”
With a creak, the door opened, and in walked a woman with short white hair similar to Illya’s length.
Though she had an exotic face, her voice, greeting me fluently in Korean, was…
“Chinese special forces – you’re the head of the security team?”
“Yeah… seems surprising, doesn’t it?”
“…I thought your other colleagues would be guarding the cargo. It’s not common for one person to guard two trucks alone.”
“Heh, that’s true.”
As if about to pull the chair, she grasped the handle, then swiftly lifted it and delicately placed it next to me before sitting down, flexing her fist.
Her body seemed excessively thin compared to the strength she exerted.
“Do you remember my name? Julia -“
“Julia Maxwell.”
“You’re still mentally sharp, huh? Are former Mirzis training corps members different in some way? Or maybe surviving ten years as an independent mercenary toughened you up.”
As the head of the security team, wielding a minigun, she seemed out of place for combat. Her appearance was almost like a model on a billboard, oddly alien.
It felt awkward, like when Illya raised her shield.
“It gets a bit awkward if you stare so intently.”
“Even if it’s for infantry, using a minigun with a body like that seems challenging.”
“Even with the Tesudo exoskeleton assistance, it’s barely bearable.
I did sacrifice some output for the aesthetics of the arms from the start – right.”
Clank, and as gold formed between his fingers and the back of his hand, I panicked at the extending sight.
Blue flames erupted from the exposed frame, resonating through the air.
The sound, like bullets grazing the ears, set my skin’s hairs on edge.
“Are you intending harm?”
Confirming my reaction, Ilia rose from her seat immediately, blocking Julia.
Watching her withdraw her hand slowly, her white hair tinged with a blue hue.
“I had no such intention. CI – 125.”
A model name heard after a long time.
Simultaneously, a bitter chill enveloped the back of my ears and neck.
“I am Ilia. There is no reason to address me by that model name anymore.”
“It’s kind of fascinating seeing it like this…
Mounting an outdated AI onto a relatively new android body.”
“…How did you know that name?”
Could it be that Mirsice has been monitoring me all along?
Or has Ilia been scanned?
Then, what about what I’ve done…
“I just skimmed through the operation records.
I inputted it into the database for identity verification, and it popped right up, you know?”
Underneath the company, there were splendid maneuvers.
Surviving through all those battles was astonishing.
Fortunately, it seems that wasn’t the case.
As the heart, which had felt constricted as if in pain, slowly released its grip, a long sigh escaped.
Intruding into the IT facility… well, that might be something unknown.
And Ilia’s current condition too.
“The most interesting part is probably acquiring the artificial intelligence of CI-125 aircraft.
Even though you got a penetrating injury in the knee? But then, you immediately quit your job, blew all your severance pay.
However, after ten years, the mercenary who started discarding his name comes back to the company with 125, like this. Funny.”
“…I just did something typical of a mercenary.
There’s nothing more to see for a corporation.”
“But it seems like the corporation has something to see in our senior.”
Once again, strength returned to the body.
A cold sweat, chilling the forehead, slowly started dripping down the face.
“Do you have some trauma? Well, the Incheon training operation was hell.
But it’s not that… it’s a recruitment proposal for the security team.”
The screen of the panel descending from the ceiling, and then the pad pulled out from behind it. Yulia, tapping something with a pen, immediately showed me the contract, enlarging the densely written characters, preparing to explain. I shook my head at her.
“There’s nothing more to see from the company, as I mentioned before.
Consider this time’s assistance as aligning with my interests and fitting with theirs.”
Working under guys in suits with commoner’s thoughts was no longer appealing.
Even if they offered a lot of money, the horrifying experience of being pushed into a corner with a noose around your neck…
That was something I couldn’t endure again.
“Hmm, the reaction isn’t great.
I thought it would be nice to recruit this time since there are many vacancies in the security team.
As you know… the Nomads have been causing a lot of trouble on the outskirts lately.
We’ve lost quite a few teammates to rocket attacks.”
Taking a thin, long cigarette from his pocket, he bit it and lit it with a lighter. His face showed no expression at all.
The sweet yet pungent smoke touched the inside of the nose after a long time.
…The smell of the battlefield, which she had longed for but never wanted to face again, was emanating from her.
“Well, designate it towards Manticore then.
Sorry, but I won’t be carrying the company’s name in my activities anymore.”
The dark circles under his eyes were undoubtedly shadows painted by death.
Crushed by the screams of the battlefield, unable to sleep properly,
dependent on alcohol and cigarettes, suppressing yesterday’s memories forcibly –
Days of agony, hearing the hallucinations of comrades already gone.
It was familiar.
Because it was a path I had already walked.
“Well, I expected that much.
Not only were the team members forced out by dismissal, but the severance pay was also replaced with artificial intelligence data,
so there’s no way the company would have a positive image.”
Once again, a sweet fragrance wafted through the air.
Indirect smoking wasn’t particularly good for health…
But that aroma.
The pungent smoke of the cigarette seemed to pull me into the darkness of the past.
“…Hey.”
And to someone like me, a cigarette was extended.
Long, thin, a white stick.
After lighting it up and taking a puff,
it felt like inhaling the sweetness-filled clouds of a confection after filling the mouth…
“It’s been a while since I quit.”
“There’s a saying that while there might be people who never touched it at all, there’s no one who only touched it once.”
“…No. It’s just – not possible.”
But now, I had moved on from those days.
I had Ilia by my side, and I was no longer a mercenary of Mircis.
No more getting involved in issues like stealing each other’s robot models or artificial intelligence systems –
I didn’t want to meddle in such problems.
The everyday routine of forcibly putting some crappy combat ration into my mouth and pulling the trigger, day in and day out, was no longer part of my life.
Without a single weekend of leisure, my days were filled only with cigarettes and alcohol. However, I no longer desired such days.
“Heh, they say eyes can’t lie. Seems like they tell the truth. Still, I’ll respect that intention. Senior.”
With a bitter smile on the face that brushed off the cigarette in my hand and tucked the unsmoked butt into my pocket, it felt as if I could recall times when I clung to a storage device containing Ilia’s data, and my heart was stinging.
It resembled me.
That’s what I thought.
“For now, you don’t have to worry about medical expenses. Considering the past connection with the company – they mentioned they could handle a simple ‘treatment,’ taking into account the help with cargo transportation. Check your messages; there should be at least a formal thank-you note.”
At the end of a deep sigh, I caught the last lingering scent of the cigarette, and a bitter laugh burst out.
“Heh, is it okay for a Miresis person to say that? A formal thank-you note?”
From Noble mtl dot com
“Well, what else would those suit-wearers say differently? They’re all about playing with money, and those below them are high and mighty folks who don’t care about the lives of the people underneath.”
“Kuk, suit-wearers. It’s been a long time since I heard someone use that word for someone other than me.”
Looking at me with a chin in hand, the smiling face felt familiar. The smile, like alcohol, was sweet but also bitter.
Meeting someone who resembled me was both joyful and bittersweet, knowing how difficult and painful that place was.
“…Is it okay to ask for your contact information?”
Resting on her hand was a thin, simply designed cellphone.
Not as thick as a business phone, with no rugged case attached –
“Ah.”
Feeling a bit crumpled, I turned the phone slightly backward, and there were stickers stuck here and there.
Seeing that a white rabbit face covered the Mirsis logo, I couldn’t help but laugh –
Her face seemed to blush little by little.
“…Well, there’s no need to be embarrassed. Everyone develops a hobby or two in the midst of a deadly situation.
This falls into a very wholesome category.”
Especially when thinking about the time when bullets were flying at corpses.
After that, it was all about getting immersed in alcohol and cigarettes.
Now, mixing bodies with Illya, well…
Am I still disorderly and delinquent?
“All right. Here, junior.
If you ever need support, contact me.”
“As in using the company’s name? Or… personally?”
“On a company level. Take a look at who’s next to you before trying to contact me personally.”
The tired yellow eyes glanced to the side,
Meeting Illya’s black eyes.
Similar yet completely different faces made me feel a slight distinction once again.
The tired face of Yulia, deeply immersed in the pain of life.
And the emotionless face of Ilia, smiling only at me.
There was a clear difference between the two.
Should I call it strange?
“Ah, then…”
Before those words could finish, Ilia silently took out a necklace, as if that alone proved everything.