Chapter 158
“By the way, you said I looked like I had a lot on my mind?”
[Yeah. You seemed to have a serious concern, sitting alone in the shade, drinking a Margarita, and chewing on your solitude. At first, I wondered if something was wrong.]
Come to think of it, that was true.
After work ended, I had been lost in thought, recalling what happened today and what lay ahead.
Future, goals, hope, a Humane Life… I remember asking myself such philosophical questions. The conclusions had all been bleak.
It was only a few hours ago, but somehow it felt like a very old worry.
I had almost forgotten I was even harboring such worries until Dragon President brought it up.
“Ah, right. I did. Hah. If a change of pace was your goal, you definitely succeeded.”
Because a shocking incident and new worries had hit me one after another, philosophical problems had scattered from my mind like sea foam.
My mood was definitely refreshed.
These existential concerns only crept up because I was slowly getting used to the work and gaining some free time and leeway, taking away that leeway, preventing me from getting comfortable, and throwing a new problem at me, naturally solved them.
[No, Chigau (No). I didn’t mean to attempt a change of pace like this… Ugh.]
“I know. I was just joking. You were just trying to let me get some fresh air for a bit.”
[Yeah, that’s right.]
“It would have been really nice if you hadn’t made me get that fresh air by forcibly dragging me out of nowhere to do hero activities when I was dead tired and exhausted - and after clocking out, at that.”
[Kuh, keuh. About that… Uuuuum, even if I had ten mouths, I’d have nothing to say. Gomen (Sorry)!]
Seeing him put his hands together and playfully shout Gomen! made it feel like I was finally looking at the Dragon President I knew. In fact, he recovered his spirit so quickly that it was almost a little annoying.
Dragon President lightly smacked my shoulder (it hurt!), and said,
[You’re completely right. You are, but we didn’t go just to get some fresh air.]
“Is that so?”
[Yeah. In my own way, I was trying to help you with your worries.]
“And how did you know what I was worried about?”
[If a person lives on hope, what is my hope? How should I live? Am I wrong?]
“…!”
When I startled in surprise, Dragon President chuckled.
[It’s not mind reading or anything like that; I just overheard you talking to yourself a little. How else would I have known?]
“Ah, right. Yes.”
I felt embarrassed by myself for letting my delusions run wild. Living in Dusk City, where bizarre rumors and conspiracy theories ran rampant, seemed to have enriched my imagination.
[I can’t tell you what your hope is, but I can tell you what other people’s hopes are. I can show you what it means to give hope to others.]
“So that’s why you dragged me along as a sidekick for your hero activities?”
[Yeah. The word hero is treated like a vulgar, outdated joke these days, but people still go crazy for heroes, even if they don’t say it out loud. I don’t think that will change even if a few more centuries pass.]
“Because it’s a world lacking in wishes.”
Because it was a world overflowing with people starving to death for lack of that single handful of wishes, Dragon President had dreamed of being a hero, if only in the early dawn when everyone else was asleep.
Because perhaps the very existence of a hero named Dark Dragon might serve as a motive for someone to live.
[So, do you think you get it? The feeling of becoming a hope evangelist? Can you feel it, this fulfilling sense of accomplishment, this realization of being alive?]
Proving he really was an Otaku Dragon, he snorted out puffs of air and obtrusively shoved his snout forward to ask.
I subtly leaned back and said,
“Uh, I don’t really… know about all that yet.”
[Sokka (Is that so?)
The dragon’s face instantly turned sullen again. I chuckled and said,
“Still, I think I roughly get it now: what kind of life I want.”
The answer was simpler than I thought, and much closer.
What had been elusive when I was overthinking things needlessly now looked clearer than I could have imagined after emptying my mind.
The life I wanted was…
“Boss.”
[What?]
I looked at the city.
Right, here was what I wanted.
Whether the city had actually prepared the life I wanted for me was a separate issue, of course.
The Purple Sun rose low, burning through the ozone. Above the frozen, glittering streets, dawn turned into morning.
It was a bit better with the sunlight shining down, but it was still chilly weather that made me crave a warm cup of coffee or cocoa.
I said, exhaling a breath into the last cold of spring.
“Let’s do it together again next time.”
[Eh? Do what together?]
“Let’s do these superhero antics of going around spreading hope.”
I said to the bewildered Dragon President.
“It was more fun than I thought.”
I wasn’t sure if it was fun because I spread hope, or if it was fun because I gained hope from the person I was with.
I gave a faint smile.
* * *
2107-05-05
T07: 16:40
The next day, May 5th.
If this were modern Korea, it would be Children’s Day for the kids, and a public holiday for the adults who had grown old.
In 22nd-century Dusk City, of course, it was not. I didn’t even know if Children’s Day existed. Even if it did, it definitely wasn’t a public holiday.
But it didn’t matter. Even if it wasn’t a public holiday, it was definitely a day off.
Ah, the sweet taste of this day off I was experiencing after so long. It was thrilling, fresh, joyful… anyway, it was like that.
I was in such a good mood that I almost got hit while saying, 'I’m off today~,' teasing Sey, who had to go to work without fail today as well.
Thanks to being stopped just in time before crossing the line, it didn’t escalate into a bloodbath, but her hands dragging me to the gym were unusually rough today.
“…Hehe.”
I looked with a grinning gaze at Sey, who was getting ready for work, while I stretched my legs out comfortably on the artificial leather sofa as if it were my own home.
Whip!
When Sey sharply turned her head, I hastily pretended not to notice and whistled.
It couldn’t be helped.
I knew it was a base joy, but the fact that the person next to me was going to work while I could keep resting at home… I felt a truly incredible sense of relative superiority.
If this was dopamine, then I must have been born with a destiny that made me unable to break my dopamine addiction.
“I’m pretty sure he wasn’t originally like this…”
Sey glared at me with gray eyes tinged with slight contempt as I crunched on junk food and completely immersed myself in the Hologram Theater channel.
It was a pathetic sight that would make anyone click their tongue and call me a gigolo if they saw me. But shouldn’t I rest when it’s time to rest? I had been running hard all this time.
For today at least, I was going to do absolutely nothing and rest completely! No matter what happened, I wouldn’t lift a single finger from this sofa.
That resolve of mine was immediately shattered the moment Sey stepped out of the entrance as if to go to work.
Still, I had to see her off. She was my cohabitant, workplace senior, and house owner to whom I owed a lot. Shouldn’t I keep the bare minimum of etiquette?
It definitely wasn’t because I was acting amiable belatedly out of fear of getting on her bad side and being kicked out.
I scurried after her and waved my hand, shouting at the back of Sey, who was leaving briskly like a cold wind blowing.
“Itterasshai (Have a good trip)!”
At my energetic and cute send-off greeting, Sey looked back and frowned.
“Somehow, it feels like you’re gradually taking after the Boss.”
What did she say?
It was a shocking bombshell remark that I could not overlook.
Just because I used a little Japanese, she said I seemed to be taking after Dragon President. What an insulting remark this was!
“No, I was just imitating him a bit. It’s just a joke, it’s a joke. What a hurtful thing to say, taking after him. Just yesterday, I almost died being dragged around by the Boss, you know? If anything, if I were to take after someone - .”
“Shh. Quiet!”
Ignoring my rapid-fire words of protest, Sey, who had been about to step out the door, froze stiff and stopped. She looked back at me and shouted fiercely.
At first, I was startled, thinking she was an artist, but that wasn’t it. The emotion contained in that stiff voice was closer to panic than anger.
Sey whispered so quietly it was barely audible.
“…There’s someone outside the door.”
Pure shock.
Who on earth? How?
Sey’s house was the penthouse on the 53rd floor of the Kabuki Building.
Since it was a luxury residential facility boasting the industry’s highest level of security that conducted precise scanning with closed-circuit cameras and drones every minute and second, unauthorized personnel couldn’t come up here recklessly, even if the individual were the Dusk Mayor.
They would be immediately cut off by the bio-ID check the moment they pressed the elevator button.
Wasn’t the reason I started cohabiting with Sey in the first place because of this strict security and safety? It was because I felt a grave danger to my own life.
But a completely unknown person we had never authorized had breached that strict security facility and had approached right up to the front door of the house?
Did that even make sense?
“…”
In the tension-filled silence, I concentrated my nerves on my two eyes.
'Help me out a bit.'
[I will assist you.]
In an emergency situation like this, even the Unruly System Assistant listened obediently.
Along with the faint activation of the microchip, a feeling like the blood vessels in my eyes were bursting, and a wave of information that allowed me to see further, in more detail, and beyond seeped in.
The figure beyond the front door, protected by a complex and sophisticated system, was a mysterious person confidently scratching their head in front of the door and looking around to find the superhuman.
Oh man.
I had only seen their rough shape and movements, but I felt like I already knew. That peculiar stance - uniquely relaxed and leisurely, yet simultaneously flustered from being ignorant of the ways of the world - was not something you could see often.
“That person - “
At the same time I started to speak, the person looking for the superhuman finally gave up and waved their arms wildly. The surveillance camera captured the intruder only then and began to project their image onto the screen.
What was soon revealed was a chrome figure draped in an orange monastic robe. It had a square jaw, a round bald head, and shining ordination marks.
“Shaolin monk?”
Sey muttered as if she couldn’t understand.
The Machine Monk was there.