Ch.123Work Record 019 – Night of the Returned Children (4)

It seemed the idea of quietly enjoying Christmas and then heading back was already out of the question. As soon as the memorial service ended and the administrative team leader finished his speech, my colleagues began gathering around me.

All I could say was that I couldn’t answer. What a ridiculous situation. Still, the color story had clearly conveyed my intentions, so the returned children didn’t press for details. That’s why they were my peers, after all.

After barely finishing the conversation, I was moistening my throat with a glass of champagne and resting when Eve, who had been watching me surrounded by the crowd, approached and chuckled leisurely.

“Worrying about mistletoe decorations seems to have been foolish, Arthur. Just seeing your face is this difficult.”

“It’s the fault of colleagues who didn’t double-check the list of the fallen before writing the memorial speech…”

“It’s not just that. You showed up looking too impressive. Next to you is a retired Bellwether employee and a mercenary in a full-body prosthetic wearing a suit… the rest look ordinary, don’t they?”

Typically, prosthetic arms extended to the middle of the forearm, but one colleague who had subscribed to full-body prosthetic assembly magazines since school had already replaced an entire arm. That guy was standing in front of Volla.

Full-body prosthetics were similar to cultivation. Everyone is born with a body they don’t want, and just as people choose artificial bodies to replace them with desired ones, some assemble prosthetics to enter the body they want.

Around Director Yoon were also many returned children. They seemed to want to hear a hint or two about what I’d experienced, or perhaps they wanted to talk with the retired Bellwether employee.

I wanted to hear the story of one Harrier too, but I didn’t have the courage to push through that crowd to see Director Yoon. I was already exhausted from answering the flood of questions.

Kay was… inevitably busy taking Mila around the party venue, which was really just an excuse to avoid the returned children. For her, this place was a den of beasts.

After letting out a hollow laugh at the sight, I wrapped my arm around Eve’s waist and pulled her close. Tired, I lowered my head and briefly buried my face in her shoulder before finding the energy to speak.

“They probably just don’t know what kind of relationship we have. And it’s not like we can openly show it either.”

Eve leaned lightly against my arm around her waist and looked up to meet my gaze with a smile. She gently touched my forearm with her finger, grinning.

“Isn’t it contradictory for someone who says we can’t openly show it to be doing this?”

“Compared to the schedule you’ve prepared, this is practically nothing, isn’t it?”

“I’ll concede for now, Arthur. I’m watching for the right timing. Don’t you have anyone else to meet?”

Just as I looked up, Robin was waving at us. As always, she was wearing a Panacea Medtech lab coat, and as always, she wore a kind smile.

As I slightly loosened my arm from Eve’s waist, Robin approached with quick steps. After looking me up and down in my neat suit with a somewhat exaggerated motion, she smiled brightly.

“I hope I’m not interrupting a romance? Well, I am interrupting! But seeing you like this after not seeing your face for a while makes me want an introduction at least. I’ll apologize if I’m mistaken, but I do have a sharp eye.”

I could understand why Eve burst into laughter at Robin’s confident, or rather brazen, approach. She looked back and forth between Robin and me before nodding briefly.

“Sorry, Arthur. I think I can guess what kind of relationship you have. You look alike.”

“It’s not that grand a relationship. This is Ms. Robin J, the manager from Panacea Medtech who oversaw my cultivation. And this is Eve, who works with me at Nightwatch.”

Eve extended her hand first, perhaps feeling more at ease thinking Robin was someone similar to me. Robin took her hand and shook it warmly.

The person who could narrow down what body I was wearing to one of two just by poking my side didn’t say anything this time. It was a measure of consideration.

This was the first time I was witnessing Eve meeting someone completely unknown to her. After taking a short deep breath, she looked at Robin and spoke in a natural voice.

Another step forward. It was the moment when someone who had been trapped in Hollowwood Creek was creating a new acquaintance for the first time in Los Angeles. It was a fortune to be able to watch from the side.

“Please call me Eve. I work with Arthur in the field at Nightwatch, a mercenary staffing company… these days I’m constantly struggling because of Arthur. He’s quite mischievous. I can see who he takes after.”

“That’s my pride too. How joyful it is for a Panacea Medtech employee to have passed on even one human aspect to the miracle children?”

I sighed and interjected at that. Bellwether wasn’t an inhumane company. At least not to the returned children. I couldn’t be certain where the boundaries ended.

“Bellwether was a good parent too, and Bellwether taught us plenty about how to act like humans. A check-in call once every three days couldn’t have led to all this, could it?”

At my words, Robin started smiling again. Ah, right. This must be how Eve felt when she saw me smile. Opportunities for empathy come so randomly.

“Really? Wasn’t what you did in your senior year of high school quite beyond the human category, Arty?”

“That was just an immature kid who couldn’t control his temper, that’s all.”

Eve tilted her head as if wondering what had happened. At the mention of senior year in high school, Harry also approached and chimed in.

“On this one, I’m on Robin’s side, Arthur. It might have been most efficient, but it was beyond your authority. Seriously.”

Eve, still standing beside me, began looking up at me with an expression of trying to hold back laughter. After a somewhat mischievous smile, she half-whispered:

“Sounds like you got into a big fight somewhere. Did you punch someone who insulted Bellwether? Don’t worry, I’m not even sure if you can make a fist.”

If it had been just that kind of incident, Robin wouldn’t have brought it up. I was happy that Eve naturally took my hand and played with it.

“Should I tell?”

After looking back and forth between Harry and Robin, and seeing them both nod, I sighed deeply. It seemed time had come to reveal one of my flaws.

I glanced briefly toward the colleagues aspiring to the security team. Each had hair and eye colors with low reflectivity according to the dress code, but among them was one colleague with bright lemon-blonde hair.

As soon as our eyes met, she smiled and waved at me. Eve must have seen her too, so I continued speaking.

“That girl who just waved is Ray. Rachel. She was aiming for security, but for the administrative side. For someone like that, she was good at live firing… so she always carried a pistol. Probably still does.”

It was literal. Even now, the outline of a shoulder holster under her suit was faintly visible. She would still be a good shot. At least now I could hope she wouldn’t have to use it.

“The problem was, she ran into a nationalist police officer while carrying that gun. The officer told her to disarm, and Ray resisted, saying this wasn’t Beverly Hills…”

I made a punching motion in the air. That police officer, wearing reinforcement armor that couldn’t even be penetrated by pistol bullets, subdued Ray by force as if it were an emergency and confiscated her gun.

The location where the incident occurred was an ambiguous boundary. It was at the edge of the LAPD’s jurisdiction, and given that Bellwether didn’t foam at the mouth despite the exact location information, it must have been truly ambiguous.

Of course, my younger self didn’t exercise flexibility. What’s more embarrassing than what I did was how narrow-minded it was. If it were now, I would have thought about it once more first.

“Violent suppression was wrong. So I tried to pay them back in the same way. I called up friends of Ray’s who were aiming for information security and computer science.”

What followed is a common story. I sent a petition mixed with malware created by those kids to the LAPD, which was raging about pressing charges. I chose a petition because… it seemed like it would undergo minimal security checks.

Of course, even then I didn’t think I was some great guy, nor did I think the information security or computer science kids would find undiscovered vulnerabilities in the LAPD’s system.

So I asked for something very simple. We didn’t target the reinforcement armor or the computational assist devices. All we targeted was the mapping system.

In fact, it was barely even malware. The LAPD’s mapping system had a feature that warned when approaching areas managed by Bellwether or Fitts & Morrison. It was meant to prevent unnecessary conflicts.

What we wrote wasn’t something that made the mapping system itself useless, but a program that only deactivated the warning function. Information security aspirants learn about systems used by nationalists too.

In the end, the officer who had messed with Ray, while chasing a robbery-murder suspect the following week, naturally entered Bellwether’s managed area and killed the criminal… then was disarmed by the assault department and detained.

Ray being attacked and disarmed was a personal matter, but a nationalist police officer shooting someone dead in Bellwether’s managed area was a different matter entirely.

Turner & Tucker and our proud yellow journalists tore into the nationalists for almost a year over that incident. After explaining that far, I sighed heavily.

“Naturally, I was expecting a disciplinary committee… but nothing happened. It just fizzled out. We thought it was probably because they had quite a few skeletons in their closet too.”

It would be painful to admit that their internal system was breached, even partially, by a few high school students who held a grudge because one of Bellwether’s purchased and raised returned children was violently subdued for an insignificant reason.

Or perhaps they decided to hush it up since it wasn’t a matter of life and death. That officer was also detained for a few days before returning to the nationalists.

Eve, who had been quietly listening to the story, started looking up at me again with somewhat sharp eyes. I showed my palms in surrender and answered the unspoken question.

“You’re right. It’s nothing to be proud of. It was dangerous. It could have given them a pretext if the nationalists had decided to clash with Bellwether. That’s why it’s a flaw.”

Only after my honest admission did her gaze soften slightly. She let out a small laugh and asked. It was somewhat ironic, but mostly sincere.

“I can’t imagine you brooding in a room, obsessing over revenge methods, Arthur.”

Harry burst into light laughter and interjected. I had never schemed like that.

“An Alsatian One isn’t that gloomy. The petition was sent probably… after school on the day Ray came to class with bruises. He created a year-long embarrassment for the nationalists in just half a day.”

Alsatian One was my college call sign. It seemed he used it since I could no longer use the call sign Shepherd Six.

“Hey. Those guys only got it for a year, but why am I still hearing about this in the fourth year… Sigh. Fine. Yes, that’s what happened.”

“You should be a bit more proud. In that situation, you were the only one who thought of something beyond ‘Let’s ask Bellwether or Panacea Medtech for help’ and actually executed it.”

Either way, it was anger with no purpose, only direction. Did I think mere nationalists had dared to touch one of us? Perhaps. I don’t remember the exact emotions clearly.

When dealing with Hollowwood Creek, you need to set a clear purpose. If I’m four years older than then, my plans should be that much more mature too. This time, at least the direction was clear.

Fortunately, Robin intervened at the right moment, allowing us to stop this conversation. Probably because it’s a side of me Robin dislikes.

“At this rate, we’ll spend all of Christmas talking about old stories. Come on, enough about revenge! Ah, Eve, you said you work in the field too?”

Seeing Robin speak formally was still an unfamiliar sight. Finally, I could catch my breath. Leaning against the party wall showing signs of exhaustion, I listened to their conversation.

Eve, who stroked my cheek once with a warm smile, leaned against me and answered. Her body, which leaned languidly against mine, was still rather cold.

“Yes. I’m not used to handling guns, but I know how to shoot, and as you can tell from my name, I’m from Creek, so I have some medical knowledge and serve as a medic too.”

“It’s rare for someone from Creek to speak so easily about it… Oh, if you need medications, let me know! Panacea Medtech products might be expensive, but they’re better quality than Creek’s. I get an employee discount too.”

“I’ve decided to acknowledge it. Thanks to someone. Saying things like ‘I’m not from Creek!’ or ‘I’m not Eve’ would only make things fester inside.”

Though not fully healed, it was enjoyable to hear her speak this way. Everything would get better. I would make it so, even if I had to grasp it and drag it to a better place myself.

Robin looked at me when she heard “thanks to someone.” This time, her expression was purely one of pride, without any mischief. It felt similar to when Mr. Günter corrected my harpoon grip.

“I can’t call you little Arty anymore. What should I tease you with now… Would you still object to being called a miracle child, Arty? You seem to enjoy working miracles.”

That phrase again. With a hollow laugh, I answered jokingly.

“I’ll ask you to call me that after I part the sea, call down a few lightning bolts, and make flowers bloom in the wasteland within the next year. Just wait a bit.”

“Don’t be so formal! For me, the miracle of making a Creek escapee smile is enough, so just keep doing what you’ve been doing, Arty.”

She naturally took Harry’s wrist and turned around. They walked away with such trivial conversation.

“At Christmas, and in a party venue where a well-dressed couple has made an effort, I can’t steal any more of your time. You don’t do things like dating, do you, Harry?”

Now the nagging was his burden. After waving goodbye with a chuckle, I leaned against the wall a bit more to rest as the gazes shifted away from us. Eve reached out and took my hand.

I let her lead me despite the strength difference that made it impossible for her to actually pull me. We stood under the holographic mistletoe decoration projected from the back wall of the venue. Eve needed an excuse this time too.

She was trying to do with a breath of clear air, a piece of my past, and the Christmas atmosphere what a glass of alcohol couldn’t do. I hesitated for a moment.

The party venue began to fade away. It faded until only Eve, still fighting with the ghosts in her mind and the memories of Hollowwood Creek, remained in my sight. The person who used to ramble incoherently just from having a hand placed on her head was gone now.

She seemed to be trying to see how far she could go herself. She spat out another piece of memory from Hollowwood Creek. Spat it out forever.

“You know why I’m hesitating, Arthur?”

“Because in a cult, the easiest place to find impurity is on the face of a cult leader who preaches about cleanliness, purity, and chastity. Right?”

“That’s right. When you spend twenty years watching a cult leader who refuses to change his own body but makes his lovers change to bodies in their early twenties every year, skin-to-skin contact starts to seem dirty.”

And then, only the howl of a beast echoed. A beast with marks like a collar left by suffocation, falsehood, molten golden calf water, purity, and twisted beliefs growled fiercely.

“But now, I won’t live thinking the world is a well full of filth. What the cult leader does with that wartime technology is just magic, and this is what should be called a miracle.”

Eve rose slightly on her tiptoes. I lowered my head a bit, and I felt her arm wrap around the nape of my neck. Our lips met, and I realized that her body temperature wasn’t entirely cold.

She was inexperienced. The stiffness, awkwardness, tension, and anxiety unique to someone putting all their effort into something for the first time was palpable through her body temperature, but that was enough.