Ch.238Work Record #034 – People Who Look Alike (2)

I feel more mentally exhausted than when enduring mutant abilities. Holding back a sigh and pretending to be a bit flustered, I spoke.

This isn’t acting—it’s a matter of courtesy. Behaving as if “I am Gardner” from now on would be committing a serious discourtesy to Heroism & Hope Co.

“I didn’t expect you’d come all this way just to see a bodyguard… Shall we go to my place first? The office I share with partner companies is rather crowded with other visitors right now.”

Polaris burst into laughter at my words. When Polaris laughs, it seems as though that laugh could earn forgiveness for any rudeness, shamelessness, or insincerity. Her face is frighteningly well-sculpted.

And it’s not just her face. Her hand naturally rises to cover her mouth, yet doesn’t hide the line of her smile at all as it rests beneath her lips. Her entire body, appearing innocent and fragile, makes Polaris shine even brighter.

I mustn’t be fooled. No matter how beautiful her gestures are, she’s someone who smells like my kind. Fragile, but not innocent. And even the word “fragile” only applies physically. Her computational processing capacity is monstrous.

She quietly reached her hand toward me. She extends her hand as if preparing to rest it naturally on mine, seeking an escort. She speaks like a willful tomboy.

“How polite you are, Mr. Arthur Murphy. Then it wouldn’t be rude of me to ask for a little escort, would it? Consider it payment for taking Polaris home.”

She seems to be enjoying this brief improvisation too. She was clearly enjoying the situation where pretending to know and not know layered like pastry.

In this high-speed era, how many people can trample on a mega-corporation’s gag order and non-disclosure agreement just because they find it amusing? And how many could do so and remain unscathed?

I take Polaris’s hand and head home. Arthur-2 was there, but since he was as much myself as he wasn’t me, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Strangely though, there were no paparazzi or reporters in sight. Wouldn’t it be breaking news if Polaris suddenly dropped from the sky and was walking with an unnamed freelance mercenary? The surroundings were just quiet.

If all the journalists and media in this city hadn’t lost their sense overnight, it meant T Entertainment was guaranteeing Polaris’s amusement.

In Detroit, they kept her caged in a penthouse, but now they’re letting her roam free… From the perspective of someone high-ranking like Polaris, LA must be safer than Detroit.

The Special Operations Division must be following us with muffled footsteps, and if anything suspicious happens, the Assault Division and T Entertainment’s security team directly under Polaris would rain down from the sky—that’s why she can be this free.

Feeling the strange sensation of not being photographed once during our ten-minute walk, we arrive at my home. We take the elevator up, and I open the door with a physical key.

Polaris was watching these ordinary, everyday actions as if they were something delightful. She’s probably not a young lady who has never experienced normalcy.

The reason she takes such pleasure in these actions is… because I’m the one doing them. Back home, I head to the living room after brewing three cups of Gardner’s Choice chamomile tea that she handed me.

Arthur-2 wasn’t home, perhaps out on mercenary work. I wasn’t sure if that was fortunate or unfortunate. At the very least, I wanted to say it was definitely fortunate that Ms. Eve wasn’t contacting me right now.

Polaris wrapped both hands around the teacup, enjoying the rising aroma with a smiling gaze before taking a sip. Gardner’s Choice used real chamomile from Farmers Co.

Farmers Co. didn’t think of food as merely for survival. They believed that people become truly human when they can enjoy luxuries, and only then can they claim to have reclaimed what was lost.

Though I doubt any executive at Farmers Co. ever imagined that one of their luxury items could become such a bitter and tense object. I gulp down the hot tea without cooling it.

In a situation where I can’t enjoy it, the taste of tea is meaningless no matter how good it is. This was my personal space, so I didn’t want to pretend to “enjoy” it. Polaris smiled at me again.

“Are you worried about how your identity was exposed, Mr. Arthur?”

“I don’t really care about that. If the Polaris wanted to know, there would be countless ways to find out.”

Polaris playfully pushed my shoulder. Unlike others who would be startled by this shock-absorbing body, Polaris showed no sign of discomfort despite feeling the difference.

“And you acted so well that even I couldn’t figure it out! I should be the one asking how someone can act as another person without mimicking a single habit, Gardner.”

“You’re not going to say you were just testing me all this time, are you?”

“Of course not. I personally bought and went through the entire passenger list of Pathfinder Logistics flights entering and leaving Detroit. You were the only one who could be Gardner.”

I’ve seen the world as she sees it once. I’ve witnessed that inhuman performance where she processes information from nearly one hundred percent of her visual field. She just used it proudly.

When Polaris concluded I was Arthur Murphy after considering everything from enhanced body performance to height… honestly, it felt somewhat chilling.

“If you’re asking why you went to such lengths to find me….”

Polaris nodded as if encouraging me to continue speaking. Her golden hair caught behind her ear became slightly disheveled.

The dishevelment doesn’t last long as Polaris’s thin fingers brush the hair back up. It feels theatrical and ostentatious despite being such a trivial action.

“It must be because of how I encouraged Ms. Serena.”

It’s probably not much different from why I momentarily regretted taking the Gardner job. It’s painful not being able to have a person-to-person conversation with someone so similar to yourself.

Since I guessed correctly, Polaris puffed her cheeks slightly. She might have wanted me to be swayed by her rather than the truth, but Ms. Eve is too precious to give up for Polaris.

I met Polaris when I could walk through clouds, but I met Ms. Eve when I didn’t even have the strength to pull myself up from the edge of a six-foot-deep grave.

“I was hoping you’d remember the kiss more.”

And that kiss was thoroughly strategic. It wasn’t even given to Gardner, but was essentially a favor bestowed upon Serena and H Entertainment.

“You’re the one who said it was between characters, and it was thoroughly strategic to draw attention to Gardner while Serena Vanderbilt was off-stage….”

Interrupting me, Polaris naturally approached after tossing aside her pilot’s leather jacket, wearing a shirt with certain areas puffed up in a style from long before the war.

She grabbed my hand and made a gesture of poking under her chin with my extended index finger. A citrus scent wafted from her as she suddenly came close. It’s not an overtly seductive fragrance.

But for Polaris, who could use the inhuman charisma unique to those who can make animal cries for being loved, even such an everyday scent seemed sufficient.

I’m on the verge of losing track of the conversation. I don’t show weakness by shaking my head or anything similar. Polaris continued with a grin.

“Touché. Still, there’s always a question of proportion, isn’t there? How much was sincere and how much was a favor? To what extent was I trying to help H Entertainment? That sort of thing.”

She quickly released my hand and returned to Theo’s embrace. Sitting back on his enhanced suit’s thigh, she picked up her teacup. After slightly wiggling her leg, she said:

“Of course, whatever that proportion might be, I don’t intend to be rudely demanding. It wasn’t hard to learn about Ms. Eve, and you know I have too much to lose to do something I can’t handle.”

Is that something Polaris can’t handle? It felt somewhat ambiguous that Polaris, who had thwarted numerous assassination attempts, would call dealing with me something she couldn’t handle.

Polaris, as if declaring she would enjoy her tea again despite sitting on Theo’s enhanced suit, glanced at me and gave a slightly mischievous smile.

“Of course, I don’t dislike polyamory either. I can love someone who loves someone I love. That’s not strange, is it?”

It was half-joking, but I felt Polaris could really do that. Polaris sings of hope but doesn’t believe in it.

Of all the things she sings about, the only thing she herself believes in is love. And Polaris was skilled at being loved. Only those who have been loved can love.

I learned how to love from Belvedere. How to love the world, to have curiosity about the unknown, to burn with a spirit of challenge in the face of lacking abilities… Above all else, I learned from Belvedere how to love my own life first.

We simply learned different methods. Polaris’s world must have its own principles. I nodded, and Polaris responded with a fairly respectful bow of gratitude.

“Of course, I would have liked to see your face in love at least once. Isn’t there something romantic about a bogeyman walking out of a closet with a bouquet?”

Should I say she investigated me, or that she really used her information network diligently to find out before coming to Los Angeles? I finally let out a deep sigh.

“I didn’t know dealing with the person Polaris would be this difficult.”

Polaris responded as if she had been waiting for this comment.

“I’m quite a troublesome woman. The strength drains from my body, my fingertips and toes grow cold… and I say, ‘Please live.'”

She tapped Theo’s enhanced suit torso where she was leaning with her fingertip. I wasn’t even sure if that bodyguard could remove his enhanced suit.

“It’s enough to save a dying person. Theo is grateful for that, but expecting everyone to be grateful would be ridiculous. I got a bit off-topic, but yes. I came looking for you after seeing Ms. Serena.”

The original topic of our conversation was why Polaris sought me out. The kiss and its meaning and proportions were just distractions that came afterward. I regain my focus.

Polaris, who naturally stepped down from the bodyguard’s embrace, still looks fragile. Her perfectly sculpted body doesn’t look frail, but it’s not suitable for combat either.

But from her voice came the sound of a beast’s cry instead of human speech. Polaris’s voice always sounds like it’s illuminating the path and guiding.

“You wouldn’t have told Ms. Serena that there’s hope for everything and that she can do anything. You would have made her let go of things she needed to abandon, pruning away blind and fake hopes.”

Polaris is similar to me. She knew well enough what advice would be effective in such situations, or at least what advice one would believe to be effective, so her voice was definitive.

“So, in the end, someone who can see clearly this barren quagmire where everyone hates each other, disparages each other, covets each other’s possessions, unable to either join forces or finish each other off, continuing only in stagnant struggle….”

Belvedere dislikes nationalists. Military corporations disagree with Panacea Meditech. Hollowed Creek is isolated. Both mega-corporations and nationalists carry contradictions and isolation.

It’s a world that seems as if someone deliberately destroyed our ability to either fight each other or join forces. As Polaris said, it looks like a quagmire where nothing can be accomplished.

“And yet, I wanted to be friends with someone who knows that the absence of hope is not despair. People always want to make friends with those at their own level, don’t they? I’m the same.”

From Polaris’s words, I glimpse her world. She despised this wasteland and quagmire of a world. At the same time, she loved it as if loving all its components. A terrible love-hate relationship.

I don’t want to praise how wise the person who created Farmers Co.’s motto was. They’ve probably heard all the praise I could offer three times over.

Just as I felt an inhuman vitality and unfathomable hatred from Mr. Günter, I felt unfathomable hatred and affection from Polaris.

That’s why people are drawn to Polaris. She’s someone who can find the real path because she’s not immersed in fantasy. And yet she pours out complete affection, making people want to follow her willingly.

Only after revealing her true self did Polaris begin to talk about business. Perhaps until she brought up work, she wanted to live as a girl in love, but not anymore.

“There will be quite a few assassination attempts. Usually, I’d say to leave one alive, but this time, you can kill them all with Theo. I already know who’s sending the assassins anyway.”

She lightly tapped the T of T Entertainment engraved on the back of her jacket. It means it’s an inside job.

“It’s an internal power struggle. The current chairman is the person who discovered me, and his management skills haven’t rusted yet… but the entertainment industry’s ecosystem is always myopic and cruel.”

“To avoid being swayed by that myopic and cruel industry, you need to take control in advance. Let’s do it like last time. Theo, please stay by Polaris’s side. Leave the killing to me.”

Fortunately, I was someone versed in killing but without making it a hobby. Facing entertainment industry assassins is always good practice for developing skills.

New weapons, new strategies. The feeling of the world expanding is something I can enjoy anytime.

Somewhat amusingly, I felt more at ease now than when listening to Polaris’s affectionate voice.