episode_0071

071 – Father Like the Sky #2

“I am Daedalus of the Design and Facilities Team. Are you Manager Joy?”

One day, if you were to wake up in an uncomfortable bed and find a tiger right in front of your nose, what would you do?

If it were me, I’d go back to sleep.

It would clearly be a dream.

Probably a nightmare.

“Get up! There’s no time to hesitate!”

But this tiger even shook me violently.

For a nightmare, it’s oddly diligent.

“Daedalus ssi?”

In the end, I had no choice but to reluctantly get up.

What time is it now?

5 AM.

It meant I woke up an hour earlier than usual.

“What brings you to me?”

I asked with a tense heart.

From what I heard, Daedalus had been holed up in a back room for two years, busy making the ‘CEO’s special custom item’, and hadn’t shown himself outside.

Why is such a Daedalus in front of me?

It felt like a light bulb suddenly clicked on in my drowsy mind. The person I should avoid the most came to find me by himself!

“How in the world did you get in here! This is private property! Get out!”

“That’s not important right now! This picture in the photo. Do you have it?”

Head of Department Daedalus showed me the photo on his device.

Only then did I realize that Hedone had uploaded a photo of her linking arms with me on social media.

The very first thing I felt was bewilderment.

‘If Melinoye nim saw this photo, she wouldn’t let it go, would she? Because Melinoye nim dislikes Hedone!’

But the problem was that Melinoye nim had liked Hedone’s photo.

At this moment, all remaining drowsiness completely vanished.

If I had to explain my relationship with Hedone to Melinoye nim, I would have to chatter for half a day.

“This painting! Where is it now! I must have it! I tell you, I must have that to complete the greatest masterpiece of my life!”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Do I look like someone who would make jokes! Hand it over quickly! Hand it over! You rascal!”

Head of Department Daedalus took out a hammer from his pocket and charged towards me, holding it.

“Manager Joy, before coming here, I investigated you. Whether it’s false or true, it seems you’ve accumulated great achievements. But you won’t be able to avoid my hammering, which was once called the Monkey Wrench of Crete!”

Sudden violence.

A critical crisis situation.

Just then, the bracelet quietly wrapped around my wrist moved.

—Whish! Whish…!

Whoosh! Whirr!

The bracelet pounced towards Daedalus.

The eccentric inventor suddenly fell down as if attacked by a venomous snake.

“Aaah! What is it! What in the world is that, I ask you! Manager Joy! What are you doing to me! Not there! Aaaaaaah!”

…This is ridiculous.

He seemed not to know that my bracelet was attacking him.

I suddenly recalled the time I fought the resurrected Demon God Typhon.

Even then, my bracelet knocked down all the enemies, but Hedone and Krauser didn’t notice at all and thought I did it.

Situations where things I didn’t do ended up seeming like I did them—.

I had already experienced this.

‘Isn’t it similar to Melinoi’s appearance?’

There had already been several times when Melinoi’s achievements were considered my own. From what I saw, that bracelet also seemed to possess the same attribute as Melinoi.

‘What a truly dreadful bracelet! It’s good that it protects me, but!’

Anyway.

Daedalus was hit by the bracelet and fell down.

# # #

“I can’t believe you knocked me down! If I hadn’t been holed up in a back room for new product development, I wouldn’t have been defeated so futilely!”

Daedalus, who had fainted and then woken up, behaved quite docilely.

I thought he might charge again, but it was a relief he didn’t.

But it became even more troublesome.

“I beg you! I need that painting to survive!”

He bowed deeply.

An old man much older than me was prostrating himself in front of me, lowering his head respectfully.

This was more awkward than when he had charged earlier.

Because when someone begs with a full prostration like this, a human being is bound to feel pity and their heart tends to lean in their favor.

Even those fearsome executives grant wishes if humans pray and wish earnestly, you know.

‘Endure, Demon Joy! Abandon your human heart!’

However, I was no pushover either.

I barely managed to maintain a cold heart and asked.

“If I give you that painting, do you think you can complete the item the Chairman requested from Daedalus ssi within a week?”

Even so, he wouldn’t be able to do it within a week, would he?

The moment I was letting my guard down like that, it felt like a dagger was plunged into my spine.

“Even a week won’t be needed! I can complete it as early as tomorrow!”

This hellish—!

I’m a person who rarely swears, but this time I utterly couldn’t tolerate it.

I brought the painting that looked the most useless among Daedalus-related documents, but.

Of all things, that was the item Daedalus was looking for the most?

“Head of Department, I am known as the ‘Demon of the Audit Team’. If you lie in front of me, it means you should fear the consequences.”

“Manager Joy, are you saying I lied to you? Even if it’s me, I don’t have the audacity to lie to an Audit Team Manager, do I?”

“How can you complete an item you couldn’t complete for two years right away tomorrow? What is a mere crayon drawing that it’s so important? It doesn’t make sense logically.”

“Well, that’s—.”

“No. I won’t listen.”

Daedalus is a genius inventor.

He even created the labyrinth that trapped the Minotaur of Crete, wings that could fly in the sky, bathhouses, a bull, wheels, and the giant statue of Talos, a progenitor of androids.

If such a man said he could make a certain item by tomorrow, it would surely happen that way.

Masters don’t lie.

So, I didn’t even listen to the reason why that painting was important.

However.

At this moment, I clearly knew at least what I had to do.

‘This eccentric old man must not realize that the painting is with Hedone!’

I gave the painting to Hedone.

Because the Hedone I met yesterday didn’t lose interest in my painting and tried to follow me all the way into my house.

Let Hedone, who’s like an enraged bull, into my house?

I’d rather put my head into a crocodile’s mouth.

So I gave away the painting.

Because I thought it was a useless item anyway—.

But who would have known that item was important to Daedalus and the key to completing the item the CEO nim commissioned?

If the man in front of me succeeded in getting his hands on the painting and completed the item right away tomorrow?

I had to receive the reward Melinoye nim promised!

“You! Do you need anything? Weapons, tools, magic items, even a girlfriend! If it’s something you want, I can make anything! If you just give me the painting!”

Wow, he says anything is possible?

With an intrigued mind, I subtly tested him.

“Then how about a teleportation device that can freely go to and from the surface world?”

“Except for that!”

Oh, come on!

I was tempted for nothing.

Anyway, I kicked out Head of Department Daedalus.

And I diligently prepared for work.

However, the place I headed to was not the headquarters’ Audit Team, but Happy World’s Punishment Execution Department.

When I entered the office, Krauser welcomed me.

“Manager Joy! It seems you came to meet me! Look at these people! Manager Joy is my one and only friend and soulmate! Will you believe me now?”

Krauser boasted about his closeness with me to the newcomers he saw for the first time.

The newcomers’ eyes were sparkling.

“Krauser ssi, I only thought you were an annoying senior, but what tremendous connections!”

“Krauser ssi, on closer inspection, isn’t he an incredibly amazing person?”

“Senior Krauser nim! I will respect you from now on!”

This is driving me crazy.

What’s important is something else.

“Krauser ssi, have you seen Hedone?”

“As for Miss Hedone, she took the day off today.”

“A day off?”

“I heard she was participating in some kind of art exhibition. Was it RUS? I’ve seen his paintings a few times. They were terribly drawn paintings, but that’s why they were interesting. Interesting enough to inspire a musical idea after a long time!”

What? Krauser was a low-grade employee, but in his lifetime, he was an artist who was called Orpheus and made great music.

A painting that stimulates such a guy’s old and hardened inspiration!

To some extent, it made sense why Daedalus, the inventor, so desperately wanted it.

‘It must be in my hand!’

If only that painting were gone, the matter would be settled.

As soon as I get my hands on it, I’ll destroy it immediately—.

With such thoughts, I went to find artist RUS’s exhibition.

The most splendid, newly built art museum even in Elysium.

When I headed to that place, which was modeled after the shape of a temple, a woman who looked like a curator was seriously flustered.

“You came from the Audit Team, didn’t you?”

Audit Team employees are bound to be treated with caution wherever they go.

However, I informed them that I came as a guest, not an Audit Team employee.

“By any chance, are you holding RUS’s exhibition here?”

“No. Today, we have an exhibition by artist Hegemony nim, with the theme of ‘coexistence’.”

Not here?

After about half a day of searching around, I arrived at an atelier located in a secluded part of Happy World.

A cabin roughly made by piling up logs.

Seeing tables placed in the garden, it also looked like a cafe emphasizing a vintage style.

Actually, many women were sitting at tables, drinking coffee and chatting.

The crayon paintings displayed on canvases beside them were very familiar.

“Hedone. So you were here.”

I found Hedone sitting among the paintings, continuously taking photos.

If she hadn’t uploaded photos on social media, it would have taken a lot of time to find this place today.

Of course, Hedone was surprised to see me.

“Manager Joy nim! What brings you here!”

“Hedone, do you have the painting I gave you yesterday?”

“The sunrise painting? I gave that to the owner here. Instead, he said he’d give me two other paintings! Thanks to Manager Joy nim, I completely hit the jackpot! Oh yeah!”

I followed the owner’s figure inside the cabin.

He was a handsome man, and his appearance in a dashing suit made him look more like a successful businessman than a cafe owner or an artist.

‘However, his right hand….’

Before I could even exchange greetings, he recognized me first.

“You are Manager Joy nim, aren’t you? Living in this underworld, I get to meet such a celebrity. I am Icarus, the owner of Cafe RUS. I just indulge in debauchery under the guise of art.”

“Surely not that Icarus who developed wings with wax and feathers and flew up into the sky? The one who flew in the sky for the first time in human history…?”

“That’s right, that Icarus who fell into the sea when the wax melted from the hot solar heat. The only thing I can boast about to others is my regret for my miserable failure. Truly, I am ashamed.”

At the name Icarus, it felt like the empty puzzle pieces were fitting together.

“So that’s who artist RUS was, it turns out he was Head of Department Daedalus nim’s son.”

Daedalus wanted to get his son’s painting back.

However, Icarus ssi frowned and shook his head.

“It’s been a long time since I cut ties with that old man.”