Turning point (10)
The path to the Archive had opened. It was thanks to meeting the conditions safely.
It wasn't completely open. The energy field had only faded enough for us to pass through without much trouble.
If the beacon that emitted light were to suddenly stop functioning, the energy field would immediately bring up a rejection response.
To prevent that, we decided not to enter the energy field right away, but to search for another beacon first. It was a process that would take time, but that was fine.
After all, we needed to investigate the massive cube first. Even though I was sure that cube was the Archive, that was a separate matter.
Who knows what kind of defense systems it has? If we just charged in and got torn apart by the Archive's barrage in an instant, escaping Titan would have been an impossible dream.
"Licorice, when are you going to activate the communications relay?"
"We'll do it at the same time as we enter the Archive. I think the timing will work best that way. If we sent a communication first and the pureblood supremacists caught our location and managed to collapse the Archive, nothing would be more disheartening than that, don't you think?"
Licorice answered while drying her hair with a towel in response to my question. We were taking a break at the moment. We were resting while the drone investigated the Archive.
It happened to coincide with the investigation, but we would have rested regardless. This was the final round of maintenance.
Once the operation began, all fighting strength—including us—would not be able to stop until we escaped. We couldn't stop. If we even paused for a moment, we'd be hit by a concentration of fire. Everyone knew that.
No matter how it ended, the conclusion would soon follow. Perhaps that was why there was an unmistakable tension throughout the ship. Everyone, when they had a moment, stole glances at the massive cube settled in Mithrim Montes.
Standing quietly behind Licorice, I recalled the hidden commotion amidst the silence. I naturally picked up the hair dryer on the table and switched it on. With the gentle hum of wind, warm air swept through Licorice's red hair.
"... What about Roxy? Still no contact?"
"Hmm..."
Licorice's hand paused. She set the damp towel aside with a little sigh.
"No communication yet, but at least he's alive. The life signal is steady, so that much is certain. Since it was such a dangerous operation crisscrossing Titan, I paid a lot of attention to that part. The lack of communication is probably just the device breaking down."
"Are you sure he didn't crash anywhere?"
"If it was just a crash, he'd have sent a distress signal. Unless he died, there's a way for him to send us a coded message."
Licorice said there was more than one backup safety measure just in case.
I was puzzled. There's no reason not to communicate if he's alive. It wasn't like the pureblood supremacists had gotten to Roxy. Assuming there was no lie, only a few possibilities remained.
'... He's not taken hostage, is he?'
I didn't voice the thought. After all, there's a reason for the old wisdom about watching what you say. Better to keep ominous thoughts as just that—thoughts.
"I have no idea what that guy's doing or where. I wouldn't call it a betrayal, so it means he's scheming something..."
Licorice trailed off. Suddenly, a thought flashed across my mind. I couldn't hold back and ended up saying it out loud.
"Don't tell me... he spotted one of their bases and purposefully snuck in while passing by or something like that...? If he's inside a scan network where he can't risk contacting us..."
"Huh, what are you—"
Licorice was about to snort at me with a bewildered expression, but suddenly her reaction short-circuited. If it were anyone else, maybe, but Roxy was impossible to predict.
Honestly, no matter what he did, you could just shrug and say, 'Oh, that's so Roxy.'
"No, he wouldn't... Not even a crazy guy like Roxy, who acts on a whim, is that thoughtless... or that reckless..."
"Why do you stop speaking halfway? You're making me nervous."
I had a vague sense of the reason, but I still scolded her. Because, honestly, it was the kind of thing Roxy actually might pull off.
"Well... I don't know. Still, we should set aside a few drones, just in case."
Licorice hurried through her words. The "just in case" was for a scenario where Roxy would send a distress signal. By the time we finished talking, her soaked hair had been completely dried.
With a satisfied air, Licorice tidied her hair tips.
"You're pretty meticulous, you know."
"I'm a professional."
Compared to drying Nadia's tail, drying hair was nothing.
"Hmph. Show-off."
This time, Licorice let out a proper snort and continued talking.
"Anyway, Roxy said he'd come back no matter what happened, so worry less. Once we get results from the Archive side, we'll move out, so go rest and save your stamina. I've said it plenty of times—this is the last maintenance period."
"Got it..."
That's what I said, but my heart still felt heavy. It weighed on me that all I could do was send someone on a dangerous mission and not do anything to help directly.
'I hope he's okay.'
Not just Roxy—I hoped that for all of us. Sighing inwardly, I sat at the edge of the bed. I didn't let go of the hair dryer. I'd be using it again soon enough.
As if on cue, the lounge door slid open. Standing there, still unable to fully dry off even after using multiple towels, was Nadia. Her appearance was a little—no, a lot—different from usual.
Seemed she was in the middle of her 'Let's be friends' project—two spider robots clung to her lower back. The additional equipment called the support arms.
This was a new piece of gear Nadia had just developed. It synced with the bio-circuitry near her heart and allowed her to control the robots with thought alone.
Supposedly, they could be used for combat when mounted on her hands, or assist with tasks under her direction. There hadn't been time for a true field test, but it should perform up to 80% of the expected spec without trouble.
It was made for temporary use to reduce frame fatigue in the power loader, but she hadn't put any less effort into its creation. I could still vividly remember how disappointed she was not to have a chance to show it off.
It must've been Nadia's orders—one spider robot was holding extra towels, and the other clumsily dabbed her tail with a towel to soak up the moisture.
"Hyun-woo!"
Nadia, looking about, saw me and came over with a bright, smiling face. Her tail, which was held upright for easier drying, waggled, smacking the spider robots in the process.
Whether she knew that one of the robots was getting pummeled by her tail, I couldn't tell—Nadia plopped down beside me, humming a tune of unknown origin.
She unlatched the equipment on her waist with a click. The two spider robots scattered like puppies let off their leash.
Shaking her head at their newfound freedom, Nadia turned and rested her damp tail on my lap. No words were needed now.
As if she'd been waiting for it, I started working to dry the remaining moisture. Still, though, the fur was a little drier than usual.
I didn't think it was because the robot had done a great job drying—it only pretended to help.
"Nadia, where did you go?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Just, your tail's drier than usual."
"Ah, well. I was just talking with someone for a bit!"
Nadia's shoulders twitched. For some reason, Licorice was giving me an exasperated look. Did I come off as a little obsessive?
'I was just making small talk...'
I cleared my throat, nodding awkwardly. I hadn't even pressed her, but asking more might feel like an interrogation, so I changed the subject.
"So, where's Carry? Didn't she go wash up with you?"
"Oh, Carry went to see Kyle for a bit. Looked like she needed something."
"Really?"
I gave a puzzled look. Right now, the item Carry cherished was sitting on the table. It was a hefty, advanced-rank refined Blue Crystal, about the size of a fist.
I'd given it as a power source, but maybe Carry liked its gem-like appearance and treated it like a treasure. Now that we knew how Blue Crystal formed, even if we used it out of necessity, we still couldn't shake the discomfort.
That's why I'd tried to put it away before. But Carry had thrown a massive tantrum, like it was the end of the world, so we ended up leaving it as is. No robot had ever been so opinionated as Carry.
If she liked something, she never gave it up easily. This advanced refined Blue Crystal was one of those things. Maybe it was like a pet rock—or a stone friend, as they say on Earth.
'She even fired up her booster to come get it.'
Today was a day for Carry to take out her treasure and admire it. She always brought out her "Sparkles" before an important day, so on days like this, she'd drop everything else and come home quickly.
Clearly, today she wanted to do something extra—
"Hey! Don't touch that!"
Thinking idly about all this, I turned my head. I practically leapt up at the same time. My reaction didn't even go through my brain.
And for good reason—the spider robot Nadia brought along, finding something interesting, was clicking its tiny pincers as it fiddled with Carry's treasure.
"Eek!"
Nadia, who had been resting her tail in my lap, lost her balance at my sudden movement and face-planted into the bed. She looked up with a tearful expression, shaking her head at my interruption.
And then she saw. The spider robot she'd let loose—what it was doing. Nadia's face went sheet white as she realized the situation.
"No! Stop!"
Nadia reached out desperately. But her cry didn't reach the excavation robot. Since she'd disconnected the bio circuit for her break, she couldn't control them.
The spider robots, no longer just for mining but now multi-purpose, flashed their small eyes as they strengthened their grip on their tiny pincers.
It was truly a powder keg. I only realized too late that I could have used my supernatural power to prevent the disaster.
Just as I tried to use my power to save Carry's treasure, I realized something else—it was already too late. Because I'd noticed it all too late, "Sparkles" lost its former shape.
Nadia and I stared at each other in panic. That was when the lounge door slid open. Clutching an armful of something and filled with happiness, Carry entered.
Glancing around the lounge to check on her treasure, which she'd left carefully placed on the table, Carry's expression changed in an instant.
「〣( ºΔº )〣」
Carry stared at Nadia in shock. More accurately, she was staring blankly at the spider robot Nadia had brought in. Even more accurately, she was staring at what the robot held: Sparkles.
「...」
Carry and the two spider robots locked eyes in the air. The items Carry was holding tumbled to the floor, and the "Sparkles" in the spider robot's pincers started to crack, shattering in an instant. The fragments fell.
It wasn't just us who noticed something had gone wrong. The spider robot that broke Sparkles gagged up the refined Blue Crystal fragments it had collected inside.
Number 1, the spider robot, then hurriedly pushed the crystal shards on the floor toward Carry. Carry's visual sensors locked on them. Even though they were just lenses, it felt like a dazed, spiritless stare.
Carry's treasure, sparkles. It was no longer whole. It wasn't in one piece anymore. Now only 'S' and 'K' remained. It had become what was once Sparkles, what was once Carry's treasure. Only a look of horror remained.
The lounge fell silent. Licorice, arms crossed, looked on as if to ask what the hell had happened, while Nadia and I kept quiet, knowing we were at fault.
Especially Nadia—she couldn't even lift herself from her prone position on the bed, knowing exactly who was most at fault for this fiasco.
Even in all this, spider Robot No. 2 obliviously scrambled to pick up the fallen fragments as if wondering why No. 1 had spat them out. Unable to stand this, no. 1 whacked No. 2's head with a long pincer.
No. 1 tried again, holding out the fragments for Carry as if to say, "At least take these."
Of course, it didn't get through.
Carry let out a silent scream.
***
「(☍д⁰)」
"It's okay, let it all out—your sadness, your anger, everything. You've been pretty upset lately, haven't you?"
「(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞」
I soothed Carry as she burrowed into my arms, still shaken by the loss of Sparkles. Only now was she starting to calm down after making such a scene.
Licorice let out a small sigh before saying, "Hey, tincan. Catch," and offering up an advanced Blue Crystal. Without that, and without giving it to Carry, we'd still be dealing with Carry's rampage in the lounge.
'Good thing it was advanced-rank.'
Now, the advanced refined Blue Crystal had become Sparkles the Second. The higher the grade, the more vividly the blue glowed. That immediately locked Carry's gaze.
What used to be Sparkles was now inside Carry's battery. Sparkles was gone, but at least now it lived on in Carry's belly. Since it's advanced-rank, the battery would probably last a long while.
After I'd comforted Carry for a while, she soon toddled over to Licorice, who was reading through data on multiple holographic screens.
「(♡ˊ͈ ꒳ ˋ͈)」
Carry snuggled up beside her. Surprised by the sudden approach, Licorice turned and, seeing Carry's adorable act, chuckled and took off her headphones.
"You're kinda cute. Didn't realize before."
「(⌯' ꇴ '⌯)ಣ」
Carry responded with an expression that said, 'That's my charm!'
The awkwardness between the two seemed to be gone now.
The way Carry showed the same expressions to Licorice as she did to Nadia and me was proof. After circling around Licorice expressing her joy for a while, Carry moved to her next target.
「(ꐦ°꒫°)」
The rivalry that started with Carry's jealousy was still ongoing. Now it had escalated to "enemy" territory.
The two spider robots and the beastkin were now facing the wall in punishment, for a reflection timeout. Seeing Carry's angry expression, Nadia drooped her ears in shame.
They had once been closer than me, those two. Even if things were a little rocky now, those times wouldn't disappear, and they'd soon recover.
"Carry, I'm sorry. I'll make sure this won't ever happen again. Really."
「(ಠ ‸ ಠ)」
"Really, really."
Nadia had just been busy lately, but she was a dedicated Carry-stan. She sincerely showed her remorse and tried to make peace.
Carry wasn't so petty. Strangely for a robot, her emotions were clear. Despite her treasure getting destroyed, that wasn't number one for her. Her greatest treasure was me and Nadia—a fact revealed back in the residential area.
If we showed her our sincerity, Carry showed us hers. Back when I lived alone in the residential area, I'd gotten a lot of comfort from that, in ways I didn't even realize.
Nadia and Carry reached a dramatic—well, maybe not dramatic, more like amicable—compromise. The spider robots still had to face the wall, but Nadia was now free to move.
After hanging out with Carry for a while, I checked the time and got up. There was someplace I needed to stop by before bed.
"Licorice, I'll step out for a bit."
"At this hour? Where are you headed?"
"To see Celly. She said she wants to talk."
"Can't you just text—"
"Yeah, go on."
Licorice frowned and was about to say something, but Nadia cut her off, waving me on. Licorice threw a scowling glance at Nadia.
"Woof-woof, are you serious?"
"He's just going for a bit. It's not like there's anything big to worry about."
"I didn't expect you to say that. Are you sure you're not just missing something? If you let him go, he might not be back tonight, Woof-woof. Or, more accurately, he won't be able to come back."
"No. Hyun-woo will come back. I talked to him about it."
Nadia wasn't too thrilled, but didn't stop me. Licorice's face was full of dissatisfaction. It wasn't fear of nightmares that made her uneasy.
Since Sprout had devoured the core of the reactor, she no longer needed to cling to me all the time, so Sprout was in Licorice's hands from earlier. It had been proven that as long as you had Sprout with you, you wouldn't have nightmares.
I left, telling them I might be late, so they could just go to bed first. I was going to tie up loose ends.
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