The Sexroid
"Hello, I'm Angela Meier."
"Hi, I'm Swoo."
"Yes, hello. It is an embarrassing sight, but I look forward to working with you."
He spoke with an incredibly solemn expression and a serious tone, but to Swoo and Angela, he just looked like a cute little girl trying to imitate her father.
Actually, calling it a "girl" wasn't entirely accurate.
At a glance, she looked like a young girl, but a closer look revealed a strange, subtle sensuality that stripped away any illusion of innocence.
It couldn't be helped.
That body was, from the very beginning, a sexroid designed to look exactly like that.
Of course, most models took the shape of an ideal adult woman.
However, there were also products designed to satisfy the tastes of a minority—or perhaps a majority—of people with... let's say, unconventional preferences.
The thing standing before them was one of those products.
As a result, it exuded a bizarre, contradictory aura that words could hardly describe.
Why, of all things, did he have to get trapped in a body like that?
If he had to be trapped, wouldn't a normal model have been better? Or was this kind of body actually his preference?
Perhaps he possessed a rather extreme fetish, enjoying the sensation while synchronizing his mind to it.
Angela would have dismissed the idea as ridiculous, but Swoo could easily imagine such a possibility.
Before coming to this world, Swoo had seen plenty of it in the VR World.
Whether it should be called evolution or just a bizarre transformation, she had seen many people change in similar ways, so she didn't think it was entirely impossible.
"Just so there is no misunderstanding, I did not choose to end up like this voluntarily."
Apparently, that wasn't the case.
Angela quietly swallowed a sigh of relief behind Draco's back, while Swoo smacked her lips with a peculiar expression.
Draco's face soured at their reactions.
He could understand Angela's reaction, but Swoo's was utterly baffling.
Given Draco's line of work, he was an expert at reading people's expressions. The chances of him misinterpreting her were slim to none.
...Disappointment?
Swoo looked genuinely disappointed.
It was only for a split second, but there was no mistaking it.
What on earth could she possibly be disappointed about? Draco had no idea, but he chose not to pry.
Since they are mercenaries introduced by Lord Salvador, I must trust them for now...
He couldn't bring himself to trust these two strangers yet, but he had absolute faith in Salvador's name. Ultimately, Draco had no choice but to trust them.
In truth,
even without Salvador's recommendation, he had no other options but to trust them anyway.
"I assume you've heard the brief version, but I will explain it once more. The fact that I have ended up in this state cannot be revealed to the employees of Legia. It must never be leaked."
"If you're hiding it from your employees, how do you manage the business?"
"Well... that is..."
Draco's brow furrowed at Swoo's casual, informal tone.
Draco was well into his mid-thirties. To be spoken to so informally by a little girl was a severe blow to his pride.
However, looking at Angela's expression as she sat right next to her, Swoo's casual speech didn't seem to surprise her at all.
A mercenary who speaks informally to everyone, regardless of time, place, or status. Making a mental note of this next to Swoo's name, Draco continued.
"Except for face-to-face meetings, all other business is handled via email and messenger."
"What about the meetings?"
"...I send a proxy."
"Your secretaries?"
"I have two, and yes, they are both my secretaries."
"Do those two know about your situation?"
"I had no choice but to tell them. They are absolutely essential to keeping the business running."
"Are they both trustworthy?"
"One is a friend from my days as a street urchin. The other was once an enemy I despised enough to call a mortal foe, but now, they are the only family I trust."
"Family."
Swoo repeated the word quietly, tilting her head with a faint smile.
"You call them family even though you aren't related by blood."
"Yes. I've known both of them for over thirty years... They are my people."
It was a simple statement, but Swoo fell into deep thought.
Draco patiently waited through the silence.
He had cleared his entire schedule today for this meeting with the two mercenaries. Draco had plenty of time.
Time was the only thing he had plenty of.
His mental stamina was already completely depleted.
His tense body twitched on its own, his toes curled, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.
He even felt a dull ache in his lower abdomen, threatening to make him lose control of his bladder, just as he had when he first struggled to adapt to this body.
The damn sexroid body was getting frightened all on its own.
Did the previous owner of this sexroid have some kind of bizarre fetish? Draco gritted his teeth, desperately trying to control the involuntary movements of the body.
For the past two days, Draco had clung to his masculinity, defending it with everything he had.
He would continue to do so.
"Do you still trust those two?"
"I tru—"
Biting his lip for a brief, agonizing moment, Draco nodded with difficulty.
"I want to trust them."
Swoo had grasped the situation.
She smiled brightly and spoke.
"Now, tell me how you ended up like this."
Letting out a long, heavy sigh, Draco recalled the memory that was still vividly burned into his mind.
"It was a day like any other."
"Philip, about that job you brought in. No matter how much I think about it, the pay seems far too generous, don't you think?"
"You've been saying that for a week now. More money is a good thing. How long are you going to obsess over it? Huh?"
"We could expand our business with just this one job, Draco. Especially now, with Eden in such chaos, it'll make things much easier for us. So you should probably make up your mind soon."
Draco, who had been reviewing documents in his office, looked up.
There sat Philip, his friend and comrade since his mercenary days, and Lewis, once a bitter enemy but now someone he would gladly trust with his life. The two were lounging in different postures.
Though they were officially his secretaries, when it was just the three of them like this, they interacted with the casual ease of their mercenary days.
They had never formally agreed on this arrangement. All three of them simply felt it was the right way to behave, so they never bothered to set any rules.
"Draco, forget everything else. Just look at the payout. A single delivery to Eastheim, and we can acquire a decent-sized company outright."
"And a company with a higher projected profit margin than ours, at that."
"...Yes, I suppose it is time to make a decision. We need to solidify our foundation before Eden descends into further chaos."
"Please say yes. Please! We deserve to drink good liquor and hold women to our hearts' content. Huh? At this rate, we're going to turn into celibate monks!"
Philip shouted, rubbing his hands together in a vulgar display. Lewis clicked his tongue at the crude behavior.
"You haven't changed a bit despite your age. Grow up, Philip."
"Ha! What do you mean, 'despite my age'? I always tell you, we have to live young. Besides, we're not actually old. Do you know how shocked I was when we went to that banquet?"
He was referring to a banquet held not long ago.
It was a gathering where prominent and promising corporations met to network and build connections.
At that event, the three of them were unmistakably the youngest.
They had thought they were becoming old men now that they were pushing their mid-thirties. But when they were called "fresh meat" and had their asses pinched by some random older woman... they realized they were still considered young.
Of course, they had heard that the head of Wolha, who had recently made a name for themselves, was in their mid-twenties, but that was an extremely rare exception.
The average age of corporate heads in Eden was at least in their fifties.
So, the three men gathered in this room were definitely on the younger side.
"Anyway, I brought this job because I want us to finally make some real money. Setting aside the liquor and women, I just... I want to sleep peacefully for once. Don't you guys feel the same? We've suffered like dogs to get here. Haven't we?"
Philip spoke with a light, frivolous tone that matched his appearance, which usually made his words sound insincere.
But the words he just uttered carried the heavy, raw sincerity of someone who had endured years of hardship.
"That's true."
"...Yeah, you're not wrong."
Draco and Lewis both agreed.
They had lived an incredibly brutal life. They could proudly say they had experienced every hardship imaginable.
Their mercenary career, which had started with a team of twelve, ended with only two survivors, and both of them had lost all of their families.
The enemy they had desperately tried to kill during their mercenary days was now their most trusted friend and family.
What more explanation did they need?
They had survived a truly tumultuous life.
So now, they yearned for peace.
They wanted to sleep without keeping a pistol under their pillow. They didn't want to stash two rifles under the bed. They were sick of obsessively checking the security system every twelve hours.
When they got home, they just wanted to relax without a care in the world.
Philip must have brought this job with that very hope in mind.
Draco understood Philip's intentions.
Yet, he had put off the job Philip brought for about a week.
While security transport jobs paid well due to their high-risk nature, this particular request offered a suspiciously exorbitant amount of money.
Having suffered countless scams and betrayals, Draco believed that goodwill never came without a price. With great power came responsibility, and with great money came great danger.
There was undoubtedly a catch to this job.
Draco let out a quiet sigh.
"But I suppose we have to take the risk now."
Now that Eden was plagued by chaos, they could no longer afford to just watch from the sidelines. Rather than being swept away and destroyed by the turmoil, they had to throw themselves into it and secure whatever profit they could.
"Philip, contact them and tell them we accept. Lewis, since this job requires absolute security, let's gather only our best and keep the team small."
Philip left the office, smacking his lips in anticipation, while the usually solemn Lewis headed out to the meeting room with a rare look of excitement in his eyes.
This was thirteen hours before Draco became trapped in a sexroid.