Something I Could Just Do (3)
Something I Could Just Do (3)
The sky looked gloomier than usual.
It seemed like rain, but locals knew that a sky of this color meant it wouldn't.
The exhaust fumes from Cloud Park's smokestacks blanketed the sky.
My smart mask's alert voice chimed:
《Excessive contamination detected. Switching to a standard filter is recommended.》
That was because Cloud Park sat right next to South Pillar—the area where Drex's workshop and home were located.
I could already feel the stifling air.
Yet despite that, I couldn't stop inhaling deeply.
Inhale, exhale.
"...What are you doing?"
Breathing.
Drex asked me after I'd stopped abruptly in front of the front door.
"Trying to relax."
"The hell, man."
Hey, even if you say that.
'This' was an incomprehensible process.
I casually glanced around.
Drex's house looked completely different from the condominium where I lived.
A wide grassy yard stretched out, and a stylish detached house sat behind a fence.
It was a landscape made possible because it lay on the city's outskirts, right next to Cloud Park—a district citizens avoided.
Drex subtly positioned himself behind me.
It looked like he was blocking my escape route, just in case I tried to run.
No matter what, I wasn't going to run away from here, but given all the sins I'd committed up until now, I simply pretended not to notice.
"Give up and just go inside."
"...Since when did I say I wouldn't go in?"
I was just a little nervous, that's all.
I grumbled briefly and pressed the intercom button firmly with my index finger.
...But.
The homeowner was behind me.
Why did I need to press the intercom?
That thought puzzled me for a moment.
《Who is it?》
A cheerful woman's voice came through the intercom.
I cleared my throat a few times.
I steadied my voice and greeted my friend's girlfriend, whom I hadn't seen in a long time.
"Hello, this is Si-un. I'm here with Drex. Could you open the—."
That was as far as I got.
- Click!
The door swung open before I even finished speaking.
The person who came out was a brown-haired woman.
"...It really is you."
Perhaps because she was a dwarf,
she kept speaking from below my eye level.
"I thought the front door security camera had been hacked and was showing a manipulated feed."
"......."
"Ah, how rude of me."
Lorenda, Drex's girlfriend, belatedly snapped out of her daze and gave me a wide smile.
"Oh my, oh my, who do we have here."
I let out a hollow laugh and answered.
"...Haha, it's been a whi—."
"The benefactor of our family! His benefactor! The benefactor of my life! The benefactor of the new child soon to be born! The benefactor who it's perfectly fine to not grant that simple request to come over for just one meal! The benefactor who, since it's been so~ long since we last saw your face, made him and me so happy to see it on a broadcast program we'd absentmindedly turned on! Aren't you that benefactor who made us think about recording that broadcast and sharing it with everyone else?!"
"......."
Even though I was cut off, I couldn't manage any reply.
I just listened intently to Lorenda's words, my mouth hanging open blankly.
Wait, but.
Something strange had been in what I'd just heard.
"A child soon to be born?"
"Ah, you hadn't heard? I suppose that's possible, since we've been out of touch. You would've almost found out after receiving the wedding invitation and the RSVP card."
RSVP usually meant
asking whether someone would attend a wedding.
"......Oh."
I turned my head and looked behind me.
Drex, wearing an awkward smile, gazed down at me.
"That's how it happened."
Huh.
.......
First, I offered my congratulations.
21. Something I Could Just Do (3)
We followed Lorenda's guidance into the house.
The atmosphere was worlds apart from Drex's workshop, where cyberware lay strewn about like laundry.
Everywhere you looked, it felt domestic and peaceful, as if Lorenda's touch had reached everything.
In some ways, it was exactly the home you'd expect a dwarf couple to keep: decorations adorned with jewels placed in every nook and cranny.
Inside the reception room, the heat from the meal preparations filled the space.
The table was laden with various dishes and a steaming pot.
It was a meal of meat, bread, and mushrooms.
Considering ordinary citizens usually made do with nutrition tubes or the like for a meal, it looked like a diet from the top ten percent of the cyberpunk world.
They probably didn't prepare this much every day, so I suspected they'd been told in advance that I was coming.
I went with the flow and naturally sat down in a dining chair in the reception room.
Immediately, Lorenda placed something that looked like a 'tea' beverage in front of me.
"Ah, thank you."
"Not at all—it's nothing compared to the favor you've done us."
I didn't know what she'd heard from Drex, but every word she said felt heavy.
I lifted the teacup, trying to regain my composure.
"...Cough."
And I nearly spat it right back out.
...This
was beer.
And it was incredibly strong, too.
A deep barley scent and a sharp alcohol aroma assaulted my nose.
"Ah, it's a pricey beer I bought at a high price. It tastes pretty good, right?"
.......
Who serves beer to a guest who just arrived....
But this place was the cyberpunk world.
It was a place that defied logic.
I smiled awkwardly and answered.
"Ah, it's delicious."
I carefully set down the teacup filled with beer.
As expected of dwarves.
Both Drex and Lorenda loved beer.
Of course, if I voiced those thoughts out loud,
I could end up standing before the city court for a racially discriminatory remark.
So I swallowed them down in my mind.
Drex sat down across the dining table from me.
He'd already taken off his outer clothes and changed into something comfortable.
"I'll have a glass too."
"Pour it yourself."
"......."
Drex quietly shut his mouth and filled his glass by pouring from the keg, the beer storage container.
Anyway.
They're having a child?
.......
It felt truly unrealistic.
Still, it was a relief the two of them were doing well.
Since it wasn't something you could see in the game, I'd always harbored a 'what if' sort of worry.
That worry was now eased.
Once all the food was ready, Lorenda pulled a chair over and sat down next to Drex.
"It really has been so long."
Lorenda, now apron-free, spoke as she looked at me.
Beads of sweat trickled down from her neatly styled brown hair.
"...Was it about a year since we last saw each other?"
"It's been over a year."
"......."
I shut my mouth tight.
"Ah, right."
Lorenda gestured in the air, manipulating her vision interface.
Soon, a hologram screen flickered to life in the middle of the table.
What appeared on the screen was Rex Nova, Andrea, and....
【...I'm just an ordinary person.】
It was me.
Huh.
"...Hey."
"Like I said earlier, we were watching a broadcast program and got a huge shock, you know. So I ended up recording it without even thinking."
Please delete it.
I let out a dry cough.
"Keheum."
I suddenly wanted to go home, feeling like an outsider stuck among the popular kids.
Lorenda, seeing my reaction, closed the screen.
To change the subject,
I picked up the utensils in front of me and brought over some food.
Honestly, I had no appetite, but if I wanted to survive this battlefield, I at least had to eat.
"Oh."
It's delicious.
"It's good, right?"
Lorenda spoke, having watched my reaction.
"Yes, it's delicious."
Of course, the food Eve made for me at home was even more delicious. She'd hacked the Monolith head chef's recipes, so it'd be a problem if her food wasn't.
[Confirming taste.]
"?"
"Why, what's wrong."
"...Nothing, I thought I heard a hallucination."
It sounded like Eve's voice.
Must've been my imagination.
The conversation continued like that.
"When are you planning to have the ceremony?"
"First, I'm thinking around next month... but I've got to watch the situation a bit more."
"You should've told me such happy news a little sooner."
"If anyone had answered their messages on time, I would've told them ages ago."
"......."
There were occasional unfortunate incidents where the conversation was suddenly cut short by someone's cold, hard facts.
Thankfully, the meal ended without a hitch.
It would've been nice if there was some cola,
but since that wasn't something a guest should say, I quietly wet my throat with the beer placed in front of me.
After clearing the dishes, Lorenda approached me again.
"Thank you."
"Cough."
I coughed at the sudden expression of gratitude.
Huh?
"Just, for everything."
Lorenda downed her beer.
Her glass was a different shape from mine, probably holding about 500cc, and its contents vanished in one gulp.
I wondered if a pregnant woman was allowed to drink alcohol,
but it was possible with an ethanol combustion implant.
"I said 'benefactor' half-jokingly, but my gratitude is real."
That damn 'benefactor' thing again.
"...Well. I didn't really do anything."
- Kwang!
The beer glass slammed hard against the table.
"No."
Lorenda looked at me with intense eyes.
"What Si-un did is well worth the praise."
This kind of atmosphere was unfamiliar to me.
"Because if Si-un hadn't helped us and him back then, we wouldn't be having this gathering."
"......."
Maybe it was because I was slightly tipsy.
I just quietly nodded without any reply.
In fact, when I played the game,
an 'NPC' named 'Lorenda' didn't appear.
Because she was already dead.
"It's not just me. All the people around you probably think the same thing."
Before I knew it, Drex was also looking at me with the same expression in his eyes.
"Though I'm not sure why you think that way."
Lorenda's hand overlapped onto Drex's.
"I hope Si-un gains some confidence."
Her other hand rose to her own stomach.
"...Our child will think the same way."
* * *
I felt my heart grow a little lighter.
Because in reality, many people
had been helped by my actions.
Even if those actions were things I did to survive,
or done out of selfishness.
Still, if the result was good, wasn't that okay?
Wasn't it all right to think that way?
This world was definitely not a game.
I made up my mind to firmly acknowledge that point.
Having lived here for ten years, I already felt that fact in my bones, but.
This place was my world, my reality.
I thought about it once again.
...Hmm.
If so, should I think more seriously about my relationships around me?
Catherine, Eve, Andrea.
And the others, too.
With that thought, I opened the front door.
"...O-oh, welcome."
"Welcome."
"Welcome back!"
Women dressed in maid outfits greeted me.
.......
What in the.
I calmly closed the front door.
Immediately, the three maids chased after me, as if they were about to pounce, as I turned around and fled.