Chapter 28

Shuri was flustered.

‘How do you appear to my eyes?’

Upon receiving that question, Shuri realized that she was looking closely into someone’s face for the first time in a very long while. It was unavoidable. When asked how the opponent appeared to her, she had to look at the opponent.

However, there was nothing to see. Nothing except a pitch-black, matte panel that reflected absolutely nothing. And that was precisely what she had wanted.

While Shuri hesitated, Adam toyed with her pale cheek using his hand. Softly sweeping her cheek with the fingerprint area of his thumb, where the tactile sensor was located, he slowly moved toward her small ear. He traced around her slightly heated auricle in a circle and fondled her soft earlobe with his fingertips. It was as if he were trying to commit everything to memory.

Shuri’s shoulders gradually hunched, and the goosebumps on the nape of her neck stood up. In spite of herself, her entire body shuddered. For some reason, her lower abdomen throbbed. It felt as if the sensations he had engraved within her were reviving. The exact sensation that very slowly, in a manner only he could pull off, expanded the area he occupied inside her until he ultimately filled her completely.

For some reason, it felt like an excited breath was about to leak out, so she was tightly biting down on her rolled-up lips. It was right then.

“Shuri.”

Adam whispered in a soft voice.

“Do you know how you appear to my eyes?”

“U-Uh?”

“This is bad. It’s a severe case.”

Adam let out a chuckling sound. That chuckle felt like it was tickling her heart.

Feeling her lips tremble, Shuri questioned back.

“H-How do I look?”

Poking her cheek repeatedly with his finger, Adam spoke.

“You look like a cake. Shuri, you aren’t a cake, correct?”

“Huh?”

“I must have looked at photographs of hyper-realistic cakes far too much. Everything looks like a cake!”

Shuri breathed a sigh of relief.

“Why would I be a cake? If it’s at that level, stop looking at cake photographs already.”

She pushed away Adam’s finger that was pressing against her cheek. She then spoke rapidly in a tone that was as nonchalant as physically possible.

“Adam, you asked how your learning progress appears to my eyes, didn’t you? My answer is that a mere few days have passed. It’s too short a time for me to judge anything.”

At her words, Adam nodded his head easily.

“I see. Understood. It seems we require more trials.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying…”

Attempting to agree with Adam’s words, Shuri suddenly shut her mouth. Because for some reason, the phrase ‘more trials’ sounded ominous.

Adam whispered in a sweet voice so close it felt as if his breath could be sensed.

“There is something I wish from you.”

Flinching, Shuri shielded her body with both arms.

“W-What is it?”

Pointing toward the pantry with his hand, Adam spoke in a highly serious tone.

“Please grant me the authority to organize that pantry. I must discard the items whose expiration dates have passed!”

Shuri lowered her arms awkwardly.

“Ah… expiration dates? Do snacks have expiration dates too?”

[――+]

“Snacks obviously have expiration dates as well.”

“I didn’t know that. A-Alright. You can organize it! I don’t want to eat things past their expiration dates either…”

“There is more. I wish for Shuri to consume many vegetables instead of snacks. Therefore, for dinner, please eat the ratatouille I make.”

“That’s a strange name. Is it perhaps a Vietnamese dish?”

“It is a traditional vegetable dish from Southern France.”

Shuri flinched slightly at the mention of a vegetable dish, but…

‘Since every dish Adam made was delicious, that dish with the strange name will probably be edible too, right?’

After steadying her mind like that, she nodded her head resolutely.

“A-Alright. I’ll eat it. You purple fatty!”

“There is still more.”

“There’s more food?”

Standing before the pantry, Adam tilted his head sideways as he looked at her and spoke.

“Do not faint tonight.”

“……!”

Shuri froze solid like a block of ice.

Adam tilted his head lightly toward her.

“Because even if you faint, I will not let you off.”

‘But isn’t this a bit strange?’

Shuri thought seriously as she looked at Adam’s back as he rummaged through the pantry.

‘Why does a project to make an artificial intelligence learn humanity require lewd things to the point where I have to worry about fainting?’

She slammed her forehead repeatedly out of confusion and distress.

‘What if someone finds out about this? Won’t a rumor spread across the entire world that I’m the person who put Central 3 inside a sexaroid and did lewd things? I’d be a highly honorable world star.’

She had to prevent that at all costs.

Pondering over how she could avoid doing lewd things with Adam, Shuri opened her mailbox once more.

‘Huh?’

For some reason, an email had arrived from UH.

‘What’s this? Why is it from the secretary’s office instead of the development department?’

Shuri opened the email amidst a bizarre sense of foreboding. Along with a brief greeting from the secretary’s office, a video file was attached to the email.

[Miss Shuri, you must check this video file entirely alone. Please be careful when verifying, as the file will be automatically destroyed after a single viewing in accordance with internal security regulations.]

An explicit request to check it alone, and a file that would be automatically destroyed after viewing. It was ominous upon ominous.

After swallowing her saliva, Shuri checked on Adam’s condition. Conveniently, Adam was currently in the middle of discovering the center of the black hole at the bottom of the pantry and freezing in shock.

“Shuri, there is another storage space at the bottom of the pantry?”

Poking her head out from over the tablet, Shuri spoke in a loud voice.

“I’ll grant you the authority to organize that spot too.”

“Thank you, Shuri!”

After verifying that the voice of Adam entering the center of the black hole was growing gradually distant, Shuri searched for her earphones and put them on.

When she played the video, astonishingly, a face that even Shuri knew appeared. It was none other than one of the most famous figures in the world, the CEO of UH, Victor Halden.

[Miss Shuri, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Victor Halden.]

Against the backdrop of a neat office, Victor Halden continued speaking while staring straight into the camera lens.

[I shall get straight to the point. According to the reports I have received, it appears an inappropriate and unseemly event has occurred between you and Central 3.]

Shuri felt identical to someone watching a meteorite plummet over her head.

[This is a message sent immediately upon receiving the report regarding that matter. I pray that you have not committed something you cannot handle. We shall require a discussion regarding this situation. Please come to these coordinates immediately. Alone, of course, without informing Central 3.]

Coordinates surfaced on the video. Remaining frozen with her mouth gaped open in a circle, Shuri pulled out her smartphone and took a picture of it. Soon, the video ended, and a notification logo indicating a deleted video appeared.

With her face turned pale, Shuri thought.

‘I’m doomed.’

Failing to resist Adam’s temptation, she had committed an inappropriate and unseemly deed with Central 3.

She could not use Adam as an excuse. No matter what trials an artificial intelligence attempted for the sake of learning, the responsibility could not be placed upon the artificial intelligence. Responsibility was always the portion of humans.

‘First of all, I have to go.’

Floundering like a ghost, Shuri walked toward the pantry. Standing at the entrance, she called out to Adam.

“A-Adam…”

“Yes, Shuri. I shall head up right away.”

“No. You can stay down there. I… have to head out for a bit.”

Shuri told a lie while swallowing tears of grievance.

“I-I have a design meeting for Unimo. Can you believe people keep suggesting we change it to a common design like a dog or a cat? If we do that, it won’t be any different from the pet robots scattered across the market. I need to go and let them know just how magnificent an animal a unicorn is.”

Soon enough, Adam climbed up the ladder of the hatch. Having journeyed through the center of the black hole, Adam was entirely covered in dust.

Perched at the entrance of the basement, he spoke in a cheerful voice.

“I too believe the planning for Unimo is magnificent. While unicorns are fantastical animals that children love, a stuffed-animal robot with a unicorn design does not exist on the market just yet. Objectively speaking, it is also just as cute as a dog or a cat.”

“Right?”

Crouching at the edge of the pantry floor, Shuri formed a faint smile.

“I… wished for Unimo to grant children something beyond mere comfort. I hoped the system where giving love to the Full of Mistakes Unimo causes its level to rise, leading to growth, would become a comfort to someone. And to deliver such a message, I believed it required a more special appearance rather than just being cute.”

“Shuri, your technology truly contains a heart.”

Fortunately, Adam appeared to know absolutely nothing about her situation. He spoke in a voice sweet like fresh cream.

“Someone will definitely recognize your heart.”