Chapter 44

“Wow, it’s heavy.”

It was right when Shuri entered the room while groaning as she cradled the tool box.

“…Yes, Teacher.”

Jiss’s voice wafted over. He appeared to be in the middle of a call with someone.

To avoid disturbing him, Shuri quietly set the tool box down beside him. Sensing a human presence, Jiss turned around and traced a smile.

“Yes, I comprehend what you mean. Then I shall contact you again.”

He even bowed his head deeply toward the empty air to greet them, then terminated the call.

Shuri asked.

“‘Teacher’?”

Jiss bared his teeth and laughed.

“Yes, they are someone who taught me many things.”

“What did they teach you?”

Jiss plopped down right in front of her. Right after, taking off his hat, he swept his disheveled hair back and put it on again.

When he raised his head once more, the face that had been thoroughly steeped in fatigue had vanished. Laughing cheerfully with a much brighter face, he spoke.

“Things like how one should live life.”

“Ah-ha.”

It seemed they weren’t a teacher who shared the secret to becoming a first-class inspector at a young age.

Pulling out a screwdriver from the tool box, Jiss spoke.

“For now, I shall install a temporary charging station for Nightingale here. However, since Nightingale is a medical robot, additional equipment is required, so I will come and install that for you next time.”

By all appearances, today wasn’t the end of having to receive aid from Jiss.

After hesitating for a short moment, Shuri spoke cautiously.

“Jiss, thank you so very much. How do I reward this?”

Jiss, who had been installing the charging station while generating a clattering noise, looked up at her and asked seriously.

“Do you wish to reward me?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes!”

Jiss suddenly extended his smartphone.

“Then, grant me your number for starters.”

Shuri’s eyes went wide. Smirking, Jiss spoke once more.

“I require someone to aid me, limited to when working here at least, but the Director claims he is mechanically illiterate. And I somehow cannot comfortably request anything of Central 3. Will you aid me?”

Nodding her head rapidly, Shuri received Jiss’s smartphone.

“Of course I should!”

She then tapped tap-tap-tap her own number, returned it to Jiss, and requested of him.

“Make sure to contact me when coming here. It will be burdensome for Jiss alone to deal with that strange mister.”

“He appeared like a fun and good person, though?”

Shuri wore a face packed with disgust.

“Completely not!”

Jiss roared with laughter. Right after, he spoke in a voice where warmth could be felt.

“The Director and Miss Shuri appear to share an immensely close relationship. I truly love that sense of distance.”

Shuri was about to speak that it was completely not the case, but she closed her mouth. Assuredly, she couldn’t say it wasn’t. Who could fail to love Kamal?

Instead, she requested of Jiss like this.

“In any case, make sure to contact me when coming here.”

“Ha-ha-ha! Yes, understood.”

The road back.

Cradling her bag, Shuri plopped down into the passenger seat of the sports car. The air inside the car was cool and fragrant, and the highest-class leather seat wrapped snugly around her body as if cradling it, rendering it tremendously comfortable.

“Adaaam.”

A yawn emerged on its own.

“Yes, Shuri.”

“You suffered a lot today…”

Staring straight ahead, Adam spoke in a calm tone.

“You too.”

“Mhm. I suffered a lot too… that’s why I’m so…”

Sleepy.

Failing to conclude even those words, Shuri fell fast asleep snore-snore.

And when she snapped her eyes open once more, she believed she was experiencing a nightmare.

“Shuri, did you wake? For starters, we shall proceed with blood collection.”

Clad in a white doctor’s gown, Adam was thrusting a massive syringe toward her.
Beholding the sharp needle the exact moment she woke from sleep, Shuri shrieked while bursting into tears.

“Save me…!”

“Shuri, it is merely collecting a mere one hundred milliliters of blood.”

“One hundred milliliters? I hate ittt!”

“Vanilla frappe, pudding topping.”

Shuri’s weeping snapped to a halt.

Having regained a bit of her senses, she sniffled and added.

“I wish to eat a fruit crepe too.”

“That will not do. Clench your fist tightly.”

Speaking coldly, Adam drove the syringe needle stab deep into her arm.

“……!”

Shuri endured while clenching her fist tightly. From her forcefully closed two eyes, bead-like teardrops tumbled down drip-drip.

After a duration where one second felt like one minute flew by, Adam slowly extracted the syringe needle.

“It has concluded. Apply hemostasis.”

Streaming tears endlessly, Shuri looked up at doctor Adam. Turning away from her, Adam was injecting the syringe’s contents into a testing tube.

She could not comprehend why such a matter had suddenly arisen for her. Above all, it felt nothing short of unrealistic that Adam, who was always warm and affectionate, was behaving so coldly like this.

‘Am I not experiencing a frightening dream? And I haven’t woken up yet.’

At times like this, there was a method to verify. Pressing the inside of her elbow with an alcohol swab, she requested while whimpering.

“The top, grant me the top…”

Adam spoke in a methodical tone.

“Shuri, right here is not the world inside a dream. We returned to Hopfield Medical Center. Right here is a ward dedicated strictly to VIPs, and there is only the two of us. We shall proceed with Shuri’s health checkup here.”

“The health checkup… the two of us proceed with it?”

“For your information, I possess a medical license as well.”

Swallowing her hiccups hic-hic and weeps, Shuri pressed firmly down on the spot where the blood was drawn.

‘It doesn’t appear to be a dream?’

“Since it seems your sleep has broken, let us proceed with a vision test for starters. Cover your right eye first.”

Adam turned on the vision measurement device situated on the wall before her.

Falteringly, Shuri read the letters Adam pointed at with a pointer stick.

“W, a, y, w, a, r, d…?”

“Yes, that is sufficient. Next is a hearing test.”

Holding headphones, Adam approached her. Shuri, who had been staring up at him with her two eyes gone round, pushed away Adam’s hand as he attempted to equip the headphones onto her ears.

“Wa-Wait a moment. Adam! What on earth is a wayward?”

“Ah, it seems the sound of my heart leaked out through the vision measurement device.”

Shuri was flustered.

‘What is this? Why do I have to hear myself called wayward?’

Equipped with the massive headphones over her ears, she fell into thought while raising her hand toward the direction the sound generated.

‘Adam was indeed a bit strange today. Was it ever since Kamal acted like a fool upon beholding Mr. Walker? No, even before that, though he performed his work well, his mood appeared not good at all. Since when was that?’

Tracing back her memories like a salmon, something popped into Shuri’s mind. It was the appearance of Adam pulling out a new mask from his pocket to place it preciously over her face, holding her tightly while saying she was lovely.

‘Until then, his mood assuredly appeared fine!’

What kind of matter occurred after that?

“Shuri, next is a CT scan. Lie down here.”

“U-Uh, okay.”

Exactly as Adam instructed, she thought while lying down quietly on the scanning table like a fish on a cutting board.

‘Gasp, is it that? The fact that Riley’s relative mistook me and Jiss as a married couple?’

By all appearances, it seemed to be that.

“The CT scan has concluded as well.”

Placing a paper cup into the hands of Shuri, who was getting up awkwardly from the scanning table, Adam spoke in a businesslike tone.

“Lastly, we must proceed with a urinalysis, so go collect your urine here.”

Grasping the paper cup tightly with both hands, Shuri shrieked.

“Adam, you are angry, aren’t you!”

Adam retorted in a businesslike tone identical to before.

“Did you only realize that now?”

“Because I couldn’t even imagine that you would fly into a rage over such a matter…!”

Crossing his arms, Adam asked back.

“What is ‘such a matter’ that Shuri thought of?”

“The fact that Riley’s relative mistook me and Mr. Walker as a married couple?”

“That is merely nothing more than that person’s illusion exactly as Shuri spoke, so would I fly into a rage at you over such a matter? I am not an artificial intelligence possessing such a narrow mind.”

Shuri’s two eyes went round.

‘Is it not this?’

Staring intently at her as she failed to find the answer and merely gaped her lips pop-pop like a goldfish, Adam kindly granted a hint.

“Shuri.”

“Yeah?”

“Today, who did you converse with?”

Only then did Shuri realize.

“Titan?”

Adam gave a grand nod of his head.

Exerting strength in her hands to the point where the paper cup crumpled with a crackle, Shuri spoke.

“That was completely a spam call, you know? I hung up right away, and forgot about it just like that!”

“You forget quite easily, I see. You forgot about conversing with Titan, and you must have forgotten that I am by your side as well. Today, you appeared quite joyful alongside the inspector.”

Shuri’s mouth hung wide open.

“This makes no sense…!”

“Is it an unavoidable matter, I wonder.”

Adam added in a low voice.

“Because in the end, a person must live alongside people, you see?”

“……!”