I left the room filled with robots and went upstairs to the office with Master.
I was about to follow Master into the office, but I stopped without realizing it.
A place that should have felt familiar suddenly seemed strange.
I quietly looked around the interior.
I checked one by one to see if anything had changed, but it wasn’t much different from the last time I visited.
Maybe it was just my imagination.
It must have felt unfamiliar because I hadn’t been here for so long.
Since it had been months since I last saw Master’s office, I figured it was only natural and stepped inside.
Master sat me down in a corner and immediately started working.
He went to a meeting for a while, and now he was dealing with a pile of overdue tasks.
I quietly sat on the sofa in the corner of the office, waiting for Master to finish.
It seemed like he hadn’t been coming to the company lately—maybe that’s why there was so much backlog.
The secretary, sensing the timing, kept bringing in documents that needed Master’s approval without end.
Seeing the stack of paperwork growing on the desk, it was clear it wouldn’t be over quickly, just as Master had said.
I glanced at Master, who was frowning at the ever-increasing pile, then turned my gaze to the window.
A view of tall buildings and a wide, clean park spread out before me.
Sitting like this, it really felt as if I had returned to the past.
Back then, just waiting for Master here was enough to make my heart swell with happiness.
As that old excitement started to resurface out of habit, I quickly turned my eyes away from the window.
“Chairman, I’ll be heading out now.”
The secretary, arms full of approved documents, left the office with a fresh expression.
As soon as the door closed, Master approached me with a weary look and flopped down in the seat beside me.
I felt my body shake slightly from the impact and asked,
“Are you all finished now?”
“Yes. A problem cropped up while I was away for a bit.”
Master rubbed his brow tiredly, then lay down with his head resting on my lap.
“Master, if you sleep here….”
“Just let me stay like this for a bit.”
With Master already settled, I couldn’t do anything but quietly offer my legs.
For a moment, my gaze was drawn to the soft hair brushing against my thigh.
A few minutes passed like that, but Master didn’t move, saying he just wanted to rest a little.
Feeling my legs start to go numb, I carefully asked,
“Shouldn’t we go see Eve soon? She must be waiting….”
“Thomas will call when he’s done. We can go then.”
My attempt to use Eve as an excuse to escape from Master failed.
With the conversation cut off, silence fell again.
I stared at Master, lying with his eyes closed, and said,
“Master, if you need my help making HumanBots, I’ll help however you need.”
Watching the robots who had developed emotions because of me, that thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Wasn’t the reason Master found me again after I left, and the reason he held onto me saying he loved me, all because of some hidden function inside me?
The first day I met Master, the reason he took me in when I had nowhere to go was to make HumanBots.
In the end, I left without being able to help at all.
If he’s doing this because he’s afraid I’ll run away again, then he doesn’t need to pretend to love me—I’ll stay by his side and help, so he doesn’t have to worry anymore….
My chest stung.
“Like I said earlier, I’m not thinking of making HumanBots anymore.”
“But….”
As I closed my mouth with a gloomy expression, Master’s eyes, which had been closed, suddenly snapped open.
As soon as our eyes met, Master frowned deeply and spoke firmly.
“Don’t think weird things. That’s exactly why I haven’t said anything until now.”
“I don’t need your help. Don’t waste your thoughts on that kind of thing—instead, do what you want from now on.”
Do what I want…. I fell silent for a long time.
For someone like me, whose only purpose had been to serve Master, those words felt overwhelming.
Now that it’s so late, is even the usefulness I finally found no longer needed?
A robot should have a role to fulfil, but now, even that was gone for me.
I looked down at Master, who had closed his eyes again at some point.
He’d looked tired for a while, and while I was quiet, he’d fallen asleep in an instant.
I tried to move him so he could sleep more comfortably on the narrow sofa, but hearing his gentle breathing, I stopped.
His face looked a bit weary.
Sometimes, I’d hear clattering from Master’s room until dawn, as if he had insomnia.
That incident before, too, and it seemed he’d relied on alcohol to sleep for quite a while….
I decided it was best not to move and risk waking Master, so I stayed as still as possible.
Then, Master’s phone vibrated.
Master’s eyelids fluttered slightly.
I quickly turned my head, afraid he’d catch me secretly watching his sleeping face.
With a tired look, Master pressed his brow and answered the call, still resting his head on my lap.
-William, it’s done. Are you coming now?
“Yes. I’ll be right there.”
The call ended quickly.
Remembering Thomas’s voice from the other end, I carefully asked,
“Can we go get Eve now?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
Master straightened up and put on his suit jacket.
Watching him, I secretly massaged my legs.
Even though Master had only used my lap for a moment, my legs had gone numb.
Trying not to let him notice me limping, I did my best to walk naturally as I followed him out of the office.
“Anything unusual?”
“No problems. I’ll update the motion for the new product and prepare for launch as is.”
As soon as we returned to the lab, Master and Thomas started talking, while I wandered over to the robot that looked just like Eve.
Like Eve, there was a power switch below its ear.
I stared at the unmoving robot, then asked Thomas,
“Can I turn it on?”
“Sure. Just so you know, it’s still a prototype, so it’s not perfect.”
Seeing my curiosity, Thomas came over and turned it on himself.
The robot shuddered once, then began to move.
Even though it was just a prototype, the way it looked around seemed very lifelike.
Still, I thought Eve’s movements seemed a bit more natural.
As I marveled at the moving robot, Eve came over and stood right beside it.
The sight was so cute, a faint smile appeared on my lips.
“What’s this robot going to be used for?”
“For now, all it can do is move, so we’re planning to market it as a pet. But later, we’ll add functions so it can be used for security or rescue work.”
I nodded at Thomas’s explanation.
It was more ordinary than I’d expected.
“The original plan was for a humanoid as the new product, so it’s less impactful, right? But well, since it’s the Chairman’s decision, it can’t be helped.”
I glanced at Thomas shrugging, then stole a look at where Master was.
Compared to the humanoid, which was similar to the HumanBot, this robot did seem unusually ordinary.
If I watched too long, I’d be in the way, so it was probably time to take Eve home.
I was about to get up from where I’d crouched in front of the moving robot, but paused when I saw Eve wagging her tail at me.
Come to think of it, Eve had developed emotions too.
Did that mean she’d have to stay in that place with the other robots from earlier?
If we had to part ways like this…
I didn’t like that thought, so I carefully asked Master,
“Master… does Eve have to stay where those robots are?”
“No.”
Master shook his head and continued.
“The robots gathered there were collected because we were worried they might cause trouble outside. Eve isn’t affected.”
“Right, if a robot with emotions ever harmed a person, it’d be a huge problem.”
I nodded at Thomas’s added explanation.
True, even from what I saw earlier, they were poking around and breaking things out of curiosity.
If they damaged something out on the street, there’s no way it would be overlooked.
“Didi, how did you find the robots?”
“I’m… not sure.”
“That’s understandable. They’re all calm now, but at first, it was chaos.”
“What happened?”
“One of the building’s cleaning robots followed someone who littered in the hallway and hit them with a mop, another ran away from its post and refused to return…. We kept getting reports about robots acting strangely, so I spent all day chasing them around.”
Thomas shook his head and let out a long sigh.
“People keep reporting robots behaving oddly, and meanwhile William kept disappearing, then suddenly came back saying he was canceling the new product launch….”
Thomas wiped away tears as he vented all his pent-up frustrations.
All I did was ask the nearby robots for directions to get back to Master’s old house, but it caused so much trouble….
Feeling dejected, I apologized with my head down.
“I’m sorry….”
“Didi, it’s not your fault. It’s all William’s…!”
“…Thomas.”
“What? It’s true.”
As Thomas grumbled with a resentful look, Master grabbed my wrist as if there was nothing more to hear and started walking.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, Master.”
After saying goodbye to Thomas, who seemed sad to see us go, we left the lab.
On the way home, the sound of Eve’s little footsteps followed behind Master and me.
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