The next morning, as soon as I opened my eyes, I checked outside the window.
As if it had all been a lie, the sky was clear.
The rain that had fallen for nearly two weeks without stopping had finally ceased.
At last, it was time to leave.
Enoch took me to the place where we first met.
“Are you sure you want to get off here? I can drive you all the way to your destination.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s not far now… I want to walk there myself.”
Enoch tried to persuade me again, but I shook my head.
Seeing how firm I was, he had no choice but to let me go.
”Thank you.”
I looked at Enoch and Amy as they waved goodbye to me.
Amy had been sobbing uncontrollably for a while now.
Enoch smiled awkwardly and gently wiped away her falling tears.
I gazed at Enoch and Amy with a sense of envy.
They would surely be together for the rest of their lives.
For a moment, I imagined a future where I stood by Master’s side, but quietly shook my head.
That kind of future would never come for me.
I slowly began walking toward the unfamiliar road.
I had lied to Enoch.
The truth was, I didn’t know where this place was, or how much farther I needed to go.
It would have been easier to accept help, but I felt sorry for taking away Enoch’s precious time with Master.
And I also stubbornly wanted to find my former Master’s house by myself, even if I couldn’t make it all the way.
So, without stopping, my legs carried me faithfully.
On the first day my new Master turned my power on, I had briefly seen the scenery outside while leaving the house and heading by car to a new home.
My steps now took me back to that place.
Familiar scenery unfolded before my eyes.
From here, I knew the way.
If I walked for a day, I would reach the house.
I smiled brightly at the thought that I had finally found the way.
But my joy was short-lived, as I remembered I was heading there to turn myself off, and was soon filled with sorrow.
At last, in the middle of the night, I arrived at the house where I used to live with my former Master.
“Ah… it’s Master’s house…”
It had been so long, but the house still looked abandoned, completely neglected.
Having lived in a clean place until now, the dust-covered exterior seemed even more eerie.
Creeeak.
“I’m home.”
The rusty hinges squeaked as the door opened.
The interior was pitch dark, with not a trace of light, but this was a place I once called home.
The layout of the house was etched into my memory.
I climbed the stairs and headed to the second-floor room where I had awakened.
Faint moonlight trickled in through the window, letting me see a little of the inside.
In the center of the room stood a large glass capsule, softly reflecting the moonlight.
Among the elegant furniture, the glass capsule occupied the most space, as if welcoming me, its door wide open.
I stopped in front of the capsule and looked around for a moment.
The room was filled with precious items, memories of my former Master.
Soon, when my power was turned off, I would become just another piece of furniture in this room, like those things.
I forced a smile as I looked down at myself.
Thankfully, I was still clean.
My power would likely never turn on again, but at least I wanted to close my eyes in a neat state.
Finally, I was able to accept it.
I am a robot.
Even if I have emotions, the fact that I am a robot will never change.
I wanted to be human.
I wanted to laugh, cry, and flounder in love.
When I was with Master, I sometimes fell into the illusion that I had become human, if only for a brief moment.
It was a short time, but I was happy.
Even with all the sad memories and painful moments…
Now that everything has passed, I can say for certain that I was happy.
Reliving those brief memories, I slowly entered the glass capsule.
Carefully, I sat down atop the rustling artificial flowers.
Ah… I’m so tired.
My body felt so heavy.
I thought I would be afraid when the time came to turn myself off, but it wasn’t as frightening as I’d imagined. I was relieved.
Quietly, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes.
I reached behind my neck, opened the cover, and took one last deep breath.
Firmly, I pressed the button.
Thomas hadn’t had a moment to step into his house lately, he was so busy.
With Didi missing, William had fallen apart completely.
It was time to focus all efforts on the new product launch, so Thomas had to work twice as hard to fill William’s absence.
To make matters worse, reports of abnormal robot behaviour were coming in from all over the city.
If a malfunctioning robot went on a rampage, it could harm people, so they were quickly recalled.
After several days of hardship, Thomas was finally able to catch his breath.
He checked his schedule once more.
The new product was on track to start shipping next week as planned, and all the faulty robots had been successfully recalled.
Even though William was in that state, at least the important matters were resolved for now.
“Phew… Now, should I try repairing William’s robot…”
Once the new product started shipping, he would be busy again.
Before that happened, he decided to focus on the task he’d been putting off: recovering Eve’s memory chip.
Thomas took a small chip out of a box.
This tiny thing was Eve.
After a brief trip outside the company, she’d returned as nothing but a lonely memory chip, having collided with a truck—such a pitiful serving robot.
He felt responsible for not managing things properly due to his busyness, and was determined to repair her.
Nick, who had witnessed the accident firsthand, had been terribly sad, so he wanted to restore Nick’s smile as well.
When he connected the chip to the computer, he was relieved to see that the chip itself was undamaged.
That had been his biggest worry, but now he could relax a bit.
He wondered if he could finish the repairs before Didi returned.
Her broken body would have to be replaced, of course.
But…
Looking again…
“Huh?”
He rubbed his eyes.
“W-wait!”
Unbelievable information appeared on the screen.
Eve’s emotion process had been activated right before she broke down!
How could this be?
There was no way someone had put an emotion code in a simple serving robot.
Was it a malfunction from the shock of the truck accident?
Or had he accidentally triggered something while connecting the memory chip to the computer?
Or was he just hallucinating?
Thomas racked his brain for a long time, but couldn’t think of any explanation.
He had promised himself to go home early today, but in the end, Thomas stayed up all night reading through Eve’s activity logs.
Finally, he found the reason.
All robots produced by Spennic shared the same basic code.
On top of that, additional features and updates were applied according to their purpose.
However, a portion of the emotion code, which had not been erased, was activated the moment Didi’s voice was input.
In fact, the other robots that had recently shown abnormal behaviour in the city had experienced the same thing.
The reason these incidents were limited to the nearby city, and not nationwide, was also found here.
All of them had their emotion code activated after a conversation with Didi.
The timing varied—some before Didi ran away, and some after.
Suddenly, he remembered the failed prototype left in the underground lab.
He was sure—when the power was briefly turned on, Didi had been right next to it. If that was true…?
If Didi really was the key to decrypting the code… then right now…!
Thomas rushed straight to the underground lab.
Without even catching his breath, he pressed the power button on the abandoned prototype in the corner.
His heart, soaked in anticipation, pounded rapidly.
Twitch— the prototype’s body trembled slightly. Instead of just opening its eyes like an empty doll, the prototype slowly lifted its head, smiled brightly with its eyes, and greeted Thomas.
“Hello!”
“Ha… hahaha…”
So shocked, Thomas’s legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor.
Laughter escaped from his lips.
The key to the emotion process he had been searching so hard for was Didi’s voice.
The answer he’d been chasing had been right beside him all along, and he hadn’t realized it…
The only problem was that Didi was missing right now.
Thomas immediately called William.