Chapter 66: Lonely Journey

In the end, only a charger remained in the bag.

Even though it was a small bag, its emptiness made me feel insignificant.

I pulled out my smartphone from my pocket, muttering.

“I won’t need this anymore.”

It was the only way to contact master, but it was an object I no longer needed. 

I quietly placed the smartphone on the bed. 

If I took this with me, my resolve might weaken, and I might contact Master again. 

But Master wouldn’t answer my calls anyway…

Suppressing the tears that threatened to fall, I carried my bag and went downstairs.

At the front door, I firmly tied my shoelaces.

Since I had a long walk, I tied them tightly so they wouldn’t come undone.

Sophia, whom I thought had already gone to her room, approached the front door and spoke to me.

I flinched in surprise but smiled at Sophia, pretending to be fine.

“Yes. I’m good, Sophia.”

“Have a good trip, Didi.”

I didn’t offer a farewell, as I planned never to return here.

I placed my hand on the front door and looked back.

“Sophia.”

“HI, Didi.”

“…It’s nothing.”

When will Master come back?

The question I asked every morning rose to my throat, but I managed to swallow it.

The answer wouldn’t be different today anyway.

Leaving Sophia’s expressionless form behind, I finally stepped out into the world alone.

“Surely… it was that way.”

As soon as I left the house, I set my direction and moved.

I recalled the memories of the day I left my old master’s mansion.

I passed through wide-open fields and a dense forest, then gradually the city appeared, and finally, I arrived at the current residential area.

If I traced that path well, I would reach my old master’s mansion.

I retraced my memories as I walked.

Today, the sun was shining brightly, and the weather was a bit hot and humid.

It was a relief that the weather was good, at least. If the sky had been gloomy on a day like this, my mood would have sunk too.

The journey to power myself off felt like a picnic, easing some of my sadness.

The roads near here were familiar.

I had taken walks with Master here, and I passed these roads commuting every day.

As I walked for a long time, recalling memories that had now become nostalgia, I passed the cafe where I had coffee with Master and the park where we watched fireworks.

However, the city was slow to appear. 

The distance that always felt short when traveling by car felt incredibly far today. 

I started in the daytime and it became night. 

And finally, I left the residential area and arrived in the city.

The city streets at night, walking alone, were very dazzling. 

The lights from the billboards illuminated the streets as if it were midday, and some places were so bright it felt like being indoors.


This was a sight I hadn’t noticed when I was out with Master, as my attention was entirely focused on him.

I looked around, marveling, and muttered.

“I wish Master was here too…”

I stopped walking for a moment, thinking of Master, but soon shook my head and regained my composure. 

My existence would only bother Master now. 

I shouldn’t forget that fact.

I tried to continue my journey, but having entered the complex city, I had lost my sense of direction. 

My legs stiffened and wouldn’t move. 

I felt like I had been cast alone into an unfamiliar world. 

Where should I go to find my old master’s mansion? 

All I knew was the address and the view from the mansion.

I tried to ask passersby, but they quickly walked past me without listening to what I said. 

And seeing their stern, hardened expressions, I was too intimidated to stop them and speak.

Come to think of it, if they found out I was a human-bot, I might be kidnapped. 

Even if I was going to power myself off after being abandoned by Master, I didn’t want to experience that.

The thought of being kidnapped made me afraid to talk to people.

I hid myself in a corner, warily avoiding people’s gazes, when I suddenly realized that not only people but also robots were walking around the streets.

Ah!

Could I ask a robot instead of a person?

I was more used to and comfortable conversing with robots than people.

Thinking it was a good idea, I approached a robot cleaning the street and asked for directions.

“Excuse me… do you know which way to go for Edenhill 8?”

The robot paused its movements, as if thinking for a moment, then shook its head.

It meant it didn’t know.

Thanking the robot for its answer, I bowed slightly and approached other nearby robots to ask. But they all just said they didn’t know.

“Sigh…”

After repeatedly asking the same question while searching for robots, I quickly became exhausted.

Perhaps the place name had changed while I was powered off.

Otherwise, there was no way all the robots would answer they didn’t know.

It was then, as I sat on a bench by the roadside, letting out a deep sigh.

“Hello! Are you lost?”

Someone approached me and spoke.

I looked up at the cheerful mechanical voice, and a familiar robot came into view.

“Huh…?”

Its appearance was definitely familiar.

It was the guide robot from Master’s company that had taken me to Thomas’s lab.

I was flustered and closed my mouth.

Why was a robot that should be at the company here?

The unexpected location confused my memory, but I hadn’t mistaken it.

The company logo clearly drawn on the robot’s body confirmed it was the robot I had met.

“Why, why are you here? This is far from the company…”

“I’m out for a moment.”

The guide robot answered confidently.

I looked at the robot, confused, then eventually nodded. Do company robots usually go outside?

I didn’t know much, but it might have been on an errand or had other duties.

***

I set aside my deep thoughts and asked the robot.

“Do you happen to know where Edenhill 8 is? It’s where my old master used to live…”

“Edenhill 8 is 400km to the west!”

An unexpectedly precise answer came back.

I widened my eyes and looked in the direction the guide robot pointed.

West?

The distance of 400km didn’t quite register, but just knowing the exact direction was a big gain.

“Thank you!”

My face brightened, and I sprang to my feet.

After bowing my head to the robot and expressing my gratitude several times, I started moving in the direction the robot indicated.

It became dawn.

The reason I, without a clock, could tell the time was because people around me had disappeared one by one.

The bright lights also went out one by one, and finally, a darkness befitting ‘night’ arrived.

Still, thanks to the remaining streetlights here and there, I wasn’t scared.

I kept walking.

I was still walking, but I didn’t feel like I was getting closer to my destination.

It was clearly a street I had walked with Master, yet it felt so strange and new that I even doubted if I was going the right way.

It was the third day since I departed, and I was still wandering lost in the city.

Was this the right direction?

Was I getting closer to my old master’s mansion?

I still couldn’t be sure.

I was suffering from extreme hunger.

My whole body felt weak.

Perhaps it was because I had only managed to snatch naps on street benches occasionally, but the asphalt roads stretching everywhere looked like vast gray beds.

Nevertheless, the driving force that kept me moving was the fact that I had a set destination.

“I think my battery is low…”

After moving non-stop for three days, I felt my battery dangerously low.

Looking around, I caught a robot picking up trash and cleaning the roadside, and asked it.

“Hello, is there anywhere I can charge my battery?”

The robot looked up at me and stopped, then slowly moved away.

It didn’t know… I was about to look for another robot nearby when the robot turned around and stopped.

Ah, it meant for me to follow!

Only then did I realize the signal the robot sent and hurriedly followed it.

The robot led me deeper into a secluded alley.

Even though it was daytime, there was a dark and damp atmosphere.

I nervously looked around, clutching my bag strap tightly.

Then the robot stopped.

Looking past it, a old, dilapidated warehouse stood in a secluded corner of the alley, untouched by human footsteps.

Inside the warehouse, charging stations for cleaning robots were lined up.

The robot went inside the warehouse, then stopped in front of one of the chargers and looked at me.

Another charger was already plugged in, but it seemed to mean I should unplug it and use it.

“Thank you!”

As I thanked it, the robot quietly rolled its wheels and disappeared, seeming to go back to cleaning the street.

I fumbled in my bag and pulled out my charger.

The existing charger was quite firmly fixed, so I struggled for a while before I could start charging.

As soon as I finally pulled it out and plugged in my charger, I connected it to the back of my neck.

“Haah…”

It felt like a dangerously empty cup being filled to the brim.

Feeling my exhausted body slowly melt away, I slumped to the floor.

The floor was rusty, dirty, and damp, but I didn’t care much.

To me, who had been wandering the streets for days, just having a place to comfortably rest my body was something to be grateful for.

I slowly turned my head and looked around the interior.

It was a messy charging room that looked like it hadn’t been maintained for a long time.

It felt a little sad that the cleaning robots, who kept the streets clean, were actually charging in such poor conditions.