My whole body was filled with tiredness.
It felt like I had a huge weight hanging from every limb.
My arms and legs were drooping, looking like dried squids left out to dry.
…I’m dying here.
I struggled to push away the drowsiness. Slowly, I opened my eyes and tried to make sense of my surroundings.
Beyond my blurry vision, a strange shape of a ceiling flickered into my mind.
“…….”
Where was this again?
My consciousness was hazy. Thanks to my trashy bodily attributes, it was harder to wake up in the morning.
The pain all over my body was considerable.
Especially my arms, legs, back, butt, shoulders…
Actually, let’s just say everything hurts.
…What did I do yesterday?
“Haam.”
A yawn that felt like it could rip me apart escaped my lips.
But, a strange sensation came from my arm─.
…….
“Ah.”
There lay the naked woman, the chairman, resting on my arm.
It was then that I recalled the memory I had forgotten.
— — —
Side EP. Security Operations (3)
Thanks to several incidents that occurred during the night, the chairman was deep in sleep.
“Umm…”
Shallow breathing drifted through the air.
The bed was cluttered with remnants from the previous day.
I might have sweated a lot, but surprisingly my body wasn’t sticky. The chairman seemed to remain fresh and clean.
It appeared that the bioware prosthetics used by the megacorp chairman have some kind of cleanliness function.
I shook off my pointless thoughts and quietly executed the interface for my vision.
It was nearly morning.
Yesterday, I must have started my security operations for the chairman in the afternoon.
…….
Looks like an entire day has gone by.
I casually licked my lips, checking the condition of the interface.
On one side of my vision, there still floated a red X-shaped hologram. It indicated that no external signal was connected.
Hmm.
… It wouldn’t be too bad if something happened just because I hadn’t heard from them for a whole day, would it? I’m worried now that I think about it.
At that moment, the chairman’s sleepy voice floated to my ears.
“…It’ll be fine.”
“Did you wake up?”
“…Yeah.”
The chairman seemed weak in the mornings, just like me.
She let out a yawn, still unable to shake off her drowsiness.
But what did she mean by “it’ll be fine”?
Suddenly, she clung to me as if she were hugging a plush toy.
“…If you try to restore the signal unnecessarily, it’ll give me a headache, so… I left some messages behind.”
Even if she’s the chairman of the megacorp, I didn’t think she had mind-reading abilities. Still, she casually eased my worries.
So, everything should be fine.
I nodded and looked at the chairman.
…….
…Maybe it’s time you could get off me.
I was feeling a bit too good about my blood circulation.
I mentally sang the national anthem to regain my composure.
Soft…, ugh.
Don’t think about it…!
I decided to change the topic and asked the chairman a question.
“You seem quite tired.”
“…A little.”
The chairman replied with a light chuckle.
“It’s been a while since I slept in a prosthetic body…”
Once again, she let out a big yawn.
“…Haaam. Usually, I have a schedule day and night, so I relieve the fatigue in my body while switching prosthetics during the schedule…”
“…Oh, I see.”
Now that I thought about it, this might be the first time I saw the chairman sleeping.
The chairman slowly sat up. Two orbs that resembled basketballs stole my gaze.
Maybe she was starting to wake up; she looked straight at me with a smile.
“Still, sleep is nice. Maybe it’s because we slept in the same bed… Well, thanks to that, all my schedules yesterday were delayed, so I’ll have to be busy today.”
“…Haha.”
I awkwardly chuckled, nodding in agreement.
…….
But if you’re busy, why aren’t you getting out of bed?
The chairman lay back down, resting her head on my arm again.
As she closed her eyes, she pressed her soft cheeks against me.
“Chairman?”
You’re not going back to sleep, are you?
Considering she wasn’t wearing anything at all, shaking her to wake her up was difficult. I hadn’t touched any other part of her last night.
The chairman slightly lifted her head.
She stared at me with a gaze mixed with boredom.
“…Chairman?”
“……”
However, she still didn’t respond to my calls.
It seemed like she was looking for something.
But I couldn’t tell what she wanted.
Maybe.
I tried calling her by another title.
“……Taylor?”
The chairman, Taylor, smiled brightly.
Then, she whispered with a hint of complaint.
“Yeah, that’s right. If you kept calling me chairman, I might have felt sad.”
But the title chairman is so familiar and nice…
Of course, it could be hard to make the megacorp chairman feel sad… I quietly buried that thought in my mind.
I’ll just have to call her chairman internally.
Anyway.
The signs of poor blood circulation were beginning to show. Even mentally singing the national anthem was reaching its limits.
Seeing that, the chairman moved her gaze to where the blood was pooling in my body.
“…I think I can spare just a little more time.”
“……Huh?”
The chairman, who had climbed over my body, lowered her head to meet my gaze.
With her outstretched index finger, she pressed against my lips.
“Shh.”
At the same time, the surrounding lights started to dim.
The chairman murmured in a soft voice.
“It’s still dawn.”
But when I checked the time earlier, it was morning…
Yet I couldn’t say anything.
It was simply a peaceful morning.
— — —
The chairman, unable to postpone her schedule any longer, hid her disappointment as she left.
I heard that she needed to switch to her prosthetic body in another location.
I wondered if it was right to be alone in a room that should belong to the chairman. But then again, it was permitted by the chairman of Monolith, who holds unparalleled power.
No one could tell me what to do.
Even the executive secretary directly serving the chairman could give a word of advice, but unfortunately, he was in the hospital right now.
– “Make yourself at home.”
The chairman had said that too.
Before heading back to the condominium, I decided to check on my physical condition.
I looked down at my arm, still feeling a little stiff.
“……Hmm.”
I easily manipulated the mana within me.
Then, mana began to settle between my blood vessels and muscles. The formless mana exerted material strength while simultaneously creating a form.
A kind of elasticity like rubber, but with far better efficiency than muscle, “something” temporarily resided between my muscles.
That was the ‘Muscle Enhancement Magic.’
Now, this application could be used not just on my arms but also on major leg muscles like quads or adductors.
Since I used mana as a tangible substance, some muscle soreness couldn’t be avoided.
To be frank, it was a dangerous way to use it.
Given that it’s magic that resides between muscles and nerves, there was a high risk of harming the nerves.
The fortunate thing was that as long as I used it according to the “Monolith’s artificial muscle cyberware” I had previously received surgery from Drake, there wouldn’t be problems with positioning.
Even so, under normal circumstances, I would have never dared to try such a dangerous method.
I won’t go into details on how I developed the muscle enhancement magic while spending a night with the chairman.
Let’s just say, humans are undoubtedly creatures of desire.
It’s true what they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and I simply invented it out of necessity.
…….
Anyway.
Once I effortlessly dispelled the mana, the occasionally bulging muscles in my arm shrank back down. I massaged that area, remembering that sensation.
Having confirmed the muscle magic once again….
“…Hmm.”
It was truly the first time in a long while to have a moment alone.
Having cleared my mind of all worries, my thoughts felt remarkably clear.
Thus, I decided to briefly summarize what had happened recently.
I had an accident, took on security duties, unintentionally participated in an engagement ceremony…
…….
Nah, let’s drop that.
Honestly, the biggest change in my life right now is my relationship with ‘Eve’ and ‘the chairman’.
Although it felt somewhat forced, it wasn’t something I disliked either.
It was merely a matter of timing; they could have been considering my indecisiveness.
But….
There was some discomfort nagging at the back of my mind.
I felt a dissonance regarding that point.
Where did this discomfort stem from?
After spending the night with the chairman, I should just be happy.
Could it be that I still have insecurities? Well, that’s possible. I definitely feel that doubt creeping in.
I sat on the sofa, vacantly pondering to decipher those ambiguous feelings.
It was during that moment, a message arrived for me through the reconnected signal.
Sender: ‘Neon City, Top Freelancer’
– More security work today?
“…Ah.”
— — —
Yes.
If you think about it, this is clearly an act that contradicts human morality.
It’s odd for the “Confucian family” within me to have been silent for this long.
‘Ahem, choosing consorts in a scholar-official family is quite common—.’
How annoying.
I had already interacted with seven women to a sufficient degree. I understood their feelings, and they knew mine.
I hadn’t explicitly confessed, but we were already in a relationship.
In such circumstances, if I were to only maintain relationships with two of them and keep it a secret, it would indeed be an inappropriate action as a human.
……Especially.
I felt even more guilty towards Catherine.
Of course, I didn’t plan on being reckless after having rolled around with the chairman from yesterday to this morning.
That was indeed a thought that resembled something a garbage person would have.
……
However, objectively speaking, from the moment I decided to simultaneously date seven women, I became undeniably garbage.
Thus.
I resolved to become a decisive garbage rather than a wishy-washy one.
“Let’s go on a date.”
“Huh?”
– Crash!
Upon hearing my words, Catherine dropped the plate she was holding onto the floor.
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