Robot Protection Zone Chapter 30

I went into the room, grabbed a pillow and a blanket, and came back downstairs. I thought about sleeping on the floor with Eve, but the cold, hard feeling under my feet quickly changed my mind. I arranged the pillow and blanket on the sofa and lay down.

Eve hovered in front of me. She seemed to know we were sleeping together, and she even looked happy.

Watching Eve twirl around and dance, I somehow felt like we were having a pajama party. Of course, it was my first time having a pajama party with just robots, so I wasn’t sure if this was the right feeling.

A short while later, Sophia also went into her room, and all the lights in the living room were turned off. The living room grew dark. I blinked at the ceiling and then quietly said goodnight to Eve.

“Good night, Eve.”

Eve slowly turned off the light of her screen and then moved to the side of the sofa. With the fading of Eve’s mechanical sounds as the last thing I heard, a quiet stillness settled over the living room. Tonight, I couldn’t hear the sound of my master working, nor the low breathing from the spot beside me.

I tossed and turned, thinking of my master upstairs.

I had used the excuse of sleeping with Eve… but the truth was, I also said I would sleep separately because I felt I needed to put some distance between myself and my master.

My heart kept pounding whenever I was with him. In case I was abandoned later, I thought it would be better to start keeping some distance from now on, so that I wouldn’t be too disappointed.

But why is it that whenever I see my master, I want to be praised, and my gaze keeps drifting to his lips?

One kiss was enough to throw me into confusion, but yesterday’s kiss on the forehead made the problem even bigger. Although it was my forehead, to me, the meaning wasn’t all that different from a kiss on the lips. Master, could it be that you actually remember everything and are just pretending not to know? To enjoy watching me agonize over it….

Even without my master by my side, it was still a confusing night.

“Umm….”

I slowly opened my eyes at the sensation of something tapping my fingertips.

As I struggled to lift my eyelids, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view. Oh right, I slept in the living room yesterday…. My body felt a little sore, probably from sleeping on the sofa instead of a soft bed.

Tap, tap, feeling the light touch on my hand again, I turned my head. Eve was gently shaking my hand, as if to tell me to wake up.

“I’m up, Eve.”

As I spoke while stroking Eve, she stopped trying to wake me and quietly moved aside.

I pushed my stiff body up and looked around. Strangely, I couldn’t see my master anywhere. By now, he should be on the first floor, drinking his coffee….

Don’t tell me he left for work without me?

For a moment, I was wide awake. I quickly threw off the blanket and scrambled up to the second floor to check if my master was still at home.

“Master? Are you in there?”

Knock, knock. I knocked on the door, but there was no reply. Did he really leave for work first?

It seemed that because I had slept alone, I had overslept and he had left without me. Feeling dejected, I quietly opened the door to confirm for the last time that no one was in my master’s room. But in the dim room, a large silhouette on the bed caught my eye.

“Huh?”

My master was still sleeping. The master who was always up first, looking perfect while drinking coffee in the living room, was nowhere to be seen. What was in front of my eyes now was the figure of a man who couldn’t wake up from his sleep, buried under the covers.

I rolled my eyes, trying to figure out the date. It’s not the weekend today….

“Master, aren’t you going to the office today?”

“…What time is it.”

“It’s a little past 8….”

“Dammit….”

My master muttered a curse under his breath.

Did he sleep late yesterday? Today, a sense of fatigue peeked through his disheveled appearance.

“Didi, lie down next to me.”

“Pardon?”

“I said, lie down here.”

But my master suddenly lifted the covers and ordered me to. As the blanket was pulled back, an empty space big enough for me to lie down was revealed. I hesitated, looking down at the bed that was sure to be soft.

“But you have to go to work….”

“It’s an order. Lie down.”

“Yes.”

I tried to persuade my master to wake up, but he gave an order. In that case, I shouldn’t refuse. I had no choice but to nod and lie down next to him.

As I slipped under the covers, the warmth that had built up gently enveloped my skin. The soft and cozy feeling made my body melt on its own.

Drowsiness washed over me again in the comfort. It felt like the deep sleep from last night was about to start all over again, and I tried to snap out of it, but my master’s arm wrapped around my body.

“Ma, Master?”

“I’m going to sleep a little longer, so be quiet.”

The voice of my master as he said that was lower and rougher than usual. He didn’t seem to be in a good mood, perhaps due to lack of sleep. I quietly shut my mouth.

I turned my head and looked at the sunlight faintly seeping through the curtains. The sound of tired breathing coming from beside me felt strangely unfamiliar today.

My master was really trying to go back to sleep with me in his arms.

Why would my master, who always woke up early, be oversleeping today? It was clear that he must have had a lot of work to take care of yesterday. It also seemed like he’d been busy with back-to-back meetings at the office lately.

I glanced furtively at my master’s face. The dark circles under his eyes looked a little deeper today.

Hmm… since he looks tired, should I let him sleep a little longer? About 30 minutes should be fine. He didn’t get angry that time I overslept by that much before.

My master’s body rose and fell with his regular breathing. A firm arm was wrapped around my body, and his warmth was transmitted through the covers. The peacefulness, like a weekend morning, dispelled my tension.

A yawn escaped me. My master was sleeping so soundly that I wanted to go to sleep as well.

Just 30 minutes…. Let’s just sleep for 30 minutes and then wake up. I’ll just close my eyes for a moment, then I have to wake my master up and go to the office….

Thinking that, I slowly closed my eyes.

The sin of forgetting that I had to wake my master and falling asleep myself was by no means light.

In the end, we woke up after noon, and my master and I went to the office late in the afternoon. My master had a refreshed look on his face and didn’t get particularly angry, but I regretted falling asleep like that.

It was a good thing there were no important meetings or appointments, but I felt a sense of self-loathing at the thought that I couldn’t even properly perform my role of waking my master. I had a moment of self-reflection, vowing never to fall for my master’s temptation again.

“I’m ho…. Huh?”

When we returned home after work, only Eve was at the entrance to greet my master and me. The spot where Sophia always stood was empty.

“Master, Sophia is gone.”

I thought she might have been too busy preparing dinner to come greet us, but the usual delicious smell wasn’t wafting from inside the house. When I went to the kitchen, neither Sophia nor the food set on the table was there. My master also seemed to find it strange and was looking around.

Don’t tell me she’s broken again…?

Worried that Sophia might have collapsed somewhere like last time, I checked every nook and cranny of the house. In the middle of that, my master, who had been quietly looking around the living room, soon made his way to the room in the corner of the first floor.

“Master, this room is….”

“It’s Sophia’s room.”

Click.

As he opened the door and entered, I saw Sophia sitting in a chair, with a long charging cable stretched out around her.

Ah, she was charging….

This time, she wasn’t broken, she was really charging. Come to think of it, I don’t think I saw her this morning either. Usually, she would have come to wake my master up when he overslept, but since she didn’t, it seemed she had already been charging since the morning.

‘I’m glad she’s not broken.’

Relieved, I looked at Sophia, and then her room came into view.

Sophia’s room, like mine, was furnished with most of the necessary furniture, including a bed, a desk, and a closet. But none of them showed any signs of use, as if they had never been touched.

It was probably because, being a robot, Sophia didn’t need any of those things. Nevertheless, seeing that my master had decorated the room for Sophia, I could tell how much he cared for her.

While I was looking around and exploring the room, my master approached Sophia and checked her remaining charging time.

“Looks like we’ll have to eat out for dinner tonight. Didi, get ready to go out again.”

“Yes, Master!”

As I prepared to go out again as soon as we got home, Eve blinked her screen as if disappointed. I waved my hand to signify that I’d be back soon, and then left with my master.

We got in the car and headed back toward the office. We were planning to go to the restaurant where my master and I often went for lunch.

It felt like it had been a long time since I had eaten dinner outside with my master.

Leaning back against the seat and looking out the window, the park that we always passed on the way to work came into view. But today, it was unusually crowded. Puzzled, I turned my gaze and discovered that they had set up a large screen in the middle of the park and were showing a movie.