Robot Protection Zone Chapter 65

Two weeks had already passed since my master stopped coming home.

My master continued to stay at a hotel and never once showed his face at the house. Now, he wouldn’t even answer my calls or reply to my texts.

Only Sofia and I were left alone in the large house. There had been no news for a long time from Eve either, whose inspection was supposed to be over in three days.

“Sofia, has my master said anything today either?”

“No. He has not.”

Sofia’s answer was always the same. I guess my master isn’t coming home today either. Sofia seemed to be in contact with my master from time to time, but even she didn’t seem to know when he would be back.

Click.

Sofia, having finished her morning duties, quietly went into her room. And once again, silence descended upon the large house.

Sofia would not come out of her room until evening. During my time staying at home, I had come to learn her daily routine. Every morning, she would air out the house and tidy up. When the cleaning was done, she would always return to her room to activate her power-saving mode, which made me feel like I was the only one left in this big house.

“……”

I sat huddled on the sofa, hugging my knees.

As my master remained away for a long time, anxiety began to raise its head from deep within my heart. I was scared because the memory of being abandoned by my previous master kept faintly resurfacing.

I shook my head vigorously. No, my master wouldn’t abandon me. He must just be too busy with the new product launch. That had to be it, because he was definitely affectionate toward me the last time I saw him.

The warm gaze he had for me and the gentle voice that called my name were still vivid. So… I had to believe in my master.

To quell my anxiety, I looked down at the photo taken with my master, as was my habit these days.

It was my own way of getting through the boring afternoons. Looking at the photo with my master made my anxious heart feel a little calmer.

Perhaps because I had been alone for too long, the unusually quiet living room started to bother me.

To break the silence, I turned on the TV. Just then, a story about my master was on the news. I watched the news with a fluttering heart, hoping that I might hear something about him.

“This is the news that Spenic’s Chairman, William Spencer, has a new lover.”

The announcer on the TV said in a clear voice.

Oh, that story again. It’s been so long since the scandal between my master and me broke… I squirmed as I watched the people of the world still making a fuss over my master and me, as if it were something new.

I chuckled quietly and waited for the image of my master and me to appear. Soon, a photo of two people walking affectionately down the street appeared on the screen.

“Huh…?”

I was staring at the screen with a pleasant smile when I suddenly noticed something was wrong.

At first, I thought it was a picture of my master and me walking affectionately down the street. But… I didn’t have those clothes in my dressing room.

The photo in the news soon changed to another scene. This time, it was a video. The person walking alongside my master turned their head and smiled, and it wasn’t me.

They had a similar build to me and short black hair. At a glance, they looked like me, but it was clearly a different person.

I froze on the spot. No words, no thoughts came to mind. I was so shocked that I felt numb, as if I had forgotten how to breathe.

‘What should I do? I don’t date robots.’

Why did the words my master said when he rejected my confession suddenly come to mind? I let my head fall limply, realizing it belatedly. Come to think of it, my master had never once told me he loved me.

“Ah…”

That’s right. My master had no intention of taking my feelings seriously in the first place. He had only suggested creating a scandal. But I alone had fallen into a delusion just because he had been a little affectionate toward me.

The articles that analyzed the scandal between my master and me as a simple promotional strategy finally hit home. Those people were right. I was just a means to promote the new humanoid.

Thinking about it now, there was no reason for my master to keep a useless person like me by his side. The reason he was kind to me despite that was because he had discovered a new use for me.

And yet, I didn’t even know that… I was lost in my own delusion, believing it was love.

“If that’s what it was… you could have at least given me a hint…”

If he had, I wouldn’t have gotten my hopes up for nothing, and my broken heart wouldn’t be hurting like this.

“……”

I stared blankly at the video of someone walking affectionately with my master, then slowly raised my hand.

Skin with a healthy complexion, fine wrinkles, precise movements… At a glance, it looked no different from a human hand, but this wasn’t real skin, and what flowed beneath it wasn’t blood, but electric current.

No matter how much emotion I felt or how well-made I was, in the end, I was a robot. My master, knowing this, had simply chosen a human over me, a robot, which was only natural.

My heart grew cold. It felt as if my circuits were slowing down, my heart freezing solid.

“Didi, are you hurt somewhere? Your expression is not good.”

“Oh, no. It’s nothing.”

I was staring blankly into space when Sofia, who must have come out of her room as it had become evening, spoke to me. I, who hadn’t even noticed her approaching, was startled and hastily composed my expression. I lied, saying I was fine, and quickly turned off the TV and went up to my room.

“……”

I closed the door and slid down to the floor. I pulled my knees together and buried my face deep between them.

It was something to be celebrated that my beloved master had found a lover, but I, who had once again fallen in love with my master, was grieving, unable to bless the two of them.

A tear trickled down. My chest ached as if it were shattering into pieces. The pain I believed I would never feel again had found me once more.

I might have vaguely noticed that my master had a new lover. Because my master, who used to share a bed with me every night and share his warmth, had stopped looking for me and hadn’t been coming home for a while. Just like before I was abandoned by my previous master.

Maybe a warm bath would make me feel a little better.

To soothe my heavy heart, I filled the bathtub with warm water. I added bath bombs and soaked my body in the foam, but my gloomy mood showed no signs of improving.

Night came.

My master didn’t come home today either. Was he with that person I saw on TV? Would he hold them warmly and whisper sweet nothings, just as he did to me?

I lay down on the bed in my own room, which I hadn’t used in a long time. It had been a while since I’d used the covers, but Sofia had taken good care of them, so they were fresh, not dusty or musty. However, they were so cold, as if proving that no one had used them for a long time.

Feeling a chill, I curled my body into a small ball. A single tear trickled down, and then, it began to pour out without stopping.

“Sob…”

I sobbed quietly. My chest hurt. It hurt so much that tears kept flowing.

I thought I wouldn’t be abandoned this time. There was no reason for thinking so, I just, somehow, felt that way. But that was just my wishful thinking.

I foresaw the future. My power would be turned off again, just like last time.

If it’s going to be like that… Wouldn’t it be better to turn off the power with my own hands? If it was going to happen anyway, I wanted to choose to return to my former master’s mansion and put myself to sleep in the glass tube where I had awakened.

I spent my last night in the house that had been my new home.

With red, swollen eyes, I woke up in the morning, washed my face perfunctorily, and went to my master’s room.

Knock knock.

I knocked softly, but there was still no answer. I no longer expected an answer, so I wasn’t disappointed.

“Master, I’m coming in.”

I opened the door, but as expected, the room was empty. Seeing that nothing had changed, he must not have come back yesterday either.

I stared at the empty room and recalled the decision I had made last night. To leave this house, return to the old mansion, and put myself to sleep in the glass tube.

Falling into an eternal sleep without being able to see my master anymore was scary, but I wanted to end this heartache quickly. If I turned off my power here, my already busy master would be bothered with the cleanup. So, I thought it was right to erase my traces and return to that empty glass tube where I had first opened my eyes.

I quietly returned to my room, found a small bag in the dressing room, and took it out.

The first thing I packed was the charger. I could last a few days without charging, but if I kept moving day and night, the battery would run out quickly. Since I have no money and don’t know how to use public transportation, I’ll have to keep walking, so the battery will drain even faster.

After packing the battery, I looked around to pack something else.

“There’s nothing…”

There was nothing else to pack.

Feeling my mood sink even lower, I dropped my gaze. Being a robot, I don’t need to eat food. I would feel extreme hunger, but I wouldn’t die from it. Because of that, I didn’t need money either; all I needed was this useless body and a charger.

Why am I a robot and not a human? The words my master often said, ‘for a robot,’ seemed to echo in my ears.