The Way to Love in the Place of Dead Chapter 25

“What?”

“All that caring about everyone else.”

“Maybe you’re just too indifferent.”

“Well, that’s…”

“Hm?”

“No, nothing.”

Kay was curious about what Aran had left unfinished, but didn’t press further and followed him out of the room. Seeing Kay following with a stiff expression, Aran repeated to himself inwardly.

‘Well, because they’re strangers.’

To him, Kay’s ordinary, universal kindness was rather fascinating.

∞ ∞ ∞

Since it wasn’t for military purposes, they couldn’t use the transfer and had to travel by vehicle this time. Through the screen inside the luxury sedan that had started auto-driving to their destination, Jin relayed the operation briefing.

— Items submitted to the full moon auction begin being transported immediately after the auction ends.

— Two tracking devices were installed on the submitted Esper. One is a mechanical tracker inside the body, and the other utilizes your tracking ability, Kay.

It was the same principle as the lantern given to Lea. As long as it was a fire he had ignited himself, Kay could track its location, though there were limits on number and distance.

— However, the tracker may be jammed inside the venue, and the Esper’s ability could act as an unknown variable if there is a detection-type ability user present. Therefore…

“In case of any unforeseen circumstances, on-site personnel are needed, is what you’re saying.”

Jin nodded calmly.

— For reference, Commander Tato was extremely displeased about Aran personally moving on this matter.

“I said I’d yield if there’s anyone else who can procure an invitation?”

Aran pulled a stiff-looking letter envelope from his chest and waved it.

— I won’t bother explaining what kind of verbal abuse I received in response to that. Then, both of you, please go and come back safely.

Before getting out of the stopped vehicle, he placed a small device delivered to them on the bridge of his nose, and a holographic mask was created. As Kay was fascinated, feeling the bat mask layered with a click, click, a hand forming a V-shape appeared in his field of vision.

“How many?”

“Two.”

“Very good.”

Even though he couldn’t see him under the horned deer mask, he could tell he was smiling. Kay pushed the fingers away and exited the vehicle filled with his presence.

The bright night of Limpus, still something he couldn’t get used to.

“Shall we go then?”

Illuminating the night path was the full moon floating above their heads, and walking along the trail of light cast by the moonlight led to a staircase going down to the semi-basement of a building.

“Welcome.”

When they turned the narrow U-shaped path from which there was no escape if ambushed, an employee wearing a fox mask stood in front of the entrance. From a turtleneck to sharply tapered shoes. Armed with a thoroughness that didn’t expose a single piece of flesh, the employee extended both hands with slightly exaggerated kindness.

“I will check your invitation.”

Aran pulled out the invitation from his chest. As the hologram protruding from the bluish card inside the envelope was recognized, a guidance sound rang out.

[Authenticated.]

Inside the opened door was a door. Inside that was another door, and after passing through the triple-layered system and boarding the elevator, the machine, without a single button, began to move.

The interior, which had been rattling uneasily, stopped, and the door opened. There.

“Welcome.”

A hall far wider than imagined appeared.

A full moon, as vivid as the real one, floated in the center of the stage, and droplets falling from the ceiling sparkled like the Milky Way actually holding silver.

Among the massive decorations, the participants, their appearances hidden with adornments and masks, were examining the auction miniatures inside the display case.

“Is it your first auction?”

Walking while surveying the surroundings, Kay answered the question while securing a spot in a dark area near the wall.

“No. I’ve seen one before. In Willamere.”

Thanks to the mask he was wearing, both Aran’s voice and his own sounded unfamiliar.

“Then you know how it proceeds, roughly?”

“More or less.”

“The Espers will be sold last, so relax and watch until then.”

Saying that, Aran lazily stretched out, and before Kay knew it, he even had a catalog in one hand.

“I thought you had no money?”

“Window shopping is free.”

Of course, by now Kay knew well that bringing up something like money to Aran, knowing the name and power of the family he possessed, was nonsense. But that just made him all the more irritating.

Just as Kay’s mask moved along with the shape of his mouth, wanting to shoot back one more retort at him for anything. The splendid interior lights all turned off simultaneously.

Soon, light came on at the entrance they had used, creating a single path leading to the central stage under the full moon decoration.

[“Welcome. Thank you all for participating in the full moon auction.”]

A figure wearing a neatly fitted suit and a perfectly matching jaguar mask drew everyone’s attention as he appeared. He made a full slow circuit around the circular hall, greeting everyone. Perhaps because he had sprayed strong perfume, an intense floral scent lingered wherever he passed.

[“Have you checked the catalogs placed at your seats? It’s best to check your balance in advance and mark the items you like! Here, at the full moon auction, only those who are prepared get the opportunities!”]

His powerful voice and confident tone resounded through the auction house.

[“Is everyone ready to welcome precious items from all over the world?”]

Climbing onto the stage, he spread both arms as if boasting the showmanship he was born with.

[“If you’re ready, from now, the first item!”]

The cloth of the auction item descending under the full moon was stripped away in one breath.

[“Human bud grafting!”]

The first auction item, impossible to guess by name alone, was like honeybees gathered on a hive. It was a sculpture where hundreds of humans were entangled, forming a single lump. Beyond abstruse to unfathomable, the protruding entrails, the forms where body and body were mercilessly intertwined and twisted. It turned his stomach, but contrary to Kay’s sentiment, the price skyrocketed in an instant.

Afterward, incomprehensible items and prices continued to exchange hands.

Artificial skin utilizing new materials, books recording the travels of ancient Willamere, and even mysterious devices used for sex. Before they knew it, the auction was approaching its midpoint.

[“Number 209, 1,000!”]

209?

Kay’s head turned. It was the number of the seat where Aran was.

“What are you doing?”

“Bidding.”

As if anyone wouldn’t know that’s why he asked. With a surge of frustration, Kay alternately checked the auction item on stage and the catalog.

“This.”

When Aran’s glove touched the screen, detailed information about the item called [Amplification Memory Chip (Temporal Lobe)] popped up.

In summary, it was a device for storing and preserving the data ‘possessed by living beings.’

“The price for the invitation. Our father told us to win the bid and bring it back.”

At the mention of ‘father,’ a family member coming from Aran’s mouth for the very first time, the content of a book Kay had borrowed from the library flashed through his mind.

Sahan Rapperd.

The current head of the Rapperd family. Contributed to the popularization of androids and the founder of the <Mother Core>.

A figure who, since the outbreak of war, had taken responsibility and stepped down from all positions, confining himself voluntarily, yet was still mentioned every time there was a socio-political issue.

“Well, he’s old now. He probably wants to preserve his own brain or something before dementia sets in.”

With biting words, Aran wore his usual unreadable smile.

“Of course, if he really tried something like that, I’d stop him, whether by smashing the brain or the chip.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”

Aran, who had been pressing the bid button repeatedly, raised only his eyes to look at Kay.

“Wanting to preserve memories… isn’t it an understandable thing to do?”

Everyone had things they wanted to remember, things they didn’t want to forget. That was why humans kept recording, kept expressing, whether in print, pictures, or photographs. Trying somehow to grasp the grains of sand that were memories.

“If the memory is that precious, you wouldn’t forget it in the first place.”

“What if you have too many precious memories? What if you want to record them before you grow old and forget, like you said?”

The amount went up once more.

“Just because they’re precious, you list them in 0s and 1s? I can’t acknowledge that as memory.”