As the memory swirled in my mind and names began to resurface one by one, I had the chance to scrutinize the man sitting in the chair more deeply. Despite his long hair framing his face from both sides, there was a familiarity in the eye I saw, in the skin peeking through. My eyes were warning me that they had seen this man before.
As the Cybernetic man placed the sculpture back between the statues of Edgard and Yorleny, I noticed something on his face. An expression… an expression of incredibly profound sorrow.
"It was all my fault." This tone of voice lingered in my eardrums for a while, reaching my mind with a small unpleasantness from a beautiful memory, and at that moment, I remembered who this man was.
"You… You're him! You're Dante Shade, aren't you?"
"You know me," he said with a painful smile. "Though I had even started to forget my own name. But the real question is… How do you know my name? Or are you working for him?"
"I don't work for anyone."
"Boss, you're a civil servant, and even if it's for an institution, you work for someone," Hulk said, tugging at my clothes.
"Oh… If you mean it that way; I should say I work for the S.W.R. As I said before, I'm a BOA officer."
"Which one was BOA?" Shade asked.
"The Bioethics Oversight Agency…"
"Ah… That institution where unqualified personnel gather; a nest of corruption."
"Just because I work for them doesn't mean I'm going to defend them."
"So how did you learn my name?"
"The last facility we visited was your facility. The Dermovox facility…"
"Did someone report that facility in the middle of nowhere to the BOA? Unbelievable…"
"Whether it was a report or a routine inspection, I don't know. Our assistant knew that," I said, and Dante looked at Hulk, who was clinging to my boots. Hulk responded by giving the man the middle finger.
"Is that your assistant?"
"No… This is just a refugee who was victimized during another scientist's assistantship… It's a long story… Our assistant drone, who we now need to call an assistant robot since we've made some updates to him, couldn't come because he malfunctioned."
"A malfunctioning assistant? Quite unexpected."
"Believe it or not, it's been happening a lot lately."
"So, did the Dermovox facility get approval?"
"Your facility? It got a starred approval. And a very good one at that."
"And how are Lara, Stone, Lehstorm, Magne… How are they?"
"Lehstorm was sitting like a statue. He seemed to be in good spirits. Joe Stone is a very good robot-like human, very affectionate… I immediately warmed up to him. He, however, doesn't seem to be in very good spirits. I don't even know who Magne is…"
"And Lara?"
It was at that moment I started sweating profusely. Why? Because Lara seemed to see Dante as her father. At least, that's what I gathered from Lara's conversations. And Dante probably saw Lara as his daughter. In that case… I was an impertinent civil servant who had come from outside and slept with his daughter. It might sound normal to you, but if anyone heard what Lara and I did for "fun" that night, we might never be able to show our faces in public again. That's why, for some reason, I clammed up and couldn't speak.
"I don't really know who Lara is," I said.
"Boss! You're so forgetful, for crying out loud! That girl in the lab coat you bedded… Her name was Lara!" I could see Dante's previously lifeless eyes widen in shock.
"Don't be ridiculous, Hulk. I didn't bed anyone!" I exclaimed. Dante clenched his fists. Hulk let go of my boots, pointed at me with his finger, and retorted:
"Then who did you drink my bottle of wine with, man! Where's my disinfectant bottle, huh?" Hulk asked, clinging tightly to my boot again.
"To hell with your bottle! Is this the time for that?"
"You bedded Lara?" Dante said, slamming his fist on the table.
"Bedded? Lara? What does 'bedded' even mean? I don't even know that word. Where did it come from? Damn it, Hulk! What does 'bedded' mean?!"
"A little girl, huh… How disgusting you are!" I could hear the grinding of his teeth from anger.
"Wait a second…" I said in a calm tone. "A little girl? Lara? That girl must be over 100 years old, I'm telling you! Do you robots have a different perception of age now too? Oh my… I can't wait another 100 years, just so you know!"
"100 years?" Dante slumped back into his chair. "Has it been that long?"
"Ooh… Something's going on here," I said, turning to Hulk.
"Boss, forget all that. Just give the approval so we can go back to our cave. Then we'll throw a really wild party."
"Right…" Dante Shade said. "…for a moment, I lost my sense of time. I apologize. I had forgotten I was a prisoner here."
"Prisoner?"
"Yes… A prisoner."
"So there's no science facility here?"
"As you can see, no."
"Then the gravestones outside acting as solar panels…"
"They all provide energy here. To keep me in this room…"
"How?"
"When my cybernetic body tries to leave, I'm pulled back and confined here by a magnetic field. I'm even pulled back to my chair."
"Did it need that many panels for that?"
"Dozens would have been enough. The rest are a precaution…"
I put my hand on my hip and said, "Alright…" then turned to Hulk and added, "We've been tricked. We've been deceived. There's no facility here. It just looks like there's a crazy prisoner."
"What are we going to do, boss?"
"I don't know." Then I glanced at Dante, who sat slumped. "Why are you imprisoned here?"
"I was betrayed by a friend."
"That's all?"
"If I told you more, would you understand anything?"
"I don't think so."
"I thought so too."
"Then there's nothing for us to do here, right, Hulk? We should just say goodbye and disappear."
Dante Shade was a man who held a significant place in my past. I could recall that, but I had no idea what I should do. A voice inside me told me not to get involved, to report that the tip was false, then retire and live my life. However, seeing Dante Shade, whom I remembered as strong and willful in my memories, in this state, disturbed me, even if only a little.
I couldn't remember if Dante Shade was my friend or my enemy before I lost my memory. Or even if the Dante Shade in my memories was this Dante Shade.
At that moment, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if I just left the past behind, walked out the door, and continued to live a lavish life.
Yes… I did what you're thinking. I, a man who had been dormant for 400 years, the only legally recognized human in the universe; a man who could have sailed into arguably the happiest times of his life, instead stuck my nose where it didn't belong, as if comfort itself had become tiresome. This choice, a turning point in my remembered life, began with the question I asked Dante instead of walking out the door.
"What does Subject 99 mean, and did you know Edgard Grom?"
Dante Shade grimaced. He furrowed his brows, trying to understand my question. Meanwhile, Hulk, who was about to exit the house, stared at me in shock. It was clear there was a hint of hatred in Hulk's gaze.
"Subject 99? I don't know anything about that." It was as if his memory was betraying him, or perhaps some neurological constraints in his brain were preventing him from speaking about Subject 99.
"You…" he said, cradling his head in his hands as if he had a headache. "…How do you know the name Edgard?"
Thinking I might have said something wrong, I naturally resorted to a lie: "I read it on the sculpture."
"But the sculpture doesn't have a surname written on it…"
"Oh, crap!"
Suddenly, my helmet began to blare a warning as Dante Shade lunged from his chair with incredible speed, attempting to seize my throat with his fingers. I let out a terrifying scream, my eyes squeezed shut, bracing for death. But then, I saw Dante Shade's hand freeze mere inches from me.
The thing that came between Dante Shade and me was likely the magnetic field he had mentioned. As this magnetic field pulled Shade back towards his chair, I tried to rein in my heart, which felt like it would burst from my chest.
"So you're Arthur Vale!" Dante yelled as he was dragged back to his chair.
"What? Arthur Vale? I thought I was Edgard Grom!"
"You son of a b*tch!"
Realizing the man couldn't move in his chair, I found my courage. "Hey, watch your mouth, or I'll smash your sculptures one by one!" I warned.
"I never thought you'd be a BAO officer!"
"Forget all that! Who is Arthur Vale? Who is Edgard Grom? Give me those answers!"
At that moment, gases suddenly began to rise from the ground beneath our feet, like from leaking pipes. The house walls peeled open like flower petals, and this planet's sun appeared above our heads with all its light.
"Are answers what you seek, dear Arthur?" a voice said. Dante Shade stirred in his chair, straining against the magnetic field. Hulk clung to my leg, trembling uncontrollably. I, meanwhile, tried to identify the figure approaching us along the dirt path. "Or is it peace you're l ooking for?"
As the man approached us, his thick, metal boots pressed into the dirt ground with confident strides. Despite his rugged attire, his movements were surprisingly graceful, not clumsy. He wore an open trench coat, and a black raven pendant hanging from his throat caught my eye.
The inside of his trench coat was lined with purple fabric. Beneath it, he wore a plastic suit that resembled plastic armor, reinforced with extra layers of armor held on by clips. Around his waist was a belt filled with small pouches. His trench coat also had numerous pockets, each edged with a glowing purple light.
The man had black, military-designed gloves that appeared coarse. Mechanisms at the joints of his gloves indicated that they were part of his body. This suggested that the man was most likely a cybernetic being.
His face was completely covered by a rigid, rugged-looking space helmet, similar to a battle helmet. The space helmet was entirely black, but a plus sign was carved into the front, filled with strips of purple light. The horizontal bar of this plus sign was aligned with his eyes, and the vertical bar descended along his nose.
He carried a staff in his hand. At the end of this metal staff was a skull. I only noticed the skull's eyes glowing green as he walked, hitting the staff against the ground, when he finally stood beside me.
While Dante Shade's iron teeth grated, the man paid no attention to me. He stopped directly in front of Shade's table. Perhaps he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye, but with his helmet, I couldn't tell.
I glanced around. The man's spaceship appeared to be a more advanced, black-painted version of our own ship, the Hawk. Just like the man himself.
"John Crowrift…" Hulk said, looking at the unexpected visitor.
"Edgard Grom…" Dante Shade said in the same manner, looking at John Crowrift.
Then John Crowrift turned to me and said, "Arthur Vale…" drawing out the name.
Yes, names were flying wildly, and my head wasn't in a state to process it all. As if walking frantically for the past few hours wasn't enough, I'd done it all while wearing incredibly stifling armor.
But at least seeing John Crowrift, whose name I'd heard since the beginning of the story, was quite satisfying. I no longer had to paranoiacally expect him to jump out from anywhere. He stood right before me, two steps away.