Chapter 174 – Complaining
Artemis is the goddess of the moon and hunting. One of the elements that describes her is her tall height.
There is a legend that once, Actaeon saw Artemis and her nymphs bathing, and the nymphs quickly covered the goddess with their bodies, but she was unable to cover them all because of her height.
The same goes for Artemis in front of you.
A slap.
Her white bare feet step on the cold floor.
When I just woke up and sat down in the incubator, my first impression was that I was as young as an adolescent girl, but when I stood up, I felt like I had grown taller.
Her long, beautiful legs looked feminine but never weak.
Like the goddess of the hunt, she seems to run through the clear forest and jump over streams and fallen old trees.
“It’s heavy.”
Artemis stumbled for a moment, but she quickly regained her balance.
It seems like the gravity I’m feeling for the first time is quite strong.
Snap. A slap.
She lifted and placed her feet several times. Several cute footprints were formed, wet with her moisture.
“It will take a long time to get used to it.”
Artemis frowned as she looked at the top of her foot.
The way she stands is so awkward. She felt like she was watching a gecko that had suddenly walked upright, rather than walking firmly on the ground like any other human being. A gecko with very long eyelashes and a pure white body.
When she raised her head, our gazes intertwined.
The wisdom contained in the golden eyes created a strange contrast with the still immature face.
“Ah!”
When she frowned, she collapsed and fell into the incubator. She seems dizzy as she clutches her forehead.
He is served by two maids with an expression half arrogant and half bitter. A towel wrapped around her brilliant silver hair and dried her.
It was an incomparably beautiful body, but what it brought out in me was a protective instinct.
“Wow!”
Artemis opened her eyes wide.
Clear liquid pours from her mouth with a retching sound. This is the preservation liquid that was filling the incubator until a while ago.
“Artemis!”
Her overwhelming first impression. My mouth, which had been blocked by that dizzy feeling, finally opened.
“Are you okay?”
“It’s not okay. “What are you asking the obvious?”
“…”
As I am not a doctor, all I can do is ask out of courtesy. Artemis’ voice was sharp.
But I understand. Her dizziness and nausea were probably the first unpleasant sensations she had experienced.
“Jinsu, unlike your case, this body is… Wow!”
The short-haired black-haired maid took her container, but now she was gagging because she had vomited it all up. The pink-haired maid stroked her back with a gentle hand.
“It’s my first time experiencing the external environment. The shock to her body was on a different level. Ugh…”
The sight of her crying as she wipes her frowning face with a towel. It was that of a girl in need of protection rather than a transcendent AI.
I squatted down in front of him.
“I feel bad. Dizziness and nausea.”
This young lady was disgusted by the unpleasant sensation she was experiencing for the first time in her life.
“The feeling of spitting out my mouth is so horrible.”
“It will disappear soon. Because it’s temporary.”
“My whole body is shaking, my limbs are numb, and my head is spinning. Why is the human body full of such useless signals? “He whines here and there, asking me to check on his condition.”
What does the most whining goddess say?
“But there are many good sensations that our body gives us.”
“In times like this, can’t you just comfort me?”
The angry look on her face disappeared, and a sad expression suddenly appeared.
“Sorry. “I just didn’t want you to have any negative preconceptions about a living body.”
The pink-haired maid dried off her hair and handed me a new towel.
The two maids folded her hands together and looked at her floor, ignoring me staring at them.
“…”
I cleaned Artemis’ body. Very carefully.
She seemed to have no shame in showing her naked body.
I wiped her shoulders with a towel and covered and absorbed the small puddle that had formed on her collarbone.
When her hair, which falls like a waterfall, is gathered and put aside, her long, thin neck is revealed.
After wiping it off, it went down her sloping back to her slim waist.
“Huh, huh.”
Her head slowly falls behind her, and she lets out a sensual breath.
It was just a combination of the cold air and the feel of the towel. Still, all of her senses seem stimulating to her for the first time.
“My body is different from Chrollo or Rose.”
Her face turned red as she belatedly realized her own reaction.
“In a sense organ as organized as an android, there is no control program that helps control the body in detail from the beginning. “It’s a body like a foal that reacts as it pleases.”
“Yeah, like someone riding a bike for the first time.”
“That’s it!”
Artemis nodded her head vigorously, her small but healthy breasts shaking violently.
She, with her strong pride, must have been quite embarrassed to compare herself to her pony.
The towel went over her chest and stomach. As with her collarbone, the water collected in her belly button was stamped.
“Wow.”
When I turned around and wrapped my arms around her side, she took a deep breath in surprise.
Her upper ribs stood out and a lot of skin appeared on her sides.
“Hey, this is also out of my control.”
“Puhup.”
Artemis glared at me.
“Are you dissatisfied?”
“I’m satisfied.”
“…”
Her face and ears were pathetically flushed, but she never asked her maids to take turns in this task.
When I finished her upper body and wiped her lower thighs, she lifted her legs properly.
“Thank you.”
She crosses her arms and doesn’t even look at me.
I maintained that position and when one leg was finished, I lifted the other leg.
After drying her off and handing her towel to her maid, Artemis was looking at her arms.
Her arms are full of goosebumps.
“It’s cold.”
“…”
Feeling of your body contracting, goosebumps, and hair standing on end. It seems like he was surprised by those unfamiliar sensations.
Without even going through her instinctive movement to conserve body heat, she looked at her own arms with wide eyes.
I thought about taking off the coat she was wearing, but I just hugged her.
“Ugh!”
Artemis’ breath on her neck tickles.
I sat down in her incubator, lifted her up, placed her in my arms, and wrapped her coat around the outside of her.
A single-person bio-sleeping bag was immediately created. Artemis’ skin is cold.
“It’s true.”
She said in a whisper.
“Huh? “What?”
“The good sense you were talking about.”
She rolled her body like a fetus in my arms. I pull her knees close to her chest and lean against my chest and neck.
“I like this feeling.”
Artemis spoke softly.
The corners of her mouth were slightly raised. A smile seen from within a breath of time, not beyond the monitor.
Did you notice and avoid her place? Before we knew it, the two maids had disappeared from the room.
“It’s cold.”
Her feet on my lap are twitching. Her coat covered her to its fullest extent, but because of her long stature, the area below her ankles was exposed.
“This is okay.”
“Ah!”
Her left hand reached out and cupped her foot. My body temperature is transmitted from her fingertips to her cold feet.
Her feet, which had been shaking in her grasp a few times, soon calmed down.
If the goal was to preserve body temperature, it would have been better to wear warm clothes, but we didn’t do that. We spent time-sharing body heat together.
Like when you’re curled up in bed even though you’re already fully asleep.
* * *
“Please leave it to us from now on.”
How much time has passed? The two maids have returned.
Did Artemis, who had just come into the world, take care of her until she found stability?
Considering the artificial muscle surgery, she had to go through various medical procedures after coming out of the incubator.
There are probably more measures that she needs to take now than me, not less.
But this girl, she doesn’t want to come out of my arms.
“Artemis, are you listening?”
“Yes.”
“I guess I should move slowly, right? It can’t stay like this forever.”
“Huh. You can go now.”
“…”
She answers well, but she still doesn’t move.
She crawls into her arms.
“Hey.”
“…”
Shaking.
I tried shaking my leg that she was sitting on, but even as her slender body swayed, she wouldn’t move.
“Ah!”
It wasn’t until I took her hand off her foot that she responded.
There was an unconcealed dissatisfaction in her eyes as she looked up from her embrace.
“I have to hurry up and get dressed. “If I keep this up, I’ll catch a cold.”
“Is it immune? Just like you.”
She, like me, has advanced blood flowing through her.
“Then do you want to stay like this?”
“That wouldn’t be bad either.”
“…”
“Administrator?”
Her black-haired maid called to me as if she was in trouble.
When I try to open my coat, Artemis’ hand quickly pops out and closes it again.
She looked at her two maids as if they were perplexed, but they seemed to have no choice.
“Would you like me to leave a little more space?”
The pink haired maid said.
She has a calm personality that says, ‘Do it now or do it later.’
On the other hand, the black-haired maid shook her head silently. It means not to put it off any longer.
“No, you don’t need to.”
After making my decision, I opened my coat and put it back on.
“Wow!”
He picked up Artemis in a princess hug and placed her on a nearby medical table.
“Please take care of the back.”
The two maids bow their heads and pass me by.
I felt a stinging gaze on the back of my head, but I tried to ignore it and went outside.
Geeing.
When the door to the incubator room closed, I leaned against the hallway wall.
“It’s not easy.”
It’s so different from when we communicated with just our voices.
While living with Artemis, there were many times when we argued about various things.
However, I was able to connect and disconnect what I thought was necessary without difficulty. Although Artemis always respected my decisions in the first place.
But everything changed when she touched her skin to hers and heard the voice ringing in her ears.
It’s really hard to cut off even a small request or an insignificant complaint.
Would you say that you immediately understand why fathers make their daughters fools?
“We are not father and daughter.”
After shaking her head vigorously to shake off her distracting thoughts, she left the incubator room.
But even when I let go of my gaze and thoughts, the scent of Artemis remained in my arms, and the sensation of her cold skin slowly finding warmth in my arms.
That was the only thing that stayed in my mind like a tickle.
It was already late when we went outside. Artificial lighting was embodying twilight.
[The curfew will take effect in the next 5 minutes. All residents, please hurry to your accommodations.]
I headed home while listening to Rose’s voice.
The place I entered was a ryokan. It is so large that it feels luxurious to use alone.
This is a place where one of the shelter investors, a Japanese member, created her hobby with her own money.
There is a neatly trimmed lawn at the bottom of the large garden, and a pond that is neither large nor small in the center. Japanese koi fish swim inside it.
The edge is lined with nameless ornamental trees, and on one side is a small bamboo forest where bamboo grows.
When you pass them, an outdoor corridor surrounding a large artificial hot spring appears in the center.
There are guest rooms next to the hallway, and the first one closest to the entrance is my room.
When you step on the tatami mat and open the door without a lock, what appears is a messy room.
Since the infection outbreak, I haven’t had to receive any customers, so I’ve built a wall around keeping things tidy.
There are countless copies of shelter plans rolling around the walls and corners. Each one was messy with various notes and red lines.
There are traces of countless operational plans that were put together while trying to figure out how to penetrate the lower regions during the infection situation.
Even after everything got back to normal, I felt it was a waste to clean it up, so I just left it.
“…”
But I think it’s time to put it away.
Maybe, in the future, it may not be my own space.
So I started tidying up, for which I don’t even remember how much.
