Half-dragged along by Manu as we wandered the streets, I kept sneaking glances at her.
Her Affection Level probably hasn't changed that much...
The last time I checked, Manu's Affection Level had been around 2.
Just like with Ariel and Sati, after I explained the situation to her to some extent, her Affection Level had been steadily rising the more we carried out operations.
The only problem was that the distance between us was closing far too quickly.
Sure, once an Affection Level hit around 3, it did feel like you could comfortably talk as friends.
Isn't she a little too comfortable around me?
Even accounting for that, though, the way she was now close enough to touch me if she merely turned her head was strange no matter how I looked at it.
"Move away a little...!"
"No."
I stretched out an arm to push Manu away, but she would not budge.
Instead, she made her refusal perfectly clear and pressed herself even closer to me.
This wasn't what I'd meant when I told her to say what she wanted properly.
In any case, there was no way I could overpower a Replica with brute strength.
In the end, I gave up and asked Manu.
"...So what are we supposed to do while we rest?"
"You haven't had breakfast yet, right?"
Before long, Manu forcibly led me to the dining hall.
Well, I guess the dining hall is all there is.
It couldn't really be helped.
There was a shortage of recreational facilities in this Under City.
Of course, thanks to the three of them saving so many of the resources they had gathered through hard work, the warehouse itself was far more well-stocked than I had imagined.
We currently had around six thousand Power Stones and batteries each. With that much, the four of us could maintain this life for years without doing anything at all.
But there were the initial costs involved in activating facilities, and considering the future, I couldn't exactly call our stockpile abundant.
More importantly, Power Stones weren't used only for activating facilities.
"What are you... thinking about?"
As I became absorbed in my thoughts, Manu, seated beside me, blinked her narrow eyes and asked.
"Hm? Ah, just... plans for the future?"
"Hmm."
When I briefly organized and explained what I had been thinking about, Manu swallowed a small hum, as though something about it did not sit right with her.
She seemed to be thinking for a moment, then shortly afterward...
"Thinking about work... with a woman right in front of you. Points deducted."
"What kind of points?"
Out of nowhere, she pointed at me and began deducting points from some personal scoring system of hers that I did not understand.
I had been doing nothing and suddenly got points deducted, so I gave a brief, incredulous reply. Soon, however, Manu came back from inside the dining hall holding two cans.
"When you're resting, stop thinking about work."
One was fish cake soup for herself, while the other was a can of spicy pork stir-fry, chosen by criteria I had no idea about.
"Could you not pick my meal for me without asking?"
I took the spicy pork stir-fry from Manu's hand just as she was about to hand it to the robot, then put it back where it belonged.
I chose a bulgogi rice bowl instead.
There was not much difference between spicy pork and bulgogi, really, but today just wasn't a day when I felt like eating something spicy.
With a loud rattling noise, the old cooking robot set the contents of the cans down in front of us.
A steaming rice bowl and fish cake soup.
Normally, breakfast felt like something I ate alone in the dining hall, clearing my bowl in solitude after sending everyone off on an operation. Today, though, Manu was with me for once.
We were merely sitting in the dining hall and sharing a meal, but it felt as though I had grown a little closer to Manu.
After the meal—which felt short and yet strangely long—ended, I followed the mood of the moment and went to Manu's maintenance room.
Though it was called a maintenance room, it was really a space where each Replica could rest.
Basically, it was like a hotel room assigned to an individual.
Though it was far too shabby to call it a hotel.
"...It feels like a secret date."
Once I entered the room, Manu gave a faint but distinctly bright smile and said it felt like a secret date.
Their rooms were mostly filled with objects connected to their memories from when they were alive.
They were full of mementos belonging to the originals from which the Replicas had been made—things that held memories of their past lives.
Trivial belongings such as broken old-fashioned phones, photo albums containing pictures of their former selves, and diaries filled with their dreams.
As though emphasizing her long hospital stay, Manu's room even had things like casts and masks displayed as mementos.
Under the dim lighting, the room full of broken and worn-out odds and ends seemed bleak, but every object here was precious to them.
Among them, what especially caught my eye was a paper gold medal.
As if it were a dream she could no longer achieve, the single insignificant character, "Prize," written in the center of the paper gold medal inside its broken frame stirred a wistful feeling.
----------------------------
"Someday, with a body that doesn't hurt."
"I want to run freely across a grassy field."
"I'm sure it would feel amazing."
----------------------------
A line I had happened to find a few days ago while looking through the log of Manu's Affection Level event again.
It had surprised me that she had been a girl who dreamed of becoming an athlete, despite her timid and lethargic personality.
Anyway, thinking of those words, I spoke to Manu, who was circling around her room.
"Do you still want to run across a grassy field?"
"...Yeah."
Even at my rather serious question, Manu nodded without hesitation.
Despite it being a dream that had once been crushed, she still had not given up on it. I found myself thinking that was incredible.
"I might disappear again without making it come true for you."
"Yeah."
When I murmured it as though telling her not to expect too much, Manu lightly agreed as if she already knew that.
"Then next time... I'll wait with a smile."
Then, as though she would not resent me at all even if I disappeared tomorrow, she declared that she would wait with a smile.
As if she were certain I would return someday.
Her steadfast attitude and relaxed smile were hard to believe belonged to someone who had already suffered such disappointment once.
That sight was so dazzlingly bright that...
I lowered my head under the rush of emotion.
"Thank you."
In the end, as I left Manu's room, the only thing I could say was those two words of thanks, laden with countless emotions.
Afterward, I returned to the Leader's room and reviewed the city restoration plan I had made with a little extra leeway.
Just as I was tapping at the panel, comparing our current resources with the resources each facility consumed...
"L-Leader...? We're done being repaired."
"I-If it's all right, we can go on an operation even now..."
The two who had finished their repairs in the repair room returned.
"Hm? Ah, no. You two just rest today."
I quickly ordered the two of them, who were timidly lingering outside the door, to rest as well, then focused on the panel again.
It was because I felt that if I spoke at length, all the calculations and plans in my head would vanish in an instant.
I've confirmed that we can dispatch people to several stages at once. If we can just increase the amount of resources we gather, it'll be possible to move the plan forward from its current schedule.
Our current direction was not bad, of course, but a plan made without a set deadline still made the time until we achieved our goal feel unbearably far away.
A plan that had been pushed down the priority list with vague excuses like, "When we have enough resources," and, "When more people gather."
We needed to move it forward.
If we became complacent in our current stable situation, we would only slowly rot away like the Replicas who had remained here before us.
So, the next day, just before we began the operation while everyone was gathered together...
With all three of them there, I spoke firmly.
"Tomorrow, we're going to reactivate every facility underground."
"What?!"
Ariel was the one startled by that unilateral announcement.
Her eyes went round, and she raised her voice higher than she ever had before as she let out that single cry.
"That's a rather bold decision..."
"If we activate everything, consumption will skyrocket!"
Sati sounded calm, but she seemed quite surprised as well. Ariel, naturally flustered, waved her arms around.
And Manu, too, widened her eyes in surprise.
Of course they could only react that way.
Not long ago, I had been agonizing over the Power Stone consumption of even a single facility, and now I was suddenly saying this.
Of course, considering who was bringing in the Power Stones and batteries, I probably should restrain myself a little...
But I had only recently realized that worrying over things like that would leave us standing still.
"Of course, I'm not suggesting we indulge in meaningless extravagance."
"Then why...?"
When I spoke as though I had thought it through, Ariel trailed off while looking at me with some suspicion.
Even for me, it was a unilateral announcement whose sincerity was difficult to trust.
So I intended to persuade Ariel using another Replica's opinion.
"Manu, I want to ask you something for a moment."
"...Yeah?"
Though she must have been just as surprised, Manu turned her listless gaze toward me and gave a short response.
What I wanted to ask was brief and simple.
"How did you feel when you woke up again and walked around the streets?"
The first emotion a newly awakened Replica felt upon seeing those desolate streets, where every facility had stopped operating.
"...I was disappointed. It felt like all the effort from before had disappeared."
"...Ah."
It seemed Sati had felt something similar. At Manu's words, her lips parted slightly and her eyes wavered for a moment.
That was right.
There was no hope in the Under City as it currently stood.
When Replicas who remembered the once-brilliant underground woke up again, what would it feel like to leave the storage room and see a city where even the lights could barely be kept on?
Even I would lose all motivation.
Beyond that, there would surely be Replicas who, like Manu before, fell into emptiness and lethargy.
So the conclusion I reached was simple.
"What we need right now is a little showmanship, too."
We would activate every facility in the city and make it look as though our situation was incredibly good.
But after hesitating slightly, Ariel answered.
"Showmanship... That means we'd be deceiving them."
"That's right."
I did not deny Ariel's softly spoken opinion.
There was nothing to deny. She was simply right.
Did it feel as though we would be deceiving our comrades?
Even so, I spoke to Ariel as she continued to struggle with it.
"Still, it means no one has to suffer."
With a white lie, only the person telling it has to suffer.
If that lie could prevent an even greater despair, then I was in a position where I had to be willing to do it.
"...That's your judgment as Leader, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
At Ariel's brief question of confirmation, I nodded as though it were obvious.
We should not let the Replicas who woke up from now on feel the same negative emotions Manu and Sati had felt.
That was the right decision for the current Leader to make.
"Then let's do it. If it can make things better..."
Ariel spoke with resolve, as though she understood my decision at last.
Having reached that agreement, we took a bold and steadfast step forward, almost as if we were forcing ourselves onward.
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